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holykillercake · 4 years ago

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A Day In The Sun

pairing: MARCO x fem!Reader

word count: 3.3k

summary: You left the Moby Dick to go on a solo mission, from which you would never return. Two years later, when hope seemed to have drained out, a loud rubber boy appears, leading the way back to your family.

highlight: ¨I guess he´s not coming, so... tell Marco I will always love him.¨

warnings: angst, MARINEFORD spoilers

notes: This was an anon request for a ¨ [as angsty as possible] Marco with a fem!S/O who left the Moby Dick a year or two before and then they ran into each other by accident somewhere¨. I really hope you like it!♡ I feel like I chose an easy path with Marineford, so maybe I´ll try this one more time with a non-canon plot. The angst, tho, the angst!

𝕷𝖊𝖆𝖛𝖊 𝖈𝖔𝖒𝖒𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖘, 𝖗𝖊𝖖𝖚𝖊𝖘𝖙𝖘, 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖑𝖔𝖛𝖊!

☩

You watched the guard check the chains for the fourth time with an amused grin on your face. He pulled it, hit it, and almost wet his pants with the effort.

The funnier part was that he did all of that while trying to stay as far from you as possible.

¨So, am I getting company?¨ no answer, just a glance and a drop of sweat falling down his temple ¨Will you tell me who´s my guy?¨ he ignored you again and left.

A few minutes later, you heard the lame sound of chains echoing throughout the cold walls. You had a minute to process the silent and compliant steps before the rest of the prisoners started to yell wildly.

You observed the shadow of your new cellmate projected onto the filthy floor. Then his dirty feet when he walked by you, giving yourself the trouble to look up only when he took a seat while the guards locked him.

You let out a disdained scoff and waited for ¨privacy¨ to talk to him. He, on the other hand, never bothered to look up.

¨I would offer you something to eat, but as you can see, my hands are tied.¨ you shook the chains, hoping that the distasteful joke would make the man lift his head.

But he showed no reaction to your words. Instead, he remained leaned forward with his head down.

You snorted heavily.

¨You know, I was kind of hoping to be the only Whitebeard pirate around here.¨

That was more than enough to make him face you. His narrowed eyes watched you for a moment, trying to recollect your features in his memory.

¨Oh, come on. Did I really change that much?¨

¨Y/N!¨ he shouted and tried to fight the strains.

¨How are you doing, Flame boy?¨

☩

The heart beating inside of your chest felt like it was going to jump out of your mouth at any moment. Although you were sweating, all of the ice around you made you wish you had more clothes.

How could you be cold and sweating at the same time?

Everyone had their eyes on you. Well, not only you. But the entire troupe that fell from the sky altogether with a marine warship, the weirdest circus freaks brought directly from Impel Down. Your home for the last two years.

As soon as Luffy stepped on the ice field and started to attack marines in order to reach Ace, the real beginning of the battle began to seethe in Marineford.

You joined your fugitives comrades and jumped out the ship, but differently than the straw hat boy, you ran to the opposite side. Dodging every marine in your way to get to the Moby Dick.

Whitebeard looked at you like a proud father and let out his legendary ´Gurarara´ laugh while the Commanders stared at you as if you were a ghost.

Not that you didn´t actually look like one. Even for them, who always considered you to be one of the prettiest women they have ever seen, you looked a little bit mistreated.

Your hair was dirty and messy, your always radiant skin was dry, and the bags under your eyes were deeper and darker.

If it wasn´t for the look in your eyes, they wouldn´t have recognized you.

The spark and shine remained stoic. The will to live and to fight remained standing strong, even though the rest of you seemed to be brumbling apart.

Marco stood on Pops' right side, still showing the same anger in his eyes as when you said that you were leaving the Whitebeard Pirates. But you couldn´t focus on that. You were too busy trying not to get killed to care about his attitude.

And more importantly, you were so happy.

Every night for two years, you prayed for the chance to see them again, to brew saké among your family, and laugh in their companies. It was so close you could feel it in your fingertips.

¨Daughter, you don´t look healthy.¨ Whitebeard said when you reached the ship.

¨I guess feeding me wasn´t on the top of their list of priorities, Pops.¨ you laughed.

¨And I suppose you met the troublemaker over there.¨

¨We were cellmates, can you believe it?¨ Marco peeped into your conversation, trying to look like he didn´t care ¨He was updating me on the current Whitebeard Pirate´s activities. Said you got yourself some pretty cute nurses.¨

You elbowed him slightly in the leg, and the Emperor gave his staccato laugh you missed so much.

¨Daughter,¨ he spoke more serious ¨I know it´s a lot to ask of you right now... but we need to get that boy outta here. You´re in?¨

¨Have you forgotten who I am, Pops?¨ He smirked, already knowing your answer ¨ Of course, I´m in.¨

You looked each commander in the eyes, in a silent agreement that when this madness was over, you would answer all their questions. When they looked back at you, nothing had changed. For them, you were still the same Y/N from years ago.

☩

¨I can´t believe Pops wants to keep that brat.¨

¨We should have him thrown off of the ship.¨

¨You should cook him for dinner, Thatch!¨

You couldn´t hold the smile bending on your lips when you heard the Division Commanders talking about the rookie Pops had brought onboard.

The kid had been trying to kill him for a while now. Even Jinbe had to step in and engaged in a 5-day battle with the young pirate. That, for some reason, got Whitebeard´s interest.

You felt a warm hand embrace yours and turned to see the First Division Commander take his seat on your side. You smiled when he leaned over and gave you a habitual kiss, the kind you share when you wake up in the morning or when you meet up in the halls.

But your heart ached behind your smile. Because, although it was something usual for him, something that he would do thousands of times for the rest of his life, for you, it could be the last.

You were about the destroy everything you two had and break his heart.

But you were out of options. You knew that, and so did Whitebeard.

When the first part of the meeting ended, and Pops had explained his motives to want to keep the hot-headed boy, someone questioned him about the second topic they needed to discuss. The one he kept as a secret even from Marco.

Your heart pounded faster, and your face heated. Whitebeard frowned and gestured something, giving you the word. The weight of the sixteen commanders staring at you made you shrug and hold Marco´s hand tighter.

¨Y/N?¨ he called you with a tone of concern in his voice.

You just avoided making eye contact with him. You couldn´t face him.

¨I, uh...¨ you raised your head and stuffed your chest. You had to be cold. ¨I-I am going on a solo mission... and I am not coming back.¨

The room went totally silent for a few seconds before they began to bombard you with questions and inquires, to which you could not respond. Marco, on the other hand, remained speechless, waiting for you to tell him that it was a joke.

¨I, uh...¨ someone interrupted you ¨I am leaving tomorro-¨ another Commander cut you ¨... tomorrow morni-¨

The blast of Whitebeard´s cleaving blade hitting the floor made all of you shut.

¨The decision was made!¨ his thunderous voice cracked the wooden walls ¨And blessed.¨

Marco shot up, his chair met the floor in a loud thud. ¨Pops, you approved this?!¨

¨Son...¨ the First Division Commander scowled and started to walk out of the room.

You reached him and held his hand to stop him. He turned, staring at you furiously.

¨Marco...¨

¨Why, yoi?!¨

You shook your head, not being able to tell him what he wanted to know. Tears began to fill your eyes when he pulled his hand from your grip and left the room.

A single tear made its way down your cheek and you quickly wiped it. You couldn't turn back on your decision. Even if that made the love of your life hate you.

¨Y/N...¨ Thatch touched your arm softly ¨Are you in trouble?¨

You attempted to give him your best warm smile.

¨When am I not in trouble, Thatchy?¨

The next day when you were saying goodbye to your family, everyone was there, even the Fire-Fist boy.

Everyone but the person you needed the most to be there.

Every Commander hugged you tight, saying that if you ever decided to come back, your chair among them would be waiting.

You tried to hold your tears in the beginning, but that became an impossible task.

Pops held you close to his chest and suffered with you, for he knew the sacrifice you were about to make. And even a man like him couldn´t avoid it.

His voice roared through the four Blues when he declared, loud and clear, that you were his daughter and would be forever a Whitebeard pirate.

¨I love you guys. I love you, Pops.¨ you looked around, searching for your boyfriend ¨I guess he´s not coming, so... tell Marco I will always love him.¨

When you stood alone on the seashore, you waited. You waited until the Moby Dick disappeared on the horizon. You waited for Marco to have a change of heart and fly over to you, saying that he loved you and he would miss you.

But he never did.

☩

What happened was that you were a little rusted.

You got tired faster and weren´t as agile as before. So you preferred to keep yourself out of the line of fire, where you would disturb more than help. Your job was to back up the Division Commanders and make sure they would keep a clean path for Ace´s brother.

You wanted to be thrilled with the adrenaline of a battlefield, but you were scared. Every time Whitebeard stopped and put his hand on his chest, you feared.

That was the reason why you turned yourself in in the past, the reason why you didn´t ask him to fight for you.

He saved as much energy as possible for this war, but you knew he had started to die the minute he disconnected himself from the life support.

¨What are you up to, old man?¨ you mumbled to yourself.

Before you could do or think anything else, a sharp scream took your attention. Kizaru hit Marco with laser beams, and you noticed another Marine Officer approaching him with sea stone cuffs.

You grabbed a gun and ran towards them. Even rusted, you were incredibly fast. With an impulse, you jumped and grabbed Marco by the collar, shooting the marine with Haki-imbued bullets.

But again, too late.

Perhaps years ago, you would have been able to prevent this from happening, but at that moment, all you could do was get him out of Kizaru's sight, causing his laser to hit you in the thigh.

You turned in the air, changing your position so that he fell on you when you landed. In that battle, his life was worth more than yours, and it was your duty to offer support to the Commanders - your Commander, especially. His body had already gone through a lot of stress, and the sea stone handcuffs prevented him from using his powers.

You tried to muffle the scream when you hit the floor.

¨You ok?¨ you asked.

With so much of a glimpse he put himself to his feet, ignoring you and the blood he spilled before running back to the mess.

From that moment on, the situation got really bad, really quick. You went berserk, killing the marines like a freaking calamity. Your thigh was gushing blood, deep gashes covered your body, and your heart was torn apart.

Because despite all of your effort and sacrifice, the mission failed.

You didn´t see what had happened, but the person you were supposed to rescue, Ace, the Second Division Commander, was dead on the floor. And his brother was having a breakdown.

Ace had a peaceful smile on his face, and you thought that it would have been nice to get to know him better. From the days you shared a cell, you understood why Pops wanted to keep him. He was a pretty nice guy, after all.

☩

¨And how did you end up here?¨ Ace asked you.

¨Remember the solo mission thing?¨ he nodded, and you gave him a ´ta-dah face.

Suddenly, he got pale.

¨This... This is where you´ve been for the past two years? Why?¨

You hummed, pondering over your words.

¨I know things about the World Government that I shouldn´t. And when they found out, I got an ultimatum... I could turn myself in, or they would have thrown a buster call on us.¨

¨Y-You sacrificed yourself? But you know Pops could have handled it, right? We all could have handled it.¨

You smiled at him, deciding not to tell him the ugly truth.

The World Government knew about your knowledge regarding the Ancient Weapons and the National Treasure of Marie Geoise for a long time, but they waited to get to you. They waited until they had the perfect chance, and Whitebeard´s illness was just it.

At the beginning of his illness, he didn´t have the proper medication and life support devices, so he was vulnerable. Still stronger than all of you together but too vulnerable to deal with the Admirals and the CP-Zero.

When you took Whitebeard´s hand and accepted to be his daughter, you swore your loyalty to him, you vowed to protect your family even if it cost your life.

¨Yeah, I guess this one is on me.¨

After listening to everything he had told you, you knew Whitebeard would use the public execution to rescue him. He would not let anyone take another child of his.

That was the reason why you couldn´t tell Ace about your father´s state - not that he didn´t know, but he could be oblivious. And he would be crushed with guilt if anything happened to your old man.

¨Hum, but tell me, kid. Any chance the phoenix had already forgiven me?¨

You saw your answer in his awkward look.

¨He didn´t know about this as well, right?¨ Ace opened and closed his mouth a couple of times ¨He thought you had bailed on us when Pops needed you the most and... he still likes you, Y/N. He´s just hurt.¨

¨Yeah... okay...¨ you whispered.

¨If you´re right... and Pops comes to rescue me, I´ll let everyone know you´re here. And we´ll come to rescue you.¨

Your nose burned with the feeling of crying. Even with his powers restrained by the sea stone cuffs, he was so warm.

¨Well... I could use another day in the sun.¨ and you sobbed.

☩

But there was no sun.

There was no sun, and your father, together with Ace and thousands of your allies, were gone.

And the dream of brewing saké with your family, you did reach it, but couldn´t hold it.

When he opened a crater on the ground, separating him from his crew, you stood beside him, begging him to reconsider

¨Pops, don´t do this...¨ you whined, choking on your own tears ¨I-I just came back...¨

He looked at you in the eyes and wiped your tears.

¨My daughter... I´m sorry I failed you.¨ You shook your head and held his huge hand ¨I know you´ll take care of the boys. Your room and your seat remain untouched.¨

You couldn´t say anything else before he threw you on the other side.

Now the Red Hair Pirates were collecting Whitebeard and Ace´s bodies to assist with the funeral. Jozu scooped you in his amrs and carried you back to the ship as you cried. He walked you to your old room and put you in the bed, leaving without a word.

Inside of your cabin, you raged, not wanting to accept the fate of things. You punched the walls until your knuckles bled, you cried until your throat hurt and wished to go back in time, when you were in your dirty cell, and Whitebeard was still alive.

When do you think people die?

When they are shot through the heart by the bullet of a pistol?

When they are ravaged by an incurable disease?

No. It’s when… they are forgotten.

When the sun began to fall, you got up from the cold woodboard and reached the door, making your way to the deck.

The Commanders and the rest of the crew were scattered around, mourning their losses. The family was falling apart, and this time Pops wasn´t there to glue the pieces back together.

I know you´ll take care of the boys.

His words echoed in your head.

You watched the hundreds of men injured, bleeding through their wounds and passing out unattended. Where was the man in charge?

A sudden anger consumed you, and you rushed to his room, kicking the door open.

¨What the fuck do you think you´re doing?!¨ he didn´t answer, nor did he move.

Marco looked miserable, sitting on the mattress, leaning forward with both hands on his head.

You had a lot of emotions going on in your head.

You were happy because you got to hear Whitebeard call you daughter one last time, but you didn´t know how to live in a world where he didn´t.

You were happy to be with your family again, but it killed you to see them crumbled like that.

¨Not now.¨ he spoke when you approached with calmer steps. His voice was hushed and broken.

¨Marco, you have to-¨

¨Get out, yoi.¨

¨No. You are the one getting out and help-¨

¨GET THE HELL OUT, Y/N!¨ he roared.

¨NO!¨ you roared back and pulled him by his collar, facing his teary and red eyes. ¨YOU TURNED YOUR BACK TO ME ONCE, BUT I WON´T LET YOU DO THE SAME TO THEM!¨

You let go of him and shed heavy tears.

¨You have thirteen Commanders and hundreds of men out there who need you. So suck it and step in.¨ you said with gritted teeth.

¨They can handle themselves, yoi.¨ he grumbled.

You scowled

¨Is this how far your loyalty goes?¨ he clenched his fists ¨Pops offered you a seat on his side, and you took it! NOW USE IT!¨

¨SHUT UP! YOU DON´T KNOW THE THINGS WE´VE BEEN THROUGH, Y/N!¨ he marched towards you, stopping a few inches from you and yelling in your face ¨You have no idea the things we´ve lost, the things I have lost!¨

¨I do know!¨ you pushed his chest ¨I have always known, but you didn´t! You didn´t because you´re Marco, the Phoenix! And you´re great! Great rare, mythical Devil Fruit. Great First Division Commander. YOU. ARE. GREAT.¨ you sobbed, helpless ¨But being great didn´t make you confident, it made you spoiled. It made you forget what loss feels like. And now you lost. We lost.¨

He let himself fall on the mattress again, head down, tears dropping on his ragged pants.

¨So you don´t get to drown yourself in commiseration, Marco. You don´t get to sit here, feeling sorry for yourself.¨ your voice came out weak ¨They need you. I... need you.¨

You watched him for a couple of minutes but seeing that he wouldn´t move, you sighed, ready to leave the room and do his job.

¨I hated you, yoi.¨ Marco said before you could leave..

¨I know.¨ you whispered and leaned against the door.

More tears fell.

Two years in Impel Down were not enough to break you, but that... that was a difficult hit to take.

¨All these years, I hated you every single day.¨

¨I know.¨

¨Even when I thought you were dead, I hated you.¨

¨I know.¨

¨And when Pops told me what you did for him... I hated myself.¨

The both of you broke down.

¨I know, Marco.¨

You turned slowly and walked to him, sitting by his side, laying your head on his shoulder.

His shaky hands held yours, and you weakened, feeling the touch you missed so much.

¨I can´t do this, Y/N.¨

¨Yes, you can.¨ you touched his face gently, so he would look at you ¨We can.¨

You slipped to the floor, holding each other in your arms, hoping that the tears would wash away the pain, the guilt, and regret.

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secretpeachtea · 4 years ago

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Onigiri Miya Tidbits Ch 6

Title: the eagle, the seagull, the crow, and the Brazilians

Genre: gen fic, reader insert

Word Count: 5.3k (whoops)

Summary: Onigiri Miya is now hiring and you just happen to be the right person for the job. The business has been gaining popularity since its grand opening, and many customers travel from different cities just to have a bite of Miya Osamu’s delicious recipes. You did expect some craziness from working in food services, but what you didn’t expect was to be bombarded with frequent tomfoolery from a bunch of attractive volleyball players during your shifts.

disclaimer: manga spoilers

A/N: this one’s a bit of a slow burn (more so than the usual hehe), but I promise it gets better near the 2nd half! There’s not much drama in this chapter, but I think y/n deserves a bit of a break ya feel? Enjoy, my dudes

Previous///Next

Tonight is a special night because it’s ‘Create Your Own Onigiri’ night! Your boss decided to hold this small event to try something new and allow his customers to have some fun in the process. There are laminated onigiri instruction sheets on each of the tables as well as a small customized menu created for this event specifically. You helped him post a couple announcements on social media about the event a week prior to inform the public, and so far, things have been going smoothly.

Osamu is mainly in the kitchen prepping any ingredients for the customers and you’ve been standing at the register as usual. You are pleasantly surprised at how much everyone was enjoying making their own onigiris, and it seems like people of all ages were having fun.

“Welcome to Onigiri Miya!” You greet automatically with a bright smile as the front entrance slides open. A group of very physically fit men walk into the shop with large sports duffel bags slung across their shoulders. Despite the slightly intimidating aura the group gave off, one of the males walked inside with a young child hugging his arm. You scan over all of them briefly and your eyes widen as you make eye contact with Ushijima whom you just met a little over a week ago when the Shiratorizawa alumni visited.

You gave the tall volleyball player a small smile. “Hey, Ushijima-san! What brings you back so soon?”

“You assured me that I should bring my team, and we all wanted to participate in the event today,” Ushijima responded back. “My teammate, Romero-san, is not from Japan, so we wanted to find a restaurant with traditional food.”

“R-right…” You didn’t expect him to actually bring his team any time soon, but you’re still amused at how seriously he took your words from before. You can assume that the only foreigner in the group is the ‘Romero-san’ that Ushijima spoke of. There are probably hundreds of other restaurants the group could’ve gone to for a more cultural experience, so you’re a little giddy that he chose to come here. “Well, it’s good to see you again! I’d be more than happy to help your team have a good time here.”

To Ushijima’s left, another tall figure stood with a resting scowl. His gaze made its way to the kitchen where Osamu was and immediately lit up in recognition. Although, there might’ve been some confusion. “Miya-san, I didn’t know you worked here. Don’t you have practice right now?”

Your boss lets out a short laugh as he looks over his shoulder to look directly at the boy who spoke to him. “Wrong twin, Kageyama-san.”

“Ah.”

Kageyama looks down and glares at the floor mildly distressed at his mistake. There’s a part of you that wants to laugh at his reaction, so you do so internally. Suddenly, you feel someone staring at you, so your eyes shift over in that direction to a male with white hair and round eyes. His stature and overall mannerisms reminded you of a certain orange haired ball of sunshine, so you couldn’t help but stare back a bit longer than you intended. There was a sudden shift in his demeanor and his eyes narrowed at you.

“Why you staring? Is it ‘cause you’ve never seen a volleyball player my height? You’re impressed by the Hoshiumi Korai, right?” The boyish male lifted up his hands as if trying to intimidate you, but in your eyes, he seemed completely harmless.

With a sweet smile, you calmly reply back to his accusations. “Sorry about that. You just remind me of a good friend of mine. He also plays volleyball, and you’re both around the same height. I haven’t seen you play before, but I’m sure you’ve worked hard to get to where you are now regardless of your height, Hoshiumi-san.”

You know you’ve startled him with your kind and composed response when he freezes in place for a couple seconds before dropping his arms back to his sides abruptly and looking away to hide a small grin.

The last two people in the group, whom you assume are father and son, seem to be in their own worlds as they converse quietly. Now seems like a good time to let everyone get settled in, so you step away from the register and gesture for them to follow you. “ My name is (Surname) (Name). You guys can follow me! There’s a table over there that can fit all five of you. Then, I can explain how things are gonna work for today.”

Once the guys all settle in, you stand at the end of the table and point at one of the instruction sheets as well as the menu. “You can pick 2-3 ingredients for your onigiri! One of the ingredients will include meat or seafood and anything else can be a vegetable, seasoning, or both. All of the prices are written down on the menu and there are written instructions on how to make your own onigiri with pictures as guides. Feel free to call me over if you need clarifications. Any questions?”

Multiple heads shake at the same time. You pull out a tiny notepad and pen from your pocket and prepare to take orders. “Great! Then, what can I get for you guys?”

Romero lifts one of his arms to get everyone’s attention and begins to speak somewhat broken Japanese, “Order whatever! I will pay!”

After that declaration, you jot down all of the ingredients that the group orders including some refreshments. “Alrighty! We’ll set up all your ingredients soon on the counter. Once everything’s ready, there’ll be trays for you to take back to your table.”

You bow your head and stroll back behind the counter to relay the order to Osamu. As you’re helping set up some ingredients that don’t require any cooking, you notice that your boss frequently steals glances at the volleyball team with starstruck eyes and curiosity pokes at your mind. “What’s got you looking excited like a kid on Christmas?”

Osamu quickly turns around to face you while holding a spatula in one hand and tongs in the other. Leaning down to keep the conversation between the two of you, he unconsciously lifts both kitchen utensils up in the air with enthusiasm and flashes a childlike grin. “That’s Nicolas Romero! He’s a really famous world class volleyball player from Brazil. My brother and I used to watch him on TV all the time when we were younger, so it’s kind of crazy to see him in person!”

There’s a slight leap in your heart as you watch Osamu’s eyes brighten in joy but choose to ignore that strange feeling for the time being. “Now that you mention it, I think I saw a couple posters and billboards with his face on them when I was in Brazil.”

“I was really surprised when ‘Tsumu told me he was coming to Japan to play for the Schweiden Adlers. I never thought he’d come to my restaurant though!” Your boss is quite awestruck at the idea that such an important figure from his childhood was about to eat food that he cooks himself and it’s enough to elicit a giggle from you.

It’s not long before all the ingredients are set up on four large trays along with a couple beverages. You face the group of males and raise a hand next to your mouth. “Order’s ready for Romero-san!”

Romero stands up from his seat and pats his son on the head to stay put before gesturing at Kageyama to follow him. “Tobio, help me bring the food?”

“Of course, Romero-san!” The setter shoots up from his spot with a zealous expression and immediately follows behind his teammate like a baby duckling. When the two arrive in front of the counter, they give you a short thanks and take their trays back to their table. Osamu subtly glimpses at his childhood idol but quickly looks back down with a flustered expression when he notices you sending him a smirk of your own.

With everyone pretty much settled in, you decide to walk around to the other tables to see if anyone needs any assistance or if they have any questions. You return back to the register after a couple of minutes ready to sit down and take a quick break, but you notice a couple drinks sitting on the counter. The volleyball team must have forgotten to take them when they took their food. Since you didn’t have much to do at the moment, you decide to take the drinks to their table yourself.

With arms full of beverages, you walk up to the Adlers. “Hello, sorry to interrupt, but you left your drinks on the counter. I just thought I’d bring them for you.”

Romero takes the drinks from you and then distributes all of them to each person after sporting a grateful smile. “Ah, thank you!”

You’re about to walk away, but the sight before is almost too ridiculous for you to look elsewhere. All of the men are in the process of creating their onigiris, but each creation looks quite...interesting.

Ushijima’s onigiri is one very large globular rice ball, which distinctively resembles a volleyball, with a few sesame seeds sprinkled at the top. Hoshiumi’s onigiri almost looks like it’s about to explode with how much meat was piled inside the rice and probably would’ve fallen apart if he didn’t have it enclosed around both of his hands. Kageyama’s onigiri is of a decent size, but he must’ve put too much pressure when shaping the rice because it just looks like mush with obvious handprints. Romero is the only person at the table who was able to make a normal onigiri, but everyone seems to be enjoying their time so you don’t think Osamu needs to come over and help.

You finally look at the young child sitting next to his father and tilt your head in confusion when you notice that he’s not participating or eating anything his father made for him. With slight concern, you turn towards Romero. “I hope you don’t mind me asking, but is your son not fond of the food? I could offer some other ingredient options?”

“Oh, that’s okay. Everything is perfect!” Romero replies with a knowing look. “Rubens is just a little grumpy since he misses his mother. She met new friends at an onsen and they invited her out to go shopping today. Thank you for asking, though.”

After living in Brazil for a couple months, you were able to pick up on some Portuguese. You’re not in any way fluent yet, so when the older man briefly speaks to his son, you can only make out Romero asking Rubens if he wanted a different onigiri and that he needed to eat to be healthy. The boy’s pout deepens and just simply states that he was bored. Romero sends you an apologetic smile, and you just wave your hand to let him know that you understood.

A sudden idea pops into your head. “Romero-san, is your son allergic to anything? I have an idea to help Rubens enjoy himself more. Would you mind if I try to make your son something?”

