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quilna · 2 years ago

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HI!!! I just found your tgs shadow/persona au and I love it!! Do you have any other content/info of it? My brain can't stop thinking about it, it's such a cool au!! Also love all the art you've made for the au/just your art in general! Your art style is so funky and I love the way you do shading and how theres so much emotion in the expressions you draw!

Aaaaaaaa Thanks so much!!!!

And also thank you for activating my trap card by asking about my daydream au because I have way too much information. This is about to get very long and not very proof-read.

Setup

The au starts with Jekyll doing his canon experiment to try to split himself into good and evil. He mixes together the concoction, he takes a deep breath, he drinks it and is wracked with the most terrible pains.

Yet, as the pains subside, nothing has changed except a lighter, more free sensation. He's happy again but with no explanation as to why or what truly happened to him.

Jekyll's only theory is that his experiment was a success but his evil has gone missing.

Meanwhile, in another world born from the sea of human unconsciousness, Jekyll's shadow, the manifestation of everything in himself that he's trying to ignore, the very thing he was trying to get rid of, becomes aware for the first time.

Looking around at the Palace surrounding him, Jekyll's shadow realizes that he doesn't need to stick around and ditches, running freely around the other world doing whatever he pleases.

On it’s own, this could have been fine but Jekyll’s experiments unsettled the delicate balance between worlds and, the longer it remains, the more dangerous it becomes. (Also, maybe it summoned a god or something because all the persona games I know end with the main characters fighting a god of some kind. It’s tradition by this point.)

A few years later, Frankenstein shows up, the exhibition is around the corner, and the ruined balance begins to show its effects.

As a result, people close to Jekyll one by one begin to experience the other world as a new 25th hour in the day, starting with the very closest people to Jekyll - Lanyon and Rachel.

As Jekyll’s closest and the person he has the most confusing feelings for, Lanyon is gifted with the power of the wildcard - the ability to use multiple persona.

The two of them wake up in the middle of the night to a changed world, filled with monsters and no other people to help. The pair latch onto each other as the only company in this strange new nightmare world and run for their lives.

However, they manage to stumble into a seeming safe zone - a strange garden filled with small animals.

And strangest of all, another Rachel.

Rachel’s Palace

Although the existence of a doppelganger is creepy, the pair are grateful for any kind of safety. The other Rachel is friendly and sweet. She offers them both a sanctuary from the monsters outside and promises to help them get back home however she can.

There is just one firm rule. The animals that she cares for are not to be touched and Lanyon and Rachel both quickly learn that she is violently protective over them.

Even if she’s sweet though, the original Rachel instinctively hates her guts. It’s not just the face-sharing either, it’s some far deeper discomfort running under the surface. Yet, the alternative is monsters so she’s willing to play nice for a while.

The pair explore around for a while and find out things about this garden. The animals, for instance? Each and every one of them is dressed like someone Rachel knows. Even shares a few of their mannerisms.

There are a group of animals that are bigger and scarier than the others like wolves, panthers, and lions protecting the smaller ones. Rachel recognizes their clothes look like members of the Forty Elephants, lead by Lucy, Patrin, and Elsie.

And then there’s the small bird cages, containing what the other Rachel calls painful memories. Please don’t open those.

During all of this, original Rachel gets more and more irritable until finally, she decides she’s had enough. She stands up and opens her mouth to say something.

But she doesn’t get the chance. Because other Rachel stiffens at that exact moment.

One of the animals has been hurt and her accusation quickly falls on Lanyon and Rachel, the only people there.

Lanyon insists that they didn’t touch the animals but Rachel is too ticked off with the other Rachel and quickly gets into a verbal fight with her about the accusations. At last, the other Rachel takes her away to speak with her, leaving Lanyon alone.

He doesn’t know what to do. He can’t go home without Rachel but whatever was going on between those two felt like more than a normal squabble. Worse, the garden has become aggressive towards him now. The larger animals that protected the garden have now turned on him and he doesn’t know what to do.

Until, out of nowhere, he awakens to his persona and is given a way to protect himself.

As he defeats the wave of animals attacking him and he’s trying to catch his breath, suddenly a strange new person appears, curious by his abilities.

Lanyon is instantly wary of this person. For one, he has the same yellow eyes as the fake Rachel. Secondly, the stranger admits that they were the one who accidentally hurt the animal. The stranger gets defensive about it, claiming that he only touched the animal and only because it looked like someone he knew. As it turns out, the animals aren’t only small but as fragile as glass - even the slightest touch cracks them.

The stranger introduces himself as shapeshifter known as Edward Hyde and explains to Lanyon how this world works. He tells him about shadows, explains that the world around them is how Rachel sees her world - as fragile and needing of her protection. Explains to him that shadows and their original hosts don’t tend to get along very well. (”Or maybe I’m just projecting.” Hyde hums to himself.) If they don’t save Rachel soon, her shadow might kill her.

So, off the pair of them go. Lanyon acts as offense with his new ability, Hyde acts as the information (and occasionally kicks shadows in the face. He doesn’t have a persona but he does have the power of kicking.)

They find Rachel and shadow Rachel. Rachel denies to her shadow that they’re the same person, shadow Rachel goes berserk, a boss fight ensues ending with Rachel finally accepting that the two of them are one and the same.

And so, Rachel gains her own persona.

Lanyon introduces her to Hyde and she instantly warms up to him.

Yet, they can’t stay, as Hyde explains. The hour is ending and, if they don’t leave the palace by the time the hour ends, they’ll be trapped there until the next 25th hour.

The two hurry out of the garden into the monster infested outside and, sure enough, the hour ticks over and they find themselves home at 1 in the morning.

However, to Rachel’s horror, Hyde didn’t come with them. He’s still in that monster infested other world.

Other palaces

I haven’t fully decided on the other palaces yet or which shadows they face but they definitely keep going through palaces, saving the new people who fall into the other world and get snatched up by their shadows.

Frankenstein definitely has to be one of them though I haven’t fully decided what I want her palace to be. So far I’ve considered her palace being a disease-ridden prison because of how she views London and her treatment there. Though I’ve also considered an isolated icy castle.

Jekyll also gets a palace but his is later in.

Personas

Personas are another thing where I haven’t decided on them for everyone. The only ones I have so far are Lanyon having his persona be Sherlock (because of him investigating the truth in canon) and Jekyll having the persona of Romulus (Aka, a leader type character with a twin who he squabbled with)

Further than that, though, I have no ideas.

Jekyll’s Palace

Jekyll’s palace comes in a little later, after the group has already picked up a few people. It takes the form of a circus.

Over the course of the adventure, the group passes Jekyll’s palace a few times on the way to other palaces but they never go in. Partially to respect Jekyll’s privacy, partially to avoid fighting more shadows than they need to, and partially because Hyde is weirdly adverse to that particular palace. And, as someone who knows the other world very well, Hyde would know quite well which palaces are the dangerous ones.

Yet, as Jekyll’s health decays in the real world from Frankenstein, from the exhibition, from the secrets that everyone around him seems to be keeping, and a sudden new doubt in him about his old experiments with their complete lack of physical evidence that they worked, Robert gets worried and decides to sneak in alone for a peek.

However, he is surprised to find that Jekyll is missing. The place has fallen into disrepair without its leader, crawling with monsters with nobody keeping them in check.

He quickly leaves, perturbed by his findings.

It isn’t long after this that Jekyll finally falls into the 25th hour and the group have to go to save him from his own palace and, supposedly, from his own shadow. Hyde is violently against the idea, wanting to leave Jekyll alone there to die, but he’s quickly outvoted and the group venture inside.

The further they go in, the more the group starts to notice Hyde acting erratically. He starts to wander off on his own, muttering to himself about things, starting to act less like himself and more like... an actual shadow..?

At long last, the ball finally drops when they run into the cognitive version of Lanyon. Cognitive Lanyon has been searching hard for the circus’ missing ringleader and, as it turns out, took the real Jekyll temporarily as a replacement. After all, he’s close enough.

Yet, when he lays eyes on Hyde, he grabs Hyde immediately. Demands to know what he thought he was doing running away? He has a duty here, he can’t just ditch that.

“Oh, did you really think that little face-changing trick of yours could work on me?” Cognitive Lanyon asks, poking Hyde hard.

Before their eyes, everyone watches Hyde change shape in Lanyon’s grip, twisting and changing until, dangling there in Lanyon’s grip is no longer Hyde.

It’s Jekyll’s shadow.

“After all, I was the one who taught you that trick.”

With that, Cognitive Lanyon takes Hyde away to take his place in the circus, leaving the group confused and alarmed by this turn of events.

The group quickly hurry after, finding Jekyll and Hyde in the same place, both brought there by cognitive Lanyon.

In such close proximity to his original, Hyde goes full shadow, telling Jekyll exactly what sort of person he is, shapeshifting into his friends to taunt and torment him. Jekyll denies Hyde, Hyde goes berserk, the group fight, the group succeeds.

Then, like every single time before it, Jekyll accepts that Hyde is him.

Yet, Hyde proceeds to deny him.

He’s his own person now! He refuses to go back to being Jekyll!

The group is left in bewilderment. This has never happened before - now what?

But they don’t have time to figure things out because the 25th hour ends. The palace disappears around them and they all find themselves back in the real world.

After such an ordeal, people immediately jump to checking on Jekyll to see if he’s ok.

As a matter of fact, Jekyll’s actually acting really weirdly. He keeps looking around himself like he’s never seen the real world before, seeming shocked to be out.

Everyone puts it down to the weird experience he just had. He was in a really weird other world for a pretty long time, of course he would be surprised to be in the real world again.

Unbeknownst to them, what they’re looking at isn’t actually Jekyll but Hyde in Jekyll’s body. The real world is new and strange to him.

And free from the other world that he had been trapped in so long.

Yet, as the day goes by, people quickly notice Jekyll’s erratic behaviour and eventually put together the truth of the situation.

Further than that?

Honestly, I don’t have clear ideas after that. Eventually Hyde accepts Jekyll and becomes the most loud-mouthed persona in the history of personas, taking back on his own Hyde form whenever he’s not fighting for Jekyll and ignoring Jekyll’s instructions most of the time.

I have some older posts here with a bit of outdated information (and some information that’s still relevant) and some sadly old and terrible art from 2020. However, I haven’t redone the drawings and, therefore, they’re still the best (and only) references I have.

https://lifedrake.tumblr.com/post/615090651633156096/steps-up-to-podium-clears-throat-tgs-persona

https://lifedrake.tumblr.com/post/630636943447916544/persona-au-again-feat-hydes-shapeshifting

I should redraw some of it at some point.

#tgs au #Quilna's asks #ask #shadow au

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darylandbethfanforever9 · 4 years ago

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Devil’s Backbone

Devil’s Backbone

Chapter 6

Story Rating: Explicit, 18+

Warnings: Smut, violence, past flashbacks of sexual assault, descriptions of torture, racial hate and forced abortion. Not Tony Stark friendly.

Relationships: Bucky/OC, Steve/Natasha, Billy/Wanda/Grant, past Clint/Laura. eventual Clint/Yelena and Frank/Karen.

Summary: In the aftermath of the Blip, Bucky struggled to find his place among the world and the Avengers. However, when he is sent on a mission to Madripoor to investigate a young woman, he starts to realize that maybe his past isn’t too far behind him. Co-Written with WalkingPotterGirl14

"It was amazing, you guys. Absolutely." They had been on a video call with Bucky for about fifteen minutes now, starting to get some intake on his trip there and how everything had been going. But up until now, Steve had waited with a raised brow as Bucky described everything he had seen. "That sounds great, Buck," Steve chuckles a bit. "But there was a point of this mission." "Right, uh-" Bucky rubs the back of his neck a bit embarrassingly, chuckling. "Sorry. Sharon just knows what she's doing. I've never seen so much art and so many fancy people all in one sitting. But you're right. Sharon did direct me to the young woman that supposedly took up the Power Broker position." He pulls up photos and splays them onto the screen so they could see it. "I got some of these pictures last night before she left." Steve crosses his arms against his chest, shaking his head. "I can't believe this." "She looks just like Anastasia," Wanda remarks lightly. "See, you think that, but that's not her name – at least the one that she gave me isn't Anastasia. It's Maria Kapitonova. Interesting alias, but if it is her, she's certainly taking a different route than what I'm doing." "Did you learn anything else about her?" "Nothing that we didn't already know," Bucky states quietly. "Sharon told me that she is the one who's taken over the city, but she's dangerous, just as we suspected. She has morals and has laid down some rules but hasn't stopped herself from killing those who against them. Sharon said she's ended at least three so far. Something did sort of stand out to me for a moment though. I was talking with her and she said she moved to Madripoor to escape the cold from somewhere. If she WAS in Siberia, that would make sense." Sam rolls his eyes from where he stood. "There are a lot of cold places in the world, Bucky." "I know, I know, but it's curious, is all I'm saying." Steve sighs but nods. "Alright, at least we have that. You said you'd see her again?" "Yeah, we ah…kind of hit it off, in a way." At Steve's questioning response, he responds quickly. "Not like that, I just - I mean it seems she's willing to meet with me again outside of a party, so it'll be easier to get info." "Right," Steve chuckles, although a bit of him was curious. "Remember that this is a mission though, Buck." Bucky rolls his eyes. "I know, you don't have to remind me. I'll get the info you guys need." There was a loud meowing off screen and Bucky chuckles. "I gotta go. Alpine is being a little minx and wants some food." "Tell him that I say hi!" Wanda says, smiling. "I will," Bucky snickers before nodding at them. "I'll talk to you soon." They wave goodbye to him and he signals off the call, leaving them alone.

Ana lets out a soft sigh of content as she cooks up some dinner. While she did have someone that could cook for her, she preferred to cook her own food – usually for safety rather than convenience. She knew that there were several people who would most likely pay a chef to put poison in there. She wasn't about to let herself go down like that. As she starts to plate up her food, however, she pauses when she suddenly hears a crash from the living room. Quickly, she reaches into her cutlery drawer and grabs a knife, approaching quietly. "Hello?" She asks. No response.

She keeps her guard up as she ventures into the living room to see if anyone or something was in the living room. There was nothing aside from a card box having fallen on the glass coffee table. Luckily, it hadn't cracked the glass. She suddenly saw movement from the corner of her eye and picked up a gun that was in a drawer. Ana started cautiously walking down the hallway where the dining room was, when someone suddenly lunged at her. She moved out of the way quickly as the man jumped at her with a knife directed at her throat. She dodged out of the way as the assassin slashed at her with knife, but Ana used her ballet training to avoid being stabbed. Grabbing her by the hair, she threw him into the wall to slow him down slightly. The man glared at her disdainfully, sneering at her as he pulled out a knife that looked like it could slice her to pieces. "This is called a serbcutter, little girl. My ancestors used this knife to kill enemies of Croatia during World War II," the man taunted cruelty, lunging at her again. She kicked him in the chest, gripping her own knife and stabbed him in his left shoulder. She heard him yell out in pain, as she wrapped her legs around his neck, but he kicked her right knee, causing her to hiss in her own pain. Ana backed away from him as she saw two more of his friends had joined him. They must have come from the back garden to get into the apartment. Damn it. "Three on one…that's hardly fair," she remarked coldly, keeping a fighting stance as she kept an eye on where all of them were positioned. And then, she ran, all the way down. And they weren't that far behind in following her down into the streets.

After feeding Alpine and falling asleep, Bucky woke up to the sounds of fight from across the street. He quickly got dressed before grabbing his gun and his Da Lai knife that Steve had given back to him. It had been his when he'd been with the Howling Commandos. After locking the door, he walked quickly across the street to see what was going on. When he did find what was the cause, Bucky was stunned to see Maria fighting four people, one of whom had a knife and another man that he recognized as Diego, a Flag Smasher. "Hey, isn't four on one an unfair disadvantage?" he called out dangerously, pulling out his knife. His voice caused Maria to turn in surprise, and he sees a slight smile come over her lips at him suddenly showing up. One of the assassins tried to gut him. He kicked him in the face, causing the man to stumble back at his nose breaking from Bucky's kick. "You're pissing off our boss, Kapitonova! She wants Madripoor to be like how the country was before you arrived and started putting down all of these stupid rules for us to follow!" Axelle spat contemptuously, lunging at her with a hunter's knife. He saw Maria sigh in annoyance before punching her hard across the face, using a pair of batons that glowed dark red. They were similar to the ones that Natasha used, only hers glowed blue and not a dark crimson red. He knocked out the remaining one as Maria came over with a slightly bruised face. Her lip was bleeding, and she had a tear in her t-shirt that had blood on it. "What do you wanna do about them?" He asked quietly, nodding at two of the surviving assassins. One of the women was dead. Maria had stabbed her in the throat, severing her carotid artery and causing her to bleed out. "I'll question them…thank you for helping me," she answered cautiously, glancing up at him. He nodded and watched as she picked up their weapons off the floor. He discreetly checked to see if any of them had any identifiable scars or tattoos and got lucky. The woman had a tattoo on her back that had the words 'Elite Hunters' with roses on either side. It looked like it had been branded into her skin. He felt his blood run cold but took a photo and sent it to Steve. Maybe, they could find out who had sent them to kill Maria and why?

Steve had gotten Bucky's message and the attachment of a photo that showed a tattoo. He'd never seen that tattoo before, but Billy, Clint, Natasha, Yelena and Grant were staring at the tattoo as if they'd seen a ghost. "Do any of you know what this tattoo is? Because I've never seen it before, and I've seen my fair share of tattoos," Steve asked curiously. Natasha was the one who answered his question, surprisingly. "I do, and so do the others. It's the tattoo of a secret organization called the Elite Hunters who prey on people by luring them to holiday hotels and spas in countries such as Italy, Czech Republic, and Iceland. They revel in dark fantasies such as murder, cannibalism, and torture of many forms that include fetish pornography and amputation. Only wealthy people run the organization, and it was very secretive…until 2013," Natasha explained gravely, her face showing her disgust. No one in the room could speak. They were all horrified by what they were hearing. Wanda looked like she was going to be sick. Scott had stopped eating his slice of pepperoni pizza, while Sam looked disgusted. "Just gonna put that down," Scott mutters, lowering his slice. "So, what happened in 2014, Romanoff?" Tony asked, causing Natasha to ignore him. Steve shook his head, shocked at the revelation. "After I dumped all of S.H.I.E.L. D’s secrets, the Elite Hunters were discovered by Fury. A lot of victims that had escaped or survived killed the Elite Hunters in revenge, or they committed suicide rather than go to prison for multiple murders," she explained quietly. Clint then took over. "At least three of them escaped and went to hide in Madripoor. These are the only surviving Elite Hunters," he said gravely, as he used his iPad to pull up the images. Three images came up on the large plasma screen. One of a man with light brown hair and cold blue eyes. The next two were of another man who had blonde hair and emotionless hazel eyes that caused Wanda to shiver at his disturbing, twisted smile. The final image was of a blonde-haired woman who looked like she was a model, but she had a demented smile, one that made Steve know instinctively that the woman was dangerous. "Do we know who hired them to kill Maria?" Steve asked concerned. Before she could respond, a furious Thaddeus Ross stormed into the conference room. His hands were balled into fists, as he glared at where Steve was sitting. "Who authorized Sergeant James Barnes to go undercover as a Russian arms dealer in Madripoor!? I made it perfectly clear that the woman was to be terminated as soon as you acquired her location!" Ross shouted infuriated, causing Steve to speak up for his team and Fury. "With all due respect Home Secretary, the young woman has shown no threat to us. I personally believe, as do many of the others, that she is perhaps more like Frank Castle," Steve argued, causing Ross's face to turn an interesting shade of purple that resembled an eggplant. "You overstep yourself, Captain Rogers. As from now, you are no longer the leader of the Avengers due to your behavior as of late and your recklessness in allowing Sergeant Barnes to go on a mission without being cleared by me. As a result, Tony Stark will be leading the team," Ross said harshly, a cruel smile appearing on his face. Tony's expression was one of arrogance, triumph and smugness. "Sir, Steve did the right thing. Who else could he send undercover?" Natasha argued firmly, causing everyone aside from Clint and Sam to stare at her in surprise. Ross's lip curled, as he looked at the young woman who sitting next to Yelena. He wasn't impressed or bothered by her question.

"He could've sent you, Agent Romanoff, or Belova." Natasha's shoulders fall. "Barnes knows Madripoor far better than I ever could have. And he knows Sharon better than I ever did. He was logically the best choice for this mission besides maybe Sam, but even then, he has his duties here. Barnes didn't have further missions that were outstanding that were blocking him from going. I did, and so does Belova." Ross lets out a huff before shaking his head. "Your missions could wait for something like this – either way, it was a bad decision to send Barnes off on this. If it were up to me, I'd bring him back instantly. But that's Fury's area." He glares at him, who doesn't give a proper response, just shrugs his shoulders. "Even so, Steve's lost jurisdiction. Tony, it's your job now." He shakes his head almost in disappointment before storming out, closing the door. Steve feels himself glare at where Tony was. "You just couldn't keep your mouth shut, huh?" "Oh, stop. You're being dramatic. This is what's been going on for ages," Tony states, crossing his arms against his chest. Steve shakes his head and sits down, quieting himself as Tony started to talk, changing the screen at the front. He glances at Nat and nudges her side, to which she glances over at him. "Thanks for standing up for me, Nat." The young woman nods in response, glancing at the ground. He could see she was still uncomfortable with something sitting inside of her. He wished there were a way he could see inside her head and wonder what the hell was going on. But hey, if she were standing up for him, that had to mean something good, right?

"Wait, what happened?" After the big fight with Maria out in the streets, Bucky had instantly gone back to his apartment to tell Sharon over the phone. And she had understandably listened and been surprised when he told her about everything. "It was insane, Sharon," Bucky says, running a hand through his hair. "There were four of 'em up against her. They really wanted her gone. She ended up killing one of them but the others…think she dragged them back to her place to interrogate them." "What did you say the tattoo said?" "Elite Hunters. Don't really know exactly what they are but got a feeling that whoever sent them wants her gone." Sharon sighs from the other end of the phone. "I'll be sure to look them up and find some info – I'm sure you've already talked to Steve and the others?" He nods. "Of course." "Good. Just keep an eye out." There was a beat of silence. "Maybe you should go out and check up on her. This might be the best time for you to figure out more about her. Vulnerable and shit." Bucky raises an eyebrow. "That's a bit manipulative." He could almost her hear shrug from across the phone. "You gotta do what you have to do. Might be your best option right now." Bucky sighs a bit. She wasn't wrong. It was an option. And right now, it really was one of the best he could lean towards. "Alright…you rest up now." "See you, Bucky." He hangs up the phone after that, glancing outside. It seems that she wasn't that far from where he lived. Maybe he could walk around until he found where she lived. He saw the direction she had gone. Maybe Sharon was right. Maybe it was the best time to do it.

