#it’s habit formation ! when I was in the swing of things I was watching like over 20 new movies a month

[6ebe]

once the euros are done I need to get back into my movie watching era nothing makes me feel more alive than watching amazing cinema on the reg 😌

[lilithsaga]

Happy Birthday to the lovely Lilith Saga! (aka me) 🥳

I dont have much to offer other than sincere gratitude for everyone who supports me. Thank you all so much! 💜

That said, here is a short lore/origin excerpt of my story:

Or, better yet, feel free to read it below!

In my darkest moments, when everything seems hopeless, the one thing that consistently saves my life is a good story. This doesn't apply to every good story out there, of course; everyone has their preferences. I'm not going to pretend my tastes are better than anyone else's. But the kind of stories I appreciate are heart-touching enough to rip out dormant feelings that were buried deep, awe-inspiring enough to keep me invested in a lifestyle I never knew I needed to learn about, and thought-provoking enough to shatter my world to pieces and mold a new one from the remnants of what once was.

My name is Lilith Saga. I am a writer, succubus, and PNGtuber. I'm sure these titles that I label myself as seem a little strange at first. How can an introverted, shy, bookworm writer be the same as a sexy, alluring, tantalizing succubus? It's simple. Contrary to popular belief, succubi and incubi consume strong emotions to live.

Given our indecent reputation, desire and arousal are considered the most common emotions to consume because of how powerful and simple they tend to be. But for those of us who don't wish to get involved in that way, we also collect other human emotions. Anger, sadness, fear, disgust, joy, etc. The triggers for these emotions are different for every person, and are never guaranteed to work the same for everyone. However, there is one tried and true method that never fails to evoke deep emotions.

Storytelling!

So, for me personally, I prefer to say that I consume stories.

My heart swings against my rib cage when a story captivates me and takes my breath away. I adore listening to tales that make me laugh, make me cry, and keep me intrigued in a person and their world. Often times, when someone is telling their story, they go through the highs and lows of emotion when relaying it to me. Hearing their tale sparks a connection of mutual understanding, and we tend to grow a little closer because of it.

It's become an addicting feeling, one that I can't help but chase. If I had more time, I would spend every day searching for new stories to consume. Books, movies, TV shows, stage plays, musicals, comics, poems, songs, podcasts, fanfiction—every available format possible! There are so many different stories to consume that it can be difficult to keep up!

But... I know I can't.

I can never consume them all.

I'm not as healthy as I once was, not as happy, not as free. The older I've become, the more responsibilities I've acquired. More responsibilities mean more busy work. And more busy work means less time to indulge in stories. I feel as if I'm stuck in a cage where I'm so busy with mindless work that I neglect to take care of myself. I never found the key, nor do I expect to anytime soon. But, despite this, I found a warm blanket to make my stay more comfortable.

"Hellooooooooo Everybodyyyyyyyy~!"

This is my reality.

Channeling my creativity into YouTube like this was the best decision I've made in centuries. What started as an impulsive decision after getting laid off from my day job, turned into an outlet for me to enjoy storytelling once more. Currently, I play visual novels and RPG Maker games. Then I upload my playthroughs to YouTube. It allows me time once a week to go down the rabbit hole and experience stories I've always wanted to explore.

At first I thought it would be fun to document my journey to hold myself accountable, making sure I kept to this new habit. But then I noticed something. I wasn't the only person watching my videos! It never occurred to me that other beings around the world would tune in to my commentary and find it entertaining. I was just a silly succubus enjoying stories from games. And yet, without realizing it, I found a way to share these stories with others and connect on how the story impacted me.

My mind escaped to a world of creativity that I've been longing for. I've learned how to do social media, branding, public speaking, networking, project management, the list goes on. I have story concepts reaching me like how they used to when I was younger. I can feel this invigorating energy coursing through my veins. There's nothing in this world that can stop me-

Bzzt.

Oh yeah. Time. My mortal enemy.

...

Well, let's get to work, shall we?

[adalricus]

Yandere oc x artist!gn!reader

Tw: possessiveness, mood swings, blood mentioned, nsfw, non-con

My Siren

Elaine was continually bored, nothing new ever happened and all she met were tropical mer-people. It was unconventional to say the least. After years of this inner torment, she ventured to the tropical beach in hopes of finding something more. And a human caught her eye, you. You were odd, a peculiar sight so to speak. She watched as you set up your canvas and easel along with a stool. She couldn't keep her eyes off you as you continued to paint the scenery. So everyday it was a habit, you continued to paint the sea at different times and when you weren't you picked up the litter in favour of making more. My weren't you just alluring.

Her curiosity turned to interest and interest to full-blown obsession. She had to have you, but how on earth could she obtain a human such as yourself, one who seemed unobtainable. Minutes turned to hours, hours to day. She felt twisting and turning in her mind, when finally she knew how to make you hers. You loved art didn't you, you would have an eye for beautiful things such as herself. So when the sun was setting and you set up your art supplies, she splayed herself in your line of vision. "What in the world?" She successfully caught your attention as you slowly crept toward her she spoke. "Human! Come here, I don't bite" and you obeyed "what are you?" A question any normal person would ask "well ofcourse you've heard of mermaids, but I suppose you were sheltered our kinds don't often interact. But what a marvelous human you are! Almost as marvelous as me" you heard of them, of their sightings but always thought they were truly horrid looking beings and untrustworthy, but she didn't seem like that at all. "Would you like to draw me, Human?" You slowly nodded "I'll allow you just come closer, and hold my hand, for only a second." What an odd question, but perhaps this would be away for you to end the sigma against mer-people alike. So you did and suddenly with an inhuman strength she pulled you into the water, your lungs burnt as she swam deeper and deeper when she stopped and kisses you forcing her abnormally long tongue down your throat. And suddenly you could breath. She continued swimming down to an ocean cave with a door which had a short hall with twists and turns. "Well then sweetie this is your new home" she opened a final door and passed through and enchanted barrier separating ocean water and air. With a well designed room, with a bed in which you could sleep, the floor covered with a layer of shallow water and by it a small pond-like formation that Elaine could sleep in beside you. She leaped onto the bed and pinned you down as tied your hands and legs to the bed posts. "Just be a good little human and I'll untie your hands, so you can draw me, you never learnt my name have you my cute little siren. It's Elaine."

"I really wanna go home!" That seemed to make something in her snap " Well you better be greatful for me to grace you with me elegance! You bratty disgusting little parasite. Keep running your mouth like that and I'll break your ribs so you don't have enough energy to continue spewing your nonsense!" You shut your mouth and averted her gaze, well if you excuse me I'll go hunt food for the both of us." A few months pass and finally you got access to your arms, but all you did with them was eat , hold Elaine and paint her. Painting after painting, one day she left for her usually hunting. You decide to use your free hands and untie your legs as ran to the entrance Elaine suddenly opened the door. When she saw you untied she seemed pissed. "You are ungrateful you little parasite! She swept your feet with a tail and started drowning and choking you, your lungs burnt when you accidentally breathed in some water. Your nose started to burn as your head felt like it was spinning and you finally pass out. You wake up tied to the bed your arms, legs and torso. And you were naked. Elaine layed next to you, "Elaine, did you?" "No, I was simply curious about the human body, especially the genitalia", she moved your hands down towards your nethers and rubbed, you couldn't help but moan, she rubbed faster until you came to your climax. She then positioned herself above your privates and she removed the cloth above her crotch. And rubbed against yours. You both came and she went down to your legs. "You are such a bitchy slut, so disobedient." She complains on and on as she unties your legs. She suddenly crushes your ankle and twists the other. You scream in agony.

"You belong to ME"

"My Siren"

[ammg-old2]

Our universe is full of other worlds, orbiting their own suns. For most of human history, this was just an assumption, not a fact; astronomers could only peer through telescopes at distant stars and daydream about the planets that might be hiding in their glow. But then, about 30 years ago—quite recently, when you consider how long humans have been gazing at the skies—the cold, hard data appeared. Astronomers began to detect the signals of worlds beyond our solar system—just a few at first, and then, as more sophisticated instruments became available, hundreds and hundreds. And now, according to NASA’s numbers, the count of confirmed exoplanets in our Milky Way galaxy has surpassed 5,000.

The space agency announced the addition of 65 newly confirmed planets to its archive this week, bringing the current tally to 5,005. “It’s very hard to find these things, and for hundreds of years, people tried,” Jessie Christiansen, an astrophysicist at the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at Caltech, told me. “I worked on four different exoplanet searches before I worked on one that was actually successful.”

Scientists have observed enough exoplanets to glean some intriguing insights about the cosmos. Nature, it turns out, is capable of producing all kinds of worlds. Exoplanets are tinier than Mercury and double the size of Jupiter; ice-cold and scorching hot; rocky, with some kind of surface; and gaseous, with clouds all the way down. There are planets around the star closest to our sun, just 4.2 light-years away, and planets around stars a couple thousand light-years away. Astronomers can confidently say, based on what they’ve found so far, that our Milky Way galaxy must have more planets than stars.

But the animating force that underpins this entire search—finding life on another planet—has still gone unfulfilled. Astronomers have found rocky exoplanets about the size of Earth, and some of them reside in the habitable zones of their stars, where conditions are just right for liquid water. But no one has yet discovered evidence of life in another planet’s atmosphere, nor detected radio transmissions wafting from the direction of a distant world. Astronomers can predict how many planets are out there, but they can’t say how many we’d have to find to discover another Earth or a sign of extraterrestrial life. Even with more than 5,000 other worlds in the books, it’s still just us. In fact, scientists could find 5,000 more exoplanets and we might be exactly as alone as we are now.

The first known exoplanets were detected in the early 1990s, using ground-based telescopes that could catch stars wobbling on their axes, a sign that a planet might be swinging around nearby. The field really exploded after a NASA probe called Kepler launched in 2009. From its perch in space, Kepler observed hundreds of thousands of stars, this time watching for tiny dips in brightness, a sign that a planet might be passing by, blocking the glow. Kepler, which NASA retired in 2018 when the probe ran out of fuel, facilitated the discovery of about two-thirds of the 5,005 known exoplanets.

Over the years, exoplanets have confused and delighted scientists. Christiansen can rattle off their names with ease, even though they sound more like serial numbers than alien worlds: HD 209458, HD 189733, GJ 1214. The abundance of hot Jupiters—giant, scorching worlds that circle their stars in a matter of days—upended traditional theories of planet formation, which didn’t account for such huge, gaseous planets cozied up to their suns. The discovery of systems with multiple planets suggested that our arrangement might be a common one. Some discoveries have felt simultaneously familiar and weird. Take, for example, the planets around a star called TRAPPIST-1, about 40 light-years away, which were discovered in 2017. There are seven, all about the size of Earth and rocky. But their sun is only the size of Jupiter, and a year on the outermost planet lasts just 20 days. This faraway system could, in theory, be home to something alive because three of its planets orbit within the star’s habitable zone. Astronomers don’t know anything about their atmospheres yet, but they’ll soon get a chance with a new NASA observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope, which could pick up on certain molecules that we know can be associated with life.

The search for exoplanets has allowed scientists to put Earth and the rest of our solar system in cosmic context. So far, what they’re seeing is that Earth is quite rare. We’ve yet to find a truly Earth-like planet: a rocky world about the size of our own, with a chemically rich atmosphere and surface temperatures that would allow water to stick around, lapping away, rather than boil off or freeze. But that hasn’t deterred alien hunters, especially those interested in finding evidence not of microbial life, but of advanced civilizations. Every time a star is found to have a planet, even if it’s nothing like Earth, astronomers at the SETI Institute aim their telescope antennas at the star anyway, just in case another planet is hiding in that system, broadcasting on a frequency we could catch. More exoplanet discoveries would give scientists more opportunities to do this kind of work, and new missions, including telescopes on the ground and in space, are expected to grow the inventory in the coming decades.

Could another 5,000 exoplanets, or even 10,000 or 20,000, bring us closer to answering that big existential question? That depends, and not on the size of the inventory or the sophistication of our instruments, but on the universe itself, and how common—or not—life is. “The more chances you have to roll that [die], the more likely you are to eventually hit upon a planet that has life,” Christiansen said. But scientists have no idea how many sides each die has. “It could be a 100-billion-sided die, and it literally only happens once, which is us, and we’re sitting here like, wait, where is everyone?” she said. “If it’s a million-sided die, you haven’t really increased your chances. But if it’s a 100-sided die, then you’ve given yourself lots of chances.”

Astronomers will keep searching for more exoplanets, driven by the belief that, in a galaxy this big, filled with so many stars and even more planets, life is more common than the current stats suggest. A decade from now, when Christiansen suspects the exoplanet community will double its catalog of confirmed finds, we may still be rolling the dice, over and over, holding our breath to see how it lands.

[scarletttries]

Adrian Chase/ Vigilante NSFW Alphabet (Request)

Pairing: Adrian Chase x Reader

Rating: Explicit

Request: "i would love a nsfw alphabet for adrian im fully obsessed with this man'

Author's Note: Double feature of Alphabet posts tonight! Thank you for this Adrian Request, I am also so obsessed with this man, it was very fun to write 😁 also I really enjoy this format so might write another one for Steven Grant because I have just caught up with Moon Knight, if people would be interested in that - or let me know if another character would take your fancy💖☺️ Finally, in these alphabets I will say things that I think characters would and wouldn't be into, but that is not at all a judgement on the kinks themselves, just my interpretation of a character ☺️

Adrian Chase/Vigilante (Peacemaker) NSFW Alphabet

A = Aftercare (what they're like after sex)

Adrian almost enjoys the moments after sex as much as the sex itself. He would love having his arms around you while you both catch your breath, feeling your warm skin still pressed to his, mindlessly rambling about what a good time he had, and wanting to hear the same from you. He would want to keep you there as long as possible, running to fetch anything you need so he can rush back to being beside you.

B = Body part (their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

Adrian would know that he is generally in pretty good shape from his life of crime fighting, but he would particularly love his hands. He's spent so long honing his fine motor skills to handle and throw knives with such precision, and he loves that he can use those exact same skills to make you come completely undone. Whether they're gently taking your hands in his, or gripping your thigh as he pounds into you, he loves having his hands on you.

Adrian loves everything about you, but boy is absolutely obsessed with your lips. From the moment he met you he watched their every motion, from smiles he craved, to the way kind words formed in them. He almost lost his mind the first time they brushed lightly against his for a kiss, and the first time you took his manhood between them he swore he had died and gone to heaven. Adrian would buy you lip gloss just to watch you put it on, and then get painfully hard watching your lips glisten.

C= Cum (anything to do with cum, basically)

Adrian would absolutely love cumming inside you. He sees it as such a huge act of intimacy and acceptance, your bodies completely mixing together. Whenever his finishes on top of you he would keep himself inside you as long as possible just to keep his cum inside you. (Plus we know he's all about experiencing motherhood so I can't see him being overly concerned about contraception unless you are)

D = Dirty Secret (pretty self-explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

Adrian definitely has slightly blurred moral lines, so I feel like when he first started falling for you, he got into the habit of swinging by your place while patrolling as Vigilante, just to check you were safe. One night he thought he could hear pained noises coming from inside your place, so he crept round to your bedroom window only to find you touching yourself, the noises a sign of your building pleasure. He was absolutely captivated by the sight, unable to look away as you made yourself cum, slinking home in his now sticky costume, not knowing it was him you were thinking about. He watched you like that a few more times before you got together, now much happier with his active role in your pleasure but occasionally craving that voyeuristic edge.

E = Experience (how experienced are they? do they know what they're doing?)

Between his late puberty and his atypical approach to friendships Adrian hasn't had much experience before you, but he would make up for it by learning exactly what you like, even if it takes him lots and lots practice ;)

F = Favourite Position (this goes without saying)

Adrian loves having you in his lap while he fucks you, chest pressed against his so he can see every reaction on your face and keep his hands touching and holding every inch of exposed skin. Being able to see your face while he makes you feel amazing is important to Adrian, he loves the intimacy of it.

G = Goofy (are they more serious in the moment? are they humorous? etc.)

Absolutely the goofiest. He would constantly be chatting shit during sex, wide smile plastered across his face, glasses tilted at an angle. By the time you start sleeping together he would know you are someone who'd listen happily to his thoughts without judging him, so your sex would fluctuate quickly from moans of pleasure and him showering your body with praise, to bursting out laughing at the weird little thoughts he has.

H = Hair (how well-groomed are they?)

Adrian likes to keep things tidy where he can, so I think he'd be trimmed and keep good personal hygiene.

I = Intimacy (how are they during the moment? the romantic aspect)

A lot of the time your sex with Adrian would be goofy and full of giggles, but I think as someone who has felt like their company hasn't really ever been fully appreciated before, that would be very intimate to him, being able to enjoy those moments with you without feeling any reservations. Other times it would be more traditionally intimate, his eyes staring deep into yours while he took his time bringing you both to climax, closing his eyes and pressing his forehead lightly to yours, feeling your heart beat against his chest. Those rare serious moments together would be what made him realise this was true love, not just a fun relationship.

J = Jack off (masturbation headcanon)

Adrian used to jack off occasionally, but when he first met you it got much more frequent, always with you popping into his head no matter what else he tried to think of. Now that you are together and having sex, he doesn't do it as frequently, but if you're away for the night and send him a text to let him know you miss him, he would put his hands on himself immediately.

K = Kink (one or more of their kinks)

I can definitely see Adrian with somniphilia (wanting to wake their sleepy partner up with sex) because of the balance of power and allowing yourself to be vulnerable with him. I also think he would have a massive praise kink; telling him how good he is, and how amazing he makes you feel, and how he's the best with his hands/mouth/body would send him into absolutely overdrive, desperate to please you even further.

