#ive done a few with time and sand and stuff
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monpalace · 2 years ago
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Okok, so my brain is not working with writing rn BUT i will finish that “reader and time pinning” thing that i was doing I PROMISE
BUT for now imma just share some thoughts of Time because he is THE LOVE OF MY LIFE AND I NEED TO RANT ABOUT HIM
*ahem*
Ive said before (on my blog) that Time uses really old and kinda cringey petnames because 1, he genuinely loves them and 2, because he LOVES making the boys squirm in second hand embarrassment. SO, have a few more of those nicknames :D -> snookums, sugarplum, baby cakes, muffin, foxy, and toots
Young time (like teenage/young adult) was an absolute bastard BUT when he falls in love with someone, he is an absolute sweet heart! Think the ‘i hate everyone but you’ trope :3
Young! Time did not know romance AT ALL! That boy was raised by a tree and a bunch if spirit kids, he has know idea what a ‘date’ is. This leads to him just acting the same around his crush but being a little nicer to them
Is then very confused as to why they dont know that he likes them. “It was so obvious? I gave you a piece of my apple pie! I was so clear with my signs 🙄🙄”
He THEN reads all the romance novels he can get his hands on (legally and illegally) just so he can impress them! Completely misunderstood everything and now he just has to straight up tell them, cause how their hair is on fire…somehow
(Modern) Time is totally the type of guy that ‘doesn’t like drama shows’ but if his lover was watching one, he’d stand behind the couch and watch. But when his lover offers to move so he can sit hes like ‘no, im not even watching it. I was just bored’ and the proceeds to watch the next 3 episodes while standing.
(Modern) Time has a leather jacket that he LOVES!! Like he will cut someone for that thing, do not fuck with it. No one is aloud to wear it expect him….And his crush/lover but SHUSH!
Time enjoys polishing his armour/sword while you read a book out aloud. You both find it rather relaxing. Until something dramatic/a polt twists happens, all if the sudden the armour/sword is dropped to the side as Time is BAFFLED by this. “They killed Aaron?! Wh-what? Why!? He was the best choice for Max!” (Hes so invested, his duties are now discarded until you two finish this chapter)
I wanna do more but this is kinda chunky :3
I love dis man so much 🫶🫶
THE WAY I PHYSICALLY AND VERBALLY CRINGED AT FOXY??? bro's the type to say "hey foxy mama" when you walk into a room unironically, he literally has no shame whatsoever whenever someone points out how dated that sounds to
time would fit the secret admirer trope so well though? but he wouldn't even be secret about it?? the lon lon sisters def gave him the advice to "just be himself" and that gave him the idea to take stuff from his woodland-spirit background
"link, why is my house filled with flowers from floor to ceiling."
"that's not a declaration of adoration here? huh."
AND HIM TAKING THE ROMANCE BOOKS? personally, i feel like he's the type to sneak into the library when (supposedly) nobodies looking and just taking whatever he can carry before sneaking back out-- but in actuality it's just that nobody cares
someone asked zelda if he was allowed to take the books because they've been coming back in a damaged state (it's not bad, but while he's workshopping how he's gonna bring words to reality, he messes up a little) and she just says its fine so long as he isn't committing crimes with them (which he has done. several times. no one knows)
ofc there are questions as to WHY he's taking the romance books specifically, but the guards and librarians just chalk it up to him entering his weird boy phase ™️ and not because he has an interest in somebody because him?? having a love interest before half the other people in the castle??? Nah.
you catch modern! time watching a (raunchy) reality show once (like love island, or jersey shore-- maybe even teen mom) and he swears up, down, to the golden three, and to the sand goddess that he just kept it on for noise and that he's paying all his attention to his work even though you caught him ON VIDEO having the most expressive reactions to certain moments
BUT THE LEATHER JACKET ONE?? someone walks up to you while you're wearing it (your relationship with time isn't common knowledge yet) and they make a joke about him burying them alive if they mess it up-- no less just because you're wearing it.
time pops up out of literal thin air making excuses that you were cold (you were not), he was hot and didn't feel like carrying it (his goosebumps say otherwise), he thought there was a tear and he wanted to try and fix it (.. yeah, okay.), he only gave it to you because you said it would go with your outfit (that is not the only reason he'd give it to you), and everything else just to try to hide the fact that he's soft
(also, bonus points if you made it??? now not even the goddesses could touch it. he's about three seconds away from giving into the inner ferality of his childhood self and biting someone if they even look at it)
but tell me why i just imagine time getting ready to like, get in a fight or something, you read something so earth-shatteringly shocking in the book, and he's immediately like "the battle can wait. [opponent] was gonna lose anyways. we have to figure out what the devil is about to happen"
i'm literally scooping ur brain from ur skull, putting it on a table, and i'm gonna examine it for the rest of ur ideas mwah
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thatcatbasil · 9 months ago
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so, first impressions with endless ocean luminous
there are a lot of changes i absolutely Do Not Like but i would be lying if i said i wasn't having a good time with it so far
unfortunately i'm not gonna have screenshots in here since my phone quit letting me download pics from the switch and i don't feel like going through the hassle of tryna figure out getting the microsd into my computer right now
so first, stuff i don't like just to get it out of the way
yeah elephant in the room is the randomly generated maps. when the first trailer came out i did a lot of mental gymnastics to arrive at the conclusion that the veiled sea was just one map that was randomly generated and we would get other maps that were not but Nope you're only in the veiled sea and it's all randomly generated. makes you really miss the established locations from the first couple games. it feels really ephemeral now and the locations don't really stick with you as much
really miss the hayley westenra/celtic woman tracks. the ambient music's okay but i think the appeal of endless ocean's soundtrack has always been the licensed music to me. 30 mins in i unplugged my earbuds from my switch and put em in my laptop so that i could put on carrickfergus. then i put on jenny nicholson's evermore park video and had that playing for the entire rest of the time i was diving
the main menu's UI is kinda plain compared to the previous games. i miss the marine encyclopedia being an actual book you could flip through. this UI's a lot more sleek and modern but it doesn't have the same charm
no zoom mode makes me a little sad. i miss the little detailed environments! i miss looking for the coins in them! i like that the coins made a comeback as salvage though.
haven't played too much of the story mode cause i was mainly drawn to the solo dives buuut yeah hasn't really gotten hooked me yet. i've only done the first 3 parts of it so far so we'll see if i end up liking it more down the line. i think since it's just the first chapter(?) they're treating it more like a tutorial. i like david though he's silly
there are. a lot of legendaries huh? i do very much like the fact that they brought back the ones from the first two games (ran into ancient mother on my first solo dive and i was like !!!!! there she is!!!!!) but you see them so frequently it kinda takes away the feeling of them being "legendary" in a way? ive done three solo dives and cacao maharaja has shown up in every single one. on my third one i saw three grave diggers all in the same location. i've seen five different apollos. feels like there should be more of a distinction between the new "rare" creatures (the ones that just have funny patterns like the white orca i've seen several times) and the more unique named legendaries where the legendaries spawn a lot less often. but then again i could see that being an RNG nightmare for completion when it's combined with the randomly generated maps.
text to speech lady. i muted her as soon as i had the opportunity LMAOOO. maybe i'm just too used to the previous games not having any voices at all. oh shoot maybe that's why there's no licensed music tracks? cause text to speech lady would distract from them? damn.
not really into the customization. looks like you can only change the colors of your equipment and there's no unique gear
but excluding all that the creature models and most of the environments have been absolutely fantastic. i say most of the environments cause there's been a few situations where the map would have these decently big areas of empty sand with nothing in them (reminds me of manoa lai f-5 and e-4 that kinda area leading out of deep valley around where the pirate ship can spawn where it's a lot of empty sand and no critters except for the pacific white-sided dolphins) and i didn't find it as interesting as the actual coral reefs wrecks etc.
but the creature models! they're really awesome! they look great! i guess it's to be expected since it's on better hardware but it's still so cool to see the improvement.
also on my third dive something that was actually pretty cool happened. so i came up with a system for exploring the maps where i would just go around the perimeter and then go in like a spiral so that i could get a general sense of everything. when i reached the bottom right corner of the map the water turned green and i was like Oh this is the water color from the prehistoric areas in the trailers. so i go down a little deeper and run into an icthyosaur (forgot the specific name. could've just been icthyosaurus). and i felt like this
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then i turned around to see a GIANT icthyosaur (shonisaurus) and i felt like this
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the prehistoric critters in this game are COOL AS HELL. since we only got three of them total in the previous games (and couldn't even see em up close since they swam outside the boundaries of their respective maps!) it's really awesome to get to see them up close. and so many of them, too! excited to find anomalocaris later on. i love anomalocaris
miscellaneous other observations/comments/etc
honestly i don't really mind that the animals attacking you from the second game was omitted. it does feel a little weird to run into thanatos and not get attacked though (especially since he was doing the exact attack animations from the second game. side note i always thought it was a lil funny that all the creatures would slap you with their tails instead of biting you)
on my third dive i ran into the okeanos's guardian in a cave and i really like the glowing eyes effect it has now. thanatos was chilling down there too. shark party
i'm guessing that you can have creatures follow you? haven't gotten the chance to do it yet though cause i don't have enough points to get the creatures i want to follow me haha. i need to make friends with the orcas
oh yeah this game does have its own unique named legendaries! i found the seal that likes to wear jewelry that i unfortunately can't remember the name of right now. that was cool. trying to find all of those critters to get it to appear is a bit of a hassle but i guess that's why there's so much emphasis on the multiplayer.
but yeah. tl;dr it's absolutely no blue world but luminous does have some good things in its own right. maybe i've just been starved for endless ocean content for the past 14 years though
i think i'll do a proper full write-up for this game that i'll put on the neocities site at some point after i finish up the story mode and do some more solo dives and really let everything soak in. might be some time before that though since it's finals season and i need to work on stuff. see ya
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tainted-well · 2 years ago
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Warframe Story, Introduction
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About a half a year ago I found this most useful post on r/Warframe: https://old.reddit.com/r/Warframe/comments/w14e47/warframe_story_campaign_guide_for_beginners_and/ Unfortunately after the Reddit blackout this post is not available anymore, so I decided to copy all the info (praise Unum it was saved in web.archive) and make some additions for players, who (like me) have already done some non-replayable quests. Quest names are highlighted in bold, my commentaries are marked with TW and highlighted in italic. Screenshots are also mine, from my early Warframe days.
Also I strongly advise you (if you are doing replays) to open your settings menu - social - creator mode. This mode hides some minor spoilers, unfortunately it can’t return some zones to their previous state.
Please note if you are replaying quests, sometimes initial and final quest messages aren’t send to your mail, so I suggest you look for them in warframe wiki quest transcripts.
--- (original post starts here)
With Veilbreaker and Duviri on the way I thought it would be good to give the new players (and old ones that missed the stuff) a guide for story campaign. This guide focuses on making a cohesive story to go through on your way to The New War, as after that it’s much more cohesive by itself.
This isn't a story guide on the history of events but trying to make sense of what's in the game at with the state it's in as much as possible. There are some bad omissions in game atm, most of which concern Alad V and other events, and since other early game stuff was mostly in events, a lot of context and motivation is missing early game, which is another big hurdle for the beginner experience.
I will supplement missing info with videos or other stuff to make it more or less understandable. Some of these are made by me to supplement some other stuff. Huge thanks to Orokin Archives and people that recorded the intros for events in the videos.
DISCLAIMER: This guide is focusing primarily on story and not about getting loot. In fact, some of the guide pretty much is against getting some loot till the time needed (biggest notable thing is Deadlock Protocol being delayed a lot). The idea is to create a sense of progression and logic in the story. Feel free to do side objectives and farming at your leisure.
Several activities should be done only after “unlocking” it with the perquisite quest (Infested invasions, Nightmare missions, Grineer vs Corpus invasions, Void Fissure missions, Vey Hek assassinate, The Index).
Quests that are not affected by this list: Howl of the Kubrow (but recommended to do after Phobos once you can go to the Void), A Man of Few Words (just do it when you unlock Uranus), Hidden Messages, The Limbo Theorem, Sands of Inaros, The Silver Grove and Octavia's Anthem (but imo both should be done directly after the Second Dream), Mask of the Revenant, The Waverider (can be done after Heart of Deimos to make sense), The Jordas Precept (pretty much should be done about the time you unlock Eris).
--- (original post ends here)
UPD. I’ve just got the permission of the post owner, u/DarthGiorgi, to repost its contents in my tumblr blog.
Links to all posts:
Warframe Story, Introduction
Warframe Story, Act I: Awakening
Warframe Story, Act II: Escalation
Warframe Story, Act III: Turmoil
Warframe Story, Act IV: Prelude to War
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madisonrooney · 1 year ago
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Hi yes hi hello, your Secret Santa has returned! Hopefully you'll get to do more stuff with your parents this month :) I'm going to be very busy seeing all kinds of family in the coming weeks, please lend me some vibes that are good if possible💀 Aside from that, happy Alchemical P1 release! (Screams) !! Now that you've spent a few days with the new tracks, how are you feeling? I'm quite taken with the new stuff but my top I think remain Sand and Lethal Woman⏳ Speaking of music, sorry to pile on multiple questions, but what are your favorite songs to come from Disney Channel projects?? Have an excellent day! - GCWCA Secret Santa
good vibes are sent lol
i really like lethal woman and sand possibly even more. i dont tend to gravitate to the sadder stuff but its just so beautifully done.
as ive said, i do not claim white glove bc im a mostly sex-repulsed ace lol, but i like the other ones a lot and roughly on the same level as one another. maybe ill have a more decisive ranking later on but as of now ill put them at gods game, fragile things, and still, tho theyre all very close. like sand, theyre all somber but still have a beauty to them, which sounds like what she was going for. i have learned i need to limit my listening of them or they make me too sad tho lol.
firstly ill direct you to this playlist i made lol
as far as shows - ofc anything from l&m but my fav is say hey (and gotta give it to froyo yolo) - same for hm, plus that has a lot more songs lol, my fav is rock star - i was thinking about make it happen from wizards when i was in the shower for some reason lol. that slaps and its sad its not on streaming (sure streaming wasnt a thing when the episode premiered but singles were) - WE DONT CARE FROM TVOVV. and to a lesser extent this is where the partys at and a place for everyone, but especially we dont care. that was my #2 song of the year lol. - i dont talk much about my shake it up phase but it did happen. i got two soundtracks from it at disneyland shortly after i finished binging it and i listened to them a ton that summer. my favs were blow the system, beat of my drum, and bring the fire. - THE KC UNDERCOVER THEME SONG. show biases aside, this is my all time fav theme song as i have mentioned in the discord before. it has no right going as hard as it does - partial to step up from the lodge bc dove - let me make you proud and ready as ill ever be from tangled the series bc varian best boy
id ask you the same question but it might give you away lol, unless you have any answers not tied to major favs of yours i.e. me with keep it undercover. your call.
broader question, have you been up to anything fun since we last talked?
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ariapmdeol · 2 years ago
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14 15 16 ^^ (artist ask game)
14. Any favorite motifs FLOWER LANGUAGE. i put it EVERYWHERE it's so fun!!! I've done some stuff relating to alternate selves/time/different endings as well, and that's ALWAYS fun! I love putting in little details, it's fun! i've done this a lot with COEtober (LOTS of symbolism in some of those ehehe) I've drawn a lot of flower crowns and such too, so anytime that happens? that's SYMBOLISM BABYYYY Lately I've been wanting to incorporate some more meta aspects into my work too... I think it'd be neat to do something using the medium itself, like incorporating CSP windows into the art, or tearing a painting physically and IN the painting itself.
15. *Where* do you draw (don't drop your ip address this just means do you doodle at a park or smth) Mostly at home! my tablet is too big to carry onto campus now (screen tablet) So i draw at my desk, which is in our living room!
16. Something you are good at but don't really have fun doing I have fun with all of the art process! the closest thing to it though... probably lineart ^^; I have very clean lines, but they are SUCH a sticking point for me sometimes... they take so much time rip That's actually why i've been doing more painting-heavy stuff lately! I'm experimenting with it a bit
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yeahimaloser · 4 years ago
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Wingless
Hello! So this was the fic I've been working on, and I just wanted to quickly say this is an AU-based fic (Kinda).
WARNING MANGA SPOILERS
So I understand what's going on in the manga, but I started this fic when Keigo was injured. so I wrote a fic about how Keigo and you would deal with him losing both his wings and a part of himself.
this story contains manga spoilers, as well as warnings of mental and physical abuse (kind of), hurt to comfort, mentions of Depression, blood, someone gets glass stuck in their hand, and therapy.
no pronouns are given to the reader. Word count: 7k
. . .
You practically ran through the hospital, not listening to the nurses and doctors as they told you to slow your pace. Your mind only screamed out for him, screaming for him to be alive, for him to just be okay. You could hear your heart thumping hard against your chest, tears spilling down your cheeks.
As you ran near his room, a doctor finally managed to stop you.
“Please, calm down! He’s in this room but I can not allow you in if you act like this. You will only stress my patient out more, and we have just managed to sedate him.” the doctor held out his hands as he spoke, trying to calm you.
Although, it clearly wasn’t working. Your eyes only shone more with brimming tears, your hands shook as the doctor spoke.
After a few minutes of you catching your breath and calming yourself down, the doctor told you that you were able to see him.
You felt as if your whole body was on fire as you walked through the doors to his hospital room.
The window that overlooked the city gave an impressive view (if it wasn’t in a hospital, you probably would have stopped and looked down at the city below). The bathroom, you could see, was on your left. There was even a vanity and a television in the room as well.
But you really didn’t have time to look around, your eyes were already focused on the man that lay on the hospital bed.
Machines were hooked up to him, tubes ran out of his skin every witch way. He was flipped on his stomach to accommodate his wings or lack thereof. Bandages covered almost every area you could see, the blood on them was minimal, yet they looked new, meaning they had been changed.
You rushed to his side, stopping only when the line of his IV almost collide with your foot.
“Keigo,” you said it so lightly you were afraid only you could even hear it.
But Keigo’s eyes shot open, looking up at you, “...Y/N?”
God, his voice was a raspy mess, it sounded as though it wasn’t even his.