The sound of a knife slitting across skin was loud enough for anyone in her penthouse to hear. The scream that followed was enough to make someone cringe. But Ana didn't care. Ana wanted answers. "Now," she says lowly, pushing the man close to her. She could see it was Diego, one of the Flag Smashers from before. "Either you tell me who sent you here, or I can make your time a little more terrible like your friend over there." She points to the other hostages that were now passed out. "I'm…n-not gonna s-say shit!" He stutters. She grabs her knife and stabs it deep into his arm, to which he screams out in pain before dragging it right back up to his elbow. The blood spurts out as tears start to evade his eyes. "No, you gonna play nice?" "It-t's Melina!" he yells out, his voice shaking. She pauses. "She sent us – p-please, we were only doing our j-" She instantly brings the knife up and slits his throat, watching as he bleeds out before falling to the ground. He was no innocent man. This wasn't a job. She knew what Diego had done prior to this. The same with these two. And now, it was done. Melina…god, she was going to murder that bitch. She wipes the blood away, letting out a soft sigh before grabbing a towel to wipe the blood from her face. Before she could start wondering what to do with the bodies, however, there was a beep that came from her intercom. Her brow raises before coming over. Who on earth would be here this time of night? "Yes?" She asks as her finger hovers over the button. "Who is it?" "Miss Maria, you have a gentleman visiting you," her concierge stated from below. "A Mr. Yakov?" She had wondered why he had come out to help her like that. Seems he was a bit more than she had originally thought. But he did aid her in getting these goons…maybe he wouldn't be opposed to helping her now. "Send him up," she responds back, glancing at the mess of bodies below her. She wondered what Yakov would say to this.

She heard footsteps heading up the stairs as she grabbed a towel and wiped the blood from her face. She didn't enjoy killing people, far from it, but she was pissed that Melina Vostokoff had tried to kill her for putting down some moral laws. She was well aware that no one in Madripoor was innocent, but she wasn't going to stand by and allow rape or trafficking or any of that shit. Just because Madripoor was keeping it's lawless ways didn't mean that she was going allow the sickest people to get away with hurting people. Shaking her head, she started getting the cleaning products out to deal with the blood on the floor. She heard Yakov coming up to her soundproof room. And as soon as he walks in, he whistles at the sight of the blood before looking up at her. "Maria, what the hell happened?" Yakov asked concerned, his eyes scanning her over for any sign of injuries. She smiled faintly at his own concern for her, but she gave him a reassuring smile. "Someone wasn't happy with how I run Madripoor with a moral code…so she decided to send three Elite Hunters and a Flag Smasher to kill me. I questioned the Flag Smasher, and he spilled his guts to try and save his life," she said coldly, glaring down at the body of Diego with no emotion.

Over in Bucky's head, he felt his heart pound at her words, as his mind processed what she was saying. Someone, a woman, had ordered a hit on Maria to kill her in a violent manner, but she had fought back and killed all of her would be killers. She was definitely trained in the Red Room. He could tell that she had been trained in that facility. He just had a feeling that she had been raised in the there. God, he wished he could remember more of his time during that period. "Do you know who it was that ordered the hit on you, Maria?" he asked curiously, keeping his voice concerned. The last thing he wanted to do was to make her suspicious of him in any manner. "Melina Vostokoff, that old bitch…I was hoping she died when the Black Widow and Crimson Widow destroyed the Red Room. Well…she doesn't know if I'm dead yet and I intend on sending her a gift," she answered forebodingly, her grey eyes cold as ice. Bucky showed no emotion but privately, he knew Melina's days were now numbered. "Can you help me out here?" She asks him lightly, trying to move the bodies off of the carpet, to which he does. "You know, for someone I just met, you've been quite the helper tonight." Bucky shrugs a bit and smiles a bit at Maria. "I'm not about to let someone who's trying to at least do some good in this city die like that." "Well…thank you. That means a lot," she says genuinely. "But I don't want to drag you into this. This is my fight." Oh, he was already dragged in so deep. But for her, he could at least play it off.

#dark!bucky barnes x reader #dark bucky barnes/oc #dark bucky barnes x oc #bucky barnes fanfiction #steve rogers/natasha romanoff

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minghaocouture · 4 years ago

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The Flower Path Grows Thorns: Chapter 2

Pairing: Vampire!Xu Minghao x Human!Reader

Genre: Romance, Fantasy, Non-Idol AU

Warnings: Language, mentions of blood, mild suggestive themes, vampires feeding, flashbacks, descriptions of dissociative episodes. mentions of violence.

WC: 4.1K

AU Info: Lore Info/ Vampire Coven Info

Tag list: @smthingabtlove

A/N: I’m pretty sure i tagged all the warning properly but if i missed anything please don’t hesitate to let me know! Totally didn’t edit this so pls don’t hate me oki?

Chapter List: One//Two//Three

Loud shouts of your name filled the air, you felt the ice cold wind assaulting your frame as a pair of strong arms wrapped themselves around your middle. The arms pulled you harshly, not caring if your feet kept up as they dragged you along.

You felt your body fighting back, but it didn’t feel like you were in control. It was like someone else was behind the wheel and you were just along for the ride as your body fought back against your assailant.

Your fighting halted as a sharp piercing pain erupted from your neck. Everything became a blur of red and white, of intense heat and a chilling cold. It was all too much as you felt your heart tighten inside your chest. Legs feeling like jelly and the only thing that seemed to be keeping you up was the arms around your waist as you slipped into unconsciousness.

***

Sweat dripped down your face as you sprung up in bed, chest heavy with breath as you tried to calm yourself. The light comforter felt constricting against your sweat soaked skin so you threw it off of you, and swung your legs off of the side of the bed to get some grounding for yourself. The hardwood beneath your feet was just cool enough to help with the process. You weren’t sure how much time had passed since your rough awakening, you were simply focused on controlling your breathing.

It had been about a month or so since your last intense night terror, the nightmare that caused you to relive that night back in January. The only thing you were grateful about right now was that you were no longer living with your brother, you always felt guilty when you would wake his family because of your dreams.

Glancing over at the clock on your nightstand you let out a small whine, the bright red lights of the clock told you it was just past 5am. Way too early to get ready for the day but too late for you to get back into a deep sleep before your alarm would go off.

Standing from your bed you made your way out of your room and entered the bathroom across the hall. Thinking that maybe a hot shower would be a good way to start the day. You turned the metal knobs and the water quickly began flowing, the sound filling up the previously empty space in the room.

As you waited for the water to heat up, your mind wandered. The day was going to be a long one, not only did you have your first shift back today but also the blood night as well. You stared at the water as it left the faucet but your eyes couldn’t seem to focus. The longer your stare lingered the less you felt...real. You began to feel as you had in your dream, your limbs going numb and it felt like your body wasn’t your own once more. You couldn’t say that you hated the feeling in the moment simply because you felt nothing. It was almost like you didn’t exist metally.

You were grateful to hear your text tone go off, as it snapped you out of whatever episode you had been having. Lifting the phone from the sink counter you glanced at the name, Soonhee. You were curious why she was messaging you, especially since it was technically late for her. Opening the message it read.

“Don’t forget your snack tonight. Minghao is really strict about that...and well everything honestly lol”

It was really sweet of her, it didn’t surprise you all that much that she had messaged you. Despite her rough outer appearance and attitude, Soonhee was quite kind and looked out for people who couldn’t look out for themselves. That’s probably why she was so willing to lend you a hand. Well, that as well as her own guilt.

With a sigh, you set your phone back down on the laminate countertop so that you could finally jump into the shower. It wasn’t long before the water ran cold, leading you to believe you had lost more time than you had originally thought. You’d have to keep any eye out on that in the future.

***

“Ahhh that shift sucked!” You whined, collapsing into the rolly chair in the back office. The shift had only lasted 4 hours, since your shop closed for a few hours mid day, but those four hours had felt like a full work day. You heard the familiar wheezing of Hoseok’s laugh as he stepped past the threshold to join you in the room.

“It wasn’t that bad, you’re just out of practice,” Reaching out he ruffled your hair, as if he were the older of the two, before plopping down in the much less comfortable metal chair that was kept in the room. “You were gone for a pretty long time. I know January was pretty rough for you.”

He had spoken far too knowingly for your liking, as if he was aware of what had transpired. Lifting your legs and crossing them while you sat on the chair, you decided to grab the corner of the desk and gently pushed off causing yourself to spin ever so slowly.

“It wasn’t anything like that,” you lied. You couldn’t exactly tell him what had happened, you didn’t want him to live with the knowledge of the supernatural beings that now plagued your nights. “Ilya just needed someone to watch his daughter for a while and I agreed to do it.”

Now that wasn’t exactly your best lie, but you had never claimed to be good at things like that. You preferred to be upfront about things, honesty was a trait you previously could have claimed as a core value of your person. Not anymore, not with all the things you had learned. It was just something to keep from regular humans.

A frown had pushed its way onto Hoseok’s face as he watched you spin. He looked like he wanted to say something, but something was holding him back and you weren’t sure what. So before he could continue his line of questioning, you spoke up again.

“Do you close tonight?” It was a simple enough question, but one that could get his attention away from you. Slowly, your spinning had finally come to a stop which led you to have to manually rotate the chair so that you were still facing him.

He nodded, his lower lip jutted out in a small pout. He crossed his arms over his chest, which incidentally made his biceps somehow look bigger than they already were (you swore half of your customers came here just to ogle at him.) He simply stared at you for a moment, worry filling his deep brown eyes. Reaching out, he placed a firm hand on your shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze.

“You know you can talk to me right?” It was kind of him, and you really appreciated him. Just knowing that he was such a good friend and how he would be willing to drop just about anything just to help you out always brought a twinge of joy to your heart. You gently took the hand that was on your shoulder, holding it in your own, and smiled up at him.

“I know, I really appreciate you Hoseok. but I’m fine I promise." You did your best to reassure your worry wart of a friend

With a small smile you stood from the chair and made your exit from the room. There were still quite a few things to do before tonight.

The night was dark and humid as you made your way to the bar once again. A small purse hoisted over your shoulder held the granola bar from the pack that you had purchased. It wasn't much but hopefully it would be enough to help you out after, well after everything.

Seeing the familiar neon sign you paused, staring at it for a moment. Did you really want to go through with this? You could always back out, even with the contract. You could just leave town and never come back, or you could take the less drastic approach of talking to them if it boiled down to it.

Swallowing your fear and taking a deep breath, you proceeded towards the entrance of the bar. You were once again greeted by the woman from yesterday, though this time her shoulder length black hair was held up in a high ponytail that looked really good on her and she was sporting this rather cute purple outfit. If time permitted you might ask where she got it from. Her eyes lit up in recognition as she watched you approach.

“Welcome back.” Was all she said, apparently not needing to see your ID this time since she had done so the night before. Despite this, you still stopped in front of her and pulled your wallet out from your purse so that you could retrieve the small card.

“You’re Gahyeon right? I’m supposed to show this to you.” She took the card from you and gave it a good once over, making sure that it was legitimate. You felt the anxiety fill your gut once more, urging you to run away and not look back. You did your best to ignore it, shifting your weight a few times in an attempt to get rid of that nervous energy.

After a moment, she passed the card back to you and fixed you with a stern look. “When you go inside, there will be a door in the far back left of the room that says ‘Employees only’. You’re going to go through that door and then knock on the second door to your right. Got it?”

You nodded, making sure to repeat the directions back to her. Once she was satisfied her stern look faded and she smiled softly.

“Thank you.”

Thank you? Was she thanking you for participating? You didn’t really know how to respond to that, so instead of saying anything you pushed a shaky smile onto your face and smiled as well. Then stepped past the threshold into the bar once again. It was the same as it was yesterday, bright lights flashing, loud music playing and of course the lingering smell of sweat and liquor in the air.

Following Gahyeon’s directions, you made your way to the back of the bar when you had spoken to Minghao yesterday. Today though there were different faces behind the counter, of course you recognized Jun who flitted around behind the counter chatting it up with customers and refilling drinks, then there was another woman that you recognized but couldn’t place a name to, her hair was around the same shade as Jun’s if not a little darker blonde. As you went to pass, you just barely heard your name being called. Eyes returning to the bar, you were greeted by Jun’s bright smile as he jumped the counter so he could envelop you into a hug.

“Y/N! I am so glad to see you here! When Minghao told me you were coming tonight, well I didn’t believe him at all!” He exclaimed, his arms pulling you close to him. You felt some of the tension from before drain from your body as you returned the hug.

Jun was such a calming presence to you, which was definitely odd considering how excitable he could be. You had been hoping that he would be the person you would be seeing tonight, but from the looks of it he wouldn’t be. Which left you a bit concerned about which member of the coven would be your client tonight. Was client the right word? You weren’t exactly sure.

“Well...here I am! Definitely against my better judgement.” You murmured the last bit into his shoulder, but it seemed like he still heard you. He pushed you away gently, holding your shoulders in a firm grasp.

“You’ll be fine. I promise, nothing bad will happen tonight okay? And if it does, I give you full permission to punch me once.” This had you laughing, a natural one that didn’t feel forced which you wouldn’t have expected from yourself with how anxious you were. Jun was kind to offer such a thing, but you knew that your tiny punches would mean nothing to him.

“Thanks Jun...I better get back there before I back out and decide to run home.” It was a joke, well mostly a joke. That was still a good option in your mind.

With a nod and a small smile he squeezed your shoulders and let you go, giving you one final bit of motivation to cross through the door to face your fears. He watched you go before climbing back over the counter and returning to his customers.

The hallway you entered was rather bland compared to the room you had just left, the walls were a concrete gray and had a few clipboards and a cork board hanging on the wall in between a set of wooden doors to the right. On your left was a staircase that led up to their living quarters, you remember that area well. The tiny room you had been hidden away in, the dust covered boxes and small twin sized bed. Just thinking about it brought back the sense of claustrophobia, causing you to quickly look away from the staircase and return your attention to the hallway itself.

Taking uncertain steps, you trekked forward to the second door like Gahyeon had told you. Despite how short the hall was, it felt like you were walking forever. The sound of your footsteps felt loud in your ears, and had even drowned out the bass thumping from the room behind you. Stopping as you stepped in front of the door, you felt your heart pounding in your chest. You wondered if vampires could hear that, no one had mentioned it to you before but you couldn’t help but wonder.

You raised your hand to knock on the hardwood, only to be stopped as the door swung open which left you face to face with another familiar woman. If you recall, her name was Siyeon, but Siyeon paid you no mind and simply side stepped past you as she wiped her lips of a dark red liquid. Chills ran up your spine as she passed, you paused and watched as she turned and made her way up the stairs.

“You don’t have to stand in front of the door like that.” The familiar voice hit your ears and caused a wave of relief to spread over you.

Inside the room, you saw Soonhee sitting in a plush red chair looking exhausted. Her braids were pulled into a high ponytail on the top of her head, her leather jacket draped over the back of her chair as she hunched forward looking over a clipboard. To the left was a small couch that housed two people that you were almost certain weren’t part of the coven, but you recognized one of them as a customer from work. Hopefully he didn’t recognize you, and if he did then you hoped he wouldn’t say anything.

“You’re just in time,” Soonhee explained, taking a pen and marking something on her clipboard. “You’re gonna go through that door and down the stairs, your room is the first door on the left.” She took the pen and pointed at the door on the opposite side of the room from where you had entered. You wished you were about to talk with her a bit more, maybe calm your nerves a bit, but she was busy today and obviously didn’t really have time to talk considering as soon as she gave you your room she diverted her attention to the couch.

“You’ve been snacking on those crackers for like an hour Jae, go home.”

Ignoring the whining voice of the male she was speaking to, you followed her instructions and entered the new room. It was less of a room and more of just a doorway that led directly to a flight of stairs. You stared at the stairs for a moment, feeling that sense of dread kicking in once more before you slowly descended.

At the bottom of the stairs you were treated to another concrete grey hallway, only this time there were 8 doors. It reminded you of how the top floor was laid out. Taking a deep breath stopped in front of the first door on your left, as you were told. You simply stared at the door for a moment. The feeling from this morning returned to you and you felt the life drain from your limbs, leaving nothing but a cold feeling of numbness. Your eyes unfocused as it stared at the wood of the door, your shoulders slumping as you found yourself unable to tear your eyes away or move to enter the room. You felt your heart throbbing in your chest and the feeling of phantom arms roughly grabbing your arm as they had done in your dream. Terror gripped your whole being.

Your eyes were forced to refocus as the door in front of you swung open and you found yourself face to chest with someone, glancing up and you realized that this someone was none other than Minghao. He stared at you with an unreadable expression, his dark black hair hung in front of his face blocking one of his eyes from view. After a moment that felt like an eternity, he turned his back to you and entered the small room again. Quickly you followed after him.

Today he seemed to be much more casual than he had been the day before. His pale blue jacket and black turtleneck had been swapped out for a simple white t-shirt, he looked a lot less intimidating than he had previously but not any less beautiful. Your eyes followed him as he sat down on a black leather sofa that seemed to be one of the few pieces of furniture in the room, a part of you wondered if the material of the couch was chosen since blood would be easier to clean off of it. He gestured for you to join him, so you did.

“So, here is how this is going to go,” He began, “I know you’re not exactly comfortable with this.”

That was the understatement of the year.

“But you signed up for this, so you knew what you were getting into. I can’t just let you leave without feeding, so what we’re going to do is we’re going to take it slow okay?” His eyes locked on your own, making sure that you were listening to his explanation. So you nodded, prompting him to continue. “If you get scared, or you want me to back off just pinch my arm okay? I’ll stop until you’ve calmed down and give me the okay again. Is that good for you?”

You were a bit surprised at his words, you hadn’t been expecting any special accommodations but he had clearly thought about your mental state when going into this. It was extremely thoughtful. You were still extremely anxious about the whole ordeal of course, but you definitely didn’t feel like you were in danger with Minghao. So once again you responded with a nod, which prompted a sigh from the male.

“No, you need to say it out loud.”

“Yes. I’m comfortable with that.” The words left your lips almost instantly, which he seemed pleased with or at least you were assuming that’s what the small smile was expressing.

Despite the comfort you felt in the moment, your heart practically stopped when he grabbed your wrist and pulled you closer to him. You felt your throat dry out as he leaned forward, feeling his hot breath against your neck. You free hand clutched the leather of the couch as if it were your life support and this had him pause for a moment. Before you could really think about that, you felt his mouth on your neck. The sharp fangs gently poked at the skin but had yet to pierce through, you could tell that he was taking his time so that he wouldn’t scare you. Another moment passed, you stayed completely still and the only sound in the room seemed to be that of your own heartbeat. Going off of your response, you felt the fangs pierce through the skin of your neck and it took all you had to not pinch him and beg him to stop. You would get nowhere if you let your fear control you, he wasn’t attacking you and you needed to make sure your psyche knew that. So you tried to focus on other things, the tickle of his black locks as they brushed against your jaw and the feel of his hand on your wrist. You hadn’t noticed before, but he was slowly rubbing small circles with his thumb on the underside of your wrist. An attempt to calm you and keep you grounded. You were grateful for that, taking the moment to focus on that instead of the lingering pain in your neck.

You weren’t sure how long you had sat there, eyes focused on the ceiling before the moment was broken. The feeling of your own blood, escaping his lips and trailing down your neck had you twisting your arm around in his grasp and quickly pinching his wrist. Instantly he pulled himself away from you, panting heavily as he did so. You felt your limbs shaking against your will as he grabbed a towel you hadn’t noticed before and gently dabbed it against your neck to remove the blood. All you could focus on was the way his lips were stained red. It wasn’t like the movies, where the Vampire had blood dribbling down their chins and getting everywhere. The look was subtle, small droplets that clung to plush lips, just like you had seen on Siyeon before.

His eyes searched yours as he dabbed the towel against your neck, looking for a sign that anything was majorly wrong...if he had done something wrong. As he could hear was the sound of your erratic heartbeat, as he tried to focus on anything but the hunger that he was feeling. There wasn’t anything special about your blood, you weren’t the best blood he had ever drunk but you weren’t the worst. Your fear was definitely diluting the taste, making him feel guilty for enjoying it like he had. Which was why he had stopped at your signal, this wasn’t just about him. He knew why you were here, he could practically read the need to push past your fears just by looking at your face. You were an open book to him.

As he pulled the towel away, you muttered a small strangled apology. You felt small tears well up in your eyes, once even slipping out as you tried your best to calm yourself down. Minghao simply brushed the tear away with his thumb and rolled his eyes.

“I knew what I was getting into when I asked for you. If it takes a while then it takes a while, don’t apologize for being scared.” He retorted. He didn’t seem to be upset with you, which you were glad about but his words caused you to quirk a brow.

“Asked for me?”

“Yeah. Figured you would feel more comfortable with someone you knew. Soonhee would have probably offered but she...she has some control issues when it comes to feeding and probably would have done more harm than good.” As he spoke he leaned against the back of the couch, arms spreading along the top of it as he waited for you to calm down. “We could have given you to Minhyuk or Jun, but Minhyuk has a regular that he likes and Jun is working the bar tonight so he gets whoever comes in last.”

You had to admit, you were grateful it was Minghao. Jun would have probably tried joking with you to keep you calm but that could have potentially made things worse. Minghao was blunt and straightforward, he told it to you like it was and didn’t sugar coat it. While you wouldn’t think that it would be comforting, it was. It let you know that he wasn’t hiding things from you that you might need to know.

As time passed, you felt your muscles relax a bit and your heart beat slow to a normal pace. You spoke up again.

“I think I’m okay now.”

He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees as he continued to eye you. Looking for any sign that you weren’t ready, a small brow raised as if to ask if you were sure. To which you nodded.

He reached out once again, this time reaching for your shoulder before he leaned back in and continued to feed.

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raendown · 4 years ago

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Pairing: YamatoNaruto Word count: 2487 Soulmate au: The one where you can hear what they're thinking whenever you consciously try to listen

Follow the link or read it under the cut!

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Chapter 220

Tenzo knew his soulmate within moments of meeting them. He really hadn’t expected that. After the life he’d led and a continuing lack of proper social understanding he’d expected it to take a very long time for him to figure it out if and when they finally met. There had been times he’d bemoaned the fact that their mental connection didn’t extend towards an ability to have actual conversations, limited only to allowing them an ear in to each other’s thoughts at will, but after so many years of worry it seemed there had been nothing to fear on that front. Unfortunately in all the time he’d spent wondering what they would look like or how their voice would sound out loud Tenzo had forgotten to wonder about one thing. Only one detail, yet such an important one. He’d forgotten to wonder at their age.

Looking at the still growing bundle of energy in the clearing ahead of him, Tenzo did his best to identify each of the emotions coalescing in the hot tangled ball around his heart. Shock, clearly, was the foremost emotion, that fate had chosen to bond him with someone so much his junior without even allowing them the mercy of meeting after Naruto had fully grown. Confusion was also a large part of it, although he couldn’t pinpoint exactly what he was confused about or if he was simply feeling generally off-kilter. Years of rigorous training had the back of his mind reminding him that such emotions would make for poor concentration on the mission awaiting them. But there were still so many other feelings woven throughout the stranglehold suffocating his heart that he just knew he would never be able to untangle them all for a proper look.

Was he disappointed? Tenzo couldn’t say. He could admit in the privacy of his mind that Naruto’s features were already handsome but at the same time he felt almost dirty for even noticing. The boy was only seventeen.