“Go for it! My son does not have any allergies, but he does love pork!” Romero nods his head in approval.

You quickly make your way back behind the counter and peek over Osamu’s shoulder as he stands in front of the stove. “Hey boss, do you mind if I try to make something for Romero’s son?”

“Sure. I don’t think anyone needs any help or anything at the moment, so you’re free to do whatever you’d like,” Osamu replies nonchalantly and you tap his arm gratefully.

Situating yourself in front of the counter surrounded by ingredients, you momentarily think about what you want to do. You make the final decision to create two designs for the onigiris that you think Rubens might like. After washing your hands, you gather up all the ingredients you need and even snatch some extra pork from Osamu’s pan. After a couple minutes of putting together the onigiris, you place them on a plate and examine your creations.

The first onigiri resembles a simplified stegosaurus with meat substituting the spines of the dinosaur and some sesame seeds throughout the body for texture. The second onigiri is just a regular rice ball with pork and vegetables, but a couple irregularly shaped pieces of nori are scattered across the surface to resemble a dinosaur egg. Both onigiris lie on top of a small pile of bonito flakes to act as a nest.

You take the plate of food to where Rubens is sitting, a bit nervous since you aren’t sure how he’s going to react. Everyone else at the table just watches curiously as you place the onigiris in front of the young child and his eyes widen. He’s practically mesmerized by his dinosaur themed meal and even some of the other guys are impressed.

Rubens quickly turns towards his father and whispers into his ear. Romero chuckles and pats his son’s head lovingly before facing you. “My son wants to know how you did that. He absolutely loves it.”

A sigh of relief leaves your lips at your successful attempt at making the child happy. The only problem was that you were still in the middle of work, so you didn’t know if you could spend any more time here. Coincidentally, Osamu seemed to have overheard everything for the last couple minutes from his spot in the kitchen. “Hey, (Name)-san. If you wanna take a quick break and spend some time with the kid, I don’t think there would be any problem with it.”

You’re really grateful for Osamu’s leniency, but a part of you still feels bad as you turn to look at him. “Are you sure? I don’t want to skip out on my job so suddenly.”

“Don’t worry about it. The boss said it’s all good.” Osamu gives you a reassuring smile and you take it as your cue to grab an extra chair off to the side and sit beside Rubens. You’re about to grab some rice to begin teaching the boy, but a slight tug on your sleeve makes you freeze in place. As you look to your side, you see Kageyama’s hand near your shoulder and there’s an intense look in his eyes.

“K-Kageyama-san, would you like to learn too?” You ask a bit surprised. Your bewilderment is replaced with amusement when he nods at you furiously and you almost laugh out loud at his excitement.

“Oh! Me too! Me too!” Hoshiumi intervenes enthusiastically and even Ushijima seems to be interested. These guys sure were something else.

In the end, everyone in the group was watching as you demonstrated how to make different designs with the onigiri rice. Rubens finally succumbed to his hunger and began to eat his dinosaur meal, so you were left to attend to the grown up men who listened to you eagerly like school children, aside from Romero who needed to step outside to answer a call from his wife.

“Alright! Now that you have some of the basics down, why don’t you each try to make your own? Just to keep it simple, we’ll all choose a single design. Any ideas as to what you guys want to make?” There’s a brief silence as everyone tries to think of something doable. Suddenly, Ushijima lifts up his phone and an image of what you recognize to be Japan’s adorable volleyball mascot* is shown. You sweatdrop as Hoshiumi and Kageyama clap in agreement at the volleyball player’s obvious, yet adorable selection.

Other than having to give a few pointers to Hoshiumi and Ushijima, it seems like they were doing a pretty decent job at making the character. The one who was truly struggling was Kageyama. He was still putting too much pressure when molding the rice. As he continues to squeeze the rice excessively, you gently place your hands on top of his slender fingers.

“You’re putting too much force in your hands, Kageyama-san. Here, loosen your grip a bit and I can show you.” With that said, Kageyama lets go of his vice grip and allows you to guide his hands over the rice. The two of you stay like that for a couple more seconds until you successfully make a circular rice ball. As the male opens his palms upward with your hands still wrapped around his, his eyes sparkle in amazement.

Kageyama bows his head gratefully and when he looks back up at you, you’re taken aback by the amount of admiration flooding his expression. Your body stiffens when he quickly puts down the onigiri and clasps your hands between his. “Thank you, (Surname)-san!”

“N-No problem.” You feel a bit of heat creep up your cheeks with the way Kageyama was holding your hands so delicately.

The moment doesn’t last long, however, when you suddenly feel someone’s fingers graze the side of your face and a sticky feeling is left on your skin. When you look to see who the culprit is, your eyes fall on the youngest person at the table with one of the most terrified expressions you’ve ever witnessed. Almost immediately, Rubens starts apologizing in broken Japanese similar to the way his father has been speaking, “S-sorry! Sorry! Sorry!”

While you were busy working with Kageyama, Rubens had finished eating and wanted to make his own onigiri since he was still a bit hungry. He wanted to grab more rice from the bowl next to you but misjudged his movements and accidently touched your cheek with his sauce covered fingers. The child felt absolutely horrified and was afraid that you’d hate him for this.

Using a napkin, you wipe off as much as you can from your cheek and then proceed to lower yourself onto the ground to get to the child’s eye level. Mustering up your brightest smile, you try your best to reassure Rubens who looks like he’s about to cry. “Hey, hey! It’s okay, Rubens! I’m not mad.”

You spend the next couple minutes cooing at the sniffling young boy, and once you’re sure that Rubens is no longer going to cry, you sit back down on your chair. You lift up a ball of rice to gesture that you want to help him make an onigiri and he nods his head. You make a traditional triangular onigiri but place two rolled up bonito flakes for eyes and a piece of curved rice on top of the nori to make it look like a bearded face. There’s an almost immediate shift in the child’s mood when you point at the design and then to the empty chair next to him because you had made an onigiri that resembled his father.

Both of your laughs fill the air and the whole situation resembles a heartwarming scene from an anime. You were too distracted to notice the multiple pairs of eyes watching the scene in captivation. Once Rubens starts to eat again, you look up to see some lingering stares. “Is everything alright?”

Two stoic faces avoid your eyes by looking down, while Hoshiumi snaps out of his trance. The white haired male sits up a little straighter before addressing you. “Hey, you’re pretty good with kids, (Surname)-san!”

“I’ve had a couple babysitting jobs in the past. I’m not perfect with kids, but I did pick up a few things here and there,” you respond back shyly.

At this moment, Romero walks back into the shop while pocketing his phone. “Sorry to cut our time short, but I think my wife is coming back home soon. I should start heading out with Rubens. You guys can stay longer if you’d like.”

“That’s okay, Romero-san. I think we’re all ready to leave as well.” Kageyama lifted up his tray which spurred the rest of the other guys to do the same. As everyone helps out in cleaning up their area, you head back to the register to receive the payments for the meal from Romero.

The guys were now all ready to leave, but your boss quickly grabs their attention after taking a glance at a certain framed object on the shop’s wall. “Do you guys mind signing some autographs to put up in the shop?”

“Of course!” Romero exclaims. The rest of the team complies as well and they each sign a piece of paper that will most likely be displayed by tomorrow. Once that’s done, the team stands in front of the exit with their belongings. Rubens tugs at his father’s arms to get his attention and Romero bends down to listen to what the boy wants to say.

“What’s up?....Name?....Onigiri Miya…”

You can’t make out anything other than a few words, so you’re thrown completely off guard when Rubens suddenly jumps up from his spot and waves his arms wildly at you. “Bye-bye, Mrs. Miya!”

You don’t even hear any of the other males voice their goodbyes and leave the shop as blood rushes through your ears and your face flushes into deep crimson color. It seems like Osamu wasn’t spared either as his cheeks explode with heat at the implication. Both of you stand in awkward silence for a few seconds to calm your hearts until Osamu musters up the courage to glance at you first.

His expression shifts a little as he stares at your face. Osamu then points at your cheek. “Oh, (Name)-san. You still got a little something on your face.”

Momentarily forgetting about feeling flustered, you realize that you might not have gotten rid of all the sauce from when Ruben accidentally touched your cheek. “What? I thought I got it all off. Why didn’t anyone say anything?”

You attempt to wipe off the sauce remnants, but fail to do so each time because you don’t know where it is exactly. Osamu grabs a clean towel from the top shelf and slightly dampens it under the sink before standing in front of you again. “I got you.”

Osamu lifts up the towel and starts to wipe at your cheek softly. When your head starts moving too much, he brings up his other hand and places it gently on your neck to support it. There must have been a lot more sauce left than you expected because Osamu continues to hold you in place for a couple more seconds, his eyes never leaving your face. Unconsciously, your own eyes drift around his features and you can’t help but admit how handsome he looked at the moment.

“Oh, young love~”

Both you and Osamu flinch back when you hear one of the customers that are still in the room say their thoughts. When you glance at the table where the voice came from, you see an elderly couple smiling at you while holding hands with one another in a loving manner. The previous blush you had comes back in full force as you remember that the two of you were not alone and in a somewhat intimate position together.

“T-t-thanks, Osamu-san!” You stutter and almost trip over your own feet as you start walking towards the bathroom with hurried steps. “I’m j-just gonna...um...go to the bathroom really quick!”

As you rush away from Osamu, he just watches your back disappear behind the bathroom door. He stands in place quietly as he processes what had just happened and there’s a foreign feeling in his stomach that he can’t explain. He simply turns his back to the bathroom and rubs a hand to his cheek to hide the smile that threatens to creep onto his lips.

Leftovers

You’re currently laying on your couch comfortably surrounded by pillows and blankets while watching a movie on your laptop. Today was your day off from work, so you planned to stay in for the whole day and catch up on some alone time. As much as you want to focus on your movie, your mind starts to wander off.

About two days have passed since you met the Schweiden Adlers volleyball team at Onigiri Miya, but they were still on your mind. Based on the tidbits of information you’ve gathered from Osamu, Adlers and MSBY were rival teams. It almost makes you want to laugh at how different the two teams were in terms of their dynamics and personalities, so you hope to see them play against each other one day.

Suddenly, the ringing of your doorbell interrupts your thoughts and you pause your movie. You stand up and walk towards your door in confusion. You weren’t expecting anyone to visit, so you’re a bit weary as you look through the peephole.

As if the universe knew what you were thinking about before, you’re surprised to see Sakusa standing outside your door with his usual face mask. Swiftly unlocking the door, you pull it open and greet your curly haired acquaintance.

“Hey, Sakusa-san! What’s-” You stop speaking abruptly when you notice two large bags in the volleyball players arms and they look fairly heavy too. “Oh, wow. Are those...for me?”

Sakusa just nods his head and you quickly open your door wider to let him inside to place the bags down. You’re extremely curious as to what the contents were since both bags were covered by tissue paper, even more so because Sakusa was the one to bring them to you. He places both bags onto your coffee table and you’re about to ask what they were for, but he beats you to it.

“Congrats,” Sakusa states with his usual impassive expression but there’s a hint of softness to his tone.

At this time, you’re completely perplexed. “Congrats for what?”

“For graduating.” Sakusa’s reply causes your eyebrows to shoot up. “This is from the team.”

“Oh...” You’re left speechless for a moment as you try to understand the situation and once everything finally clicks, a warm feeling encompasses your heart. “Um...thank you.”

You gaze at the gifts bags for a bit longer with various emotions swirling through your eyes before talking again. “...did the team send you because we live in the same apartment building?”

“Yeah.” Sakusa let out a sigh which made you laugh a bit, but it didn’t sound like he was necessarily bothered by the task.

The male briefly checks his phone and gestures that he needs to leave soon. As Sakusa starts to make his way back to the front door, you follow with light steps to see him out. “Let everyone know that I really appreciate this when you see them again for practice!”

He nods in acknowledgement and the two of you exchange goodbyes before you finally lock the door as he walks away. Without a moment to lose, you rush over to the large bags sitting on your coffee table with anticipation. Just from the first glance, you can tell that there are multiple things piled up, so you’ll just have to take things out one by one.

After removing the tissue paper from the bag on the left first, you pull out something large and fluffy. In your hands is a huge teddy bear that’s wearing an MSBY jersey while holding a small note card that says “Congratulations on Graduation!”. You immediately know who it’s from because the bear’s multicolored fur resembles the colors of Bokuto’s hair. You give the bear a tight hug before placing it next to you on the couch.

The next thing you take out is a miniature set of hand lotions with a small bottle of pepper spray taped onto it. There’s a small note on the bottle that says “It’s dangerous walking home alone at night”. There’s no indication of who the gift giver is, but you know that Sakusa would be the only one to pick out these specific gifts. As you move the package to the side, another small piece of paper falls to the ground. It must have been stuck to the bottom of the hand lotion set. When you pick it up, there’s another note that says “Thanks for the soup”. Your smile widens. It seems like you had guessed correctly.

The last gift from the first bag is a beautiful mug with a sunrise design printed onto it. There’s a Brazilian flag sticking out of the mug, which makes it even more obvious that the gift was from your dear friend Hinata. When you push aside the flag, there’s a limited edition Bouncing Ball keychain inside the mug as well with a cute handwritten card that says “Congratulations, (Name)-san! We should hang out one day to play some beach volleyball like we did in Brazil!”. Your cheeks were starting to ache at how much you were smiling as you reread the note several more times.

You reach out to the remaining bag and pull away the tissue paper. Your nose is immediately assaulted by a pleasing floral fragrance and when you look inside, a large bouquet of flowers comes into your vision. Once the flowers are in your arms, you notice the note sticking out between the petals. Placing the flowers on your lap, you open the small folded piece of paper which says “Hey there, sweetheart. You should’ve let me know you were having such a big moment in your life! I would’ve done so much more, but for now, enjoy these flowers. The irises mean accomplishment and admiration. The peonies mean good luck. The daffodils mean new beginnings. Congrats on your win against school!” You’re quite touched by the amount of thought that went into this gift and based on the nickname, you can safely assume that this is Atsumu’s gift. You didn’t take him as a flower type of guy, but he’s always full of surprises. Nonetheless, you mentally note that you need to buy a nice vase to place these wonderful beauties in.

You thought that would be the last gift since you’ve already opened everything from the four MSBY players, but when you glance into the bag one more time, there are still two remaining boxes. They have the same wrapping, so you assume that they are from the same person. Taking both of them out carefully, you notice that the larger of the two boxes has a note that reads “I know you said you don’t normally eat sweets, so I tried my best not to add too much sugar”. Wondering what the card meant about sweets, you slowly open the lid and see two small cakes positioned next to each other with icing that spells out ‘Tiramisu’ and ‘Dark Chocolate’ on the respective cakes. Your mouth waters at the sight of the homemade desserts, but you restrain yourself because you were even more curious as to what might be in the other mystery box.

When you finally open the last remaining gift, there’s another note inside that says “It’s never too late to celebrate. Congrats, (Name)-san”. When you look underneath the note, your jaw drops as you let out a gasp. Inside was a gorgeous silver charm bracelet that was minimalistic enough for you to wear wherever you went. If the note wasn’t a big giveaway, the tiny onigiri charm attached to the bracelet convinced you that Osamu was the one who had given you these gifts.

The next couple of hours are spent finishing your movie with all of your gifts surrounding you. The inside of your room now smells like a mix of flowers and peachy lotion. The MSBY teddy bear is secured between your arms as you drink warm tea from your new mug while taking a bite out of each cake.

You’re not sure whether or not you want to jump up in happiness or simply cry from the overwhelming emotions, but either way, you’re glad to have met such amazing people the past couple months.

You couldn’t wait to get back to work.

Japan’s volleyball mascot: y’all know that volleyball mascot right? The one Ushijima loves to draw and the one that Hinata has shirt of

A/N: oof you made it! Can we all just give a moment of silence for Rubens for being the best boi? also another moment for the nice old lady at the end ;)

taglist: @kiyoo-omi

#onigiri miya #onigiri miya tidbits #secretpeachtea #haikyuu fanfiction #schweiden adlers #ushijima #kageyama #hoshiumi #romero

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emptypringlescanister · 5 years ago

Text

New Perspective: Chapter 2

Hello again! It’s me again, back with another chapter for y’all. Demand is definitely a lot higher than I thought it was going to be, and I’m so grateful for how much love this has been getting! I hope y’all continue to enjoy. See the end for additional notes as well as the tag list.

Tom Nook x Reader

Slow Burn

Warnings: Spoilers for Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Words: 2.6K

Links: Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 (You are here!) - Chapter 3

Any photos or gifs do not belong to me, so if you like them then go give love to the original creator!

Chapter 2

Sleep lifted off you slowly and you groaned, turning over in your cot. You had slept like a rock for the first time in months and you would be damned if you had to get up now. “_____? Are you in there?” a familiar voice filtered in from outside. “Oh, I hope I haven’t woken you abruptly. Ah, but I do wish to discuss something with you. Yes, yes! I’ll be here when you’re ready.” You could hear footsteps walking away and you sighed, resigning yourself to the fact that getting up was inevitable. Opening your eyes was a chore, and you had to squint for a few seconds due to the blinding sunlight that made its way in through the cracks. You could hear birds chirping outside, a melodious chirping that reminded you of home. Standing and stretching, you could hear a few joints pop.

Unzipping the door to the tent, you climbed out and were greeted with the smiling face of Tom. “Ah, there you are. I hope you had a pleasant nap. Or, well… I suppose it was a bit more than a nap, wasn’t it? It’s a brand-new day!” You choked mid-yawn. “I slept that long?!” Tom burst out laughing.

“Oh ho ho! Yes, it’s quite normal to be worn out from such a long trip – and a major life event! Speaking of which, I have some things for you! Rummaging in his pockets for a few seconds, he brought out a cell phone. You had had one before you departed but left it behind. Purposely of course, for reasons best left unspoken. “Oh, Mr. Nook- “ “Tom.” He reminded you, smiling, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “Tom. I can’t accept this. Besides, I didn’t think there was actual cell service out here...?�� Nook chuckled, “Yes, yes, that’s what one would think! But these are special Nook phones! I had them made specifically for island residents. We have our own special cell network out here that only our island-goers can access. It’s very secure.” A part of your anxiety was eased with this reassurance and you took the phone from him.

After a somewhat lengthy process of Nook going through and explaining the apps and their capabilities, you pocketed the phone. “Now you’ll notice that the contact list is rather empty,” Nook began. “So, would you do me the honor of letting me give you my number?” he asked, giving you a wink. Cue an immediate blush on your part. “Oh, sure! That’d be great actually.” You said, totally not fumbling with getting your phone back out of your pocket. You handed it over to him and watched as he typed on the phone. When he handed it back to you, you noticed that he had saved his number under the name of Tom N, but he had added a leaf emoji along with one that had a smiling face. You chuckled.

“Unfortunately, we are to the part that everyone seems to dislike.” Hearing him say that, you look up from the phone to see him holding a piece of paper. “Your itemized bill.” He hands you the paper with a few various fees on it. A few listed are the air fare, accommodations, labor fees, and the price of the Nook Phone, all totaling at $49,800 bells. You paled, not at the price, well, yes, at the price. You had spent the last of your bells on the air ticket, leaving you with nothing extra. You had been in such a hurry to leave, the thought of bringing extra to live on didn’t even occur to you. “I um…” you began hesitantly, your mouth suddenly very dry. Nook cocked his head at you questioningly. “I don’t have any bells. I spent the last of them on the travel ticket.” You looked back down at the paper, not wanting Nook to see the fearful expression on your face.

A paw landed on your shoulder. “My dear ____, there’s no need to fret! There are other ways you can pay besides bells!” Your head snapped up, locking eyes with his. “Tom! If you’re implying what I think you’re implying then-!” He cuts you off quickly, rushing to explain. “No no no! I don’t mean that in the slightest! I meant paying with the Nook Mileage Program!” You giggle, “I was just teasing Tom, no need to get all worked up.” He blushes, his furry face heating up and tail bushing up. “I’ll admit that didn’t exactly come out the way I meant.” You wink at him, silently preening at the fact that you could fluster him. “So, Nook Mileage?” you ask, changing the subject.

“Ah, yes, with the program, you earn miles by simply living and doing things around the island. Think of it like scout awards, but miles! Ill just have to register you in the program.’ You hand over your phone and he fiddles with it, soon handing it back to you. “There! You’re all registered.” You thank him and pocket it. “Now then, I do have some things I have to take care of in the Resident Services tent, so you are free to explore and do anything to your heart’s content. This is your home now after all.” He gives a farewell wave and leaves in the direction of the main area.

Now left to your own devices, you look around, seeing a lot of trees and natural growth. Weeds litter the area, so you take some time and pick them. In no time at all, you cleaned up your little spot, and most of the surrounding area. Everything is just so green and fresh; you can’t help but smile. You brush all the picked weeds together in a pile and stand, wiping your hands onto already grass-stained pants. A splashing sound alerts you to the stream and you walk over to it. Some small fish swim under the water, occasionally jumping out and back in. Following the stream seems like a good thing, so you follow it, and it leads to a sandy beach area. The airport is in the distance, but other than that the waves lapping against the sand are unobstructed. You follow the beach, picking up shells that you run across and just enjoying the sunshine. After walking for a little bit, cliffs come up in your field of vision with flowers atop them. If you had a ladder, you could probably appreciate them more up close, but oh well. The beach continues a bit, so you keep walking.

“Oh!” You exclaim out loud. A small private beach had been revealed, sandwiched between the cliff and the sea, hidden behind a wall of rocks that you had to climb over to access. Rather small, but cozy and private, being at the very corner of the island. Perhaps this could be somewhere to come to relax by yourself.

The sun was starting to set, so you stopped in your exploring and began to head back to the main area. You had had a full day, exploring and having a few conversations with your new neighbors had set you in a rather good mood. All the things you had done throughout the day had you feeling rather hungry, so you stopped at a fruit tree and shook some of the peaches off. You grabbed one for yourself, but upon remembering that you needed to stop by the Resident Services tent, you grabbed a few more for Tom and the kids.

It didn’t take you long to reach the main area, and with peaches in hand, you entered the tent. All three of the tanukis were inside, and they looked up to see you. “_____!” Timmy cried, running up to hug you with Tommy close behind. They crashed into you and you staggered, trying to keep a hand on the peaches while still leaning down to catch the boys in a hug. “Hello, you two!” you laughed, steadying yourself and them. They released you from their surprisingly strong grips and started to bombard you with questions about your day and where all you went in your exploration. They were babbling so much though that you couldn’t get a word in edgewise. “Alright Timmy, Tommy, that’s enough. I think poor _____ would like to talk sometime as well.” Nook speaks up, and the boys’ voices quiet. You laugh and hand the boys their peaches. “My day was fine; I talked to the neighbors and had a lot of fun exploring the island.” They seemed to accept your short explanation and focused on eating their treats. You walked over to Nook and handed him his as well. “Oh! Thank you ____!” Nook smiled at you, placing it on the table beside him. “I shall have it as a snack later. Now that it is dark out, will you allow me to walk you back to your tent tonight as well?” Timmy looked up when he heard this and nudged his brother, the both of them watching you and Nook curiously.

‘I’d like that.” You smiled at him, and took his outstretched paw, him leading you out of the tent. A few seconds after the door zipped shut, Tommy turned to his brother. ‘Do you think they like each other?” Timmy shrugged, taking a thoughtful bit of his peach. ‘I mean, _____ brought us peaches, so if Uncle Nook got one too… I guess so.” Tommy rolled his eyes.

“No Timmy, I mean like-like him.”

“Oooohh… Well, probably. They were holding hands after all.”

_______________________________________________________________

The night air refreshed you from the cramped interior of the tent and you let out a happy sigh. The moonlight here was strong, so everything was illuminated rather well. “So, you had a good day exploring, hm?” Nook asks, glancing at you. “Oh yeah, there was tons to explore and I found a really cool spot by the beach.” Nook looks at you in wonder. “Is that so? I had explored the island when I had first arrived here to deem it suitable to live on, but I hadn’t explored the beach in its entirety. I would love to see it if you don’t mind showing me.” He looks at you with pleading eyes, and you’re too weak to say no.

“Alright! Just quit looking at me like that!” You groan. He chuckles, “Too mesmerized by me to say no, hm?” He squeezes your hand slightly, making you blush but laugh as well. Walking in silence for a while, you finally come to the rock wall that the beach was hidden behind. Nook whistles lowly, “No wonder I didn’t see this before, it’s rather far away from everything else, and hidden on top of that!” Humming in agreement, you clamber on top of the rocks. Perching on top of the wall, you lean down to see Nook looking up at you. “It’s a bit of a climb, think you can handle it old man?” you tease, swinging your legs back and forth. “Old man?! He squawks in indignation, “I’ll show you who’s old!” He climbs up the wall and sets himself beside you, a look of smug victory on his face before hopping down to the other side. “I beat you,” he says smugly, paws on his hips. Punching yourself for forgetting his feat of strength in carrying you yesterday, you roll you eyes at him. “I never said it was a race,” You stick your tongue out at him. “Well if it was, I would have won,” He replies. Holding his arms out, he adds, “Come on now, jump down and I’ll catch you.” “I can get down on my own thanks,” You say, and he starts to lower his arms but before he can, you continue. “But I will accept your gracious offer.” He looks up at you to see your teasing face and he chuckles. Shimmying yourself a bit, you let yourself off the wall and fall into his waiting arms.

After setting you down, he turns to observe the small area. “Isn’t it beautiful?” you ask, settling yourself down onto the sand just out of reach of the lapping waves. The moonlight beams softly down, illuminating the sand and bouncing off the moving waves, causing sparkling reflections to be thrown around. Your attention captured by the water, you don’t see Nooks gaze looking at you when he utters, “Yes, beautiful…”

He settles down beside you, leaning back to see the full moon sitting high in the sky. “I think we might be the only two to know about this spot,” you say, lifting some sand into your hand and letting it filter through your fingers. “There were no footprints here earlier in the day, and only mine when we got here.” Nook hums in response.