If you could, you would break down right then and there. Crying over him, telling him you were there for him, that you would always be there for him, no matter the hardships he was sure to overcome. You wanted desperately to hold him, to whisper love-filled words to him, to wipe away the pain you knew he was feeling.
But you didn’t, you couldn’t.
You knew you had to be strong for him in that moment, and for all the moments yet to come. You knew that what was going to happen to you two would not be easy.
So you couldn’t cry, no matter how much you wanted to.
You lightly stroked his cheek, “I’m here Kei, I’m right here. I won't leave you.”
Silent tears ran down his face as he spoke, his voice cracking, “I’m sorry.”
----
After what happened with Dabi Toya, the commission tried their best to cover everything up, telling the public that Dabi had to be wrong. But the public eye was persistent.
The truth was out, there was nothing you or Keigo could do to stop it. Everyone knew about his name, his father, and what he had done to Twice, as well as the fact that he had lost to Dabi. You knew it would be hard for him to come back to that.
The media had always been a bit ruthless when it came to Keigo, but now, it was up by tenfold. They talked about how they believed that Keigo was not worthy of his hero title. A false hero they called him.
And Keigo?
Luckily, he didn’t hear very much of it. You made sure of that. You wanted him to rest, to let what had happened wash over him little by little, and you knew if he heard what the news had been saying about him, that he might never recover.
When Keigo was a bit more stable, he still rarely talked.
His eyes didn’t shine like they used to, his face, once so uplifting and beautiful, was marred with a long scar that he had on his face.
But no matter what, you stayed with him, no matter what, you would be by his side.
But seeing Keigo like this? It was unbearable.
He would only eat if you were there to persuade him, he would only look at you if you practically begged him to.
You knew it was a selfish want, you knew it was, but you wanted your Keigo back. You wanted the man who held you in his arms, telling you he would fly to the moon and back if it meant you would give him your love. You wanted the man that stopped at nothing to protect others, you wanted the man that smiled when the going got tough, you wanted Keigo.
But you had to accept that this was Keigo.
And you wouldn’t leave him, you couldn’t. He was always there for you when you needed him most, and you weren’t going to do the same.
After what had happened with Keigo, the commission thought it would be best to send him away, let the media storm die down, letting him also take time to heal his wings.
You had to fight them in order to come as well. At first, they told you that Hawks should just be concerned with getting his wings back and becoming “hero ready”.
You should have known. You knew, of course, that the HPSC was corrupted, but you didn’t think they were heartless. Yet, you were proven wrong.
You wished they could understand, you wished everyone could understand. Keigo was so loving and kind, you just wished people would understand that about him. What Keigo had to do to Twice… you knew he didn’t want to kill him, Keigo wasn’t like that. He didn’t take pleaser in violence, all he wanted was to see others happy.
And it made your blood boil that the higher up’s couldn’t understand.
You told them how Keigo needed someone to be his caretaker, and you would be the best candidate. You knew he wouldn’t object, you told them that you would work for free, seeing as he and you had been dating, as well as living together for the last few years.
Finally, with a lot of persuading, they agreed.
They sent you and Keigo to a remote location near the shores of Japan, seeing as they wanted Keigo to not remember the effects of the fight, and thought the best course of action was to send him so far out that he would have nothing to remind him of, “The Incident”.
The house was a small little thing, a lot smaller than what you and Keigo were used to at least.
It was close to the ocean, giving it a more country feeling rather than the city vibe you and Keigo used to live in. The smell of the ocean hit you full force when you two arrived, the salty, yet homie smell was a nice difference to the fullness of the air of the city.
The home had a total of seven rooms, all on the same floor.
The master bedroom had enough space, it fit a bed, a vanity, and a closet as well as a connection to the master bathroom. The walls were painted a low white, you wouldn’t call it cream however that was the closest rendition. The floors were all wood, you could feel the sand beneath your feet, you had a feeling the stuff would get everywhere.
There were three bathrooms, a guest room, a living room, and a kitchen.
The whole house honestly just felt...nice.
The floors felt grainy against your feet, but it felt weirdly cozy, kind of like how a beach house should feel. The carpeting was a bit musty for your taste, you had a feeling that would be your first project to do with the house. The couch was a bit too firm, you expected that, but still, it just needed to be worn in. The kitchen wasn’t big, but for two people, it would do.
You spent the first week moving in, all by yourself.
Keigo would only stay in bed, looking out the window, in some far-off world he was in.
You wanted to cry when you would walk into the master bedroom and see him upright on the mattress, not doing or saying anything, just staring, a shell of the man you once knew.
It made your heart clench though, normally, Keigo would always be the first to lend a helping hand, that was just his nature, to want to help. But this, this was something that broke you even more.
-----
The first few weeks were rough.
Not hard, just rough.
The only way you could even describe Keigo was just numb.
His eyes were sunken, his hair a tattered mess. His face was droopy, the once perfect-looking man now sat alone in bed, looking as though he was almost near death.
And his scar.
It served as a perfect reminder of what had happened, a symbol of the pain Keigo had gone through. You knew what he felt when he saw it, you knew what he was probably thinking when he looked in the mirror to have the long stripe of red and pink looking back at him.
Yet, you pretended not to notice.
He would barely say anything to you, choosing instead, to be silent.
For the first few days, it was hard to get him out of bed, hard for him to even eat anything.
On most days you found yourself sitting alone when you ate, going on walks by yourself on the sandy beach, watching TV all alone.
You missed him, it was hard not to. But you knew that this was hardest on Keigo, so of course, you let him have all the time he needed. Letting him sulk and wallow in his self-pity, letting his feelings shroud him. You felt as though you had to, he had every right to feel this way.
But it was hard.
It was hard having Keigo sleep in the master bedroom while you slept all alone in the guest, it was hard to be so silent in the house, it was hard living with someone who was basically a ghost.
One day though, you found him crying.
You quickly ran over to him, scared that he had somehow hurt himself. But he didn’t, nothing had happened to him.
But he sat straight up in his bed, shaking like he was cold, his hands wrapped around something you couldn’t see.
“Keigo, honey?” you asked carefully as you stepped into the room, “Is everything ok hun?”
But it was like he couldn’t even hear you, whatever he was holding, it certainly had his attention.
You walked slowly over to him, reaching out to him, like he was a wounded animal, “Keigo? What is it?”
Finally, you managed to see what it was.
It was a picture of him, of him with his beautiful red wings, smiling at the camera in his hero outfit, with one hand giving a thumbs up and the other around your waist.
In comparison to the picture, you could barely tell it was Keigo anymore. With his sunken eyes and hollow cheekbones, the scar is a stripe of change.
“Keigo I-” you took a deep breath, what were you supposed to even say? How could you even console him? How could you help ease his pain?
You couldn’t.
So you just held him, held him in your arms, trying to hide your tears from him, so he wouldn’t see you hurting as well.
. . .
But one day, when you were sitting on the porch of your borrowed home, watching the waves hit the sandy beach below, watching the sun as it hit the horizon.
It was bitter-sweet, you were all alone, watching the beautiful sight without anyone to share it with.
You sighed, contemplating whether or not to go back inside, but then... Keigo came.
It startled you, you weren’t expecting him to come off his bed, much less to see you.
He sat down in the nice little chair that was right next to you.
He didn’t say anything for a good few moments, but then, all of a sudden he spoke.
“The ocean looks really pretty, I like...I like being here with you.”
You were shocked, to say the least. Keigo had barely acknowledged your presence during this time, he hadn’t spoken to you at all during these few weeks. So to hear him say that...
You damn near cried.
You had been holding in your anxiousness and, overall, depression of not having Keigo back to his regular self. It was hard, that much was certain, but still, he was going through such a difficult time, you had to be there for him.
You quickly brushed the tear that had feel from your eye, “I-I like being here with you too.”
----
After that, things were...different.
Keigo was a bit more clingy, although, maybe you should say protective.
You would go out on your walks and would come home to him being upset, asking where you were, and fussing about you going out.
“Well, what if something happened? Just stay here.”
You asked the doctors about that, they told you how some patients latched on to certain things or people after a traumatic event, most of the time clinging desperately to what they felt was the only thing they had left.
They told you his newfound desire to be near you could be a sign of him getting worse, or it could be a sign he was getting better.
The doctor told you it was much more likely that Keigo needed something to hang on to, a sort of attachment. And again, they told you Keigo needed to see a therapist, he had so much trauma after the battle that you probably wouldn’t be able to handle it.
You knew that you should listen and that you probably couldn’t deal with Keigo all on your own. But still, you wanted to move at Keigo's pace, and you knew he needed time.
. . .
The first night you and Keigo spent in the same bed after what had happened was...strange.
Although you two lived in the same little beach house for a month now, you two haven't slept next to one another, you weren’t sure Keigo was ready just yet.
And yet, he was the one who asked you.
It happened on a normal day, while you were making dinner when Keigo spoke.
“Hey...Y/N..” you turned back to him, giving him your full attention, “Could we….could we try sleeping together? I know...I know it’s been some time but-”
“Yes!” you hastily accepted, “I mean...only if you want to.”
And so, you found yourself curled up next to Keigo, feeling him cuddled up to you, which was nice of course, but his body felt stiff like it didn’t want to be close to you.
The whole experience was… different. Normally, Keigo would wrap his arms around you, holding you against him, holding you securely and tightly, like you knew he wouldn’t let you go.
But this, this was different, but you should have expected that by now. You should have known that, now, it was so unlikely that you would ever see the old version of Keigo again.
And then it was there again, that slap of guilt, that pang of hurt at your own thought. How could you think that? Keigo was hurting, and you were upset that he was in pain?
You bit your lip, quietly willing yourself not to cry.
------
Keigo’s mood swings would happen randomly, with no merit at all.
One moment, he was blindly looking at the TV, the next he would be offering to help with dinner, then the next he was screaming at you to add more pepper to the onions.
When his first outburst happened, you blamed yourself.
You had left Keigo for what only seemed like a moment, going outside to feel the air on your face, wanting to just get out of the stuffy little cottage.
You were just watching from the porch when you heard it.
The sound of glass shattering.
You whipped your head to the sound, to find it coming from inside.
You rushed inside, running towards the kitchen.
“Keigo!” you cried out.
You stopped at the doorway to the kitchen, looking down at Keigo on the floor.
A glass of some sort had broken in Keigo’s hand, from what you could tell. It seemed like he had gotten some of it stuck in his hand, blood dripped onto the floor, sticking to the hardwood floor.
Keigo just stared, his eyes the most lively you’ve seen them in weeks. He didn’t say anything, didn’t even acknowledge your presence, just staring at his hand, looking at the blood as it dripped...dripped...dripped.
And then, he screamed.
It was so loud and so unexpected you quickly covered your ears, trying to block out the head-splitting sound.
When you finally regained your composure, you rushed down to Keigo's side, trying your best to help him.
But Keigo shoved you away.
“No! Stop! Go away! I-I don’t wanna hurt anymore! Stop it, leave me alone!” he scooted away from you, holding out his palms, trying to make you leave.
But you wouldn’t.
Slowly, you spoke, “Keigo, I need to help you, ok? I’m not here to hurt you, baby, I’m Y/N, I love you.”
You inched closer and closer as Keigo hiccuped and sniffed.
“Stop it! Don’t c-come any closer!”
You stilled, only for a moment. Then, you moved forward again.
“Honey, I have to clean your wound, please baby.”
Keigo’s breath still raged, but he let you come closer.
Before you even looked at the wound on his hand, you gave him a light kiss on the cheek. Keigo was shocked, flinching a bit at first.
You carefully picked up his hand, observing it lightly. The glass pricked his hand, but the overall damage wasn’t all that bad, it might have been worse if you hadn’t rushed to him.
You took a deep breath, “Keigo, I’m gonna need to remove the glass-”
But Keigo cut you off, “No no no no no, please. Please, I don’t wanna get hurt again. Please.”
“Keigo,” you stroked your cheek lightly, “it’s ok, it’s me, it’s Y/N.”
You purse your lips, thinking for a moment, “Remember when I got that splinter from the hardwood at that crummy hot spring? And remember how you had to pull it out? And remember how scared I was?”
He thought for a moment as if the memory was buried deep inside him, a lifetime ago. He nodded, tears still running down his face.
“It’s gonna be like that, ok? Quick, and I’ll be right there with you, just like you were for me.”
After a moment, Keigo nodded.
You made quick work of the glass, helping Keigo through the little whimpers and hiccups he let out.
Keigo was never like this before, never fighting over glass in his hand, he was a hero, he dealt with pain daily. But this Keigo was beyond damaged. He was ripped in half, put through more pain than you would ever understand, the mental strain of that had to be so much, it had to weigh on him.
The thought only made your resolve stronger, only made your need to see Keigo get better that much more secure.
After you had bandaged his hand, kissing his knuckles and wrist softly in order to calm him down, you noticed how exhausted he was.
“Do you wanna go and take a nap, Kei?”
He nodded.
You walked him to the room, helping him to bed.
You planted a small kiss on his lips before moving away to leave.
But Keigo caught the fabric of your shirt, pulling on it lightly, “Wait.”
You turned back to face him, “Yeah. what's up Kei?”
“Um, could you...join me?”
Your body perked up. This was one of the first times he had seemed...needy for contact with you. Sure, he still slept next to you, but you figured that was mainly due to some comfortability. But the way Keigo was looking at you right now? His eyes softened with desperation, his body, while still heavy with drowsiness, had enough strength to pull you to him. He seemed to genuinely want you to stay.
You smiled, a real, genuine smile, “Of course I can Keigo.”
You slid into the spot next to him, and Keigo had his arms immediately around your waist, pulling you flush against him. His face nuzzled softly into your neck, his whole body trapping you in a needed embrace.
You played with his hair, giving yourself a mental note that you needed to wash it and brush it out later.
That's when you heard the sniffling in your neck.
“Kei,” you said gently, “what’s wrong?”
It took a few labored breaths for Keigo to respond, “I’m sorry.”
At first, you were confused. What did Keigo have to be sorry about? He had done nothing wrong to you, he hadn’t said anything bad to you, the most he had really done was worry you. But he continued.
“I’m sorry for being so weak, for letting myself get like this, it’s all my fault. And I’m sorry I’m a burden for you, I know how much you loved me, how much you loved being with a strong hero,” he took another shaky breath before continuing, “But I can't. I can’t do it anymore. It hurts so bad. And now, no one wants me. I’m a failure, they’re right,” Keigo squeezed you tighter as if you would leave him too, “I’m a false hero. I failed everyone, the commission, my friends, Tokoyami. And you,” he looked back up at you, “why are you even here? I’m useless now, why can’t you see that? Why won’t you just leave? It would be better for you.”
You hadn’t even realized you had been crying before you felt how shaky your voice was, “No. Keigo that’s not true, I love-”
But he cut you off, “No!” he bolted upright, “Stop it! Stop it Y/N! I’m not who you love, that Keigo is dead and gone, look at me! I’m a shell of who he was, I’m the failure he left behind! Christ Y/N, I fucking broke down because I had fucking glass in my hand!”
He cupped his ears, seemingly trying to block out some sort of noise that you couldn’t even hear. Rocking back and forth lightly, his bandaged hand squeezing hard on his left ear.
“Keigo stop it,” you tried to get his hand away, “you're going to hurt yourself!”
After fighting him for a moment, you finally got him to put his hands down. You pulled him to you, placing his head on your chest as you calmed him down.
“Kei,” you said after a long stretch of silence, “I love you, and I’m not leaving you.”
Keigo hiccuped, “B-but.”
You shushed him, “No but’s. I’m here to stay, it’ll be hard, I know that, but I can’t leave you.”
For the first time in God now’s how long, Keigo reached up and kissed you.
It wasn’t a light, small little peck either, it was a sloppy, desired-filled kiss. You were shocked at first, seeing as how he was yelling at you a second ago, but you let yourself indulge a bit. You craved Keigo, missed his lips, his strong, protective hands that run up your body, you just missed him really.
Your hand moved down to his chest, pulling him deeper. His hands grabbed onto your hips, pulling you more in.
His teeth clashed against yours, and maybe it was because you two haven't done this in so long, or it was because neither of you cared.
You couldn’t help but let out a small moan as Keigo pushed more against you, pushing you near the head of the bed.
After a few moments of the kiss, you pulled away.
“Please,” Keigo whispered lightly, “Please don’t leave me.”
------
After that, the situation with you and Keigo became so much more complicated.
Keigo would become so irritable, that you had to stand outside for hours just for him to calm down.
But the worst was when he acted so apologetic afterward, saying his, “I’m sorry”’s over and over again, sputtering about how he would, “do better.”
Of course, you felt like absolute shit, wanting to scream, to cry, to leave even. But you couldn’t. Keigo was in so much pain, you had to be strong now, you had to be there for him like he had been for you. You shoved down your tears, fighting the urge to scream and cry, waiting out your feelings.
Was it a bad coping mechanism? Yes. But you already felt so useless, you didn’t want to be a burden too.
For a while, you had hoped that he would help himself get better, you had hoped that he really was trying to get better and understand how to help himself more, but as time went on, you saw how naive you were.
You realized that Keigo was almost beyond repair, some days he would be silently upset, not talking or saying anything. While others you could hear it in his voice.
While some days you came into your shared room to see him curled up on the bed, crying and whimpering. And then there was you, unable to help, unable to tell him how, “it would be ok,” how, “I’m here for you, Kei.”
Because you knew he wouldn’t listen.
And yet, he would never yell at you, never scream or degrade you, he would only seem to be mad at...himself.
Yet, it was strange, because he seemed to grow more and more protective of you.
If you were to leave the house, he would become upset, saying how; “You could have gotten hurt, next time either take me with you or stay...please.”
It was strange how he always asked, how he never demanded.
But today, today was different.
You had noticed that Keigo was especially irritable, so you decided to just stay out of his way. Deciding to work on meal prep, because of Keigo’s accident the doctors told you to watch his meals carefully, making sure he eats a well-balanced meal each and every day.
Maybe Keigo would calm down, maybe today could still be ok, maybe you could salvage the day and make it a good one.
But that was before the broadcast.
. . .
You were outside that day, watching as the sun showned on the ocean.
You wished silently that Keigo could have enough strength to come out and see it with you. Yet, you didn’t push him.