The best thing he could think to do at the time was to hold his silence. Whatever his feelings about this situation, it would surely be for the best if he figured them out for himself before admitting to this child that they were matched. Before that first day was over it was obvious that Naruto was not the sort to take big news quietly or keep it to himself either. Tenzou felt certain the boy would understand if he simply put off such an awkward conversation until he was sure they could both be ready for it.

Unfortunately the longer he held his tongue the less sure he became, a year or two quickly turning in to half a decade almost before he realized, and Tenzou suddenly found himself adrift in a post-war utopia with everyone around them finding the places they were always meant to be, leaving him far behind. He wondered sometimes if Naruto even really noticed that he’d never found his bond. In the wake of the Fourth Shinobi War the boy - more of a man now than a boy - found himself awash in suitors of all genders, handing out dates left and right like he had a well of infinite love for anyone who wanted a taste. And Tenzou, well. He wanted a taste. It may have taken just over five years for him to finally admit it to himself but the rare glimpses he allowed himself in to Naruto’s thoughts showed him to be as genuine as the face he showed to the rest of the world. It would have been very difficult indeed to find a heart as true as Naruto’s.

Some days it was harder than others to understand why or how he had worked himself in to this stupid corner, unable to speak and yet unwilling to hold his tongue. On those days when the loneliness he’d built for himself became too much he found himself often drifting to the roof of the administration tower. It was always peaceful up here. Most people in the common forces assumed that the Hokage’s ANBU would be camped out here on lookout at all hours of the day and yet such assumptions only meant it would be too easy a spot to be ambushed. Generally they avoided it, letting the rumors fly free to encourage any possible attacks away from their true hiding places, and that left the roof free for a despondent ex-ANBU to sit with his back to one of the massive pillars while he looked for answers in the stars above.

The last thing he expected was for anyone to join him there. Or rather, the last thing he expected was for Naruto to be the one who finally interrupted his mournful solitude.

“You don’t mind?” Naruto pointed at the spot beside him but didn’t bother to wait for a reply before flopping down to the ground so close their shoulders brushed together. Tenzou peeked at the younger man from the corner or one eye.

“I thought you had a date tonight?” he murmured.

“Eh, he was boring. Kept going on and on about how I saved the village and he’s so grateful I would even give him the time of day and blah blah blah.”

Tenzou smiled against his will. “After all those years you put in to making the village recognize you, you don’t like it when they do?”

“Oh for sure!” Naruto puffed up his chest. “I like being someone that others can look up to! It’s just kind of annoying when they treat me like I’m better than them somehow, you know? Just ‘cause I got real strong doesn’t mean I don’t want to have normal conversations and stuff. I’m still just me.”

More than anyone else Tenzou knew that, it was one of the reasons he had slowly fallen in love, and so he nodded without trusting himself to speak. His silence must have been noteworthy somehow because when he didn’t get a verbal response Naruto turned to lock their eyes together with an unreadable expression. Tenzou knew he could have simply dipped in to the other’s thoughts. He could know everything he wanted to know in just a few moments. Instead, like the coward he was, he merely blinked and waited for Naruto to speak first.

He didn’t have long to wait.

“You know...sometimes we build things up in our heads and it gets bigger and bigger until one day you realize it’s just never gonna be the same in reality as it is in your head.”

“I’m sure if you told him he was making you uncomfortable that he would have backed off a little,” Tenzou said. Naruto gave him another look he didn’t understand.

“No, I wasn’t talking about that guy.”

“Oh.” At a loss, he turned his face away and looked back up at the stars. “What were you talking about then?”

For a long minute Naruto said nothing and the feeling of expectancy that hung in the air between them was honestly baffling. It was hard to imagine what the other might be waiting for without reaching across the connection between them to listen firsthand. Forcing himself to have patience, to his shame, required falling back on some of the old repression techniques he had learned under Danzo’s rule.

“I was talking about you.”

Only five words, a simple message delivered in quiet tones, but they stole the breath from Tenzou’s chest as he whipped his head back down again to stare at the man beside him.

“W-what do you mean?” he asked breathlessly. Naruto was grinning openly in amusement.

“You know that this connection thing works both ways, right? I know I’m kind of a knucklehead but I’m not really stupid, dattebayo!”

“I...I never…”

Waving a hand to cut him off, Naruto chuckled a bit. “You didn’t know I knew. I know. We can both hear each other’s thoughts and stuff so, I mean, it wasn’t all that hard to figure it out. You were really uncomfortable with it for a long time so I figured you’d be even more uncomfortable if I made you talk about it. Just being friends is still great!”

“You...but...I…” Now more than ever before it seemed that words were beyond him.

Because Naruto was right, this connection between them was a two way street. Just as it was for every other pair of soulmates in the world. How that detail could have escaped him for so many years was a mystery - although Tenzou distantly suspected it probably had something to do with willful ignorance. He was grateful for the uncharacteristic patience as he struggled his way through the revelation that he had apparently worried himself in to knots over nothing. For multiple years. Evidently Naruto had figured it out quite early on. Still, once his brain could finally process anything beyond the wild siren noises of panic he couldn’t help but get stuck on something quite specific.

“Just...being friends?” he managed to get out. To his utter bafflement Naruto flushed, reaching up to scratch at the back of his neck.

“Should have known you’d catch that, dattebayo. You’re a really great guy! And you’re my soulmate! It’s okay if I like you, right?” The nervous chuckle he made sounded so out of place from someone usually so brash and confident. “But, uh, hey! It’s okay if you’re still not comfortable. Just because we like each other doesn’t mean we have to do anything with that if you don’t want or if it still bothers you that I’m younger or something. Just, maybe you could think about it?”

Tenzou swallowed past the sudden lump in his throat to croak out, “You think of me like that?” A moment later he breathily added, “You know I think of you like that?”

His answer was a helpless laugh as Naruto shrugged. Either he’d run out of words or he was listening through their link and realized that all these massive bombs he was dropping were just a little too much for an aging and poorly socialized ex-ANBU to handle. Ask him to assassinate the head of another village and Tenzou would approach his given task with a cool head. Ask him to face his own emotions and the only thing he was likely to accomplish was a few weeks of serious but confusing thoughts, no actions.

Several minutes passed before it was obvious that neither one of them knew what to say next. Naruto had laid all of his cards on the table, he was clearly waiting for some kind of sign for where to go from here, and it took a while before Tenzou realized he would have to provide that sign. Leaving it up to him to drive whatever was happening here was clearly a bad decision.

As he proved when the only thing he could think to do was to lean over and crash his mouth against the younger man’s with all the pent up emotion of someone who had been keeping a secret for more years than he wanted to count. Despite the fact that Naruto had only just confessed to sharing his feelings it was somehow still a jolt to feel him respond in kind with a low groan. With no clue what he was doing Tenzou did something for the very first time in his life; he threw logic out the window and let his emotions rule him. It was something he had always admired about his soulmate, something he’d always wished he could bring himself to do, and later it would occur to him how fitting it was that it was this leap of faith that brought them together at last.

When the kiss ended Tenzou discovered he was panting with the exertion of his own heartbeat, not embarrassed only because his partner was breathing just as heavily.

“Yeah?” Naruto mumbled.

“Yeah,” Tenzou whispered back. Neither of them needed to elaborate. The connection between them had never been so open. All of Naruto’s thoughts streamed in to his mind almost as though the man were projecting them as hard as he could and the sheer happiness they both felt in this moment was enough to quell every fear that might have arisen.

“For real? We can-?”

Since he really didn’t have any better of a handle on his words yet Tenzou chose actions instead. This time when he moved Naruto met him halfway and both of them had to chuckle at their own awkwardness as their teeth clacked together. It was, somehow, a perfect moment. Just the right way to remind them both that they were human and messy and that it was okay to be those things. Tenzou closed his eyes for a moment just to breath. When he’d come to sit up here on the roof tonight he’d expected nothing more than to spend another few hours pitying himself for the seemingly impossible situation that he’d put them both in. Now…

“All those dates with all those different people,” he ventured slowly. “They weren’t real dates, were they?”

“Kind of. Lots of people want my attention and it doesn’t really hurt anyone to give them the time of day - so long as I don’t let things go too far. Mostly they just want to say they went out with the hero of the village, not many of them were really interested in me as a person. As long as you were still worried about being together I figured...why not just make all those people happy without actually having to break any hearts?” Naruto looked a little nervous like he wasn’t sure that was alright but Tenzou found himself slumping with relief.

It really was just like Naruto to give so much of himself like that. And as much as Tenzou had always been fine with Naruto finding companionship in others when he himself had refused to step forward, it was still an odd sort of relief to know the other had actually been waiting for him all along.

“Don’t break my heart, okay?” he said.

Naruto didn’t say anything, only pulled him in for a kiss that didn’t miss this time, but he didn’t have to use words. Everything he was feeling was right there in his thoughts. Tenzou reached out to cup the back of his soulmate’s head even as he let his mind sink in to Naruto’s where everything he had ever wanted was right there waiting for him. It was amazing how avoiding these little glimpses as much as possible had denied him what he most desired for so long but what was done was done. There was no point crying over past mistakes.

Feeling more carefree than he ever had before, Tenzou let the world drift away and filled his mind with the one man he now looked forward to filling his future with.

#rae writes #soulmate collection #yamanaru #yamato #tenzou #naruto #fanfiction

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peteywillproceed · 5 years ago

Text

The Devil In Disguise - Part 1

A/N: Hi guys, wow this has been a long time coming! I’ve been writing this whilst being sick in bed, so I hope it’s not that terrible! As always, I hope you like it, constructive feedback is appreciated, and if you wanna be added to the taglist just send me an ask! x

Summary: Y/n belongs to The Circle, a criminal gang known for its ruthlessness and brutality. Given a mission to kill Spiderman, Y/n attends Midtown High undercover to seek him out, not intending to feel more for one of her new friends than she should. Meanwhile, Spiderman must deal with the increasingly dangerous Huntress, never suspecting her true identity might hit closer to home than he could ever believe…

Word Count: 4,150 (the very defintion of getting carried away!)

Prologue

The New York skyline glittered in front of you as you stepped into the street and the sun began to rise. Ribbons of orange and yellow light were scattered through panels of glass lining the roads, buildings stretching so far into the sky you had to squint to see the tops. The acrid smell of smoke from exhaust pipes burnt the insides of your nostrils, but the feeling was so new, so exciting, that you barely thought about it, choosing instead to glide along the pavements as horns honked and the city came alive.

All it had taken was a three-hour flight from Minnesota and awkward introductions to your cover family for you to get here; now it was Monday, the first day back for the kids at Midtown Tech, and your first day period. Your school bag felt foreign on your shoulders, the weight of textbooks and assigned reading an alien feeling. You’d almost ignored the homework, like you’d always done when your dad tried to assign you extra reading for your training.

But you knew if you wanted to fit in, the bad girl image you’d worked so hard to create over the years wasn’t going to work, so instead you’d stuffed the suit Brenton had given you into the dark depths of the bag and buried it with chemistry. Begrudgingly, you’d cast an eye over the pages in an attempt to figure out what you’d be expected to do at this school, and you hadn’t understood a word. How Brenton had wangled your entrance to the best science school in the country was truly a mystery.

You swung through the gates and pushed your sunglasses up on your head, ignoring the surprised looks from students who weren’t used to newbies. You winked at one of the boys staring with his mouth open and spat the gum you’d been chewing into the nearest bin, catching yourself before you let yourself go too much. You were Brooke Loader, chemistry nerd and all around good girl, whose wardrobe consisted solely of grey cardigans and granny skirts. You weren’t Y/n L/n anymore, and you had to be careful.

“Excuse me?” you caught a guy’s shoulder as he rushed past you and looked up at him through your lashes. “Can you tell me where B27 is?”

“You’re new?” the guy ran his eye over you questioningly “I’m Flash.”

“Err, nice to meet you. But I’m really just looking for homeroom.”

Flash nodded, a smirk appearing on his face. “That’s round the corner, good luck with Harrington.”

Without another word he spun on his feet and disappeared into the throng of students that had appeared in the corridor. You glanced down the hallway he’d pointed to and noticed a bunch of kids streaming into a classroom, figuring that was where you needed to be. You glanced at your watch, noting you were perfectly late, and strode towards the door.

“Ahh, Miss Loader, I was wondering when you were going to show up,” a voice dripping with sarcasm drawled as you poked your head through. You glanced up at the male voice and saw the guy you guessed was Mr Harrington, giving him a small wave as you stood awkwardly in the door. You’d never played the quiet, unsure girl, and it was taking all your energy to bite back your retort.

“Well, please take a seat. There’s one next to MJ,” he pointed towards a girl with long, brown hair, whose head was buried in a book. As you swung into the seat, you clocked the title and leaned over to whisper to her.

“To Kill A Mockingbird? That’s my favourite.” Of course it wasn’t, you’d never read the stupid thing. But it was Brooke’s favourite.

MJ raised her eyebrows, squinting as she tried to make you out. Her gaze was so penetrating that for one, awful minute you thought she’d figured you out and your cover was already blown. But a smile soon spread across her face and she closed the book.

“Mine too,” she nodded, reaching her hand out “MJ.”

“Brooke,” you grinned, glad you’d got through to her. You glanced nervously towards the front of the class, but Mr Harrington was busy at his computer and you reckoned it was probably safe to talk.

“So, you’re new then, how’d that happen? It’s senior year.”

“Parents moved,” you shrugged, tucking a strand of hair behind your ear “guess they just couldn’t leave me behind.”

It was a simple cover, but MJ burst into laughter and your joke, earning herself an annoyed look from Harrington. “What’s your specialty?”

“Chemistry. But I gotta be honest, I didn’t really think I’d get in here.”

“Really?” MJ raised an eyebrow “why’s that?”

“I bombed the entrance tests,” you pretended to look ashamed, glancing back down at your desk “I kind of feel like I don’t belong.”

“Don’t be stupid, what have you got next? The bell goes soon and I can walk you there.”

“Wow, thanks. Err, I think I have History,” you pointed at the print out of the timetable you’d grabbed from reception and MJ smiled.

“Me too. You’ve got lunch the same period as me and my friends, I’ll introduce you guys. You’ll meet more friendly faces like that.”

You didn’t know why you felt so relieved, you hadn’t been worried about making friends, but there was something about MJ that made you want to impress her, even if you were lying through your teeth to do it.

The bell rang, a screeching sound you definitely had not been prepared for, and MJ laughed as your hands flew over your ears. “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.”

“It’s like a fucking banshee,” you muttered, eyes widening as you realised what you’d just said. Brooke Loader definitely didn’t swear. “I..I mean…”

“Brooke, chill, you can swear, I don’t care!”

“Oh okay,” you took a breath, bracing yourself for anymore slip ups. You’d been here less than half an hour, and already you were royally screwing up the only job Brenton had ever entrusted you with.

As MJ walked with you to your next class, you chatted animatedly about the city and everything there was to do. You kept trying to slip in Spiderman, but she brushed off any mention of the superhero, and changed the conversation back to what you’d been talking about originally. She didn’t seem like the kind of girl who’d be interested in what celebrities got up to anyway, and you made a mental note to try and bring him up in a different way.

At last, the class started and you could lose yourself in rudimentary history you’d never cared about. There was way too much bias in the subject, you remembered one of your tutors telling you, and the only thing you could learn from a class like that was just how dedicated they were to the government. You scribbled notes like your hand was on fire, staying as quiet as you could, but none of what you wrote down was what the teacher was lecturing. Instead, you made a plan of attack for finding more about the webslinger you’d been assigned to take out.

You seriously doubted that any of the students knew his identity, and even if they did they weren’t just going to outright tell you. No, you had to be sneaky here, and you had to bring it up subtly. You decided that, every chance you got, you’d slip in a question relating to Spiderman that would be innocuous enough. After all, why wouldn’t you be curious? You’d just moved to the city that was home to an Avenger!

When the final bell rang, you knew exactly what you had to do. A buzz in your pocket let you know you had a text, the only possible source the burner phone Brenton had given you before you’d left.

‘Status report’

You rolled your eyes. Jesus, you’d been here less than twenty four hours, what did the man expect? Full details of identity and credit card info?

‘Give me a chance. My bed’s barely gone cold.’

Hoping the response was snappy enough to get him off your case, all you had to do now was pray your plan of action worked - if it didn’t, you didn’t want to think about what the consequences might be.

***

“Guys, this is Brooke,” MJ introduced you to the circle of people crowded round one of the cafeteria tables who stared at you like you were the last sandwich at the picnic.

“Hi,” you smiled, casting your eye over them. They were all the same age, and at least you recognised one. Flash was leaning back in his chair, his feet kicked up on the table with a wicked glint in his eye.

“Hey sweetheart, find homeroom alright then?”

“You’re friends with him?” you raised an eyebrow in MJ’s direction and she stifled a laugh.

“Not really, he just hangs around because he can’t convince anyone else to put up with him.”

“Now that makes sense.” Flash rolled his eyes at your comment, but you simply took a seat in front of a brown, curly haired boy who hadn’t taken his eyes off you. “Brooke,” you introduced yourself “nice to meet you.”

“Pe…Peter,” he stumbled, and you bit back a smile. Somebody wasn’t used to talking to girls, you thought, spying the awkward rub of sweaty palms against jeans. He was kind of cute, in a nerdy, never had sex kind of way – his jumper was ruffled and his hair was a mess, none of that nasty gel stuff you’d seen in the movies. He didn’t seem that sure of himself, too busy clutching a pen between his fingers as he scribbled what looked like equations into a book.

“And I’m Ned,” the other guy interrupted, and you mentally shook yourself. You were here for one thing and one thing only, and it wasn’t to be going after guys.

“Nice to meet you, Ned,” you nodded, scooping up some of the brown sludge you’d had slopped on your plate by a slightly grumpy cafeteria lady. “God, the food really isn’t good anywhere is it?”

“Just wait until you try the lasagne,” Peter laughed, suddenly animated. “I’m pretty sure they use cardboard instead of pasta.”

“Good to know,” you smiled, itching to change this conversation into something more interesting. Luckily, MJ swooped in with the perfect question, and you knew exactly how to work that to your advantage.

“So Brooke, what do you like about New York so far?” she asked, and you pretended to think.

“Well, I’ve not seen that much, but I hear Spiderman lives here,” you shot a conspiring look at MJ who shifted uncomfortably in her suit “he’s pretty cool.”

“Uh, yeah,” Ned coughed, and suddenly the atmosphere grew a lot tenser than it had been twenty seconds ago. That was odd, you thought – for a city so hung up on having its own Avenger, these people seemed…awkward. Why? What did they have to hide?

“Do you see him on the streets?” You asked breezily, happily tucking into your food as you felt eyes burning your skin.

“Err, well, he’s pretty busy I guess,” MJ coughed, and you glanced over at Peter who’d remained suspiciously quiet throughout the whole conversation.

“Pete?”

“Wha- oh, uh, Spiderman? Yeah, uh, he’s cool, he’s a cool dude,” Peter stuttered, turning bright red. You were feeling the second hand embarrassment here, and you wanted to scream.

“Do you guys just not like him or something?” you tried to play your comment off, laughing and flipping your hair, but the tension was still thick in the air and you cursed yourself for alienating them already. It was pretty clear they knew more than they let on.

“No, no, nothing like that,” Flash grinned “it’s just he’s only usually about at night so none of us really know that much about him. People make out that he’s Queens’ little superhero but he’s an Avenger, he’s not really hanging about on the streets.”

You nodded, stuffing your face with the disgusting mash before you could say anything else. Another beep in your pocket and you turned away from the group, letting them dive back into their own conversations whilst you slid the burner phone out of your pocket.

Need you to go to Warehouse tonight. Pick up a package and keep it safe. Address to follow.

You let the words wash over you, processing what they meant, and bit back the squeal that threatened to erupt. Finally, you got to go and do something – these people might not be giving you anything, but at least the mission wasn’t completely boring.

“What ya doing?” a voice interrupted your thoughts, and on instinct you slammed the phone into your pocket. Peter cocked at eyebrow in surprise and you let out a little gasp.

“Err, nothing, just, uh, texting my mum.”

“Oh yeah? About what? Plans for world domination?” He smiled at you, and it was so endearing that you couldn’t stop yourself from smiling back. Brown hair curled around his ears and he pushed his glasses further up his nose as he stared at you, making you laugh as he crossed his eyes and pulled a stupid face.

“Something like that,” you finally replied as the bell signalling the end of lunch rang through the cafeteria.

“Hey, what have you got next? Let me walk you to class.”

You were taken aback by Peter’s offer, and were half tempted to refuse him before you remembered how flustered he’d become over the mere mention of Spiderman. Maybe there was something there…

“Sure,” you said, dumping the remainder of your food in the bin. “Spanish, but I can’t speak a single word of it.”

“Ahh, it’s not that hard, sneak Google Translate in if you have to.”

“Didn’t peg you for a cheater, Parker.”

“Didn’t peg you for a Chemistry specialty, but here we are.”

You placed a hand over your heart, mock offended, and rolled your eyes. “You wound me. Only Spiderman can save me now.”

“I’m sure Spiderman would love to,” Peter replied, exaggerating the ‘love’ a little more than you liked.

“I hear he’s rumoured to be a high school student,” you wiggled your eyebrows, spotting your opportunity. Your little risk had been worth it though, because suddenly Peter looked like he’d been caught in headlights, and his entire body went rigid in shock.

“What?” he asked, panic lacing his voice.

“Oh you haven’t heard?” the faux innocence in your voice was annoying even you, but you bit your lip and got on with it, knowing this was the only way to get the information you needed. Stumbling upon these guys was a stroke of luck in your eyes, they seemed to know a hell of a lot about the webslinger. “Yeah, he’s rumoured to be a student here.”

“Yeah, no no, I heard that,” Peter shook himself a little, but started chewing on his lip. Your eyes were drawn to the way his teeth nibbled the skin, but you snapped out of your reverie as he waved a hand in your face. “Y/n?”

“I’m sorry, what did you say?” you smiled, hoping that would make you look less like an idiot. Jesus, you just needed to get on with the job.

“I just said, do you think you’ll be able to find your way to your class? I’ve just remembered I’ve gotta go��sort something out.”

“Oh, yeah, sure, of course,” you nodded, confused as to why Peter was suddenly running off. You hadn’t said anything that crazy, and you hoped you hadn’t offended him. But then again, so what if you had? It wasn’t like you were going to be here much longer anyway.

“Awesome, thanks!” Peter called over his shoulder, but it was pointless because he was already tearing off down the hallway.

You were smart enough to figure out wherever he was going was probably related to the person you were trying to kill, but following him felt…creepy. You’d just met this guy, and even though he may very well have been your best lead, it still felt wrong to tail him round the whole of New York. Instead, you made a mental note to run a background check as soon as you got in that evening, and tried to pretend yourself that you weren’t in the least bit interested in the results for anything other than work reasons.

***

It was late when you finally got to the warehouse Brenton had sent you to that night. You’d been meaning to leave well before eight, but your host family had insisted upon dinner, and it wasn’t like you could tell them you had to run an errand. You ended up getting there just past midnight, and you cursed yourself for not texting Brenton – what if the person delivering the package had gone home? What if they just hadn’t bothered?