“I truly admire all you’ve done on the island so far.” Nook begins after a while, breaking the quiet of the night. “Your interaction with the residents definitely deems you worthy of the title of Resident Representative. But because of that title, I wish to apologize. It has come to my attention that I may have pressured you into the position, and I wish to apologize if I made you uncomfortable in any way.” “Tom,” You interrupt, placing your hand on his paw to stop him. “You didn’t make me uncomfortable. Far from it actually…” If Nook notices your blush at that, he chooses not to comment. “And I’m happy with the position. I’m glad you gave it to me.” Nook smiles at that, and you smile back at him. You gaze into each other’s eyes, transfixed. His eyes flick down momentarily to your lips then back up. He leans forward slightly, and time seems to slow. His paw reaches up and cradles your face, and you lean into his touch. “May I… kiss you?” he whispers. Not trusting yourself to speak without saying something stupid, you nod, and Nook closes the distance between you, pressing your lips together. The kiss is chaste and gentle, his paw still cradling your face with the sounds of the ocean surrounding you. He pulls back and you follow subconsciously. You look at each other, unsure of what to say after that event. “So, do I get miles for kissing you?” you ask, and you both burst into laughter.

_______________________________________________________________

“So, now you know about that spot on the island,” You say in front of the entrance to your tent. Nook nods, “Indeed! It was an interesting find, and I thank you for showing me. Though I promise not to let the secret out.” He winks and you giggle. “I think it might be time for me to retire for the night though,” You yawn. “I suppose I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yes, yes. In fact, thanks to your wildlife contributions today, and old friend of mine will be coming to the island tomorrow in hopes to set up a museum here.” Nook mentions.

You smile at him, shaking your head fondly. “Tom, I have to go to sleep now.” He sighs, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. “Yes, yes. I understand. Sleep is important. Very much so. Did I mention that my old friend is an owl?”

You lean forward to kiss him, and swiftly enter your tent, zipping it behind you, leaving Nook in a shocked silence. “Goodnight!” You call out, laughter in your voice. A small squeak is all that reaches your ears before you hear him turn and walk away unsteadily.

Settling into your cot is a great comfort and you snuggle down into your blanket. Rest reaches you for a few seconds before the full weight of the evening’s events decide to replay in your mind. A blush resides heavily on your face and your mind begins to race. “Wait, we kissed. Twice…”

________________________________________________________________

And so ends chapter 2! Sorry that the Nooklings didn’t get much time in this chapter, but don’t worry, they’ll appear a lot more in the upcoming chapters!

Thanks everyone so much for reading! If you’d like, go check out my other works on my page. My uploading schedule is a little inconsistent, but thanks to summer break coming up, I’m hoping to post maybe every other day.

Requests are open!! Send me a message or send me an Ask.

Ask if you want to be added to the tag list! And for those of you on the tag list, if the tags don’t work, let me know! I still don’t fully understand how tagging works lol

Tag list for New Perspective

@accio-zara

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#animal crossing #new horizons #animal crossing new horizons #tom nook #timmy and tommy #nooklings #nook inc #tom nook x reader #x reader

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onepdumpsterfire · 4 years ago

Text

Maelstrom

Reader . Straw Hat crew

Word count: 6623

Trigger warning: Death. Gore, I suppose. (spoiler: the reader dies then comes back to life)

if there are any triggers that you need specifically tagged, please feel free to tell me.

Summary: Reader was betrayed by their past comrades and left in a cage for the rest of eternity. straw hats stumble upon them and decide to help them.

Nami’s pov.

A harsh current pulled at The Sunny, dragging us closer and closer to the raging whirlpool behind us.

We raced around on The Sunny, trying to get her to move away from it, but its claws took hold of us before we could even take control from the waters. Roughly pulling at The Sunny one last time, it sucked her into its glistening wrath.

“Not like this, Sunny,” Franky yelled at his most prized creation, “You will not go down like this.” He pulled on the helm, hoping to salvage any form of power.

But the current was too strong, and before we knew it, the whirlpool took us from its lip down to its pit; swallowing our screams with its ear-splitting roar up to the very end.

We should be dead. The raging waters should have destroyed our ship and drowned us for trying to defy the sea’s fury; but it calmed at the apex of the whirlpool, making the Sunny swirl to a dizzying stop before it started moving in the same lazy path of the current at the whirlpool’s center. “. . .What . . . just happened?” I’m amazed at our continued death-defying luck, and it seems most of the crew did too. They either stood incredulous at the events or celebrated our, once again, unbelievable escape of danger.

As are many of the moments here, it didn’t last long before our captain decided to do something stupid.

“Hey! there’s an island!” Luffy pointed towards the very center of the whirlpool that caged us in. “Franky, turn The Sunny! We’re stopping at the island!” He shouted over his shoulder as he stretched out his arms on the railing. “Gomu gomu-no...”

I should have known that he would think very little about the situation we’ve gotten into. Walking over to him, I try to take hold of him before he can launch himself. “Oh, no you don’t. You are going to help-” Without a care in the world, our reckless captain slingshotted himself off The Sunny, yelling about finding a good restaurant on the island before I could finish my sentence.

“That idiot captain.” A vein practically burst out of my forehead as I shook a menacing fist at the spot where he once stood. “When I get my hands on-” taking in a long breath, I calmed myself. There’s no point in getting mad at that idiot captain right now. Let’s just anchor the ship somewhere secluded so that I can RIP HIM A NEW ONE.

Soon after, my anger towards Luffy’s rash personality dissipated and began to get replaced with a crawling sense of dread. Even before we anchored the ship, I felt there was something wrong.

The island seemed so still. So… quiet, besides the constant cascading water surrounding us there weren’t any sounds of bugs or birds or ANY animals. It’s getting hard to believe that this island was inhabited by anything, let alone humans.

To add to the ominous feeling the island gave off, the beach ended as soon as it began. The small strip of sand that surrounded the island like a halo turned into stone more than a yard in, and the few plant life that was here miraculously thrived from between the cracks on the rocky floor. No grass, no trees, just bushes, weeds, and a tall rugged mountain that seemed to be too steep to even be called that. It appeared to be more of a tower that onlooked the rest of the island. Looming over everything like a guardian that promised safety only to backhand you with its cracked and coarse hand.

Few of the bushes seemed to have some food to eat, but all of it were poor excuses for berries. Too small to carry any nutrients and too little to sate any hunger. I’m sure that even if you collected all the berries in this place it wouldn’t even be enough to constitute as a meal.

Without even looking I knew that the water surrounding us would be the same. Devoid of all life, plant, and animal alike. Had we really survived? Or do we await a less abrupt ending? One where we prolong our inevitable doom by scrounging up any food we can find or starve.

Looking over to the thrashing water that surrounded us, tumbling over itself to create an impenetrable gate, it seemed to be harsher than what we’d crossed to get in here. Was it even possible to get back out? With the way things looked if we even tried we’d get ripped to shreds. I don’t think The Sunny can survive that.

My concerns were interrupted when Luffy came running back to us yelling that he hadn’t found a town or village on the small island. “Of course not! Do you not see how deserted the island looks?”

“That’s right, Luffy!” Usopp joins in my scolding, “we should worry about how we’re gonna get out! Or what we’re gonna eat! Our food won’t last forever!” At least there’s one person here that’s reliable. I can always count on Usopp to be grounded!

“We can just eat fish-” I quiet the thundering dumbass with a hit to the head, “obviously not! There are no fish here!” With a huff, I look over to our cook, “Sanji-kun, can you ration out the food?”

“Yes, Nami-swan!” Hearts practically bulge out of his eyes as he praises my genius. disregarding that one, I need to make sure the whining resident glutton of the ship gets the message.

Glaring, I grab the scruff of Luffy’s vest, “EVERYONE’S on a diet until we get out or miraculously find food on this godforsaken rock.”

“Bᵤₜ ₙaaaₘᵢᵢᵢᵢ”

“No buts.”

“Bᵤₜ ₙaa-” Giving him another hard knock to the head, I dish out the rest of the orders.

Zoro is gonna go scout the island more thoroughly, taking Chopper with him because he wanted to see if there were any herbs he could use for medicine in between all of the weeds. Robin went to go check out the stone tower mountain with Franky and Luffy, who would have gone anyway even if I had told him otherwise. Usopp and Brook took charge of seeing if the sea was really as barren as the rest of this place in the Mini Marry. Lastly, I’m gonna go explore the island, map it out, and try and find any clues that explain why this place is so lifeless.

After an hour of looking around, I've come to the conclusion that this place makes no sense! If an underwater volcano erupted and created the island not so long ago then maybe it would make sense but by the looks of the untamed, patchy shrubs this place has been here for much longer. Not to mention, after an eruption, the first life that forms is lichen that slowly breaks away at the rock that formed; but it’s as if a sheet of rock landed on top of this island, killing everything that couldn’t claw its way out through the cracks. More so, it looks like it’s sealing everything beneath it so that no other life passes. It’s purposefully trying to keep any vegetation from growing.

The longer I walk around the island the more off it becomes. I should get back and tell the others what I found. Hopefully, Robin was luckier and found better clues about this place in the tower.

As I approach The Sunny, I can see that all of them are back and… there’s someone with them.

So there was life here?

How is that even possible?

Either way, I have a piece of my mind to give to this person about the island.

“Look who we found in the tower.” Robin gestures towards the new person in the group, “this is Y/n.”

“Thank you, Robin. I can always count on you.”

“Luffy and I were there too, y’know!” Franky yells at me.

“Yeah, yeah. Anyway, Y/n-”

“Don’t ignore me!”

“- how long have you been here? How did you manage to survive? Is there anything that’s edible here, other than the barries?” I give them a look like they’re our saving grace. Maybe, just maybe, there could be hope for us after all.

Reader’s pov.

They’d introduced themselves already; the black-haired woman that initially found me in my safe haven had done the courtesy, even going as far as telling me what each of the people on the crew did. That includes the redhead that approached us with a worried expression that soon turned to absolute bliss as she laid eyes on me. She must think I can get them out of here or find them some supplies, but she will soon be disappointed.

After a small one-sided exchange from the redhead and… Franky… she bombards me with questions.

“... no, sorry. There is no food here…” The life practically saps out of her eyes as she deflates into a feeble state of worry. “You all should leave if you can. This is no place to live.”

“Says you!” the long nose speaks up. Usopp, was it? “You live here don’t you? If you’d fallen in after us Brook and I would have seen you when we were searching around the island and we didn’t see any boats or wrecks!”

“Plus, you’re all alone here. What happened to your crew?” Chopper the tanuki braves his fear and speaks from behind Zoro. Well, not quite. He’s more hiding his face than his body.

“Maybe they ate their crew.” Usopp and Chopper scream in terror at Robin’s attempt at humor. “Don’t say that, Robin! They wouldn’t... R-r-right, Y/n-san.” Stuttering, Usopp tries to give me the benefit of the doubt so as to land a better standing with me. “W-we’re all friends here right, Y/n-san?”

“Maybe I did.” Usopp ashened at my words while Chopper yelled that I’d be restrained.

Such a lively crew. It's been a while since I’ve had such a nice interaction with… Well, anyone. Looking off to the side, I make note of the time of day. It’s nearly sunset, they should get out while there’s still light, if they even can. At the very least they should die trying. What this place is… What this place becomes after dark. They won’t survive for long if they stay here.

“All jokes aside,” admitting that I was only joking seemed to calm the scaredy cats, though what I’m about to say will raise their anxiety once more. Poor them, thrown one thing after another. “It’s getting dark. There are things on this island that come out during the night-”

“The caves dug into the floor Chopper and I saw, there was something inside,” Zoro steps forward, already knowing the answer to his upcoming question. “I felt something was in there, that’s what you’re talking about, right?”

“Yes, there are creatures here who burrowed down into the rock of this island,” turning behind me, I face the tower again, “they won’t go into the tower, so if you need it, you can stay there for tonight.”

“But take anything you want from your ship, those creatures will ravage everything on it.” I raise a hand to stop their upcoming complaints, “it would be best to leave right now so that the ship has a better chance to make it over the whirlpool, but there is no helping it if you have no idea how to cross it yet.”

Letting them finally say what’s on their minds they hurl a flurry of complaints at me.

Luffy: can that thing even hold up? When we went to go see it, it looked like it was about to fall over!

Franky: I’m not leaving my baby alone with whatever those things are!

Usopp: What are those things?!?!?!?! Do they only come out at night?! Am I the only one worried about them?!!

Zoro: I’ll cut them all down.

Sanji: Nami-swan, Robin-chwan! Your prince will protect you!

Nami: Thank you Sanji-kun

Chopper: I wasn’t aware there even was an entrance to the tower.

Robin: I hope we don’t get eaten…

Brook: Same here, I doubt I’m any good. I’m all bones yohohohoho

Taking a deep breath, I try to answer whatever questions or complaints they have. The tower will probably hold. No guarantee, though. It’s the safest bet to make it through the night.

The things leave when daylight hits.

They can’t just sail around the island until those things are gone in the morning because they are a type of magical creature that learns and evolves. (The creatures would struggle to swim at first but soon enough they would become exceptional at it and catch up.)

You can’t just cut them down because they’re immortal beings that re-generate.

“Well, not quite beings, considering that they were made from magic to mindlessly attack whatever is in the cage.” I corrected myself, gaining more inquiries. “Magic? Cage? Is that what the whirlpool is? What is it keeping inside, if not those creatures?” Robin seems to be one of the more inquisitive people on the ship, considering how gung-ho the others appear to be, I’m glad they have someone that they can count on. Such loyalty and trust from comrades is one thing that I miss most from the outside world.

“Hahaha those are good questions, maybe I’ll answer that some other time,” I turn on my heel, not really caring if they take my advice or not. “It’s a long story and it’s about to get dark. We should head inside.”

I’m not gonna stay out here to be live bait to those THINGS.

Suddenly a warm, cream-colored thing snakes around my abdomen before yanking me back, full force. Nearly making me spit out my heart, may I add. What the ABSOLUTE FUCK?

Flying past the ship’s railing, I land on the hard mast, knocking the wind right out of myself. “Ah, sorry. Sorry, shishishishi.” Luffy stands above me, laughing at my expense. That stupid face makes me want to throw him into the ocean. A devil fruit user huh? I hope he sinks, bastard! I prepare to scold him, but he cuts me off, “you’re coming with us, right?”

“I- wa- No! I can’t ‘come with you’!”

“Huh? But why not?”

“Because the cage won’t let me! Believe me, I’ve tried! It just drags me right back… I can’t… I can’t leave.” Pushing past Luffy, I try to jump ship but it seems they have other ideas. His arm now tightly secured to my waist he tells me they won’t let those things hurt me. That I can leave with them. To the outside world.

His words and the full confidence looks his crew gives us almost makes me fall to my knees. How can they believe so blindly in someone? Putting so much faith in someone can only lead to betrayal. They can’t be serious. This isn’t real.

I try to worm myself out of his grasp. Pulling and pushing at Luffy’s skin, kneading away at his arm but his hold only tightens. “We’ll get out, Y/n. Don’t worry.” He isn’t looking at me, rather choosing to stare as the last sliver of light vanishing and a tidal wave of misformed creatures rushing towards the departing ship.

They were all butched, they looked like the person who made them once intended them to look human only to change their mind at the last moment. Some of the creatures looked sickly, with stick-like bodies that clashed with bulbous limbs. Dried out, pale skin that cracked under their every jagged movement, spilling blood with every jerk of their body. Their faces so sunken and hollow you could barely tell there were eyes in the black sockets that reflected back the murky color of the dim moonlight.

Others had random limbs that were too long for them; elongated further than they should have to contradict the rest of their proportions. Their skin sagged on their forms and their orifices oozed a dark and coagulated purge liquid that slopped down with their every step.

They crawled at an alarming speed with their spidery appendages, falling over each other’s tangling limbs. They pulled on each other to get to us. Gnarled limbs clawing, biting, ripping each other open to get farther ahead.

Their dark gray blood painted the stone beneath them as they healed themselves then tried to get past again. Shoving, piercing, and sinking their teeth into one another turned to push each other underwater when they got to the sea.

They took no breaths between the waves that pulled them or the body pushed them under; they didn’t even look like they cared that they were drowning themselves.

They had one objective.

Destroy the occupants of the cage at any cost.

“Oh, god! What are they doing?!” Usopp yelled from the stern, firing off a few rounds with his slingshot, kabuto. Zoro, Sanji, and Chopper stood beside him observing the horrific sight. “Stop firing at them! It’s useless, that won’t make them stop!” I yell back at him, finally managing to free myself from Luffy’s arm. Whether they heard me or not didn’t show, all four of them began to throw any attack they could at the creatures.

“Have a little faith, Y/n shishishi,” Luffy smiled at me, “we’re gonna get out of here.”

Rolling my eyes, I walk over to the railing. “If you guys wanna take your chances with the cage that’s fine, but leave me out of it.” I prepare to leap over the railing only to be pulled back again. “Are you crazy?! Those things will rip you to shreds if you go into the water!”

“No, crazy would be staying here, and at the very least it’ll give you some time to try and go through to the other side! Look!” I pointed back to the mass of bodies that dived down before springing out of the water, almost taking out Usopp when they collectively reached out for him. “I told you those things learn, it’s just a matter of time before they manage to get on board!”

I pleaded with them to just let me buy them some time. I can’t leave but at the very least I can do that! I can do one nice thing to the only people that I’ve seen in centuries! To the people that tried to save me with their stupid blind faith.

But Luffy stubbornly refused to just let me go. No matter how many times I told them I’d be fine.

The waters sped up as we neared the edge of the whirlpool, leaving the creatures to get pulled under. “There isn’t much time before they resurface, or until the curse... I need to leave. I can buy you time! Please!” I am practically on my knees begging, but they won’t even listen to me.

“Luffy! We only have enough Cola reserves to make a small coup de burst,” Franky shouted over the white noise of the gushing water, “The wind that’s surrounding the whirlpool is being sucked in from the outside. If we don’t time it right we might end up being engulfed by the waters!”

“Alright, Franky! I’m counting on you!”

“Aye, captain! I’ll do it at the last possible moment to ensure we make it through!”

Panic sets in the pit of my stomach, “no, I can’t. I can’t!” I pull and punch at Luffy, “I won’t make it! Let go of me so you won’t be left behind with me, Luffy!”

“No.”

“Luf- Lu.” I nearly choked on my own words when I got a glimpse of the wide horizon line.

I thought I’d never be able to see such a beautiful eternity again. I’ve never made it this far, the water would only get more aggressive no matter how hard I tried with whatever unlucky ship was dragged down here. It would always drag me down under or pull me back to the island.

We’re getting closer and closer, the boys in the back are holding themselves against the creatures and Luffy isn’t letting go.

Can I… Can I actually leave this place?

Can I be free?

Tears distort my vision before falling freely down my face, “can I leave? I can be free?” I look up at Luffy for confirmation. Light seemed to radiate off of him. Could you be my savior?

“Of course, Y/n! Shishishishi!” Luffy lets me go, now satisfied knowing that I won’t try to jump off. I look out into the ocean that I haven’t seen In lifetimes and I can’t help the hope that swells in my heart.

I can see the outside again.

I’m gonna be free

I am gonna be FREE

All too suddenly the familiar weight on my neck constricts my airway.

No. I’m so close. no. No. NO!

The chain that binds me to the island finally shows itself. Shortening the closer we get to freedom.

How cruel to have me believe I could actually be free.

The chain pulled me back with such a crushing force that it immediately snapped my neck.

Sanji’s pov.

We were so close. So close to leaving this hell hole and then a chain appeared around Y/n neck. It pulled them back into the water and dragged them all the way back to land. All of the creatures that pursued us stopped immediately, taking more interest in Y/n’s body that flopped in and out of the water with the dragging force of the chain. The creatures jumped on to them, injecting their claws into their soft skin to secure their hold on them.

“Stop! Turn around! Y/n fell off!” Luffy yelled up at Franky.

I agree with Luffy, we may have just met Y/n but I heard about how they were willing to jump into the water to give us time to escape. There’s no way we can leave them behind after that!

“As the navigator, I’ll make sure to keep the ship safe, captain.” With an unshaken voice, Nami assured Luffy, “Go to the island and get Y/n back. We’ll keep The Sunny going around to keep her safe until you get back!”

“D-don’t worry c-captain. I’m a b-brave warrior of the sea! I’ll protect the ship!” Shakily Usopp raised a thumbs up to Luffy.

“Yes! Leave it to us, Captain!” Brook chimed in, soul solid at the ready.

“Oi, Captain. Don’t keep all the fun to yourself. We’re coming too.” Zoro and I stood resolute on our decision.

“Shishishi alright! Let’s go! Gomu gomu-no!” Luffy stretched his arm over the railing, while the other wrapped itself around us. “No! Wait! Luffyyyyyyyy!!” Our idiot captain wants to kill us! Launching us straight into a rocky shore, this ASS!

“Stop throwing us everywhere, Luffy!” I raise my hand to give him a hard knock to the head, the moss head agrees with me by giving him one too. “Sorry, sorry.”

Sorry, my ass. Grumbling I take out the cigarette box before fishing in my pocket for a lighter. “Alright, Y/n was dragged off somewhere near the tower thing, so let’s head there to look for them first.”

“Yosh! Let’s go!” without a second thought, this reckless idiot rushes straight in, leaving us to catch up.

It didn’t even take long to reach the tower, the island was small. Which is why it surprised me how many of those things there were. How far had they burrowed under the island for there to be this many?

The mass practically moved as one when they noticed us. Descending on us with such ferocity that it would have left a weaker man feeling helpless.

“Sit back and watch, marimo! I’ll take them all out.”

“Big words for such a small man, curly.”

“You shitty- Watch me!” I ran in yelling the name of my starting attack ‘Joue Shoot’ hitting my mark right in the face and sending it, along with every creature behind it, flying.

We aren’t making any headway! Every time we push forward we are pushed back with the same strength. One after another, every enemy we took down bounced right back up, better and stronger than before.

The ones I was fighting got tougher, callused skin and became resistant to the fire from my ‘Hell Memories’ attack; and to make matters worse, those things have started learning my attacks, and a quick glance can confirm that the others are having the same luck. Luffy’s creatures are doubling their speed, increasing their bulging muscles so that they look like Luffy’s Kong Gun. Zoro’s opponents broke their arms, shanking their bones through their skin to make imitation swords.

These things are fucking monsters. They don’t seem to be able to feel any of the pain we’re inflicting. We can’t keep the same mindless pace they do! We take a hit and keep all damage from it!

“Luffy, this isn’t gonna work, we need to retreat for now!”

“Oi, shit-cook! You think these things are just gonna let us retreat!”

“Fuck off, pea-brain!” I kick one of the creatures over at Zoro, “Let’s make them chase us-” the stupid marimo threw on back in retaliation, “obviously they’re gonna chase us no matter what, ero-cook!”

“Just listen, dick head! We make them chase us around the tower; when they leave an opening we can just grab Y/n and run!” There’s no time to fight over this! I sky walk over to Luffy, “Let’s go! Now!”

“Come on, Zoro!” finally taking the hint, Luffy rushes off behind me.

The monsters bolted with us to the right, but they were smarter than what I’d anticipated. While most of them did follow, there was still a large group guarding the entrance to the tower. They knew what we came for and won’t let us take Y/n so easily. We circled around the tower. Once. Twice. Three times, and still those things didn’t give us an opening. I can’t stand this! We’re just chasing our own tails here!

Impatience at away at us, but the first one to act on it was Luffy.

“They’ll never leave the tower alone! So if they won’t give us an opening we’ll make one!” Luffy threw his arms at me, a silent command that I understood all too well. “Armée de L’Air,” I positioned myself to throw Luffy, “Gomu Shot!” Launching Luffy off with a kick, he rocketed himself straight to the center of the tower.

The tower collapsed almost entirely on itself. Luffy would have just gone straight through it if he hadn’t reached back to hold on to the base and sent himself back in a rebound, effectively clearing the rest of the tower.

Rubble and ash covered the creatures as they all rushed back to the tower. “C’mon!” The moss-head shouted over to me, having seen the opening just as well as me.

. . .There’s something wrong.

The creatures surrounded the tower but weren’t fighting back when we attacked them to get past. They weren’t even moving. Just staring straight ahead to where Luffy should be. As odd as it is, I won’t slow down just because those freaks stopped. I need to get to-

I wasn’t prepared for this. It’s not…. It can’t.

No.

Luffy had a dark shadow casted over his face as he kneeled next to a bloody and gored out Y/n. Their neck was broken by the chain that pulled them away. Skin shredded off and placed in piles around the both of them. Their bones were broken. Protruding. Piercing through in white splayed out spikes from the pink muscles, slathered in blood. Their abdomen slashed open and organs ripped out.

Had the monsters been eating them?

Their arm missed its hand. The leg was torn off. A stray foot laid across from them, mangled. Bitten.

If those things wanted to eat them they had done it already. They had plenty of time!

But they didn’t.

Looking into the horde of creatures. They all stood still, watching us. Grotesque faces with gnarled teeth bared at us…. Smiling. They're smiling at us.

"Damn it all! Those things were just toying with us."

The creatures went wild at my words. Screeching and shoving each other, but never passing the remaining debris of the pillar that still circled around us. They’re waiting for us to get out of here.

“We can’t stay here,” Zoro pointed at the back of the throng, “some of them have already left. Probably towards The Sunny.”

“Luffy, we can’t bring Y/n with us. They’ll be safe if we leave them inside the circle. In the morning we can bury them but for now, we need to head back the ship.”

No words were exchanged on the trip back. All three of us fought as much as we could against the wave of creatures that pursued us, eventually making it back to the ship by sunrise.

The creatures hissed and hollered in pain when the soft rays of the sun became too much for them to handle. Their gray skin almost seemed transparent in the growing light.

Those thing’s bodies looked like luminescent meat bags carrying distorted skeletons inside. Too warped and bent to look anything like the humans they were initially mirrored after. The things clawed at their eyes, blinding themselves as they rushed back to hide in their caves.

After the last of the nocturnal creatures retreated, we docked the ship again.

Then the dreaded question came.

Nami asked if we’d managed to retrieve Y/n but she was only met with grim looks that turned the exhilaration of having won another breath of life sour.

“It’s not fair! Y/n just wanted to be free… they just wanted...” Luffy trailed off, glancing back to where their body should be laid. “We should take them with us and bury them out of here.”

“It won’t be that easy, Luffy.” Zoro tried to reason with him.

“We can’t just leave them in this cage!”