Keigo, on the other hand, was watching some TV. Well, "watch" was a strong word. Keigo’s eyes were far off again, You never asked him what he was thinking about, but you knew it had to be something but what happened.
As you watch the waves crash against the shore, and the sun slowly sets, that's when it happened.
The broadcast.
At first, the broadcast was only just a news reporter talking about how; “us as a society must look forward, through these dark times.” Talking about the loss of certain Hero’s and civilians alike.
but the segment right after that, that's what sent Hawks into his spiral.
“And now, what has happened to the pro hero known as Hawks? And I posed a question to all of our viewers out there, should he be forgiven? Can a man who ruthlessly killed someone, even a villain, be considered a hero?”
You weren't there when the news reporter posed the question, you were only there for the aftermath.
At first, Keigo was in shock, and then, his outburst happened.
It was the worst outburst since the accident. He was screaming, yelling, hitting anything, he just needed some way to get his anger out.
When you heard the commotion, you immediately ran inside, worried that something may have hurt him. But as you went inside, you realized that there was nothing wrong, at least not from what you could see. But to Keigo, everything was wrong.
When you came in, all you could hear was yelling, “What was it all for?! I just...I just wanted to help!”
You were stunted into silence, only being able to watch from afar.
It was like you couldn’t move, your body glued down to the floor, unable to help Keigo.
And then, he hit the TV, hard.
And that's when you finally spoke.
“Keigo stop!”
You rushed forward, grabbing his arm from hitting the wall.
You latched on to him, “Keigo please, please honey just calm-”
But it was too late, and before you knew what was happening, Keigo had thrown you on the ground.
You landed on your hands, cushioning your fall, but that didn’t mean it hurt.
For a moment, everything was still, everything was silent. Keigo wasn’t yelling, he wasn't screaming, and when you looked back up, the only thing you saw was true horror and guilt.
You panted lightly, your eyes blown wide as you stared back up at Keigo.
“...Y/N-”
What was he to say?
He didn’t know.
“K-Keigo,” you were at a complete loss for words.
After a few more minutes, you stood back up. You took one, shaky breath, before you spoke.
“Keigo, I’m sorry. I-I...I can’t do this right now. It’s just… this is all too much for me right now. I think I need to clear my head.”
You moved past him, not even looking him in the eye. How could you? Your mind was a mess, a thousand thoughts jumbled through your brain.
You opened the door quickly, taking your car keys before you left, refusing to look back.
----
The ocean waves looked stunning in the sunlight, it might have been the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen.
At least, you would have if the tears in your eyes weren’t blocking out your vision.
And your head wouldn’t stop spinning. Was Keigo ok? Should you go back? Could you even go back? What would you even say to him?
No matter how hard you tried to convince yourself that leaving Keigo behind was for the best, that you two just needed to be away from each other, you felt like your heart was being slowly stabbed through with needles, one for every second away.
You sniffed, wiping away your tears with the back of your palm.
There had to be a way Keigo could get better, some way you could help. But every thought eluded you, how could you help someone so far gone?
You thought back to the doctor's suggestion of getting a therapist, maybe it was time. Keigo was getting too out of hand for you, and as much as you loved him, you knew that this was hurting him as much as you.
A sigh escaped your lips, why did this have to be so difficult?
And that thought came to you again.
Why couldn’t he just be himself again?
You shivered at your own selfish, hurtful thoughts. Keigo was still him, he just needed help, and thinking about how much you wanted the old him back wasn’t going to help him or you. And it wasn’t fair either, to expect that after what happened he would just be fine.
You knew you would always be there for him, but you supposed you didn’t think it would be this hard.
You placed your face in your hands.
How the hell could you help him? You felt as though Keigo was on the edge of a mountain, and you were the only thing he could grab onto, but now, he was pulling you down with him.
A small, shaky sigh escaped you.
Crunch, crunch.
Footsteps. Fast approaching, almost running.
You cocked your head up, preparing to be kicked off whoever's land that you were on (considering how you just decided to drive to the middle of nowhere).
“Oh, I’m sorry. I thought that this was public-”
But you stopped mid-sentence.
There stood Keigo, tears streamed down his cheeks, his panting breaths and sweat glistening from his body must have meant he came all the way out here on foot.
Your eyes widened in surprise, but before you could get a word in, Keigo had bent down to you.
“Are you hurt?”
You shook your head, still in shock, “N-no.”
He sighed, but his face concentrated like he was thinking too hard, “I’m sorry.” and then, a long, silent pause, “I don’t...I don’t know what else to say.”
“...I don’t either,” you looked back up at him again. “You could have really hurt me, and I just don’t know how to deal with all this. I don’t know how to deal with...you.”
Keigo flinched, the implications of your words stung.
“It’s just...I want to be there for you, I really do, but it’s so hard,” you looked down tears threatening to escape, “I love you s-so much, b-but,” a silent hiccup went through you, “I don’t know how to help anymore.”
Keigo stayed silent, his words trapped under his tongue. He also didn’t know what to do, he didn’t know what to say. He wanted to help himself too, but he knew deep down he couldn’t. He didn’t know how. But he hated what he was doing to you, he hated what he was making you go through.
“Keigo,” he looked back up at you, “Do you still love me?”
Keigo stared wide-eyed back to you, his words at a loss. “I- of course, I do Y/N-”
“Then why don’t you say it?”
He paused, “...What do you mean?”
You sighed, “Have you noticed that ever since what happened, you’ve not been able to say ‘I love you,' to me? Because I have. Each morning I wake up, and I always say, ‘good morning Kei, I love you,’ and you never say it back. It feels like I’m just invisible to you. I don’t want to look at you as something to fix, or as something to make me feel miserable, but I can’t live with someone who just sees me like a ghost.”
It took a while before Keigo finally responded.
“I don’t see you as a ghost,” he said, his voice as low as a whisper, “it’s that I see me as the ghost. I lost...I lost a big part of me in that fight.”
Subconsciously, he reaches back to his used-to-be wings, his fingers flinching when nothing is there.
“Keigo, you are not your wings.”
“How can you say that when everything I was...was built off of them?”
You leaned forward, a hand placed lightly on his cheek, “Your wings did not build our relationship, we did. And we still have each other. Your wings were never the reason I loved you, your wings were always just a part of you, they were never you.”
Keigo looked back at you, placing a hand on top of yours. After a few, dragged-out moments, Keigo leaned into you. But not before whispering lightly on your lips, “I do love you, Y/N.”
. . .
Things were hard, but they were better.
It had been three weeks since the accident that happened with you and Keigo. He agreed to go to a therapist, after what happened with you two, he wanted to get help.
What neither you nor he expected though, was for his therapist to also recommend you get help as well.
In his words; “After understanding the stress that Mr. Takami has gone through, as well the details that he has shared with me, I believe that it is necessary for you to also have some sort of mental treatment. Keigo was not in the right state of mind for a very long time, and you were the only person here to look after him. I believe you first need to talk about your problems separately and then move on to couples therapy. Some of the actions Mr. Takami has put you through may have had negative effects on your psyche.”
Although that was a shock to you, Keigo visibly became more saddened after that.
After the conversation with the therapist, Keigo even offered to move out of your shared room.
“If- if you’re uncomfortable with me being here, I can take the spare room.”
You only shook your head no, saying, “I’m not uncomfortable sleeping next to you, Kei, we’re in this together.”
And you were.
Keigo went to his therapist, as did you. At first, you weren’t sure, seeing as Keigo and you would see the same person and how that may make a conflict of interest, but he assured you that Keigo dealt with trauma relating to his fight, as did you of course, but your trauma and anxiety was more based upon him.
So, you made it work.
After a while of one-on-one counseling, you moved to couples therapy.
It was hard, mostly for Keigo, because he didn’t want to admit to himself, or you, that he had hurt you as much as he did.
So, you opened first.
You talked about how scared you were of losing Keigo, not just physically but mentally, how it hurt you that some days he wouldn’t talk to you. You even opened up about missing the old him.
It seemed like when you first opened your mouth, everything just came pouring out.
And so, after you explained your side, slowly, Keigo started to explain his.
He explained how he didn’t want to hurt you, but how he just couldn’t help himself in that moment. He felt like everyone was turning on him, abandoning him, he thought it was only a matter of time before you. And he couldn’t handle how that thought chased him, his mind just became so jumbled and uncertain.
But he wanted to get better, to show you the man you deserved.
Soon, you came to realize how your relationship would never be the same since that day, how you had lost a part of Keigo, and how Keigo had lost a part of himself. And that part, that part split you two, like a deep cut, and now you two had to sew it back together, and you both knew it would be hard.
Losing that part of your life took time, it took practice and understanding, it took watching Keigo wake up in a nightmare, watching as he screamed and all you could do was hush him and stroke his cheek softly as you told him how you were there, even as tears slipped down your cheeks as well.
But you let them, you let yourself show him that you were sharing the pain, that you were together in this.
Keigo was hurting, you knew that, but as your therapist told you; “You are grieving, grieving for that Keigo that died in that battle, and not only are you grieving, you are also trying your best to take care of someone who was already so broken that now they might as well be shards of the vase they once were.”
But that didn’t stop you from explaining how you felt selfish and terrible, how you felt like you were a bad person for feeling upset, for wanting Keigo to go back to you.
After each therapy session, you two would go out and sit on the porch, not doing or saying anything, because you both realized you had said plenty before.
. . .
After a year since then, things had gotten significantly better.
Keigo and you understood the inner workings of your relationship, not only that, you both understand each other a lot better. Understanding how you both needed one another, how you two could only grow to help each other.
Almost a year has passed since the incident with Dabi, a year since Keigo “lost” his wings.
But his wings were back, and he was back.
Although, maybe not fully.
Keigo was almost like a different vision of himself, a more, down to earth, real version of who he was.
Maybe, it was the person he always was, but just never could show it.
With you, he was the most caring he’s ever been.
Watching as you fell asleep in his arms, creasing your body oh-so-perfectly as he kissed you deeply, his sing-song praises in your ear. He loved you so much.
And you, you helped him grow as well. Being there for him, watching him, helping him.
You never left him, you carried out your promise to yourself, keeping him with you no matter what. You loved him so much, and you were so happy to see how he healed.
And here you both were, Watching as the sunset, as the ocean waves tied down, the sun Illuminating the water passing over.
You watched as Keigo’s eyes lit up in the bright light, his scar’s still reflecting the hard past that he's been through, and yet, reminding you how lucky you are.
At that moment you leaned in, giving him a light peck on his cheek.
Keigo turned to you, before laughing, “Why did you do that?"
"Because... I just realized how lucky I am to have you. Thank you, Keigo.”
"There's no need to thank me, dove," he said, kissing you as well "I'll always love you, and I always will be thankful that I have you as well."
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theamberwriter · 4 years ago
Text
Always Be My Hero [Pro! Eijiro Kirishima]
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A/N: I read THIS by @dreamy-writings and was inspired to write this, lol
Warning: Angst, cursing
Pair: Pro Hero! Eijiro Kirishima x gn! Reader
Word Count: 1.6k+
*~*~*~
"Oi, you need to talk to shitty hair," Katsuki snapped, throwing a bunch of flowers on your bed.
Mina sat on the edge of the mattress, took your shoulders in her hands, and gently shook you. "Please, [Name], Eijiro has gone off the deep end."
"I'm sure just Ei is just a little stressed," you tried to sound soothing. "He's been working a lot -"
"We wouldn't be here if we didn't think it was serious," Denki urged.
"He's going to hurt himself," Katsuki growled. "Don't need both you idiots out of commission."
"We know, after everything, we shouldn't be bothering your healing time. But…. Eijiro needs you." Mina hung her head in defeat. 
Just what was going on? When your fiance was home, he was as cheery and bright as you'd always known him. Was he different at work? With his friends?
"Shitty Hair thinks this -" Katsuki gestured to your broken arm and leg, the bandages around your head, your sprained ankle and broken ribs, the numerous bumps and bruises, the multiple hairline fractures and surgery incisions, and the antibiotic drip the hospital sent you home with. "Is some how all his fucking fault. That damn idiot won't listen to us! He's been working the hell out of himself. Spends hours beating himself up."
You felt like you cracked in half. Like a bit of you shattered. Not the ones from being thrown into buildings and trampled on by a giant villain. But deep down in an untouchable place. You felt like you broke apart. 
Knowing you caused your beloved so much anxiety and stress had boiled up in him. Maybe you should've seen it. But he was just so happy. Glued to your side, helping you bathe, helping you get to the bathroom, changing the bandages on your head - assuring that he still thought you extremely attractive, even though you were going to have a hell of a scar going from the middle of your hairline down under your left ear. He was always smiling and joking when he was with you.
"The wheelchair they gave me is in the closet," you muttered, eyes on where your hands were balled around the blankets. You had to be strong. Normally, Eijiro was your rock. Now the tables had turned.
Mina pulled out the wheelchair while Denki and Katsuki helped get you out of bed. Luckily you'd asked Eijiro to help you into sweatpants and a decent t-shirt before he left for work. You asked for one of your shoes to put on your uncasted foot (which was wrapped in an ace bandage instead). Then unhooked the IV and pinched the line. The bag was nearly done anyway.
"I'm ready when you all are," you muttered. A silent tremor passed through the room. Then you all were out the door.
In his agency training facility, Eijiro was giving all he had to a punching bag. Sweat poured from the hardened ridges in his skin. He felt the solid bag meet his fists, but none of it was satisfying. None of the hits eased the guilt.
No amount of punching had shaken away the image plaguing his mind. You lying in bed, barely seeming to hold on. The doctors said you had internal bleeding, a concussion, then listed off all the broken parts. A bit of himself broke with each word.
Eijiro had bawled hysterically when the doctors left and he was alone with your unconscious body. He gripped your hand, begging to anyone who would hear him. Asking them to let you pull through. That, in exchange, he'd get stronger. No matter the cost.
Eijiro was determined to keep your spirits up. To not let you know how much he'd been suffering. You couldn't imagine the wells that wanted to overflow the first time your eyes opened. The first kiss you gave him after waking up. He felt like bursting, you'd been returned to him.
In exchange, he'd train himself raw. He'd push himself past his limit. It didn't matter what Katsuki, or Tamaki, or even Fat Gum had to say. Eijiro was going to protect you next time. For now he'd train. Then go back to you at the end of the day with a smile, no matter how much he hurt or how tired he was. Coming home to you, hooked to an IV and barely able to move around the house - that image drove him.
Eijiro had been so excited to have you home. But every time he looked too long at your casted arm, or uncovered the puckered gouge on your head. Everything reminded him he hadn't been there to help. To save you. Deku had been, he lifted that gargantuan off you like a pillow. Eijiro didn't think he'd ever have been able to do that. So he was going to train until he could.
You hadn't complained once since you'd been home. Only grateful when you'd gone out a few days after to greet your fans. There were so many who thanked you for saving them. Each felt like a bit of a hit to him. You'd saved all those people and he didn't even manage to save you. Was he truly a hero if he couldn't protect those he cared about?
It didn't matter to him that he was a five hour plane ride away when it all happened. Eijiro had gone to do some publicity stuff with other heroes. He had to hear it from an insensitive reporter who asked how he felt knowing his fiance was in the hospital. But he hadn't. He didn't know. His fellow heroes outraged at the question and Eijiro was on a plane back to you within the hour.
He swore he'd be there next time. That he'd never let anything like this happen again. Eijiro had gone in the plane bathroom and had a good deep cry a few times. When he saw the videos, read the articles, saw all the people asking Where was Red Riot? He hadn't been there. He'd let down the one person he never wanted to. It broke his heart into a million bits. He didn't think he'd ever be able to repair himself.
Eijiro cried as he punched. No one would be able to tell through the sweat. But each and every punch got harder, and so too did his tears.
Pitying looks were passed your way as Katsuki pushed you through Eijiro's agency. You stopped in briefly to talk to Fat Gum. He looked so put out and desperate. He said he'd tried everything. But everyday, Eijiro had been in the facility's gym. Working himself until he bled or passed out. 
Katsuki pushed you, Mina and Denki in tow, down the halls to the gym. You heard the blunt hits long before you saw the doors. Each one grating into your mind. You were never going to forget the hot guilt that bit at you with each thud.
Katsuki pushed you to the gym door way. It was empty, except where your beloved stood hardened to the max, shirtless. You saw a bit of blood dripping from his back. The punching bag was losing sand and stuffing. A defeated one laid in a lump on the floor already. You watched a long minute. Then you realized each grunt turned more into a cry or a wail.
You turned to Denki, and held out your hand. He gave you the crunch he'd been carrying. Luckily the arm and the leg you'd broken were on the opposite sides of your body. You hauled yourself up, your friends helped steady you. Then you limped your way across the gym. Finally, you came into view in the mirror in front of him.
A few spots on Eijiro's face were bleeding. His eyes were blown out. His features scrunched up in….there wasn't a word strong enough to explain the pain. The anguish. The despair. His eyes met yours and, all at once, he broke down. 
Eijiro collapsed to his knees. His quirk finally releasing him. Sobs still wracked his shoulders, they shook violently. But his sobs were silent now. Though you didn't miss the tears that dripped onto the floor.
"Eiji," you cooed and lowered yourself to the floor.
He shook his head. "You….sh-should be-e….hom-m-me. He-healing."
"You need me more." You put a hand on his shoulder. Eijiro latched on to you. You didn't care about the blood, sweat, or tears, or how much sitting that way hurt. You just needed to get him to breathe now.
"I -" he hacked. "I'm not strong enough. I'm not….I'm not manly enough. Even now. What if you get hurt again - or worse? Because I couldn't….I can't…."
You shook your head and kissed his damp hair. "Eijiro - honey, listen to me, it wasn't your fault. Really. This was me being overconfident. It was my own fault. You're an amazing hero. Thousands of people look up to you. You have to stop beating yourself up. You're being the best hero you can be. And I love you for every bit of who you are. No matter what happens to me, you'll always be my number one hero."
Eijiro sobbed harder, gripping you closer. You didn't complain at the protesting throbs of pain screaming all over your body. You sat a while longer. When he was finally feeling better, he carried you back to your chair. Then he took a quick rinse in the shower before pushing you home. Your friends had prepared everything for a movie night when you got back; movies, drinks, takeout. 
You could see the relief in their faces.