L = Location (favourite places to do it)

Adrian does his best to be conscious of the law (in his own misguided way) so he would mostly stick to taking you home or back to your place for sex. But he also gets riled up very quickly, getting really desperate for you, and in more than one of those situations he's ended up just pulling you into the backseat of the vigilante-mobile for a quickie so he's not so distracted by his hard-on that he crashes the car.

M = Motivation (what turns them on, gets them going)

It doesn't take much to get Adrian going; a flirty smile, a brush of your hand, even standing too close to him - ya boi is like a touch-starved regency damsel. But one thing that always surprises you is how ridiculously turned on he gets when he really, sincerely makes you laugh. The first time you properly cracked up at one of his little comments he could feel heat rising through his cheeks watching the easy smile spread across your face. Your reaction to his words always gives him such a rush of confidence, emboldening him to wrap your legs around his waist, pulling you onto the nearest surface, wanting to make you feel even better than his jokes do.

N = No (something they wouldn't do, turn offs)

Adrian is fiercely protective of you so wouldn't ever want to do anything that physically hurt you, like slapping or choking. Adrian also wants to keep you strictly to himself, wanting you to be the one thing Chris can't share or take away from him.

O = Oral (preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.)

Vigilante would be an absolute devotee to kneeling at your altar and paying service with his tongue. He would have absolutely endless enthusiasm for the way you taste, the way you respond to his every touch, he would absolutely fucking love watching you squirm in pleasure while he holds your hips down with his strong arms. He would feel incredible coaxing orgasm after orgasm out of you, until his name was the only word you could remember.

Considering how immediately obsessed Adrian would be with your lips, he would also absolutely lose his mind every time you gave him head, like he was THE luckiest person in the universe. He'd try so hard to restrain himself from pushing deeper into your throat, never wanting the sensation to end as he loosely threads his fingers through your hair to see more of your face while you work. He would make the absolute neediest noises while your mouth was around him, overwhelmed by the pleasure every single time.

P = Pace (are they fast and rough? slow and sensual? etc.)

Adrian would usually keep his pace pretty fast and fun, enjoying the act without putting too much thought into the atmosphere, just picking up on both of your energies. Sometimes he'll make a conscious effort to take it slow and really make the most of every sensation, wanting to memorise every intimate moment, but about half of those times he would get so worked up and excited that he would end up picking up the pace and getting back to his usual rhythm without noticing.

Q = Quickie (their opinions on quickies, how often, etc.)

Adrian is sometimes so turned on by the simple things that make you you, that a quickie is all he can manage, desperate to feel his release inside of you, and make you feel just as good as he does.

R = Risk (are they game to experiment? do they take risks? etc.)

I think you could suggest pretty much anything to Adrian and he would be very excited to try it, knowing you will always make him feel amazing and wanting to increase his connection with you. Also it's so easy to get him excited that he is willing to take risks as long as you are, like doing it in Murn's office when the team could arrive any minute, simply because you can't keep your hands off eachother a second longer.

S = Stamina (how many rounds can they go for? how long do they last?)

Adrian can get very easily excited, especially when you first get together and he has limited experience, so he's not the type that can last for ages. BUT we know how quickly he can recover from injuries and the same applies here, just a few minutes after you finally catch your breath he is absolutely ready for another round, already drifting his hand up your inner thigh.

T = Toys (do they own toys? do they use them? on a partner or themselves?)

Adrian didn't own any toys before you came into his life, but after the first time he watched you getting yourself off through your bedroom window he wanted to know everything about them. He bought a small vibrator when you first started sleeping together, gearing up the courage to ask if he could use it on you. If you are happy to, Adrian would love it, hearing you make the exact same noises as you did alone but knowing he was the one making you feel that way, the only thoughts in your head of him.

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

Adrian would love the way you tease him, knowing how easy it was get his full attention, have him pleading for your touch, a taste of you, anything to relieve the ache deep between his legs. He would sometimes try and return the favour, but he'd be so overexcited and desperate to please you that he would have much less will power than you.

V = Volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make, etc.)

Adrian is so fucking loud all the time, if anything it's magnified during sex. He would love saying your name, wanting you to know you are the only person he wants this way, between a steady stream of loud, low groans. He would also ramble so many compliments off during sex, especially if you were on top or going down on him. "You're so fucking perfect babe, just the sexiest person ever, you have the most beautiful mouth I have ever seen, it shouldn't be possible to feel this good." It would be absolutely non-stop once he started, until you cut him off with either a kiss or making him cum.

W = Wild card (a random headcanon for this character)

Adrian is very physically affectionate anyway, but he likes to have little tickle and play fights with you, and he never fails to get painfully hard within seconds of you retaliating. More than once he's cum in his pants just from the feeling of you wrestling him to the ground in fits of laughter - he just finds you that hot, and loves being touched by you and seeing you happy, so it's a real sweet spot for him.

X = X-ray (let's see what's going on under those clothes)

Adrian is in pretty much as good shape as a man can be, and I think he would be physically perfect in that department too. A satisfying size without being too imposing.

Y = Yearning (how high is their sex drive?)

His sex drive is about as high as a person's can be. The littlest things take him from 0 to 100 in seconds, immediately pulling you your lips to his, ready to take things further the second you let him know you are also in the mood.

Z = Zzz (how quickly they fall asleep afterward)

This could go one of two ways; if your sex was more fun and giggly Adrian would be buzzing afterwards wanting to stay up and talk until you drift off against his chest listening to him talk. If it is a slower, more emotional embrace then I think Adrian would feel so at peace he'd be able to drift off quickly, as long as he got to keep you in his arms.

[sodone-withlife]

icarus fell, and blood stained the ground

i'm back!! (but not really—the new school year literally starts in an hour and it will be back to my pathological dependence on academic validation. at least i can say i've technically published another fic before summer break ends)

anyway, here's the fic in response to part 1 of sumayyah's post. i published a companion poem for this some time ago. as per usual, i gave up on proofreading so hopefully any mistakes don't detract from the story. also, i hope the formatting and jumping back and forth between italics makes sense—let me know if it doesn't, though it might be easier to read on ao3 (it should go up on there by 4pm PST because school)

warnings: murder, major character death (may potentially be classified as suicide-by-proxy, depending on your interpretation), guns, canon typical violence, slight gore at the end, mentioned substances

word count: 1.9k words

The damned man thought of everything, Jessica thought as she scowled at the damned folder that sat innocuously on the large mahogany desk.

The desk that would soon be cleared, all traces of the previous owner gone.

She lifted a shaky hand and brushed it through her hair, shuddering at its greasy and unkempt state that hinted at the state she had been in recently. Weary to the bone, she forced herself to sit back up and grab her phone, dialing the number that was written on the sticky note placed on the inside cover of the folder. It didn’t surprise her to hear an unfamiliar female voice answer the phone with a “Ms. Brooks?”

He had thought of everything, after all.

Really, the only thing she was surprised at was the sheer extent of his connections—but thinking back to her phone calls with Haley back when he was still practicing law, the talks about extravagant offers from top corporations and firms, she really wasn’t surprised. Thus, it made sense that her call to the top law firm in the state would be answered within two dial tones and by someone who already knew who she was.

And within minutes of talking with the woman who introduced herself as Ms. Stevens, Jessica became even more aware of just how prepared her brother-in-law had been before he walked to his dea—

Not an in-law anymore—her brother. He had long since earned that designation, that spot in her broken family, no matter how much self-flagellation he put himself through in regards to her sister’s murder and no matter how much abuse her father hurled at him in the years before the man who once viewed him as a son succumbed to dementia.

Hours later, despite having already reached her limit twenty minutes into the call, she finally hung up the phone with only funeral arrangements as an immediate concern. Slowly, she stood up from the chair and mechanically made her way into the tiny bathroom that had once been a familiar sight, when her nephew was still a child—

She forced her mind away from that minefield; she wasn’t willing to spend another sleepless night thinking about what had gone down in the past month, what had happened a week ago in that apartment, what her nephew was doing and thinking in the cell that only seemed to become colder and crueler the more she thought about it.

How many prisons had he visited? How many interrogation rooms, holding cells, general population cells, max security cells, death row cells? Did he ever get used to it? Could he allow himself to get used to it, to forget that these people are also human no matter the crimes they’ve committed?

A careful hand fell onto Jessica’s shoulder, and she shuddered under the warmth that seeped into her body, a warmth that had been lacking from her life for a long time now. She turned to see Morgan staring back at her, concerned.

“You didn’t pick up your phone,” he explained neutrally, flicking his eyes towards her phone—and sure enough, there were ten missed calls, each from a member of the team. She looked back up but avoided his concerned gaze only to latch onto her reflection in the mirror and internally winced at her haggard appearance.

“Did you—“ she coughed, clearing her throat, “have you figured out what happened?” Morgan’s unspoken question about her well-being went unanswered, and she continued to avoid looking at him.

She watched the man shake his head through the mirror, unsurprised and once again cursing her brother for his incessant habit of playing his cards close to his chest, especially when it came to personal issues.

How else is—was—he one of the best at poker in the bureau, often even beating Reid?

“He hasn’t talked, either,” Morgan informed her quietly, saving her the pain of asking the question herself. “Forensics is still struggling to put together a cohesive picture. To be honest, I doubt we’ll ever find out what actually happened in that apartment.” He shook his head, frustrated at the man he considered his brother.

If either of them bothered to ask, they would have found that both were truthfully unsurprised at this outcome, given what they only recently learned about the factors and circumstances that led to it. The few established facts about this case in addition to speculation based on systematically organized notes left in an even more meticulously organized folder painted a clear enough picture of the events preceding the fall.

But it wasn’t really an accidental, flailing fall.

In all truthfulness, he didn’t fight it.

Icarus let himself fall to his death in an attempt to compensate for his hubris, to suffer the consequences of his mistakes, and it was both a cowardly attempt to escape the hellish burns caused by the boiling, melting wax and a selfless attempt to teach posterity to avoid ending up like him.

Jessica remembered the warmth of Morgan’s embrace when he ignored all protocol and took it upon himself to inform her of what had transpired in the past two months, regardless of the still-ongoing investigation. It didn’t do much to soothe the cold that had threatened to swallow her whole as she listened to the details in silent horror.

He had sat her down in her apartment, the one she had taken care of her ailing father in before he finally died and the one she couldn’t bear to move out of for all of the memories that had been formed inside—with her father on his good days, with her brother, with her nephew

“A week ago, we were invited by MPD to consult on a series of killings that happened over the course of a month. We had an eye on the situation since the second murder, and there were two more victims in the span of a week before we were finally called in,” he began quietly.

He had suspicions as to what was happening by the time the team was invited in on the case at the personal request of the MPD chief. It certainly wasn’t the first time he had come across this profile before, but there were simply too many puzzle pieces with matching edges for the connections to be brushed off as a coincidence.

“Based on the rate at which bodies were popping up, we anticipated another one within two days of us being called in, but the killer had gone suspiciously silent. We went through crime scenes, forensic reports, and things weren’t adding up.”

"It’s a local case and we’ve coordinated with MPD multiple times, they know the drill. I’d like to take a personal look as well, the brass has been all up in my business about this case given its proximity to the Hill."

That’s what he said to the team regarding him suddenly taking the initiative to go to the crime scenes despite his responsibilities—it had been a while since he last went out to crime scenes, often taking care of the office politics and coordinating the investigation back at whatever precinct or office the team had taken over.

“There were odd inconsistencies, missing pieces of evidence… There was evidence to show that the killer was an amateur, but ultimately the profile we ended up building was nowhere near as detailed as we hoped it could be—but it ultimately went a long way in helping us figure out what was really happening.”

Old case files going missing from his home office, growing interest in his job, sudden mood swings happening long after the worst of puberty, increased isolation, dropping grades…

Absentee fathers of Georgetown students being stabbed and shot to death as if the killer was unsure about what to do, an innocuous Jack-in-the-Box takeout bag sitting near the last three bodies…

Numerous signs, and yet it was the outwardly irrelevant piece of trash, perhaps a sign of the killer’s gluttony—a sick joke that only he could have recognized—that led him to put all of the horrifying pieces together. It’s been over a decade, and yet the memories of that damned day remained as clear as ever, dogging his every footstep. Nightmares in which the worst happens still often visit him in his sleep, sometimes even combined with the effects of Peter Lewis’s drug concoction, effects lingering even after all these years.

“Somehow, we completely missed the fact that he fit the victimology. Maybe it was because of his efforts to distract us… If we had put it together earlier we might have been able to figure it out much earlier, and maybe everything could have turned out differently.”

Only after intensive counseling and careful editing of his case reports was he allowed to continue in the bureau after Lewis and his targeted attacks, and yet he knew he was still being watched. It was with that thought in mind that he made a decision on how to handle the situation. Either way, his life would be irrevocably changed, and there would be casualties alongside him.

All he had to do was figure out how to minimize them.

“He never came in that morning; Reid was the first to notice the lights off in the office. We were headed towards his apartment complex as soon as we saw a cleared-out office with a retirement letter being the only thing left on the desk. All of the pictures, trinkets, law books, messy stacks of paperwork—gone.”

A retirement letter for formality's sake, one copy emailed directly to the director and one printed on his desk, to simplify some things for the bureau and to ensure that Jessica and his son get his pension should the worst happen. All of his decisions, meticulously recorded and justified, except for this last one to protect the team from the consequences of his choice. All of his notes, all of the claimed evidence, carefully stored in the file box he left next to the retirement letter back in the office. Favors accumulated since law school called in, contacts throughout the local justice system ready to step in and deal with the fallout.

All of this, an attempt to compensate for the mistakes he’s made over the years and his hubris, to protect the remnants of his family and the team.

Morgan couldn’t finish telling Jessica what had happened, voice somehow caught in his throat and refusing to cooperate. He simply shook his head, and she folded in on herself, the weight of the last week too much for her to hold up. Slowly, he pulled her into a hug, rubbing her back but not doing much more to soothe her.

This is a wound that wouldn’t ever heal.

The story ends like this:

Icarus burned, and Aaron Hotchner said nothing as the hand that held the gun against his temple shook with uncertainty. Everything he wanted to say was written—one might call him a coward, but writing had always been so much easier for him—and he knew that he would be the final casualty, that the killings would stop after tonight.

Icarus fell, and Aaron Hotchner was flung sideways, the unyielding bullet from his gun fired by his own son shredding the brain that thought had of everything but the emotional and psychological effects his final decision would have on his family and friends.

Daedalus grieved over his son’s crumpled form, and Jack Hotchner would be found with his father’s dead body in his shaking arms as he stared blankly at sights unseen to the team, who had come hours too late.

Blood stained the ground, seeping into the cracks and crevices of grasping fingers, and nothing would ever be the same.

[calpops]

honeymoon | c.h.

Your honeymoon with Calum is two weeks of bliss, snow, and going home. 

1k words 

Copyright © 2020 calpops. All rights reserved. This original work is not allowed to be reposted on any platform in any format (translations included). 

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Calum’s hand takes yours and you feel the coolness of his wedding band, it sends shivers up your spine and contentment through your heart. His grip is loose and he swings your arms back and forth as you walk through the airport with luggage toted behind you. You’re not sure how he had managed to keep your honeymoon destination a secret until landing but he did it and surprise hits you when snow whirls outside the windows. The location and its climate explains the long pants and sweaters he had packed in your suitcase but not the bathing suit, shorts and sun hats. You ask about them but all he does is shrug and smirk and tell you to wait and see. Calum has everything arranged—the ride from the airport to a small cabin situated in the mountains, the cabin warm and spread with your favorite flowers. Your luggage gets abandoned as Calum decides scooping you up and carrying you over the threshold is more important.

He sets you down in the small living area where a fireplace stacked with logs greets you. Though the cabin is warm a chill runs through from the open door and you shiver, but it doesn’t last long as Calum wraps his arms around you, dips down to kiss your cheek and brush hair from your face.

“We’re married,” he says, the two words becoming much like a mantra as disbelief still sits with you both. You sway in his arms and blush as you look up at him.

“Everything is perfect,” you praise, hoping he knows you mean everything from the wedding to the cabin you stand in now. To him. “But we should probably shut the door.”

Calum laughs as a blow of chilly air comes in through the open door. Your luggage still sits on the small front porch. You both go out to bring it in and shut the door so the warmth can stay with you and the cold can stay outside. Large snowflakes fall from the sky and add to the blanket of white claiming the ground. You’ve travelled with Calum before, usually going to warmer places with beaches and sunsets. The contrast is stark and white and the sights of the mountain and snow that dazzles from sunlight are beautiful. You’d go anywhere in the world with Calum. He starts a fire and turns back to look at you as flames flicker to life. He glows golden from the light and you pat the couch cushion beside the one you’ve settled on.

The night previous was long and filled with excited bliss and lovemaking. You’d talked of starting a family, not wanting to wait any longer, and then set out to try and achieve it. You stayed up until the sun claimed the sky and then raced to the airport to make it to snowy hills. Exhaustion hangs thick and weary in the air, content sighs follow as Calum settles next to you and doesn’t hesitate to pull you into his arms.

“You like it?” Calum asks, eyes darting around the charming cabin.

You nod as a realization strikes you. “It’s very private.”

All you could ever want for a honeymoon is time with Calum. Uninterrupted. Just you and him and the warmth of being with each other.

“Good, we have an entire week here,” he says.