“We don’t even have a coffin! Are we supposed to just stuff them in a box and keep them in the freezer until we can find the next island?!”

As much as I’d like to take them with us, Zoro does have a point. We can’t just carry around a brutalized body with us. “Luffy, we don’t know when we’ll reach the next island. It could be weeks! We can’t-”

“Yo,” A voice greets us from beside me.

“Hey,” I give them a quick glance before getting back to what I was saying. “Anyways, we can’t t-”

Was that?

. . .

“You’re supposed to be dead!”

“Oh, shit. Am I?” Y/n’s tone was light, as if they hadn’t just been mauled to death by beasts. “The hell do you mean ‘am I’!?”

Reader’s pov.

After being magically resurrected, one would think that people would be surprised, confused, or maybe astonished? But curly over here seemed pissed.

“Thanks for the warm welcome, bud.” Putting on the saddest looking face I turned around, “guess I’ll just crawl into a cave and die again...”

“N-no, that’s not what I-” Sanji reached his hand out to stop me.

“Ahahaha I know, I know. Don’t worry about it….. Though I suppose I do owe you guys an explanation for this.”

It’s been so long since I had to explain to someone what happened that day…

No.

It wasn't just that day. Things were off since before that, but I didn’t pay attention to the signs. God, why didn't I?

I keep asking myself that.

Why didn't I back out when I had the chance? Why couldn't I just let sleeping dogs lie?

Either way, on that day, everything went wrong.

Long ago, when the world was in a time of mystic and wonder, the practice of magic was common throughout the four blues. Most things that could be done with magic were done with magic. Magic was so common that even the most secluded tribes used some form of it. And so, as with any type of power, people began to abuse it. People began to use dark magic to rule and terrorize.

Don’t get me wrong, magic isn’t inherently evil, but neither is it good. Magic is a form of science. It follows its principles and has its limits. People’s intentions, though, can be either-or.

Order had to be put in place. A council of the noblest, wisest, and strongest magic users was made. They became the authority; their rule was final. And in an act of democracy, they input a system that would not let them become all-powerful.

That’s where the seven covens come in.

The seven covens (separately) ruled over the four seas, the new world, the grand line, and the calm belts. The members of the covens were chosen by the people and, unfortunately, that’s where it started.

After magic regulation rules and laws came into place, people were angry that they couldn’t use it freely and unchecked as they did before. When the ones who were strong stood on top of those who lacked it. They couldn’t rule over people as tyrants or terrorize others for their amusement and gain; but it also meant magic couldn’t be used to ease everyday life either. Magic was monitored, you had to seek permission from a coven to use stronger types of magic for your work and some forms of magic were even banned.

Curious people that tried to see how far they could push the boundaries of magic were furious when their research was trashed. With magic now limited, underground organizations began to arise. I was part of one.

Since magic is a natural part of the world like waterfalls or clouds, that’s why I wanted to explore all of its nooks and crannies! It’s the same as when man first evolved enough to wonder what was beyond the island we were born into.

We wanted to explore the whole world back then! And this should have been the same as that. It’s normal to want to know our extent of power and knowledge. I just wanted to explore magic’s limits and push past them. It should be like training to sword fight or lifting weights. It should have been the same.

We could have used our findings for so many wonderful things!

But I was naive.

Banning together with a group of people whom I thought shared the same passion for the unexplored and unknown….

In the shadows, we did our research and found so many new ways to use magic! So many new types! We were doing so good.

We wanted to find a way to bring what we’d found to the world.

We wanted this.

We…

I wanted this.

As much as I want to believe otherwise, the signs were there from the beginning. But they were my colleagues. . . my friends. I gave them the benefit of the doubt at first.

We came up with a plan to get ourselves elected for the coven. We wormed our way in like maggots then ate our way up.

We were going to instill new rules. Be more lenient towards magic usage for businesses. Introduce a research team for magic that would take us out of the underground. Slowly release our findings.

That was as far as I would go. They left me in charge of the research team while they went behind my back and found new dangerous and unstable magic. They used it to hurt people and to gain authority.

They’d cart away lost civilians, people who were so forgotten from society that if they were to disappear no one would notice.

They breed them to keep their human supply going. Then they’d used them as guinea pigs.

Eventually, I did find out what they were doing, but by then it was too late. The plan had gone too well and now they were inside all of the covens except for the ones in east and west blue.

I tried warning the council, but my old comrades found out before I could.

They branded me a traitor and punished me with never-ending torment. Sealing me away in a whirlpool that would cancel my powers, where as long as I was inside I would never age. I would never die.

They put me on this island that would never bear enough fruit but would always have enough to have me desperate for scraps. Lastly, they added those things so that I’d fear their wrath and power for the rest of eternity.

Between slowly dying of hunger or dehydration over and over again and being mauled to death, the thing that hurt most was them branding ME as the traitor. They betrayed ME.

They USED me.

The people I thought of as friends.

Taking a deep breath, I finished off my story.

“...Y/n… that was a really sad story and all, but what do you mean magic?” Out of all the questions, I didn’t expect Usopp to ask that one.

“... what do YOU mean?” I shared a look with all the members of the crew. How could they not know about magic? It’s everywhere??? “Y’know magic. Like what brought me back to life and is keeping me from leaving this place.”

“Like witches, with wands and brooms?” As much as it worries me that they don’t know about magic, I have an even bigger question, “what the fuck do brooms have to do with this?”

“Ah, well witches fly around... on them…” With every passing word, Usopp’s face got redder and redder, a telltale sign of his growing embarrassment under my judgmental gaze. “Of all things someone could make fly, why a broom?”

“I uh… I don’t know…”

The conversation carried on until finally, they told me about the outside world. Apparently, the most magical thing that there was out there were the devil fruits that granted their users powers, like Luffy’s rubber body.

In a way, I was kind of glad that almost all traces of magic were gone. That meant that my comrades from back then failed.

My guess is that after their reckless abuse of power, magic was banned; or at the very least only used by those of the highest standing.

In time, magic must have dwindled, little by little until it just disappeared.

With so much time passed and with how things turned out, it’s hard to believe that any of my former friends survived.

That must mean that they tethered my cell to an object. If whatever the object is gets destroyed... I could have a chance of leaving this place.

“... Luffy… do you… do you still want to help me escape?”

Luffy’s voice didn't waver.

He said it as if it was the most obvious thing.

No hesitation. No doubt.

At that moment, I swear, the sun shone brighter than it ever had in this cage full of torment. His bright gaze made it feel like every horrid year I had spent trapped had somehow vanished. It gave me something that I hadn’t had in a long time.

He gave me such a knee-bending sense of hope that I could have cried. He had such conviction that it made me believe that I would soon see the outside once more.

In the evening, after I gave them some information that could help them find the object that kept this cage alive, the straw hats tempted the ferocious waters again and this time I wasn't on the ship.

Before they left they made me a promise.

One day, they will be back.

They will set me free and we’ll explore this new world together.

I’ll keep waiting.

No matter how long it takes, until that day.

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hyba · 4 years ago

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Happy Worldbuilding Wednesday! Today, I want to talk about idle time. What's a common way to spend free time? Are some activities preferred than others? (tag @fields-of-ink)

Hello! Thanks for sending in this ask @fields-of-ink ^^ So, I’m going to answer this for Neon Vape, which is a story I haven’t really talked about in a long time.

In its futuristic setting, technology has sort of taken over everything, especially entertainment and recreation. It’s become a bit of an exhaustive, pervasive, almost oppressive routine for people - the idea of going to work, spending all day dealing with technology, and then coming back home and spending all evening dealing with more technology. And it’s all screens, all the time, everywhere.

So entertainment usually means watching television, reading on electronic devices, playing video games, meeting friends over virtual reality, and stuff like that. It’s become really hard to find ways to connect with people that bypass electronics.

So, for example, Ramona’s day tends to go something along the lines of:

Wake up, make breakfast while watching morning TV, maybe checking in with friends/family through virtual/augmented reality spaces or via a variety of electronic devices.

You realize you’re out of milk, but it’s hell to try and get to a grocery store these days, especially with the roads being as packed as they are. You decide instead of access yet another electronic device that allows you to order groceries from home.

Go to work. On your way, pass huge screens on the sides of buildings, cars with screens wrapped around them, people with tablet-like electronic devices on the skyway - it’s a never-ending stream of media, everywhere, all the time. It gives you a headache just to think about!

At work. You sit at a desk in front of a screen. You’re a concept artist, and you have a large tablet-desk. You spend most of your time drawing on it and working on your designs. You often pull up images in various screens as references, and every now and then you have to speak to colleagues and get their feedback.

Lunch. You order lunch in, usually, because it’s a nightmare to get to anywhere, really, on foot or by vehicle. On the off chance you do want to go for it, you know a small restaurant nearby, and you brave the uncomfortable, splintering heat or the blistering cold to get there - these two extremes are the norm for weather pretty much year-round in this futuristic setting. Once there, you don’t talk to a person. You’re met with another screen, and you tap in your order, and you pay, and you wait until a small robot arrives with your meal. While you eat, you are bombarded with on-screen and virtual advertisements hanging on the restaurant’s walls.

After work. You come home. You want to relax. Your options are to read a book (on an electronic device), watch some TV, play a video game, chat with friends virtually, go on a virtual holiday, exercise on your VirtuTread, or sleep. The only option that doesn’t include screens is sleep, really. Maybe you can bake or cook, and maybe you can turn off all your screens and enjoy some peace and quiet, but you’re never away from them for long - because they’re an intrinsic part of your lifestyle now, and how could you survive without their convenience?

Spoiler alert: you most definitely can survive without them and Ramona will most definitely figure that out after her horrible experience getting stuck in Neon Vape. In fact, if she never sees another screen again, it would be too soon. So, post-book Ramona will have more “normal” pastimes, but for now she’s stuck in the same electronic confines as everyone else!

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sixteenandsixteenhundred · 4 years ago

Text

The Guy Who Saved My Life

Summary: This is an alternate epilogue to The Sun ending I wrote after several days of joking that I could’ve written a better plot (I'm not saying this actually is better it's just a silly little wish fulfilment piece I thought I would share). There are a few things that don’t exactly adhere to the world of 2077 simply because I think the stuff in the original TTRPG and Cyberpunk Red is cooler. This is also a reminder to everyone to go and read or re-read Never Fade Away.

Words: 2.6k

Warnings: Spoilers for several character deaths, as well as events that lead up to The Sun ending.

A/N: Is this a crappy first draft with minimal editing? Did I pressure myself to finish and post it before 2020 ends? Did I spend valuable time writing this when I have three unwritten essays due in soon? The answer to all of these questions is yes.

Also on AO3 here

‘Hello, Night City! Drag your asses out of your sad sack and turn to face the sky!’ The radio chirped as V pulled herself out of bed, greeted by the afternoon sun. She was on autopilot, completely lost to the chaos of the city below until the cold shock of the shower snapped her back to reality, if that’s what you want to call it.

‘But for all you sitting in the gutter, looking up at the smog, here’s someone you ain’t heard in a while - Johnny Silverhand!’

‘Off.’ V barked, but it came out ragged and broken. She coughed. Blood. The radio fell silent.

‘Good afternoon, V. I trust you had a restful sleep.’ Alva’s voice was flat, empty, it scratched at the back of V’s skull and sent tension down into her fists.

‘Not now, Alva.’ A quiet chirp and the AI fell silent. Obedient.

Finally, a moment to herself - she hated it. Hard to be alone when you don’t recognise the bitch in the mirror.

She remembered the stench of loneliness that had bombarded her at Kerry’s mansion. There was only one thing in this damn apartment that didn’t smell just the same. She pulled the first clothes she saw off the floor and managed to dress herself before reaching for the samurai jacket Rogue had given her.

She hadn’t worn it all week, but then again, she hadn’t done much that warranted getting dressed since everything had happened, since everything had gone wrong.

It didn’t make any sense. Johnny had been a construct in her head; he’d never worn the jacket and she’d never been able to smell the guy, but instinct told her it smelt of him - cigarettes and tequila and something she couldn’t even place. She pulled the sleeves down as far as they would reach, hoping to cover the tattoo.

Reality called again, or rather Emmerick did. ‘Ey, boss.’ Hearing a familiar voice helped more than she thought it would; hurt a hell of a lot more too though.

‘Em, shit. Couldn’t ask a favour, could I?’

‘For you? Anything.’

‘Tell him the job’s off the table.’ V waited for a response but wasn’t surprised that she didn’t get one. ‘No renegotiating, not some other time, just call it off.’

‘Sure thing,’ Emmerick replied. ‘Couldn’t come and do the honours yourself?’

‘I got something else I wanna do, besides, you can handle him; don’t be afraid to put some lead in him if he starts anything; fed up of that schmuck.’

‘I’ll keep that in mind.’

‘Call me with anything urgent; I’ll drop by in a day or two. Oh, and call off Del, I won’t be needing that ride.’

‘Will do, boss, and no worries, take your time.’

Her agent flickered off as she hung up. Before heading out she grabbed the pistols, Pride and the Malorian, and donned Johnny’s aviators to hide her bloodshot eyes.

It wasn’t far to the alley behind Misty’s - V’d made sure she stayed in the neighbourhood, even if she didn’t amble about it the way she used to. The kids loitering on the steps gave her a wide berth, staring wide-eyed at NC’s newest legend, snickering behind their hands when she stumbled and slipped on a flyer. She managed to catch herself, but her heart sank as she waited for a snide comment that never came.

Viktor wasn’t shocked to hear the door open or the metal grate give way, but he sure was surprised to see V stood there before him. Neither he nor Misty had heard from her other than a quick call to say that she was alive, and rumour had it she’d only shown her face at The Afterlife, her own damn club, once or twice.

‘What can I do for ya, V?’ Viktor stood from his chair and welcomed her in.

V’s eyes scanned over the room for a moment, eyebrows creasing in confusion.

‘Fuck, Vik… I dunno.’ It hit her that she had no idea why she’d come here. ‘Don’t know why I’m anywhere anymore.’ V perched on the end of Viktor’s desk and closed in on herself; eyes cast downwards, shoulders hunched.

‘Sorry for bothering ya, Vik.’

He stepped forward and put a sturdy hand on V’s shoulder, crouching to make eye contact. She started a little at the touch but didn’t pull away.

‘Don’t worry about it, you’re always welcome here kid.’

‘Thanks.’ The gratitude was hushed and heavy with regret.

Viktor pulled his friend into a hug, and, for a long moment, there was only the muffled drone of the city above them.

Tears began to creep down V’s face, emerging from behind the glasses.

‘What the fuck am I gonna do, Vik?’ V posed a question they both knew he couldn’t answer.

She kept talking just to fill the silence of the clinic. ‘I killed ‘em all Vik. Rogue’d be alive if it weren’t for me.’

Viktor kept his arms tight around her, scared if he let her go she would crumble. ‘Rogue was great; she just had bad luck, nothin’ anyone could have done. Blood isn’t on your hands.’

V’s memories of that night were hazy but one stood out, crystal clear. Rogue’s body, limp and contorted in the bowels of Arasaka tower, Pride still clutched in her hand, finger on the trigger. The thought of it made her feel nauseous.

‘Isn’t it Vik? Whose is it on? What about Jackie and T-Bug? Evelyn Parker? Takemura? Scorpion?’

Her final question was choked out in a whisper. ‘What about Johnny?’

Viktor knew what he could say - Johnny Silverhand died 55 years ago to a bunch of greedy corpos - but he knew that wouldn’t do jack shit with the state she was in right now.

The heavy grate screeched open again. Nerves fried to shit, paranoia scratching at the nape of her neck, V turned, in one swift movement pulling the Malorian on whoever had intruded. She held the pistol in her left hand.

Shit.

Misty froze, raising the cups of coffee she held in each hand. ‘Only me, V.’

V holstered the gun, cursing under her breath as Misty approached, setting down one of the cups beside Viktor.

‘Sorry, shouldn’t’a barged in like that.’

‘Nah Misty, shit, I’m the one who pulled iron on ya.’ V removed the aviators and pulled her hands across her face. Her eyes were bloodshot and bruised, her skin gaunt and lifeless. Calling her a living legend might be a bit of an overstatement.

The buzz of NC set in again. The silence between the three friends was oddly comfortable, considering none of them had a damn clue what to say to each other.

A minute of shuffling and sparse eye contact passed before V put the glasses and a brave face back on.

‘I’m gonna head outta the city for the night.’

‘V...’ Misty wanted to stop her but knew she was pushing her luck.

‘I can’t stand it here; it’s all so loud. I gotta delta.’

‘Shit, can’t pretend to know what’s going through that head of yours. Just take care of yourself out there, kid.’ Viktor downed the last of his coffee before it had a chance to go cold.

‘I’ll drop by again tomorrow, promise.’ V’s voice was laced with guilt, desperate for her friends to stop worrying about her. ‘Managed to get some sleep last night, ya know.’

Misty and Viktor saw a familiar blank look set on V’s face as she gazed passed them, looking for something no one else saw.

‘Hey, that’s great V.’ Misty chirped.

‘Just as I was slippin' outta my head, finally, I-‘ Fuck. What was she doing? What did she think she’d say next?

There are some things you don’t tell anyone. The fact that, just as she lost consciousness, right arm stretched out across the empty bed, she could've sworn she’d felt cool, smooth chrome resting in her hand? That was top of the list.

Scrambling, tripping over her own words, V was quick to change the subject

‘You guys ain’t gotta word about me.’ She gave a single, hollow laugh. ‘Hell, I stormed Arasaka and made it out alive, or so I’ve been told - I’m untouchable.’

Viktor and Misty mustered their goodbyes. They wanted to reach out, ask if she wouldn’t stay in the city for tonight, they could all grab a pizza and talk crap until the sun came up again. But V had said it best herself; she was untouchable.

Jackie’s Arch was waiting for her back up in the alley. Sure, it wasn’t the safest place, but V preferred to keep it locked up back here. Besides, I wasn’t like keeping something in a garage has ever deterred a thief, she knew that from personal experience. She dragged the bike out onto the street and it revved to life, radio crackling over the noise of the engine.

‘-Significant roadblocks up in Northside. NCPD are aiming to clear the roads quickly but that’s about all the information we have. For now, we’d advise against any unnecessary travel through the district and we’ll keep you up to date with any breaking information.’ The announcer’s voice fizzled out and a song took its place. V sat for a moment, calculating, before speeding off ‘round a corner, cursing under her breath.

Autopilot set in again, and V was barely sure of where she was until a red light flashed up ahead of her. She considered just running it, but at the last moment, the bike came to a screeching halt.

Looking around, V recognised a few buildings, washed out and faded. She hated this part of town – never any good jobs and always tinged by some sad shadow of the past.

The lights turned orange but V’s eyes were instead cast down an alleyway, and she couldn’t resist the pull that drew her in.

Resting the Arch against a wall, V’s slow steps took her deeper into the shadows. The buildings here were old, concrete beginning to crumble, plants sprouting through the cracks – it was odd to see anything in this state. Sure, it wasn’t V’s favourite place to be but it was hardly bad real estate, and wild plants growing in the middle of NC? Not a typical sight.

Enchanted by the story this place wanted to tell her, V pushed on until she met the end of the alley. Looking up at the building before her, a memory stung in her chest. She’d never been here before.

There were no signs left to indicate what this place might’ve been, but plants burst from every escape they could find, moving gently in the wind to beckon V inside.

Then it hit her. She half expected that blue, glitching static, ‘Relic malfunction detected’ flashing across her vision, but there was only silence.

It was too quiet for Night City, even the noise and chaos seemed to have abandoned this place.

The doorway had collapsed in on itself a long time ago, a tree now twisting its way around the rubble, barring V from entering. She clambered up a rusted, crumbling fire escape, working on a muscle memory that wasn’t hers until she was two floors up, facing a boarded window.

It didn’t take V much effort to pry the brittle wood away from the building, which was just as well considering she had little left.

Through the window, V stood in a small entrance hall, remnants of a staircase falling away behind her. Putting a hand against the door before her, every ounce of strength evaporated from V’s body. She took a deep breath, a moment to calm herself down. In a weird twist of fate, she’d’ve given the world to see his flickering blue form right now.

Putting her weight against the door, V pushed into a larger room. Plants had escaped from their ornamental pots and weaved across the floor, a few even daring to entangle themselves in the gaudy chandeliers that hung from the high ceiling. Beneath the plants and long-settled dust, booths with plush, syn-leather seats were scattered with bottles and glasses, a few cheap pistols even scattered about.

Whoever abandoned this place was quick to delta. Probably had no idea they wouldn’t be coming back.

In the centre of the room sat a grand bar with a pale marble countertop. V pulled herself up to sit atop in, tucking her legs under her as she looked down onto the lower counter. It didn’t take her long to find what she was looking for.

A skewered receipt confirmed what she already knew:

ATLANTIS

3:16AM, MARCH 8TH 2024

The order was cheap vodka shots and a slew of cocktails she’d never even heard of, but that didn’t matter.

Dismounting to rain the cabinets below, V pulled out a bottle, the label long since faded and worn away. V tossed the lid onto the floor and took a long swig. Even then she couldn’t put a finger on the strange liquid, but it burned her throat and that was good enough.

V set the bottle down, trading it for a rusted corkscrew that had been abandoned half a century ago.

‘If these walls could talk…’ With that she deltaed, jumping down from the fire escape and pacing back over to the bike.

Somewhere along the way, the city gave out to dusty open fields, old Petrochem plants dotting the barren landscape. V pulled the bike off to the side of the road and began wading through the scrap and rubble to a familiar slab of concrete.

V wondered if anyone had been here since their visit; the metal sheet lay undisturbed bearing her messy inscription:

JS 2023

She flipped the sheet over – there was less graffiti on this side – pulled out the corkscrew, and got to work.

The sun had long since set by the time V was finished. She carved a thin channel and stuck the cool metal into the dirt at the edge of the concrete. After propping it up with a few worn-out tyres, she took a step back to admire the new inscription. Her penmanship, if you could even call it that, was shoddy, but she couldn’t care less if anyone else could read it.

Across the bottom were four names; T-BUG, SCORPION, EVELYN PARKER, GORO TAKEMURA, each with 2077 scratched below them. Above them were three more. On the left of the sheet;

RACHEL ‘ROGUE’ AMENDIARES

2077

STILL THE BEST

The right-hand side read;

JAQUITO ‘JACKIES’ WELLES

2077

“THE ONE THING WE CAN’T DO IS BE AFRAID OF OTHERS”

She’d left the central space blank until last, as if leaving it unwritten made it any less true. But eventually, she’d managed it, tears falling onto the metal as the night’s chill crept into her bones;

JOHNNY SILVERHAND

2023/2077

THE GUY WHO SAVED MY LIFE

Finally, V dug a small hole in front of her plaque, dirt embedding itself beneath her nails. She drew Pride and placed it in the earth before her. The Malorian sat heavy in her hand, and as much as she willed her hand to set it down beside Rogue’s pistol, every inch of her body resisted. The gun found its way back to the holster at her hip.

After burying Pride, V laid back on the concrete, looking up at the few stars that were visible once you left the city. She pulled a cigarette from a pack in one of the jacket's pockets – she certainly didn’t put them there – and lit it.

Closing her eyes, V tried not to think about the body below her. She pulled the jacket tight around her against the chill of the Badlands, alone.

#cyberpunk #cyberpunk 2077 #cyberpunk 2077 spoilers #cyberpunk 2077 alternate ending #alternate ending

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mazojo · 5 years ago

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Noah screenshots? Hcs? Canon facts you like about him? If you guys were to break up, why?

NONNYYYYY

I am sorry for taking a moment there to answer you, I have been trying to write up this answer for a couple days but fumblr here always messes my post up //rip

I am gonna put this all behind a read more cossss I may get ramble and sentimental and people may not like it asdfghj but just know there may be spoilers below and that in this household we are always at all times and every single second, stanning Noah Marshall hours foLKz.

*Cracks knuckles* leTS GeT ThIS BreAD shall we?? ill be dividing it into each part because yo girl just got a chance to cream about her bby boi Noah and she will take iT asdcfvghjk trash

Screenshots

I am not sure what you mean 100% but I am guessing its sharing my fav screenshots while screaming about it and I will 100% do it xDDD

1- I call this one the “Tragic Backstory™ meets sappy”

Okay okay okay i gotta say this whole scene may as well be one of my favorite ones. Not only does it capture them soooo well, but it also made me connect even more to Noah. He lost everything the day he lost his sister. Everything he did was in order to gain everything back, in the hopes of bringing her back to return to how things were and i…..i…..am……weak……

2- This ones called “Everyone @ PB headquarters is a coward for not giving Noah happiness”

Not gonna put the entire scene because its too long buT when I say I would die for Noah Marshalls entire happiness, I mean I would diE FOR NOAH MARSHALL’S ENTIRE HAPPINESS (literally, because, you know, MC kinda dies for him….. ha…..haha….. too soon). thats it, thats the whole message I want ya to get from this post lmaooo.

3- This one goes by the name “Top 10 cursed moments in Choices history”

how he blames himself. “it should have been me….” because his mom blames him. he blames himself. Noah has carried this burden alone for his whole life. he is broken please someone hug him (and that someone is MC obviously pfffff).

4- This one is “I am damaged, gone wrong, got killed (100% real, not clickbait)”

DOnt have to explain how much this scene literally broKE one (1) dumb soul. This whole exchange is so powerful and everytime I re read it I get tears in my eyes because we all deserve better than this ;w;

5- Lastly I call this one “I added one more because all of the ones I choose were depressing and I needed to redeem my rat boi so”

Thats it, thats the screenshot. Please someone who doesnt know Noah Marshall describe him by this one image asdfghjk

Headcanons

ASDFYU OMG THANK YOU NONNY I STAN I STANNN

Well, I actually made some of my MC x Noah HC because they are s o u l m a t e s and this is the post buuuuut some Noah hc I have are:

- As I mentioned in my other HC list, Noah is insomniac. He is always staying late and avoids sleeping because almost everytime he falls asleep he has nightmares thus he is always anxious when sleeping. Since he began dating MC in this magical AU the nightmares have been more manageable

- Can I reiterate on the fact that he has a beanie collection?? Like, I am talking all colors and sizes, homeboy’s only fashion statement is his beanie and we stan.