You still caught him giving you long, guilty glances. You would only lean over and kiss the look away. But you could never know the weight of what you said. He wanted to eat, sleep, live, and breathe by that creed.
You'll always be my hero.
~
421 notes · View notes
ellewritesathing · 5 years ago
Text
Infernal  -  IV
Summary: In your sleepy little town of Greendale, nothing ever slept for long. And ever since October, everything felt like it was waking up. Everything except for you, that is. One teensy trip to Hell (and an infuriatingly cute guy) later and suddenly you felt wide awake.
Word-count: 5.5k+
Masterlist Prev. | Part 4
A/N: okay okay i know you guys hate cliffhangers and i’m sorry!! hopefully this makes up for it tho 👀👀 also i’m working on some other caliban fics to post once this series is over, would you guys still like to be tagged in those??
tumblr’s formatting has been shit these past few days as well, and i think i’ve gotten most of it ironed out but let me know if there’s anything i missed!
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“When she comes back to life, she won’t be scarred, will she?” Harvey asked. His voice was still full of concern, but it was softer now. A quiet kind of anxiety.
“She will not,” Caliban said. 
“Oh, that’s a relief,” Sabrina breathed. 
You had to admit, looking at Roz all broken and put back together again was unsettling. Not any more unsettling than finding out your mom was a demon and your dad was a psychic (maybe?), but unsettling nonetheless. 
“What do we do now?” you asked, arms folded over your chest and leg bouncing to distract from how uncomfortable you felt. 
“You say the spell, but first, you make your offering,” Caliban explained. Eyes rolling over from Sabrina to you. He seemed to zero-in on your nerves like a hawk would a field mouse. 
“To whom?” Sabrina asked. 
“Aphrodite or Eros,” Caliban said. 
“What am I offering?” Harvey asked. 
“Your love for Rosalind,” Caliban said. “Give it up, and she’ll be restored to flesh.”
“Give it up? What are you talking about?” Harvey asked.
“Aphrodite is the goddess of love,” Caliban said. “She’ll grant your wish, but demands your heart’s desire: Rosalind.” He looked down at the statue of your friend. “Vow to forsake your truest love, then to complete the spell … kiss her. She’ll restore to flesh once more. But if you betray your vow - if you kiss her again - she’ll return to stone and will remain that way until the end of days.”
“Wait, no! Harvey, there has to be some other kind of offering,” Sabrina said, reaching out to comfort him. 
“It’s a Pygmalion spell,” you said. Your voice was still full of anger, so you made a conscious effort to soften it. Taking a breath, you went on, “The myth is that to bring his statue to life, he gave up sculpting. His true love. So there isn’t really a way around that.”
“Exactly,” Caliban said. You hadn’t met his gaze when he cataloged your unease before, but now you accidentally caught his eye. Your leg stopped bouncing. Your anger flickered for a moment. “Love for life.” 
“I’ll do it,” Harvey said, not leaving any room to talk him out of it. He walked towards Caliban and took the paper from his hand. 
“Say the words to Aphrodite and give her a kiss,” Caliban said. 
Harvey knelt down and said some heartbreaking words that you wished you hadn’t overheard before saying the spell written on the piece of paper. He gave her a kiss but nothing changed. She was still stone.
“Nothing happened!” he said, looking up. 
“Caliban?” Sabrina asked, sounding equal parts accusatory and panicked.
“His offering was rejected,” Caliban said.
“What does that mean?” Harvey asked. “Why?” 
“You must not truly love her,” Caliban said, like it was obvious. Unexpected, tragic, but obvious. 
“That’s bullshit!” Harvey got to his feet, squaring up in front of Caliban. 
“Oh, crap,” you mumbled as you uncrossed your arms and moved around Roz to get to Harvey. You slipped your hands around his arm but it didn’t stop him from simmering in place. “Harvey, calm down.”
“Aphrodite would only accept your heart’s true desire,” Caliban said, either unbothered by Harvey’s anger or uncaring toward it. Still, he pushed. “That must not be Rosalind. Must be something or someone else.”
“Shut the hell up!” Harvey yelled as he slipped out of your hands. In one quick motion, he grabbed the collar of Caliban’s shirt and threw him against the wall. 
“Harvey, enough!” you yelled. You maneuvered your way between them and outstretched your hands, one palm splayed on Caliban’s yellow t-shirt and your other fingers pointing dangerously at Harvey as Sabrina pulled him a few feet back. 
“What does he know? Him and his bullshit spell,” Harvey spat. “How do we know if any of this is real?”
“Why would I lie?” Caliban asked. His heartbeat was slow and steady under your hand, more interested in your intervention than Harvey’s outburst. 
“Harvey,” you warned before he could say anything else. Sabrina’s attention slipped for a second and Harvey’s hand got free. He got ready to aim it at Caliban. Your voice was sharp as knives and twice as deadly as you snapped, “Harvey, drop it.” 
He looked at you for a second before unclenching his fist. The frown on his face deepened as he collected himself. Sure, you picked on him the most out of your friends, but you were always the first one on his side in a fight. You weren’t sure if your shifting alliance was making him frown or the fact that he’d actually listened to you. 
“I should kick your ass,” Harvey mumbled, looking over your head to Caliban again. 
“Try it again and I’ll grind every bone in your body to sand,” Caliban said, tone back to being vaguely threatening and unhelpful as he straightened up under your hand. 
You pushed him back slightly and turned to tell him to knock it off, but Sabrina’s voice stopped you. “Tell us what, Robin?” she asked, clearly having a conversation that you weren’t listening to. 
“Among the pagans, there’s that witch, Circe,” Robin explained. “The one that turned your friends into pigs? She has powerful magicks of transformation. She could turn your friend back into flesh.”
“For someone who’s trying to earn our trust, why would you only tell us this now?” Sabrina asked. 
The lull in arguing made you very aware of how close you still were to Caliban. His heart continued to beat faithfully under your palm as yours rose in your chest. Taking a breath and a step back, you reached for Harvey’s hand in an attempt to put some distance between the two of you. Caliban gave you a curious look as your hand laced into Harvey’s, tilting his head to the side ever so slightly.
“No, it’s too dangerous,” Robin said, snapping you out of your thoughts. “I mean, Circe’s power resides in her hands. All she’d have to do is touch you, and she could turn you into any creature she’s ever seen before. And without magick, you’re no match against her.”
“I don’t have magick, it’s true,” Sabrina said. “But I know where I can borrow some.” 
She told you about the hedge-witches and her plan to borrow their magic in order to attack the Carnival and bring Circe to the Academy. That way, she could fix Dorcas and Roz. How she was going to convince them to help her, you weren’t sure. You were tired of placing faith in people that didn’t deserve it.
“Okay, but I’m still going to look some stuff up,” you said when she was done. She gave you a hurt look as she readied herself to argue. “Brina, it’s not that I don’t think you can do this, but I don’t like putting all our hope in this one plan. That hasn’t really been working out for us lately.” 
“Fair enough,” Sabrina said with a small sigh. “Ambrose is busy but you can look in the Academy’s library as much as you want.”  
“Hell’s library is endless,” Caliban said, still leaning on the wall where you’d left him. He’d been so quiet that you’d almost forgotten he was there. Almost. “It’s knowledge is infinite. If there’s another way to return Rosalind to flesh, it’s in there. Not in some coven book club.” 
“You’re inviting me to Hell?” you asked. Your voice betrayed you by sounding too interested.
“Only if my queen allows it,” Caliban said, gaze moving to Sabrina. His voice didn’t. 
Looking next to you, you found Sabrina pulling a face. She didn’t like Hell at the best of times, and you doubted this qualified. “You’ll protect her from whatever’s down there?” 
“As if my life depends on it,” Caliban promised. 
“Oh, it does,” Sabrina said before turning to look at you. She cupped your hands in hers before giving you a warning. “Be careful and don’t listen to a word he says.” 
“Trust me, that’s not gonna be a problem,” you said with a sigh as you looked over to Caliban. He wore an amused smirk as he held his hand out to you. 
“Shall we?” 
Against your better judgment, you put your hand in his. It was warm, hard in some places and soft in others, and the only thing you focused on as the hellfire burned the edges of vision and the world gave way beneath you. 
--- 
“You know, this would go a lot quicker if you helped instead of just looking at me like that,” you said, not looking up from the millionth book you’d taken out that night. 
But he wasn’t looking. He was studying you under a microscope and you were trying not to squirm. Curious.
When you’d gotten here, the first few minutes had been painful retching - hell was not made for humans. Then they were nervous butterflies and shaky hands - you were not made for the attention Caliban gave you. Then they were frantic sprints from shelf to shelf - hell’s library was not made for someone with a very specific problem.
“I’m admiring,” Caliban corrected, leaning closer in his chair. “For instance, did you know that when you’re focused, your forehead creases right there?” He touched the spot between your eyes, just next to your eyebrow. “Exactly like it’s doing now.” 
You took a breath and slammed the book shut on the table, turning to give him a harsh look. “Did you know that when I’m annoyed, I have a nasty habit of choking nearby demons?” 
“Is that a promise?” he asked, not having moved an inch from where he leaned in to touch your face. The two of you were so close now that it felt like there wasn’t enough air. His eyes dropped to your lips. A second passed and all he did was shake his head and collapse back in his chair. “The Pygmalion spell had the greatest chance of curing your friend, any of the spells we find now are likely to be too obscure to hold any practical weight.” 
“Then why did you bring me here?” you asked, actively trying to put out the fire inside you and not be the first to look away. 
“I have to admit that my motives were purely self-serving,” Caliban said as he stretched out, hands interlacing behind his head and elbows spread wide. “I wanted to spend some time with the person who risks not one, but two trips to Hell for her friends. Is that such a problem?” 
“Considering you want to dethrone my best friend and enslave everyone I’ve ever met, I’m going to go with yes,” you said. You didn’t think that you could take him looking at you like that any longer, so you started piling books together to shelve later. A petty defeat. 
“What if that was something I no longer wanted to do?” Caliban asked, sounding genuinely interested in your answer. 
“You’d forfeit your claim to be king?” you asked, hands frozen in the air over a book of ancient curses.
“Hardly,” Caliban scoffed. You shook your head, telling yourself that you knew better, and kept piling up books. “But I’d be a more benevolent ruler.” 
Disappointment warped into anger again. Your shoulders bunched up as you turned to him, and you tugged them back down as you threw the books in your hand back onto the table. “Yeah, of course, you think that’s better. That it makes all this better! You know, that’s your problem. You and Harvey are the exact same, you know that? You’re both so full of-” 
“Shh.” Caliban raised a finger to his lips, looking around, which only made you angrier. Screw him for thinking he could tell you what to do. You were about to start snapping at him again when he whispered, “There’s something in here with us.” 
Your arms fell back to your sides as you quieted down. You couldn’t see anything as you looked around the room, but the shadows seemed to grow darker. Darker and darker. They swirled into unnatural shapes as something rasped around you, wind blowing the pages back and forth on the table in front of you.
A plague upon all mortals who enter Hell.
It wasn’t so much spoken as it was whispered directly into your head, rattling around angrily as it ransacked your skull. 
Death to the daughter of the winged and taloned demon of the night. 
Caliban grabbed your hand so quickly that you barely had time to process the words he muttered furiously as the shadows crept closer. He pressed his other hand to the open book on the table as he finished and everything melted into a familiar white light. 
You were retching on the edge of a forest by the time your sight came back again. Clutching onto Caliban’s yellow t-shirt to keep your balance, you tried to stand up straight again. 
“What the hell was that?” you asked, still out of breath as you frowned at your surroundings. You didn’t recognize any of the trees or the way the land crested and fell to knit together. “And where are we?” 
“Those were the wraiths of reapers,” Caliban said. He held onto your arms to keep you upright as he assessed the forest in front of you. He looked back down at you, a little more coldly than you were used to. “I told you that day on the shores to be careful in Hell or you’d draw something out.” 
“It’s not like I was trying to!” you snapped, anger giving you the strength to push him away and stand on your own. You shot him a glare and crossed your arms over your chest. 
“Could have fooled me,” he said. Anger tinged his words and you pulled back slightly. Cold was one thing but anger was another. “With such a dark cloud around you, it’s amazing you didn’t call the hounds themselves on us.” 
“Okay, you know what, why don’t you just-” A sharp pain shot through your head and your threat died on your lips. You took a breath and rubbed your face. Humans weren’t made for back-to-back teleporting. But you weren’t human anymore, were you? “Let’s just try to get out of here in one piece, alright? Now, where exactly is here?”
Caliban clenched his jaw and his gaze flicked back to the forest before settling on you again. “When the wraiths appeared, the quickest way to get out of here was to place us in the safe haven of the spellbook. The only problem is that with all the wind … I'm not sure where we ended up.”
“Well, what was the book about?” you asked, shifting your weight from foot to foot as you looked around the forest. You couldn’t tell if the forest felt wrong because something was off or because of how things were between you and Caliban.
“Petrifaction in Greek myths,” Caliban answered. “So chances are we’re either in the myth of Pygmalion-”
“Or Medusa?” you guessed, eyes settling on his. He nodded and you bit the inside of your cheek. “So how do we get out of here?”
“We wait for the story to run its course,” he said. “We don’t have to get involved?” you asked hesitantly. He shook his head and a knot in your upper back untangled. You could get out of this safely as long as you let Medusa turn some long-dead people to stone. It felt too easy. “Then let’s find a place to wait this out.”
You chose a direction and started walking, part of you waiting for Caliban to say something and another relieved that he was letting you walk in silence. It gave you the chance to think about everything Lilith told you earlier.
“The cloud is starting to come back,” Caliban warned after maybe an hour of walking. “Are you going to tell me about what’s bothering you or are we going to wait and see what comes out of these woods?”
“I’ll take my chances with the wolves,” you said, looking at him over your shoulder. He cut the nonchalant smile you threw at him in half.
“No.” Caliban caught your arm before you could swing it back around and then stopped walking. “We’ve got nowhere else to hide if something comes after us.”
Maybe it was his steely resolve or the fact that he actually did seem concerned under that well-worn apathetic safety blanket of an expression, but you felt some part of you cave. You couldn’t tell him about Lilith - you couldn’t tell anyone about Lilith - but maybe you could talk about something else. 
“What did you talk to Sabrina about when you went to Hell?” Caliban leaned back slightly and frowned for a second before recovering. 
“That’s what this is about?” he asked. He must have realised that his voice came out too gently because then he added, “It almost sounds like you’re jealous, love.” 
“I knew this was pointless,” you scoffed, looking him dead in the eye as you pulled your arm back. “And I’m not jealous, by the way, I’m frustrated.” 
“Sexually?” You rolled your eyes and ignored the heat in your cheeks as you started walking again. A pretty trainwreck was still a trainwreck, and you had no desire to buy a ticket to ruin. Well, you had a little desire, but you stomped it down. 
“I asked her to marry me.” 
You stopped dead in your tracks, but you didn’t turn back to look at him. 
“The challenges would end, balance would be restored.” The undergrowth crunched as he closed the distance between you, slowly and deliberately. “We’d wipe out the pagans and your life would go back to the way it was.” 
A final crunch as he stopped next to you - waiting for you to say something, probably - and lifted a hand to move the hair off your neck. Slow, deliberate sparks skated across your neck where his fingers touched. If he saw the necklace, he didn’t say anything. 
“That is still what you want, isn’t it?” You turned to look at him, accidentally making his hand cup your neck in the process, and said in your well-worn apathetic security blanket of a voice, “Let’s find shelter before the sun sets.” 
Something flashed across his face, but all Caliban did was take a step back and let his hand fall to his side. “As you wish.”  
He was infuriating. 
After what felt like another eternity of walking, Caliban stopped, holding a finger to his lips. It sent shivers down your spine, reminding you of when he did the same thing in Hell’s Library. He nodded his head to the man on the other side of the lake. 
Caliban dropped his head to whisper in your ear, “You were right about being in the tale of Medusa, but we were wrong about which part that is.”
“So where are we?” you asked quietly, doing your best to keep focused on the fact that he wanted to marry your best friend and not on the fact that his lips were dangerously close to your face. 
“Just before the end. Where Perseus slays her and returns a god among men,” Caliban said, turning his head to look at you. So close. 
“What?” you whisper-yelled, moving back in the process to look at the guy across the lake. There was no way that guy, with armor too big for him who still hadn’t noticed your presence, was going to slay Medusa. Caliban rolled his eyes at the dramatics of your outburst. “We can’t let him kill her.”
“Why not?” he asked. “The sooner it happens, the sooner I get back to Hell and you get back to your friends.”
“Because she didn’t deserve this. Any of this.” You gestured vaguely at the forest she’d been exiled to. “Poseidon was the one who raped her in Athena’s temple, but Medusa was the one who got cursed while he just got to go back to surfing or whatever the hell it is he does.” You shook your head. “We’re stopping this.”
“Y/N,” Caliban warned. “Messing with time is a dangerous thing.”
The warning was earnest enough, but that didn’t stop you from leaning in and giving him a once over before saying in a low voice, “I thought you had an affinity for dangerous things.” 
He seemed dismayed for a moment. Clearly, whatever he expected you to say wasn’t nearly as manipulative as it had been, and you couldn’t tell if he was impressed or betrayed by the change of heart. 
“If we intervene-” his voice was soft, like he was trying on a new way of talking to you “-we may be stuck in this time forever. Is that a risk you’re willing to take?” 
You didn’t know how to answer, but something in your face must have indicated that you were on board with the risk because Caliban took a breath and continued. 
“You need to do everything I say, and you can’t go off on your own. Understand?” 
“Don’t step off the road, got it.” 
Caliban looked at you with another inexplicable expression - maybe because you wanted to intervene, maybe because you were echoing words from the first conversations you’d ever shared - before heading off in the direction of the soldier. 
“Excuse me, traveler.” His voice boomed in the near-silent forest and you held your breath. “My betrothed and I seem to be lost. Could you spare a moment to guide us out of this infernal wood?” 
Perseus straightened as Caliban spoke, the mental assessment of the situation clear on his face. You shrunk behind Caliban, trying to hide your jeans and sweatshirt and anything else that didn’t belong in this time period behind his jeans and t-shirt and anything else that didn’t belong in this time period. But everything about Caliban fit, no matter where (or when) he was.