You were dressed head to toe in the stealth suit that had been specially made for you, and you had to admit you absolutely loved it. You’d been expecting it to fit baggy in all the places it should’ve been tight, but whoever had made it clearly knew what they were doing – the carbon fibre fit snuggly and the vibranium swords strapped to your back were as light as they were deadly.

Sneaking into the warehouse, you shone your torch around the building, quickly realising it was abandoned. Whatever company used to operate here had long since packed up and left, but small traces of the operation still lingered with pieces of alien tech scattered around the floor.

“You’re late,” a gravelly voice said, and you spun to find the source. The beam from your torch landed on a figure hovering in the shadows, and you rolled your eyes at the theatre.

“Oh cut the dramatics. Code word.”

“Heretic,” the gravelly voice replied, confirming the code name you’d been told to expect “And you?”

“Huntress.”

The figure moved out of the shadows and clicked his fingers. Immediately, white light filled the echoing warehouse, lights flicking on everywhere, so bright you could see every cobweb. You covered your eyes on reflex, forgetting how vulnerable it made you, and blinked hard at the sudden change.

“I have some information for you,” Heretic said, and you crossed your arms in annoyance.

“I thought it was a package.”

“That too. But first: Spiderman knows you’re after him. Our sources say he found a hitman had been dispatched once he took down the Manhattan Chapter.”

“He’s probably expecting an old, white man. Doesn’t put me in any danger, he can’t see my face in this,” you shrugged, grateful for the inclusion of a mask in your suit.

“Do they train all the young recruits to be this cocky?” The man sighed, and you let out a hollow laughed.

“Only the bosses’ daughters.” You had plenty of this, the assumption that because you were a young lady you paled in comparison to what older men could accomplish. It was just the way The Circle was, but you were sick of constantly being underestimated. “Just give me the package.”

The man started digging around in his pockets and produced a small, crumpled packet of wrinkled brown paper. An ethereal, purple glow seeped out from the corners he’d failed to wrap, and you knew instantly what it was. You reached out to take it, but before you could, a line of sticky rope shot down from above you and snatched it from the man’s palm.

“That doesn’t belong to you,” a voice said.

Your head snapped upward, your hand flying to your sword as recognition switched on in your mind. Didn’t you know that voice from somewhere? Red and blue spandex swung from one of the lights, and the masked man was waving cheerily from his perch. Heretic started to run, not getting far before he was pinned against a wall in a fresh web, and you rolled your eyes – and he thought you’d been cocky.

“Actually, it does belong to me, and I’d like it back.” You turned your attention back to Spiderman, who let go of the light he swung from and dropped down to the floor, landing almost silently. He tossed the package lazily in his hand, his head cocked as though he had no idea of the power that tiny object held.

“I think you’ll find it belongs to the United States Government, but I’m sure they’d be willing to lend it to you if you ask nicely,” he shrugged, and you bared your teeth, thankful that you’d switched your voice modifier on well before you’d arrived. He, however, hadn’t, if he even had one, and the familiarity of the voice was starting to get on your nerves.

“I really don’t give a shit about semantics, give me back my package.”

“Why don’t you come and get it?” He dangled the challenge in front of you, waiting for you to take the bait, and even though every fibre in your body told you not to, pure instinct won over.

You started running towards him, leaping into the air and flipping yourself high over his head. As you arced over his body, your hand shot out to grab his mask, but he ducked at the last second and your fingers just grazed with the material. You hit the ground and slid along the concrete, looking up just in time to roll away from a web grenade.

“Come on, Spidey, you can do better than that,” you panted, wanting to hear him talk more. If he did, maybe you’d have a better chance at placing him.

He seemed frustrated by your comment, suddenly becoming a lot more energetic, and threw himself towards you. It was a mistake you’d been expecting, and within half a second you’d brought your knife out and thrown it towards his lunging body. The aim was crap, but it caught his side, and he hit the ground with a thud.

You started toward him, sword in hand to finish the job, a smirk on your face as you ran through everybody you’d met so far and their voices, desperate to figure out which one matched, when all of a sudden Spidey’s hand shot out from underneath him, and you were caught by a flying web that threw you back against the wall. Your head cracked against the concrete, and stars swam before your eyes, threatening to make you pass out as black tinged the edges of your vision.

“Is that good enough for you?” he asked, walking slowly towards you. He was clutching his side and you could just make out a river of blood dribbling from a wound you’d caused. “What’s your name?”

“Huntress,” you bit out, regaining your senses and starting to kick against the web fluid.

“I wouldn’t bother, that stuff won’t dissolve for another two hours,” he shrugged, collapsing to the floor. “Plenty of time to chit chat.”

“I don’t really want to engage in conversation thanks,” you hoped the acid was enough to throw him off guard, and he threw his hands up in defence.

“Hey, lady, you’re the one that tried to kill me, not the other way around.” When you didn’t respond, he continued. “I’d really like to know who’s under that mask.”

“Never gonna happen, this suit’s coded to only come apart when I voice activate it to.”

“Oh, I know, I figured that out as soon as I saw it. I was just musing.”

You stopped, mouth falling open in shock. This guy had just…seen your suit, and figured out how a multi million dollar piece of tech worked? Just like that? So he was smart. No wonder he went to Mid Town Tech.

“Look, I don’t have much longer, if I don’t get home I’ll get in soooooooo much trouble. But have a nice evening!” Spiderman started to get to his feet, the whole conversation feeling surreal to you, and you called out to him.

“Wait! Don’t think this will be the last you’ve heard of me!”

He shrugged in response, pulling the package out of a hidden pocket and turning it over in his hand. “Now that I believe.”

All at once, he was gone, swinging out of the warehouse and leaving you trapped in his web. You tried to wrestle one of your swords from your back, but it was impossible to even move your wrist. Grumbling in defeat, you let your head fall back against the wall and grimaced at the pain. This was all so ridiculous, he shouldn’t have even been able to touch you, let alone pin you up against a bloody wall. You’d let your guard slip because you thought his voice had sounded familiar, and you’d got excited that maybe you’d already run into him.

Next time, you wouldn’t be so stupid.

Taglist:

@jinxfanfics @zabdisamor @jillanaholland @ihopethatwemeetinanotherlife

#peter parker fanfiction #tom holland fanfiction #spider man fanfiction #peter parker x reader #peter parker x y/n #tom holland smut #peter parker smut

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witch-chester · 5 years ago

Text

Cold to the Core Pt. 1

Dean took another swig of whiskey while Bobby continued on his never ending rant. “I don’t like this one bit,” he was saying. “For all you two know, those witches could be plotting to kill you.”

Dean rolled his eyes. “For the last time, Mariah and Kit are on our side.”

Bobby scoffed. “It could be a trick.”

They were sitting in Bobby’s kitchen while Sam and the girls were doing research for another case. This tirade had been on going since the four of them had shown up five days ago. Bobby wasn’t out right cruel to the two witches but he did make it clear that he wasn’t going to accept them on the Winchester’s word alone.

Dean set down his glass. “Both of those girls have put their lives on the line for us. I trust them.”

“Oh you trust them. So that’s just supposed to make all of this ok?”

“If they bother you that much, we will leave,” Dean offered. “But they are gonna stay with us till we figure out why that guy came after Kit and make sure she is safe.”

Bobby glared at Dean through narrowed eyes. “And this has nothing to do with you being all hot and bothered over the little brunette?”

Dean’s fist tightened around his glass. “Her name is Mariah first off. Second, what makes you say that? The two of us have barely talked.” And they hadn’t. Mariah hadn’t said two words to him that wasn’t necessary since the day at the diner. And if he tried to initiate a conversation, he was ignored or interrupted by Kit.

Bobby gave a humorless laugh. “I’m not blind ya igit. I see how you look at her. And how she looks at you when you’re not look’in.” The old hunter crossed his arms. “That girl has you tied up in knots just like that demon’s got Sam.”

Dean stood up so fast, his chair toppled over. “Mariah is nothing like Ruby.”

The two men glared at each other for a good while till Dean let out a slow stream of air. “Just give them a chance Bobby. That is all I ask.”

He grumbled shuffled his feet. “Alright fine. But I’m telling you, if they double cross you I’ll burn them my self.”

Dean quickly looked to make sure Bobby was wearing the silver chained bracelet Mariah had given him to block his thoughts. With what had happened the first few times with Sam’s spiteful thoughts, Dean didn’t want Bobby’s opinions hurting her.

Bobby quit his grumbling for the time being and went back to adding potatoes and carrots to a large pot. Dean picked up his chair and stared to sit back down when the witch in question peeked into the kitchen. She had obviously used a glamour as she called it to hide the bruise on her cheek and her split lip. She had twisted her hair up into a bun and was wearing an oversized sweater and very fitted leggings.

Her looking at you when you’re not looking. Dean quickly pushed that thought away. “What’s up, sweetheart?”

“Sam thinks he found a case.”

Dean nodded and followed her to the study with Bobby following behind. Sam was lounging on the window bench with his laptop in his lap. He looked up whe they came in and said, “Found something in Cody Wyoming that looks like our sort of thing.”

Kit walked in at that moment, tossing a spray paint can in the small trash bin. Bobby raised an eyebrow. “What were you doing?”

Mariah flinched slightly at his gruff tone but Kit didn’t react expect to say, “I was fixing the warding on your house. The Enochian was off. Now, not a single angel or demon can step foot in this place unless you break one of the sigils.”

Bobby’s eyes widen and he blinked in shock. “You tell’in me, you know Enochian well enough to correct mistakes I might of had.”

Kit smirked and nodded. Bobby thought on this for a moment then glanced at his desk. “Maybe you could look at something for me later.” Kit’s smirk turned into a broad smile. “Sure thing, Bobby.”

Dean grinned and turned to lock eyes with Mariah who was also smiling. Seemed Bobby was warming up now. “What you got, Sammy?”

“Man found ripped apart on a hiking path. The body had evidence of being eaten from.”

Dean made a face. “Awesome. So what, werewolf? Heart missing?” If he hadn’t been paying close attention, he would have missed the flash of what must have been fear over Mariah’s face. Kit’s head snapped up from the book she was looking at with Bobby.

Sam, not noticing, continued. “You would think, but it wasn’t just the heart. Everything. Liver, stomach, intestines, flesh.”

Mariah held up a hand. “We get it. So, how is this our thing? It could just be an animal.”

Sam smirked. “Well the body was also found frozen solid. Outside. In June.”

Mariah nodded. “Yeah. Does sound like our thing.” She had visibly relaxed now that it was confirmed there was no werewolf.

Must have been a bad case. His thought was interrupted by Bobby asking, “Did you do this too?”

Dean turned and saw him holding up one of his many notebooks that was scattered on his desk. Mariah cleared her thiroat and said, “No. I did. I was having trouble sleeping and translating helps clear my head.”

All the men in the room stared at her. Bobby broke the silence. “You can translate ancient Aramaic?”

“Um yeah. I know over fifty languages. Not all fluently and not all spoken, but enough to accurately translate and understand. We both do.”

Kit pipped in. “Part of witch training.”

Sam chuckled but quickly stopped when it looked like they weren’t joking. “The two of you really know that many accurately?”

Mariah smiled. “Well, in spell casting you have to be able to translate actually or it can literally blow up in your face.”

“And when young fledgling witches are bad, they are forced to sit for hours translating dozens of books, scrolls, or what ever else.”

“And Mariah and I were very bad fledge witches,” Kit commented.

Everyone laughed at that. Bobby went back to looking through books with Kit, motioning Mariah over. Sam and Dean started planning for the case. They both tried to convince the girls to stay behind. The girls of course said they would be going and that was that. Finally, everyone decided on leaving first thing in the morning and broke up to head into the kitchen for some of Bobby’s stew.

Mariah lingered for a moment and caught Dean’s arm to stop him. “Can I ask you something?” Shocked that she was speaking to him, Dean just nodded. “Why is Bobby researching signs of the end times and seals of Lucifer?”

Dean tensed. He knew her and Kit had a right as fellow hunters to know but it was a subject he had no desire to get into just yet. “Don’t worry about it.” He tried to walk away but she wouldn’t let go of his arm. Dean sighed and stared at her. She was biting the corner of her bottom lip. A tick he learned she did when she was frustrated at not being able to read his mind.

Dean sighed. “I promise to explain. Just not right now. Ok?”

Mariah narrowed her eyes but let him go. “Alright.”

The next morning, they loaded up both cars and headed out with Bobby extracting promises from both Kit and Mariah to come back and have a look at his library. And to the brothers surprise the old man actually hugged both witches and wished them luck before shuffling back into his house.

They made it to Cody in the early afternoon. Dean had parked the impala at a motel that was to their usual standards with the corvette close behind. The boys started getting out and getting their stuff when Kit made the comment, “We are staying at a crack hotel because, why?”

Sam chuckled, “Most big hotels require major credit cards with matching IDs.”

Kit nodded, “Yeah, I get that but don’t you guys have cards?”

The brothers exchanged looks then Dean said, “Kit, all our credentials are fake. You get that right?”

Mariah laughed. “It’ll be ok Kit. Just this once.”

Kit grumbled but agreed. “Fine. But next time, Mariah, you better get us in a Hilton.”

The brunette laughed again and walked passed the boys and their confused looks. Dean had decided that all four of them would be sharing one room and wouldn’t budge. His way of thinking was that who ever had taken Kit before had done so from a motel and could definitely do so again.

Not wanting to fight the matter in front of the front desk clerk, both girls agreed. They had slept in the same bed thousands of times and it wouldn’t bother them.

Sam wanted to head to the police station immediately. “Don’t know how we will pass with four FBI agents but we’ll think of something.”

Mariah scoffed. “Oh Sam, do I look like an FBI agent to you?”

The younger Winchester didn’t know how to answer. He stared to stammer out a reply when Kit to pity on him. “Mariah isn’t good at the cop thing. If we do need to, I handle it. She has her own way of getting info.”

“This isn’t some black market dealer you can charm sweetheart.” The words left his mouth before Dean could think. It had been meant as a joke but his tone had been far to condescending and harsh from the glare Mariah was now giving him. She rolled her eyes and said, “Not my only bit, Winchester. I have many tricks.”

Smirking, Kit added, “She poses as a journalist. Interviews the families.”

“That works?” Sam asked.

“Even if they don’t tell me everything directly, I usually get all I need.”

Dean clicked his tongue. “How you manage that?”

In response Mariah tapped her temple, grabbed her duffle and went into the bathroom. It took the boys a minute but they both had a click of understanding. Telepathy.

Kit followed her friend and came back out ten minutes later in a very well tailored suit. The deep blue hair she had been sporting during her kidnapping had been changed to pitch black the night before. The was no nose ring in place and very little makeup. She looked lethal.

“We can head out. Mariah will take my car once she’s ready.”

That didn’t sit well with Dean. “You want to leave her alone?”

“Better than leaving her with you.” She brushed passed him as she said it.

Dean grounded his teeth but said nothing more. It would have to take a great deal to get out of the hole he had dug with both witches. He glanced at the door to the bathroom for a minute then followed Kit and his brother out of the room.

@vicmc624

#@vicmc624 #supernatural fanfiction #spn blogging #spn imagine #spnfandom #spn fanfic #dean winchester #sam winchester #bobby singer

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bloojayoolie · 6 years ago

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Anaconda, Andrew Bogut, and Animals: Id 56465, 2 Yrs. Old 78 lbs of Snuggles Manhattan ACC Completely lovable, super social, wiggly boy who adores people, butt scritches & treats!A champion cuddler! TO BE KILLED – 3/21/2019 He’s a Champion Cuddler! No one is more social, wiggly and sweet than Sprouts. He adores people, he thinks he is a lap dog, he LOVES treats, and only wants to lean in close to all the staff and volunteers for attention, snuggles and love. Watch his video and see how he backs into them for butt scritches. He’s so well mannered too. He knows his “sit” and “stay” and “come” commands and is so treat driven who knows how many others he could learn. We adore this big boy. He may not be a fan of his peers, but with a dog this amazing and sweet, you only NEED dear, sweet, charming Sprouts in your life. So if you are an experienced foster or adopter, don’t wait another minute, hurry and PM our page or email us at [email protected] to foster or adopt Sprouts now. My Movie! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVGGGgZCGbQ SPROUTS, ID# 56318, 2 Yrs. Old, 78 lbs, Unaltered Male Manhattan ACC, Large Mixed Breed, Black / Brown I came to the shelter as an Agency, 3/4/2019 Shelter Assessment Rating: New Hope Rescue Only Medical Behavior Rating: 1. GREEN AT RISK MEMO: Sprouts has a history of biting another dog in his previous home environment and has shown a concerning level of dog reactivity in the care center. Sprouts would be best suited for placement with a new hope rescue partner that can provide behavior modification and reward based training to help correct and manage these challenging behaviors. Medically, Sprouts was diagnosed with canine infectious respiratory disease complex which is contagious to other animals and will require in home care. SHELTER ASSESSMEN T- Date of assessment:: 3/10/2019 LEASH WALKING Strength and pulling: None Reactivity to humans: None Reactivity to dogs: Extreme Leash walking comments: Lunges, barks, and growls at dogs SOCIABILITY Loose in room (15-20 seconds): Highly social Call over: Approaches readily Sociability comments: Soft body, stays by assessor HANDLING Soft handling: Seeks contact Exuberant handling: Seeks contact Comments: Soft body, leans into pets AROUSAL Jog: Follows (loose) Arousal comments: None Knock: Approaches (loose) Knock Comments: None Toy: Grips, firm Toy comments: None INTAKE BEHAVIOR - Date of initial:: 3/4/2019 Summary:: Excitable, social ENERGY LEVEL:: We have no history on Sprouts so we cannot be certain of his behavior in a home environment. However, he is a young, enthusiastic, social dog who will need daily mental and physical activity to keep him engaged and exercised. We recommend long-lasting chews, food puzzles, and hide-and-seek games, in additional to physical exercise, to positively direct his energy and enthusiasm. BITE HISTORY: Sprouts bit another dog on the street. Circumstances and severity are not known. IN SHELTER OBSERVATIONS:: Sprouts has been social with human handlers, seeking attention when outside of his kennel. He will lean in for petting and keeps close proximity to handlers. He is highly treat motivated and in cue training sessions with handlers has been working on sit, down, impulse control and leave it cues. He has progressed well through those steps and know verbal cues for sit. Sprouts has displayed dog reactivity while at the care center. He will attempt to cage fight with other dogs that react to him, and out in the yard will hard bark at dogs in neighboring pens. With some distance, Sprouts can ignore other dogs, but in closer proximity will hard back and lunge. BEHAVIOR DETERMINATION:: New Hope Only Behavior Asilomar: TM - Treatable-Manageable Recommendations:: Place with a New Hope partner Recommendations comments:: Due to the high level of dog reactivity Sprouts displays and his bite history to another dog, we recommend placement with a New Hope partner who can provide any necessary behavior modification (force-free, positive reinforcement-based) and re-evaluate behavior in a stable home environment before placement into a permanent home. Potential challenges: : On-leash reactivity/barrier frustration Potential challenges comments:: Sprouts is very reactive to dogs at the care center, lunging towards them, growling, and barking. Please see handout on On-leash reactivity/barrier frustration. MEDICAL EXAM NOTES 5/03/2019 [DVM Intake] DVM Intake Exam Estimated age:5y Microchip noted on Intake?n Microchip Number (If Applicable): History :stray Subjective:poor vision? will "miss" treats even when right in front of him Observed Behavior -excitable, extremely food motivated, wags tail, begs for treats.BAR Evidence of Cruelty seen -n Evidence of Trauma seen -n Objective T = P =100 R =pant BCS 5/9 EENT: ou red sclera, mucoid dc. au slightly dirty Oral Exam:minimal exam, appear clean PLN: No enlargements noted H/L: NSR, NMA, Lungs clear, eupnic ABD: Non painful, no masses palpated U/G:2 testes MSI: Ambulatory x 4, skin free of parasites, no masses noted, healthy hair coat CNS: Mentation appropriate - no signs of neurologic abnormalities Assessment: conjunctivitis, possible poor vision Prognosis:good Plan:tab ou bid x 7d SURGERY: Okay for surgery 13/03/2019 HX: COUGHING AND SNEEZING BAR EENT- NASAL DC A) CIRDC P) 1) MOVE TO ISOLATION 2) ENROFLOXACIN- 136MG; SIG: 2 1/2 TABS SID PO X 14 D'S 3) PROBIOTICS 4) CANNED FOOD WITH INCREASED WATER ADDED TO THE FOOD (PUSH THE FLUIDS) *** TO FOSTER OR ADOPT *** SPROUTS IS RATED NEW HOPE RESCUE ONLY. You must fill out applications with New Hope Rescues to foster or adopt him. He cannot be reserved online at the ACC ARL, nor can he be direct adopted at the shelter. PLEASE HURRY AND MESSAGE OUR PAGE FOR ASSISTANCE! HOW TO RESERVE A “TO BE KILLED” DOG ONLINE (only for those who can get to the shelter IN PERSON to complete the adoption process, and only for the dogs on the list NOT marked New Hope Rescue Only). Follow our Step by Step directions below! *PLEASE NOTE – YOU MUST USE A PC OR TABLET – PHONE RESERVES WILL NOT WORK! ** STEP 1: CLICK ON THIS RESERVE LINK: https://ift.tt/2ynocEZ Step 2: Go to the red menu button on the top right corner, click register and fill in your info. Step 3: Go to your email and verify account \ Step 4: Go back to the website, click the menu button and view available dogs Step 5: Scroll to the animal you are interested and click reserve STEP 6 ( MOST IMPORTANT STEP ): GO TO THE MENU AGAIN AND VIEW YOUR CART. THE ANIMAL SHOULD NOW BE IN YOUR CART! Step 7: Fill in your credit card info and complete transaction HOW TO FOSTER OR ADOPT IF YOU *CANNOT* GET TO THE SHELTER IN PERSON, OR IF THE DOG IS NEW HOPE RESCUE ONLY! You must live within 3 – 4 hours of NY, NJ, PA, CT, RI, DE, MD, MA, NH, VT, ME or Norther VA. Please PM our page for assistance. You will need to fill out applications with a New Hope Rescue Partner to foster or adopt a dog on the To Be Killed list, including those labelled Rescue Only. Hurry please, time is short, and the Rescues need time to process the applications. Shelter contact information Phone number (212) 788-4000 Email [email protected] Shelter Addresses: Brooklyn Shelter: 2336 Linden Boulevard Brooklyn, NY 11208 Manhattan Shelter: 326 East 110 St. New York, NY 10029 Staten Island Shelter: 3139 Veterans Road West Staten Island, NY 10309 *** NEW NYC ACC RATING SYSTEM *** Level 1 Dogs with Level 1 determinations are suitable for the majority of homes. These dogs are not displaying concerning behaviors in shelter, and the owner surrender profile (where available) is positive. Some dogs with Level 1 determinations may still have potential challenges, but these are challenges that the behavior team believe can be handled by the majority of adopters. The potential challenges could include no young children, prefers to be the only dog, no dog parks, no cats, kennel presence, basic manners, low level fear and mild anxiety. Level 2 Dogs with Level 2 determinations will be suitable for adopters with some previous dog experience. They will have displayed behavior in the shelter (or have owner reported behavior) that requires some training, or is simply not suitable for an adopter with minimal experience. Dogs with a Level 2 determination may have multiple potential challenges and these may be presenting at differing levels of intensity, so careful consideration of the behavior notes will be required for counselling. Potential challenges at Level 2 include no young children, single pet home, resource guarding, on-leash reactivity, mouthiness, fear with potential for escalation, impulse control/arousal, anxiety and separation anxiety. Level 3 Dogs with Level 3 determinations will need to go to homes with experienced adopters, and the ACC strongly suggest that the adopter have prior experience with the challenges described and/or an understanding of the challenge and how to manage it safely in a home environment. In many cases, a trainer will be needed to manage and work on the behaviors safely in a home environment. It is likely that every dog with a Level 3 determination will have a behavior modification or training plan available to them from the behavior department that will go home with the adopters and be made available to the New Hope Partners for their fosters and adopters. Some of the challenges seen at Level 3 are also seen at Level 1 and Level 2, but when seen alongside a Level 3 determination can be assumed to be more severe. The potential challenges for Level 3 determinations include adult only home (no children under the age of 13), single pet home, resource guarding, on-leash reactivity with potential for redirection, mouthiness with pressure, potential escalation to threatening behavior, impulse control, arousal, anxiety, separation anxiety, bite history (human), bite history (dog) and bite history (other). New Hope Rescue Only Dog is not publicly adoptable. Prospective fosters or adopters need to fill out applications with New Hope Partner Rescues to save this dog.