“I thought we had two weeks?” You ask, knowing he had said two weeks for the honeymoon.

“One week here,” he responds and noses at your cheek before giving you a kiss. “Next week is another surprise.”

You smile and find yourself spending the week between soft sheets, keeping each other warm, in the hot tub on the back deck, out on the mountain with cold noses that rub together and trying to start a family, all while dreaming of your hopes. Most nights bring candlelight and soft music. After days of roaming the mountain and spending time in the snow you’re both content to head for the bedroom where a king sized mattress bids you well. You pull him into bed, his lips roaming your skin, whispered words of want slipping from his lips, your body reacting to the desires between you both. He mumbles words of praise and compliments that make you shiver. You respond in kind, his name a song on from your lips as you sigh. You know each other and all of the things that drive the other wild. His hands roam and wander and his lips leave marks where you like them best. Highs are reached and come down into soft holds and small kisses peppering each other’s faces. More desires are traded as nights drag along. Talk of a family claims your discussions.

Time slips by in bliss and one week seems too short. Your goodbyes to the mountain are filled with sorrow. You don’t think that anywhere could ever get better but you’re willing to find out so long as it’s with Calum. He makes you close your eyes through the airport, his hand leading you and headphones claiming your ears so announcements won’t spoil the surprise. You’re not sure where you are when you land, nothing about the airport is of note, nothing about the view gives anything away but when Calum tells you there’s another flight in store you have an inkling of where you’re headed, the time and preparation for the sun clueing you in.

Another flight slips past though it’s long, you sleep against Calum and wake to his grin and a summer sky greeting you. He’s brought you home to Australia where summer is warm and those shorts and sun hats in your suitcase will be put to good use. You end up in a hotel near the beach, spend your time under the sun, trading kisses and bliss in the sand, in the hotel bed and shower and seemingly never take your hands off of each other. You both find new habits of twisting your wedding rings, holding each other’s hands and staring at the bands in wonder and awe as you dream about the family you want. It’s a subject that comes up when you go to visit Calum’s parents during a day you’re able to drag yourselves away from the beach and the bed and each other; somewhat, he still holds your hand and kisses your cheeks and keeps you close. They broach the topic and where Calum would have hesitated before, uncertain eyes flickering to you and then away, he answers right away, a sureness capturing his voice.

“We want at least two kids,” he tells his mum one afternoon you’ve taken her to lunch. “Sooner rather than later.”

You watch as his mom lights up and coos about grandbabies. When lunch is over and you find yourselves alone again, laid on the beach with the sun in your eyes and the crash of waves on the shore you turn to Calum.

“I love your family,” you say, starry eyed at the prospect of being parents like his—loving and caring and always there.

“They’re your family too,” Calum says softly and brushes your cheek with his thumb.

You smile and nod, knowing that’s true.

“Maybe we’ll have a start to ours when we get home,” Calum says with longing in his voice and softness in his eyes. “I can’t wait to be a parent with you.”

You can’t either. You’re not sure what will happen when you get home. If his words will come to life or if more time will be needed but you know you’ll be together through it all.

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[jones-friend]

One With Nothing: a primer on making EDH a more enjoyable experience

Hello friends! Going on my eleventh year of playing this game, my playgroup and I have found ways to make the game feel better to play. It should be understood fun in EDH is mostly relative, it is ok if these things don’t apply to you! And these are more guidelines than hard and fast rules. While I discourage tutor use I still sparingly use tutors myself in a few decks. This is meant to be a guide on what habits we can give up to craft a more enjoyable experience.

The games I enjoy playing and am encouraging through this post are 1-2hr games of back and forth, a conversation where each deck at the table is given time to shine and every combat matters in the overall state of the game. Most suggestions for what to replace cuts with will be “more of what your deck already does”.

Tutors, in my opinion, are bad for singleton formats. Where singleton is supposed to be different every time they make games linear. Nothing feels worse than watching your opponent tutor for the exact card they need to stop you. Watching an opponent tutor into an infinite combo is also unfun because that isn’t a game, as a player you aren’t making choices in how you interact. The answer for what to run instead of tutors is also an easier one: draw power. Run more cards that put cards in your hand.

To make EDH more of a game we also have to return to what makes MTG a game: combat. Direct damage and loss of life often negates this. You can see it often in Nekusar wheel decks, the biggest offender of this rule. Typically Nekusar wheel needs a few turns to set up then by playing 2-3 wheel effects they’ve just about won. If you want games to feel better we need to remove these feel bad instant ping effects that don’t require interaction to work. Maybe run creatures like Toothy who get bigger on draw or Empyrial Plate that pumps the equipped creature equal to hand size. There are many ways to convert that power into creature power and use that to interact through combat, an avenue that brings the game of attacking and blocking forward.

Letting go of infinite combos is also necessary. As a rule for myself: no one card in my decks makes me win the game. The buildup of a boardstate makes me win, the more I’m able to do my strategy the better it gets. When you play Kiki Jiki/Pestermite for infinite haste tokens, you’ve negated the entire game that came before it. Its all been a test of “will X players have one counterspell on turn Y? No? I win”. It isn’t a game to be shown two cards and be told you lost, and honestly, infinite combos are so much less interesting than synergy. Good synergy will always make better games than singular bomb cards.

This going to sound condescending but this is something I’ve noticed at many, many shops. If you want to have good games of EDH you are going to have to let your opponents play to game. Too often do I hear “everyone HATES my deck!” If I’m told that I disengage from the EDH pod, I’m here to have fun. Common tactics include mass land destruction, oppressive control a la Winter Orb, and hand suppression. As a courtesy lay off mass land destruction effects, allow your opponent to play the game (this is different from culling lands). Hand suppression through denial and discard is another way EDH games are made less satisfying. If no one can play you can’t have thrilling plays back and forth that swing the course of the game.

Thassa’s Oracle falls into the trap of “we need to stop running cards that win on the spot”. Its good to give each opponent at least one turn to deal with the problem, everyone gets a draw and a chance for a sorc speed response. Lab Maniac allows that (assuming you don’t Doomsday, but here Doomsday is the problem).

Extra turns. Its time to stop taking them. You’re the equivalent of the person taking 4 slices of pizza bc you’re worried they’ll run out. Taking Turns decks can rot, watching someone else play the game for 30 minutes while you wait on your turn 6 is miserable. It feels bad. I say this as someone who copied Time Stretch in Riku of Two Reflections. If you decide to run an extra turn card PLEASE run one that exiles as it resolves. Its so easy to keep recurring and playing extra turn cards and accidentally make an infinite loop.

Lastly, examine how much control you’re running. Honestly? Most decks run too much. Some of my blue decks don’t run any counterspells on principle. My own numbers are usually 5 counterspells, 3-5 boardclears, 3-5 targeted removal. We want to interact through the game’s combat system. Maybe change up what your removal does, limit what you can hit by swapping Counterspell for Negate. Give conditions and options that make the game more interesting for you and your friends to play.

Above all, remember that this is a game you play with your friends. You should all want to have fun playing together. Playing your deck should be as fun as playing against it. If your deck makes playing miserable don’t expect people to play with you.

[uwua3]

Yo! Can i ask for a cute Pirate AU with an adventure seeking MC pirate captain, who, when she and her crew are making a stop at some port, meets her childhood friend, Tenma, with whom she has romantic tension, only Tenma is a big blushing tsundere mess, and MC is verrrryyy oblivious to his blushiness, but accidentally innocently flirts with him?? If that makes sense? Also oops the soldiers have seen me, the wanted pirate, wanna get out of here and join my crew?

summary: a deal is made between a pirate captain haunted by their legacy and an island medium who wants to go home

warnings: alcohol, death (mentions), cops/police, crime, fights (physical/arguments), fires, ghosts, military, near–death experiences, pirates, slow-burn, swords, unrequited love/love triangle

author’s note: thank you so much for your patience requesting this pirate story~ i did my best to do this justice, as i love pirates more than anything! .*:ﾟ（｀・ω・��）ゝﾟ:*. this was a jolly good time to write, thank you! (please let me know if you would like a part 02 to this, as it ran longer than expected)! thank you!! :D

word count: 6,163

music: ship in a bottle – fin

captain, let’s make a deal.

☀️🌻 sumeragi tenma

even out at sea, you couldn’t escape the fire that destroyed your town years ago. the fire that made you become a pirate captain

you were born by a local village by the coast, where the air tasted like salt no matter what and trade was your community’s main economy

it was home. a place where everyone knew each other as family, where the sun was hot upon even warmer smiles and the euphoric laughter of children surrounded the island. this was the land of the happy, the free, and the united

it wasn’t until the damn navy—your first enemy until death—came

according to heresay, pirates were supposed to plunder and pillage without mercy. pirates were the villain and yet, what would the navy be then? after what they did to you, they were anything but heroes

yonaguni was made of tall palm trees that provided shade during the eternal summer that sunburnt your skin, floating markets by the pier with tricky elderly and learning apprentinces in the family business, and rare wildlife not found anywhere else

now, it was nothing more than hell. you could remember it all—how the flames licked the open wounds from navy seamen, the screams of the innocent replacing what would’ve been last words meant for decades later, the sound of crashing trees blocking every available escape route as birds flew away in the distance

you were just a yonaguni native, and now, there was nothing left of your hometown. it was permanently erased from world history forever, and you were the sole survivor of the island, making you the most wanted vigilante alive

it had been years since you last had a nightmare of the attack. was haunting your brain and traumautizing you for life during every waking hour not enough?

but, you knew the answer why you couldn’t stop mourning the loss of yonaguni

it was nearing the anniversary of your friend, sumeragi tenma’s, death

and, as you climbed to the crow’s nest with the power of the ocean running through your salted veins and spite overwhelming you in the deepest, darkest parts of yourself, you could see it over the horizon

the navy said dead men tell no tales, but you were alive, and you would be a legend

“all hands ahoy or you’ll be given no quarter!” (everyone on deck or you’ll be shown no mercy)

“aye, captain!” your crew replied eagerly, their loyalty unwavering and strong as always. you stood atop of the main mast, surrounded by vast ocean bordering a blue, cloudless sky. even without your telescope, you could see everything in the world

beneath you sounded the swing of the lines (rope) against the wind before two feet landed in the crow’s nest. the sailor had the type of agility that only came from a boy born on sea

“cap, don’t tell me ya forgot about me?” your quartermaster, rurikawa yuki, grinned (a rare sight that only came when the ocean smelt strongest of salt and treasure), standing at the ledge whilst holding onto the lines with one hand. any other novice would’ve immediately fallen off with how strong the random gusts of wind were, but yuki was an enigma and your second in command for a reason

“ahoy, yuki! so long as the jolly rodger waves, this crew will always be ready to set sail.” you responded, sliding down the mast to be in the crow’s nest as well. yuki just rolled his eyes, crossing his arms and leaning upon your frame like it was nothing

“don’t hornswaggle (cheat) me, cap. what are you thinking about?” yuki read you like a map, as expected of the second best cartographer (after master boatswain muku, of course) in all the seven seas. you tried to remain present in the moment, with the wind flowing and sky clear, but it wasn’t enough

“... tell me, yuki. is it so easy to read the distraught upon my face?” you joked, but it fell flat as yuki raised an unimpressed eyebrow at your facade. yuki didn’t take bullshit from anyone, not even his own captain

“aye, do not be acting as if you’re feeding the fish (about to die), captain.” yuki carefully watched if any of their small crew was eavesdropping, but the rest were doing their proper tasks for the morning. cartographer muku was happily reading directions to helmsman misumi. the two were a fantastic pair, considering the “sky” ship hasn’t sunken

surgeon kazunari was dutifully sanitizing his medical tools besides them, taking some time to laugh loudly at some story misumi was dramatically reenacting as he spun the wheel skillfully

“boom about!” yuki called out without looking away, already feeling it in his bones moments before anyone else could. his intuition was unheard of, and you watched no one hesitate as they ducked just in time

“sorry~!” misumi responded without any apologetic tone to his voice whatsoever. his sailor’s grin was infectious and wide, a smile only those accustomed to the fatal winds and waves of the ocean could make. just like everyone else on the “sky” ship, they all were forged by the sea

“smartly make way to land before i toss you off myself!” yuki snapped, but it held no malice. he rolled his eyes unimpressed when kazunari laughed at misumi’s sarcastic salute, knowing pirates did no such navy thing without mockery

“oh, dear yuki, how could i drown with you by my side?” you reached over to ruffle his hair, the precarious creak of the wooden mast the last thing on your mind as yuki swatted at your hand, irritated by the littlest of things as always

“you’re right, i’ll have your head first anyways.” yuki said with no malice, giving you a small frown as his calculating eyes glanced over you once more, trying to find any cracks in your confident visage. when he found nothing, he climbed back down, seemingly unsatisfied when you didn’t break under his stare

(you were one of the few on the crew who didn’t flinch. the other was misumi, who just had no fear towards anything, so it wasn’t personal. after all, misumi was the finest swashbuckler around!)

ahead, your acute sight narrowed in on the growing formation in the distance, your gut tensing before realizing it was far too large to be another ship

with a grin, you hanged over the edge (a habit that no longer scares your crew), your voice amplified as it was carried downward by the wind. it was to be expected, of course, as a yonaguni native, your town always had a special connection to nature that no one else did

“my men, turn your heads and look forward into the horizon! what do you see?”

“land, captain!”

“then let us sail faster! the sooner we reach the shores, the quicker you all can take a damn shower!”

with a shared lighthearted laugh, everyone focused on their role and position towards the land mass ahead. whether it was the possibility of smelling like something else other than a siren’s cove or something more, you smiled, forgetting about last night’s sleepless disturbances

up ahead was fukusaki, sky crew’s next location for the night

after three months or so on sea, your crew’s resources were dwindling (much faster since everyone had a bottomless appetite). it was time to visit a port town to stock up and set sail the next sunrise

sure, it was a rushed habit of yours, but it was never good to stay in one place for too long. that came with the risk of losing again...

besides, who liked a crew of pirates to suddenly come to the town square in their stained clothing and gleaming swords?

after barely securing a place to tie down the great beauty known as “sky”, entering fukusaki was like any other town. merchants upon the docks were experts at haggling prices, civilians went by with their day to day life, and the sun burned everyone’s skin just the same

but as you placed your leather boot upon the wooden dock, something inside you turned. like something had suddenly shifted in the town but you had no idea what

yuki seemed to have felt the same thing, even if his facial expression didn’t change. as kazunari kept muku from fighting with a seller for a map of the local area (misumi was unfortunately encouraging him), yuki inched closer to you, his brows furrowed

“you feel that? something isn’t right.” yuki bluntly stated, eyes scanning his surroundings like usual. except he didn’t know what he was looking for, so a frustrated sigh left his lips

“aye, feels as if someone’s running a rig (playing a trick) on us...” you murmured under your breath, careful not to alarm the returning muku with haughtiness ablaze in his eyes and sheepishness from an apologizing but relieved kazunari (it was hard to believe muku used to be shy prior to joining)

“keep a look out. let you know if somethin’s amiss.” yuki peeled away, checking in with muku asking where the closest tavern was. at the mention of alcohol, misumi jumped in, rambling about how he had already talked to a local about all the best spots

you took a moment to take a deep breath in, the scent of palm trees and fruit replacing your usual endless seas. it wasn’t unsettling, just new. your sea legs itched to return to somewhere always changing, always new, but you knew you couldn’t do that to your friends

you straightened your back and walked with the confidence of a true pirate captain, swinging both your arms around kazunari and misumi, peering down at the map with an easy smile

“alright my hearties, where to?”

this gut feeling could wait, you had a few hours to relax before everything turned upside down

of course the captain got the most inconvenient yet boring jobs that could’ve been assigned

(yuki didn’t look sorry as he happily enjoyed your childish huff at being the grocery shopper, knowing how much you hated to interact with people outside of the crew)

due to your very limited people skills, you awkwardly tried to summon your confidence to come back around all the fukusaki shop vendors. when you were with your crew, all eyes were on you and how high your head was held. but, when alone... a captain was nothing without its crew, you supposed

a messily scrawled list by kazunari was in your hand (never ask a doctor to write anything) as you tried to decipher the words, holding it up to the sun to figure out what the hell he wanted

after getting the main idea of what each person wanted within budget, you stood on the outskirts of the town square, desperately trying to decide what was the best way to approach this situation

you couldn’t appear helpless or confused! how were you supposed to haggle in this state of mind?! as you slowly spun around in a circle to view all of the sellers before settling on a rather small, unimpressive stand

maybe that meant cheaper prices! you thought cleverly, walking over with the poise of a seasoned native. with a neutral expression, you reached a wooden display with a certain swagger to your step

however... there was nothing. as you stood in the front of the set-up and realized no one was there, you couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. what kind of service was this? was there no one actually here to sell anything?

before you could leave, a flash of orange appeared in front of you, purple eyes wide as if surprised they even received a customer. “w-wait!” he called out, nearly falling over his own table. this kid would clearly not make it upon a ship, you thought

for whatever reason, you stopped, looking over your shoulder with an unimpressed expression at the simple boy. he was tall and lean, wearing a bandana around his orange hair and an unbuttoned shirt. it was a casual appearance unfit for a merchant

“what is it? i’ve got places to be and there’s nothing here to be sold.” you stated, a wave of shock passing over his face before solidifying in a stubborn crease in his forehead

“huh? what are you talking about? haven’t you come here to get rid of that?”

when he reached out, you jolted back, a surge of energy visible in your body. you felt that strongly, what the hell did this random merchant do to you?!