“Afraid not, sir,” he said, deciding that the oddness of your appearance wasn’t worth the risk. “I’m on a predestined quest. Best of luck on your travels.” 
Perseus started collecting his things to walk away but Caliban leaned down and put out a hand, careful not to make physical contact with him. While Perseus focused on the outstretched hand, Caliban touched the helmet on the ground with his other hand. “Tell us about your quest, soldier.” 
“The demon Medusa has nested in these woods. I’ve been tasked with hunting her down by the gods,” Perseus said. His face was set in a hard line, his knuckles white around the satchel in his hand. 
“Surely there have been others who’ve tried to slay the Gorgon,” Caliban said, laying on the demonic charm like only a boy with his bone structure could. 
“None like me,” Perseus said with a knowing smile. “Now, I’ll be on my way. Careful through the woods.” 
“Of course,” Caliban said, taking a step back and holding both hands palm-up to show he meant no harm. 
Though you couldn’t see it from behind his back, you knew he was giving Perseus that smile that meant he knew something the receiver didn’t. Neither of you moved as Perseus shouldered his belongings and disappeared into the trees. 
You smacked his arm lightly as Caliban turned to look at you again. “What was that?” you whispered angrily. “That wasn’t stopping him!” 
“You’ll remember Perseus was given three gifts to complete his quest,” Caliban said, in a way that (correctly) implied that you didn’t remember. “That was stealing the most important one.” He closed his eyes and held out his hands. When he opened them again, there was Perseus’ banged up helmet. “Hades’ helm of invisibility.”
“Now what?” you asked, voice quiet. The anger had completely dissipated from your voice; it had to or it would break whatever held the helmet together. 
Caliban smiled at you as he lifted the helmet over your head. He eased it down slowly, making a clear attempt not to tug at your hair. “Now we follow him straight to the Gorgon.”
---
Even though he seemed very sure of himself, you weren’t entirely sure Caliban knew what he was doing. He kept checking over his shoulder to make sure you were still there but he was met with the emptiness of the forest instead. After the first two attempts to see where you were, you reached out and curled your fingers around his to let him know you were right there. 
There. Now we won’t look suspicious.
I’m afraid that ship has sailed, love.
Then he stopped walking and raised a finger to his lips, a gesture you were slowly starting to find more endearing than annoying. “Perseus has reached the mouth of the cave,” he whispered. “Stay here and I’ll put an end to this.” 
“How will you stop him on your own?” you asked, tightening your grip on his hand when he tried to slip out of your grasp. 
“You almost sound concerned,” Caliban said, annoying smile forming on his face again as he tilted his head. You were glad he couldn’t see you blush under the helmet. “Have faith, love, I’ll be back soon.” 
If you didn’t let him leave now, you’d never live it down. Hesitantly, you let go of his hand and watched him start towards the cave, wringing out your hands as you did. How were you supposed to wait here when rule number one was to stay together? 
Technically, you thought to yourself, rule number one was to do as Caliban said, but that was never going to happen and you both knew it. Deciding that not splitting up was more important, you started following after him before you lost your nerve. 
When you eventually made it to the cave, you found Caliban and Perseus in the middle of a fistfight. Caliban dodged a blow from the sword, but it left him open to Perseus’ attack with his shield. 
“Yield, heretic!” Perseus yelled as he knocked Caliban to the floor. 
“Oh, piss off,” Caliban spat, clearly unconcerned about the sword aimed at his chest as he started pushing himself to his feet. 
You, however, were very concerned that Perseus looked ready to run him through, so you rushed forward and slammed his arm with your elbow. You managed to knock the sword out of his grip. He didn’t seem to process it for a second, but then he growled, “That helmet belongs to me, thief.” 
Perseus lunged at you, and you were caught off-guard by the accuracy of his attack. He grabbed you by the throat and had you pinned against the wall. Only a few seconds passed while he strangled the life out of you, but they were a few too many before Caliban skewered Perseus with his own sword. 
He choked out a few asphyxiated words as he dropped his hands to look at his wound, and you used his surprise to headbutt him into next week. 
“Ow!” you whined, shaking your head as Perseus fell to the ground. “I thought the helmet was supposed to protect my head.” 
“Helmets forged during the Titanomachy are hardly foolproof,” Caliban said, stepping over Perseus’ body to check on you. Or at least, where he thought you were.
He was a few inches off, and your heart melted at his attempt to touch the empty air. Lifting your hands to his, you guided him to the side of the helmet. He slipped it off gently and his bloody face broke into a smile when his eyes met yours. 
“Thanks for not letting him kill her,” you said quietly. 
A voice in your head politely reminded you that Sabrina hated him.
“Thanks for not listening to me,” Caliban said. 
You reminded the voice that Sabrina wasn’t here right now.
There was a moment where the two of you held the helm between you in silence, hands on fire at the touch. A moment where your heart raced and you hoped he’d do something more - where you thought he’d kiss you - but it disappeared as soon as the hissing started. 
“Perseus lives,” a woman said as she stepped out from the darkness of the cave. There was something in her voice that you couldn’t place. “Despite your best effort, Prince of Clay.” 
“Those really weren’t my best efforts,” Caliban said, lifting the helmet so quickly that your hands were still frozen in front of you as he set it back on your head. He shut his eyes once he was sure you were invisible.
“How noble. If I can’t see her, then I can’t turn her to stone,” Medusa cooed. You turned to look at her, praying that she was right and you wouldn’t turn into a statue. She was beautiful; soft, olive skin and round brown eyes, delicate hands and a striking face. The snakes in her hair seemed to think she was pretty, too. “But I can see you.” 
“We mean you no harm,” Caliban said. There wasn’t quite fear in his voice, but there was clear apprehension. “Perseus will rot if not treated and his quest will die with him.” 
“No, it won’t,” Medusa said. That’s when you realized what was in her voice: sadness. “There will be Perseuses as long as I petrify the ones I love. You’ve delayed this one but you haven’t stopped my fate, and you’ll be here for as long as it takes.”  
“So what do you want us to do?” Caliban asked. He opened his eyes to look the spot you were supposed to be, to make sure that you knew he was asking you, even if he spoke to Medusa. Your voice caught in your throat. “Do we go free? Leave the woods and start new lives - together?” 
Medusa was close enough to you now that she reached out a perfect hand and ran a finger along his jaw. “To return home, you need to kill me,” she said, choosing not to entertain the idea of you running away together. What a nice idea it had been. “A death with dignity is better than what these heroes have in store.” 
“The whole point of this was to make sure you wouldn’t die,” you argued before you could stop yourself. You didn’t know why; you needed to go home, but you still wanted something more. Medusa deserved something more.
“Everything dies, daughter of night,” Medusa said. She gazed where you should have been, but her eyes found nothing but the cave walls. “And everything gets reborn, if you wait long enough.” 
“Are you sure this is what you want?” Caliban asked, already gripping the sword in his hands. 
“Yes,” she said. She took a step back and closed her eyes so Caliban could look at her safely. 
“Caliban, you can’t-” 
“Don’t fear for me, little one,” Medusa said. Her snakes hissed in your direction as she comforted you. “You’ll see me again.” 
You didn’t know what else to say as Caliban raised Perseus’ sword. With one great swing, he cut off her head. The snakes’ scream shrieked in your skull as the cave faded into white, distorting everything around you again. 
“Y/N?” Caliban asked once you were back in Hell’s library. The reaper wraiths were long gone, books torn apart and strewn throughout the room. He called out for you again, this time louder and more frantic and snapping you out of your stupor. 
“I’m here, Caliban,” you said, taking off the helmet and reaching out to him. “I’m right here.”
He was still bloody and bruised, but relief flooded his face as he looked at you. “I feared I lost you to the pages in the book,” he said. His voice was softer than you’d ever heard it. 
“You almost sound concerned,” you said, tilting your head just like he had earlier. 
Caliban smiled like he knew something you didn’t and looked down at the sword in his hands, both covered in blood from the gashes in his forearms. “Perhaps I should take you back to your friends before the wraiths return,” he said, taking slow, deliberate steps towards you. 
“Perhaps,” you repeated, shifting the helmet to one hand and closing the distance between you. 
Looking up at him, you were asking him to do something. Daring him to make a move. Challenging him to let you know he felt. All these questions, and you asked them without words. 
He was looking down at you, too. Challenging you in his own, infuriating way. 
“Would you really have run away with me back there?” 
Your words hung in the air for a moment before Caliban lifted a bloody hand to the side of your face. 
Sabrina hated him.
“Funny, I was going to ask you the same thing.” 
He was looking at your lips, fingers light as they kissed your cheek. 
“I asked you first.” 
You looked at his lips, fingers less delicate as they rose to his chest. 
“Yes, you did.” 
Sabrina wasn’t here right now.
Part 5
Tag List: @peachesandknives  @caliban-is-my-girl  @t-a-i-l-o-r-m-a-d-e​  @music-movies  @miss--moose​  @marrypuffsstuff​  @harryscarolinaa​  @igorsbby​  @foji2000​  @mschfavngz​  @artaxerxesthegreat​  @thxmagic​  @luquincy  @xealia​  @hotmessindisguise​  @olivia-west-allen
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pbandjesse · 3 years ago
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Today was wonderful but I also got pretty bad sunburn on my arms and chest and back. Oops.
I slept good, though it was very hard for me to fall asleep. I took a melatonin and was able to sleep well after that. I woke up with my alarm at 730 and while I wasn't super excited to get up I did and soon I was ready for the beach!!
I loved my dress. I wore my bathing suit under it. James looked super cute in their yellow button down to match me. Love them. We had a long drive to Rohobeth Beach. I have never gone and I was excited!
It was an absolutely beautiful day. Here in Baltimore it apparently rained most of the day. But it was 85 and sunny at the beach.
The drive out was nice. It was about 2 and a half hours. We had excellent music and lots of laughs. It was a good day.
Getting closer to the beach we had some traffic. But we weren't in a rush. It was about 1030 and I am glad we left when we did because parking, it seems, is at a premium there.
We parked at the end of the beach where the state park is. But I wanted to be close to the boardwalk. Mostly so we wouldn't be to far from th bathrooms. We got all our stuff and headed out.
I honestly have always hated having to much stuff at the beach. Even when I was a kid. I found it like super cringey to have like a ton of stuff. So even us just each having a backpack and a chair each and our small cooler. That is on the edge of the cringe precipis.
We found the bathrooms. Didnt have to wait to long. I put on sun screen and talked to some girls outside the bathrooms while I waited for James.
We walked to the beach and set up but then I realized we couldn't see the water so we moved everything closer. There were a lot of people. It wasn't like. Unreasonable but there were a lot of people and a lot of umbrellas. Our little one tried to escape at one point but it was okay. I held on to it.
But what I wanted was to be in the water!!! Which was a little chilly when you first got in, it was actually like the perfect temperature. It was amazing. The sand was soft. There weren't many shells so I didn't collect any. But I would spend so much time just in the water enjoying the waves.
James did join me a bit! They are scared of the ocean but they came in with me twice and it was a lot of fun bouncing with them and laughing. I had an excellent time with them.
When they left to go sit in the sun for a while I ended up having a fun talk to a woman who wanted to know all about my tattoos and we ended up talking for like a half hour and we were body surfing on the waves together and laughing. I felt like a little kid making a friend at the beach who Ill never see again but it was super cute.
I hadn't eaten breakfast or anything so I decided to go have a snack and read with James for a bit. I did reapply my sunscreen on my legs but I didn't on my top half like a fool!!!
Around 1 we would take our backpacks (left our stuff) and went up to the boardwalk to get a pizza. Which took a bit but it was good! A little more sauce then I want normally but its all good. I enjoyed people watching and eating and it was good.
James has insisted that I share that there was a boat. That has Trump written on the side. And had an LCD screen with text, misspelled, just with different alt right talking points. It was just really sad. Like what else could they be doing with their Sunday afternoon. It was disappointing but also like. Your life probably sucks if that's all you can think to do with your boat?? Boring.
I enjoyed being in the water for a while. James came too. We were on the beach for almost 4 hours and it was just great. But I sort of felt done. I wanted to explore the boardwalk too. Even if I was afraid of being to hot. But we packed up our set up and headed back to the car.
It was the middle of the afternoon at this point. We both got changed at the car. I had more sand in my suit then I had hoped. But whatever. I felt bad because people kept coming to our car to ask if we were leaving because there is. No parking at this point in the day. On Labor Day weekend. But we had paid for like 6 more hours so we weren't leaving yet.
We walked the boardwalk. It is pretty small compared to a lot of places Ive been. But it was a really nice place! I played a few claw machine games. Won on my first go! Got this cute little puppy. I didn't win any others but I was very surprised to see how many squishmallows were in the claw machines. And really this was a very affordable boardwalk overall. The claw machines were $1 or less. The only disappointment I had was the photobooth didn't work. But its okay. We took lots of other pictures.
We walked all over. Went to their little ride attraction place called Fun Land. And I insisted on us going to the Haunted House ride and for real this was one of the best ones I have gone on! It was like a ride one and it was a little neon inside but it was really good!! I sort of wish we got the stupid picture at the end but I got a great laugh out of it because our eyes were so big we got startled. It was great.
James did so many things that made them scared today. And they did it because they love me! And that makes me so happy.
We finished the day going to their little town square. We saw a bride and groom taking pictures!! We got a very sour (positive!!) strawberry lemonade, and then we got sandwiches at five guys. No fries or anything. Just the sandwiches and then it was time to go home.
We loaded up the car and made sure we had drinks and then we were off.
It wasn't a bad drive home. Just long. We had a story podcast we have been working through. I thought I would fall asleep but I didn't. Mostly because my skin hurt. My legs didn't burn but my arms, my back, and my chest is very very red. And it started hurting more and more as the hours have gone on.
When we did finally get home it was sort of raining still. We brought our stuff up and I put things away. James decided to go to 711 to stretch their legs and I took a black tea bath to try to help my poor skin.
I put aloe on and it helped but I am a little hot to the touch. I put a hoodie on because I thought at least the fabric would feel nice. And I am right but also afraid of being to warm later. Well see what happens I guess.
I had some soup. James came home and helped me put aloe on my back. An went to play a video game with their friends. And I iced my skin. But now I very much want to go to sleep.
Tomorrow is Labor Day. Not that is actually means much anymore. James is working still. I am going to do my styling work and some art. I would like to start deep cleaning our rooms. I think maybe I will pick one every day? And just take everything away from the walls and such and really attack the spaces. But I know I really need mental energy for that took. So we will see what happens.
I hope you all sleep good tonight. Take care of yourselves! Goodnight!!
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dem-khuya · 4 years ago
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maybe im making a big deal outta nothing. but i think im rly sensitive to the energy of the ppl i surround myself with even if its an online community. the writing community i was pretty active in was really rewarding to write with but on a conversational level i think i felt really unable to vibe with like anything happening in the discord server, and only after taking a break from the community did i realize i was always portraying a version of myself that was just... inherently false. just not me at all. maybe it didn’t feel terribly different at the moment but i think i was taking the extra mile to hide and show only certain aspects of my own life to create this image of myself that was simply inaccurate. you do this every day w strangers!! its normal! but i think i was doing this extensively so within this community and with this hobby that also asks me to be incredibly vulnerable. also while i was cool with the members of color there i was exhausted by being surrounded by a lot of white ppl. its just exhausting to talk to crackers lmao. and pulling away from that aspect of the community has done me so much more good too, and it shows me just how important it is for me to curate my space away from white ppl.
i feel a lot more light and unfettered now that im taking a break from the community. but i mean i use it as a means to write with my best friend whos also taking a break bc of health issues so not having that channel will make me sad. at the same time im making stories on my own and exploring my personal art more. and i think that has been so rewarding too esp since ive just spent the past few months doing collaborative writing. maybe its just tunnel vision but i think i like being able to return to my own stories and my own art, without the specific need to exchange ideas with people. like here is where my home is, the art and stories i make for myself. i think a mix of both working alone and working with others is healthy, maybe in my case i’d emphasize working mostly with myself at the end of the day the way i have been doing. but i feel like im veering very close to self-isolation again, which feels really nice but also comes with its own set of regrets too.
whenever i hint at or mention doing this stuff by myself though my friend is visibly hurt. so it feels a little taboo to say aloud that i need to keep a part of myself with ME, not available to be shared with anyone else. its the same as when i mention to my mother that i want to go to therapy. i know there’s a moment of her trying not to ask me “what do you want to say to a therapist that you can’t say to me?” bc we’re close. but she has her own secrets too. im not hurt when ppl draw a line in the sand in our relationships. boundaries are boundaries and i’ll respect them. but things are different with my friend. and i don’t really know how to approach this subject yet without it being hurtful to her.
i feel like this friendship has been so full of rocky points lately, more than it ever has, bc we’re both sensitive people and bc we’ve known each other for so long. i’ve been reading more articles about love and friendship and that line in the ask polly article that said something about how long time friends are like siblings bc we love each other while tolerating each other is hitting really hard. its like that other article, that famous one about the fear of being perceived, asks how often we love and are loved in spite of our flaws rather than because of them. it makes me think about my own flaws, of which there are many. my more ugly one, uglier than being short-tempered and hurtful in my anger, uglier than demanding that all of my efforts be repaid in some way (it reminds me of a line in qianqiu, in one of the later chapters when shen qiao says something like “it’s so rare to see that any effort we put into anything be repaid to us”), is my utter lack of faith. i don’t think i have faith in anyone, no matter who they are to me, and it’s an unfair and cruel thing to do to people who love you, even if they love you imperfectly. im so quick to accept my own disappointment and leave it where it is without putting in the effort to work with someone so that we can build a better path ahead of us. we! us! not just me and me alone. being hopeful and then being disappointed is terrible and i just have no endurance for it. so i think the answer to that is to see things differently maybe. not to settle, not to make further attempts to lower my expectations... just differently. just being more compassionate. i don’t know how or where to start but i mean a realization is still a realization right?
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aerynwrites · 5 years ago
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Liberation - IV
Chapter 4: The Gift
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Author’s Note: Okay jeez I FINALLY got this chapter done, sorry it took so long y’all 2020 has NOT started off great for me lol. But i guess we can only go up from here right? This chapter is a bit shorter than the others an I apologize, I don’t really have an excuse other than I obsessed with Jedi: The Fallen Order atm and that has distracted me along with other personal situations. Also, classes for me start on Wednesday so i may be bumping down by posting’s to like once a week rather than what i’ve been doing, but that should be doable. okay. I’m done talking. Enjoy and as always i love to hear from you all!