#funny #lol #humor #memes #meme #memehumor #dank memes #funny pics #rolf #lmao #Anaconda #Andrew Bogu

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welllpthisishappening · 6 years ago

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Where You Can Still Remember Dreaming (3/35)

Killian Jones, former crime reporter, was not happy to be home. It hadn’t been home in a very long time, after all. Home was an abstract construct that existed for people who didn’t know as many adjectives for blood as he did. Home wasn’t New York City, but it certainly wasn’t Boston or New Orleans either and he’d always gone where the story was. And he was positive Emma Swan was one hell of a story.

Emma Swan, pro video game player, desperately wanted to find home. She thought she had, a million years ago in the back corner of a barn and a town and faces she trusted. But that had all blown up in her face and it didn’t take long for her to decide she was going to control the pyrotechnics from here on out. So now she was in New York City and a different corner and she kind of wanted to trust Killian Jones.

Rating: Mature. Word Count: 9.6K of Killian Jones background and why he’s so jaded. AN: Will and Robin ragging on Killian for every single one of his life choices and how clearly into Emma Swan he already is might be my absolute favorite thing. So here’s more of that. Also Cora. And Regina. And journalism families. And Ariel. And painfully adorable kids! As always I can’t thank you guys for clicking and reading and being generally fantastic. || Also on Ao3 and FF.net and tagged up on Tumblr || Tag List: @jamif ; @alicerubyfloyd ; @courtneyshortney82 ; @jennjenn615 ; @artistic-writer ; @kmomof4 ; @onceuponaprincessworld ; @nikkiemms ; @resident-of-storybrooke ; @whumped-natascha-remi-ronin ; @coliferoncer ; @strangestarlightdetective (Let me know if you want to be tagged or not tagged or just, like, have some feelings.)

He had an office.

And a couch in his office.

He’d never had a couch in an office. He’d never really had an office. And now he had both. He also hadn’t heard a single word from Emma Swan in the last week.

And it might have been driving Killian insane. Slowly, but surely. It might have also been driving his friends insane. He had an office and no reason to use it.

“Some reporter you are,” Will said, not the first time he'd pointed that out. He’d flopped onto the couch without a single word ten minutes before, draping his legs over the side and dropping half a dozen cameras on the floor. “How did you not actually get her number?” Killian didn’t answer. He didn’t have an answer. Well, no, that wasn’t entirely true. He had an answer, just not one he wanted to share with Will Scarlet in an office building that seemed to be some kind of living, breathing entity.

“Is it always this loud in here?” Killian asked instead, leaning back against the absurdly expensive office chair that had come with the absurdly fancy office.

Regina was pulling out every conceivable stop – metaphorical or otherwise – to make this work. He probably would have been impressed if he wasn’t so frustrated that he was a piece of garbage reporter and Emma Swan hadn’t called him to set something up yet.

For the story.

Absolutely for the story.

“It’s an office,” Will reasoned. He still hadn’t sat up. “You worked in a daily for years in several major metropolitan cities. Why is this weird for you?” “It’s not.” “Ok, then why didn’t you ask for contact info? From any of them, but especially the one you’ve been mooning over for the last week?”

Killian scoffed, mostly so his face didn’t dissolve into exactly that. “Excuse me? What was that phrase you just used? Did we just teleport to 1947?” “Why that date?” “A spur of the moment decision.” Will hummed in agreement, shifting on the couch and flopping his head to his side, staring at Killian like they were sophomores in college and trying to figure out how to pay the rent that month. “I’m serious,” he continued.

“I know you are,” Killian sighed, sliding down the chair until his knees were bent in front of him and his shirt was going to get wrinkled, crumpled up against his back. He had research to do. He had a video game to learn and a lifestyle to understand and maybe a blonde to...stalk? No, that sounded too aggressive.

That’s why he’d given her the card and resolved to hope for the best.

Because Killian could pick out a cautious source when he saw it – Emma’s slightly skittish behavior like some kind of flashing neon sign that this wasn’t just going to be easy. Of course not. It was a good story – she was a good story – probably the best story he’d had in as long as he could remember, some kind of decidedly optimistic something that he couldn’t seem to stop thinking about for the last week.

But she was nervous and she didn’t really want to talk and, truth be told, he was fairly positive she didn’t really want him there.

The story hadn’t been her idea. Or her team’s idea. It had been some quasi public relations advisor masquerading as an elementary school teacher who had, by some journalistic coincidence, managed to get Regina to listen to her.

And Killian didn’t have time for a story that wasn’t easy and simple and, well, maybe a little fluffy.

What a goddamn disaster.

He should have gotten contact info from the entire, stupid team.

And Emma.

Definitely Emma.

“If you think any harder you’re head is actually going to explode,” Will muttered, grinning at Killian. He’d kicked his shoes off at some point. God.

“Just make yourself comfortable, why don’t you?” Killian hissed. He ran his hand through his hair, practically yanking on the ends in frustration and he was no closer to understanding how any of this video game stuff worked than he had been a week before or a year before or ever in his entire life.

He was a fucking awful reporter – with no knowledge of his subject matter.

“It’s not like you’re doing anything else,” Will reasoned. “And I don’t have anywhere to go for awhile. So, uh, yeah, Hook. That’s exactly what I’m going to do. Also Locksley said he might show up.” “So you’re babysitting me is what you’re telling me?”

“I said no such thing. You a master of this game, yet? Locksley said…” “Just how many conversations with Robin are you having?” Killian asked and his leg was starting to cramp up, bent the wrong way under his desk. His phone dinged a few feet away from his hand and he nearly jumped towards the sound, ignoring whatever Will did with his face as he reached to grab the thing and, possibly, will a very specific person onto the other end.

It wasn’t even a phone call.

It was a notification.

That he did not remember setting up.

For an e-mail blast he absolutely did not sign up for.

“What the fuck, Gina,” Killian mumbled under his breath and Will sounded like he was actually cackling, one arm thrown over his face as the whole couch shook under his weight. “Jeez, Scarlet, I promise you, it is not that funny.” “It is,” he argued. “Did you have to put your phone number on that mountain of paperwork you signed your life away to last week?” “Probably. It all started to blur together a bit at the end.” Will clicked his tongue. “See, that’s where you made your first mistake. You’ve got to read the fine print, Hook. Otherwise you’re going to get roped into Cora’s, I don’t know, scepter of journalism dominance.” “I don’t think that’s the string of words you were looking for.” “Yeah, well, you didn’t get contact information from your sources, so forgive me for having to take over the mantle of the word leader.” “Stop talking.” Will chuckled again, finally pulling his arm away from his face and swinging his feet back onto the floor. “Seriously, though. That’s Cora’s thing. Everyone in the company gets ‘em when they start. Front page blasts and breaking news blasts and, I’m pretty sure, you can sign up for section specific blasts and keywords and I don’t think I can say the word blast again without actually laughing.” “Yeah, that’s fair,” Killian admitted. “So, wait, that’s Cora’s thing? Not Gina?” “You’ve got to stop thinking we’re all on the same team here.” Killian considered that for a moment, chewing on his lip and wondering when Will learned how to actually look like a serious adult. Probably around the same time Hannah moved to Washington and he stopped taking photos if he wasn’t promised a paycheck. They were, easily, the most depressing group of people in the entire New York metropolitan area.

And Cora Mills was nothing if not ruthless.

That was a good word for it. She’d married into money when she was young – a fact she was quick to point out to anyone with a pulse whether they wanted to listen or not – and made something of that money by building up Mills Media when her husband died. The Daily Caller hadn’t been much more than a glorified blog before Cora decided it was hers and, thirty-odd years later, it was one of the top sites in the entire goddamn world, with enough web traffic to make Killian’s head spin, even if that merlot story had been awful.

He’d clicked on the merlot story.

A lot of people clicked on the merlot story and every story, every day, no matter how trite the headline or the stock photo that went along with it.

It made Cora millions and, by extension, made Regina millions and only one of them was happy with that fact. She’d never admit it out loud – not when her mother was pulling the strings, but, once, Regina wanted a paper and a byline and an outlet that didn’t just tell stories. She wanted to tell good stories. Stories that drew hits and revenue and gave a bit of ink, electronic or otherwise, to the so-called little guy.

Killian graduated with those same ideals and that same hope, evident in every single byline – tell the good story, the true story, the story people otherwise would never hear. That changed in New Orleans and one night and that story was as far from good as anything else. And Regina had gone back to Cora, had lost that shine as soon as the police told her Daniel had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time and Killian never believed that story.

But it wasn’t a good one.

It was goddamn depressing.

So he ignored it and he let the depressing seep into everything, let the memory of her sit in the back of his head like a weight until it was as dead as the people he wrote about and that was easier than trying to fight it.

Liam would hate that.

Fuck.

“Hook, you’ve got to stop spacing out on me,” Will said sharply, suddenly right in front of the desk with one hand on the wood and the other one flicking Killian’s left forearm. Killian glared at him. Will didn’t move an inch. “Got your attention didn’t it?” “That’s an absolute dick move,” he growled.

“You really haven’t figured it out yet?” “What?” “Regina is staging a battle for your soul.” Killian blinked. And then fell back on sarcasm and being an asshole and that was easy. That was comfortable. “That so?” he asked. “I can’t imagine it’ll be much of a fight.” “Asshole.” “Yes.”

Will rolled his eyes, knocking over a nameplate that likely cost a questionable amount of money so he could sit on the edge of the desk. “Can we have this conversation without you actually cracking jokes? Because this is almost serious and I need you to understand what’s happening here.” Killian wasn’t expecting that – or the look on Will’s face, back to adult and meaningful and he really didn’t have anything else to do. Except maybe try and find an apartment uptown. He was going to move back uptown.

Liam probably wouldn’t like that either.

“Yeah,” Killian promised and it might have been the most sincere thing he’d said in the last week. “Explain, Scarlet.” “Cora didn’t want you here. She didn’t care about your staff cuts or your layoffs or whatever. She, and this is verbatim from Gina, said serves him right for that spiral years ago. I thought Locksley was actually going to punch her.”

Killian stiffened, pressing his feet into the carpet underneath him as he tried to count to ten. In through his nose, out through his mouth. Oxygen was important. Vital. He had to keep breathing. And Cora Mills had no idea what she was talking about.

It wasn’t a spiral.

It was a...downfall.

He’d been twenty-two, a year out of college with a string of bylines and a freelancing gig that was enough to pay the bills and he’d been happy. He was writing. He was telling stories. Until his phone rang. There’d been nothing but a phone call – it wasn’t anything more than a training exercise gone wrong, an engineering mishap that should have been smooth sailing and, even now, the pun made Killian’s tongue feel too big for his mouth and he could taste bile in the back of his throat and the whole world felt like it was falling off its axis again.

Dead.

Captain Liam Jones, pride of no one except his younger brother, was dead. In a goddamn fucking training accident.

And the United States Navy simply expected Killian to move on. Like Liam hadn’t been the foundation of absolutely everything, hadn’t supported a career in journalism like that was even a career, like he hadn’t read every single byline, no matter where he was.

Killian got a check and an apology on template stationary and it took all of five seconds to decide he was done. He left New York the next week, paid off his half of the rent, kissed Regina on the cheek and walked away.

He stopped writing good stories and started writing any story, bouncing from weeklies to dailies to one company in Missouri that might have actually been a glorified newsletter. Until he got to New Orleans and sat down at a bar after writing about a triple homicide that would still probably end up below the fold and she smiled when he spoke.

Like that was just something people did.

Milah Ormagia was sad and tired and she wanted in a way Killian didn’t remember wanting until he saw her. So he took and he found his way back towards something that felt a bit like happiness and if he closed his eyes he could still remember the exact curve of her smile and the way her hair frizzed softly in the humidity and how cold her hand felt in his when he woke up on pavement with lights and sirens blaring around him.

It almost seemed ironic that when the doctors told him they did all they could, they took that hand. He was a goddamn dismal story.

“So,” Killian said, licking his lips and trying to keep his voice even. He wasn’t fooling Scarlet. “If Cora didn’t want me here, how did this happen? It’s not like Gina to just…” “Stand up to her mother like that?” Will suggested. Killian shrugged. “I wasn’t there, so I don’t know what she said exactly, but whatever it was did the trick. Cora agreed, as long as you bring in the hits. That’s the deal. You write you want. You tell this good story and you bring in the ad revenue and Cora won’t kick you out of this very fancy office.” “When did Gina even find the time to decorate this?” “I’m not convinced she sleeps.” “Yeah, that’s probably true,” Killian mused. “Ok, so let me get this straight. Gina promises Cora I can bring in the numbers and that’s, suddenly, good?” “It’s because she thinks you won’t.” Oh. Yeah, that made sense. Cora wasn’t exactly the nurturing sort. She was more the take what you want and fuck anyone who stands in your way sort. And, in this instance, Killian was very much in the way. And very much a reminder of why Regina wanted to write in the first place.

“Shit,” he sighed, hand back in his hair and shoulders sagging with the sudden weight of the journalism world on his shoulders.

“It’s a good story,” Will said, like that would just make everything alright. “And if you do this the way you can, then, maybe, Cora will loosen up a little bit.” “You honestly believe that?”

Will shrugged, tugging on the end of the Hunter Alumni shirt he must have pulled out of the back corner of his closet that morning. “You can write, Killian,” he said simply. “That’s always been the case. Gina wouldn’t have brought you home if she didn’t agree. Or think you could do something here that can change this whole, stupid clickbait site. But, you know, no pressure or anything.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Killian scoffed. He’d bit his lip, blood in his mouth and nerves in the pit of his stomach and he wished, not for the first time since he’d come back home, that Liam was there. If only to listen to him whine.

God, he wanted to whine.

And maybe talk to Emma Swan again.

“Really though,” Will continued, crossing his arms lightly over his chest. “I’m not saying you’re changing the world with video game stories. But they seemed like good people and it’s interesting and it’s...I don’t know, nice.” “Nice,” Killian echoed skeptically.

“If I used the word good again, my brain is actually going to explode.” Killian smiled, some of the tension that had been tight as a vice at the base of his skull loosening just a bit. “You’re a poet, Scarlet.” “And you don’t have to write about death because it’s the only thing you think you’re worthy of doing anymore. We’ve come full circle. You get to come home, save the integrity of the modern journalism world and get the girl.” “What was that last part?” “Yeah, honestly, what was that last part?” Robin leaned around the open doorway, eyebrows lifted and something that might have been amusement lingering on his face as Killian tried to groan as loudly as he possibly could.

“Don’t you have a section to run?” Killian asked, grabbing one of the, apparently, two-hundred pens sitting on his desk, and tapping it loudly. Robin grinned.

“No,” he said. “It’s a website, Killian. There’s like..three people actually sitting in news right now.” “Oh, to be the high and mighty editorial elite.” “Twerp.”

Killian winced. “That just makes me think you’re disciplining Henry and Roland.” “You think I call my kids twerps? What kind of father do you think I am?”

“Obviously not a very good one,” Will muttered, dropping back into the corner of the couch. “Hey, how come Regina’s never gotten me a fancy office with window walls and a couch that costs more than my rent?” “That couch does not cost more than your rent,” Robin said and it wasn’t an answer to the question. Will lifted his eyebrows. “And it’s because Gina likes Hook more than you, obviously. God knows why, it’s not like he’s actually done anything since he got here.” “Ok, that’s rude,” Killian mumbled, but he couldn’t really argue and maybe Will had gotten phone numbers during the meet and greet. He probably would have mentioned that. He absolutely wouldn’t have mentioned that.

God damn.

“Is it because he’s thinking about this girl?” Robin asked, ignoring Killian completely and sinking down next to Will with a very specific look on his face. Maybe if Killian just walked out they wouldn’t notice. He could...do something else. Anything else.

He could go back to that midtown bar and ask Granny for a phone number. Or apartment address. Or Emma Swan’s entire life history.

That last one seemed kind of extreme.

Although even the idea of walking into the middle of Times Square on a Friday in the summer was enough to leave Killian wondering where exactly he’d misplaced his mind.

“It’s totally about this girl,” Will confirmed. “She was pretty, Hook. I get it.” “God, shut up,” Killian hissed and this all felt a little juvenile. Two minutes ago they’d been talking about his entire life falling off the rails and how much Cora Mills still hated him just for breathing and now Will Scarlet was trying to gossip with him about girls like they were fourteen.

“She was!” “Wait, wait,” Robin interrupted, hands flailing through the open air in front of him. “You met her? Also can we stop using the word girl, it’s freaking me out.” “We could just stop talking about this completely,” Killian suggested, but the words might have been in Latin for all the good they did him. Will was already talking over him.

“Yeah, I met her,” he said, grabbing a camera off the ground and toying with the controls on the top until he, apparently, found what he was looking for. “Here,” he continued, pushing the screen towards Robin’s face until the older man’s eyebrows shifted slightly and he hummed in the back of his throat.

“She is pretty. Is that...Hook are you the guy sitting at that booth?” Killian tried not to throw something – like his very expensive new office chair through the wall of windows behind him. Or his actual body through the wall of windows behind him. “Who else do you think it would be?” he asked impatiently.

“I have no idea,” Robin admitted, not pulling his eyes away from the few inches of photo screen. “This is just...you look happy?” “That sounded like a question.” “It kind of was. I actually think you’re smiling and you’re leaning forward. With both hands. Oh shit, Scarlet. Look at this. He’s got both hands on the table.” Will snatched the camera out of Robin’s hands, mouth going slack when he realized it was true and Killian bit his lip until he could taste blood again. When he’d woken up in the hospital they’d told him he’d been out of it for a few days and that one of his lungs had collapsed and he had four broken ribs and his left arm probably wouldn’t ever be totally straight again – or complete.

He wasn’t ever much of an athlete or particularly vain, but Killian didn’t think it was selfish to want to be a whole, human being and as soon as they’d released him from the hospital, he’d realized he wouldn’t ever be.

Not again.

So he did his best to ignore it. That was a bit of a trend for him. Ignore and move on and keep writing. And never draw attention to it, the piece of plastic at the end of his arm and the straps that held it in place and left little rivets on his skin no matter what he seemed to do to try and make it even remotely comfortable.

“Oh fuck, he’s right, Hook,” Will mumbled and either they didn’t realize this was exactly the kind of conversation Killian didn’t want to have or they absolutely did not care. It was probably the second one. “You’re totally leaning in. That’s a thing, right?” “A thing?” Killian repeated. “Yeah, you know, like a peacock or something.” “English.” “He’s saying you’re into her,” Robin explained. “He has no idea how body language or animals work and it’s ruining his metaphors.” “Ah, well, yeah, of course.” “She work at that restaurant where you met the team?” Will made some kind of strangled sound, seemingly trying to melt into the corner of the couch and Robin looked incredibly confused. Actually jumping through the wall seemed like a pretty appealing option. “What am I missing?” Robin continued.

“I mean, she does kind of work at the restaurant,” Killian mumbled. “So you’re not totally wrong. I don’t think she’ll have much time for that though. If this works out.” “If what works out?” “The League cut. They’re totally going to make the cut so…” “You’re not making any sense.” “She’s on the team,” Will muttered, staring at the photo again and whatever animal metaphor he was trying to come up with. “Or, more to the point, she is the team.”

Robin was standing up and pacing and glaring at Killian like he was actually his kid and had just shown up with a detention slip. “What the fuck, Killian?” he asked sharply, not even bothering to slow down when he started talking.

He was picking up speed.

“It’s not like anything happened,” Killian argued, not quite sure what it was he was arguing exactly. He hadn’t done anything wrong. Nothing. He’d talked. And given her his card. And maybe participated in some entirely harmless flirting.

That’s what that had been, right?

It felt a hell of a lot like flirting. Or maybe friendship? They could be friends. They should probably be friends. That would make a year-long feature series easier. If they made the cut next week.

They were totally going to make the cut.

Killian could be friends with Emma Swan. He wanted to be friends with Emma Swan. And he was kind of terrified of Ruby Lucas, fairly certain she’d actually eat him if he dared put a toe out of line.

“Both hands, Killian,” Robin shouted, skidding to a stop in front of the desk and staring at him like he was defying him to object.

“There is only one hand, Locksley,” Killian said softly. “That’s how it works now. And nothing happened. Or will happen. Ethics or whatever.” Will whistled, low and judgmental and Killian wished he’d leave and wished Robin would stop doing that thing with his face. His phone made noise again – another e-mail blast. “You know you can turn those off,” Robin said, an apology without actually using the words.

“Yeah, so I’ve heard.”

“Man, Scarlet gets all the good updates first.” “You’re busy. That section we talked about. Or whatever.” “You’ve got to come up with another word.” “My vocabulary has been kind of limited recently. It’ll get better once I start writing again.” Robin quirked an eyebrow, tongue pressed on the inside of his cheek and Killian tried to take a deep breath. He just needed to write something. If he started writing something, anything, the rest of it would all fall into place.

He was positive.

“Yeah, I know,” Robin said. This had been the strangest conversation. Killian probably shouldn’t have spent so much time thinking about Emma Swan in the last few days. She had impossibly green eyes. “Although, for what it’s worth, she was leaning in too.”

Killian didn’t say anything. He couldn’t come up with a single word. And there was another person in his office.

“Hi, hi, hi,” Ariel said brusquely, nodding at each one of them in turn before settling on Robin. “We are having some kind of link disaster.” “What?” Robin balked. The shift from concerned friend and quasi parent to front page managing editor was abrupt and just a bit jarring – his shoulders rolled back and his spine seemed to extend and Killian was half positive the slight gray at his temples looked a bit more distinguished all of the sudden.