“w—calm down! stop moving or i can’t remove the yokai! you’re making this difficult.” he demanded roughly, his proper words clipped from an accent unlike any other on this island. there was a certain... twang, to his vocabulary. as if it didn’t sit right, as if it was on the tip of his tongue

so much for customer service! you didn’t listen, dodging his hand like your life depended on it. as you ducked beneath his arm, you gripped his bicep with a death glare. at your narrowed eyes, the orange-haired boy gulped and stared back with astonishment

clearly, fukusaki natives weren’t this rude

“yokai? what the hell are you blubberin’ about, kid?” you questioned, your patience thin like a century-old rope worn down by salt. he set his lips in a straight line, as if trying to assess if you were serious or not. when you didn’t budge, he yanked his arm back and rubbed the sore spot, giving in

“ghosts. you got more spirits than normal around you, they’ve been there for a long time.”

you were about to retort, but fell silent at the remembrance of yonaguni. had your ancestors been with you all this time? you almost couldn’t believe you’ve been actually haunted by their deaths for this long

“i have no ghosts. do not try to scam me.” you flatly said before turning on your heel, intent on leaving the possibility of ghosts behind before tenma took a hold on your arm this time

“but, they’re trying to tell you—”

before tenma could finish, an irritated and offended voice boomed just down the cobblestone pathway

“you dare lay your hand on our captain?!”

“yuki, wait!” the crew clambered after him, hands always short of his shirt fabric as yuki’s sword made a sickening sound when pulled out of its sheath. the orange-haired boy let go immediately, attempting to make a run for it before coming face to face with misumi, whose previous smile was cold and nonexistent

it was as if the other merchants disappeared, fearing a start of a fight would be terrible for business. tenma was caught in the middle of a 5-person circle, with yuki pointing the tip of his sword at his throat

“state your name and business for grabbing our captain like that!” yuki was adamant on proving his sword was real by putting it closer to the boy’s adam’s apple. he tried not to shake under the pressure, but you noticed how his feet had no shoes and looked ready to run to anywhere but here

“um... t—johnny. it’s johnny, and i simply belong to a family of fukusaki mediums, that’s all.” johnny(?) said, as if trying to convince himself. all of you secretly exchanged a look, trying to decide whether or not to believe this so-called johnny

“you see ghosts?” yuki scoffed, his position already clear on the issue. ever since you two have met, you knew yuki never believed in anything involving the supernatural. after all, so many mysteries were hidden in the ocean, yuki doubted anything could scare him on land

but, you... you’re starting to believe johnny as you notice his eyes waver towards you. maybe not so much you, but whatever was surrounding you

“yes, sir. i can communicate with them as well. ever since i was a young boy, i’ve brought peace to the dead.” your head snapped towards him at that, something inside of you turning

that boy could bring your ancestors peace? could it be too good to be true? as if hearing your thoughts, johnny nodded to reaffirm your beliefs

before anyone else can join in on the questioning, you held your hand up and everyone fell silent, waiting for your next words. you could easily tell yuki to kill this boy and he would... but you won’t

“how much are your services?”

johnny blinked, clearly not used to this question as he mentally calculated whatever in his head. “uh... i usually don’t get paid.”

“if we took you on your ship, how much then?” (you immediately hushed a protesting yuki and wary crew)

“my payment wouldn’t be money.” johnny quickly said, almost shocking himself with how fast that answer came. you raised an eyebrow at that, about to question his terms before muku turned, eyebrows furrowed

“there’s someone coming.” muku whispered in a hush, immediately on guard as everyone shifted to a defensive position. at the first sound of a boot on ground, kazunari’s eyes widened. a telltale sign of the cop’s traditional uniform, which kazunari knew better than most

“go! go! go!” you ordered, everyone taking off running. without thinking, you took a hold of johnny’s hand. he squeezed it without flinching, turning and impressively staying by your side even as you got faster and faster

you were fast, but you despised running with a passion. if you closed your eyes longer than a blink, you could almost smell the smoke and crack of the tree trunks. for some reason, johnny smelt like coconut, and that humored you to a certain extent as your crew ran for their lives from the officers. someone must’ve alerted local authorities nearby...

even with a map, muku was lost to the island’s complex system. despite being quick on his feet, muku’s eyes frantically analyzed the outdated lines and pressed his lips into a straight line out of frustration. you knew you should’ve stepped in, but what could you have done?

“follow me!” johnny whispered hurriedly, turning into a waypoint before stopping and looking back. your crew subconsciously looked towards you as well, as if asking if this fukasaki native was trustworthy

though, it’s not like you had a choice now

you ran with johnny, the rest of your crew following suit. when you reached a dead end, you expected this to be a mistake before johnny nimbly flung himself up the ivy-covered wall, landing with a hard thud as if he hadn’t done so in a long time. ignoring the pain, johnny extended his hand an impressive height away

“grab my hand and we’ll be free!” pirates weren’t one to say no to freedom (or put all their coins in one chest...), so you got down to provide a boost to your crew mates. it wasn’t a time to be noble, so they all took your support without complaining, easily being able to run past johnny

when it was your turn, the sound of polished boots grew increasingly closer, much to your chagrin. you backed up quietly, gulping and trying not to look behind you as you glanced up. both johnny and yuki were standing there, their hands extended as you got a running start

you closed your eyes, breathed in the imaginary smoke, and leaped, feeling the grip of both their hands upon yours as they helped you up. just as you ducked beneath the foliage, you breathed a sigh of relief as the officers ran by without sparing a second look

when you opened your eyes, you noticed johnny was still holding your hand, his fist tight around yours as you could practically feel his heartbeat through leaning on his shoulder

you got up to thank johnny before noticing yuki’s uncharacteristic quietness and the way his eyes looked between you and johnny... as if he was betrayed

you didn’t think more of it despite the sinking feeling in your stomach

it was a night to celebrate! escaping the cops was no easy feat, especially on a foreign island. your crew, who had taken a liking to johnny’s ability to hold his own, invited him to drinks (not that they needed guidance to the safest tavern, of course...)

you nursed your own drink of choice at a rickety table with the crew, watching as they became less like pirates and more like their own ages with a few drinks and good music. yuki didn’t drink, which was something that had always occurred no matter where they went

johnny was flustered under all the attention, or it was the alcohol everyone insisted he could keep down. you stifled a chuckle when kazunari hooked his arm around tenma’s neck and ruffled his hair, the look upon his face priceless

you took a sip before lowering the cup’s rim, noticing yuki’s wary gaze. he met your eye with a frown, as if hesitating on what to say next. once again, how strange

“captain,” at that, you tried not to outwardly wince. it wasn’t common for yuki to be so... formal with you, at least. “do you truly intend on bringing this stranger with us?”

“johnny is no stranger anymore, yuki. he saved our lives, we are indebted to him.” you flatly said, glancing at johnny once more. yuki huffed, clearly disagreeing with your opinion as he rolled his eyes

“we would’ve been just fine without him. plus, he’s a medium! how do you know he’s the real deal, anyways?”

“i just... know.” you tried to elaborate, but it fell on deaf ears. there were some parts of your past you just couldn’t elaborate on, some parts that wouldn’t make sense to a non-yonaguni native

yuki slammed his water on the wooden table, a sound barely distinguishable in the rowdy atmosphere before getting up with a skid of the stool. he silently left, no doubt heading back to the docks where the stars shined the brightest and moon made things shrouded in dark more visible

you got up and followed without speaking another word. the crew knew disagreements between you & yuki were far and few, so there was no time to ask silly questions

when you reached the outside, the salt in the air and muffled sound of everyone having fun made you stop. behind you, you noticed the door didn’t slam completely as a quick-footed pair of feet made their way besides you

“are... you okay?” johnny asked, his hands in his linen pockets as you exhaled, nodding as you leaned onto the wall. johnny stiffly stood by the door, as if guarding it

“yeah, yeah. i am... just a little tussle, that’s all.” you sounded as if you were trying to convince yourself, but neither of you pointed it out. a few moments of awkward silence passed, before johnny cleared his throat

“okay, i didn’t hear nothin’. just... heard the spirits around you get loud.”

there he went again about the ghosts and spirits! you subconsciously patted your hair down flat, turning to look at johnny with yuki-like skepticism in your narrowed eyes

“how can you see there are ghosts on me? how do i know you’re not pullin’ my leg?” you suspiciously questioned, watching as johnny bristled under the attention. it seemed as if the island natives didn’t question his credibility as a medium

“you know i’m right. you have tens, maybe more, spirits attached to you. i can help you take them away, for a price, of course.”

“which is?”

“i want to find an island lost to me long ago.”

if you blinked, you could’ve sworn you were talking to a past-version of yourself. why did that request seem so familiar?

“do you know its name?”

“nay... my family refuses to tell me anything about where i’m from. all i know is the navy is the reason i lost my parents.”

“mine too.” you admitted with a breath and the conversation paused, you two sharing an understanding expression of sympathy but unshakable faith. you two understood each other despite knowing one another for a few hours

“then, is it settled?” johnny held out his hand, which you took with a firm grip. his palms were soft for an islander, funny enough. he must’ve thought differently since this was one of the few times you took off your leather gloves

“as long as you bring peace to my ancestors, you’re comin’ with me.”

when the hours became late and you ultimately decided everyone passed their limit a long time ago, you and johnny led them all to their barracks with laughs and humor in the air

when you reached the docks, yuki was barely noticeable in the night as he stood upon the mast of the ship, his hair waving in the wind like a flag

he didn’t look at you, not once, so you didn’t climb up. how could you when johnny was holding your hand with his eyes flickering back to you, or whatever was around you?

you introduced johnny to his new quarters and left him to be, feeling free for once in your life that night

morning came with the unfurling of your sails and your position in the crow’s nest. the sky was blue and cloudless, just like everyone predicted as the sea welcomed your crew into its arms

“ahoy, my hearties! off we go to find our next treasure!” you commanded joyously, the crew hurrah-ing in return at your enthusiasm. like most pirates did, your crew’s goal when off-land was to find a ship to rob and make off with their goods

you turned to the side, about to say something before realizing yuki wasn’t next to you. he must’ve slept in, that’s all. you didn’t question it even if he was always on time the years you knew him

disguising your expression of disappointment, you left your crew to their own means, sliding down the mast as per usual. when you landed, you noticed johnny standing awkwardly to the side as everyone was doing their own job

“hey, johnny! what are you muckin’ around for?” you questioned lightheartedly, slamming your freshly-shined boots (after an unfortunate drunk throw-up incident) upon the oak boards. johnny flinched from the sound, unaccustomed to the constantly-busy atmosphere of a large ship

“do you... need any help? i kinda, feel guilty just lazing about in my quarters.” johnny confessed, a red flush against his face as he rubbed the back of his permanently-sunburned neck. you were taken back for a moment, not used to being offered help

“um... you seem to know how to throw a person off their rhythm! i have nothing on mind as of now, hmmm....” after much consideration, you snapped your fingers with a start. “perhaps consider shadowing me for today! get the feel of a captain’s life—”

“no need, captain. i will take him off your hands for you.”

you turned to see yuki besides you, his feet silent and eyes attentive as always. you sensed the tension still imbedded between you two, gulping as you tugged at the collar of your shirt. for some reason, you immediately felt disappointed at the missing opportunity of tenma being with you

why were you feeling this way?! there was no reason to think like that as a busy, efficient pirate captain!

“thank you, yuki. return him in one piece, alright?” you joked, turning away to review what needed to be done that day. as you left, you didn’t notice yuki place a cold grip on johnny’s shoulder with an uncharacteristically eerie stoic pose

johnny looked after you, wondering what was behind that shroud of spirits who wanted nothing more than to see you freed of them

“you’re quite lucky the captain has taken quite a liking to you, johnny, was it?”

yuki & johnny found themselves ending the ship’s tour in the underground of the main deck, located along the cannons placed in their corresponding holes. the smell of gunpowder and flint was nearly suffocating, but yuki moved with ease and seemed to revel in johnny’s tight expression

“y-yes... the captain is very kind and charitable to take me on board.” johnny managed to get out without coughing, his eyes inspecting the materials and wondered how loud it truly was during battle

“you agreed to come so soon. you have no family of your own?” yuki asked innocently, mindlessly fixing the placements of the bombs behind the barrels. johnny shook his head, explaining it wasn’t an emotional attachment he had to fukusaki

“how... suspiciously fortunate.” yuki deadpanned, suddenly whipping around with a blank stare. it caught johnny off guard, who nearly stumbled back into a cannon. yuki wasn’t armed, but his tense demeanor and personality change was jarring

“listen, kid, i’ve got no clue who you are, but you have no reason to be upon this ship.” with every word, yuki seemed to come closer until his pointer finger pushed in the center of johnny’s chest

“you may have fooled everyone else, but our captain has always been too naive. i see right through you, johnny. who are you, really?”

johnny shuddered, backed against the wall and desperately holding onto anything that can keep his wobbly legs up. he didn’t know if it was the rocky seas or yuki’s simmering anger, but he felt like he was staring straight into one of those cannons

“i’m johnny, an island medium who sees ghosts on your captain. it is my duty to let them go, that’s all.”

a moment passed, before yuki took a few steps back. before johnny could react, he found the tip of a real sword pointed at his neck once again

“you’re lying, i know it. do not make me ask you again, who are you?”

johnny tried to remain placid in the face of a weapon, but he gritted his teeth and couldn’t help himself

“why the hell does it matter to you? are you in love with your captain or something?!”

silence, then yuki lowered his sword. he sheathed it back, before turning and leaving without another word. johnny let out a deep breath, sinking to the floor as he closed his eyes

if johnny listened hard enough, he could hear your spirits try to communicate with him. but, their voices were garbled and unlike anything he’s heard before. who were you and why was he here?

the first time you & johnny met in terms of spirits was two weeks after a pattern of sleepless nights

he already found you teetering close to the edge, your hands folded as you searched for something, or someone, past the blackened seas

it was as if some savage sea monster had spilt its ink-like blood into the waters, the once blue surface that reflected lucky skies now murky and as mysterious as the dark side of the moon

with your usual guarded glint now gone, you still seemed just as capable to be the one responsible for such dark seas

“good evening.” johnny mumbled lowly, placing the lantern besides his feet as he made his way next to you. you hummed, not particularly fazed by his sudden appearance despite not paying attention. it’s as if you had eyes in the back of your head, like a sea monster

“i suppose fukusaki isn’t used to the rocking of wooden ships?” you retorted, to which johnny sharply exhaled through his nose, a sign of amusement at your observation

“nay, but... i haven’t been able to properly maintain my sleep schedule ever since boarding. your spirits... are rather loud for ghosts.”

you full-on laughed at this, disturbing the intimate atmosphere between you two. johnny couldn’t help but smile at your worn-down exterior. you presented yourself like you were made of a glass bottle, but you were as intricate as a carved artisan ship

“try living with them your whole life, boy, then you can start complaining about their volume.” you jested lightheartedly, offering a soft smile at the newest recruit. as you leaned back onto the railing of the ship, you watched the constant surface of the waves, as if you could anchor your endless thoughts to davey jone’s locker

johnny mimicked your position, his elbow knocking into yours. his hands were much too soft for a seasoned sailor, you noticed this in the dim lantern light. for a moment, you let your impulses take over and you wondered how they felt against yours

“pardon my words, but when will you let me speak to them? i can never find you through the day...” johnny began to ask, but trailed off when your salted eyes and weariness became apparent in the way you exhaled quietly

“it is not your fault but mine, johnny. this is my ship and i am the captain, that’s all. i cannot allow myself to suddenly become weak in case i am needed.” you spoke like a true hero, well, as much of a hero a pirate could be

johnny didn’t exactly understand, considering he just got up and left his entire life on a whim of a promise to find out who he was. but, he nodded anyways, watching blurred movements of entities swirl around your head like troubled smoke

“what about now? will you let me—?” when johnny reached out, you immediately stepped back, your lips pressed in a straight line as if restraining your true reaction

“you look for every reason to touch me, don’t you?” you tried to force it out like it was nothing, but it was clear how your boots twisted like they were prepared to run away

when was the last time someone physically comforted you in any sense? or... comforted you at all?

“captain...” johnny mumbled, eyes wide with pity and you couldn’t stand it. he called you captain, but he didn’t revere you like a typical person would. he didn’t flinch at your sword or head held high, it was unnerving

“what is the purpose of having a crew if they cannot help you through this?”

the wind wailing against your ears reminded you of how little time there was in a day, and how the sun would rise soon and this cycle of pretending everything was okay would begin again

it was maddening, to live the same day again and again with no change

johnny perhaps was someone you looked forward to, a diversion from the expected

“do you consider yourself apart of my crew, then?” when johnny took a moment to think, you wondered what he was remembering. was it the night where misumi pretended to fall over board to scare everyone or was it when kazunari didn’t react to seeing a skeleton that time? was it when muku could predict every type of weather for the next day without fail or when yuki finally cracked at a joke after a hour of pretending nothing was funny?

or, was it when you two shared glances across the deck, clinked your glasses a little too long, or when your hands ghosted over another when pulling lines?