Word Count: 2.1k
Warnings: Violence and I think that’s it.
Chapters: Prologue, One, Two, Three, Four (here), Five, Six, Seven, Eight
///
A lot of people choose the bounty hunting life. For some it’s because violence comes as naturally as talking. For others it’s simply because they need money. But for you, it was the only way out of a life of torment and enslavement. For you it was the ticket to freedom. However, for just a moment as you see Mando fly out of the mouth of a cave, you almost wish you had stayed. Your reflecting on past decisions was brought to a halt as you saw the large and very angry looking mud horn emerge from the cave. You cast a sideways glance at the child still in the pod before running over to where Mando had fallen and was currently fumbling with his rifle. You tried to stop next to him but the mud caused to slide in front of him instead, directly into the path of the charging Mud horn.
Before you could react, the large animal rammed into both you and Mando causing you to fly another several feet before landing harshly on the muddy ground.
You groan as you sit up, “again with the mud?”
You quickly try to stand as you see the mud horn turn it’s attention to the child’s pod and charge it, but Mando punches a button and swiftly moves the pod out if the way, causing the mud horn to collide into the wall behind it. It recovers quickly and turns to face you and Mando once more. You grasp Mando’s arm to help him up which is nearly impossible with all of the slippery mud covering you both. you look frantically to the mud horn frantically, only to see it gaining ground quickly. You shake your head before wrapping your hands firmly around Mando’s cloak.
“Fuck it,” you mutter before turning and pulling as hard as you could on the material. The mud horn just barely missed the Mandalorian as he floundered in your grip, but the moment of distraction gave him an opening. He launched his grappling hook and watch as it hooked into the tough skin of the animal’s face. But his small bit of satisfaction was taken away as the mud horn took off running.
By the time you had realized what was happening you were being pulled through the mud behind Mando, his cloak still latched in your hands out of instinct. His grappling device didn’t hold out for long and the two of you were throw haphazardly to the side. You had rolled a few yards from where Mando lay and watched helplessly as he was once again thrown through the air by the beast. You managed to stand once more, completely covered in mud at this point and tried to draw your blaster as you notice Mando laid unmoving on the ground.
“Come on,” you muttered, now moving ungracefully through the mud towards your fallen companion, “get up!” you urged quietly.
You saw Mando exhaustedly rise to one knee taking in the large beast charging him once more, and your heart dropped as you saw him take his knife from his boot and hold it in front of him, as if already resigned to his fate. Your heart raced as you raised your blaster, aiming directly for the mud horn’s head, and just as you were to pull the trigger, the large animal stopped in it’s tracks. You lowered your blaster in confusion, as you saw the animal’s legs move to walk but it didn’t move forward. Then it starts to float off the ground a few feet. You start to make your way over to Mando while the animal is stopped and watch as he finally gets to his feet, staring at the animal in what you assume to be amazement. You look from the floating animal over to the small child in the pod and see him with his eyes closed and handheld out towards the beast.
‘Was he doing this?’ you thought.
But before you could come up with an answer the child fell back and the mud horn dropped to the ground. You snapped your head back in the direction of the large animal ready to fire, but Mando had jammed his knife into the side of its head, killing it instantly. Before you could stop yourself, you were throwing your arms around the taller man.
“Thank the stars!” Mando stiffened at your actions and you pulled away quickly but didn’t acknowledge it, “Are you insane?” you berate, “Just sitting there with a knife against a mud horn?”You let out an exasperate huff but smiled and punched his upper arm lightly, “Have you never heard the saying ‘Don’t bring a knife to a mud horn fight?’”
“That’s not the saying.” He deadpans.
You roll your eyes, “It was a joke Mando.”
He doesn’t respond to your jest, he is only staring at the collapsed child in his pod, and you follow his gaze.
“What was that?” you ask, voicing the Mandalorians own thoughts.
“I don’t know,” he says earnestly, before turning back towards the cave, “But let’s get this egg so we can get my stuff back.”
You just nod, noting that the change in conversation meant that he no longer wanted to discuss what had happened. you stay with the sleeping child as Mando retrieves the egg, and then you three make the short journey back to the Sand crawler.
“Mando! (Y/N)!” Kuill called, waving his arms.
“We have it!” you call back, “We have the egg!”
You stay back a few feet as Mando hands over the egg to the Jawas and watch in slight disgust as they open the egg and start to feast on it raw. Mando shakes his head as well before joining both you and Kuill at the trailer.
“I’m surprised you waited,” Mando said to Kuill.
“I’m surprised you took so long!” He chided playfully.
You opened your mouth in shock before letting out a laugh, “Hey, that was not what we were expecting,” you defend, “I was thinking we would be fighting a bird or something since they said it was an egg.”
Kuill let out a boisterous laugh at your comment, and you thought you heard Mando chuckle lightly from next to you but you couldn’t be sure. Kuill motioned to the Jawas who were retrieving your items and suggested that you all should help them. Then you all were on your way back to the Razor crest to repair the ship and return to Nevarro.
* * *
“I cannot believe you right now!” you yell, turning to face the Mandalorian as you exited the clients building.
You had successfully repaired the Razor crest, said goodbye to Kuill and then flew to Nevarro, child in tow. You didn’t know what you expected when you landed back on the planet. You knew the Mandalorian was going to turn the child in, but a part of you; the hopeful, kind, and perhaps naive part of you, had hoped that after what the child did for you, Mando would not turn him over to the client. The imperials that you so hated now had the child and there was no telling what would happen to him.
The Mandalorian turns on you, moving so fast it gives you whiplash, “What did you expect?” he seethes, “Our job was to turn over the asset to the client. We did that. I’m not going to apologize for doing my job. And if you are, then you can take your cut and leave, because I am not going to have someone questioning my every move.”
It felt like smoke was coming out of your ears by the end of his rant, and you could feel your face burning as the blood coursed through your veins as you speak, “A child, Mando, not an asset. We just turned over a child to the empire. I get it that we have a job to do, but if you can look at me, right now, and tell me that you were perfectly fine handing over a kid to the empire, then I don’t know if I want to be partners with you.”
Mando stills for a moment, shocked by your words and the terrible truth they held behind them. He did feel guilt over the job, but it’s what he does, what he has done for most of his adult life.
So he straightens himself and only says, “The empire’s gone.”
Your eyes widen at his words, but your hopes raise slightly at his words. He didn’t really answer your question, and his very vague answer tells you that he did in fact feel some regret over what you all had done. You relax your posture and let out a quiet sigh, still feeling awful about your actions, but well aware there was nothing that could be done now. At least not without Mando’s help.
“Whatever Mando,” you mumble, “Let’s just go.”
“I have something I have to do first. Follow me,” he instructs. You follow behind him, shuffling your feet along the grounds as you go, the ache in your heart weighing down your limbs as well.
Mando notices your cloudy demeanor and can’t help but feel his heart clench, both at your terrible mood and the fact that he did just hand over a kid to the empire, the very people who destroyed his life. But he forced his gaze forward once more as he approached the Mandalorian covert and stopped at the entrance turning to you.
“Stay here, I’ll be back soon.”
You stop in your tracks and throw your hands out to the side in disbelief, “Again? You’re going to leave me out here again while you go and do your secret Mandalorian stuff?” You huff, “Can I at least get a piece of armor this time?”
The last part was just a joke, but the Mandalorian didn’t show any sign of amusement before he turned and entered the building without another word. You groan impatiently before leaning against the nearby wall and slide to sit on the ground. You switch between watching the doorway and the people bustling around you, trying to keep your eyes open. But the longer you sit there the heavier your eyelids get, and before you know it you had dozed off.
* * *
A light kick to your boot jolted you awake and in an instant you were on your feet hand hovering over your blaster and eyes frantically looking for any sign of a threat. But as your eyes dart around you, you are only met with the familiar figure of Mando.
“Oh,” you holster your blaster and stretch your arms above your head, “It’s just you. How’d the secret meeting go?”
You could practically feel Mando roll his eyes at you before he held out a wrapped-up object to you, “Here.”
Your brows pulled together in confusion, “What is it?” you ask.
Mando lets out an exasperated sigh and pushed the object into your hands, “Just open it.”
You cast him one more questioning glance before slowly unwrapping the cloth that surrounded the heavy object. Your mouth dropped open as the light reflected off the metal once the last piece of cloth fell from the gift.
It was a bracer. Made out of solid beskar.
You looked up to the Mandalorian in front you, your mouth opening and closing as you tried to form words.
“To complete your set,” Mando explained simply.
You felt tears burn at the back of your eyes at the thoughtful gift. You had never truly received a gift before, so the fact that this was the first one, had you very emotional. You shook your head as you grasped the metal in your hand, the coolness comforting to your skin
.“I…don’t know what to say.”
Mando shrugged before taking the armor from your hand and snapping in snugly in place on your arm, “You’re welcome,” he offers, “it’s the least I could do to say thank you for your help.”
You twist your arm in front of you, admiring the shiny new piece on your arm before dropping it to your side and look at Mando once again.
“Thank you, truly,” you say, “You have no idea how much it means to me.”
Mando just nods in acknowledgment, not used to someone praising him so highly, before he turns on his heel abruptly. You are caught off guard at his sudden change in demeanor and stumble after him.
“Wait – where are we going?” you ask as you catch up and are walking next to him.
Mando is silent for a moment before he puts a hand on his blaster and rounds the corner to the alley way where the client’s building is.
“To get the kid.”
////
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terminally-karkalicious · 4 years ago
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allow me to rant about the only thing that has been in my brain for the past two months and that is doll customizing babeyyyyy
i know there’s a 90% chance that you wont give a Shit about any of this but here we go anyways
SO first you gotta choose a doll. preferably one with a high range of motion to avoid creating new joints or having annoying limitations like not having elbow joints for some fucking reason. what the fuck mattel. give monster high dolls back their ball jointed shoulders and elbow joints. smh
the most common dolls ive seen used as bases are monster high and ever after high. most customs ive seen are highly stylized so the stylized face molds work well for those types of dolls but dolls like barbies are good for when you want a more realistic face-ups.
once you’ve got your base picked out you gotta wipe that bitch’s face off with like. acetone or nail polish remover or something strong like that. you can also use acetone to shrink doll heads which is cool as hell imo. n e way once the face is wiped you gotta chop off the hair and remove the hair plugs from the inside. ive seen this done several ways but the easiest and most common way ive seen is to dunk the head into boiling water for ~30 seconds until it gets squishy and malleable. once you’ve got the head back, you can use pliers (i think tweezers would work in a pinch) to pull out the hair plugs which are kinda icky because theyre covered in glue and other gross shit. ew
now you must decapitate the doll. dunk em back in the boiling water to soften them back up then just tug the head off. the neck pegs look funky and are usually a different color than the body so thats cool ig
once the head’s off, you can start the face-up which is basically just giving the doll a new face using stuff like watercolor pencils, acrylic paint, gouache, and a whole lot of other stuff. hell ive seen people use person makeup on these dolls.
next,,,,, hair. there’s about twenty million ways to do hair from gluing yarn wefts to sewing to rerooting with purchased nylon doll hair or yarn wefts but i’m gonna talk about the most common one ive seen which is rerooting and gluing.
before you can reroot, you need doll hair. which, as i mentioned, can be bought at stores like the doll planet or made at home with yarn in literally any color. have fun with it! make rainbow hair or something idk
to make homemade wefts, you take some acrylic yarn, cut it twice as long as you want the hair to be (keep in mind you can cut and style the hair once it’s been rerooted), fold them in half, and tie it to something sturdy like a wire coat hanger for the next step.
once you’ve got your yarn tied to your hanger, use a pet brush and brush the yarn until it’s wispy and looks like hair. then take a straightening iron and iron the weft flat. then remove from the hanger and boom. hair wefts. ta-da
to reroot the wefts onto the head, use a rerooting tool (which can be as simple as a needle with the eye cut at angle) (just google it please i’m shit at descriptions)) to poke small sections of the hair into the head. you can use the pre-existing rooting holes for your own reroot as they’re usually pretty reliable. to reroot, take a small length of you doll hair (about 10-15 strands), loop it in half, and put the middle of the loop into the reroot tool. poke the end of the tool with the hair on it into the pre-existing hole and remove the tool. the hair *should* stay in and fill up that plug!! also remember to plug thickly at the hairline and part of the hair where it's most noticeable. it doesnt matter as much in the center of the head as that’s not usually visible on the doll. once you’ve rerooted, squeeze in strong glue through the neck hole and squish around the head to make sure it covers all the plugs and secures them in place. then pour hot water onto the head to make the hair lay flat for styling later.
also, you can reroot yarn directly into the head to make thicker, more textured hairstyles. and since the yarn is thicker, you dont need to glue the inside of the head for the hair to stay in place!!
if youre not doing body modifications (which are also cool as hell) then it’s time for clothes but clothes are boring and i like body mods more so i’m gonna rant about them instead
the material ive seen most doll artists use is apoxie sculpt, which is like play doh on steroids. it comes in two parts which you gotta mix together for some reason. why dont they sell it pre-mixed. what was the reason. also once it’s dry it’s super super strong and you can sand it, drill into it, paint it, and all kinds of stuff. very nice and i want some for myself.
you can use hand saws and drills and shit to whack off doll limbs to make stuff like digitigrade legs or new joints. also dont be afraid to use other mismatching doll parts when customizing like heads and bodies and forearms and hands and shit. it literally does not matter if youre gonna recolor the doll anyways so have fun with it. make frankenstein’s doll if youre feeling spicy
accessories my beloved. stuff like tiny beads and clay baubles and shit will literally transform the entire doll plus they’re adorable and multi-purpose
i suppose i must talk about clothes now. ah well. you can find great clothing patterns if youre new to customizing on other customizer’s etsy shops and probably google although those will probably be lower quality than paid pattern pieces. and keep in mind that if it exists as clothing irl, you can likely make it doll-sized. there are literally no limits to your clothing options as long as you can execute your idea.
the once all your components have been made, you can assemble the doll again!! and finally see what all the parts look like together!! very cool 10/10 stars.
ight that wraps up my doll rant. i could really go into more detail on certain parts but thats a whole other rant for a whole other day smh. sorry for fucking flooding your inbox ender ahaha……………. you asked for this
little did you know that dolls have been one of my favorite things since like ever. if i can read a 25 chapter long fanfic i can read this B)
mattel definitely fucked up by completely ruining MH doll designs and just stopping EAH, alot of their profits most likely came from people who collect and customize dolls and by changing MH doll designs/Stopping EAH dolls they 1. most likely lost a small (or big if we're not jus talking people who customize dolls) part of their profit and 2. made it harder for doll customizers to make dolls/get commissions out rather quickly because they probably have to waste more time making joints or learning how to make joints.
EAH/MH dolls (specifically MH dolls) had AMAZING MODELS because there was so much variety with height, face shapes, etc (my favorite molds had to be the short/tall dolls and the cat molds because of the tails) and doll customizers really went all out with enhancing a molds unique features. The only "downside" abt MH dolls is that they (or atleast most)(from what i remember)) had slimmer faces but wider eyes while EAH dolls have wider faces with slimmer smaller which left a canvas for the face and not the eyes (and vice versa for MH dolls)
I've never seen any videos where a barbie is customized (maybe because i absolutely despised barbies at the time) so I'll definitely have to check those out but they seem to be good for realistic makeovers. I've seen like like semi realistic makeovers for EAH/MH dolls that were pretty good too tho (pretty sure mostly EAH dolls since yk MH dolls were used for creature makeovers while most EAH dolls weren't)
yeah i was always amazed by the head shrinking with acetone. honestly i still am?? idunno i have no idea how that chemical bullshit works. Ive seen a few of uh makeovers that just pain over the face (in multiple layers ofcourse) but that's usually when they're painting the entire body a different colour (again usually when they're turning a doll into a funky little baby man). I've also seen a few that just chop the hair off and take out the hair plugs yk without uuh like softening the head or just go straight for the hair plugs after taking off the head (i used to do that it was funny to me??). i always really liked when they used watercolour pencils or just colour pencils in general to draw/sketch on the face cause like wow ur drawing on ur doll without ruining it?? kinda epic maybe even poggers and pogchamp?? oh god my brain is failing wjshsmsj.
Watching them putting the hair back on the doll was, other than the face stuff, was the BEST part for me. Favorite type of hair was iuuuuuh was either thick yarn or brushed out yarn. Literally worship the people that would reroot the hair, theyre the most patience people on this earth!! it's literally insane but i guess that's what happens when you've been doing that for years? you guess kinda get used to it. when they put glue into the head does it just become stiff?? like it's just a clump of dried glue or does it like..hollow out again??
dude you literally cannot convince me most of the supplies used for doll makeovers. APOXIE CLAY LOOKS SO FECKING GOOD. its edible and i will die on that hill. The body mods are literally so amazing!!!!! it's so impressive how theyre able to imagine certain features THEN LIKE ACTUALLY MAKE IT LOOK ACCURATE TO WHAT THEY WANTED TO LOOK LIKE AFTER LIKE ON TRY (or many yk trial and error is very necessary for..everything). Absolutely loved when doll customizers would saw off a dolls legs and use different ones or just completely get rid of the torso to use a different one. it's like uuh that one big guy that's mismatched and sewn together. very cool. The accessories are so fun!! just small little details you seen really need but can add because it's your feckin doll!! I used to be absolutely obsessed over the doll clothes i would find on etsy, so much so that i started sewing shitty shirts and dresses for my uh "customized" dolls (they were absolute HORRORS idk WHY my mom let me feck up my dolls like that).
Thank you for this!! i haven't been able to talk about any of my interests for a while and this just really made me happy!!
Question fer u my fellow MH/EAH enthusiast: what was your favorite MH/EAH movie/episode and doll series. Mine was The fusion dolls (MH obvi) and that MH movie "Haunted" cause we got to know more about Spectra :D
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broken-clover · 5 years ago
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AU-gust Day 6- Hospital
I’m here early! Mostly because I had a lot of this written earlier, so if that didn’t make it obvious enough I really liked this prompt. While it’s a hospital prompt is isn’t especially intense or gory, after yesterday I tried to make this one pretty lighthearted. Honestly I feel like the only really uncomfortable part of this is how much effort I put in trying to make a Pokemon expy. Hehe.