“A link disaster,” Ariel repeated. “People are calling. Aurora’s losing her mind. I think Regina made her cry already.” “Oh my God,” Killian laughed, earning the ire of Robin’s glare. He grinned in response. “C’mon, Gina’s making people named Aurora cry. Who’s Aurora?” “Her assistant,” Ariel explained. Killian hummed in understanding, appreciating whatever attitude the receptionist had that allowed her to just barrel into his office like she owned it. “And she’s still kind of shaking at her desk. Because none of the links on the main page are going where they’re supposed to be going. You click on one thing and it goes to a totally different story.”

“Well, that’s not ideal,” Will laughed, thumb spinning something on the back of the camera. Robin looked like he wanted to beat him with it.

“Thank you, Scarlet,” he bit out before softening his expression slightly when he glanced back at Ariel. “Do you know where Gina is now that she’s done terrorizing assistants? She hasn’t killed any interns has she?” “We have interns?” Killian asked, joining the conversation and working another groan out of Robin. “That’s a fair question.” “Maybe not during a link crisis,” Ariel reasoned and he shrugged, pressing his lips together. “I told Aurora she needed to fix the base code, but she’s totally freaked, so I don’t think there’s anything to do on that front and Sydney is, apparently, missing in action so that’s why Cora’s pissed. More so than usual.” “You know how to fix this?” Robin asked, something that sounded a bit like desperation creeping into his voice.

Ariel shook her head. “I know the general idea of how to fix this. Sydney’s engineering or whatever his card says.” “Engineering’s just a very fancy way of saying IT. If you can fix this now, at least stem the damage, Gina might build a statue of you in the lobby.” “It’d be difficult to see around my desk if she did that.” “Yeah, you really here for the receptionist gig?” She shook her head again, hair hitting against the side of her chin and no one in that office was really telling the full story. That was kind of ironic too. Maybe it was because they’d used the word good so often.

“No,” Ariel admitted softly and Killian bit back a grin. “You want to go fix this link disaster though? Because I really think Aurora’s going to have some kind of actual episode if we don’t fix at least the main story.” “The main story’s fucked up too?” “What part of emergency did you not understand, Locksley?” Will asked, not even bothering to disguise his laugh. “Aren’t you an editor?” “Don’t ask him that,” Killian warned. “He’ll bite your head off.” “Both of you, shut up,” Robin snapped. “Ariel, what time is it? And how long do you think this emergency is going to last?” She tugged her phone – buzzing and possibly flashing some kind of morse code – out of her pocket and glanced at the screen. “Uh, nearly four-thirty. And I have no idea. Again, emergency kind of suggests it’s bad. We should have fixed this five minutes ago.” “Shit. Ok, um, Aurora probably can’t cope with the Subway right now, right?” Will pushed off the corner of the couch to glance over the row of cubicles on the office floor in front of them and whatever he saw seemed to make it painfully obvious that Aurora absolutely, positively could not hand the Subway at four-thirty on a Friday afternoon.

“Yeah, uh,” he stammered, dropping back onto the cushion with a thump. “That’s not happening right now.” “Shit,” Robin repeated. He grabbed his own phone, thumbs flying across the screen as he clenched his jaw tightly. “Maybe they can stay a little while longer.” “Who are you talking about?” Killian asked, fairly certain he was only half involved in the conversation taking place in his own office. That was still a weird sentence.

“He’s referring to his kids as a collective they,” Will mumbled. Robin kicked him, a string of insults that absolutely would not have been appropriate in front of his kids falling out of his mouth. “And he’s talking about picking them up from that summer program. You know where Gina met that teacher who suggested the story that your whole career is depending on?” “You are the soul of tact. And I can go get ‘em. It’s not like I’m doing anything here. I know shit about coding.” Will rolled his eyes. “You want to date your lead source.” Ariel perked up at that, eyes flashing Killian’s direction. Robin kicked Will again. “He’s not doing that,” he said, sounding like he was issuing some sort of journalism decree. “You’d really go get ‘em, Hook? Honestly?”

“Yeah, sure,” Killian nodded, grabbing his phone off the desk. He hadn’t brought anything else. He didn’t have anything to write yet.

Robin exhaled loudly, clapping him on the shoulder like he’d also just agreed to pay the tuition for whatever fancy school Henry and Roland went to. “Thanks,” he breathed, nodding towards Ariel as she moved back towards the door and the emergency. “Just bring them back home when you’re done and Gina will probably let you eat dinner with us. Scarlet can come too.” “Wow, gee thanks, Locksley,” Will muttered, slinging his cameras back over his shoulders. “No can do though. I’ve got a date.” “What?” Killian and Robin shouted at the same time. Robin’s hand tightened on his shoulder. “Who?” Killian pressed and Will just grinned, a stupid, frustrating look that made him regret coming into the office to begin with at all.

“A gentleman never kisses and tells. Go save Locksley’s kids, Hook. I’ve got places to be.” He walked out of the office with the grin still plastered on his face and cameras hitting against his thigh, Ariel already loudly comforting Aurora on the other side of the floor. Robin didn’t move an inch, just kept staring at Killian like he was waiting for him to explode.

Killian wouldn’t have been surprised if he did.

Maybe he should take a cab.

“You ok?” he asked. “Honestly?” Killian’s lips twitched, the lie on the tip of his tongue getting twisted there. He nodded. Robin sighed. “You’ve got to work on that,” he mumbled. “Rol and Henry will be thrilled to see you. Don’t get ice cream.” It took Killian four blocks of stop-and-go traffic to decide, without question, that they were going to get ice cream. With sprinkles.

Living on the edge.

He’d probably expense it.

It took him another two blocks to decide he probably should have walked.

He handed the driver a handful of bills, promising he was sure, yeah, yeah, it’s fine as he dodged between oncoming traffic and made his way up 3rd Avenue. The school itself didn’t stand out much – set between the brownstones and ivy-covered walls that were the norm downtown, but Killian could hear voices and laughter and something that might have actually been a basketball bouncing.

Or multiple basketballs.

And if he was in the sudden habit of keeping track of how long it took to realize things, it would have taken Killian two seconds, one deep breath and four basketball dribbles to know, without question, he was in the right spot. The very solid weight colliding with the side of his jeans was also a good sign.

“K, K, K, K,” Roland mumbled, added a few well placed punches in between nicknames. It was somewhere in between punch two and three that Killian felt any lingering frustration over the conversation in his office – and the promise that he absolutely did not want to date Emma Swan – ebbing just a bit as soon as the seven-year-old next to him wrapped his arms around his thigh.

There were other footsteps running towards them and Killian dimly heard Henry yell Hook from the other side of the basketball court as he bent down to pry Roland’s hands off his jeans, hauling him up his side and groaning slightly when a knee collided with his gallbladder. “Steady on, mate,” Killian muttered. He got kneed in the liver that time.

“Roland, you can’t just run away like that,” said a flustered woman, sprinting towards them with wide eyes and a basketball tucked under her arm.

Roland made a noise, a mix between a scoff and a groan and Henry laughed in the background. Killian tried to look like an adult. “I didn’t run away, Mrs. Nolan,” Roland explained, sounding like he was detailing how to fix the coding emergency Killian had run away from. “I came to see K.” Mrs. Nolan’s eyes, somehow, got even wider, eyebrows shooting up her forehead and her mouth formed an almost perfect ‘o’ when she realized. She looked like a teacher, Killian thought, all bright-colored dress and a soft cardigan that matched the clip in her short, brown hair.

“Huh,” she said, regarding him softly and Killian felt like he was being judged. Or maybe examined to match up on previously reported facts.

That seemed like wishful thinking.

“Hook,” Henry said again, skidding to a stop in front of him and only avoiding another crash when Killian reached out a steadying hand. “How come you’re here? I thought Robin was coming to get us?” “Where’s Dad?” Roland asked. Shouted. He shouted the word into Killian’s ears. Mrs. Nolan was still staring.

“There was a thing at the site,” Killian explained, hitching Roland back up again when he started to droop, threatening to tear his shirt in half. “So I’m here. With ice cream as a bartering chip.”

Henry’s eyes lit up, smile practically sprinting across his face, and Roland was already yelling about chocolate chip cookie dough. Mrs. Nolan hadn’t blinked. “Alright,” Killian continued slowly, nodding back towards the sidewalk. “You guys ready to go? Do I have to sign anything or…” “Wait, wait,” Mrs. Nolan said quickly, tugging on Roland’s sleeve when Killian took a step backwards. “You can’t just leave.” “No?” “No,” she said sharply and he was back to feeling like he was getting detention. “I mean...who, well, no, I know who are you. But there are rules. An actual parent is supposed to let us know if someone different is going to be picking the kids up. You’re not on the list.” “That’s kind of insulting,” Killian muttered, working another laugh out of Henry and that was absolutely why he’d done it. He slung his arm over the kid’s shoulders – only a few inches shorter than him – and tried to plaster on his most convincing smile. “I mean, they clearly know who I am.” “The rules, Mr. Jones.” “You clearly know who I am.” Mrs. Nolan grimaced, a muscle in her temple jumping and Killian felt guilty for a moment. She almost looked too teacher’y. She shouldn’t look as stressed out as she was. Jeez. “Were you going to go next week?” she asked and that wasn’t the question he expected at all.

Killian opened his mouth to respond, but another voice joined the melee and his eyes were going to go permanently crossed if he kept trying to look at everyone at once. Ruby Lucas looked just as intimidating as she had in her grandmother’s Midtown restaurant the week before, only now she was wearing a Legend of Zelda t-shirt that was, clearly, far more interesting to the two kids in the conversation than Killian’s initial ice cream offer.

“What are you doing here?” Ruby asked. Straight to the point then.

“There was a coding emergency at work and Robin couldn’t pick up Henry and Rol,” Killian answered. “So I’m here.” “You know Henry and Roland?” “I mean, yeah, obviously.”

“K’s going to take us to get ice cream,” Roland added helpfully, squirming when Killian muttered a little quieter, mate against his hair.

Ruby quirked an eyebrow. “Shouldn’t you be writing?” “Shouldn’t you be practicing?” Mrs. Nolan tried to turn her laugh into a cough, ducking her eyes when Killian and Ruby both gaped at her. “I’m also helping out a friend,” Ruby said softly. “And we practiced this morning. Not that you’d know, since you’ve been missing in action for the last week.” “Is that a gaming term?” Killian asked.

Henry groaned. “Hook, we’ve been over this. You can’t call it that. It just makes you sound old.”

Ruby might have actually smiled. Mrs. Nolan laughed again. “Are you taking lessons from Henry?” Ruby asked knowingly.

“I have yet to find a better teacher,” Killian admitted. “In fact, post ice cream, that was the great, big Friday night plan, wasn’t it? Or it would be if we can leave. Mrs. Nolan’s call though.” “Oh man, laying it on real thick aren’t you?” Killian shrugged. “M’s did you hear that? He called you Mrs. Nolan. I’m going to tell Ruth.”

“She’ll probably think it’s nice,” Mary Margaret muttered. “This is a one-time favor, Mr. Jones. And only because I have no idea what a coding emergency is.”

“That’s ok, neither do I. That’s why I’m here. And let’s not do that Mr. Jones thing again, that’s incredibly weird.” She nodded, tossing the ball back to the group of kids behind her when they started shouting. “You didn’t answer my question, you know. About next week.” He hadn’t. He’d been hoping to avoid that. He was an absolute shit journalist. “I’m hoping to,” Killian said. Mary Margaret glanced at Ruby.

“Don’t you know?” “It’d be helpful for the story.” “And,” Ruby prodded, widening her eyes meaningfully.

“And I’m waiting for some more details,” Killian responded simply. Good. That was good. That was honest. Ruby didn’t look convinced.

“Well that’s dumb. I thought you were supposed to be a good journalist. Or at least a journalist who wanted to prove he was still good. Haven’t you won awards? Unless the Google results lied to us.” Killian pressed his teeth into his lower lip, swallowing back his immediate retort when he remembered there was a seven-year-old clinging to his side and an eleven-year-old under his arm and he was an adult, god damn. He could have this conversation – even if it felt like six different conversations at once.

“Ruby,” Mary Margaret chastised, flashing an apologetic look at Killian. “Ignore her. She’s been outside for too long, it’s throwing off her zen or something.”

“Ah, yeah, video game stereotypes.” “Exactly that. Can I, uh, can I give you some advice?” “Solicited or forced?” Mary Margaret’s eyes narrowed and Killian ducked his gaze, suddenly far more preoccupied with his shoes than whatever was happening on that blacktop in downtown Manhattan. Henry laughed against his side. “Suggested,” Mary Margaret corrected, reaching out to rest her palm on the arm he still had wrapped around Roland’s waist. “This is all vaguely...terrifying for, well, you know. But, uh, I wouldn’t have said anything to Regina if I didn’t think this could work. For all of you. And she totally Google’d your name on my couch a week ago.” Killian’s stomach twisted at that, several knots that even Liam probably would have been proud of forming in his gut. It might have also been Roland’s knee. And he could only imagine what she found on the internet.

Fuck.

He was going to get chocolate dip on his ice cream – forget the goddamn sprinkles.

“Ah, well,” he stammered, eyes still staring at his feet. “That’s...good to know. And I kind of got that impression already.” “Good.” “So what are you going to do about it?” Ruby asked sharply and Killian jerked his head back up. He nearly dropped Roland.

“Excuse me?” Mary Margaret sighed, her hand falling across her face until she was peering at them between her fingers. Ruby didn’t budge an inch. “I don’t think I need to repeat myself,” she growled. “How come you haven’t been back to practice? Or have a concrete answer about writing something for the cut? We’re totally going to make the cut.” “I know,” Killian said easily.

Ruby’s eyebrows pulled low, head tilted slightly and she crossed her arms tightly over her chest. “Yeah?” “Why wouldn’t I think that?” “Shouldn’t you answer questions better? You’re a journalist.” “You keep throwing that fact in my face,” Killian laughed. “Trust me, I’m aware of it. And I’m purposely avoiding questions because I know how.” “That is infuriating.” “Try doing it on deadline.” Ruby grinned that slightly predatory grin, tongue pressed against her cheek and she turned to look at Mary Margaret again like she was looking for confirmation of...something. Mary Margaret nodded. “Ok,” Ruby said, holding her hand out expectantly. “I’m going to do something, but if you screw this up, I’m going to push you in front of the uptown 1. Got it?” “That is oddly specific,” Killian muttered. Ruby wiggled her fingers. “I don’t know what that means.”

“Your phone. I want your phone. I am helping you.” “Strangely enough, I’m not getting that vibe.”

Mary Margaret clicked her tongue, bumping her shoulder against Ruby’s and her face was nearly as red as the sweater she had on. “I can’t blame the sun again,” she mumbled. “This is just her.” “Phone, Jones,” Ruby commanded and Killian dropped the thing in her hand without another word, having to shift Roland just a bit in the process. Several of his internal organs were going to suffer permanent damage from this conversation. “You learn anything about the game yet?” she continued conversationally, typing something into his phone and handing it back to him with a glint in her eye.

Killian glanced down, breath hitching in his throat when he saw the brand-new name in his contacts. Swan. No, Emma. No, Emma Swan. Just a last name and, maybe, a nickname and Ruby probably hadn’t been asking about Overwatch.

“That’s a distinct work in progress,” Killian admitted and Ruby hummed. “I can almost name all the characters now though.” “We’re working on powers,” Henry added. “And why Roadhog is the worst character to play.” “What?” Ruby gasped. “Please, kid. That chain hook is a huge help when you’re fighting in close quarters. And he doesn’t take much to get back to full health. He’s an underrated character.” Henry shrugged. “I like Doomfist.” “You can play Doomfist?” “Yeah,” he nodded. “The canon is sweet.” They were never going to get ice cream. And Roland was getting impatient. “Alright, kid,” Killian interrupted, pulling on the back of Henry’s shirt when he ducked out from underneath his arm to try and recreate a part of the game. “C’mon. I promised Robin you guys would be home eventually. And if we’re going to sneak ice cream, we’ve got to go now.” “Ice cream,” Roland repeated shrilly, lunging towards Henry and nearly face planting on the ground. All three adults in a five-foot radius moved at the same time. “Henry, we have to get ice cream!”

“Yeah, yeah, ok” Henry agreed, albeit a little despondently. “But, uh, could I maybe come watch you guys play next week?” he asked, glancing hopefully at Ruby and Killian.

“Of course,” Ruby promised quickly. And maybe just a bit enthusiastically. “I mean, well, as long as it’s cool with your parents. And Killian. If he’s planning on actually showing.” “I am,” Killian said.

Ruby smiled. “Then absolutely. We’ll get you a team t-shirt.” Henry looked like he was actually going to start jumping for joy. “And maybe one for Killian too if he learns how to play the game.” He needed to find other adult human beings who were able to have a conversation without trying to actually hit him over the head with meaning.

They, eventually, did get ice cream and were no less than forty-five minutes late to dinner. None of them ate dinner. They’d had ice cream instead.

And Regina was going to kill him.

“Seriously?” she hissed for what was, at least, the forty-second time since Killian had walked into the full-floor apartment on Spring Street hours before. Roland was asleep between them, head on Regina’s lap and feet draped over Killian’s legs, while Henry tried to explain what it was something called a Junkrat did and why he was so important to winning the game.

The actual one. Not the metaphorical one.

“You fix the coding on the site?” Killian countered and Regina raised one perfectly sculpted eyebrow. “Make any other assistants cry?” “Ass,” she grumbled.

“You’ve got to come up with better insults, your majesty. These are just getting redundant.”

She rolled her eyes, brushing her fingers over Roland’s hair. “I only have one assistant. By the way.” “I didn’t know you had any. People like to keep me out of the loop.” “Including your sources?” “You checking up on me?” Killian asked, hoping against some kind of improbable hope that sarcasm and even more deflection would get him the hell out of the conversation. Not with Regina. And not in her domain. Or something. The whole goddamn city was her domain at this point. Maybe that’s why he was still staying in a hotel uptown.

Regina leveled him with an even stare, eyes boring into his brain and possibly his soul and Killian wouldn’t have been surprised if she was just reading his mind when his phone started to ring – loudly. Roland grumbled, one foot pressed roughly into Killian’s thigh as he tried to grab his phone off the coffee table before it could actually shatter or Regina could keep hissing god, turn your volume down.

He nearly dropped it.

Swan.

“Huh,” Regina said, peering at the screen over shoulder. “Must be nice to have sources that return your calls.” “You say that wistfully, your majesty,” Killian muttered. He couldn’t seem to move.

“Answer your phone, Killian. Preferably in another room.”

He tried to extricate himself from what felt like the limbs of several seven-year-olds, careful not to knock Roland off the couch as he moved towards the hallway and swiped his thumb across his phone screen. “Hello?” he asked softly, dimly aware of Regina’s not-so-quiet laughter.

“Uh, hi, hey,” Emma mumbled and he was smiling. He could feel the muscles in his cheeks move, lips quirking up quickly and automatically and, well, that was weird. He stopped three-quarters of the way down the hallway, sliding down the wall and stretching his legs out. He hadn’t actually said anything back. “Killian?” she asked.

He hit his head on the wall.

“Yeah, yeah, here,” he said quickly, nearly stumbling over the words in an effort to get them out. “I, uh, is everything ok, Swan?” “Yeah.” Silence. Dead silence. Dead, uncomfortable silence.

“Well, no,” Emma corrected softly and those knots in his stomach had made a rather glorious return. “I...I wanted to apologize.” “For what, love?” The word was out of his mouth before he could even consider it and he heard the change in her breath, the soft catch like she couldn't quite get enough of it. Killian knew the feeling. “Sorry, no nicknames.” “You’ve broken that rule twice already, you know.” “Yeah,” he laughed softly. “I realize that. It’s, uh...habit, I suppose.” “You frequently call all the girls nicknames? Set ‘em at ease so they start spilling their on-the-record guts?” He shook his head, only realizing he was still sitting in a hallway when Emma laughed in his ear. “See, your silence kind of answers the question for me.” “I can neither confirm nor deny that it is sometimes easier to get information out of sources when one is trying to be decidedly charming.” If he got Emma to laugh like that – simple and easy and like some tiny, warm light that seemed to seep into the very center of him in the hallway of an apartment he didn’t live in – Killian would be certain coming back to New York was the right choice.

It kind of felt like the right choice.

“So what you’re telling me is you think you’re charming?” Emma asked.

“Decidedly.” “Is that what you were trying to do before? Last week I mean. Charm me to get me to talk?” “No,” Killian said, an immediate and honest response that sounded like he was shouting the word into the phone.

She stopped laughing and Killian resisted the urge to sigh at that. “Didn’t even bring a pen,” she whispered. Fuck.

“Shit journalist.” “That’s not true,” Emma argued, voice just a bit stronger than it had been all conversation. “I mean...well, that’s not what the internet said.” Killian narrowed his eyes – Mary Margaret’s words from that afternoon ringing in his ears. She totally Google’d your name on my couch a week ago. “Did you look me up, love?” he asked, hoping his voice didn’t actually crack like some prepubescent kid with a crush.

That kind of went with the theme of the day.

“Did you really win a Louisiana Press Association Award for exposing a drug ring in New Orleans?” Huh. She must have Google’d for a very long time. And that felt like some kind of distant memory – he’d been in the hospital when they held the fucking awards ceremony. He never even saw that plaque.

“Killian?” Emma pressed. He hit his head again.

“Yeah.” “Was that an answer to the original question or just acknowledging me shouting your name?” He laughed – sharp and shaky, but a laugh all the same and he wished he’d called her first. Ethics. There were ethics involved and this had gotten very murky, very quickly. “Both,” Killian smiled. “How far back did you go on those search results, Swan?”

“Mary Margaret shouldn’t gossip like that. It’s very unlike her.” “To be fair, she was distracted. A charming guy like myself, shows up at her school and promises two adorable kids ice cream. It’s no wonder she didn’t just start spilling your entire life story to me by default.” Emma made a strangled noise, a gasp and maybe sheer terror and Killian was back on his feet quickly, heart hammering against his chest as he tried to figure out what he’d done wrong. “Swan? Are you ok?” “Fine,” she bit out, exhaling loudly. “Fine, I’m fine. Jeez. I’m...this conversation is garbage isn’t it?” “Confusing,” Killian conceded. “I wouldn't call it garbage, though.”

“Generous. You want to talk about the Louisiana Press Association now?”

“What about it?” “Exposing a drug ring seems a far cry from video game stories,” Emma said. “And mass murderers in Boston.” He chuckled under his breath, sinking back onto the floor and tugging on his hair. “They’re all stories in the end, Swan.” “Good ones?” “Some more than others.” “Follow-up?” “Yeah, sure,” Killian said and he was absolutely the one being charmed. God, he should have asked Mary Margaret more questions. He was too terrified of Ruby.

“Why go to the mass murders? I mean, was that, like, a personal decision or a front office thing? Is that even a journalism term? Front office? Editorial! That’s what it’d be called right, editorial? And why stick in Boston? That’s the longest you were in one spot for a really long time. Even longer than New York and….” She cut herself off, gasping slightly when she realized her follow-up was more of a short speech. Killian was grinning like a fool at the opposite wall. “Shit,” Emma mumbled. “That was a lot. You should have told me to shut up.” “I didn’t want you to shut up.”