- He is terrible at using social media. MC and Stacey had to b e g him to create an Instagram account. To this day he still does not understand why people add hashtags to posts

- His favorite bands are Green Day, Simple Plan, Set it Off and Rex Orange County (see as I self insert myself in Noah LMAOO)

- His favorite Disney movies are treasure planet and Dumbo because he used to watch them as a kid a lot with Jane *crying noises intensify*

- He is actually a pretty decent singer! The one or two times MC catches him whispering some song she makes a huge deal out of it and asks him to sign autographs for her so when he becomes famous she can sell them, causing him to dramatically roll his eyes and blush while looking away.

- Even though he is a good singer, Noah haaaates dancing and he sucks at it. As I mention in the other HC list, he always ends up tumbling over with his own feet and avoids dance floors like the plague, only slightly softening for MC

- He refuses to buy AirPods even tho all the others have them. His most significant character trait is using wired headphones and owning it

- He has MC saved as “Dumbass 🖤”

- The crew has a group chat in which Noah has tried exiting, multiple times, only to be added once again and everyone going in his case for him to stop being emo asdfghjk

- His spirit animal is a wolf according to him, every-time MC remembers his answer to that question she starts quoting the “in all levels except physical I am a wolf” vine and “Noah has exited the chat” once again.

- His proudest achievement is his music library, with his infinite playlists selection.

This are some of the HC I haveee, I dont want to bombard you with them but I actually have a notes thingy with this lmaoooo, I do this with my fav pairings but never end up posting them asdfghj

Canon facts I like

oh boi

everything

asdfghjkl but in all seriousness:

- I mention this in almost all my Noah posts but his love for family is one of the things I like the most about him. How much he grasps into that hope his sister is alive and how much he suffers for it, even willing to sacrifice his soulmate friend for that, which okay, was wrong, but he did it with all the good intentions in the bottom of his heart.

- His humor definitely. asdfghj cynical and dark humor is very uwuwuwuwuwu attractive to me and my dankness so yeeee

- His passion for culinary school is soooo asdfghjk of his part. I personally have absolutely no idea how to boil water, so in the first place I admire anyone who knows how to cook, and just how much it means to him. Culinary school is his dream and he has abandoned it, but in every scene you speak that he brings it up, you can see how happy it makes him and asdfghjk bby boiiii

- His beanies asdfghjkkuytr okay okay I know I make fun of them a lot and stuff but beanies are actually are one of my few weaknesses for guys clothing lmaooo (just right behind glasses 😍)

- Just the whole thing with helping MC out (in my play-through) after getting turned into Redfield. Like, hello? he is literally not giving up until she is back? because he believes in her? eye-

Those are the ones I can think off right now from the top of my head but if I remember more later I will come back at ya with emmmm ^^

If you guys were to break up, why?

Big Ooffff

So I answered an ask from my homegirl Kato a while back answering and analyzing if Noah and I would actually work out in real life and I think in a way, the same answer can answer this question.

We would break up because in some way, we are too similar. In the sense that we are both pretty introverted, kept to ourselves, a bit of bad humor and that would lead us to clash in our own ways. Thats why I believe he needs someone like I HC my MC to be. She is outgoing, helping him get out of his shell, get out and explore, she is like the light and they balance each other out. If I were to date Noah we would just both fall into one side of the balance xDD

That being said I still loVE ma BaBY BOOOiiii nOahhhh but I think he would make a much much muuuuuch better couple with someone like MC :33 as I said, they are soulmatessss 🤧

Bishes be loving Noah. thats me, I am bishes and Anon has just blessed my inbox and we been stanning

#ANON I LUV YOUUU #BLESS YOUR SOULLLL #I dont know if this answered the question correctly but uwuwuwu #thank youuuuuu #ask #anon #noah marshall #noah #ilitw #it lives #it lives in the woods #choices

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aquilaofarkham · 6 years ago

Text

morning sun

Alucard can’t believe his eyes. For a moment, he thinks it’s a trick as he stares down from the top balcony. The castle still keeps some magic that hasn’t fully died out and is using it to toy with him. Making his way down the steps, Alucard struggles to remain composed. Please be real. Please let them be real...

“Sypha? Trevor?”

After spending a month as the sole occupant of both Dracula’s castle and the Belmont Hold, Alucard receives a much needed visit from his two closest and most loved friends. Contains major spoilers for episode 8 of Castlevania season 2.

rating: general

word count: 2,536

AO3

Alucard is used to the silence. He had no other choice; it was one or the other. Allow his loneliness and grief to swallow him whole or find comfort in solitude. Every day he loses himself in books, test tubes, and scientific devices, trying to focus his mind on something else. Anything else. A scrap of history thought to have been lost to the ages or a medicine that can cure even the plague. While every night he buries his tearful eyes into his pillow. There are times when the feeling is just as painful as it was that first day alone. Then there are others which are quieter, leaving him numb and disassociated.

It has been like this for nearly a month now. The steps leading up from the Belmont Hold creak every time Alucard puts his foot down. There’s still much work to be done in repairing most of the staircases, but he’s light on his feet. He only needs one to take piles of untranslated books and manuscripts back up to the surface. Alucard finds himself spending more and more time in the library than within the castle. Perhaps because unlike the other, one fills him with happy memories that don’t send aches through his chest.

Upon reaching outside, the dhampir is greeted by a clear blue sky and the smell of rain that’s come and gone. The weeks leading up to spring have always been his favourite. Brighter mornings, softer rains, and the promise of better things to come. Something to look forward to.

Alucard is always in need of things that help him look forward rather than back.

“You think he’d still be there?”

“Why would he not?”

“Well, you know... he could have gotten bored.”

Sypha scoffs. “With all that knowledge surrounding him and with so much to do? I doubt someone like him would get bored so easily. You on the other hand might.”

“That’s not true.”

“Is that why you entrusted him with your own family’s history instead of yourself?”

“It was a gift! You kept telling me to be nicer in the first place.”

They play, they jest, but deep down both Trevor and Sypha share the same fear. That in their absence, their friend has vanished. Wandering just as his father once did or shutting himself off from the outside world. While they were off having adventures they only dreamed about, creating new stories for themselves, they left Alucard to pick up the pieces. Sypha loses sleep over this thought; Trevor mentally tortures himself but doesn’t let it show.

So, as they drive their wagon down a familiar path, the two of them hide their fear behind harmless banter. It works - for now.

The work never seems to end. There’s always something else that needs Alucard’s attention, another antiquity that needs to be preserved, translated, and studied. Even the artifacts that made up his past life hold new discoveries. At least there’s some distraction, no matter how temporary it may feel at the end of the day.

Looking over his newest finding, Alucard can’t help but left out a brief chuckle. He remembers teasing a certain hunter over his family’s affiliation with the occult and magic. Now Alucard has even more proof: a couple of dusty 9th century grimoires as thick as his arm. Though his satisfied glee isn’t out of pettiness.

He barely cracks the spine on one before he hears the massive castle doors open. Despite being tucked away in one of the many studies, he can still sense it. Confusion bubbles up within him, then suspicion.

Then hope.

There’s no need to knock for the doors open all on their own. Sypha looks over at Trevor with their arms full of baskets and parcels. All they can do is shrug and assume the castle must do that for everyone now.

“Anybody home?” Trevor calls out, his voice echoing through the main hall. A much different place than when they last left it. Still empty and quiet, though. Perhaps a bit too empty. Trevor’s stomach feels tight while Sypha’s eyes shift around nervously. Their steps become slower the further they walk.

Alucard can’t believe his eyes. For a moment, he thinks it’s a trick as he stared down from the top balcony. The castle still keeps some magic that hasn’t fully died out and is using it to toy with him. Making his way down the steps, Alucard struggles to remain composed. Please be real. Please let them be real...

“Sypha? Trevor?” His voice shakes as he reaches the bottom step. Sypha is the first to notice him. Discarding everything in her hands, she runs forward. She exclaims his name before colliding into the dhampir, her arms wrapped tightly around his body and her cheek planted firmly against his chest.

“We missed you so much!”The sudden physical contact surprises Alucard, but he doesn’t dare escape from it. He embraces Sypha as closely as she does him.

“I missed you too.” He looks up to see Trevor sauntering towards them, a familiar crooked smile on his lips.

“You’ve redecorated.”

“You combed your hair.”

The two men laugh as though nothing has changed. Suddenly, the castle feels less empty. “Where did you two run off to?”

“Too many places to name at once,” Trevor replies.

“We brought presents!”

“I’d like to hear everything.”

“How much free time do you have?”

Alucard smiles; for them, he has all the time in the world.

“You disguised yourselves as plague doctors?”

“It was the best idea at the time. We needed to get out of the city without the merchants seeing and then chasing us with the tips of their swords right up our arses.”

“I thought you were going to help people.”

“We were helping people!”

“But Trevor, as always, couldn’t keep his mouth closed around the wrong people.” Sypha remarks, taking another sip from her glass. The dining table is a mess of half eaten food, chicken bones stripped of all meat, and unwrapped gifts as fresh wine stains blend with its dark wood. Charming trinkets and clothes from every corner of Wallachia lay scattered amongst the plates and candles.

“Don’t act so innocent, you pissed them off as well.”

Alucard slips another grape into his mouth. He hasn’t talked much since Trevor and Sypha returned, only because he’s far too busy listening to them speak. As soon as all three of them sat down, they bombarded him with stories of their adventures (or rather misadventures). Every person they met, every city they helped, and every evil they stamped out engrosses Alucard. They’ve been filling his head for hours and he hopes it never stops even though it will have to eventually.

“How are the Speakers?”

“They’re all well.”

“Sypha’s quickly become the most popular Speaker in all of eastern Europe.”

“I certainly do not doubt that.”

“Thank you.” Sypha holds her head high, proud and knowing that every bit of praise directed towards her is well deserved. “Although my efforts to keep Trevor out of trouble have been… unsuccessful. Sorry to disappoint you, Alucard.”

“That I also did not doubt. By the way, do you still call him ‘Treffy’?”

Trevor almost chokes on his drink. “You remember that?”

“How could I not… Treffy.”

“Stop that.”

“Come to think of it, it oddly suits you.”

“See?” Sypha side-eyes Trevor with a sly grin. “At least someone agrees with me.”

“I have a chicken bone and I’m not afraid to use it.” Despite his mild annoyance, Trevor laughs alongside his two companions. “So, how goes your new life as scholar and protector?”

Alucard’s smile lessens. He knew that very question would get brought up. He tells them the truth – a gentle version of it. “It’s solitary. But it has kept me occupied. There’s so much hidden within this castle and your family’s hold, I uncover something new every day.”

Sypha’s eyes sparkle with intrigue. “That sounds incredible. You have to show us.”

“She has a point. Why keep all that knowledge to yourself? Why not release out into the world? You’d be doing a lot of people some good favours.”

“I have… considered it. My largest concern is how the larger population will react to such a burst of new information.”

“The Speakers would absolutely welcome it. You should have seen their faces when I told them of what we found in Trevor’s home.”

“But not everyone thinks like you and your family, Sypha. How will humans cope with knowing that the world they live in is dominated by science, magic, and their worst superstitions come to life? Opposing forces coexisting with one another and have been for centuries now. You don’t think people will be overwhelmed, terrified, or even furious?”

Trevor raises an eyebrow. “So, what you’re saying is if people weren’t stupid this wouldn’t be a problem for you.”

“Ignorant. Sheltered. Comfortable with beliefs they’ve held for most of their lives. What I’m also worried about is what they’ll do when they eventually realize where this knowledge is coming from.”

Sypha and Trevor are silent. Alucard’s concerns are not unfounded or irrational. They don’t need a reminder of what happened to Lisa and the Belmont family.

“Alucard…” Sypha begins, nervously holding her glass. “Can I ask you about something?”

“Of course.”

“After everything that’s happened… how do you feel about humanity?”

Alucard doesn’t respond right away – he doesn’t give much of a reaction at all. He thought he had the answer long ago. When it came to humanity at large, he shared his mother’s love and compassion for them. The belief that they were capable of good coupled with the desire to help those who needed it. That compassion remains but it’s since been mixed with different emotions. Suspicion, anxiety, caution. Self-preservation. There were days, painful lonely days, when Alucard wanted to reverse his decision and go back to Gresit.

Then there were the things that stopped him. His books, his work, and the thought of two humans.

“I don’t know,” he mutters. Once again, the gentler truth. The silence of the dining room grows thick with no one knowing what to say next. Until Trevor takes initiative.

“Shall we talk about something else?”

Sypha quickly jumps at the opportunity. She talks about Bucharest and the beaches of the Black Sea, of castle ruins and untouched wilderness. Trevor talks about dancing with her while wearing flower crowns and entertaining Speaker children with stories to keep them up at night.

Alucard, as always, listens.

Dusk comes sooner than anyone expects. The sky turns a warm orange and golden hue while the winds settle down. Alucard stares out the window of his study with a hand resting against his chin. Below sits Trevor and Sypha’s covered wagon just outside the castle entrance. Come morning, they’ll return to it and head off on another grand adventure. Alucard is happy for them; Wallachia seems too small for a Speaker magician and a vampire hunter. Of course he wishes they would stay for a bit longer, but he wouldn’t force that upon them.

“Go to sleep, Trevor.” He says without turning around. “You have a long journey ahead of you tomorrow.”

Seconds pass before Alucard hears footsteps coming into the room. “How’d you know it was me?”

“I know everything.” There’s a hint of playfulness in his voice, which amuses Trevor. “Having trouble sleeping?”

“You could say that. All that good food and drink. I also wanted to see what else you’ve done with this place.”

“Really?”

“Actually, I… got lost.”

“Colour me not surprised.”

After Alucard has a good chuckle, Trevor’s expression softens. “It’s good to see you again, you bastard.”

“The same to you as well.” Alucard turns around, expecting Trevor to continue wandering the castle in a confused daze. Instead, he joins the dhampir by the window. “I know I said this before but… thank you.”

“For what?”

“For giving me the Belmont Hold. It doesn’t happen often, and you may not realize it, but you have a hidden skill for generosity.”

“I’m flattered. And you’re welcome. As long as you’ve been keeping it in good shape.”

“I am, there’s no need to worry about that. I’ve spent so many days down there, it truly has become my second home.”

“And the caskets full of vampire skulls don’t bother you anymore?”

“Well… no, they still do. But I should apologize. Your family history is so rich and fascinating, I feel guilty about all the things I said the night we went down there.”

“You’re actually apologizing? I think some dust from the library must have made its way into your brain.”

Alucard rolls his eyes. “Where do you and Sypha plan on traveling to next?”

“We’re not sure. But we have a couple days to figure that out.”

“What do you mean?”

“She didn’t tell you? We’re staying here for the next little while. You can’t keep that library or laboratory all to yourself forever, you know. And Sypha needs more things to impress the other Speakers.”

Trevor talks about it so casually while Alucard is left wide eyed and stunned. He turns away, his face basking in the sun’s dying light, in case he cannot stop the tears. “Thank you…”

“No need to thank us. Isn’t that what friends d–“ Trevor quiets down as soon as he sees the dhampir trembling. When he carefully places his hand upon his shoulder, his suspicions are proven true. “Um… is everything alright?”

“Yes.” Alucard lifts his head, forcing a smile through the first tears. “Yes, I’m fine.”

“I’ve never seen you cry. Didn’t think it was possible.”

“It is possible.” More than possible. Despite his weeping, Alucard’s voice remains soft, low, and gentle. “I’ve cried so much, I keep believing that I will drown or drain myself completely dry.”

“What do you cry over?”

“So much… too much.”

As the tears continue, Trevor cups Alucard’s wet cheeks in both palms. He’s never been good at comforting – both Sypha and the dhampir know this all too well – but he can try. He can always try.

“Why are you doing it now?”

“… because I’m happy. I haven’t felt this happy in a long time. And I know it will not last, but… I’m sorry.”

Trevor draws Alucard in, letting him rest his face in the crook of his neck. “Stop apologizing. And stop crying, you’ll make yourself sick.”

“Always so considerate.” Alucard’s comment resembles something like a laugh and a sob. He clings to the hunter, savouring his warmth for as long as he can. For once, he doesn’t mind Trevor’s musky smell. In a moment, he feels calmer. He can finally breathe easy. His head still feels heavy and when he pulls back, Alucard can’t stop himself from resting his forehead against the hunter’s. Trevor lets him – it’s the least he can do. He just hopes the dhampir doesn’t notice the heat radiating from his cheeks.

“Come on, bat boy. Let’s get you to a bed.”

“Yes, Doctor Belmont.” With his arm around Trevor’s shoulders and the hunter’s arm around his waist, they leave the study, walking out into the hallway.

“Uh… why don’t you lead the way.”

#castlevania #trevor belmont #alucard #adrian tepes #sypha belnades #netflix castlevania #castlevania spoilers #castlevania season 2 spoilers #my writing #*cvfic #no edit because i'm exhausted

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ladydragonhawke · 5 years ago

Text

The Lesser of Two Evils

Season 15 fanfic starting exactly at the ending of Season 14.

For anyone who would like to have an easier reading experience here’s the link to the story

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20647562/chapters/49157945

SPOILERS FOR SEASON 14

CHAPTER 3/? WIP

Summary: Cas has an itch that needs scratching, but to do so requires the help of someone he would rather not involve.

Chapter 3: Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door

In the war room alarms were sounding loudly again as the lights on the walls and table blinked frantically.

“Um, what does that mean?” Claire asked gesturing to the light show that was happening.

Sam was already on top of the computer and the readouts it was giving, while Dean searched for the off switch. Two headaches in two days is just too much at this point. After finding the correct group of switches Dean flicked them on and off, thereby shutting off the alarms. Alex ran past him to what he assumed was to check on the patient. Dean sauntered to the side of Sam as he tried to make out just what the computer was freaking out about.

“According to this, there was a massive celestial event that just happened. Let me compare it to the readouts from earlier.” Sam grabbed the pile of printouts that were near him on the desk, good thing he didn’t throw them away yet. Dean started up the stairs leading out of the front door.

“Hey! Be careful! I can’t make out what happened yet!” called Sam as he was torn between going with his brother or trying to make sense of all the numbers and degrees printed on either paper. Without even a moment passing by Dean came running back into the main room like a kid at Christmas.

“THE SUN IS BACK!” Dean shouted at the top of his lungs. Sam dropped the papers and ran up the stairs behind Castiel and Jack who were already halfway up themselves. Everyone filed out of the door in front of the Bunker to look up at the sun. Castiel glanced at his watch then back up as if tracking its accuracy. The rotation of the Earth was back to normal as well.

“Why would he do that?” pondered Dean, “Why would he bring it back?”

“So soon too?” Sam added.

“I have no idea. Let’s just be glad it is back, for now.” Castiel grumbled as he turned to return into the Bunker. One by one everyone filed back into the Bunker leaving only the older gentleman, the young clerk from the gas station, Sam, and Dean.

“Do you think it’s safe to go back?” asked the older man.

“Not sure, but you’re welcome to stay if you like. You and?” Sam gestured toward the young lady to reveal her name.

“Sarah. Sorry, it has been kinda hectic, what with God and all.” She stared at the ground realizing the ridiculousness of what she’s saying, and how it sounds.

“I have a grandchild I need to check on. Can’t leave him to this mess. He has his father, but he ain’t worth more than two pennies to rub together.” The old man grumbled.

“I need to get back too, I’m worried about my brother Ben. Our dad was in the Marines and I’m sure the ‘fort’ held but…” she trailed off in thought as she looked out toward the main road.

“Well, we’ll give you some supplies and a car you guys can have to get back to town. If you run into any trouble with those zombies, run. Don’t fight them.” Sam made it a point to look directly into each of their eyes to further drive the point home.

“Trust me, after what happened earlier, we won’t. Fight I mean.” Sarah corrected. She was justifiably nervous, but Sam was hoping with a bit of light instruction and some quick pointers she should be ok. He hoped. He guided them back inside leaving Dean outside thinking to himself just what in the hell happened. He couldn’t quite get over how in one minute the sun was completely gone, and within a few hours it was back again as if nothing had happened. “What is Chuck planning?” After about ten minutes or so to think to himself, he decided to worry about it later, right now he wanted to pop in on the invalid and see where she was at for recovery. She seemed like the fighting type; Dean liked those with a bit of backbone.

As Dean shut the door behind him, he could hear a crackling noise coming from the war room and as he looked out over the bannister Rowena popped into view holding onto quite a few of her precious tomes. It seemed she had escaped quite a kerfuffle wherever she blew in from.

“Rowena, how’s tricks?” Dean asked with a slight smile. He liked ruffling her feathers when he could. She turned to give him a sneer but thought it best to fake a smile as she set down her tomes onto the center table.

“I was…” she gasped as she laid down her largest tomes with a thud, “Bombarded at my flat!” She exhaled forcefully as another wrapped stack thudded onto the table, leaving a small bundle under her arm as what was left. “Did anybody bother to warn me the dead were rising from their grave?” She set the smaller bundle on top of the larger set as she flopped into the nearest chair, looking exhausted. “Not to mention the sun disappearing, and then reappearing before our very eyes?” She raised her hand to shake a boney finger at Dean, “Please don’t tell me you boys are the cause of all this?” Just then Sam walked into the room seeing Rowena pointing a long finger at Dean.

“Hey Rowena, didn’t hear you come in.” Sam stuttered.

“Aye Sam, nice to see you too. Now will someone please tell me what is bloody going on?” She looked back and forth between Sam and Dean. Dean coughed and tapped Sam on the shoulder. “I’ll leave her to you, I’mma go check on our wounded.”

“Right.” Sam scoffed.

Dean escaped from the room as quickly as he could, he did NOT want to receive the foul words she was bound to spew when she heard it pretty much was all them. Kinda, sorta, not really, honestly if Chuck planned on it going this way was it really their decision? He shook his head to rid himself of going down that rabbit hole. That was one hole he didn’t like exploring. He entered the infirmary to find Alex using a stethoscope to try to find a heartbeat.

“Whoa, whoa. Did she die?” Dean stopped halfway between her and the door waiting for an answer.

“No, her heartbeat is just so…. faint.” She removed the pieces from her ears and returned the stethoscope to dangle around her neck. “Frankly there’s not much else I can do for her. She’s got another blood bag and a few more saline and the wound should be better soon. But it’s like…” she paused not quite sure if she wants to say it out loud.

“Like what?” Dean inquired giving the stranger a look over. She was pale and seemed at ease in her sleep.

“Like… she’s in a coma.” Alex whispered.

“How long do you think?” Dean asked taking a seat on the bed next to the patient.

“Not up to me. I don’t think it would hurt to have Cas or maybe Jack…” she stopped at the sight of Dean giving her a hard look of no, “or not Jack.”

“Rowena is here, maybe we could have her give her a once over.” Dean proposed.

“Sounds good to me. Well, I’m going to have a long shower, care to watch her for a bit? If she wakes up just come get me, ok? Not that I think she’s going to wake up right now but…” She sighed, “you never know.”

“Roger that. Enjoy your shower.” Dean took out his phone to find one of the many games he had installed on it, the internet and phone services may be down but that wasn’t going to stop him from distracting himself from his thoughts. He pulled up one of the many iterations of Candy Crush and began his latest level. He didn’t get too far till he heard light heels tapping on the floor toward him. He turned to find Rowena walking slowly toward him, eyeing both him and the unconscious lady in the bed in front of him.

“So, this is her. The odd woman.” Rowena straightened as the reached the foot of the bed of the woman in question.

“Yep.” Affirmed Dean as he tucked his phone back into his back pocket. He’ll finish that level later.

“Sam mentioned what might’ov happened to her. I suppose you boys think I should give it a go?” she looked at Dean for confirmation.

“Alex did mention, before she took off to take a shower, that it seems like she may be in a coma.” Dean recited, albeit a bit haphazardly.

“I’ll start with scrying then. Get the general idea of what’s going on.” Rowena rubbed her hands together as if to warm them up, then when she felt she had sufficiently raised her awareness she floated her hands above the strangers’ body starting at the feet. Dean had watched her preform this action a few times with Jack in place of the invalid. Dean didn’t want to think about that, so he focused on the slight humming sounds and slight twinges of movement from Rowena. Her humming started out calm and collected then as she neared the head, she sounded a bit frazzled and the notes sounded off-key.

“What’s up?” Dean wondering just what was with the odd humming.

“Well, I’m not quite…” she slowly breathed out as she searched a bit deeper “sure dear. Usually I can find a persons’ soul or being rather quickly, but…” she moved her hands to hover over the strangers’ heart, “it’s almost like I’m at the door knocking to be let in but, no one is answering.”

“So, she has no soul?” Dean questioned, confused with her analogy.

“Oh, she has one dear it’s there, but it’s just completely blocked off for some reason.” She moved her hands back down to her feet to finish the ritual. “Like she doesn’t want anyone poking their nose where she won’t want.” She held her hands in each other as she gave the girl another once over with her eyes. “The only thing I can do is give her a healing spell for the wound. I could try a waking spell, but I fear the after-effects may upset her more.” She looked at Dean who didn’t seem too pleased at the sound of that and he sighed as he rose to his feet.

“Well do what you can. Make sure if she wakes up to let Alex know. I’ll go tell her you’re on top of it. See if she needs a nap or somethin’.” Dean patted Rowenas’ shoulder lightly and walked out of the infirmary through the other door.

Rowena sighed as she looked at the strangers’ face that was starting to show some color. “Now it’s just us girls.” She sat on the bed next to the stranger as she prepared herself to preform a healing spell that rose in intensity as long as the caster was willing to pour as much energy as they wanted. She breathed deeply for a few minutes to quell any insecurities she may be harboring. The issue that this woman was able to completely block her from even getting a general feel of who this person is, was more than aggravating to say the least. This just made her more interesting to Rowena, like a rubix cube that looked nearly complete but with only one square out of place. The solution would be roughly simple, but it would take some time. Rowena extended her hands outward from her body hovering just a few inches above the area where the wound was. She could see it in her minds eye, the rough stitch work that was holding quite a few flaps of skin onto each other. The small holes that couldn’t quite be stitched due to the lack of skin in those particular areas. She probed a little deeper, the muscles in her entire lower side were a complete mess, a large chunk was missing entirely and some of the sinew was connected to nothing. She pushed deeper, but for some reason she couldn’t, as if the body was rejecting her, forcing her to return to the muscles. She took a deep breath and delved against the force of whatever was barring her. Without too much pressure she was finally able to see some of the damaged organs; a kidney was nearly on its last legs, a badly bruised hip bone, and large chunk of her colon was missing, but other than that she couldn’t see too much else.