Sorry-not-sorry for more Sin and Bedman, it’s a bit more ‘romantic’ then last time but still pretty much platonic friendship. Enjoy!
Though it felt weird to say, Sin knew his least favorite thing about his father was his charity. Helping out people in need was a good thing, obviously, but a ridiculous amount of his childhood memories involved being dragged along to food banks, hospitals, and shelters so his dad could give corny, well-wishing speeches and lend a hand to those less fortunate, forcing him to help out alongside the other volunteers. Sin had used to wonder if it was because something about having a cute little kid around raised everyone’s morale, or whatever.
Well, considering he was now a grown-ass teenager at the age of sixteen, and Ky was still dragging him along, maybe he’d been off the mark.
At least he’d been allowed to take a break after an hour of schlepping donation boxes up to the children’s wing. Of all the places his dad went to for charity work, hospitals were by far his least favorite. The colorless, sterile atmosphere was just unnerving to be around. As soon as he could, he made a dash for the nearest sign pointing him toward the courtyard.
Sin swiped his guest ID through the maglock, which released with a cheery beep. The white walls and stench of antiseptic gave way to an array of soft colors and the smell of flowers. He took a deep whiff of the aroma and sighed with relief. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his handheld, fully charged for when he got a break and could take a minute to loaf off and relax.
Which game had he left in it this time? He popped out the cartridge and smiled. That was right. Pocket Beasts: Light version. His current favorite. He just needed a comfy place to hunker down and play.
A few stone benches were placed in between bushes and flowerbeds, all unoccupied. The place looked really empty, but it made sense. Everyone who wasn’t already busy was probably at Ky’s speech. At least it meant he’d be able to get some peace and quiet and privacy.
He spotted a pretty lavender flower poking out of the bushes and approached. The ‘flower’ moved, making him realize he’d seen wrong. Sin groaned inwardly at the sight of another person, perched on the short stone wall surrounding the flowerbeds. They didn’t glance up, if they’d even noticed him at all, appearing too absorbed in their own handheld device to care about much else.
“H-hey.” He raised a hand at them, and offered a twitchy half-smile. There were so many ways he knew this could go wrong. Sometimes people screamed at him until he fled, or immediately launched into the most boring small-talk possible. Sin just wanted to play his game, he really had no interest in causing any trouble. “Can I sit down?”
Sin braced himself for a response, but he didn’t get one. “Hey?” He tried again, waving harder. Maybe they were deaf? “Is it ok if I sit out here?”
Eyes glanced up at him, but only for a half-second before they returned to the screen. Well, it wasn’t a ‘no,’ so the best he could assume was they just didn’t care.
Hesitantly, he found a place to sit. If the hospital gown and IV hadn’t already given it away, it was pretty clear that he was a patient, not a visitor. He was scrawny and spindly to the point where it was almost disturbing, his skin was pale and sickly, and the messy bedhead was only slightly offset by the awkward purple hair dye. Why was he out here in the first place, instead of at Ky’s speech?
He knew staring was rude, but he just couldn’t stop himself. Every time he tried, there was another odd little detail that caught his attention. A peculiar little hairclip in the shape of a pink arrow. A purple charm bracelet half-hidden by his standard-issue hospital band. Glittery star stickers on the sides of his handheld, and- hey, he recognized that game!
His expression brightened. “Oh, you play Pocket Beasts too? That’s my favorite! Who’s your starter?”
The only response he got was a couple of button clicks. Sin found himself sinking back into an uncomfortable silence. Well, he supposed it was better than being yelled at. He switched his game on.
Dad said he wasn’t supposed to use the internet at the hospital because it would mess with all the fancy machines, so online matches were out of the question. Well, there was always the battle tower. Maybe he could item grind to kill time. He still needed to finish his Soup Encyclopedia and some of the rare cooking items could only be found there.
Any discomfort he had was wiped away with the familiar music and intro screen of the game. How could he worry when there were battles to be won? All he had to worry about was making the most of his free time.
His avatar flickered into existence, still in the last town he’d visited. As soon as he moved towards the nearest building, though, a little indicator popped up on the bottom of the screen. Puzzled, Sin took his stylus and tapped on the icon.
Trainer BEDMAN would like to battle!
>Accept Decline
‘Bedman?’ He looked up at the little avatar that had appeared, then glanced off to the boy at his side. The messy lavender dye-job was surprisingly close, as was the magenta arrow pinning his bangs out of his eyes. Was it just some weird coincidence? If he wanted to play, he could have just asked…
Despite his confusion, Sin clicked ‘Accept.’ PvP battles were more fun than doing the same grind he had done over and over again. Even if he did lose, it was in a totally unique way.
The usual introductory animations played out as their avatars posed and tossed their first beasts into battle. Sin had to snicker at the disparity between their choices. He always liked sending his biggest and toughest beasts out in the beginning, and pretty much anything looked tiny beside it.
But smaller meant faster, so he wasn’t all that surprised to see the other one attack first. He braced himself for a tough starting move...only to be confused at the sight of a sand cloud being thrown at him.
Enemy Used SAND TOSS!
Accuracy Lowered!
Sand toss? What a waste of a turn! Sin grinned as it switched to his turn. Karate chop, a pretty powerful start, it always hit, and he had the type advantage, what a great way to start a match- !
Attack Missed!
“What!? How did that miss!?”
“Karate chop has a standard accuracy of 100%.” A low, quiet voice spoke up next to him, making Sin practically jump back in shock. “But I lowered your accuracy with sand toss, so now there’s a 15% chance it won’t hit.”
“...Huh.” He looked back at his screen. “Never see people use sand toss out of, like, NPC fights.”
“Most players treat accuracy-modifiers as a waste of time, but if you have a Pocket Beast with a high enough defense, then the turns spent not attacking are made up for when the opponent can barely hit you later.” The strange boy had such a casual tone to his voice, as though they’d been conversing for hours already.
It was a bit jarring, but Sin tried to roll with it. “I guess that does make sense. Sorta like when a beast has the ‘Decoy’ ability and the first attack never hits?”
“Kind of. But a lot of players know which beasts can have Decoy, so they know ahead of time to focus on stat-altering moves or poisoning instead of wasting a turn when they know attacking won’t do anything. Take your turn.”
It took him a moment to process the last bit, but he noticed the battle menu had popped up again. He picked another attack. “Why’d you want to battle me? Did you just pick at random?”
“You were the only opponent available.” Another sand toss. “It’s hard to find people to play with on local, and I’m not allowed to use global matchmaking in my room because it needs an internet connection.”
Sin waited for his two-turn charge move to activate, but before it could be his turn, a swift attack managed to knock his beast out cold. “Damn it! I thought I had that…”
He spotted a triumphant little smirk out of the corner of his eye. “Pocket Beasts is all about tactics. You have to take everything into account. It’s easy to just care about how much damage a move can do, but you’re doomed from the start if you don’t have the right stats, or the best moveset to compliment them.”
He couldn’t help but grin along with him. “Wow, you’re really good at strategy!
‘Bedman’ managed a small, awkward smile. “Well, um, not like I have much else to do…”
“Really?” Sin tilted his head. “I guess it’s good you’ve got something fun to do while you’re here, all this hospital stuff skeeves me out. When do they let you go back home? I dunno how long you’ve been here, but I think I’d go nuts after a couple of days.”
“I’m not sure. I’ve been here a while, already.” A lucky hit from Sin’s beast managed to knock his first one out. “Since...last January, if I remember correctly.”
Last January? Jeez, forget a few days, he was sure he’d be past insanity after a whole year!
Sin donned a look of pity. “That sucks. What’s wrong with you?” The words came out before he could think or realize that it wasn’t an especially nice thing to say. “Uh, shit, sorry-”
“Mmm. It’s okay. At least you don’t mince your words. I have a neurological disorder that affects how my brain processes information. It’s a bit hard to describe. Let’s say a human brain is like a computer, it processes the inputs that are fed into it. Powerful, modern computers can process a lot of information all at once, but if a computer is old, or wasn’t built properly, trying to process too much information can make it overheat and crash.”
“Oh. So how do you keep it from ‘overheating?’”
“Sleep, mostly. I’m only awake for a few hours every day. When I’m awake, and I don’t have tests to do, I like to play games. My sister and I play multiplayer sometimes, but usually I have to play by myself. She has the same problem I do, so a lot of the time one of us is asleep during the times the other’s awake.”
Was it weird to get all this personal information from someone he’d just met? Sin wasn’t sure. But he did like talking to this guy. “Well, want to swap Friend Codes? If we’re registered as friends then local multiplayer should work, then you don’t have to use an internet connection!”
“Where do you live?”
“Central Illyria!” Sin beamed. “Like, half an hour at most. It should still work from there.”
The other boy gave him an odd look. “I’m sure there’s plenty of hospitals closer to you, then. Why did you come out all the way here?”
That got him to roll his eyes, making an exaggerated gagging noise. “My dad. He always drags me along on his charity stuff, carrying boxes and shit. He only let me take a break because he’s making some dumb speech up in the-”
And the regret came just as fast as he saw his companion’s expression shift. He hated the visits, obviously, but he knew it was important to a lot of people. And if someone had been stuck in a hospital for that long, maybe they’d be happy to have someone new come by. He must have come off as such a dick-
Before he could stew on it more, he heard a little laugh. “Yeah. I hate those, too.” Bedman was smiling at him. “You’re Kiske’s kid? That’s got to be awful.”
“Heh. Yeah, it really is.” He rubbed the back of his head. “Never gave you my name, did I? I’m Samson, but everyone just calls me ‘Sin.’”
“I was curious about your name, that does make a bit more logical sense.” His companion nodded. “It’s nice to meet you, Sin.”
“Same! What about you? Can’t imagine your name’s really ‘Bedman,’ is it?”
“More of a screen name, really. My name is-”
“Mattie! Dr. Baldy says you’ve gotta have your IV changed!”
They both jumped at the sudden noise, accompanied by the slam of a door. A girl with shaggy blonde hair and familiar features limped into the courtyard, setting her sights on them as soon as she was visible.
“There you are! I just knew you’d be out here.”
“Well, there’s not many other places I could be…” He said. “When did you wake up?”
“‘bout half an hour ago.” She replied. “Just in time for mom and dad to send me out to look for you.”
The girl’s expression changed when she noticed Sin. “Oh! Mattie, who’s this?”
“Sin, this is my twin sister, Delilah.” ‘Mattie’ pointed to her. “Delilah, this is my...new friend.”
“New friend?” Delilah reached out and shook Sin’s hard with a remarkable amount of strength. “Did my baby bro talk your ear off about his favorite game again?”
“You’re only older by nine minutes, Delilah!”
“He’s really good at Pocket Beasts.” Replied Sin. “It was fun playing with him!”
At that, he realized neither of them had selected anything in a while. He looked down at his screen
TIME UP
DRAW
“Aww, maaaaan…”
“Do we have enough time for another match?” Mattie asked.
“Dr. Baldy looked really serious. We probably can’t make him wait that long.” Delilah shook her head.
Sin tried to bring the mood back up. “Well, we were still gonna swap Friend Codes, right? Then we can play whenever! Either of you have something to write with?”
Delilah pulled a thick black sharpie from her sock. “I have a marker! But no paper…”
“Oh! Hold on a sec.” Sin rolled his jacket sleeve up and held out his arm. Just write it on the back!”
The two of them looked hesitant. “Is that safe?”
“It’s totally fine! It’s a little hard to wash off, but that means it won’t smear before I get home!”
Mattie took the marker and began scribbling on his forearm. “You’re really quite strange, Sin.”
“Thanks!” As soon as the wet feeling on his arm went away, he twisted around to see two series of digits.“What’s this other number?”
“Our phone number. If, um, you ever feel like calling.” Despite his attempts to hide it, Sin could see the faint blush to the other boy’s cheeks. “Do you think you could do one more thing very quickly?”
He couldn’t think of what it could have possibly been. “Yeah?”
“Can you draw something on me? I’ve never done it before. I want to see what it’s like.”
He grinned. “Hell yeah! I’ll try and draw something cool real quick!”
Delilah winced. “You know mom and dad are going to kill you, right?”
“Just say it was my idea!” Sin beamed. Mattie flinched the first time he pressed the marker to his skin, but he managed to still draw a straight line. He couldn’t think of anything in particular to draw, so he settled for a series of sharp, criss-crossing black lines circling his forearm. “How’s that?”
“...woah.” Simple as it was, Mattie looked utterly awestruck. “It’s…
“C’mon, Mattie, we’ve gotta go!” Tired of waiting, Delilah all but dragged him off the wall.
“See ya!” Sin waved as they departed. “You’d better bring your A-game next time we battle, I don’t lose easy!” He folded up his game and tucked it into his back pocket. That was probably his cue to leave, too.
As he hopped off the wall, he could make out a faint voice trailing away to the other side of the courtyard.
“Huh? What’s the deal with you, Mattie? You never look that happy!”
Sin smiled as he turned to leave. Ky was probably waiting for him.
He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been excited for the next visit.
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gumnut-logic · 5 years ago
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Johnny Snapshots
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@onereyofstarlight​  Okay, let’s face it, I live in the land of the Virg and John is one of the hardest for me to tackle (the other being Alan who I do a disservice to on a regular basis). So I don’t read much John focussed fic. Not that I don’t love the boi, it’s just...oooh, look a bright shiny Virg! :D
So in order to get Johnny fluff for you, I only really have my pile of Virg-focussed fic to play with, though I can recommend reading stuff from @the-lady-razorsharp​ and @willow-salix​ cos they claim Johnny as their boi and write lots of stuff focussed on their space noodle :D
While looking for my previous post in my archives, I came across a snippet of John from one of my fics and got the idea of little Johnny Snapshots. So, here from amongst all my Virg fic, have a little Johnny Nutty-style.
Note: Snapshots from all sorts of fic, looking for fluff, spoilers for everything, several AUs, several ships, pretty much potluck and lots of description of the Johnny :D And while I’ve included links to the fics, the fics themselves are likely Virgil focussed and there may not be much more of John in them than is already here. You’ve probably read some of these before, too.
I hope you enjoy anyway :D
-o-o-o-
A ghost drifted on the breeze.
White as an angel, pale as the moonlight sculpting his form, his next youngest brother rode the air currents above the island.
The only word to describe John was elegant. Airborne porcelain, he circled. Midnight starlight cascaded through Virgil’s mind. Expressions of sorrow draped in calm, warmed by an amber light, the steady core of his star-loving brother.
Virgil watched mesmerised as his turns became tighter and tighter, closer to the ground. A great arch of white feathers and he landed gently, barely disturbing the sand beneath his bare feet.
He was gleaming in the moonlight from toe to hooded gaze. Ever so pale skin, free to be bare to the elements with the absence of the sun, his only clothing was a cut off pair of jeans so faded they were more white than blue.
Only his hair had colour, flame caught in just the right flash of light.
Decision
-o-o-o-
When he woke, the sun was making for the horizon, the whole island cast in gold.
“Hey, Virgil.”
The soft melodious voice of his space borne brother was lacking its usual transmission static and it was a pleasant surprise to roll over and find John sitting on a lounger beside him. “Hey.”
“Hey, yourself. How are you feeling?”
First question of any brother to any injured brother, of course. “Good, actually.” And he was. Relaxed, pain at a minimum, a gorgeous sunset in preparation, and... “Great to see you down here.” Virgil didn’t admit it often, but he did miss his middle brother. Didn’t really like him so far out of reach. But John loved it, so it was what it was. Didn’t mean Virgil couldn’t be happy to see him when he could. “What brings you to this little planet?”
The sun was sculpting John’s pale features and white shirt in almost molten gold, merging his skin with his copper hair. The odd thought of some kind of Greek god fluttered through the back of Virgil’s mind. He shook himself mentally. What the hell?
V.T. Green
-o-o-o-
John appreciates a fine meal. Of the five brothers, he is the one who will know about the wine. He’ll know which region it came from, what it should be eaten with and which year grew the plant it was made from. This, of course, means he is the most likely culprit to steal Scott’s boutique beers out of the fridge…to the point that one of the first signs of the middle brother being back on Earth is the sudden missing bottles from said refrigerator.
Virgil thinks it is hilarious.
Scott’s worried his brother is a secret alcoholic and keeps monitoring his intake.
Alan keeps messing with Scott’s head by pinching extra bottles to ‘up John’s intake’.
Gordon messes with everyone by refilling the bottles with apple juice.
But yes, John is the one to appreciate a good meal, most likely because he has to eat all that space crap eighty percent of the time.
Food, Tracy style
-o-o-o-
A sigh. “Um....never have I ever...er...been arrested?” Surely, they hadn’t done that?
“Are you kidding me?” Gordon, glugged down some more drink. “That’s an easy one. Paris. The Louvre.”
What?
Scott raised his hand holding his glass. “Gordon.” As if that explained everything. He swallowed heavily.
Alan snorted, rolled and fell face first onto the carpet.
Gordon laughed. “Hey, bro. Time to take another drink. Remember the teddy bear at the fair?”
“Crap.” Alan grabbed his glass and toasted the air. “Gordon.” Apparently, it did explain everything.
“Gordon.” Kayo said it like a zombie and swallowed some more alcohol. Ridley just stared at her, but was distracted as apparently not-so-asleep John attempted to locate his glass by pawing blindly at the carpet with one hand. His mumbled “Gordon.” Was almost muffled as Ridley tried to grab his arm.
“Lawn flamingo.” Virgil attempted to bring the drink to his mouth, but missed and threw it over his shoulder instead. “Oops.”
Em blinked.
“Okay, that’s it. I’m calling this game. Off to bed with the lot of you. I have the strongest feeling that I should have taken Grandma’s advice and gone to bed early myself.”
There were many a muttered groan, mostly of ‘Awww’ and her name, but the brothers mostly stumbled to their feet. Kayo had to drag Virgil off of Em. The man was heavy.
Ridley smiled at her as she manhandled her space noodle off into their rooms. John was muttering something about ‘Gordon’s fault...didn’t want to do that in a book store.’ Penny helped Alan to his rooms, all the time shooting glares at Gordon.