“yes, your crew is my own as well. and like them, i wish to help you, if you’d let me.”

you always found yourself unsure around johnny, unaware of how to respond in a way worthy of your pirate captain title. as you hesitated, johnny looked you in the eyes and his eyes reminded you of storm clouds thundering in the distance

“why else would you take me on the ‘sky’? if you didn’t want help?”

perhaps those were words you would reveal later, but you couldn’t bring yourself to share the real answer. it was a gut feeling that your world would be turned upside down, and you were right when you felt your throat dry at johnny’s hopeful gaze

johnny continued on, straightening his usual bent posture and his voice carried, like he was one with nature. as if they supported him unconditionally

“i know this is your own battle to win and this is your ship and you are my—our captain, but please... let’s make a deal.”

you stood, intrigued, as you witnessed a side of johnny never seen before. once meek, once easily intimidated, now talked to you like an equal

“let’s promise to say things we both really feel. be honest with me, do you want me to help? to remove the spirits and let them move on?” when you nodded, johnny let out a breath of relief and moved closer, gathering your hands in his. when you didn’t pull away and only tensed, he spoke as if he was sure things would change

“i can help you, i can make them go away. you bring me back to my home, i let your spirits go home. deal?”

“is that how you truly feel?”

“and more.” johnny’s eyes glanced down, and you felt your heart stutter as if the surface rocked

“i feel the same way. i wish to help you.”

that night, you remembered for the first time in a long time, a captain was nothing without its crew

[bokunoheroanalysisforthefuture]

Time for the rest of the first challenge. Event. Whatever. Words hard.

[No. 26 - Chase Down The Leader]

We flashback just a minute or so from where we left off, in order to see just how Izuku pulled off his impressive launch across the field. He stands at the start of the minefield, watching other students pick their way through - and occasionally setting off mines with missteps - while having a veritable mumblefest over the mines and the general issue of trying to pick past them. 

The general gist of the mumbling: The mines are the type that blow up when stepped on, and aren’t that strong, but can throw a student off enough to possibly cause a chain reaction and lose them a lot of time. It’s better to go slow to avoid damage, even for leaping types, and trying to slow others is a guaranteed time loss. Izuku then analyzes the field in front of him, noting the spots people avoid and that most students will be most on guard at the entrance, which means there are plenty of mines left for his plan so long as they stay frosty. 

Izuku puts his armor plate to work digging up mines, muttering about how anti-personnel mines should only be 14 centimeters or so deep (about 6 inches). Jirou, just making her way into the field and using her quirk to… I guess disable mines in front of her? Anyway, she actually notices Izuku is up to something and asks what he’s doing, though I think it’s not one she expects to get answered. In short order, Izuku has a pile of about a dozen mines, and mentally claims he’s taking a page from Kacchan’s book. Meanwhile, Present Mic announces Shouto and Katsuki are still in the lead, and that they’re about to cross the finish line.

Not for long, though, as Izuku names his adhoc maneuver ‘great blasting turbo speed’, throwing himself on top of his armor sheet and onto the pile of mines, launching him over the field and right towards the two leading the pack. Pretty much everyone hesitates or stops to stare for a moment, shook by the sheer brass balls it had to take to literally blow yourself sky high. The two most shook, of course, are Shouto and Katsuki, who only just start moving again when Izuku actually flies ahead of them, forgoing their fight in order to catch back up.

Izuku considers the whole experience intense, and is even more focused now that he’s managed to gain the lead. However, there’s one huge issue - he didn’t think far enough ahead to consider how he was going to land. As if that’s not enough, Katsuki is throwing himself forward with more explosions, screaming at ‘Deku’ to get back there (presumably to fight). Shouto’s not far behind, giving up keeping the others hindered in exchange for the speed he gets from icing over the field ahead of him - he doesn’t have time to worry about those behind him now.

Present Mic announces the temporary ceasefire between the two in order to chase down Izuku, and how when a common enemy appears, people stop fighting - then tacks on that, well, actually they’re still fighting, just not each other. Aizawa wonders what his friend is even trying to say. 

Izuku starts floating away from his armor sheet, the larger surface area causing it to stall and slow faster then he is. He grabs onto one of the wires as he recognizes this, and that if he loses time on his landing, passing the two again will be impossible. As the two just start to rush past him, Izuku swears mentally, telling himself to not let go - while he’s still ahead, this is his only chance. So, if passing them is impossible, then he has to maintain the lead. 

Somehow, he manages to flip in the air, using the momentum to bring the armor plate swinging around and into the ground right between the two, the pressure enough to set off several more mines. The two are forced to stop from the resulting explosion, while Izuku’s newfound momentum throws him readily ahead. 

As he falls into a duck and roll, Present Mic announces how Izuku blows off the competition with no time to lose. He goes on to marvel at Aizawa’s class, wondering what he’s teaching the kids. Aizawa says it’s not his doing, and that they’ve been spurring each other on all on their own. Present Mic rolls on with his commentary, asking who could have predicted such an incredible turn of events? Aizawa asks if he’s being ignored as Present Mic announces the first one back to the stadium:

Midoriya Izuku. The crowds go absolutely wild. Outside the stadium, Death Arms recognizes Izuku as the kid from a year ago. At home, Inko falls off the couch sobbing while repeatedly stumbling over Izuku’s name. In an unknown location, Shigaraki watches on while scratching idly at his neck. 

Izuku looks around the stadium while breathing heavily, eventually looking at one spot in particular. Somehow, he’s found Toshinori in the stands, and the two have a Moment™ from across the stadium. 

These fucking two, man. 

While Izuku is trying to keep himself from crying, the other students start making their way across the finish line as well. 

Toshinori thinks about how Izuku has the spirit of a savior hero to the core, but the sports festival is a competition that tests the exact opposite of that - your willingness to take down the enemy. Heroes nowadays depend on popular opinion so much. So many selfishly seek to beat everyone else. But that’s not Izuku - and that’s why Toshinori chose him, even as he thoughts that lack of selfishness would be his one weakness. He claps in the stands, happy to have been proved wrong and mentally apologizing for doubting him, even as he laments Izuku’s crying habits.

Some business students nearby catch Toshinori’s attention, mostly due to them discussing Izuku’s potential and how they’d market him. They talk about how Izuku’s stock is about to rise, but it’s hard to say what’s still in store for him since he didn’t show his quirk. They then start speculating about how a hero agency would market him if they took it on, with one pointing out how he’s not much to look at, so they’re have to push his skills and his unique, almost artistic sensibilities. When the resources you need aren’t there… Well, we don’t hear how that gets handled, but Toshinori does note how some things never change.

We get a brief narrative insert about the business course, most notably how they have nothing to gain by directly competing in the sports festival. Instead, they hone their skills as salespeople and run business simulations. 

Back with the hero students, we see Katsuki and Shouto both catching their breath. Katsuki is furious at Izuku once again managing to wrangle a win right from under him, while Shouto is just staring after Izuku silently. Present Mic announces more racers reaching the finish line, and that the standings will be gone over later, so the students can catch their breath for now.

Ochako and Tenya make their way over to Izuku. Ochako calls Izuku’s strategy awesome, while Tenya is in despair over losing a race with his quirk, stating that he still has progress to make. Ochako states that she’s jealous of Izuku’s first place; Izuku flushes and hides his face behind his arms, stating that it wasn’t that impressive, and was still too close. Internally, he laments that he just got lucky, that all his chance strategies happened to work. They say it’s awesome, but it was just a lucky break, and that the real test of skill starts now.

Anyways, Midnight announces the end of the race, and we get the results:

Midoriya Izuku

Todoroki Shouto

Bakugou Katsuki

Shiozaki Ibara

Honenuki Juuzou

Iida Tenya

Tokoyami Fumikage

Sero Hanta

Kirishima Eijirou

Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu

Ojiro Mashirao

Awase Yosetsu

Asui Tsuyu

Shouji Mezou

Satou Rikidou

Uraraka Ochako

Yaoyorozu Momo

Mineta Minoru

Ashido Mina

Kouda Kouji

Jirou Kyouka

Kaibara Sen

Tsuburaba Kosei

Kaminari Denki

Bondo Kojiro

Yanagi Reiko

Shinsou Hitoshi

Kendo Itsuka

Shishida Jurota

Kuroiro Shihai

Kodai Yui

Rin Hiryu

Shouda Nirengeki

Komori Kinoko

Kamakiri Togaru

Monoma Neito

Tsunotori Pony

Hagakure Touru

Tokage Setsuna

Fukidashi Manga

Hatsume Mei

Aoyama Yuuga

I wasn’t able to find this list in word form anywhere online, so I made it myself. You’re welcome. I also calculated the points each of them had going into the second event, but I’m not gonna worry about that here. I’ll do individual and team points when we actually get to the teams. That way, we’ll know who has which teams’ headbands at the end!

Moving on with the chapter. Midnight announces that the top 42 from the qualifying round will move on, conveniently just including every hero student as well as the two non-hero students who managed to place higher. For those who placed lower, the sports festival will have another way for them to show their stuff!

(Not that we see said show, which I mean, makes sense narratively speaking, but also…)

[I was going to insert the server discussion about my thoughts on the arbitrary cut-off point here, but it’s getting long enough to merit its own post at this point. So look forward to that whenever it goes up!]

Anyways, Midnight continues on, explaining that now the main selection really begins, and that the press corp is going to be jumping out of their seats, so the students should give it all they’ve got. Now, onto the second event, which she already knows - which confirms these are predetermined by UA and they just do the randomizer for the sake of the crowds. Said event is… 

the cavalry battle!

Kaminari is nervous at that, thinking about how he’s going to suck. Mineta is also looking concerned. Tsuyu notes they’re teaming up, but how, exactly? Midnight explains with a neat little graphic:

Basically, participants get in teams of two to four, and get into a horse-and-rider formation. The rules are the same as your regular cavalry battle - snag the opponent’s headbands while guarding your own - but with a twist. Each student has an assigned value based on their placement in the race. 

Sato notes that it sounds like the points in the entrance exam, so it sounds simple. Hagakure comments on how this means the point value of each team is based on its members. Midnight snaps and cracks her whip at the students that she’s about to explain, so they should shut up already. 

Individual point values start at five, at the bottom, so the student in 42nd place is forth five, 41st is worth ten, etc etc. However, the first place participant - that is, Izuku - is instead worth a whole ten million points.

That, my friends, is the face of someone realized they done fucked up.

Basically all the students stare down Izuku as he goes stiff from the internal panicking. Shinsou and Hatsume seem to be shown particular interest in it. Midnight finishes the chapter by noting that the higher-ranked students are the ones to aim for, and that this survival game is a chance for a comeback. It’s anyone’s game!

And with that, we end chapter 26… and volume three. Which means bonus content will be coming soon! See y’all then, and we’ll be back with more sports festival action in the next volume. 

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Earth is a Death World, “Ice Climbing.”

ope you guys like another themed story :) 

Wind whipped at the outside of his containment unit. It came in great frosty gusts and billows which made it difficult to see four people trudging through the snow in front of them. 

As the wind continued to pick up, great swathes of snow were blown off the ridge in massive undulating sheets. The little specks of ice clattered against the glass of the container even as he watched.

The five humans struggled through the snow, which reached almost up to mid thigh in certain places, though their thick layers certainly didn’t help their movement all that much either. They were slow and shambling , like great beasts milling about through the arctic expanse.

It was sometimes hard to remember  that they were even on a habitable planet, and that the humans din’’t require space suits because all around him he saw only an alien landscape covered in ice and bathed in the disseminated gray light of a blizzard.

Out of the snow he could now see a straight cliff-face rising up into the white. He might not have seen it if he wasn’t looking, though the occasional jutting rock was more than helpful, black against the white of the snow.

The humans hurried forward the snow growing shallower the closer they got to the cliff face.

Eventually they reached their destination, ducking into a small crevice in the rock where the wind wasn’t so bad.

Krill was set to the side against one of the walls trying not to look up at the towering cliff face as the humans adjusted themselves.

Five faces peered out from fuzzy winder coats, the hoods lined in animal fur clung to by flakes of ice and snow. Their faces were covered as well, their eyes only visible behind clear orange goggles, and their faces swathed by fabric to cover the exposed nose and mouth.

To his side, Adam Pulled up his goggles and down on his face protection. His light skin was red with the cold, but he didn’t seem to notice or care, “You picked a great day to come up here sis.”

Across the circle, one of the figures pulled off their goggles and ask as well. 

Maya Vir, Adam’s older sister looked out from the depths of her hood, “If I had known ou were going to be this much of a chicken, maybe I would have picked another day.”

Adam’s brothers hooted from behind their mass and goggles.

Adam rolled his eyes, “hilarious guys, just hilarious.” Maya grinned, “Anyway, I know a place. Husband and I mapped it out a few weeks ago, and it's a very good climb up, relatively easy, no jumps or anything like that.”

Krill looked out at them baleful from inside his test tube, “I thought we were done.”

The humans turned to look at him, though the expressions on their faces were mostly concealed he received wicked grins from the other two.

“What makes you say that?” Adam wondered, as the group began adjusting themselves, “We did say we were going Ice climbing.”

Krill nodded and crossed his arms, “yes, and there was plenty of ice and plenty of climbing.”

It was only when the humans began uncoiling rope did Krill know something bad was about to happen.

Even worse when he saw the humans….. Strapping knives to their feet?

What was this nonsense.

Up ahead of them, Maya pulled two pick axes? Or miniature hooked versions of the from her gear.

Krill stared.

“What are you doing with those.” he wondered, watching as everyone else began pulling the same equipment from their bags.

Adam pulled his face protection back over his nose and mouth, “Well how else are we supposed to get up the cliff.”

Krill stared at him, “I’m sorry, you, What!.”

Adam dropped his axes to the side for a moment, pulling Krill back onto his back, “That’s what Ice climbing means, Krill. We are going to use the ice to make it to the top of the cliff. In the summer there is a little waterfall here, but in the winter it gives us some great ice climbing.”

“Define ice climbing for me again, because this surely can’t be as stupid as I think it is.”

“You’ll see in a minute.”

Krill glowered out from his container, “Which one of your insane family members picked THIS pass time, why couldn’t you guys play cards, or have a picnic. I like those things.”

Adam snorted as they trudged their way over to the bottom of the cliff face.

Krill looked up at the great snow covered ice expanse, though evidence of the blue tinted ice was underneath coming down like a rock formation might form in a cave over a million years.

“You only like playing cards because you can count them, and picnics because you're a plan, and besides it’s my sister’s birthday tomorrow, and for her birthday she wanted to take us ice climbing.”

“Why is no one in your family normal?”

“What about dad, you get along with him just fine.”

Krill huffed, “I did, and then I learned he rides giant four legged beasts for work.”

The human rolled his eyes again.

Maya turned, “Alright, split up into one group of two and one group of three.

“Jeremy will be the lead on one, and I will be the lead on the other, “Adam, you can come with me.”

Krill very much didn’t like where this was going, watching as the humans tied themselves together with rope.

“There are guide points placed on the stone and the ice, so the lead will attach the rope as we go up.” She was saying, and krill watched as she drove back her arm and slammed the head of the axe into the ice. He could hear it crunch and shatter under the head of the axe and then lodge there as she kicked into the ice with the blade on her foot. Eventually she was suspended by nothing but the blades .

Adam looked up, watching and waiting as she slowly made her way, ten feet up the ice face where she found one of the hidden markers and connected dtheir rope. Adam let her get up at least twenty feet before following behind hooking himself to her rope  and following up after.

The other three were doing the same some meters away.

The higher they went, the worse the wind grew, until snow ad ice was buffeting them lightly from one side to the other. 

Krill was right next to full panic as they dragged themselves further and further from the comfort of the ground below. Water droplets trickled and froze on the face of the cliff as they clambered upward, the sound of the axes just barely audible over the howling wind. 

At one point he made the mistake of looking down but saw nothing but a white wall of snow as it blew past. The ground no longer visible.

He covered his eyes hating every moment that they were hauled into the air.

Why why why could he not be with a normal human, one that liked to sit in front fo the TV and eat chips.

Why couldn’t he be with someone sedentary, and the only thing he had to worry about was them dying from blood clots.

The human drove his hand back, ramming the blade into the open ice face. Small chips of blue cascaded down onto his arm and then fell into the white expanse.

Krill couldn't watch.

But the humans continued to pull themselves up using incredible and unbelievable strength to haul their own mass up the face of the ice wall, using blades and axes to get there, for no other reason than the fact that they could do it.

Why why why were humans so stupid 

Why couldn’t they just be content to sit back and survive like every other species.

And why, even when they insisted on having hobbies did it have to be something that involved, extreme weather, heights, and --arguably-- deadly weapons.

His angry contemplation didn’t last long as a distant voice cut through the blizzard, “ADAM LOOK OUT!”

Krill’s head snapped up, as did Adam, just in time to see the blue chunk of ice pelting down right towards him.

He didn't have time to move and Krill felt the violent jolt as Adam was knocked hard in the right arm.

The ice fractured one piece slamming again’st Krill’s tube.

Adam’s grip was broken on his axe twisting him to the left. The loop of paracord around his wrist, connecting to his axe caused the pick to be yanked from the ice face and flung around as adam flailed nearly hitting him in the back of the right leg.

As his body contorted, the ice around the picks on his feet shattered and gave way and his legs were flung out to the side as well.

Krill squealed, watching as the world careened past them.

He expected to fall but was surprised when they didn’t.

Adam grunted with exertion, and Krill looked up to find the humans still gripping hold with one singular ice pick. He looked down again into the white void, feeling as the human gained enough power to swing himself back to face front driving one of his feet into the ice for more leverage, and then the other foot.

From there he managed to swing the second pick up into his hand climbing back upwards to follow his family members who were frozen not twenty feet up the face looking down and waiting for him.

They seemed relieved when he appeared and climbed the last ten feet to safety.

Krill and Adam were hauled up onto the ledge, where, pressed back against the rock, the wind had died down again.

“Adam are you ok!” Maya said looking him over for injury, “I’m so sorry, I saw it dislodge above me, but I couldn’t stop it.”