“There, was that so hard?” She sighed content with herself and her abilities. She still couldn’t figure out how or why this persons’ being was fighting against her so much. She added that to the list of questions she intended to ask her when she awoke. Starting from the kidney she began the healing process; it didn’t take too long to get it into acceptable standards. When she returned to the muscles to try to mend them back to their original places, she could feel a slight pull on her shoulder. She opened her eyes to find a young black-haired woman standing next to her.

“Alex, I presume?” Asked Rowena, never fully dropping her healing spell. The distraction could hinder it, but she was more than capable.

“Guilty as charged. How’s she doing?” Alex asked while pulling up a chair to the end of the bed.

“She’s… interesting.” Rowena teased.

“I’ll say. Any other person with wounds like this would’ve died from the blood loss alone.”

“It’s odd…” Rowena started, pausing as she mended the majority of muscles leaving some of the other ones to heal by themselves. “I’ve never had to fight this hard to heal a person.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well…” She slowly tapered off the healing aura thinking this was enough for the moment. “when I try to do anything, I get forced back. Under normal circumstances this is an entirely somewhat easy process.”

“But she’s not normal.” Alex gave her a knowing look, as if someone finally realized something she’s known for a while now.

“Quite.”

Rowena looked at the strange woman in wonder, she’ll have so many questions for her. As night fell everyone was exhausted from what a nightmare of a day they all equally shared. Alex resigned to let Rowena babysit the comatose stranger while she went and got some shuteye. Claire, Donna, and Jody all went into their respective rooms and crashed. Dean and Sam were left alone with Castiel and Jack in the main room continuously trying to get any news from the outside. Castiel was trying in vain to reach anyone in heaven, but it was as if no one was left to answer him. He was beginning to feel extremely uneasy; he knew if there were no angels left to keep heaven functional, the souls would be lost. He looked at Sam and Dean as they were trying to get the router working for the fifth time to see if they could get any internet. He needed to check on things, but he didn’t want to leave Sam, Dean, and Jack. He took a deep breath as he steeled himself for the inevitable pushback he was going to have.

“Guys, I need to go to heaven.”

Dean dropped what he was doing and spun around to face Cas with a mixed look of confusion and annoyance. “Um, what?”

“Look, I still can’t get anything from anyone up there, if there aren’t any angels in heaven, we won’t have just the souls that broke out of hell to deal with.” Castiel sped through every word knowing if he didn’t get it out it would never get a chance to again.

“Right, did you forget about the massive hoards of undead that are out there?! Not to mention the demons from Hell that are loose all over the frickin’ world! You’ll get torn to shreds!” Dean half-shouted, having to stop himself realizing people are trying to sleep.

“I realize that, but this is something I can’t just leave alone. Not when…” He paused looking to Sam for some kind of backup. “not when I can do something about it.”

“I’ll go with you.” Jack interjected, jumping out of the chair he was lounging in.

“No. Out of the question.” Castiel stopped him with an outstretched arm.

“I can help! I know where the door is.” Jack was beginning to get justifiably frustrated. He couldn’t stand being treated like a child. “I can fly us there and back.”

“That’s actually not a bad idea.” Pipped up Sam. Dean did a double-take and gave him a look of shock then disgust.

“We still don’t know if he’s even capable of doing all that. He was dead today, not like that stops us much anyway, but still. I say no, it’s too soon.” Dean folded his arms onto his chest. “We’ll come up with something else.” Sam knew this was his usual signal that he wouldn’t budge, but Sam knew if anyone could change Deans’ mind it was him.

“Dean, he’s already shown that he can use his powers without injuring himself. He healed me and blasted all those walkers when we picked up the girls.” Sam knew the implications of what could happen if they left the bunker, but he had faith in Jack and Cas. He knew if things went south in any way, they would fight like mad to get out and back to them. “They could just fly to the door and if things look sour, they’ll just fly back.” He looked Castiel in the eyes as if saying this to him as an order, of which Castiel and Jack both acknowledged.

Dean keeping is arms crossed and his head held high was trying not to show outwardly that he was actually considering this half-baked plan. But they’ve done more with less. And as much as he hated the idea of Castiel and Jack leaving his side so soon he was very concerned about the souls in heaven, including Mary and John. He mulled it around in his head and gave a look to Sam that meant, I’m weighing my options here.

“Fine, but if things look bad. At all. You come right back. Got it?” Dean pointed a finger at Jack that was between anger and love. He wouldn’t dare admit the ladder at the moment.

“Yes sir.” Jack replied, trying to hide a smile at finally being allowed to do something. He and Castiel stepped back from the center table and gave Sam and Dean one last look before disappearing.

“If he so much as gets a papercut I’m…” Dean started but didn’t dare finish, the thought of him being hurt at all was a thought he’d rather not address.

“I know, me too. Let’s get some rest huh?” Sam gave Dean a comforting pat on his shoulder to break him away from his thoughts.

“Sounds good.” Dean grunted as they both made their way to their respective rooms. Leaving the main room silent besides the few blips and beeps from the computers still running and collecting data.

Castiel and Jack jerked into reality in front of the sandbox that masqueraded as the door to heaven. The evening sky was dark, nearly devoid of stars either due to the light pollution, or the fact it was The End. Castiel did a quick sweep of any and all possible life forms in the area that could interfere with entering into Heaven. It seemed odd, there weren’t any undead or demons that he could sense. “Are they being deterred by the door of Heaven?” Thought Castiel as he stepped toward the sandbox. The hidden runes in the sand lit up, leaking an inviting glow into the air around them. Jack was just as confused about the lack of evil dead in the area and decided to try his own search, which came up fruitless, yet there was this nagging feeling that something was off.

“Come on Jack, let’s make this as quick as possible.” Castiel held out his hand inviting Jack to join him in the sandbox, only they weren’t going to be building sandcastles.

Within a flash they were sent up into the winding hallways of Heaven. Immediately things seemed bleak. The lights were flickering on and off frantically leaving hardly a second of light to be shown. The hallways themselves seemed like some beast comprised of dark smoke writhed against the walls. Fearing the worst Castiel ran to the throne room, with a confused Jack in tow. Upon entering the room, he found Naomi sitting in one of the chairs next to Chucks’, her head in her hands but seemingly alright.

“Naomi, what happened here?” Castiel asked knowing his presence wasn’t exactly welcomed still within Heavens’ circle. He kept his distance to the doorway.

“It came to deliver a message.” Naomi muttered, not raising her head.

“What came?” Jack asked.

“The Shadow.” Her head slowly raised to look at Jack with a face bursting with a whirlwind of emotions. Anger, fear, hate, love, there wasn’t one you could pinpoint but it pained Castiel to see her in this way.

“It wanted me to deliver a message to you two.” She rasped holding everything within her to not lash out at the two of them.

“What was the message?” Jack asked. Castiel already feared he knew the answer but there was something else driving this emotion she was carrying, and he was afraid to dig any deeper.

“This. Changes. Nothing. Not even THE END.”

The room fell eerily silent, Castiel swallowed the lump in his throat. He already figured that, but what drove The Shadow to deem ravaging Heaven as a necessity? Was it because it is The End?

“Where is everyone?” Castiel finally broke the static that was starting to grate on his ears.

“Dead.”

“How?!” His hands balled into fists… All my fault.

“Did you not see the hallways? How do you think?!” She choked back a sob.

I let this happen, how could I let this happen?

“It’s over.” She returned her face into the palms of her hands. “Heaven is done.”

“I could make…” Jack was interrupted with a terse glance from Naomi.

“It wouldn’t be enough.” She hissed.

Mustering up all the courage he could Castiel took a step and knelt in front of Naomi, and softly placed a hand on her shoulder. She didn’t flinch or shy away, what would be the point?

“In the few years that I’ve been able to spend living with the humans, and the family I gained from joining them. I wouldn’t trade it for anything in existence. You are family to me as well, always have been and always will be. And with my family on earth there’s something one of them said when things were at their bleakest, when the sky was raining down and we felt all hope was lost.” Naomi raised her head to look into Castiels’ caring eyes, she was so tired and should hate him with every fiber of her being. He was the one who left. Yet in this moment she didn’t feel hate, or fear, or loss. She felt broken and numb as if everything inside her wanted to give up and let the pieces of her scatter into nothing.

There’s a tradition with Japanese pottery that has been handed down for generations. When a teapot or cup is broken, rather than throwing it away and purchasing or making a new one, they affix it back together. They use a method called Kintsugi otherwise called “golden joinery.” This technique employs a special tree sap lacquer dusted with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. Once completed, beautiful seams of gold glint in the exposed cracks of ceramic, giving a one-of-a-kind appearance to each “repaired” piece. This unique method celebrates each artifact’s unique history by emphasizing its fractures and breaks instead of hiding or disguising them. In fact, Kintsugi often makes the repaired piece even more beautiful than the original, revitalizing it with a new look and giving it a second life.

“Keep grinding. No matter how much it hurts, no matter how hard it gets, you gotta keep grinding. And that’s how we’re gonna win.” Castiel took her hand in his and helped raise her to her feet. “We keep fighting, together.” They weren’t quite the perfect words he was aiming for, but a dear friend… no, a family member had said it, it quelled his dark thoughts in his time of need. He hoped it had done the same for Naomi.

As Naomi stood slowly taking in the words Castiel said while gripping his hand tight, a little piece of her that she thought she had lost in the chaos seemed to reappear. A sense of duty, no… it was rather a sense of longing, for what she wasn’t sure. To make things right again? To get the angels back somehow? To get Heaven in working order again?

“What do I do?” She asked still unsure if she was even allowed to ask such a question.

“What’s the first thing that needs to be done here in order to keep the souls of Heaven from falling back to Earth?” Castiel inquired.

She looked at him in confusion, he knew the state of it all and what was to happen next. Why bother asking a question that he already knew the answer to?

Wait!

“Come with me.” She stood up straighter. Her vessel was an utter mess, but she couldn’t bother to give it a thought now. This task was more important. Hell was already loose upon the Earth, measures needed to be taken to ensure the souls of Heaven weren’t lain waste to the beasts from below. There was only one option left and there was only one being capable but the only way to find said being was through a rather large magnifying glass, one only God or his angels could access. “It’s a long shot, but if anyone can do it, it’s these two. I’ll assist in anyway I can, even if I have to…” She led them winding down multiple endless hallways, Jack was doing everything in trying to keep up with them. Then without warning the hallway suddenly opened up into a massively expansive stark white room, it had no windows or doors, but judging by the minimal shadows that their vessels gave off one could tell the walls were not 90-degree angles. The floor slopped downward toward the center where it flattened out making it easier to stand. It was as if they were inside a dewdrop.

Naomi turned to face the two boys as they were getting their bearings.

“I haven’t seen this room since…” Castiel started, “But why are we here? This is just the Observatory. And if I recall correctly this room requires a massive amount of energy to function. The last time it was on was…”

“Just after creation. When God disappeared.” Naomi finished. “I’m well aware.” She paused knowing what needed to be done next. “Stand there Castiel, Jack I may need your assistance.”

“Wait!” Castiel raised an arm to stop Jack. “First you have to tell me why. And another thing, I will not allow him to die for this.”

“He won’t Castiel, you have my word.” She reached a hand toward Jack giving him a loving smile. “Castiel your job will be to find Amara.”

“What!?” He shouted, “How will that even be possible? We couldn’t even find Chuck with this, and you believe it will find Amara?”

“I have faith.” She smiled, still extending her arm as she patiently waited for Jack to be released from his fathers’ grip.

Slowly Castiel released his grip on Jack, but not before pulling him into a fast embrace.

“No matter what happens, do NOT use your soul. Do you understand me?” Castiel pleaded fighting the urge to pull himself and Jack and run back to the Bunker.

“I won’t. I promise.” Jack said shakily, the shock from the sudden embrace raising his apprehension as to what will happen next.

Castiel released Jack lingering one hand on his shoulder until Jack left it entirely, taking the hand of Naomi who was still smiling brightly. Together she led him toward the opposite wall and placed a hand on a hidden pad. A door-shaped portion of the wall instantly evaporated away, she led Jack into the small room with her. It was a touch cramped but it soon expanded after realizing there was more than one being inside it. With a click two white rods appeared on opposite walls that jutted out horizontally.

“What are these?” Jack looked on them with amazement, but he wasn’t sure if he should touch it.

“They’re power cores. It takes one or two beings with a rather large amount of power to call the Observatory to function.” She informed while touching hidden buttons on her side of the wall that remained unseen to Jack. “God doesn’t even need the use of this room; it was made specifically for us. But only Archangels alone, or ten angels could offer enough power to use it.” She turned to face him as she finished pushing a few buttons. He was looking at the wall that separated them and Castiel. With one button push she made the wall sheer, so they could see him, and him them.

“Are you ready Castiel?” She spoke softly, Jack was wondering if Cas could even hear...

“Yes.” He replied quickly.

“You have her in your frame of mind? Her sense of presence?” She clarified.

“Yes.” He replied flatly, looking at Jack at first with concern but broke it with the sense of duty that needed to be done.

“Then let us begin.” Naomi raised a hand above her power core, turning to look at Jack. “When I say three, we both touch the cores at the same time. This device runs on grace, spend it sparingly, don’t let it pull you in. If you are pulled in, I won’t be able to help you and you will die. Do you understand?” She gazed into his eyes looking for a sign of understanding.

“I understand. Don’t let it pull me in. But what about you?” Jacks’ face changed from readiness to concern.

“Don’t worry, this isn’t my first time.” She winked.

Jack smiled at her content with the answer.

“He’s a Nephilim so his amount of grace surpasses even Archangels, but I can’t let him use the amount they do. Even Michael was a mess after one go on this for only two minutes. I don’t know how long it will take to accurately find her…”

“One…”

“But I have faith in them.”

“Two…”

“All of them.”

“Three!”

1 note · View note

musutofu · 6 years ago

Text

【 When Darkness Falls 】

♡ pairing | Kaminari x ᶠᴱᴹ Reader ✑ word count | 6.7k ✎ genre | angst ✗ warnings | season 3 spoilers, (temporary) character death, cursing

Above you the thick canopy of leaves is parted by gnarled and spindly branches, like weathered hands parting the curtain of darkness to reveal the light glowing from above. Everything’s been leached into an almost grayscale appearance by the arrival of the moon’s pale light and it works to make the woods that had seemed so indicative of exploration in the warm light of the sun, cold and sinister. It makes you long for the constant glow on the horizon, broken only by the outcropping of buildings, that’s prevalent in the city. Here though the only thing blocking out the night sky are the ridges of mountains looming like sentinel past the the distant tree line. It’s easy to see why this has been chosen as the prime location for a test of courage. You’ve yet to encounter anyone and yet the absence of light has set you on edge. A twig snaps like a crack of lightning in the darkness and you instinctively reach out for reassurance. Momo is there to catch you before you completely lost in the abyss of paranoia.

“Had I known you were so scared of the dark, I would’ve offer to hold your hand earlier, [Name].” Her laugh is reassuring as she pulls you away from the edge of the trail where the shadows are at their deepest.

“I’m not necessarily afraid of the dark–!” Your declaration is immediately undermined by a distressed squeak as a deep groan rumbles through the trees closets to you.

“Do you think we’re getting close to the other students?” Your shoulders lift in a shaky shrug. “I wonder who’s Quirk could’ve caused that noise. I suppose we’ll find out soon enough. Come on, [Name], I’ll make sure no one scares you too much.” The two of you only make it a few more steps before you pause, snagging Momo’s arm like a dog tugging on its leash. Your eyes are trained curiously on the ground as it trembles underfoot. The tremors coincide with the sound of brittle snaps that burst through the still air, undercut by a heavy groan. Pieces click together in your brain like a puzzle and your head whips to face the wall of blackness you’d been regarding with such hesitance. In an instant, you forget your irrational fear. It’s erased by the most basic of instincts in your mind; survival. With little regards to her balance you shove Momo as far away from you as possible, using the momentum to throw yourself in the opposite direction. Seconds later a tree spills out of the darkness, toppling others in its descent.

“[Name]! Are you okay?” Momo shouts frantically, struggling to her feet as the aftershocks of the tree’s heavy impact die down. The hard-packed dirt path had done nothing to soften the impact and you pick a bloody piece of gravel out of your elbow before standing. The tree rises up past your head in width and it probably would’ve measured higher if not for the charred divot in its trunk. The damage stretches from one wall of darkness and back into the shadows on the other side. You strain your eyes in search of the end but can’t find the roots or crown.

“I’m fine! Are you alright?” You chance a touch to the bark, gauging whether or not you should attempt to scale it, and immediately pull your hand back as your singed by the blue embers still glowing bright in its trunk beneath the layer of charred bark.

“Momo, something’s wrong. This wasn’t part of the courage test. The only other emitter-type Quirk that has to do with fire is Todoroki and I’ve never seen him get his flames hot enough to make blue fire.” Just as you say that a shiver runs down your back, yet it’s comforting somehow. After a moment, the presence of Mandalay’s Quirk manifests in your head. It feels as though your conscience has mutated and split in two. Her words echo in your head, overlapping your own train of thought in a cluttered sort of harmony.

“Everyone! We’re being attacked by two villains!” Momo’s inhales sharply on the other side of the tree. “It’s possible that there are more! Everyone who can move, get back to camp immediately! Even if you come across an enemy, retreat and do not engage!”

“Momo, go! Follow the trail back to the camp. I’ll find my own way back.” It’s evident that you can’t just turn around and follow the path since Mandalay, Tiger, and Pixie-Bob were in the clearing the path leads to. If they’re fighting the villains it wouldn’t be wise to knowingly run in headfirst and risk distracting them, or, worse, grab the villains’ attention.

“I can’t leave you here! I won’t! I’ll think of something and help you get across.” You can already hear the cogs in her head turning as she runs through all the objects and materials she knows how to create in the hopes of finding a probable solution, but there’s just no time. Even if she can manage to think of something there’s no telling how wide this tree is. There’s a significant distance between the two of you based on her voice alone and Momo can only make so much material before she becomes little more than dead weight after overshooting the amount of lipids she can expend.

“Momo, there’s no time, just go. Help who you can, but, please, get out of here. I’ll be fine.” You pretend your voice didn’t wobble on the last word. “Don’t forget, I’m going to be a Hero, too!”

“As your Vice President, I’m ordering you to be careful. Please, stay safe, [Name].” The tightness in her voice is indicative of her guilt as she turns her back on a friend to save herself, but she doesn’t have much of a choice. As soon as you hear her footsteps running down the path you turn towards the pitch black hoard of trees that your roadblock emerged from. Your safest bet is to follow it to the stump and back. Fear thrums in your veins as you plunge into the open woods like a diver into frigid water, hand trailing just below the veins of blue that faintly light your way. The further you get from the path the harder it gets to breathe. What you’d thought was collateral damage from a Quirk emission was the flint that sparked a fire.

Blue-grey smoke reaches for you like spectral fingers, stinging your eyes and burning your lungs. You consider using your Quirk, but it would come at the risk of adding to the damage the villain caused. Because while the smoke of your flames acted as a purifier, replacing toxins in the air with pure oxygen, they were still flames and would burn the densely packed trees. As if to offer you a solution the maze of tree trunks gives way to a small clearing. Abandoning your plan of returning to the path you sprint for the opening in the trees, tripping over a nest of raised roots on your way out. Your hands take the brunt of the impact, sending a shock through your wrists, only to fall over completely as Mandalay’s voice invaded your thoughts once again. You roll onto your back, blowing a small ring of fire into the air so you can properly catch your breath.

“Everyone in Class A and Class B! In the name of Pro Hero, Eraserhead, you are granted permission to engage in combat!” The heat that had gathered during your tramp through the woods drains from your body like water down a faucet. For Aizawa-sensei to authorize everyone for combat there has to be something dire happening. You scramble to your feet in preparation for an impending fight but find only the mix of blue and purple smoke as your enemy. Just as you inhale to blow a larger cloud of flames, you notice a large shadow in your periphery. For a moment you mistake it’s almost inhuman shape as one of Pixie-Bob’s earth monsters, like the ones that attacked you upon arrival, but then it moves.

You dive behind a tree, risking a peek past the low-hanging leaves to be sure you’ve gone unnoticed. The creature makes an animalistic keening noise that’s muffled by a gag connected to the helmet that probably holding its exposed brain in place. Your heart stops in realization. It’s a Nomu. You recognize it’s exposed brain and excessive muscles from the USJ attack. Cold sweat drips down your spine as you connect the dots. These grotesque, humanoid monsters are like the League of Villains’ foot soldiers. You feel faint as you think of how many more there are and what just one of them could do when it’s roaming free. Perhaps it’s the smoke making you woozy, but you aren’t about to light a beacon to give away your position. If it took All Might more than one punch to defeat one of those things, you don’t stand a chance. It slowly lumbers away, but you stay frozen until you can no longer hear it crashing through the foliage. You breathe out a flaming sigh of relief and the cloud of fresh air helps to clear your head only for it to be bombarded by another message from Mandalay.

“We have discovered one of the villains’ targets. It is one of the students–‘Kaachan’! Kaachan should try to avoid combat and acting independently. Understood, Kaachan?”

“Bakugou.” His name falls from your lips in a whisper before you can stop it. Just the thought of him being forced to the sidelines for his own safety is laughable, but you suppose Mandalay doesn’t know that. You do, though, and you can’t help but worry for him and all your fellow students. Between the thickening smoke and purple gas it’s probably getting harder to fight without running out of breath and you’re about the only one that can offer any type of solution. Minding the direction the Nomu disappeared in, you run the other way, puffing our small bursts of fire to minimize the possibility that you accidentally set another tree on fire and add the the problem you’re trying to solve. It’s only after sprinting back into the darkness that’s momentarily lit up by your purifying fire breathing that you realize you’re running aimlessly.

There’s no way of telling which way camp is anymore, but the path went in a circle, so you plan to run and clear the air until you find it. It doesn’t take long to stumble upon it, quite literally as you almost step on a Class B student. There are three of them strewn across the ground, breathing shallowly as the smoke from the burning trees and gas from somewhere deeper in the forest contaminates their lungs. You recognize all of them, but can only vaguely recall their names. There are two boys and a girl. Two of them have collapsed in close proximity, but one of the boys has fallen on the other side of the path. You groan with exertion as you try to drag the remaining boy closer to the other two. Once they’re all in the same general area you blow a curtain of flames above them.

You take solstice in the way the air above their heads clears, but know it’ll be quickly replaced with toxic air the moment you stop. The length of pauses between your breaths shortens as you force as much air out of your lungs as possible as quickly as you can. The brunette boy is the first to return to a normal breathing pattern, his chest rising and falling like steady waves. Your chest, however, barely shifts as you breathe in. When you try to exhale a cough interrupts your stream of flames and the girl wheezes as smoke suddenly invaded her lungs again. Pushing aside your minute discomfort, you resume purifying the air, not realizing you’re retaining too much carbon monoxide from the smoke as you angle the flames away from yourself. Each burst of fire is getting incrementally smaller and your mind hazier, but you can see the girl is regaining her breath in your place, though the second boy is still breathing erratically. There isn’t much time to worry over that as your vision suddenly cuts out, like the flick of a light switch, before you could even register that it’d been tunneling. For a moment you sit in the strangely cold darkness, no longer feeling the warmth of your own flames. A sort of all consuming darkness with fingers like ice crawl up your body until you’re so numb that all you can feel is nothing.

It’s still cold when you wake and it feels like you’re encased a block of pitch black concrete. All you can see is thick darkness and your lungs heave with the effort to take in even the smallest wisps of air. You try to move in the disconcerting nothingness that encapsulates your entire being, but it’s met with heavy resistance. The frigid feeling from moments before is broken up by instances of complete numbness. You can barely feel that you have a body at all. It’s a collection of abstract shapes that seem to connect but you can’t move any of them. It’s like every cell of your body is suddenly made of lead.

All of a sudden, you feel something, weight being added to your chest. It’s warm and grounding and sends an odd buzz through your body. You try to reach out to hold onto it, but it slips away before you can grab it, leaving you alone in the darkness. After a moment, the weight returns, heavier this time and softer. Still your arms refuse to cooperate and the only thing centering you disappears once again. It must not have gone far because you suddenly hear a voice shout. It sound like they’re screaming into water. You wonder if that’s why everything is so heavy. Maybe you’ve sunk to the bottom of the ocean and the pressure is trying to crush you like an aluminum can. Idly, you wonder if they’re yelling at you to swim to them, to the surface where there’s light and air. I can’t, you what to tell them, it’s too heavy.

The buzzing weight returns to your chest, pressing against two different places. Wait, electricity and water don’t mix. The people yelling aren’t trying to save you. They’re trying to fry you alive before the pressure cracks you like an egg. Suddenly pieces of body are thrumming and you can feel it. Some of the pressure is relieved as you’re pulled towards the surface by the center of your chest. The soft weight is back and it feels more tangible, more comforting. Perhaps they are trying to save you. The buzzing returns tenfold and this time you feel the thrumming everywhere, even in your teeth. It’s mildly uncomfortable and surges through you until your back is pulled into an unintentional arch. Once it dissipates the phantom string pulling you upward is cut and you settle back against a hard surface. You aren’t cold anymore, but you are tired. There’s not even enough strength in you to grasp at what you now recognize as hands sitting heavy on your chest.

The next time you wake it’s to a monotonous beeping rather than disconcerting emptiness. There’s a collection of machines standing watch at your bedside, one connects to the clamp on your pointer finger and the other curls around your face to deliver oxygen to your nostrils. It’s obvious you’re in a hospital room, but you can’t remember why. You don’t feel particularly ill and the only sign that you were injured is the small bandage on your elbow which could’ve easily been the result of a small fall. You’re not left to wallow in confusion for long as a man in a white coat enters your room. He doesn’t seem to notice you at first, too engrossed in the papers on his clipboard. It’s not until he glances at the machines you’re hooked up to that he realizes you’re awake.