“What?” The aquanaut looked non-plussed. “What did I do?”
“Gordon, go look after your brother.” Scott’s voice was firm. He still hadn’t relaxed.
Em sighed, grabbed his arm and, activating her hoverjets, pulled him up. “C’mon, Commander, time for bed.”
“Em.” And suddenly she was in his arms.
“Flyboy, your blood alcohol content can be detected from space.”
“Space!” John’s voice echoed down the hallway.
“Not today, spaceman, you’d miss TB5 and end up on Mars.” Ridley was obviously being very patient.
“Not Mars. Wrong trejacktory.” A closing door shut off the rest of the mumbled maths that followed.
Never Have I Ever
-o-o-o-
John sighed, walked over to the bed and sat on the edge in echo of something he had done so many times as a boy. He used to come in here and talk Virgil’s ear off about space and stars and his latest science projects. Virgil, in turn, would nod, say the right things at the right time and generally be the good older brother. John suspected that Virgil hadn’t understood half of what he was saying, but the older boy had never said anything. Not that Virgil wasn’t smart, just his interests lay in different areas. 
They were both quiet by nature and Virgil’s patience drew John to him. Mostly because he would listen. One of the hardest things about being a far above average student with very specific interests was finding someone to talk to about them. John wasn’t a big talker outside the family, but that was because society in general was lost two words into any sentence he wanted to construct. John had no use for general gossip when he had spent the day discovering a new extra-solar object. Who cared who won the football when Neptune was aligning with Earth in a way that wouldn’t happen for another one hundred and sixty five years?
It was Virgil who stopped and listened as a young John Tracy babbled about his latest discoveries.
He was his big brother.
The House
-o-o-o-
Unfortunately, distracted, he didn’t see brother number three and collided with him, nearly sending both of them to the floor.
“Oh, god, sorry…J-“ His hands met soft silk and he looked up, this time truly focussing on his tall brother.
Oh my god.
He must truly have some kind of sibling radar because there was no way in hell he could have recognised his brother otherwise.
“John?”
“Hey, Virgil.”
And yes, that was a smirk on that face.
He eyed the man from bottom to top. High heeled boots in shiny black leather. Black tights! High cut, buttoned up, deep blue coat sequined in an elaborate filigree with almost ankle length tails. The ends of his sleeves flared out like flowers over leather gloves. And a white silk cravat wrapped his throat with about ten layers of frills.
But all that didn’t live up to the hair. Oh, god, the hair. Gone was the familiar red, replaced with a fountain of silver white, springing in strands from the top of his head like a spray of leafless weeping willow, long enough to reach his chest.
Virgil stared. “Are you wearing makeup?”
The smirk widened and, yes, there was some kind of lip gloss to go with the elaborate eyeshadow arching into his brows.
Blink. “Wh-who are you?”
“Why, my dear child,” and John tapped him on the head with his ornamental riding crop. “I’m the Goblin King.”
Another blink. “Who?” He couldn’t recall ever seeing a goblin who looked quite like that.
And the more familiar John rolled his eyes. “A friend of mine advised me that this would be easier if I made myself completely unrecognisable. She is a fan of old movies, so I picked one.”
Virgil narrowed his eyes. “She?”
“She.”
“Okay.” He eyed his brother again. “I’ll take your word for it.”
A Warm Rain Halloween (wip)
-o-o-o-
It had been three days. His brother was now hooked up to several IVs and other invasive support mechanisms, his unconscious body needing assistance to survive. The usually agile, calm and kind man now lay pale, his hair unkempt and limp, eyes bruised smudges on his lifeless face, hands wrapped in copious bandages.
Virgil reached over and ran his fingers through that blond and red hair, attempting to straighten it out, forcing the flick to behave itself.
“C’mon, John, speak to me.” Virgil’s voice was little above a whisper. “I can’t do this without you.” And the statement was suddenly true. Spoken without thought, Virgil realised that through everything that had happened to him in the last few months, John had been there, even when Virgil was too terrified to see him, John had stood strong while his brother dragged him through the mud. He had done everything in his power, everything, to support Virgil. “God, don’t let a faulty circuit be your epitaph, you are worth so much more than that. So much more.”
He needed his brother’s dry wit. He needed his calm voice. He needed him.
Virgil let his head drop to the bed.
Please.
Father
-o-o-o-
John hated crowds, especially those involving the press. Scott went out of his way to make sure he wasn’t exposed to them, but his brother wasn’t available right now.
Head down, no eye contact. “No comment.”
“No comment.”
They crowded in on him and he grit his teeth.
A sharp crack and a yelp. A squawk and the clattering of plastic on concrete. A scream and a flash of light. John looked up to find holocams falling like rain. One close to him simply stopped and dropped. Another sparked, spun and dove at the nearest reporter. She screamed and ran.
The holocam chased her.
Oh.
The crowd began to disperse in erratic squeals and yelps of fear. John took advantage and dashed through to the doors of the hospital. Behind him, the elevator fired its thrusters, adding to the confusion, and launched towards orbit.
“Eos, you are dangerous.”
“Yes, John, and don’t you forget it.” The amusement in her voice had him smiling.
“Thank you.”
“You are welcome.”
Dirt
-o-o-o-
The only one standing entirely upright was her middle grandson. He brought up the rear, his tall, lithe form fluid as he walked. As always, his red hair was startling against his golden baldric. His eyes tracked around the room, his expression cool and controlled, but as his grandmother, she could see the tells of worry and exhaustion.
The great silver form of Eos sat on his arm preening her feathers. Every so often, the hawk would pause and survey the room, just like her bearer, her startling red eyes catching everything. Sal would never understand that relationship, but it had saved her family more than once and she was grateful, if still wary.
The Prince Who Would Not be King
-o-o-o-
If the quiet lifestyle is more your thing, you may wish to upgrade to John Tracy. ‘Up’ is the keyword here as he resides twenty-two thousand miles up, in orbit, in fact. Yes, John is the original space Tracy. Fully adapted to the cold and dark beyond our atmosphere, he does indeed adore the quiet life.
However, before we tempt you any further, it should be noted that John is the only Tracy brother who is a parent. A single parent at that. Inadvertent though her existence is, Eos is recognised as John’s daughter and she presents a number of unique challenges, the least of which is what she will do to your bank accounts if you upset her. Yes, if you are looking for bankruptcy, offending Eos is a fantastic way to achieve your goal.
In summary, don’t piss off the kid.
Having said that, should she approve of your existence, Eos is quite capable of enhancing that existence should she so choose. In any case, John’s daughter is a great conversationalist, even if she has locked you in the bathroom.
John himself sports arguably the most stunning eyes of all the five brothers. Alan, please be quite and Scott, sit down.
A unique pair of turquoise irises that contrast exquisitely with his copper hair makes for a stunning date to have on your arm. The only downside is that arm may need to be handcuffed to yours if you intend on going anywhere involving more than six people at a time.
Our space Tracy is not a social being. Despite communication as a profession, John Tracy has been heard to wish to only speak to others from space. This may include you. Please keep your phone charged at all times.
It should also be noted that if your phone battery is dead and John wishes to contact you, he may hack an appliance as mundane as your toaster. Communicating via the temperature controls in the shower has been reported. Virgil was not impressed.
John is one of the taller Tracys. Unlike Scott, however, heels may not be needed as ninety-five percent of the time John is in space, so if you are planning to get to know him, you’re going to be in space too. Just float up to look him in those gorgeous eyes.
A fan of spaceball and Star Trek, John is your traditional loveable geek. Be aware that his neighbour knows this and you may want to lock all the airlocks in case she comes knocking for a cup of sugar.
John is definitely a good investment and comes with a space station to boot. You will be able to spend many hours stargazing both at the universe and those irises.
Plus One Tracy
-o-o-o-
 Oh, I do have a couple of John focussed fics. The fluffiest is Bagel.
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mcprincessdiaries-archive · 4 years ago
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hi i wanna talk about bonana’s evolution throughout each expansion :3 (warning for story spoilers obviously)
ARR: (LNC / DRG) very new, very hopeful bo, definitely at his most "innocent" i guess. as a refresher he had literally just broken free of a rather strict household & doesnt have a very good grasp on like, anything really. his motivation is simply helping others in the best way he can: attacking things, and learning how to do it better. when he first learns about the echo and the scions of the seventh dawn, hes VERY relieved to finally have an answer for what had plauging him his whole life, but all the stuff about slaying primals and ascians and getting involved in politics just kinda went way over his head. i think the attack on waking sands was when he finally realized the gravity of what he'd been pulled into, and in all honestly he probably wouldnt have gotten through it at all if he didnt meet and befriend another echo-bearing scion (grammy smith). which leads us into...
HSW: (DRK, DRG) the rise of emo bonana...after the bloody banquet of ul’dah and the crystal braves betrayal, he took it upon himself to be the rock for the group during their stay in ishgard. but deep down he was just as, if not more desperate for SOME kind of guidance, which is what drew him to investigate hearings about a dark knight that had been slain in trial. all of a sudden he finally found an outlet for all that pent up turmoil within himself, a voice with which to speak his true mind....though maybe he leans a little too hard into it at first. after some deep soul searching & encouragement from friends and allies, he ultimately pushes through, and before he knows it he’s helped put an end to the dragonsong war :D! but a hero’s work is never done, and he never would have expected what would come next
STB: (DRG, DRK) generally he’s calmed down a lot at this point, and ever-eager for the next adventure. at least he was until the attack at rhalgr’s reach, and his crushing defeat against zenos. the true weight of the losses didnt even catch up with him until he found his dark knight’s crystal had torn asunder and he was left chasing the whims of a strange kid obsessed with doing good. um...i honestly dont have much more to say here i think ive mentioned the weird kind of detachment the wol ends up having in stormblood. he tracks a dragon to the far east and fights it, its really cool. the whole bus clapped. onto shadowbringers,
SHB: (DRK) i believe ive mentioned before bo actually gets pulled to the first shortly after thancred, along with oranje. though its worth mentioning since they WERE some of the exarch’s intended targets their bodies did get pulled. but only their bodies (and whatever they were wearing skjfkgl). and ive talked before about how he fucks up and accidentally becomes a menace bc of huge misunderstandings, and how the two of them end up rolling with the dwarves for a couple years and all that. needless to say, that combined with being pulled in the middle of directly fighting the imperials, it left bo feeling VERY annoyed, and frustrated, and honestly very helpless. which is why when the last of the group to be pulled (sasabe) shows up, he is all the more eager to leap straight back into action....perhaps too eager.
for reasons unknown to them, and even to himself, he ends up absorbing *all* the lightwarden’s aether by himself. which plays out exactly how it does in the game. by the time he’s absorbed innocence and All That happens, he is all but defeated. he finally has the realization his greatest boon would be his downfall, and that he cared too much for others...and not nearly enough for himself. but, after some pep talks from a few scattered friends, he resolves that at the very least he could go down in a blaze of glory, and hopefully take emet-selch with him. by the end of it all the best way to describe him is...at peace with himself. at least a little. until mr elidibus comes in preaching about we are ALL warriors of light and everything, and how the echo isnt actually hydaelyns blessing but the reawakening of an ancient power the person has as an amaroutine. bo stumbles a little and starts believing his role to be a mistake somehow again, but its not nearly as bad as before because he knows at the end of the day hes got friends behind him and theyre always a snap away :3
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spaceysp · 4 years ago
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Saying random stuff to feed into the hyperfixations; pick one of these statements to rant about because I wanna read :)) if u want,
How skeppy must feel with everyone meeting up cause BaD JUST COME ON ,
Opinions on bad planning to take skeppy to dinner and all that jazz ,
Skeppys newest video on the skep channel where bad and skeppy are surprisingly sweet to eachother (and how lately in general bad has been less angee with him) ,
Literally the whole discount skeppy situation , bad being literally in love,
Ride with U,,,,,hetero,,,,explanation,,,, anywhere?
ANONNNNN I OWE YOU MY LIFE ILY 
im literally going to talk about all of these so im sorry but read more at your own risk
one: skeppy, i am so sorry a mf does this to you. but seriously, i can only think of a few reasons (that dont sound entirely made for fanfic) that bad keeps putting off meeting skeppy 
1. (the most unlikely) theyve already met and they keep the bit going so the fans dont find out. i can get that they wouldnt want to tell at first because its their own business, but i seriously doubt they would wait very long to confirm it, because ppl honestly can put a lot of pressure and hype on the meetup (esp with skeppy’s “surprise”) so i think theyd release something just so everyone knew that it finally happened! they didnt lie!
2. bad just doesnt want to meet skeppy (actually nvm this is the most unlikely) 
bad seems to be genuinely excited to meet skeppy, even claiming skeppys the one to keep putting it off, not him (which skeppy immediately disproved but) and saying over and over he wants to meet up with him, but always avoiding actually making plans (every single tweet about the meetup) so its clear he does want to meet skeppy eventually, which makes trying to figure out why he wont even harder
3. its not the right time/ waiting for a specific date
leading up to this, i was thinking that there was a pretty good chance theyd meet up on their anniversary, but that never happened rip. the issue is with this is that they guaranteed they would meet up before the end of the year, and at this point theres only one “event�� left, but they still dont seem to have any plans to meet. if bad was waiting for the perfect time to do it, why not just tell skeppy to confirm a meetup date? it would get him (and maybe the fans, if they told them) off his back. another variant of this is that there is a set date, but they havent told the public, but again, skeppy seems to be just as much in the dark about this as everyone else
4. health issues 
bads apparently been feeling pretty under the weather lately, with his arm and kidney stones, its very plausible (and reccomended, imo) that bad doesnt want to travel when hes having these problems. of course, skeppy could visit, but he could either not want to spend their time together sick or the plans they have could also be too straining. i think this is probably one of the most likely atm, go see a doctor bbh im begging you
5. bads nervous
this is also one of the more plausible to me. for whatever reason, bads just anxious about it, whether it wont be the same as talking online, or be super awkward or whatever, he could just keep putting it off for that (its still weird and kinda doesnt make sense but in a more realistic way this time)
i know i totally went off track but this brings me to my point, skeppys kinda just waiting for bads confirmation at this point, so seeing his friends have fun meeting up is probably just lowkey depressing and i could see him using it as more the reason they should meet up. really the only thing he can do in this situation(at least, as far as i can tell) is what he has been doing, annoy bad about it or he take advantage of bads jealousy and meet up with someone else. the other option is to randomly come to his house, but it doesnt seem like skeppy is gonna do that, maybe to respect his boundaries? if he was planning on it i think he wouldve done it by now
OKAY NUMBER TWO LETS GO
this kinda ties into my point in the “reasons why bad wont meet skeppy” thing, that bad seems really excited to meet him yet still wont?? its clear he really values any time spent with skeppy, but he also make sure skeppys having a good time too! that why he never does any actual work with skeppy around (i.e. building statues or gathering materials for such), he knows its boring so instead theyll wander around the server telling stupid stories or punching each other off stairs for 20 minutes. im sure itll be the same irl, he mentioned wanting to meet somewhere like a nature reserve or amusement park, probably to make sure theres never a dull moment or time wasted. dinner seems much more low-key, and i wouldnt be surprised if bad just wanted to have an excuse to try and impress him with a nice totally-platonic date
NUMbeR tHree *airhorns* 
they really do be the best of friends! ive noticed that skeppys def been trying to halt arguments fairly quickly now, saying a lot to appease bad and move on, and while bad seems to like to start fights for fun, hes also been a lot more chill lately, im guessing because hes been oh-so desperately missing skeppy and big s was also in Baby mode (aka if bad disagreed with him hed probably just cry until he got his way((sand))) i think that vid just showed them being a lot more natural and happy to talk (plus bad usually is more argumentative when theyre competing, while in that vid they were either just hanging out or working towards a common goal) 
n u m b e r f o u r 
where to even BEGIN with discount skeppy. well, bad actually first came up this idea a few months ago, in either july or august on an idots smp stream when he crafted an ‘artificial skeppy’ in his snack shack that he could talk to whenever skeppy was gone. as we all know idots smp is now rip, but the idea of replacement skeppys remained, just this time they can talk and also ship skephalo. it actually seemed like more of puffys idea at first when she put on skeppys skin as a joke, which bad didnt like the first few times, but when she brought it up again he actually requested it (missing skeppy brainrot 🤔?) this could be either cuz bad wanted to bait some shippers so gave in or he thought it was a pretty funny bit so went along with it (or he actually missed skeppy that much.. surely not ??) either way i think we can agree puffy is not only a comedic genius but a top tier friend and slight wingman, and getting some good jealous skeppy content out of it is also top tier. in conclusion, love and appreciate discount skeppy, badboyhalo has only skeppy on his brain and his friends have to deal with that, hoes (skeppy) mad even though the whole bit is how much bbh is into him
NUMBER FIVE im really doing all of them
What, can be said, about ride with u. GODDAMN. im not tryna insinuate anything, but if someone told me that song reminded them of me i would have no choice but to marry them immediately. i really really want someone to ask bad what songs remind him of any of his other friends (dream, sapnap, george, ant, puffy, etc.) because there are three options
1. theyre just cool platonic friend songs and bad is just in love with skeppy
2. he cant think of any songs for them and bad is just In Love with skeppy
3. they have equal romantic undertones and bad is just Like That with his friends (even so i bet people would be picking out the most minute differences between the songs that make one more.. You Know than the other) 
i know FOR SURe that if i was in bads position (where even the person who made the lyric video assumed they were gay in love) i wouldve curled into a ball and never made another public appearance again, but he really owned that shit, singing it and making unprompted references to it (”i already have a bonnie” YOU AINT SLICK SIR WTF) 
i just wanna know if skeppys listened to it (i mean, hes surely at least heard of it, i know he wouldve seen it all over his timeline) and what he thonks about it. pls tell us big s do you also feel the love in this chilis tonight (ALSO when is someone gonna ask skeppy what song reminds him of bad. im waiting ((hed probably say something like a faster remix or something equally memey (((unless???)))
ANYWAY SORRY FOR MAKING YOU READ ALL OF THAT HOLY SHIT i dont wanna reread this to check for errors so it might be incoherent but again ty for letting me infodump about this it was super fun im in love with you anon
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