He waved a hand, “It's ok, just a little bruised is all.” He flexed his hand 

Krill had had enough.

“OK! Ok! We nearly died. Why do you humans insist on going out in adverse death world weather where the visibility is almost zero,just to climb up an unstable ice structure using fancy knives and some rope thinking that will be enough. Why, why, why do you always have to do stupid things that involve almost falling to your deaths.”

His rnt continued on for a few minutes 

So its not like anyone had time to tell him that, even if they had fallen, the rope woudl have caught them

Just let him think what he needed to think

[hopelesshawks]

Physical Fatality Part 7- Good For You

18+ Hawks x fem, pro hero!reader

Summary: You’re a rising star in All Might’s agency. Hawks is the darling of Endeavor’s. By virtue of your job descriptions, the two of you are supposed to hate each other, or at the very least be cautiously neutral. For a long time that’s exactly what the two of you did. You stayed out of each other’s way and formed little opinion of the other. One fateful night at an HPSC gala changes all that. Based on the album Hopeless Fountain Kingdom by Halsey.

If you don’t want to see Physical Fatality content blacklist #hopelesspf

This story will have multiple NSFW parts so it is 18+ ONLY minors dni

Warning for alcoholism

Masterlist

The next month or so is pure bliss. With Hawks fully committed the weird moments of distance have stopped and with them so has the fighting. Not to say that it’s easy, task force work has meant some nights where you have to sleep in different cities or you work opposing shifts so you don’t have time to see each other. Even still, the two of you make it work.

Hawks is good for you. Your nightly routine used to almost always involve at least a few drinks. At first it was a way to keep nightmares away, then it was a way to cope with Monoma’s criticisms, and eventually it became a habit. Now your nightly routine has joint showers or bubble baths, music playing over speakers, gentle kisses and even gentler touches. One night, after you mentioned that your mother’s favorite song had been Put Your Head On My Shoulder by Paul Anka, Hawks had insisted on putting it on and slow dancing around your kitchen. Mina had walked in on the two of you and absolutely swooned at the sight. You’d sworn her to secrecy but the minute she realized Bakugo also knew she’d begged Kirishima for Bakugo’s number so she could gush about how precious you and Hawks are. The explosive blonde doesn’t appreciate Mina’s excessive messaging but he puts up with it because in all honesty he and Midoriya are both proud of you. So proud, in fact, that they brought a cupcake with a little candle on it to work for you to celebrate one month of sobriety. You mostly certainly did not cry no matter what anyone else says.

You’re good for Hawks too. For once he’s appreciating life outside of work. He looks forward to the moment he can sneak into your apartment or you his, and just spend time together just the two of you. It’s to the point where he just doesn’t sleep the same when you’re not in his arms. He loves collecting little facts about you, like how you look first thing in the morning and what you like for breakfast and what playlist you listen to when you’re getting dressed. He wants to catalogue every tiny detail about you. He wonders if, under normal circumstances, you’d like PDA. If he didn’t work for Endeavor and you didn’t work for All Might would you love holding his hand or let him wrap his arm around you as you walked? With each passing day Hawks hates more and more the fact that he can’t announce his love for you to the world. He takes what can get and enjoys the stolen moments, but not being able to enjoy casual affection with you outside of the task force and the privacy of your own homes is difficult. Which is probably why, when he spots you walking towards All Might’s agency as he’s flying there himself, he decides another stolen moment can’t hurt.

He spots an alley a little ahead of you and decides to drop in for one last stolen moment before you shift into work mode. As he lands he sends a couple feathers to you to let you know where he is. You follow them into the alley and the moment you’re in view Hawks reaches out to grasp your forearm and pull you into him, pressing a kiss to your lips. You sink into it for a moment as Hawks wraps his arms around your waist but then you gently push him back. “What if someone sees?” you ask, looking back behind you out towards the street, but Hawks gently grasps your chin and turns you back to face him. “No one will see Dove,” he assures you before pressing you to the wall to kiss you again. You have to admit it’s hard to say no when he’s on you like this so you relax into it and let yourself just enjoy the affection and his gentle touches. You feel your phone buzz in your pocket and pull away to check it, finding a text from Midoriya letting you know he would be getting to the agency soon. “We should go,” you tell Hawks. “I don’t want to though,” he whines. You roll your eyes and push him back gently. “Come on, we’ve got hero work to do,” you laugh and Hawks relents, aware that you’re right and these stolen moments can’t last forever. But as he watches you walk out the alley he’s struck with the thought that he’s really sick of the secrecy. He’ll tell Endeavor after the meeting, he decides, and then tonight he’ll talk with you about it.

Tokoyami has finally confirmed that the group he’s been following were the culprits behind the attempted attack. He was able to link a few members to maintenance workers on shift the night in question and then cross checked their identities against security cam footage. It was still unclear who was running the whole operation so there was certainly more work to be done and you all would have to tread carefully in your surveillance from now on, but at least it’s clear who to watch. The meeting ends after all of you have hashed out a new surveillance schedule. As everyone gets ready to head out Hawks stops you. “Hey, I need to swing by Endeavor’s, but afterwards can we talk?” he asks. “Sure. Mina is having people over so I’ll meet you at your place,” you reply easily. “Great, I’ll catch you later,” Hawks says before leaving the room. He mentally prepares himself for whatever the fallout with Endeavor will be as he heads out the building and then takes off to the other side of town.

He didn’t expect to be nervous standing outside Endeavor’s office. He didn’t need Endeavor’s approval to date you and he was well aware that Endeavor was typically anything but rational when it came to All Might and all those associated. Still, a traitorously optimistic part of him wants his loyalty to Endeavor to be rewarded with acceptance of his love for you. He doesn’t need or want a new father, but he won’t deny the somewhat paternal nature of his relationship with his mentor. So maybe that’s why he has to take a deep breath to steel himself before he reaches up and knocks on Endeavor’s door.

“Come in,” comes the gruff voice from behind the door. Hawks walks in to find Endeavor sitting at his desk leafing through the day’s incident reports. “I need to talk to you about something important,” Hawks states, not bothering to beat around the bush. “What is it?” Endeavor asks, his eyes not straying from the papers in front of him. “I’m seeing someone,” Hawks says. “Your personal life is really none of my business Hawks.” “I’m glad you think that way because I’m seeing Artemis from All Might’s agency.” Endeavor freezes, placing the papers down and finally giving Hawks his attention. “I beg your pardon?” he asks. “I’m dating (y/n) (y/l/n), aka Artemis, of All Might’s agency,” Hawks repeats. “I put you on that task force to catch terrorists not flirt with our rivals.” “She and I met before the formation of the task force. Both of us being assigned to it was a coincidence.” “Really?” “Really.” “I don’t believe you Hawks.” “I can tell you the whole story if you want?” “Very well.”

And that’s exactly what Hawks does. He tells a, PG-13, version of you and his love story from that first fateful moment he talked to you at the gala to today, and all the beautiful moments in between. That optimistic part of him hopes that maybe, if Endeavor just understands how much he loves you, then maybe he won’t freak out over this. “You really love her don’t you? More than those other women?” Endeavor asks and Hawks feels a glimmer of hope as he replies “I do,” without a second thought. He doesn’t know how exactly he expected Endeavor to react. He certainly wasn’t expecting the reaction he got. “I thought you were smarter than this Hawks,” Endeavor sighs. “Excuse me?” Hawks asks. “I should have known a young, pretty upstart from his agency would pull something like this. Hawks she’s using you,” Endeavor insists. Hawks reels back as if struck and immediately he’s filled with an anger he’s never felt for his mentor before. “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he warns icily. “If she’s so in love with you why all the secrecy?” Endeavor presses. “She got out of an engagement to Monoma recently and she can’t afford a bad headline,” Hawks defends. “Or is it that she doesn’t want the press to find out she’s using you. Awfully convenient isn’t it? That she didn’t leave her fiancé until after she had usurped him in the hero rankings.” “It isn’t like that, she didn’t even know who I was when we met.” “Don’t be so naive. How could she not know it was you Hawks? How many other heroes do you know with bright red wings.” Hawks doesn’t have a response for that. It’s a good point. He hates that it’s a good point. “I think she clocked you at the gala, then decided to further capitalize when she realized you were also on the task force. I know my son and his friends may have convinced you that the feud is only in my and All Might’s heads now, but I assure you it is alive and well amongst the vast majority of the heroes in our agencies. Lose the girl, Hawks,” Endeavor insists. “And if I say no?” Hawks asks, and he can feel his heart breaking because Endeavor has a point but he wants so desperately for him to be wrong. “If you say no then I’ll know you’re compromised and will have no choice but to pull you from the task force and reconsider your current position within this agency. I wouldn’t be able to trust you not to leak information to Artemis. Have I made myself clear?” “Crystal.” “Good. I’ll see you tomorrow Hawks.”

Hawks turns and leaves in a fog. Is it possible Endeavor is right? Has this been a game to you this whole time? He thought it himself that first day of the task force, the lower ranks of both agencies are still deeply entrenched in the rivalry. That had been your day-to-day up until what, a year ago? Of course you’d be more likely to believe in the rivalry and the stereotypes than Bakugo and Midoriya. And sure, it made sense that you would want to keep the relationship a secret when barely a day had passed since your broken engagement but it’s been months now. Surely if you care as deeply for him as he does you, you’d be eager to let the world know. Surely sufficient time has passed for the two of you to declare your love without you taking heat for it. Not to mention that Endeavor is right about Hawks’ identity not exactly being a secret in any scenario precisely because of his wings. There’s no way you couldn’t have known who he was, so why pretend as if you didn’t if not to take advantage of him? The questions turn over and over in Hawks’ head as he makes his way home. Even once there he paces his living room trying to find any way for all the pieces to fit together that doesn’t point to you using him. If things were different, Hawks may have played things out anyway, let himself cautiously believe in your love and wait for a betrayal. But Endeavor had made it clear that continuing his love affair with you would have dire consequences for his career and if you don’t love him all he’ll have left is his career.

There’s a knock on the door.

It’s you.

Of course it’s you....

He had almost forgotten he asked you to talk after he ran his errand at Endeavor’s agency. He was hoping for more time but he supposes now is as good a time as any to rip off the bandage. God his heart hurts. His heart hurts so goddamn much but he knows what he has to do.

He should’ve known better than to believe in fairytales.

He opens the door for you and immediately you can tell something’s wrong. “Hey I uh tried calling to double check if you were home yet but you weren’t picking up so I just swung by,” you explain sheepishly, the weird energy coming from Hawks making you anxious. “We need to talk,” Hawks says and the way he says it is ominous. You can feel your heart sinking and you hate it. What went wrong? Just this morning things were perfect. “I can sometimes treat the people that I love like jewelry,” Hawks admits, but he won’t look at you as he does so. “What does that mean Kei? What’s going on?” you ask and Hawks flinches when you reference his real name. He’s never done that before. You just want to understand what’s going on in that head of his but he’s blank in a way you haven’t seen in a long time. “I try them on and change my mind each day about them. I didn’t mean to try you on (y/n), it just happened,” he confesses. Your heart sinks even further.

It’s a lie. It’s a lie. It’s a lie. It was true of the previous women he’d dated, yes, but the reason he knows that now is precisely because it was always different with you. He knows your birthday and your mother’s favorite song. You know his past and real name. God he hates this but he always does it. He runs away when things are good because he’s scared of what will happen and he always has regrets afterwards. Not this time, he reminds himself, because you’ve been faking this whole time. And of course you were. He never understood the way you laid your eyes on him in ways that no one else ever could. Never understood how you could see past the broken pieces of him. “I don’t love you anymore,” he lies and each word is ash on his tongue and he needs to see your reaction now so he can know he did the right thing. He needs the final confirmation of your betrayal. But oh how wrong he is. When he finally looks at you his heart fractures far worse than if Endeavor were right, because you look how he feels right now. God you look absolutely crushed. But it’s not like he can take anything he’s said back now. It’s too late. It’s too late and so it seems he’s broken your heart and his own. His ignorance and faith in Endeavor have struck again. He failed to see or believe that you loved him as much as you claimed and now he’s torn you open.

“I’m sorry,” he says but he doesn’t elaborate on what he’s sorry for. He knows you’ll fill in the blanks incorrectly but it’s what he deserves for having such little faith in you. You’ll think he’s sorry for falling out of love with you but that’s not it at all. He’s sorry that he can’t believe that anybody ever really falls in love with him. He’s sorry he was so blind he couldn’t see that there was no way you could ever be faking what the two of you had. He didn’t mean to leave you and all of the things the two of you had behind, but it’s too late now to take it back. “Keigo please,” you beg and you sound small and broken in a way he has never once seen you. “Someone will love you (y/n), but someone isn’t me,” he says and it’s the final nail in a coffin of his own creation. “Fuck you Hawks,” is the last thing you spit out before storming out of his apartment. Someone will love you, he assures himself. It hurts now but someday, someone will love you that deserves you. That someone just isn’t him it seems. He keeps trying to convince himself of that as he numbly goes to his empty bed.

You don’t remember anything about the walk home. You move as if through a void, nothing else around you, nothing else matters. All that you can feel and perceive is the pain in your chest. How could he just fall out of love with you? You know his love was genuine, you know it from the bottom of your heart because he wasn’t lying about no one knowing his real name. He wasn’t lying about his past being a secret. Yet he had trusted you with all of it. So why was he abandoning you now? It doesn’t make sense. None of it does. All you know is that it fucking hurts. When you finally get to your apartment, you ignore Mina and her company and head straight for your kitchen, grabbing a bottle of liquor you can’t even bother to properly identify before heading to your room and locking yourself in. You sit down on your bed and the pain is still hollowing you out so you drink.

And you drink.

And you drink...

Author’s Note: I’m so sorry

Taglist [open]: @akkaso @cathy8taffy @eeppff @iikillerkitteh @pixelwisp

[rainydaymiddleearthimagines]

The Arrangement pt3 (Aragorn x reader)

Aragorn stood with the people of Rivendell, watching the silver crown be placed on your head as you were kneeled, your father and sister standing there with smiles. You stood up, turning to the crowd with a very serious look. Well, at least it was a stone cold serious look, until you looked over at Aragorn who, out of habit had a natural way of making you smile. “Blessed be, Princess Y/n Undomiel.” Elrond said. “Blessed be, Princess Y/n Undomiel.” The crowd all said in unison. 

Now was the part you could deal with, a ball pretty much in full swing as you stayed glued to the wall next to Legolas and Aragorn. Legolas was still adjusting to the new information that he was “Aragorn” and not technically “Strider”. You were surprised at his newfound acceptance to his name but you liked seeing this new... More confident side to him. “This is ridiculous.” You sighed, sipping your wine. “Agreed.” Legolas said. “They haven’t even noticed us not moving.” Aragorn noticed. “They talk each others ears off if we let them, which we will.” You said. “Give it thirty minutes, Elrond will notice.” Legolas said. “Then he’ll force me to..” You shuddered for emphasis. “Socialize.” You said earning a chuckle from Aragorn. “There’s a lot more people present tonight.” He noticed. “Well now we have the ambassadors from other elven cities, the diplomats, the assistants, personal servants, the leaders other children who weren’t able to come last night, the generals and a few soldiers.” you listed off. “At least you know your people.” Legolas teased. “Oh yes, father would be sooo proud.” You said sarcastically.

Arwen walked over with a pained groan. “The ambassador of Mirkwood is a very annoying man.” She huffed making you snort. “Remember when we spent Legolas’s coronation avoiding the diplomats?” You asked. She cracked a smile. “I recall someone dancing wildly on the ball room floor to distract the others so Legolas could sneak more wine out of the kitchen.” She said. Aragorn laughed and you smiled. “You seem a lot more cheerful tonight.” You observed. “I’m celebrating a dear friend’s achievement, is that not cause for happiness?” Aragorn asked. You rolled your eyes and opened your mouth for a sarcastic comment but was cut off by your father. 

“Y/n, this is a party for you, you should really socialize.” Elrond said. “I am socializing.” you said with a groan. “I meant, outside of your social circle.” He sighed. “Fine, but I’m avoiding Mirkwood’s ambassador.” You muttered. “We all are.” Elrond muttered, earning a small smile from the group as you were dragged off. “She was right you know. You do seem more cheerful than you were last night.” Arwen said. “I’ve been hiding my burdens... It feels nice to be able to live without them.” He admitted. “I was surprised to find out you were from Isildur’s line. I thought they died off.” Legolas said. “Most people assumed that after a while. The line ends with me.” He said with a shrug. “It might not.” Arwen said. “What do you mean?” He asked. “If Galadriel said she sits on a throne with you, there’s a good chance somehow, someway you will make a claim to your throne.” Legolas said. “I have no desire to do so.” Aragorn said. “Allow me to put it simply: Galadriel has had visions of Y/n sitting on a throne. I’ve had visions of you and Y/n falling in love. Two visions of similarity do not come from nowhere.” Arwen stated. 