“Ah, hello, Ms. [Last Name], it’s good to see you awake.” He says, pulling up a chair to sit down next to your bed.

“Awake? How long have I been asleep?” Your voice grates at your vocal cords and you attempt to swallow the dry feeling. The doctor, you’re assuming he’s a doctor, produces a water bottle seemingly from no where and hands it to you. He watches you greedily guzzle down half of it before answering your question.

“You’ve only been asleep for two and a half days and frequently opened your eyes though you weren’t exactly lucid. Do you remember anything?” A shiver shoots down your spine at the memory of the black void and is easily chased away by the thought of the weight that had steadied you, unconsciously your hands press against your chest.

“I remember being cold and everything being completely black. But I could almost hear voices and I felt things. It was like buzzing and there were hands on my chest. I couldn’t hold them, though, I was too tired to move.”

“Anything before that?”

“A forest, and fire. Villains showed up at our training camp. The trees were on fire and there was smoke everywhere. I tried to help someone, but I can’t remember if I saved them.”

“You did. All three of them, in fact. They came to visit you the first day you were admitted and your class was just here to see you. I believe some of them may still be here somewhere. I’ll tell them you’re awake if I see them, but for now I should go alert your parents. And don’t worry, you’re perfectly fine. Other than high traces of carbon monoxide in your lungs and bloodstream that’s been filtered out, you had no lasting injuries. You’ll be free to go by the end of the day.” You sip your water pensively as he says all this. The high levels of carbon monoxide must’ve been from all the smoke. A small price to pay to save three of your fellow students. As the doctor rises to leave you notice an array of presents on the bedside table and a bouquet of balloons hidden behind the tall machines. Curious, you grab a stack of cards to read. There’s one from each student you saved, one that’s from your entire class, one from Class 1-B, one from a close friend of yours, and the last one from your parents. A soft smile brightens your face as you read everyone’s names and the little anecdotes they wrote for you. You’re contemplating the few missing signatures of Jirou, Hagakure, Bakugou, Midoriya, and Yaomomo when the door to your room clicks open again. This time it’s you that doesn’t look up until the person is seated next to your bed.

“Kaminari!” You set the cards aside to reach over the bed’s guardrail to hug him, but he’s hesitant to return the affection. You pull away awkwardly, not used to the lack of affection from one of your best friends. “What’s wrong?” It’s hard to gauge his reaction with the way his head is lowered and his bangs fall across his eyes. But when he raises his head, something in your chest seizes, then shatters as he looks at you with tears rising in his eyes.

“Denki, what’s wrong?” Your voice shoots up an octave, pulled taut in distress. “What happened?”

“You died, [Name].” His voice lacks its usual carefree inflection and sends his words slamming into you like a ton of bricks.

“What?” The heart monitor skips a beat.

“During the villain attack. You suffocated from inhaling too much smoke. You were dead when we found all of you, but the other three were still breathing. I–we thought you were gone for good. But....” he trails off, looking down at his trembling hands. Unknowingly, he’s laid the tracks for your train of thought to resume and you can remember the bits and pieces that were missing. They’re hazy, like trying to look through muddy water, but it’s enough. The voices you’d heard had been those of your teachers and classmates. The hands you’d felt were Kaminari’s. It was his Electrification Quirk that had brought you back from that cold darkness. It still feels like you’re missing something, like there was more to your death than just the emptiness of the in between, but the longer you try to reach for it the more elusive it becomes. It doesn’t matter anyway. You’re here now.

“Don’t cry, Kaminari, there’s no reason to. A Hero shouldn’t cry over the people he’s saved. I’m okay and it’s all thanks to you.”

“But what if we hadn’t gotten to you in time? What if I couldn’t restart your heart? It would’ve been my fault.”

“No,” you grab hold of his shaking hands and press them against your heart, “the only person at fault would’ve been me. I overexerted myself. I overused my Quirk. The only person to blame is me. It’s thanks to you that I’m even alive. My heart beats for you, Denki, don’t ever think otherwise. You’re my Hero.” You feel the heat building behind your eyes, threatening to spill over as you watch your best friend cry for you. His tears are for you, but you don’t want them. You want his smiles, his failed attempts at suave pickup lines, even that dumb expression he makes when he fries his brain. You’d prefer anything over the anguish spilling from his golden eyes. Feeling your own tears finally fall, you release the guardrail to pull him fully against you. His head rest against your chest much the same way it had when he was listening for your heartbeat before. It seems to settle him and the sobs quiet to short sniffles.

“Am I interrupting something?” The question is accompanied by the sound of crinkling cellophane and you spare a glance over Kaminari’s head to see who you’re new visitor is.

“Oh, Kyoya, hi.” Kaminari stiffens in your arms at the introduction of another person and promptly pulls away from you and dries his eyes. For a moment he still looks distressed but easily slaps a big, empty smile on his face before addressing the boy approaching your bedside.

“Not at all. I’ve never met any of [Name]’s friends from outside of U.A., it’s nice to meet you! I’m Kaminari Denki.” Kyoya offers Kaminari a short bow before dropping the bouquet of flowers he brought into your lap. You examine them for a moment before smiling.

“Thank you. Everyone seems to have gotten me marigolds. I know they’re my favorite flower, but I have so many now. Actually, you’ve never been good with flowers, Kyo. Did you buy me chrysanthemums by accident?” You jest. Kyoya’s cheeks brighten with a hint of embarrassed blush. Next to him, Kaminari looks uncomfortable.

“I’ll give you two some privacy,” the blonde finally decides, rising to offer his seat to Kyoya. “I’ll see you at school, [Name].”

“He seems nice.” Kyo comments once the door shuts behind him.

“He is. All of my classmates are. I’m glad–”

“I don’t think you should continue going to U.A.”

“Excuse me?” You’re less concerned by the fact that he interrupted you and more upset by the fact that he’d even suggest something so absurd.

“I said I think you should drop out of U.A.” He reiterates plainly.

“And go where? Shiketsu? Ketsubutsu? I’m pretty sure it’s too late for me to transfer anyway. The first semester is already over. Plus U.A. is the best Hero academy in the country! I can’t just throw my acceptance away.”

“But you can throw your life away?” Kyo deadpans. “You died. You were dead. All because your school can’t properly protect its students. This is the second time you’ve been involved in a Villain attack!”

“So you’re suggesting that instead of continuing to train and become a Hero I should just quit? That’s one less person to protect civilians, like yourself, from being hurt by Villains. Why would I stop? I could just as easily be killed in a Villain attack walking home from a normal school. You know my classmates Bakugou and Midoriya were involved in a serious villain attack before they even applied to U.A..”

“And now one of them is badly injured in a room down the hall and the other is missing, kidnapped by the League of Villains.” The heart monitor beeps erratically at the news. You remember Mandalay mentioning Bakugou was a target, but for him to have been captured... the thought never occurred to you.

“That’s even more of a reason to keeping fighting! So I can avenge the injuries Midoriya suffered and save Bakugou from those Villains. And I know a few real friends that would agree with me!”

“You’re all crazy to think you can take on so many Villains! You’re just kids!” Kyoya stands to tower over you, his dark expression silhouetted against the bright overhead lights. The sound of his chair toppling over does little to distract either of you.

“If we don’t protect people than who will? Are you tell me being a Hero is useless?” Your heart monitor is beating feverishly as his words work you into a near manic state. “I think you should leave, Kyoya. Don’t come see me again.”

“You’re going to get yourself killed.” He says manically. His eyes are clouded and unfocused. “No, I won’t let you. I’ll make you regret this until the day you die.”

“Well, in your eyes it won’t be too long until then!” You mock. In a fit of anger you throw the bouquet of chrysanthemums at his retreating back. They explode against the wall in a flurry of golden petals. The color reminds you of Denki.

A lot’s changed since that day. You’ve steadily built up a wall around yourself. A fortification in preparation for whatever Kyo is planning. He looked so terrifying when he was staring down at you with unbridled rage in his eyes. Somehow he managed to instill more fear in you than any Villain you’ve encountered. There’s just something unnerving about your enemy being someone so close to you. He knows your fears, your secrets, your insecurities. It wouldn’t be hard for him to exploit your every weakness and it’s scared you into a self-inflicted sort of exile. The only thing that gets you to leave your dorm anymore is classes and your exit is always timed so you’ll have someone to walk with you. Even though you fear being alone you’re too afraid to confide in anyone.

A knock on your door makes you squeak. You’d risked a quick scroll through your SNS knowing that you’ll run into Kyoya’s vague posts about betrayal and restitution that could be a passive aggressive jab at anyone, but you can’t help but feel that they’re threats aimed at you. Thouroughly rattled, you toss your phone aside and give permission for whoever’s behind the door to enter. A tuft of blonde hair slashed with a black lightning bolt highlight is followed by the rest of Kaminari’s head as he pokes it around your door. For a moment he just looks around, probably sating the curiosity most of your class has been harboring since their impromptu best room contest. As usual, you’d been curled up in solitude and pretended to not hear when the girls first knocked on your door.

“Hey,” Kaminari ventures, refocusing on you. “Can I come in?” You pull your knees closer to your chest in preparation for an attack you know isn’t coming before nodding your consent. “Uh, nice room.” He says awkwardly, walking around the space and taking in all your personal touches. He stops in front of your memory board hung over your desk. It’s one of the one things you insisted had to be brought with you from home. You could’ve abandoned your TV and favorite reading chair for that dumb board. It had been a labor of love painstakingly choosing each picture you wanted to put on it and arranging them to look aesthetically pleasing. Funny that you haven’t looked at it since you woke in a cold sweat after feeling eyes watching you. In your panicked state you attributed the gaze to a photo of you and Kyoya standing on either side of your parents that had been taken at an amusement park on your eleventh birthday. Your eyes were red from crying after going on your first roller coaster and Kyo’s shirt has a white blotch on it from being overzealous with his ice cream cone, though you can’t see it now. After that night you folded the picture in half, pretending your mother’s missing arm was just out of the camera’s view.

“I didn’t realize we took so many pictures together.” Kaminari muses after picking out his distinct features every few pictures. You blush behind your knees.

“Yeah. You’re actually my home screen.”

“Really?” He sounds amused, but your head is buried in your thighs and you’re too embarrassed to lift it. “Hey, don’t feel bad! It’s just funny because you’re my background, too. Look!” You peek over your legs to see that he wasn’t lying. Behind all his apps is a picture of you. You can’t remember when it was taken, but it looks to be during lunch judging from the chopsticks resting against your lips and the rice stuck to your cheek.

“You jerk! Why is it an unflattering picture?”

“What do you mean. No picture of you can be unflattering! You’re too cute for that.” The emotions that have been simmering just below the surface threaten to bubble over with that one comment. Your relationship with Denki has always walked the line between platonic and romantic, but you’re too scared to make the first move and he never expresses wanting anything outside of occasional flirting, so you’ve left things as they are. Before the silence can stray from comfortable to awkward you huff at him in disbelief.

“I was nice enough to pic a half decent picture of you.” Before you can hit the home button your eyes catch on to a text from Kyoya. You hadn’t bothered to block his number seeing as he hadn’t contacted you since that day at the hospital, per your wishes, but now you wish you had as the single word “tonight” glows up at you menacingly. You toss your phone away with a shout.

“Hey, what’s wrong? What happened?”

“Get away from me.” You snap. If Kyoya is really coming to carry out his threat you doubt he’ll hold your classmates’ health as a high priority. Kaminari sputters as you push him towards the door.

“What’s wrong? What did I do?” Instead of sounding upset he sounds worried. “You’ve been different ever since you got discharged. I thought you were okay. What changed?” You can’t take the desperate look in his eyes as he forces you to look at him. His eyes melt away the ice that’s seized your chest only for it to return tenfold as the school’s alarm system goes off in a maelstrom of sounds and flashing lights.

“He’s coming.” You cry, forcing your way past Kaminari and sprinting down to the lobby.

“[Name], stop!” Four pairs of eyes look to you as Kaminari yells your name.

“[Name], don’t worry. Maybe it’s just a bunch of reporters like last time.” Mina reasons, trying to reach for you. Hysteria mercilessly sinks it’s fangs into you and you lash out, smacking your friend’s hands away from you. Mina startles, not having expected your reaction.

“Get away from me!” Everyone is so close to you. You can’t breathe, you can’t think. They need to leave you alone.

“[Name], we have to remain calm. The pros will take care of the threat.” Iida tries to reason. You cover your ears. He’s wrong. They won’t. He’ll only stop if he has your life in his hands.

“Shut up! Get away from me!” Your control is slipping and you can feel each word that leaves your lips being accompanied by a burst of heated air. A scream erupts from your lips in the form of a plume of fire at the sound of the front doors being melted. He really is here to kill you. The only person you know with a Quirk that can melt anything is Kyoya.

“Don’t!” You scream as Todoroki attempts to close off the door with a wall of ice. A few seconds later a hole has been melted in it and Kyoya steps through with a deranged smile on his face.

“Hello, [Name].” You collapse under the weight of his eyes. They’re empty, like there’s no soul left inside. You can hear voices yelling at you to move, to fight, but you can’t. All you can do is cry for your life as he reaches a hand towards your heart. Your own hands are rendered immobile as tape loops around you and you’re dragged away from Kyoya before his hand can melt your shirt. Kyo himself seems to shimmer in your teary vision, but the sparkle is accompanied by a telltale crackle of electricity. Sero picks you up, completely ignoring the way you try to struggle out of his grip with your bound arms.

“Let me go!” You wail. “He’ll kill you all! He only wants me!”

“He’ll have to go through us first.” Kirishima insist, activating his Quirk in preparation for another attack. Kyoya is only momentarily inconvenienced by Kaminari’s small discharge, though his arm twitches sporadically as he points to you. Sero holds you closer to his chest as Momo and Mina step protectively in front of you.

“You messed with the wrong class, asshole.” Bakugou declares, shooting off a warning explosion.

“Stop it! Don’t fight him! Just let him have me!”

“I don’t know what you’re going on about, dumbass, but that’s not happening. You’re going to be a Hero, too. Fucking act like it.” Bakugou scoffs, aiming an explosion at Kyoya. He falls with a groan, the right side of his shirt thoroughly charred by the attack. Before he can regain his footing, familiar cloths bind his wrists and a glittering, pink mist enters through the melted doorway. Kyo falls to the ground face first as he succumbs to Midnight’s Quirk. Aizawa-sensei waves away the last whips of sleep-inducing gas before addressing the class.

“Where’s everybody else and why is [Name] restrained.”

“I believe everyone else is still in their room.” Momo supplies. “And [Name] kept saying this Villain was here to kill her. We didn’t want her doing anything rash.” Kaminari shoulders past Mina to stand in front of you. He unravels Sero’s tape with a distant look in his eyes before taking you from his friend’s arms to hold you himself.

“Midnight, stay with the Villain until the authorities come. Iida, take a head count of everyone. Kaminari, carry [Name] back to her room.” Everyone starts moving according to his orders. Kaminari doesn’t look at you as he carries you back upstairs to your room. Aizawa-sensei follows behind him. Once in your room, Kaminari deposits you on your bed and sits down next to you while Aizawa-sensei takes a seat in your reading chair.

“What’s going on?” He asks plainly.

“I recognize that guy. He’s a friend of hers, or was. He came to visit her when she was in the hospital. When I went to see her she was fine, but after she started isolating herself. I asked around, but no one knew why. I guess she knew he was coming for her.” Kaminari answers.

“Is that true, [Name]? Did you know he was going to try to kill you.” You’re feeling overwhelmed and close to tears. You reach out blindly in search of something to ground yourself and Kaminari finds your hand.

“He threatened me and it made me feel nervous, but deep down I didn’t really think he’d do anything. Kyo was mad at me for still wanting to become a Hero even after what happened at training camp and said he’d kill me himself before I had a chance to be killed as a Hero. I thought he said it to make me so paranoid that I’d drop out and go back to normal school. I was close to that point, actually. But then I got a text from him that said ‘tonight’ and I knew that meant he was serious. I just didn’t want anybody to get hurt because of me. One life to save dozens is worth the price. I’m sorry for causing so much trouble.” By the end you’re nearly blubbering in tears, gripping Kaminari’s hand for dear life.

“I’m disappointed in you. You should’ve told someone even if it was only a suspicion. Your lives are important to us and we want to protect you until you can protect yourselves, but you have to tell us when things like this happen. You won’t be punished this time as I can see how the stress of being hospitalized and threatened can alter your thinking, but be more mindful of things like this if it ever happens again.” He doesn’t sound angry at you, more so concerned. “You’ll have to give your official statement to the police tomorrow morning, but for tonight try to get some rest. Kaminari, I’m giving you my permission to look after her.” After the door closes behind him with a dull click, Kaminari turns to look at you.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” His voice is thick with pain as he tries to understand why you kept something so big from him.

“How could I?”

“How couldn’t you? I’m supposed to be your protector. How can I protect you when I don’t even know you’re in danger?”

“My protector? Like my boyfriend?”

“If that’s what gets you to tell me things like this then yes.” You giggle despite yourself. “I’m serious.”

“No, I know, I’m just really nervous now.”

“Don’t be. I’m here to protect you. But you should probably get some sleep because you look like a raccoon. That guy really had you worked up didn’t he?” Kaminari asks as he goes to turn off the light. You suppress a distressed squeak at the complete darkness. Kaminari easily navigates his way back to your bed and lies down next to you, not touching but close enough to feel his warmth next to you.

“You’re scared aren’t you?” Kaminari asks.

“Yes.” You admit meekly. There’s a night light plugged in next to your bed, but you’re too embarrassed to switch it on. Next to you, Kaminari shifts his position until his head is resting against you chest with his arm slung across your waist.

“Better?” You hum happily, fatigue making your voice sound a bit drunk. “Good. I like listening to your heart beat. I want to hear it for a long time, so don’t go letting Villains plot against you anymore, okay?” You run a hand through his hair reassuringly.

“Okay, Denki.”

#kaminari #kaminari denki #mha kaminari #bnha kaminari #mha denki #bnha denki #kaminari x reader #kaminari imagine #bnha #mha #boku no hero academia #my hero academia

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the-desolated-quill · 6 years ago

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The Woman Who Fell To Earth - Doctor Who blog (Change, my dear. And it seems not a moment too soon)

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. If you haven’t seen this episode yet, you may want to before reading this review)

Never before have I gone into a Doctor Who episode with such a mixture of excitement and dread as I did with The Woman Who Fell To Earth. On the one hand we’ve finally got a female Doctor, something most Whovians have been waiting decades for, but on the other hand she’s being written by Chris Chibnall, a writer who (and let’s be generous here) has never exactly managed to win me over in the past. His past Doctor Who episodes were often derivative, stupid and poorly written and while yes he did create Broadchurch (a show that people assure me is good, but I still have little to no interest in watching), he was also the showrunner of the god awful spinoff Torchwood, which was essentially Doctor Who’s Suicide Squad.

So yeah, the thought of him sitting in the driver’s seat and at such a crucial moment in Doctor Who’s long history didn’t exactly get me hyped for the new series and if I’m honest, come Sunday 7th October, I was bracing myself for the worst.

Then the most pleasant of surprises. The Woman Who Fell To Earth turned out to be really, really good. I’m actually gobsmacked by how much I enjoyed this episode. I never thought I’d see the day where I’d be praising a Chibnall episode, but here we are.

I think one of the reasons why I enjoyed this episode so much is because it feels like all the aspects that annoyed me about RTD and Moffat’s respective eras have been sheared away. There’s no convoluted plots. No dangling arcs. No forced whimsy. No smart arse dialogue or pretentious speeches. In fact this had a lot more in common with a classic series story in terms of its pacing and scale. It’s not some global threat where everyone is dashing about like headless chickens on speed. The threat is contained to one town in Northern England where only a handful of people are in danger. Even the music has mercifully been restrained. While I do have a fondness for Murray Gold’s work on Doctor Who, his music often had a tendency to go too overboard, bombarding the senses and drowning the audience in slush. New composer Segun Akinola offers a much more subtle and moving score. It enhances the action and certain emotional moments without bashing you over the head and, crucially, Akinola knows when to shut up and let the actors carry the scene.

I must say it’s such a relief to see some humanity injected back into Doctor Who again. After years of convoluted, timey wimey Moffat nonsense, Chibnall has had the good sense to bring everything back to basics. It’s not about the aliens, the special effects, the exotic locations or the overly pretentious plots that require a fucking flow chart in order to make sense of them. It’s all about the characters. And what wonderful characters they are. Ensemble casts rarely work on Doctor Who, but I have to say I really like this cast. Out of all the new companions, Ryan is probably my favourite. Tosin Cole gives a really good performance and I really like how he’s written. In particular I like how the episode portrays his dyspraxia. The way New Who has handled things like disability and mental health in the past has left a lot to be desired, but here Chibnall gets it just right. He never makes a big thing out of it and the episode never comes across as patronising or condescending. It’s treated like any other character trait, which is exactly how it should be.

Mandip Gill is also good as Yasmin Khan, a police officer who feels like she’s not getting the most out of her life or career. She reminds me slightly of Rose Tyler, but unlike Rose, Yasmin is more proactive. She doesn’t sit around waiting for something to happen. She pursues new opportunities when they come up and gets frustrated when someone puts a wall in front of her. It’ll be interesting to see how she’ll adapt to time travel over the course of the series.

And then there’s Graham, played by Bradley Walsh. To all my non-British readers, let me give you a quick education on the wonders that is Mr. Walsh. He’s one of our most versatile performers. He’s been a footballer, a comedian, an actor and a gameshow host. He’s an incredibly funny man as well as a great dramatic performer. Having seen him in Law & Order UK, I knew he’d be perfect and he didn’t disappoint. There’s a weariness to him that’s incredibly charming and likeable, but then he’s able to go from comedic to emotional at the drop of a hat. The eulogy he gives at Grace’s funeral was incredibly powerful and moving, as are the moments where he tries to bond with Ryan, who’s clearly sceptical of any kind of father figure in his life due to how unreliable his dad is. Both Graham and Ryan are the ones to keep a close eye on I think. Ryan in particular will be carrying a lot of baggage as the series progresses. His determination to ride a bike shows not only the pain he feels toward losing his Nan, but also the guilt. If he hadn’t lost his temper, chucked his bike down a cliff and then pressed the weird glowing shapes, none of this would have happened. He clearly feels he’s responsible for her death and I’m looking forward to seeing not only how he grows and moves on from that, but also how Graham will step up and help him, being the grandfather Ryan needs if not necessarily the one he wants.

It’s the characterisation that is The Woman Who Fell To Earth’s greatest strength. Not just the from the main cast, but the supporting characters too. Little moments like the old man telling his granddaughter he loves her before getting killed by the Stenza or the crane operator listening to self motivation tapes is what gives this episode more depth and soul. And then of course there’s Grace, played wonderfully by Sharon D. Clarke. I’m hard pressed to think of a single character from the Moffat era that I gave anything resembling a shit about, which is why it’s so remarkable that I’m able to care this much about Grace despite the short time we get to know her. She’s caring, supportive and energetic. She feels like the perfect companion for the Doctor and I would have loved to have seen her in the TARDIS with everyone else, which is what makes her death so heartbreaking. She’s not some random redshirt getting axed because the script requires more tension. She’s a three dimensional character we really like coming to a tragic end.

Okay. Okay. Let’s get to the main topic of conversation. How’s the new Doctor? Have the ‘feminazis’ ruined it? Is she swapping makeup tips with the Cybermen? Is she struggling to parallel park the TARDIS? Did she accidentally kill a whole species because it was her time of the month? (these are all things I’ve seriously heard butthurt fanboys say since Jodie Whittaker was cast and I think we can all agree it’s beyond pathetic). Well, quelle surprise, turns out the Doctor’s sex change didn’t jumpstart the SJW apocalypse after all. Who’d have thought women could be Doctors too? What a novel concept.

The minute she fell into the train, I was sold. Whereas Peter Capaldi took three whole series to finally come into his own (not that Capaldi is necessarily to blame for that. Blame the monkey at the fucking typewriter for that one), with Jodie Whittaker it’s instantaneous. She is the Doctor.

It helps that Chibnall largely dispenses with all the usual post-regeneration bullshit. With the fainting and gurning kept to a minimum, we can get on with actually learning about this new Doctor and I love what I’m seeing so far. She’s quick-witted, compassionate and quirky, but not to the point where it becomes annoying like Matt Smith’s often did (in my opinion. Tastes differ, obviously. I personally found Eleven to be unbearable at times). After the Twelfth Doctor, with his borderline misanthropy and his inability to even so much as blow his nose without a companion to hold his hand, Thirteen comes like a breath of fresh air.

One thing I especially like about her is her complete lack of arrogance and boring machismo that previous New Who Doctors were sometimes guilty of. Rather than having her boast about how clever she is, like Ten or Eleven would have, she just shows us by building a new sonic screwdriver out of spoons. And she never tries to lord her moral superiority over others. Quite the opposite in fact. This is a Doctor who clearly values teamwork and can recognise strength in others. There are flashes of darkness too, like when she manipulates the Stenza into killing himself with his own DNA bombs, but she’s not driven by some inherent belief that she is right and they are wrong. She’s driven by the fact that she has gotten to know these people and doesn’t want anything to happen to them. Thirteen is quite possibly one of the most down to earth Doctors I’ve ever seen and I’m extremely excited to see more.

As I said, The Woman Who Fell To Earth is largely about its characters, which is just as well because the plot is... I wouldn’t say it’s bad, but it’s definitely the least interesting thing about the episode. I liked the look of the Stenza, with the teeth embedded in his face, and the gathering coil. I liked that it was a small scale threat and largely self contained, and I liked the way the plot slowly unfolds over the course of the story. However it is a bit derivative. The Stenza is pretty much a PG-13 version of the Predator and he is a bit one note. That being said, it doesn’t detract from the enjoyment factor of the episode. By keeping the plot simple for the most part, it allows Chibnall to fully explore the characters, who are clearly supposed to be the main focus.