“Oh.” “Start from the beginning, huh?” Emma hummed and he could almost picture her sitting across from him – the way her tongue had darted across her lips when they sat in the booth, how she twisted her hair around her fingers and rolled her shoulders when she was nervous.

“Alright,” he began. “So I grew up in New York, went to school here, like I told you, started writing here until...circumstances changed. And so I left. Went to Colorado for a couple of months because it was the furthest thing from New York I could imagine. Realized I couldn’t quite stand mountain air or, you know, mountains. Then did stringer work at what felt like seven-hundred newspapers on the west coast, liked that a little bit more, appreciated the Bay Area for the water and the seafood. Then got a job offer in New Orleans and stayed there for…”

He squeezed his eyes closed, memories washing over him, scents and sounds nearly reaching out and smacking him in the face. He glanced down, staring at his left hand and half expecting to find someone else there.

Of course not.

That was a long time ago.

“So, I stayed in New Orleans for a little over a year,” Killian said. “Started covering news, breaking or otherwise and that story you’re talking about, the one that won the awards, it, uh, took me my whole stint in the city.” “Is that why you left?” Emma asked breathlessly.

“Kind of.” “And you just figured you start with the drugs and turn to homicides because….” Killian shrugged, treading on thin ice in late August. “It made sense,” he admitted, a quiet explanation he’d never actually said out loud. “No one else wanted it. So I took it because I could. They were stories.” “Control,” Emma whispered and Killian made a noise in the back of his throat. “You wanted to have some control.” Well, fuck.

“Yeah,” he admitted. “That’s...exactly it, actually.” “Yeah, I get that.” They lapsed into silence again, but it wasn’t quite as deadly or uncomfortable as it had been before. It felt a bit like understanding. And maybe he was reading way too much into a second conversation.

“Why did you want to apologize, Swan?” Killian asked, wincing when his voice cut through the silence.

She laughed. “Oh, for M’s and Ruby. This afternoon. On several different fronts. Including M’s being difficult about you getting ice cream to the aforementioned adorable kids. Although, out of context that does sound kind of weird.” “She was doing her job.” “Yeah, she’s fairly certain her job is to mother me.” “That’s not a bad thing, Swan.” “No,” she sighed. “It’s not. But she shouldn’t have to. Not anymore at least. And, maybe, I’m apologizing for something else too.” Killian sat up straighter, pressing his phone against his ear with his shoulder and rubbing his thumb against the top of his brace. “What’s that, love?” “For not telling you when and where the cut was and that I, well, I mean, the team, we’d like you to be there. For the story.”

For the story.

Right. Of course. No other reason except the story. Certainly not because he’d just explained Killian Jones, crime reporter with an extensive knowledge of blood adjectives for the first time since his inception seven years before.

That would be insane.

“That’s alright, Swan,” Killian said, hoping to infuse some sort of belief into the words and the nickname. “That’s not your job. Any journalist worth his salt would have been able to figure it out. Or gotten in contact with you.” “Is this your sly way of saying you didn’t want to contact me?” He nearly screamed the word no into the phone. He probably would have woken up Roland. And he could hear Emma’s smile in her laugh on the other end of the phone, a couch creaking slightly when she moved. “So that’s a no, then?”

“That’s a no.” “Friday. Playstation Theatre. Like all day. We’ll be the ones wearing questionably tacky matching t-shirts, so you should probably put that in your lede.” “Noted.” “Ok,” she said and it sounded like she was still smiling. He really hoped she was still smiling. “So I’ll see you then?” “I’ll text you when I leave.” Killian grimaced, eyes snapping closed again and shit – step too far. At least he hadn’t called it a date. Thought it, sure. Goddamn fucking ethics.

“That sounds like a plan,” Emma muttered and maybe this wasn’t a disaster. “Do you...do you like coffee? I could bring you coffee.” “I like coffee,” Killian grinned.

“I’ll be the one with coffee then.” “Good. Good night, Swan.” “Night, Killian.” He sat on the hallway floor for at least another five minutes after the phone went dead, grumbling out a quiet shut up when he saw Regina’s knowing look as soon as he walked back into the living room.

#cs ff #captain swan #captain swan ff #cs #cs fic #video game fic #in which everyone has thoughts and opinions on emma and killian #as a collective unit

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sbknews · 4 years ago

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Drift Innovations Ghost X Action Cam Review

Neil Jewell of Jewell Bike Training tests the Ghost X Action Cam with many thanks to Drift Innovations check driftinnovation.com for more info Cameras are everywhere you look these days. Speed Cameras, CCTV cameras, Dash Cams and also Action Cams. If you are looking to capture your epic events then is an action camera the tool for the job? Superbike News recently reviewed a motorcycle dash cam https://superbike-news.co.uk/viofo-mt1-dash-cam-review/ so, which is right for you, an Action Cam or a Dash Cam. The Ghost X from Drift is a compact action camera that has been designed to be mounted virtually anywhere. It records HD 1080P video at 30fps

It’s Drift’s budget camera coming it at about £130, it offers a 5 hour battery life which can be extended to 8 hours with the bigger battery unit that is available for another £25. The included 32GB microSD card might need to be replaced for a bigger one as a 10 minute video (1080P) takes up 3.8GB of storage so by my very rough calculations you are probably good for 1.5 hours before you’d fill the card. Not a problem if you change one of the mirad of settings to give you loop recording. The loop interval can be set at different stages between 10 seconds and 10 minutes meaning it will record at 10 minute lengths until the card is full then return to the start and begin overwriting.

In the box is everything you need to get started. I initially ignored the instruction manual as it looked too thick and technical. I set about figuring the camera out myself. There are only 3 buttons on the top how hard could it be. One button is clearly an on/off as identified by the international on/off symbol. I pressed it, nothing. I pressed and held it for a couple of seconds and the little camera beeped into life. The back of the Ghost X has the tiniest of screens, smaller than a postage stamp, it had illuminated a pleasant green colour. This is where those with bad eyesight may begin to struggle. The little screen is giving out a lot of information in such a small space but, if you can see it, it does makes sense. Information such a recording mode; view angle; recording quality; the number of files saved; battery life and remaining card capacity are all shown on a screen size of 132mm² Staring at the screen I began pressing buttons, The top button, the one closest to you as you look at the screen, cycles the display through the various modes that the Ghost X has to offer, Video, Still camera, time lapse, burst image, settings menu, each one of these comes with its own colour. This will prove useful as you can instantly tell the mode the camera is in simply by looking at the glow and not squinting at the screen. Pressing the button again cycles back to the start. I pressed the middle button and discovered this cycles through the options on the screen being displayed, so in video mode you can alter the resolution to 1080, 960, 720 or WVGA which is probably the same resolution as a typical CCTV camera the advantage being you can up the frame rate to 60fps if you need to. I’m not a keen photographer so would probably need to look up what a lot of the settings do to fully understand the functionality of the Ghost X but then I would probably ignore them all and set it to record video at its best 1080P x 30fps resolution and never touch any settings again.

Cycling through the screens and the modes, I only had to revert to the instruction book once and that was to understand what the K140 meant. I could change it to K90 and K115 but did not know what I was doing. Reluctantly, I flicked through the quick guide to realise that the K wasn’t a K but a symbol to illustrate the field of vision for the recordings. There are three options 90º, 115º and 140º. Once familiar with the button layout and how the options on the screens cycle through the menu options and back to the beginning, setting up the time and date and other options on the Ghost X was relatively simple. Just click slowly to get to where to need to be otherwise run the risk of cycling through all 28 menu options before getting back to where you need to be. (press and hold the button to go backwards through the menus) One of the 28 menus was Video tagging, this seems like a very clever idea if you don’t want to be recording all day and then have to wade back through hours of footage to find that one time where your mate did something cool. Video tagging is like having the Ghost X set in sleep mode, it’s always watching but not recording until you press the record button. Then, depending on the settings it can record the previous 2 minutes and the following 2 minutes. With Video Tagging, you’ll never miss that perfect action shot ever again. I eventually found my way back to the screen that told me the camera was in video mode but how to actually record video? I had one button left to press so pressed it, The Ghost X emitted a little beep, change to a big beep or no beep in settings, and the green glow turned red. It was recording. Starting and stopping is as simple as touching a button and to check it was all fine I hooked the camera up to the computer using the included USB lead and was impressed at how quickly the device was recognised. Much easier than removing the SD card from a DashCam type recorder. The Camera also charges up while attached to the computer and the little screen glows green when fully charged.

Feeling good that I had worked out all the buttons and squinting at the tiny screen, I was feeling ready. I just one had more flick through the user guide to make sure I had found everything. It was at this point I made the life decision to read the manual first on every new thing I get.

The guide was easy to use and only so thick because it contained all of the languages. It mentioned an APP, of course there is an APP, I downloaded that and looked up how to connect the APP to the camera. It was here that the instruction booklet came into its own. After connecting the APP to the phone via on-board Wi-Fi (easy) you get full access to all the system settings on your phone screen, not one that is 11mm wide x 12mm high. You can see a live image of the camera on the phone to help you set in the perfect location. You live and learn. The APP does a lot more than just system settings you can control the camera, live stream and join the drift community to share videos and experiences. After fiddling with the menus, it was time to fix the camera to my crash helmet. I already have a motorcycle dash cam on the bike, I didn’t want to go full Tellytubby and mount it on the top on my lid so opted for the side. The box contains 2 x 3M sticky pads, one is flat and the other curved. There was a lot of searching for the best location on the helmet to stick it. 3M pads are wondrously sticky so I wanted to find the right place first time. One of the great things about the Ghost X is that the lens can rotate so the camera can be mounted at any angle and the level corrected by simply rotating the lens so that the marker arrow is pointing straight up. Doing this exercise while looking at the image on your phone means you can get it right first time.

As expected from an action camera there are many different mounting option available, the handlebar mount, designed for mountain bikes, might work on the handle bars or crash bars of some motorbikes. It is made from metal and looks & feels well build and robust. There is a pivot mount that will allow for the camera being mounted any which way; a roll bar mount for clamping onto scaffold sized tube. In fact, wherever you want to mount your camera there is probably a mount designed to do that job on the Driftinnovation.com website.

I wanted a sleek fitting camera so went for the simplest solution of the curved sticky pad and then having the camera clip fitting directly into that. The camera clip is indexed onto the camera with a serrated grooved ring that controls the vertical angle the camera. The horizontal view depends on where you put the sticky pad. Changing the orientation of the camera and rotating the lens can be done without tools making camera position changes quick and easy, something that can’t be done with a dashcam.

The camera clip locks into the sticky pad via a couple of spring loaded plastic prongs. Pinching these together enables the camera to slide out. When not on the helmet the sticky pad socket is hardly noticeable. One thing I would always want to be sure of, though, is that the camera clip is securely located in its socket. Make sure you listen for 2 audible clicks as it locks into place and then try to pull it back out. The last thing you want to see is footage of your camera bouncing down the road, if you ever find it again that is. There are no tethers available on the website to offer peace of mind. The buttons and the release prongs are easy to use with a gloved hand. Once you have mastered where the buttons are, you can turn the Ghost X on and off and start and stop the recording by touch. Or do as I did and start the camera recording and then lock it into place on the helmet. Remember that colour coded screen? There’s a small indicator light above the lens so you can check in a mirror what mode you’re in and if you are recording or not just by looking at it. Out and about on the bike, I didn’t notice the camera at all. It’s slim enough that it doesn’t rub on your shoulder when cornering and light enough that I couldn’t feel it. I made a few runs, the first one used the onboard mic and suffered horrific wind noise, maybe the sensitivity was too high. The second run I used the external mic. On returning back to base and reviewing the footage I was very disappointed that the mic had not picked up commentary. I did some checks with another mic and diagnosed a bad connector on the original mic. I’ve ordered a new one for £10 which fixed the issue.

With the mic fixed and installed inside my helmet alongside my intercom mic, I connected the app to the camera via the on-board Wi-Fi and set off on another test run using the app to alter the settings along the way. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDiYkKhAGHk The Ghost X is not waterproof at least, I don’t think it is. It’s probably not fully waterproof. you see, I’m not really sure if it is or not but there is a waterproof case that is available as an accessory so, if you do want to go out in the rain then that is probably what you need. I tried in on the camera and was not happy with it. It’s good for 40m underwater though! The Ghost XL is waterproof, according to the website, and as it’s only another £20 I’d get that one. However there is one annoyance that comes from browsing the Driftinnovation.com website, and that’s the constant notifications that people are buying stuff. I really don’t need to know that Karen from Margate has just bought a Drift Class 10 MicroSD card 1 hour ago. I want to know the IPX rating of the Ghost X is please so I can decide to go out in the rain or not. Thank you very much.

Overall, a great action camera, reasonably simple to set up and get going but will need some fine tuning of the settings to get the most out of it. I was happy that it came with a fully charged battery so I could start to mess with it immediately. I later searched the website and found out that the Ghost X is IPX4 rated. This means that you can use it in the rain, but not at high speed in heavy rain.

It has other modes apart from the video; you can take 12MP still images; bursts of up to 15, 4MP images and set up time lapse. These are good to have but I wonder how many times they will be used. It’s certainly less hassle as a camera than a dash cam system, it’s compact and easy to access the files with the USB link, the quality of the video is great and it offers more to the video creator because when mounted on the helmet it follows the rider’s eye. With the bigger battery and a larger SD card up to 128GB the recording times are comparable to that of a hardwired dash cam system, but ask yourself how often do you ride for longer than 8 hours? Even if you do, grab a spare battery that can be charged up via USB and swap them in seconds. The downside is that it only records in one direction and if something happens behind you you’ll miss it.

So which is right for me dash cam or action cam? Well the perfect solution is to have both. The helmet mounted action cam will be used extensively to record live commentary over the top of video for training and feedback purposes and the front and rear dash cam system will be there to record any incidents and as also as back up when, not if, I forget to press the record button. Definitely a great little camera that looks sleek has a lot of functionality and will absolutely capture your best moments. You should get one. Review and photos by Neil Jewell of Jewell Bike Training You can check out Jewell Bike Training website and also follow on socials T: @jewelltraining FB: @jewellbiketraining Insta: @jewellbiketraining For more reviews check out our dedicated Reviews page For more Drift Innovation and our reviews check out our new dedicated page Drift Innovation News or head to the official Drift Innovation website www.driftinnovation.com

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#DriftInnovations #GhostX

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gigslist · 4 years ago

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New Groundbreaking Communication Technology

There is a problem with digital communications. There are so many hacks and deep fakes and fake-news-tubers you don’t even know if a news network is the real thing. Or the reporter is actually that person. Seriously you do not know who or what you are talking to or who or what is talking to you.

You think there are no more advances to make in communication to protect your privacy? It is blazingly apparent that digital has problems. People spend a lot more time, money and stress on digital communication than before the web. Ask somebody who was around before the web.

The arts are taking a big hit big time. Including in recorded and digital arts. I’ve researched technology gearing up for this for four years. Expressing yourself is now banned by the internet. Some news outlets are now talking about it, but I still have to be careful how I word this… and not register this page for keyword search.

33 Reasons this new way is better than what you are using to read this…

A creative way to communicate.

Noninvasive and safe for anybody.

Improves brain function and thought clarity.

Best form of private communication protection.

A great way of identifying that it is from you.

A great way of identifying it is from who you know.

They impress employers and business associates.

They impress friends and lovers.

A treat for anybody who receives one.

People collect them and they feature in books.

People win prizes for their skill in creating them.

Some are in museums and major library archives.

No batteries, device, memory chip or wifi required.

You can do it on a mountain top in the middle of nowhere.

You can do it on a spaceship to the Moon or Mars.

When you get one you enjoy opening it and reading it.

Don’t have to worry about losing it if your computer breaks.

Hackers and scammers cannot digitally steal the info.

It is safe enough to put your credit card info on it.

It can be registered for tracking for extra protection.

People who are not experts in technology can receive them.

People who are not experts in technology can make them.

The practice improves mental health and coordination.

Faster to work out ideas and draft up plans.

You can do it with one hand tied behind your back.

The tools to make them cost a lot less than a tech device.

Artificial intelligence can’t create foolproof hacks for it.

It is vintage and revolutionary at the same time.

You can have a say on whatever you want.

You can’t get tagged and banned from social media for it.

The tools to make them are great as a gift.

They are considered a fine art.

No fear of no likes.

The illustrations show you what it is and instructions how to do it … :) Train yourself and others to get off the screen. Be selective and minimal when you are on the screen. Lectures and lessons are OK. Surfing and digital social and communications not OK. I am guilty too, but working on it.

I like to get my info from real experts face to face whenever possible. So I know where and who the info is coming from. Any kid from anywhere with wifi can create a deep fake and tell you bullshit. That is not an exaggeration.

Deeper down the rabbit hole…

Ask somebody face to face, who actually works in a real hospital, how many virus deaths they’ve had. The real numbers are less than normal flu. My neighbor and friend of many years is neonatal ICU nurse with a masters in science. Safe vaccines cannot be made within a year. They need at least 3 years testing. Something artificial created this on the media and in computer messages and digital stats. A software virus is crashing your world, not a biological virus. There was no cheering in the streets of San Francisco inauguration day. San Franciscans would normally ignore lockdown to party about it. The little bit of a light show from Twin Peaks, didn’t make the news.

You have the power to get back to normal and give everybody their jobs back, and more, by following the above instructions. Share this and get your friends to share it and keep sharing it, so it doesn’t get erased. Print it out and send snail mail it. Stop letting the machines take over. AI doesn’t work for the real world. Quite the opposite. Ask any SciFi freak. They’ve been writing books and movies and animations and games and comic books about something like this happening for over a century. Even the Bible talked about it and that was written in 350 AD by Constantine’s scribes. My partner keeps saying “It’s Biblical.”

Here’s another strange couple of medical facts. Told to me by a medical doctor in Australia before the web and a doctor in San Francisco after the web. Number one is tobacco is not harmful, it’s the modern chemicals they started treating it will that are harmful. Tobacco is a medicine that helps with thought clarity, destress and immune systems. The shrub used for thousands of years by tribes in the Americas. A tobacco tree species grows Australia, used by Australian Aboriginals for 80,000 years.

Number two is you can’t patent a natural medicine. Natural medicines and techniques work fine for most things, but you can’t patent those. Nor can’ you sell a bunch of disposable implements to administer it. Nor promote a virus to make you think you need it. A company and its shareholders cannot patent natural lifestyle to corner the market. They cannot make money from you making stuff yourself and living naturally and independently or offline. Shareholders make the money and want more money, shareholders program the companies what to do. Big companies are just big computers with humans for circuit boards, just like a SciFi movie. It is a company’s job to dumb you down to buy their stuff. It is how they make more and more money for their shareholders.

You cannot say that what is going on today with online culture and real world impact is a good thing. We’ve hit a brick wall that gets nastier every day. It’s time to turn left.

Learn how to go analog. You will enjoy it more than digital and save a lot of time, stress and money. You can relax while you do your stuff. Support organic mom and pop shops and tobacco. A little bit goes a long way.

Wouldn’t you concerned about this?

#free writing animations #email security tips #new technology available #how to protect my email from hackers

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narika-a · 8 years ago

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Seventeen as the Mafia + How He Met You

[Monsta X] [BTS] [Shinee] [GOT7] [Block B] [NCT]

||| Requested by @dreamiedragon |||

S.Coups/Choi Seungcheol

That type of leader that doesn’t take shit from anyone, except his members because he can’t fight them all at once.

Gets to know and observes people for a long time before recruiting them

He’s very stressed lately as they are a relatively new gang and there are a lot of fights going on with others for territories.

He met you in one these fights when you tried to make a distraction for your gang. You were about to go upstairs to the roof when you bumped into him

“Who the hell are you?” he asked immediately taking his gun out and pointing it at you.

“The same goes for you. You’re not from my gang so I’m here to kill you.”

“Oh really.” he asked smacking the gun from your hand and getting them behind your back. “You chose the wrong member. You see I’m the boss and now I can use you as a hostage.”

Yoon Jeonghan

Looks like an angel and he actually is but in reality he’s the one you should be afraid of the most.

Nobody has seen him kill anybody because his methods are too cruel to do them in public.

Apparently has some beef with EXO’s Sehun. No one dares ask him but it has something to do with Sehun mistaking him for somebody.

By accident you got involved in a weapon dealing incident with him and he has been planing on killing you ever since. You were good at hiding your tracks but he saw you one day in the city and decided to get rid of you just there in the street but then realized that this fight would probably end up in a blood bath so instead he approached you in secret.

“You have to keep quite and come with me, if you don’t want to die here.” he said pressing his gun to your back.

Joshua/Hong Jisoo

Nobody knows why he’s in the gang as he was never invited.

When Seungcheol first noticed Jisoo he thought he’s a spy or something (as he appeared out of nowhere) and was about to kill him when he promised that he’s good at at least something

And he was, to everyone’s surprise Jisoo’s aim and accuracy is the best out of all of them that’s why he prefers snipers.

He was told to get rid of you silently but you noticed him at the last second and he missed the shot causing a massive panic in the street. You used this opportunity to escape which made Jisoo even more angry. He hasn’t missed a shot in a long time and was determined to get you for that. But whenever he thought he got you cornered he somehow managed to miss and after a while he started to enjoy this little game of yours and soon realized that he doesn’t even want to kill you anymore.

Jun/Wen Junhui

Pro at hand to hand combat.

Trains all the members and teaches them different fighting techniques just in case.

His training routine is no joke and everyone is practically dead after it.

He met you before he joined the gang. You were jogging at the same park every morning. As it was really early and not a lot of people were out it became like a habit for him to greet you before he ran past. Eventually he wanted to engage in not only small talk and find out more about you and he started slowing down every single day till he was running at the same pace as you.

“Finally decided to slow down?” you asked.

“Only for you.” he winked. [x]

Hoshi/Kwon Soonyoung

Experimented a lot and finally came up with his own method to make drugs.

They were incredibly popular and so he quickly went up the ranks and now whenever there is deal going on it has to go through him first.

His first idea was to make poison but he somehow made drugs so nowadays he likes mixing different ingredients to try to create a new deadly weapon.

You had the audacity to attempt to take his throne as the king of drug dealing. You were stubborn and despite a lot of orders to report what you’re doing, you made your way around and stole half of his clients. He had enough and thought that the easiest way to fix this problem would be to get rid of you. But he had no idea you thought the same thing and somehow got his whole warehouse blown up. He caught you outside.

“You little shit, now you will have to take responsibility and I’m not letting you go any time soon.”

Jeon Wonwoo

Likes money. A lot. And doesn’t like sharing. At all.

Easiest way for him to get rich was cards that’s why he started gambling at a really young age and now is a pro at it and is amazing at bluffing.

Enjoys tricking his own gang members and actually gets the most money out of them.

Played poker with him once. He lost. Now he wants his money back but you keep denying his challenge. He usually shows up at the most random places just to ask you. You got into your car and almost spilled your coffee when you noticed him sitting in the back seat.

“Wonwoo what the fuck?”