Aragorn watched the diplomats talk and you slowly slip away and back to the group. “Alright, time to mess with the guards, it’s getting boring.” You sighed. “Hmmm. One on the left near the library doors, I’ll take the right.” Legolas said. Aragorn smirked as the two of you slipped away once more, standing next to the guards. Arwen sighed, putting a hand to her face as you began to make faces at the guards. Aragorn snorted, watching Legolas make inappropriate hand gestures. “These are the great rulers of our future.” Arwen sighed. “Y/n! Stop messing with the guards!” Elrond sighed. “Sorry!” You said, trying not to laugh. You seemed to have some sort of humorous conversation with Legolas, to stealthily mess with the guard. “I think left is going to crack.” Aragorn noticed, the man’s mouth twitching. “Oh not you too.” Arwen said. “Look at the man, he’s twitching.” Aragorn said. Arwen sighed, leaning off the wall. “My money’s on the right one.” Haldir said. “Oh good grief.” Arwen muttered. You made some sort of odd movements with your hand before the right one adjusted his stance. “Five silver’s for the left.” Aragorn muttered. “You’re on.” Haldir said. “You have been around my sister for too long. Both of you.” Arwen said. “Want in on it?” Aragorn asked. “....I’m with Haldir, it’s the right.” She said. Finally Legolas said something and the left started laughing, Aragorn turning to the two elves who both handed him five silver pieces. 

You and Legolas walked over, laughing and smiling. “What’s wrong with you?” You asked Arwen. “She lost a bet.” Haldir said. You gasped dramatically. “Arwen? Wager a bet? I’m shocked I tell you, shocked.” you said, earning an eye roll before an elven man tapped your shoulder. “May I have this dance milady?” He asked. Your eyes screamed, “SAVE ME” and Aragorn leaned over. “Shoot me a look and I’ll come over.” he whispered before you took the man’s hand. 

“For someone who hates the royal life so much, when she’s actually in the setting, she seems to really...” Aragorn struggled to find a word. “Thrive?” Legolas asked. “precisely.” He nodded. “She will make a wonderful queen one day if fate demands it.” Arwen agreed. “She’d make an excellent general.” Haldir said. “What makes you say that?” Aragorn asked. “Get her talking about war formations one day, you will understand what I mean.” Haldir said. “That’s something she picked up from Elladan and  Elrohir.” Arwen said. “Who?” Aragorn asked, recognizing the names. There was almost a flicker of a memory in Aragorn’s mind, but he disregarded it. “Our brothers. They’re the eldest.” She answered. “Why aren’t they here?” Aragorn asked. “They are more so... Protectors of Rivendell than actual royalty. Both their choice.” Arwen said. “Think that’s where Y/n gets it from?” Legolas asked. “No, although she does take after Elrohir with her attitude.” Arwen said. Aragorn smiled as you shot him a look. He set his glass down, leaning off the wall. “Duty calls.” he said. 

He tapped the man’s shoulder, asking to cut in. The man gave a bow before you took Aragorn’s hand. “You looked ready to kill someone.” He said. “The man was horse obsessed. Guess what? Did you know Mirkwood steeds can trot up to twelve miles an hour, because now I do.” you said, earning a laugh. “I’m sorry you had to bare that.” Aragorn said. “I’m sorry for myself, I wanted to impale myself on the guard’s spears.” you said. The song ended and you both clapped. “I guess we should stand with the group.” You said. “Or... We could keep dancing.” He said. “...Or we could do that.” You nodded, putting your hand on his shoulder and taking his hand once more. 

Galadriel watched you and the man, smiling at each other, along with Elrond and Thranduil. “Do you think your prophecy to be true?” Elrond asked, watching you dance. “The more and more I watch Y/n with him, the more certain I am of this.” She nodded. “I’m not sure I like my daughter with him. He did lie about his identity for five months.” Elrond muttered. “But he’s accepted his name now.” Galadriel said. Thranduil looked over at her. “I didn’t think you’d actually support them.” He said. “Y/n is intelligent. If there is a reason she will love him to a point of marriage , there is a good reason.” She said simply. Elrond turned back to you two, noticing the looks on both of your faces.

“They’re in love.” Legolas observed. “Oh, absolutely.” Haldir agreed. Arwen noticed Elrond’s observant gaze. “Father has resigned in trying to stop it.” She said. “That’s good.” Legolas said. “Indeed. It’s about time he’s learned that she can’t be controlled.” Arwen agreed. “Now it’s time for the next step.” Arwen added. “Which is?” Haldir asked. “For both of them to realize that.” She said. 

“You look lovely this evening.” Aragorn told you. “As do you. Sweet talker.” you teased. He smiled. “Do you think they’re right?” He asked. “About what?” you asked. “Us. Together. It’s... Odd, don’t you think?” He asked. “I tend to like odd.” you admitted. “But I do agree. I hold you close as a dear friend. Not exactly--” “Lover material, right!” He agreed. “Maybe we married as a political thing!” You said. “Good theory.” He nodded. You smiled, your heart seeming to pound. “...Or maybe we do fall in love.” You said. “...Maybe we do.” He said, dancing with you. “Only time will tell, right?” you asked. He found himself nodding to your words.

“Only time will tell.”

[lifeofkaze]

An Art of Balance #5

A/N: That one was tough. I have never written something with so much physical action before, and I had to rewrite a huge chunk of it until I finally felt happy with it. Describing sports is really tough, as it turns out. Also, KC belongs to the wonderful @kc-needs-coffee who lets me to a little cameo once in a while 😊 Enjoy!

 Word Count: ~ 3.100 (oops)

______________________________________________________________ 

Chapter 5: Back Home

A persistent rumour among the students was that Professor Binns had altered the clock in his classroom, back when he had been still alive. It was said, he did so to allow him to delve more minutely into every little detail of his subject he wished his students to remember.

If he hadn’t known any better, Orion could have sworn it was true.

He absentmindedly ran his quill through his fingers, trying his best to take in Professor Binns’s droning voice in what was their last class of the day. Orion glanced around the classroom. He estimated about half of the students were daydreaming about the upcoming weekend. The other half was fast asleep.

His gaze wandered out of the window. He could just make out the Quidditch pitch up ahead in the distance. The banners on top of the stands were swaying in a gentle breeze. He could feel it lightly brush his face from where he sat near the open window. It brought with it the pleasant warmth of a late summer afternoon.

Orion shuffled in his seat. He could feel his entire body brim with energy. The restlessness he felt had been bubbling under his skin for the last few days. He was itching to get back on his broomstick and to feel the wind on his face as he sped through the air.

This was what he had missed most during the summer break. When not at Hogwarts, he had no access to a broomstick, let alone people to fly with. Although Orion prided himself on always being grateful for what the universe had chosen to bestow on him, he sometimes he couldn’t help feeling envious of people like Skye. They could practise what they loved to their heart’s content, whenever or wherever they wished to.

He could feel McNully nudging him into his side. “There are only 23 minutes and 35 seconds left to his torment. 30 seconds as we speak,” he whispered.

Orion tore his gaze from the silhouette of the Quidditch pitch and turned to better face him. “Excuse me?”

McNully pointed at his now worse for wear looking quill. “You have been running your hand over this quill fourteen times in the last twenty minutes. In the last 45 minutes you have been staring out of the window seven times, with an average duration of five minutes. You have not been able to play Quidditch for 76 days in a row. And to add a personal note, tapping your foot excessively like that gives off an impatient expression and is rather annoying as well.”

Orion only now noticed his foot was indeed lightly tapping against the leg of table. He stopped.

“Sometimes I find your habit of observing your surroundings as meticulously as you do worrying, my friend.”

McNully shrugged, a carefree grin showing on his face. “What do you expect? I’m a commentator. I observe things and I comment on them. That is what I do.”

Orion had to grin at that. “It is indeed.”

He propped his head onto his hand, staring at the clock mounted above Professor Binns’s head. “I wouldn’t call it impatient, though. More like eager. I can’t wait to get out of here.”

McNully had started doodling onto his parchment, drawing tiny snitches between his notes. “Call it what you want, it doesn’t change what it is.”

Orion contemplated his words. “I agree. The appearance of the shell cannot change the core of things.”

He could see the confusion forming on McNully’s face. “I’m about 34 % sure that is what I said.”

 Only a few hours later, Orion felt himself unable to wipe the grin off his face. He stood in the middle of his beloved Quidditch pitch, the sun warming the back of his yellow robes. The unmistakable smell of grass, wood warmed by the sunlight and broom wax made him feel almost intoxicated.

Most of his team had already taken to the sky. They were getting back into the swing of things, darting around the pitch, doing turns and dives. Even down here, the joy they radiated was contagious. Everyone was wild with excitement to finally be back.

“And here is Parkin with a triple backwards flip. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a move to be watched! But what is this? Parkin is challenged to a race around the pitch by Jameson! Which Chaser can push their Comet’s limits further? There is a 92,4 % chance we are going to find out!”

He stifled a laugh. Of course McNully was here to commentate on their first friendly of the season. Orion hadn’t been the only one antsy to get back to business.

His attention shifted to the group of tense looking students stood in front of him.

Orion had carefully selected a few Hufflepuffs that were known to be skilled flyers. Every one of them had the potential to fill the vacant spot on their House’s team. He had already been thoroughly testing them, before admitting them to a practise with the other players. They had all passed his balancing test. Now it was time for them to prove themselves in action.

When he saw the reserve players arriving on the field, he mounted his broomstick.

“Now, my friends, is the time. The quest to become one of the pillars the building that is the Hufflepuff team is built upon is almost complete for one of you. For our new Beater to be revealed, we will have to see how you fare in a real match situation.”

He raised his arm, calling his teammates down to his side. “We will divide into two teams and play for a bit before switching things up. Good luck to all of you.” He inclined his head towards the contestants, some of them looking positively sick with nerves. “May this division serve to bring us unison.”

He unlocked the trunk resting at his feet and watched first the Snitch and then the Bludgers shoot up into the air. Picking up the Quaffle, he pushed himself off the ground.

“Let’s play.”

 If returning to Hogwarts had him feel like being home, tearing up and down the pitch made Orion feel like he truly belonged here. In contrast to the hectic movements unfolding around him, playing Quidditch granted him unparalleled focus, similar to nothing else. All that mattered was the moment at present, nothing before, nothing after.

He had taken himself back from the game playing out in front of him to better watch the students competing for the open position. Jason Everett, a rather loud and braggy guy, was one of the competitors he had chosen. He was sharing the dorm with Orion and McNully and Orion had never been able to form a real connection with him. To his surprise, however, he was showing great promise.

He decided to take the challenge up a bit. Putting himself on the same team as Lizzie and Skye, he wanted Everett to compete against a full set of Chasers for the second half of the match.

It wasn’t until flying with Skye and Lizzie by his side that he fully realised how much he had missed this. He felt like sheer life was running through his veins.

Although they hadn’t seen each other since the end of last year, it took them only a few manoeuvres to regain the unmatched unison the Hufflepuff team had grown reputed for. They had managed to create a bond between the three of them that didn’t require any words.

He felt this connection especially with Lizzie, allowing them to move almost as one when attacking the opposite goalposts. Throwing the Quaffle back and forth between them, it was no easy feat to stop them from scoring.

With Skye, it was different.

They had played together even longer than he and Lizzie. If there was harmony with her, it was all friction with Skye. The two of them were entertaining completely different beliefs on what Quidditch stood for and how it should be approached. As a result, they regularly clashed, on the pitch and off.

Contrary to what most people would think, the tension between them had never worn him down. Like a static charge, the constant challenge Skye Parkin posed to him acted as an energiser. Discussing strategic matters with her had never failed to give Orion new perspectives outside of his own thinking patterns.

“Here is what we all have been waiting for, my honoured spectators. Now, we are getting serious!” McNully was giving it his all in the commentary box, clearly relishing the first friendly of his not-so-secret favourite team.

“Amari and Parkin are on the hunt for the Quaffle, Jameson’s broken out of formation. If I didn’t know better, I’d say we are about to see the Parkin’s family pinching signature move! Watch this! The Chaser is flanked by Amari and Parkin. This is not looking good, ladies and gentlemen, if I were in possession of that Quaffle I would seriously be worried right now. Oh, and there we have it! Jameson makes expert use of her Comet’s impressive speed and pulls up from underneath her opponent, forcing her to either let go of the Quaffle or her broomstick. Parkin relieves her of the Quaffle, using her broom’s patented Horton-Keitch Braking Charm to drift around, racing to the other side of the pitch, Jameson overtaking her and Amari close by her side.”

Lizzie was diverging from the path he and Skye flew on, preparing to round and get behind the other team’s attacking Chasers, allowing Skye to pass the Quaffle to her at the last moment. They had used this strategy numerous times and it had seldomly failed them.

“Parkin sets herself up to score. Or is she letting Jameson have the advantage? We might never find out as Everett, hot contestant for the vacant Beater position, aims his Bludger directly at Parkin. This might get ugly!”

McNully was right. Everett had hit his Bludger straight towards them. It rushed towards Skye at a fast pace. Orion shouted a warning, but she had already seen it coming. She waited for a moment, dodging the Bludger at the last second before passing the Quaffle on to Lizzie, who made short work of the Keeper.

“And Jameson scores! That’s ten points for her team and an impressive show of flying skills from Parkin if I may add.”

Orion nodded contentedly before turning around and chasing after the Quaffle again. Lizzie and Skye both didn’t seem to have lost their fire. They were in good form.

Despite himself, he liked the potential Everett was showing. He wasn’t nearly the Beater they had lost, but he had foundations they could build upon. When Lizzie had needed to fill in for Bean a seasons ago, he and McNully had made a more than capable Beater out of her in a shorter amount of time.

His mind was taken off his thoughts when he saw a yellow flash dart past him. It was their Seeker Lucy, who had spotted the Snitch hovering just underneath the railing of the Slytherin stand. The other Seeker had seen it as well and both were racing towards it.

“Both Seekers appear to have spotted the Golden Snitch. Catching it would reward their team with additional 150 points. We’re talking the winning catch of this game here! O’Connell utilises the advanced speed of her broom, but Miller has less ground to cover! Both are nearing the Snitch at high speed, if no one slows down, we had better alert Madam Pomfrey. But no, no! O’Connell takes the absolute last out of her broomstick. She secures the Snitch and her team’s victory!”

Orion saw Lucy raise her arm in triumph, the wings of the tiny golden ball beating frantically against her palm.

Everybody was steering their brooms towards the ground, clapping Lucy on the back. Orion landed beside her, putting a hand on her shoulder.

“That was magnificent catch, Lucy, well done.” He turned towards the other players that had gathered around them and raised his voice. “Although Lucy secured the win for her team, all of us have won today. As we were competing against each other, we were competing against ourselves. Overcoming what’s inside us makes us stronger, and lets us grow closer as one team.”

“One team!” everybody shouted what had gradually become their motto, raising their broomsticks up in the air.

Orion turned towards the contestants. “Watching you play, I have been able to gain insight to the path that lies ahead of us. I will contemplate which one of you will get the chance to balance  our team. I will let you know my conclusion when it is time.”

“And that would be when?” Everett asked impatiently.

Orion tilted his head and smiled placidly. “The time has come when the time has come. And the time is not now.”

A mix of confusion and frustration on his face, Everett left them standing and headed for the changing rooms. Orion had seen this look countless times before. New players always needed time to grow accustomed to his ways.

He was already going over the contestants’ performances in his mind when McNully rolled onto the pitch and joined his side.

“Brilliant match! The way I see it, you and Gryffindor are pretty evenly matched this season. I announced them the day before yesterday. If you keep up the form and choose a capable second Beater, that is. I calculated the odds and I would say Jason Everett has the best chance of fitting in, he is fast and has suitable strength. His aim is not the best though, 31,6 % of his Bludgers missed their mark.”

McNully’s eyes lit up. “I know just which one of my playbooks he needs. He will never miss his target again.”

Orion quickly filtered the information his friend had been spewing at him. He was right. Everett was far from ideal, but which player was when they started out fresh? They were like rough diamonds, waiting to be cut and polished until ready to shine.

“Can a Bludger really miss its target, though? Or is it the Beater that misjudges the path the Bludger is meant to be taken?” he mused.

“Whatever it is, I am glad this particular Bludger’s path was not destined to end in Skye’s face.” Lizzie and Skye were approaching them, their brooms resting on their shoulders.

Skye scoffed at her words. “As if it could have hit me. I had things under control. It takes more than that to bring a Parkin down.”

Lizzie rolled her eyes. “He is no Erika Rath, for sure, but it was good enough for a beginner, I would wager.”

Skye’s face darkened. “Don’t remind me of her. It has been such a beautiful day so far.”

“You will have to deal with her rather sooner than later. Ravenclaw is set as your first match in two months’ time. And from what I have seen so far, their Beaters are still the best Hogwarts has to offer.” McNully’s voice had a dreamy touch to it, making Lizzie chuckle.

“We all know you particularly enjoy watching the Ravenclaw Beaters,” she teased with a sweet voice. “Give KC my love, next time you see her, will you?”

“I have no idea, what you are talking about.” His face was blushing a deep scarlet. “I am merely doing my job and keeping my statistics up to date. I’d better get going now.” McNully turned his wheelchair hastily and rolled off quickly.

Orion was giving the snickering girls by his side a scolding look. “You shouldn’t taunt him like that. Our hearts’ desires are out of our power to control.”

“Calm down, Orion, it’s just a bit of fun. He can take that.”

The sun had slowly started setting, the stands casting their elongated shadows across the field. Skye rubbed her neck. “Come on, Liz, let’s get changed and head back to the castle. I’m starving.”

Lizzie hesitated, glancing at Orion for a second. “Go ahead, I’ll be with you in a second.”

Staring at her friend in wonder, Skye shrugged. “Whatever. Make it quick, I won’t wait too long.”

After Skye had left, Orion and Lizzie were alone on the pitch. He watched her staring back at the castle for a moment, the sunlight catching in her golden-brown hair. She seemingly tried to collect herself. He couldn’t deny being curious about what was on her mind.

He smiled openly. “What can I help you with, Lizzie?”