In short, I’m pleased to say that I really liked Chris Chibnall’s first offering as showrunner (never thought I’d ever type this). The Woman Who Fell To Earth is without a doubt one of the most confident starts to a new Doctor I’ve ever seen and I’m very much anticipating where the series goes from here. For the first time, in a long time, I’m excited for the next Doctor Who adventure :D

(Oh, btw, all those idiots who were saying that Doctor Who’s ratings have been falling and that a female Doctor would kill the show off, so far this series the ratings have been at its highest since the show came back in 2005. Guess the reason why the ratings were low during the Moffat era wasn’t because of the World Cup, warm weather, streaming television or SJW propoganda. It was because Steven Moffat is a really shit writer. Go figure)

#the woman who fell to earth #chris chibnall #doctor who #thirteenth doctor #jodie whittaker #graham o'brien #bradley walsh #yasmin khan #mandip gill #ryan sinclair #tosin cole #bbc #review #spoilers

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secretpeachtea · 4 years ago

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Onigiri Miya Tidbits Ch 4

Title: the celebrity and his con man

Genre: gen fic, reader insert

Word Count: 3.6k

disclaimer: manga spoilers

A/N: LETS GOOOOO (hope yall enjoy)

Previous///Next

“(Name)-san, you mind passing me the sesame seeds over there? And, on the way back, pass on this order to that customer at the last seat over there.” Osamu held out the finished onigiri on one hand while gesturing an open hand with the other.

You grab the sesame seed container with haste and take the onigiri from your boss. “Got it! You also have another order of one Pickled Plum onigiri, less salted!”

Osamu gives you a thumbs up before getting back to work immediately, and you hand over the order to the awaiting customer.

You’ve had your fair share of lunch rushes, but today has been busier than usual. You and Osamu haven’t had a single break since the shop opened for the day, at least one customer arriving every time one leaves. Suddenly, the phone rings and you go ahead and answer it. “Hello, this is Onigiri Miya! How can I help you?”

You hear the front entrance open, but since you were busy jotting down the phone order, you didn’t get the chance to glance at the two people who just arrived.

“Why couldn’t Fukunaga just cook some food?” a monotone voice drawled.

“Kenma, the man sprained his wrist and you still expect him to cook for all of us?” Kuroo combed a hand through his signature bedhead and began to gesture at himself as his friend pouted. “Look, I even came straight from work in my suit to accompany you so you wouldn’t have to carry everything alone.”

The two men walked up to the register just as you ended the call. You quickly passed on the note with the written down order to your boss and tucked your hair behind your ear to get it out of your face. You finally got the chance to direct your full attention on the people in line.

“Hello! What can I-...!!!” You didn’t get to finish your sentence once you realized who was ordering. Kodzuken, the Youtuber you practically spent the majority of your free time watching, was standing less than 3 feet in front of you in the flesh.

“Um...is there something wrong?” Kenma asks slightly confused at your frozen expression. Your mind was a jumbled mess as you attempted to say something coherent, failing in the end.

“N-no! Uh...you...I just...um��,” you stutter.

Before you could make a bigger fool of yourself, Kuroo leans forward with a smug grin. “Hm? Kenma, it seems like you got yourself a fan~”

“Oh…”

You and Kenma just simply stare at one another for a moment not really knowing what to do in this situation. All of a sudden you hear someone clear their throat rather loudly behind the two people in front of you. While you were distracted, you didn’t notice that another customer had entered the shop and was waiting in line. This snaps you out of your daze. “O-oh! Right. Sorry about that. What can I get for you guys?”

“There’s actually quite a bit of food to order, so I’ll list it out slowly.” Kuroo pulls out his phone and opens up a note file. “Two Tamago onigiri, one Miso, three spicy cucumber…”

As Kuroo continues to relay the order, you frequently hear someone scoffing or clicking their teeth in irritation from behind him and Kenma. You try not to pay attention and focus on the large order being made. Kuroo eventually gets to the end of the list and you let him know the total cost.

“What’s the name for the order?”

“Kuroo.”

You type in the name into the register and give him the printed out receipt. “Alright, Kuroo-san. Just letting you know, because it’s a large order, it might take some time.”

“That’s fine. We don’t mind waiting a bit.”

Kuroo and Kenma walk off to the side to let the person behind them order next. A displeased looking man treads forward with a bit of a demeaning posture and a cup of coffee held out in his right hand. He’s adorned in a suit that’s much too tight for his form and has a toupe two shades darker than his natural hair color poorly placed on top of his head.

Before you could even greet him, the man flails out his left arm in exasperation. “Finally! I don’t have time to wait for children.”

You try your best to keep your face from contorting into a glare. Not wanting to prolong his presence inside the shop, you choose to ignore his rude comment.

“Hello, sir. What can I get for you?” You ask.

The man takes a brief glance at the menu. “Make me an Unagi onigiri.”

“Alright. That’ll be-”

“And, make my order before theirs.” He points at Kuroo and Kenma who look up from their phones and seem just as shocked as you are. So, he was going to be one of those customers. You think you see Kenma shifting around a bit from the corner of your eye, but you’re too appalled by the person in front of you to really pay any mind.

“Excuse me?” You’re in a bit of disbelief at the words coming out of this man’s mouth.

He raises one of his unkempt eyebrows and sneers. “You’re really going to make me repeat myself? I said to make mine before theirs. They ordered way too much.”

“I apologize, but I can’t do that for you,” you reply with your teeth slightly clenched in frustration. “There are also a few customers before you who are still waiting for their meals as well.”

“Listen.” He lets out an unpleasant huff and eyes you down with a condescending stare. “I’m on a tight schedule. I think I should have priority. I’m a businessman, so my time is important.”

You shake your head, the fake smile on your lips feeling heavier by the second. “Like I said, sir. I can’t do that for you.”

“Are you kidding me?!” The businessman shouts. You flinch at the sudden outburst. “I waited for those children to finish their order and you can’t even make my order first?”

By now, everyone in the shop is watching the scene between the register girl and the entitled businessman. Osamu looks just about ready to intervene and go off on the customer, but you signal him to stay where he was under the counter. He reluctantly stays back, but makes sure to keep an eye on you.

“Sir, you’ll have to wait for your order like everyone else or find another place to eat.” Your tone is firm despite your exhaustion as you answer back. The man did not seem to like your response very much.

“How dare you!”

Everything happened so fast. The male lifts his right arm that’s in possession of the cup of coffee, obviously getting ready to hurl it directly at you. Your feet are glued to the ground in panic, so you fling your arms over your head instinctively. Your boss practically leaps towards your direction and encases your body with his own to protect you. You hear a splashing noise, but your vision is too obstructed by Osamu’s broad shoulders to witness what just happened. There’s no coffee on you, so you immediately assume that Osamu took the impact.

“Osamu-san! Are you-” You cut yourself off as you grab onto Osamu’s completely dry uniform. He seems to be just as perplexed as you are, but forms a slightly amused expression when he turns his head. Confused, you look over his shoulder to follow his line of sight and your eyes automatically widen at the view in front of you.

Standing in a puddle of his own lukewarm beverage, the rude man is frozen in disbelief. His wet hair is flat against his forehead and the tight suit is drenched in coffee. The man still held his coffee cup in the air, but what really brings the whole scene together is the tight grip on the man’s right arm by none other than Kuroo himself. He had twisted the man’s arm just enough to have the liquid fall directly downward.

“Whoops~ I just tried to save the nice girl, but I guess I overshot it.” Kuroo’s lips create a mischievous smile. “I wouldn’t recommend going to work with coffee all over your suit and your wig. Although, your boss might, uh, loosen up that tight schedule of yours for you if you do.”

The man comes to his senses and aggressively shoves Kuroo’s grip away. “You ungrateful brats! I’m going to call the police!”

You furrow your eyebrows, not liking the idea of the police getting involved in such a trivial thing.

Luckily, Kuroo seems to have something up his sleeve. “You can try. But then I guess there wouldn’t be an excuse to not turn you in for harassment and attempted assault. My friend here got everything on camera.”

Sure enough, when you direct your gaze onto the quieter one of the two friends, he has his phone in his hands in a recording position. He must’ve started recording as soon as the whole situation began. The rude customer turns beet red with anger and embarrassment. He must’ve realized that he ultimately lost because he swiftly stomps to the exit and slams the door shut, grumbling insults under his breath. Some of the other customers start clapping with satisfaction, while Kuroo and Kenma fist bump each other.

You let out a sigh of relief, but then you remember that Osamu was still holding onto you. Your boss must’ve been caught up with everything that happened too since he still had a fairly tight grip on you. Despite the warm feeling that was tingling your insides, you lightly tap his elbow and look up at him with a soft smile. “Hey, I think the coast is clear now.”

Looking you directly in the eyes, a light blush forms on his cheeks and he quickly lets you go even taking a few steps back to give you some space. He starts rubbing the back of his neck shyly. “Right. You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m good. Thanks for such a heroic gesture,” you laugh and Osamu’s face flushes a bit more. You then turn your attention to Kuroo and Kenma with a grateful smile. “Thanks guys. I don’t know if I could’ve held it in any longer if he actually threw his drink on me.”

Kuroo returns your smile and leans against the counter nonchalantly. “No problem. That was really uncalled for.”

Kenma silently nods his head in acknowledgement before directing his gaze to the floor. “Kuroo, the floor is wet.”

The taller man sheepishly turns to you after realizing how much of a mess he actually made with the spilled coffee. “Ah, I’ll clean that up.”

Kuroo attempted to wipe the floor with some small napkins displayed on one of the tables, but there was a surprisingly substantial amount of coffee that was still spread across the floor. You tell him that you’ll just wipe the floor with the mop and to dispose of the used napkins. He tries to apologize again, but you brush it off since it’s really not that big of a deal. You direct him to the bathroom and prepare your cleaning supplies. During this time a group of girls start whispering to each other at the corner of the room, stealing glances at Kenma. Everything that happened seems to have brought some unwanted attention to the gamer.

“Hey, isn’t he that super famous Youtuber?”

“Yeah, that has to be him! We should go and get a picture with him. I bet everyone else would be so jealous.”

“I heard he’s loaded with cash too. Maybe if we play our cards right, he’ll buy us a drink or even a new purse.”

As you mop the floor, you hear the clicking of heels coming closer to where you are. Curiously, you turn your head and see three young females encircle Kenma. You would even say they have pretty faces if their expressions weren’t so predatory. He looks extremely uneasy over the close proximity and sudden attention from the strangers. They all speak one after the other without giving the poor guy any room to reject.

“Hey, you’re really popular, right? I’ve seen you on Youtube and you have millions of subscribers!”

“Do you wanna hang out with us? There’s a bar down the street that has really strong drinks. They’re kind of pricey, but I’m sure you’ll be able to afford it.”

“That sounds like a great idea, no? Come on, you could have some fun with the three of us.”

At this time, Kuroo walks out of the bathroom and immediately notices his friend’s obvious discomfort. He shakes his head in dismay and starts making his way towards the gamer to play the savior role again. This time, however, you seem to be one step ahead of him. One of the girls reaches out to try and grab onto Kenma’s upper arm, and you feel something in you snap. Before she could come in contact with Kenma, you thrust the back of your mop right into her side earning an ear-piercing yelp.

“OW!”

As you turn around to face the group, you make sure to add a little swing to your arms and the bottom of the soaked mop splatters onto another girl’s heels.

“EW! What the hell?!”

“Oh! Sorry about that!” You apologize half-heartedly and tilt your head innocently. You’re proud to say that you were even able to hold your best counterfeit customer service smile as you continued. “You see, the shop is pretty small so you probably shouldn’t hang around in the middle of it. I think there’s a pretty big thrift shop down the block if you wanna kill time. You could also probably buy a replacement purse for the fake one you’re holding now.”

The girls don’t seem as adamant as the previous ill-mannered customer, so they just speedily strut outside with lowered heads and annoyed frowns. Still feeling a bit petty, you make sure to wave a hand sarcastically. “Don’t get your extensions stuck on the door on your way out!”

You feel a pair of eyes trained onto your form, so you make the effort to turn around. Kenma is just quietly fixated on you. You shift a bit at the awkward moment before breaking the silence. “Ah, sorry Kod-...uh...Kozume-san. You just looked a bit uncomfortable with those girls and I was still a bit upset by the man from before.”

There’s a small quirk to the corner of his lips. “Thanks. And, just Kenma is fine.”

Your body tenses a bit at the Youtuber’s words. “B-but…”

It was at this time Kuroo decided to make his presence known. He was slightly bent over with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face. “That’s right~ You mentioned that you watch his videos. How long have you been a fan?”

“Um...about 2 years?” You scratch your cheek shyly as you remember all the lonely nights in your apartment when you binged on Kodzuken’s streams while munching on five different brands of cookies. “The videos got me through some rough patches in college.”

“That’s just about the time he even started making videos. You must be a pretty loyal fan then.“ Kuroo hums in thought. His eyes shift between you and his friend before ultimately landing on his male figure. “Kenma, why don’t you take a picture with her?”

Both of your hands shoot up at the suggestion and start waving them in dismissal. “N-n-no! That’s okay! I don’t want to make him more uncomfortable!”

“Aw, come on! No guy would mind taking a picture with a pretty and sensible girl like yourself. You’re definitely more pleasant than those fakes from before.” Kuroo takes this time to rest his elbow on your shoulder and draw a bit closer to you while still facing Kenma. Your nose catches the subtle musky cologne from the tall man and can’t help but appreciate the attractive scent despite your current predicament.

The two of you continue to go back and forth for a bit, neither of you backing down with your stubbornness. Kenma just watches in amusement for another minute or two before deciding to finally say something. “I don’t mind.”

You and Kuroo both pause when you hear Kenma’s voice. Once you actually comprehend what Kenma had just said, it takes all of your energy to try and calm your excited heart. Kuroo grins triumphantly and claps his hands together. “Then, that’s that!

After pulling out his own phone from his pocket, Kuroo signals you and Kenma to get closer until your shoulders are touching. You manage to calm your heart to a certain extent and pose with a small peace sign. Kuroo takes a couple of pictures and even changes the camera to selfie mode with all three of you for one of them.

“Hey, what’s your number? I’ll send the pictures to you.” Kuroo passes you his phone and you type your contact information in. When you return his phone, he sends the images right away and you feel vibrations in your pocket. When you pull it out the check, you can’t help but smile. You tap one of the pictures to see the full screen and surprisingly you look a lot calmer than you had felt at the time. You and Kenma were both holding up a peace sign with happy expressions. You were beaming while Kenma sported a small, but genuine smile. The picture was perfect. You were definitely changing this picture to your lock screen soon.

“Order’s ready for Kuroo-san!”

You let out a silent gasp when you remember that you’re still in the middle of working after hearing your boss. You make the effort to get rid of all the cleaning supplies before rushing back to your spot on the register. “Sorry, boss!”

Osamu’s pretty chill about the whole situation and you’re once again thanking the universe for gifting you with such a kind boss. As you’re passing the food to Kenma and Kuroo in multiple plastic bags, the latter looks into one of them and gives Osamu a bewildered look. There was an extra bag of side dishes and drinks. “We didn’t pay for these.”

“Take it as a thanks for helping out and saving my little coworker.” Your boss just smiles and you just pout at Osamu’s teasing.

“Are you sure? It’s more like we drove away some of your customers.”

“No worries. I’d rather run a small business with decent customers than have to deal with people like them for a couple extra points on reputation,” Osamu reassured. “But, if you’re still concerned, I guess I wouldn’t mind an autograph to put up in the shop. Only if Kozume-san is alright with that, of course.”

To say the least, Kodzuken’s autograph was framed and displayed on the wall next to the windows by the end of the day. Kenma had even posted a picture of him and his high school friends from Nekoma eating the food on social media while tagging Onigiri Miya. This would surely bring in a lot more customers to the shop in the future.

Despite the busy work day and the mishaps in between with impolite customers, you had a great experience. You never thought you’d ever get to stand next to the only Youtuber you’ve ever really wanted to interact with in person, let alone get a nice picture with him. The world was really on your side when you got accepted into this job.

“Didn’t know you were such an avid video game fan,” Osamu points out as you’re both wiping down the counter and putting away ingredients. It was closing time, so the both of you were on cleaning duty.

“I actually don’t play as much. I mostly just enjoy watching other people play since I don’t really have a lot of free time,” you reply back.

“Oh yeah?” Osamu playfully flicks a stray sesame seed in your direction. “You sure you didn’t just fall head over heels for Kozume-san?”

Your cheeks become warm. “W-what? Stop teasing me! It’s not like that!”

Your boss laughs at your flustered state. Feeling satisfied with your reaction, he changes the subject. “You know, him and Kuroo-san played volleyball in high school the same time I did.”

This piqued your interest. “Did you guys play any matches against each other?”

“Nah. I saw them around, but we never got the chance to play against each other. To be honest, my team was a bit more focused on facing the schools that had the top spikers in the nation.”

At the mention of talented spikers, something clicks in your memory. “Oh! I think there was someone in one of my classes that mentioned something about being on a volleyball team with a top ranked spiker. He said he’s an alumni from...Sarato...Shirata…”

“Shiratorizawa?” Osamu corrects.

You confirm with a nod. “Yeah! That was it!”

“Ah, Shiratorizawa...That team had some pretty interesting players and there was always some kind of commotion wherever they went. If I remember correctly, they had a guy that kind of looked like Benkei*.”

“That’s an interesting comparison.” You snort at this comment.

“If you ever saw him, you’d agree.” Osamu tied up the last trash bag and hefted it up onto his shoulder. You go ahead and wipe down the now empty trash can.

Placing the washcloth in the laundry pile, you start heading towards the back room to get ready to leave. “Well, point him out if he ever visits the shop, or any one of them for that matter. All of the people you’ve ever mentioned from your high school days seem to be entertaining.”

Osamu chuckled. “You have no idea.”

Benkei: a japanese warrior from the past; also a reference to Haikyuu season 3 hehe

A/N: kuroo and kenma were done so well this past week’s episode and UGH KENMA. actually UGH NEKOMA. This chapter actually took me a fat minute to plan, so i hope it’s not too obvious that i lost some sleep over this (but dont worry i had fun hehe)

#haikyuu #onigiri miya #onigiri miya tidbits #secretpeachtea #osamu #kenma #kuroo

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imgonnabeyourbubblegumwitch · 6 years ago

Text

Lies Sleeping - A Review

Lies sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch

Chances were I was going to like this book - I liked the rest of the series after all. So how did Lies Sleeping compare?

The spoiler free bit -

This book was one long call back to the first book, the most obvious being the return of Mr Punch (not counting this as a spoiler since its announced in the blurb). As with the previous books I found there was no way I could really follow what was happening - I'm no good at remembering names of people or places and these are often key to "getting" the plot. Not only are you bombarded with people and places and companies and names, so much happens and you aren't sure what's important and what's a random side trip somewhere. I think there are a couple of reasons why that has never bothered me historically with this series and why it didn't bother me this time round.

The first is that the books are still an enjoyable read (even Foxglove Summer) even when I don't have a clue what's going on. Another is that things do make sense in retrospect with a second read, and I really do enjoy reading these books a second, third and even in the case of approximately 60% of the series (skipped Whispers Underground and Foxglove Summer) a fourth time. Four times is by no means a personal record for me rereading, but these books still have a lot of life left in them and I don't see myself getting bored of them anytime soon.

There is another reason why I tend to give these books a pass at the fact the plot absolutely escapes me, given that this would normally be within my top three complaints (others being boring/unnecessary and/or boringly unnecessary love interest with bonus points for tired clichés applied lazily, and character (lack of)). It only really occurred to me in Lies Sleeping, but the flood of information is (probably) what an investigation is like. A series of events and you have to figure out what's connected and how. Aaronovitch tends to be clever enough with his foreshadowing that I connect enough dots to keep me happy, but the hints are hints enough that I'm never 100% sure of myself so that if I'm right I get to feel smug and if I'm wrong I get to feel delight at being tricked.

An example of this from Lies Sleeping, kept to a spoiler free minimum but expanded below the cut, is the sense that this book was a gamechanger. I thought it would be as such before I'd even read the first sentence: the reintroduction of Mr Punch in the blurb and the fact The Faceless Man was unmasked suggested this book would further change the status quo somehow.

That's probably all I can get away with saying spoiler free so I'll carry on below the cut.

So continued from the point above I knew we'd end on some kind of shift in dynamics. By the time I was approximately two thirds of the way through I had narrowed this guess down to a) Nightingale dying or b) Martin Chorley actually accomplishing what he wanted to do which somehow altered magic's status possibly even bringing it into the public consciousness. What we got, of course was Peter being suspended. I didn't expect it but I didn't feel cheated in any way. And then there was the second game changer - Beverly being pregnant. In retrospect comments about Peter acting as Abby's parent have more weight - at the time I took them to be hinting towards a baby but maybe in a couple of books time. I'm actually really excited about Peter and Beverly having a child because I think it will bring an interesting new dimension to Peter - will he act the same when he has a child to think about? Is he still going to be as reckless? Will magic start to worry him?

And of course there's Lesley.

If I liked the Peter being suspended thing and the baby thing, I loved Lesley shooting Chorley. It's going to add another layer of changed dynamic and world shift. Peter isn't fighting a "Faceless man" (pardon the pun) anymore, someone he doesn't have any particular personal history with other than the two repeatedly trying to outwit and maim each other. Now it's Lesley and that's a whole different kettle of fish. I really like how Lesley's arc mirrors that of Mr Punch. Lesley has always seemed preoccupied with law and seemed more frustrated than Peter whenever she saw someone from the magic-world apparently getting away with crimes, just as Mr Punch was originally fond of the law and order the Romans brought. You could argue that Lesley is now slipping into chaos, however much she believes that she is trying to make things better: shooting Chorley for instance is not something I could see her doing in previous books but it felt right at this point in her journey.

I'm very interested to see what happens next with Lesley and where she's going to go. Did Chorley have something in the pipeline in case the whole Arthurian thing didn't work out, that she'll now take over? Or perhaps she'll go her own way.

One thing is certain: this book felt like the end and a new beginning and I think the series will continue to shift from here. It's not just the big details that have changed: this was the first book where it wasn't just Nightingale and Peter helped somewhat distantly by whichever police were involved in the crime of the day. With magic seeping into the police as a whole and what with the exchange about other societies not revealing magic between Peter and Nightingale I wonder if we are going to start dealing with magic becoming common knowledge as was my original prediction for the ending of this book.

I'll leave the speculation there - I'd like to re-read Lies Sleeping, and possibly the whole series - before I get into any serious guess work. I'll finish off this review for now with some little things I enjoyed that weren't to do with the ending as well as my one little niggle.

The first thing I really liked was the introduction of Foxglove (which I'm only know realising ties into Foxglove Summer - yeah I'm slow). I didn't really have much to say for the reveal that Molly might be high fae. It didn't annoy or upset me but equally it didn't really interest me. But with the introduction of Foxglove and the links to the Pale Lady, the Pale Nanny and the awful strip club I have changed my mind on this revelation. I really like how threads I thought were finished with come back later on - as confusing and haphazard as the worldbuilding can feel at times, I enjoy when it comes back together and pulls tight. On a more basic level I just really like that Molly has a friend.

I enjoyed the way the book followed a trajectory of Rivers of London, while remaining it's own story. It'd be more precise on this but I'm lending out Rivers of London at the moment so can't check on all the things that felt familiar but the more obvious ones are the back through history to meet Mr Punch ending, the actor's church, Mr Punch being in it at all. As a beginning and an end this provided a nice symmetry.

Nightingale is my favourite character by a fair amount and so I really enjoyed that we got to see more of him being kickass. I especially enjoyed his command of magic in the interview with Patrick Gale. I mean I enjoy any and all magic Nightingale does, but after seeing his explosive, fighting magic seeing him perform something more subtle was a treat and gives us a better indication of what he really could do if he set his mind to it. Let's all be glad he's on the side of the "good guys". Continuing with the Nightingale is incredibly powerful line, the list of reasons why Nightingale is absent to allow Peter to get into all the dangerous situations is fantastic. One of the problems with having one significantly more powerful character is the well why haven't they just stopped the bad guy already? Nightingale's absences from key moments allowing Peter to get into trouble are noticeable, but they do feel organic enough that though I find it funny I don't find it distracting or unrealistic.

On the magic front I also enjoyed hearing more about everyone's signares. The first description of Nightingale's as being "as heavy as a mallet and as sharp and as controlled as the point of a needle" was a great description that completely sums up his character, while the later descriptions of it as the precise tick-tock are lovely. Lesley's being a combination of Nightingale's, Chorley's and a cry like a seagull screaming was both hilarious and somehow completely fitting.

On the favourite character front my favourite rivers (plus possible war spirit) are Lady Ty, Effra, Oberon and Ash. I was disappointed to not hear much from Effra, Oberon and Ash therefore (he wasn't even at the Summer Court) but I wasn't surprised either. Can't have everything. I did, however, greatly enjoy the Lady Ty scene where Peter offers her a sacrifice as well as the return of the original Tyburn who I love as much as his modern counterpart.

Continuing with character for a moment is my one niggle with the book. I'm not sure if it was because this book had more continually high stakes, as the team tried to predict and forestall Chorley, but there didn't seem to be as many character moments. As many isn't no, and some were really unexpected but lovely such as Seawoll reminding Peter and Guleed to look out for each other and talk to someone if the pressure gets too much.

I think the main place it was noticeable was the reunion between Nightingale and Peter, or lack thereof. And I know Nightingale isn't the sort of hugging, crying, making a scene sort of guy, and they had other operational priorities at that moment as well as an audience. I wasn't expecting a huge scene at that moment. But information later on in the narrative about what Nightingale had done to try and find Peter would have been fitting in with the character and the time limits the characters have - could have come as an offhand comment from Guleed or someone else during a conversation about work for example. A kind of well we know Nightingale can do a-awesome-thing because he did it while searching for you thing. Or even Nightingale looking tired, Peter commenting on it and someone, probably Guleed or maybe Abdul, answering it was because he'd barely slept while looking for Peter. Nightingale has shown he feels responsible for Peter, so the lack of acknowledgment of the fact Peter was missing for a considerable chunk of time just felt like a missed opportunity to me.

Still it wasn't enough to ruin this book for me by any stretch of the imagination and I'm excited to re-read it and connect all the dots I missed the first time around. A great, read and a solid addition to the series that has me desperate for the next book.

Lies Sleeping: 5/5

#rivers of london #lies sleeping #lies sleeping spoilers #book review

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