“Come on Y/N, let’s play.”

“Can you get over that already? Get the hell out of my car.”

“I guess I have to take some more drastic measures.” he said taking his gun out. “We’re going to my place.” [x]

Kim Mingyu

Can smuggle anything in and out starting from stolen cars and ending with guns.

Doesn’t stay in the city for too long as he always has deals all around the country.

But when he comes back everyone is extremely happy to see him as he’s mostly chill and just being near him calms the others down.

He met you when he was away on a trip. You asked him for help when your car broke down and he fell in love at first sight. He stayed in the city for more than two months just to keep seeing you and you eventually became good friends when Seungcheol was done with him ignoring his orders and went to get him back himself. Well Mingyu obviously didn’t want to leave you but you didn’t want to go to another city either so he decided to be blunt.

“Y/N I don’t know how you feel about me but love you so I’m sorry but you have only two choices, you either go with me on your own free will or I take you by force.”

Woozi/Lee Jihoon

Somehow the ones who look the most innocent are the most dangerous in this gang. The same goes for Woozi. But he only uses violence when it’s necessary.

His specialty - torture. Favourite methods - teeth and fingernails pulling.

He charms his targets with his cute appearance and then gets every last bit of information they can muster.

You were unfortunate enough to be his target. You were screaming in pain for at least and hour, swearing that you don’t know anything when Seungcheol came in and told him that they got the wrong person. He set his tools aside and stood in silence for a few minutes.

“Fuck!” he shouted shoving everything from the table. You just watched in horror not knowing what’s going to happen next. He turned around and untied you. He was ashamed of himself and couldn’t look you in the eyes.

“At least let me treat you your wounds.”

DK/Lee Seokmin

Is responsible for looking after the gang territories and making sure they don’t get taken over.

Usually doesn’t think twice when someone trespasses and just shoots them on the spot.

But still has incredibly good and friendly relationships with the residence of the areas he’s taking care of.

Trying to bypass through his territories was a big mistake. He noticed you’re not a local and decided to find out what you’re doing here.

“Hey you!” he called you over but you just looked at him and started running.

“What the heck?!” he thought as he started chasing you. You didn’t know the streets well and ended up in a dead end.

“I got you cornered. Now you’re going to tell me what you’re doing here or I will have to use violence.”

The8/Xu Minghao

He’s great at annoying and pissing everybody off easily but it’s hard to catch him as he’s incredibly fast.

That’s why they send him when their is a need to infiltrate, spy or track anybody.

That doesn’t always work out as he likes to make either a grand entrance or exit and by doing that he attracts the attention of anybody nearby.

He was following you to get some information when he lost you. Suddenly he felt a knife press into his back.

“Why are you after me? Who hired you?”

He tried to take you by surprise by turning around and taking the knife out of your hands but he lost his balance and fell on top of you.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” you asked.

“Well this is quite the unfortunate situation you got yourself in.” he smirked. “If you promise not to make a scene our meeting won’t take long.”

Boo Seungkwan

*Jun shows up out of nowhere*

One of the first members who joined and everybody is thankful for that every single day because they wouldn’t have got where they are without him.

The missions he plans have a 99% chance of success.

Failure is not an option for him so he makes detailed strategies for all type of possible scenarios.

What a surprise You showed up at the wrong place at the wrong time and ruined all his perfect planing. The members haven’t seen him this pissed in a long time when he grabbed you and almost dragged you to one of the rooms. He roughly pushed you inside and you almost tripped on your own legs but his gentleman side couldn’t let a lady fall in front of him even when he was angry so he caught you midair and watched how confused you became by the second.

“Sit.” he said pulling you up and pointing you to the chair. “We have to talk.” [x]

Hansol Vernon

Knows anything and everything and the others should learn from him how to get verified information as fast as he gets.

Good with electronics that’s why he never goes anywhere without his trusted computer.

Despite some members protests he tends to sell the rarest info for big amounts of money to the other gangs.

He find out about you when he wanted to sell some info but the gang told him they already have what they need. Surprised that somebody besides him found it, he was determined to track you down. He was even more shocked when he saw that you’re a woman as there was not a lot of them in the industry.

“What? You think only men can do this type of work?”

“No but I find the women who do incredibly sexy.”

Dino/Lee Chan

Despite being the youngest he knew about the mafia world the most.

His father had a gang and was killed during a deal so he asked Seungcheol for help to someday avenge him.

Takes all advice given to him very seriously and tries his best to help.

Some trusted former members of his father gang were asked to take care of him so that’s why you followed him and also joined this gang. He found this annoying as he wanted to escape his past and always treated you harshly but when he noticed that you’re not around anymore he got kind of sad. But to his delight you came back after a few weeks after taking care of business.

“Missed me?” You smirked.

“Please don’t ever do that again.” he said, giving you a surprise hug.

A/N: I wonder if I should make a masterlist but I’m so lazyyy… Anyhow, feel free to request more scenarios, reactions etc. I keep up with a lot of groups, both male and female!! 😄

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geekysweetie · 8 years ago

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Aikatsu Photo On Stage English Review

I just recently discovered and began watching “Aikatsu! Stars”. Aikatsu! Stars is a sequel of an anime called Aikatsu! The anime is based on a card / arcade game by Bandai. The arcade card game involves dressing up idols with cute kawaii clothes and accessories to help them achieve a higher score. — From the success of these arcade machines, as well as the success of the anime (which I believe has about 6 seasons now), and the success of the other media related to the Aikatsu franchise — Bandai then introduced Aikatsu! Photo on Stage, a mobile game which is kinda similar to Bandai’s other Idol Collecting / Rhythm Games such as Idol M@ster which I’m just learning now, and Love Live School Idol Festival, which I’ve been meaning to also review, but haven’t really gotten around to just yet.

The main difference in Aikatsu! Photo on Stage compared to Love Live School Idol Festival, is the way in which the rhythm game is actually played. Love Live School Idol Festival displays characters’ faces in a half-moon arc like shape scattered around the screen. As a song plays, music notes, indicated by a ring shape, float out to one of these characters. Pressing on a character at the right time will score higher points. You “chain” “perfect” time presses for the highest score possible.

A photo posted by jenilee (@xenokitten) on Feb 5, 2017 at 6:00pm PST

In Aikatsu! Photo on Stage, the rhythm game is completely different (and in my opinion more challenging). This time, you see your selected characters standing on a stage, and over top, overlaying these characters, you see a various number of boxes, outlined by white squares. As the song begins, these squares begin to fill, with what I would describe as playing cards. Spade, Diamond, Club, and Heart symbols begin to fill each box. Pressing when the shape has filled in the white outline the fullest will result in better scores. The number of squares, layout of squares, and speed with which they fill, varies not only from song to song, but within different parts of a single song as well. Some squares, indicated by a golden color, can be spammed over and over before they fade, letting you chain dozens of notes quickly. Often multiple squares appear at once and while playing which you can either press simultaneously or in rapid succession.

A photo posted by jenilee (@xenokitten) on Feb 5, 2017 at 6:01pm PST

You may also unlock combos and abilities of your girls; This seems to be determined by who is in your team. When the song begins, there’s a lengthy animation showing your girls, and they “Pair off” It seems like certain cards when “paired together” will activate different abilities “together”. Sometimes a girl will also activate a single ability. All of these abilities will act as huge score multipliers for the duration that the ability is in effect.

A photo posted by jenilee (@xenokitten) on Feb 5, 2017 at 6:01pm PST

The other significant difference is that Aikatsu! Photo on Stage has never been released in North America. This means the game is in Japanese. My time spent with Aikatsu Photo on Stage has amounted to probably an hour, spread over the past two days. I cannot speak or read Japanese, and am not an expert by any means on this game. In fact, twice now I’ve accidentally clicked things and wasted my stars (in game currency used to summon new idols).

There are people and places to get much better information on this game than what I’m about to share with you. I just wanted to share my love for the game and show how cute it is, and tell you you should be playing this game. You should also watch the anime, at least Aikatsu Stars! because it is super kawaii (cute). It’s like Harry Potter crossed with Love Live School Idol Festival. It follows a young girl as she enrolls in a special academy just for idols. She is given a phone and badge and even taken to pick out a special outfit. And it was discovering this anime that sparked my interest in the game. I thought WOW this would make such a fun game! I want to go to a school for idols too! Then I thought “I wonder if there is a game based on this anime already” There are numerous Nintendo DS games, and then there’s this mobile game (and of course the original arcade/card game).

Once again I’m no expert and the following info may not be 100% correct or accurate. I will include some resources at the end of this article that will probably prove more helpful.

A photo posted by jenilee (@xenokitten) on Feb 5, 2017 at 6:00pm PST

First here is how to get the game if you use IOS (iphone, ipad, etc).

From a PC, log out of your Itunes account. In the bottom right corner you should see a flag to change your country/region. — If you don’t see this or if it has moved, don’t worry I’ll show you how you can change regions midway through this process later.

You need to decide which version of Aikatsu you want to play. I chose the Japanese version, but there’s also Korean and Chinese versions. The Chinese version for country code MO even looked like it was in English??? I can’t confirm that though as I chose the Japanese version believing it to be the most updated and least likely to close down later.

So if you want to play the Japanese version, select to change your region to Japan now.

Once you’ve selected your region, search for Aikatsu! – you’ll see a lot of anime and music here, you can narrow your results to just Iphone or Ipad apps to make it easier to find.

Once you find the Aikatsu! Photo on Stage app, click the “+Get” button.

You will then be prompted to create a new itunes account.

Here is where you can change your country if you didn’t already do so. It will say something like “If your billing address is not in the United States, click here to change regions” You can then search again for the Aikatsu app and click the +Get button and be prompted again to set up a new Itunes account.

The important thing is that you select the app and use the +Get Button BEFORE MAKING YOUR ACCOUNT. SUPER IMPORTANT DO NOT IGNORE THIS STEP.

Assuming that you followed this advice, the payment should be set to “None” by default.

Ignoring that step and trying to either change an existing Itunes account region, OR creating a new account before clicking the +Get button will result in you being asked for payment details even for FREE apps! And it will only accept Japanese credit/bank cards or Japanese Itunes Gift Cards. So It’s really important to remember to FIRST select the app, and THEN create your account.

You will then need to finish filling in your details, an email address that is not associated with any other Itunes account, you may need to create a new email address, which you can do for free on sites like hotmail, gmail, yahoo, etc. Then fill in your secret hints and select a new password.

You need a Japanese address, I have read that you can use a university address, your mileage may vary. My understanding is that as long as the Prefecture, city, and zipcode all line up, the rest of the address doesn’t matter.

You can use a US cellphone number.

You are now the proud owner of a Japanese Itunes Account. Congratulations!

Your app should begin downloading automatically after entering your password or thumbprint.

To get your app to your Iphone: Now from your Iphone, go to settings, and under the “Itunes & App Store” select sign out, and select sign in to use the new account you just created.

Now when you browse the App store you’ll be browsing the Japanese app store.

You can switch back at any time by going to settings and again signing out and back in to your US Itunes account.

My team Just started playing #Aikatsu and watching #aikatsustars wish #bandai #namco would make English version #kawaii #cardgames

A photo posted by jenilee (@xenokitten) on Feb 5, 2017 at 6:02pm PST

Aikatsu! Photo on Stage will not Work on any Rooted Devices, so if you Jailbreak your Iphone it will no longer work for you. This also means Aikatsu! Photo on Stage will not run on android emulators such as Bluestacks. So I am not sure how Android users can enjoy this game. I think it involves using a VPN and Tunneling service, but then I don’t know if that would “flag” the “Rooted Device” warning signal, so unfortunately I can’t provide help or directions to get the app on Android.

But assuming you’re an IOS user, you’re now ready to Play Aikatsu! Photo on Stage. And I’m now finally ready to review it for you 🙂

Title: Aikatsu! Photo on Stage

Where to get: https://itunes.apple.com/jp/…

Publisher: Bandai Namco

Genre: Rhythm Game / Idol Simulation

Overall: 68/90 76% C “Good Game for Girls”

A photo posted by jenilee (@xenokitten) on Feb 5, 2017 at 6:13pm PST

Geeky: 3/5 – This app is over the top cute/sweet which can distract some from the actual gameplay and features. I read that it was originally aimed at young elementary school girls… However, Bandai was surprised that many “Hardcore” adult male gamers also play the game, perhaps moreso even than their original audience. The reason for the mass appeal is that, if you look past the pink girly graphics, the gameplay itself is quite challenging, and guys like to collect their virtual “waifu” – They may also be trickling down from the other two popular Bandai Franchises, Love Live, and Idol M@ster (or a slew of other Bandai Namco Idol Simulation game series). It loses some points in my opinion with some of the graphics… For example your girls are just motionless/still on the stage, and in the story mode, they’re still, but come “Bouncing in” like a child playing with a Barbie doll, walking her Barbie across the floor by picking up and lowering the whole doll. — This was maybe intentional, given Bandai’s original target audience, and the “dress up theme” but it’s none the less, strange to watch and distracting compared to the more “fluid” looking animations in the other idol apps. The UI also confuses me but that could just be since I can’t read Japanese — However, by contrast, the UI of Ensemble Stars, which I reviewed here, is so simple that it doesn’t matter that it’s Japanese. So I would say there are some overly complex issues with the UI in Aikatsu… but it’s not as bad as the UI in Idol M@ster Cinderella Girls which I’m having even more difficulty navigating (too many things to click/options/features, which yes, makes for an awesome game, but steep learning curve when not in your native tongue).

Sweetie: 5/5 – As mentioned, this game and the anime are unbelievably cute. Seeing your girls on the stage, instead of just a circle with their face is very cute, and outside of performing, you can set your home screen to different backgrounds (often with pink glitter, hearts, gems, etc floating by) and select if you’d like to see 2, 3, or all 8 of your girls. When you go to power up your girls, you will be “dressing them up” to even more kawaii versions of themselves.

A photo posted by jenilee (@xenokitten) on Feb 5, 2017 at 6:14pm PST

Concept: 8/10 – I feel like feature wise, it’s a step up from Love Live, but a significant step down from Idol M@ster. You should play this game because it’s cute. But as for actually “dressing up your girls” Idol M@ster does this better and in a fashion much closer to the Aikatsu! Card Arcade game, which allows you to equip tops, pants, shoes, or a dress which can sometimes take the place of multiple items. By contrast, the Aikatsu mobile game “dresses up” your girls much in the same way that Love Live idolizes your girls. In Aikatsu you have Rare, Normal, and Super Rare “Tokens”, each card will require some combination in some amount of these tokens to “dress up”. It will also require a certain number of hearts… Despite that… I have met the requirements — saying “OK” for each type of token, and have more than enough hearts, and still haven’t been able to dress up my girls (so perhaps I am misunderstanding something about how this works. Like I’ve said a couple times, I’m no expert). But it still seems to me, a rather lackluster system, and seems that Idol M@ster actually has the “dressup system” that the original card arcade game was so popular for.

A photo posted by jenilee (@xenokitten) on Feb 5, 2017 at 6:04pm PST

That said, I do think there is some way to scan your cards in Aikatsu Photo on Stage, but I haven’t figured it out, nor do I have any of the cards.

Music wise, I feel like it’s not quite as good as Love Live.

Overall, it’s just “another” idol sim and rhythm game from Bandai Namco, of which there are probably a dozen different apps and franchises to choose, each with their own anime and target audiences. But you just can’t look past how cute and addictive it is to collect all of the girls. Like most of these games, there are limited time events, and the desire to collect the rarest cards keeps players coming back.

Gameplay: 8/10 What makes Aikatsu stand out (at least compared to Love Live), is the way the rhythm game is played which involves squares filling with shapes from a deck of playing cards. If you read the first few paragraphs of my review, you have a good idea how that works already. If not, here’s a recap.

A photo posted by jenilee (@xenokitten) on Feb 5, 2017 at 6:14pm PST

This time, you see your selected characters standing on a stage, and over top, overlaying these characters, you see a various number of boxes, outlined by white squares. As the song begins, these squares begin to fill, with what I would describe as playing cards. Spade, Diamond, Club, and Heart symbols begin to fill each box. Pressing when the shape has filled in the white outline the fullest will result in better scores. The number of squares, layout of squares, and speed with which they fill, varies not only from song to song, but within different parts of a single song as well. Some squares, indicated by a golden color, can be spammed over and over before they fade, letting you chain dozens of notes quickly. Often multiple squares appear at once and while playing which you can either press simultaneously or in rapid succession.

A photo posted by jenilee (@xenokitten) on Feb 5, 2017 at 6:15pm PST

Again deducted a few points for a somewhat overwhelming UI, as well as not quite as feature rich as some of Bandai’s other Idol simulation games.

Also another caveat to the gameplay is the ridiculous load time and frequency at which it keeps requesting to load things. Their loading screen is cute, but I see it way too often and it interrupts my game to the point of frustration.

Story: 8/10 – This is my assumption on what the story is about, based on what I’ve seen of the anime. I cannot read Japanese, so I can’t really grade the story within the actual game. But the story in the anime involves a young girl who goes to a special school for idols. When the girls perform they seem to become like Hatsune Miku or a Vocoloid, and “transform” into much cuter versions of themselves. In the anime, there’s some really bad/cheap 3D animation used when the girls perform their songs lol. But the concept is none the less cute. As the girls enter this special academy they are given all kinds of cute thing, and begin their special training to become idols.

In some ways, it’s very similar to Harry Potter; there are different houses (whose names I forget, but just winging it here) such as Star, Bird, Ocean, Whisper, etc. Students are assigned a house based on their personality and natural abilities. The houses compete with each other, as well as other schools, to be the top idol group in their school and in the world. The girls are given cute costumes and magic idol tools to use in their training and performances. They make friends and go to classes with a variety of characters as classmates and teachers.

The story in the anime is very cute. I prefer this story 100 times more than the story in Love Live because it has that sort of fantasy, Harry Potteresque, “magic idol school” setting. Once again I can’t confirm that the game follows this story.

A photo posted by jenilee (@xenokitten) on Feb 5, 2017 at 6:13pm PST

The story is revealed in story scenes upon clearing certain song stages and ranking up, similar to how story is revealed in the Love Live mobile game as well.

I only wish it was in English so that I could actually read the story. As it is now, I skip all the story scenes because I just can’t read them.

The story is a bit juvenile / fluffy – but once again Bandai’s original target audience was gradeschool children with this franchise, so this is to almost be expected.

I also compared the story quite a bit to Full Moon Wo Sagashite – which this anime is really nothing like, except for the age of the main characters, and their desire to become Idols and their sorta similar personalities between the main girls.

Full Moon Wo Sagashite has much more substance, feeling, heart, drama, and strife than Aikatsu! Stars. But if you’re looking to get your idol fix, this may do it for you. Another anime to check out in a similar tone is Fancy Lala.

Aikatsu! Stars Anime

Characters: 4/10 – I feel like the character designs are hit and miss, both in terms of personality, and also in their visual appeal. I’m not super far into the anime, but the characters so far story and background wise, feel so cliche… actually many of them feel like a copy/paste of “corresponding” characters from Love Live. There’s one girl that could be a dead ringer for Kotori with the same hair style, half up side pony tail, twisted and clipped over her light blonde/silvery/grey hair. Despite the change in setting to a more fantasy / harry potter style of “Crazy Cute and Cool Idol School” the characters themselves aren’t that unique at all. However, the main character of Aikatsu! Stars is so cute…

She’s my favorite girl, and I was excited when I got her card, even though it’s only “Rare” and not “Super Rare” or “P Rare” (dunno what the P stands for? Precious Rare? Pretty Rare? Premium Rare?). (P Rares are what you want to be aspiring for, but Super Rares are pretty good too. Rares, just as the same with Love Live, aren’t really all that rare at all! lol.) — Anyways sure she’s cute, but how does she differ from any other magical shoujo girl main character? She doesn’t, even the yellow pigtails are sure to remind you of a certain well known shoujo magical girl.

A photo posted by jenilee (@xenokitten) on Feb 5, 2017 at 6:09pm PST

Graphics: 9/10 – So Cute, this is probably the cutest app on my Iphone… I deducted 1 point for the “bouncing” animation in the story scenes where characters move across the screen by bouncing up and down as they glide stiffly across the screen – which looks pretty bad. The anime also is mostly cute 99% of the time, but when the girls transform to sing, it shifts to some really bad 3D animation that looks cheap and dated. Sticking to 2D would have looked so much better; but I think they wanted to show that the girls’ idol performances are using Virtual Reality like Hatsune Miku.

A photo posted by jenilee (@xenokitten) on Feb 5, 2017 at 6:09pm PST

Music: 7/10 – The music is good – it better be, since it’s a rhythm game right? But not great. The girls’ vocals don’t have the same tone and quality as the girls’ in Love Live – or if they’re using some of the same cast, perhaps it’s that the song arrangements aren’t quite as catchy. Whatever the reason, if I were to play a game just for music alone, I’d stick with Love Live. The music in Aikatsu! is not bad, it’s “good” but I think it’s natural to want to compare it to Love Live, and it just doesn’t stack up.

Voice Acting: 6/10: The game has a few “one line” voice overs. The voice acting that’s there is good, really good even. I love the voice actor for the male teacher in the red track suit. He is funny and energetic. But the game is not fully voiced and I feel like the potential, especially in the story scenes, is not really reached, especially when similar apps do have full voice overs in this area.

Replay Value: 10/10 This cute game has addictive rhythm games, lots of cute rare girls, and lots of in game events. It’s one that will keep you playing over and over. It’s best in small but frequent doses.

Overall: 68/90 76% C “Good Game for Girls”

Overall Aikatsu Photo on Stage will appeal to you if:

You like Kawaii things, such as shoujo, magical girl anime or idol culture.

The rhythm game is fun, and it’s not impossible, but slightly frustrating to play since it is not in English.

If you like Aikatsu Photo on Stage, check out Bandai Namco’s other idol games such as Love Live, Idolish, and Idol M@ster Cinderella Girls. — For anime check out the original Aikatsu! and newer Aikatsu! Stars, as well as Fancy Lala, Full Moon Wo Sagashite, and Chance Pop Session. You may also like Wizardess Heart because of the harry potter theme which I reviewed here. You’ll also like Ensemble Stars which I reviewed here.

For Additional English Aikatsu! Resources Please Refer to:

Aikatsu English Wiki (very informative, but a lot of information to take in at once): http://aikatsu.wikia.com/wiki/Aikatsu!_Photo_on_Stage!!

English Menu Translation Screenshots (Good for getting up and playing quickly): http://photokatsu.tumblr.com/post/138182170057/main-menu-translationsguide

Fairly Active Reddit Community (Good for talking about the game, asking specific questions, or showing off your girls): https://www.reddit.com/r/photoonstage/

Aikatsu Photo On Stage English Review was originally published on GeekySweetie.com - Geeky & Kawaii Anime, Tech, Toys, & Game Reviews & News

#Aikatsu #Aikatsu Photo on Stage #Aikatsu Stars #Bandai Namco #Cute #Free Game #Harry Potter #IOS #Kawaii #Love Live #Love Live School Idol Festival #Magical Girl #Mobile Game #Rhythm Game #Shoujo

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