For an instant, Lizzie seemed to look for a way to word her question. She didn’t look him in the eye.

“Uhm, you are quite good at Herbology, aren’t you?” she mumbled.

He raised his eyebrows. “Being in balance with oneself brings you closer to nature. If you listen closely, the plants can tell you what they need.”

She sighed. “I take that as a ‘yes’.” She ran her fingers over the smooth handle of her broomstick, still not looking at him, her shoulders unusually tense. “Would you mind helping me studying?”

He tried to hide his surprise. “You need a tutor? Professor Sprout regularly fills me in on the academic progress of our team’s members. She never mentioned you struggling.”

“I haven’t so far,” Lizzie replied quickly. “But I had a look at the curriculum for this year. It’s really tough, and I don’t want to mess up my O.W.L.s because of a plant biting my finger off.”

It still struck him as odd, but Lizzie was his friend. He wouldn’t let her down if she sought his help. “I’ll be glad to guide you through your curriculum, as long as you desire my help.”

Finally Lizzie met his eyes, obviously relieved. “Thank you, I appreciate this a lot.” She suddenly seemed to remember something. “Can my friend Rowan come, too?”

His surprise turned into confusion. “Rowan Khanna is struggling with a subject?”

“Well, she is a perfectionist.” Lizzie shifted her weight from one foot to the other. A strand of hair had come out of her ponytail and she impatiently tucked it behind her ear. She was radiating a nervous energy Orion had never seen on her before.

“Of course, bring her. I’ll talk to Professor Sprout about using the greenhouse and let you know the details, is that alright?”

All of a sudden, Lizzie seemed much calmer. She sighed with relief, a smile forming on her face. “Brilliant. See you in the Common Room.”

With that, she spun around and quickly left. Now alone on the pitch, Orion stared after her and wondered what in Godric’s name that had been about.

[nerdycursive]

Tsukishima, Kageyama and Atsumu teaching their s/o how to play HCs

Tsukishima Kei

• he will not initiate it and do not expect him to say yes for at least the first 10 times you ask him

• he will only agree to do it because he will get bored of you asking sorry lmao

• the tiniest little part of him will find it endearing though, underneath all of his Tsukishima-ness he likes the fact that you’re so passionate about the things he does

• when you ask him to teach you how to play his position he snorts because you? really?

• full-on mean girl laughs at you when you jump and your hands don’t even go past the top of the net

• actually gives you constructive criticism though, tells you about the correct way to jump and hold your hands and whatnot

• finds it hard not snort when he grabs your fingers to reposition them and your face goes red

• the lesson won’t go on for very long, most likely because it’s before or after practice, and either way he has things that he needs to get done and he knows you do too

• when you joke about doing it again some time, he rolls his eyes but doesn’t say anything and that’s enough for you to know that he feels the same way

Kageyama Tobio

• may well be the end of your relationship on both sides lmao

• everybody knows Kageyama takes volleyball very seriously and just because he’s playing with his s/o doesn’t mean that he’s going to go any easier or be any nicer

• if anything he’ll probably try harder because he want to make them proud (but because it’s Kageyama he just ends up looking cocky)

• if the relationship is fairly new, his comments could be hurtful, however, if you’ve been with him long enough to know his habits you know that he doesn’t necessarily mean it the way he says it

• logically, he thinks the easiest thing to teach is a basic serve so that’s what he goes with- however, his teaching is fairly limited

• “You do this.” “But how?” “Like this.” “You’re just doing the same thing again, babe.” “I did it slower.”

• It’s actually a pretty good exercise for him, having to explain the ins and outs of how to do things- and for once he doesn’t lose his temper because he actually likes spending time with you

• if only he felt that way when trying to teach Hinata

• by the end of your little impromptu lesson, you can hit the ball a little bit with some vague level of accuracy but nothing special, just a newfound respect for him and what he does

• will blush if you give him a kiss on the cheek at the end and thank him

Atsumu Miya

• cocky little shit

• totally opposite of Tsukishima, he begs and begs and begs for ages for you to let him teach you a few things- he’s so whiny about it lmao

• texts you about it at least three times a day

• when you eventually agree he’s over the moon because he knows he’s about to flex so hard

• meanwhile you’re just laughing cause like he’s so dumb? flexing like you haven’t seem him play before? love him.

• does the whole ‘get really close so are bodies and next to each other and I can teach you the right form’ but instead of being hot and intimate he’s sweaty and you trip him over your leg

• shout at him in the middle of his serve, I dare you

• he decides to try and teach you how to spike, being a setter after all

• says that you look like a chicken when you jump and then shouts when you punch him in the arm for it

• all jokes aside, if you even flick the ball with the top of your fingers he’s gonna be so proud, lifting you up and swinging you round like a ragdoll

• he’s gonna keep going on and on about how the two of you are going to be the most powerful duo in the whole of volleyball

• “But what about you and ‘Samu?” “Fuck ‘Samu” “OI”

• the pair of you just mess around until the rest of the Inarizaki team show up and then you stay and watch them practice for real :)

P/S: sorry this post formatted really weird idk how to fix it 😐

[thekytchensynk]

Ain’t No Picnic (1/9)

I really need to get in the habit if posting things here and at AO3, both, at around the same time, every time. But laaaaaazy. Summary: They were just supposed to head over to the island real quick, just to see what was going on. After all, if pirates were trying to ambush and kill the Straw Hat crew, how could Coby NOT go? And how could Helmeppo let him go alone? It should be simple enough, but nothing can be taken for granted in the New World, and when things go awry, Helmeppo finds himself separated from his captain on an island chain full of pirates who probably won't be too happy to see a Marine if their paths cross.Oh yeah. And one of those pirates is the infamous "Surgeon of Death," Trafalgar Law... Warnings: Occasional strong language Read it on AO3 _________________

Bullets whizzing overhead had become appalling boring at some point.

The thought occurred to Helmeppo as he ducked behind a rock, crouching low below the projectiles. Sure, Marine training had been all chores and jogging and Garp’s fists for a while, but once he’d followed Coby out into the real world, it seemed people were always shooting at them.

“Hang on,” an unfamiliar voice said from the other side of the cavern the fools were currently shooting in. The muted tone of the voice told Helmeppo the words weren’t directed to him, but probably to the rest of the gaggle of pirates on that side of the cave.

The shooting died down, and quiet fell over the cavern. In the void came the sounds of fingers reloading weapons and feet splashing in the thin layer of water on the floor. Helmeppo used his thumb to adjust his grip on the kukri that he hadn’t dropped like an idiot. He wished there were dry clothes to change into, but that was nothing more than a fond daydream at the moment.

“Did we get him?” a higher voice asked. They were trying to speak quietly, but the open space carried every word. 

“Shh,” admonished another. The voices fell quiet. In their place were … footsteps. He heard four sets, but his limited haki gave him the idea that it was more like five. Maybe six. Some of them were pretty good, he had to give them that.

Limited space. Firearms. Outnumbered maybe six or more to … well … 

His eyes slid to the left, hidden by his shades. A lanky man hunkered down behind the same rock formation a few feet away steadfastly ignored him. The guy seemed focused on wringing out his sodden hat. No help there. At least he didn’t seem intent on joining in the attack on the other side either. Good enough, he supposed. 

Helmeppo flashed his kukri above the rock, immediately drawing another volley of gunshots. As the clamorous echoes died down, he scuttled left and vaulted over his cover. His wet clothes tugged at his limbs, but not enough to hamper him.

Eight. It turned out to be eight of them, with several of them fairly closely bunched up. Looked like his haki was just as unreliable as his ears, But Helmeppo couldn’t restrain a small smile, taking in the scene.

Perfect. 

With two quick steps, he planted his lead foot and chopped downward, knife biting deep into the crook of the nearest man’s elbow. The blade slid free cleanly as the gun dropped from his target’s hands. But he didn’t even pause. Two more steps and Helmeppo dropped to a knee in the thin puddle covering the entire floor, slashing upward across the midsection of a second attacker. The move could have disemboweled the guy if he aimed a little lower. As it was, he’d given the man something to worry about. 

The next nearest guy had wisely abandoned his unloaded gun and was in the act of trying to pull his sword, but his sodden leather scabbard seemed to be giving him some trouble. Springing forward from his crouch, Helmeppo reversed the knife and slammed the hilt into the man’s temple. The guy abandoned the attempt to pull his weapon in favor of bringing his hands up, trying to protect his head, but not fast enough. The second strike in the same spot sent him to the ground. 

As the guy crumpled, Helmeppo made as though to strike him a third time, but  switched the weapon blade-first again with a little twirl of his fingers, cutting just above the falling man’s head. Another of the pirates (a larger guy than the rest) was closing in beyond his falling teammate, but threw on the brakes as he saw the knife coming at his head. Letting the momentum of his swing aid him, Helmeppo stepped forward and brought his other hand up in a left hook that sent the man staggering. 

The rest of the crew were a little more spread out. Helmeppo scanned the room at a glance, searching, searching …

There.

He darted to the right, toward another of the pirates, one who had his sword out and ready. The guy looked confident, but after all the hell … er, training Helmeppo had been through, it was almost like the pirate was moving in slow motion. He raised his sword in both hands in preparation to chop downward on Helmeppo’s arms or shoulder. Helmeppo just kept charging … only to pivot to the left at the last second, ducking around the guy’s clumsy strike and using the hatchet-like blade of his knife to bite deep into the guy’s thigh before sliding free. A little more dangerous, but not if the crew got it taken care of quickly.  

He swung into a slide, finally snatching up the knife he’d dropped earlier, when he’d initially been dumped into this gods-forsaken cave. Another gun went off, but he hadn’t stopped moving yet, and the shooter might have been smart enough to save the shot or quick enough to reload, but hadn’t been good enough to actually aim the damn thing appropriately. Helmeppo came up running, pelting around to a woman wielding a cutlass. Her aim was better than the guy who’d tried to chop at him earlier, but he caught the blade in the hook of one knife. Gritting his teeth, he shoved the blade around and upward, using the opening to slam his elbow into the lady’s stomach. Then he was dodging around her, heading toward another of the pirates.

To the left! 

He skidded to a stop as his instincts all went into full warning mode. Pivoting, his crossed knives caught the business end of an oversized cutlass.

“Give it up, Marine,” the equally oversized idiot wielding the sword said -- one Helmeppo had thought he’d already laid out. The side of his face looked red where Helmeppo had punched him a minute ago. The Marine cursed himself briefly. Thinking a guy this huge would be done with a single punch? He wasn't Coby, he had these knives for a reason.

No time to dwell. His opponent didn’t seem terribly skilled, but he was very large and very strong. Helmeppo felt his arms tremble as they fought to oppose the downward pressure of the guy’s sword. But that wasn’t what worried him. 

Standing still, I’m a sitting duck.

Helmeppo angled the knives, redirecting the pressure along the blade of one of his weapons. The cutlass clanged into the stone floor.

A moment later, one of the kukri stabbed deep into the guy’s left shoulder. The guy dropped his weapon to put pressure on the wound, hissing in pain. 

As the man backed off, Helmeoppo took a few steps back toward the rocks from before, then took stock of the field again. Two unharmed, two injured but possibly able to fight, four who’d already lost the will. He flicked the bloodied weapons to either side, sending crimson droplets across the stone floor. Had that been enough? He didn’t really want to continue with this exercise. The pirates were strong and aggressive, but clearly relied on sheer numbers and a few highly skilled members to win most fights. He'd probably be all right, but he was alone, and definitely not at the top of his game. If it dragged on, this could go either way.

One of the two unharmed pirates took a shaking step back, but the other stepped forward, placing herself directly in Helmeppo’s way. “Get out of here and regroup,” the lady shouted. Most of the rest of the pirates hurried to do just that, some helping their downed teammates. Helmeppo watched the scramble, enjoying the ambiguity that his eye shade gave him. Under pretext of getting the stone again at his back, he positioned himself so the one pirate with a backbone stood between himself and the lone exit from this cavern. Let her have her heroic stand, protecting their retreat from the evil marine.

Letting them go might come back to bite him in the ass later, but he didn’t know how many more groups like this might be prowling around. He’d want to save his strength. Besides, he could just feel Coby’s eyes on him.

Wherever he was.

Shaking off that thought, he turned his attention back to his opponent. “You sure you want to do this?” Helmeppo asked, tapping the back of one of the knives casually against his shoulder. 

She narrowed her eyes and just watched him. 

Well, fair enough. 

Their clash was brief but intense. She fought with two knives as well. Hers were smaller, but they flashed with a darting efficiency that for the first time left him feeling like he was chasing in the fight. This lady actually had some skills, certainly more than the rest of that crew. 

But she was clearly used to being able to end a fight early with those quick reflexes. The strain of the fact that he was keeping up with her started to show pretty quickly, as she tried to drive him back and over into a corner. He could see her gritted teeth, the muscles in her neck straining as every inch of her tensed into the fight. 

Garp would say she needed some training. But she certainly showed promise.

After what felt like a while but in reality only took maybe twenty seconds, she began to slow. And a second later, he knocked one of her knives out of her hand. It skidded over behind the rocks where he’d been hiding earlier.

Immediately she hopped back to put space between herself and him, panting, eyes darting between his hands and the rocks. She knew she couldn’t fend off his attack with just one knife. So what are you going to do now? Go get it? Or run?

She made her decision almost immediately. 

Helmeppo didn’t have a particular investment in the fight, so he just watched her sprint for the rocks where her knife -- oh yeah, and the other person -- were. “Uh … hey!” He shouted after her, not really sure which one of them he was warning.

If she thought it was her, she ignored him. Reaching the rocks, she vaulted over and disappeared behind the uneven stones. Helmeppo straightened up, knives at his sides, just watching.

A couple seconds passed. Then a high sound that wasn’t exactly a scream but was certainly in that neighborhood issued from behind the rocks. The woman came leaping back into the open and sprinted for the exit, not sparing a single extra glance for the Marine. Helmeppo watched her go. 

“Figures she recognizes a former Warlord,” he muttered. Then, louder, “I appreciate the help.”

The lanky form unfolded from behind the rocks, his eye-catching clothes making him, to be fair, pretty recognizable. Trafalgar Law was a figure who, until today, Helmeppo had known only through reputation. Like Helmeppo and all the other pirates, his clothes were wet but he managed to look like it didn’t bother him in the least. Helmeppo found himself self-consciously resisting the urge to wring out the ends of his shirt. 

For a long moment, Law stared over at Helmeppo, as though debating whether or not to bother with him -- dark, hard eyes without an inch of pity. But the eyes didn’t bother him so much. It was the aura . He felt it off some of the most powerful marines when things got serious. Almost a physical force that pushed people away, warned them against approaching or staring. Here is danger. Beware, or die. Fleet Admiral Sakazuki seemed incapable of turning it off. 

Law’s wasn’t like the Fleet Admiral’s -- the marine’s aura felt appropriately like a volcano, close to erupting, dangerous, barely contained and likely to hurt anyone in range if unleashed. Law’s felt more like a snake -- intensely focused but restrained. No less deadly, for that.

You’re a Marine, you can’t just back down against a pirate. So Helmeppo didn’t cower, but he watched, keeping still and trying not to look like a threat. If that guy decided to act against him … well, he wasn’t Garp. He wasn’t even Coby. He had no illusions -- he’d try his best, but against the “Surgeon of Death” he didn’t fancy his chances. Hell, the islands of the Grand Line were littered with the bones of Marines who faced down pirates they couldn’t handle. But he couldn’t be a wimp about it. Not anymore. Not if he was going to keep up.

After a few seconds, Law looked away from Helmeppo, up toward the lone tunnel that was letting light into the cavern and started walking. 

The smart thing would be to just let him go. Helmeppo knew that. Ever since the weird water vortex had vomited them out on this lump of land, the only thing remotely connecting them was that (before everything had gone all to hell) they had nominally been fighting on the same side. But the bridge that connected them -- Coby and the Straw-Hat kid -- wasn’t here. So they weren’t allies. 

But … they did presumably both want to get back to the same place. So helping each other out wouldn’t hurt, right?

Helmeppo was feeling decidedly the odd man out. He’d lost his hat when they’d gotten washed to this gods-forsaken island, but every pirate here had probably been at that skirmish, and that any one of them could know what he was. And pirates might fight pirates, but the Marines were the enemy of them all. Which meant this could get seriously dangerous for him.

Damnit, Coby, he thought as he trudged up the tunnel toward the light, why did we have to get involved?

The sunlight as he stepped from inside to outside flared too bright for a moment, even with his shades on. Up ahead, Law stopped as Helmeppo stepped into the open air. “If you’re coming after me,” he said, voice brittle and no-nonsense, “you had better be confident in your ability to beat me.”

“I have no intention of fighting you,” Helmeppo said, taking a deep breath and  at least enjoying the sense of space around him. The cave had felt uncomfortably enclosed. Across from here, he could see a natural alcove made of vines and branches. Was that where they’d come out? Didn’t matter. “I’m not that stupid. But … well…”

“But?” Law’s apparent impatience turned the word into a knife. Hoo boy. Why did he have to be stuck with this guy of all people?

“It feels like two are going to be better than one,” Helmeppo said in his most reasonable tone. “Besides, the sooner we can get back to our compatriots, the sooner we can leave this … whatever this is.”

Another silence stretched between them. Then Law turned his back on him. “Do what you want.” There was such dismissal in the words that Helmeppo bristled, but what could he do about it? So he followed. 

It wasn’t what he wanted to do, but it certainly beat wandering around alone on a strange island or just sitting around like a lump waiting for attack or rescue.