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pilot-boi · 9 months ago

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Could you see Jaune having trouble with meat going forward because he just spent decades where everything was potentially human levels of sentience.

Jaune is poking at his food.

Which Yang knows isn’t THAT strange, he’s never been good at feeding himself when he’s down (a certain week at Beacon with a certain asshole who shall remain unnamed comes to mind) and Jaune certainly has more than enough reason to be out of sorts these days. Being young then old then young again would do that to a guy.

But this is different than his normal lack of appetite. He’s not just pushing his food around; he’s actively picking over pieces of it, almost putting them in his mouth, and then putting the food back on the plate. There’s a certain green around the gills look on her friend’s face that Yang’s come to associate with airship travel.

Not that she can blame him. The food in Vacuo isn’t what she’d call normal or appetizing, but with supplies limited they can’t turn up their noses, especially since they didn’t exactly give Vacuo time to prepare for an influx of refuges.

Still, eating worms, bats, and lizards has taken some getting used to.

“Are you gonna invite me to sit down, or do I have to keep lurking?” Yang quips, plopping down next to her fellow blonde. He jumps, predictably, but his startle instinct is less than it was a week ago. Baby steps.

“Oh! Yeah uh… hey.” He smiles sideways at her. “Did you need something?”

“Nah, not really,” she shrugs. “Just saw you sitting all by your lonesome and thought I’d join you.” She pokes at his food. “You gonna eat that?”

Jaune drops his gaze back to his plate, and once again his expression turns queasy. Like a toddler faced with a plate full of vegetables. Strange, Yang never took Jaune for a picky eater, but then again he did eat almost exclusively dinosaur chicken nuggets back at Beacon.

“It’s looking at me,” he groans, poking at the side of a roasted lizard. It flops over and he shudders.

“So do fish,” Yang says bluntly, dropping an arm around his shoulders. “And I’ve seen Blake eat those heads and all.”

“You know shockingly you’re not helping.”

“Come on, this can’t be the weirdest thing you’ve eaten.” She leans in conspiratorially, lowers her voice. “I mean I was only in the Ever After for a day or two but that parfait-” Yang is fully about to launch into a tirade on the pros and cons of growgurt parfait, but something makes her pause.

The fork is rattling in his grip. Her eyes narrow. That’s not just nausea. A glass dropped in a kitchen miles away comes to mind.

“Jaune…” Yang trails off. Are you alright? What’s wrong? Do you need to talk? She can probably guess the answers to all three questions, but none really feel appropriate in the middle of a cafeteria.

So she draws on the only other well of experience she has. Being a big sister to a very picky eater.

“What’s wrong with the food?” Blunt, but sometimes it’s best to cut to the heart of the issue. “Is there something else you’d rather have?”

“Not meat,” Jaune replies without hesitation, and Yang is admittedly taken aback. He’s never been a carnivore by any means, but his aforementioned love of dino nuggets barred him from vegetarianism.

Yang looks back down at his plate. The lizard is still looking at them, and Jaune is very determinately not making eye contact. “If this is still about the eyes, I’m sure that-”

“No. No it’s not,” Jaune cuts her off, shaking his head. “Well I mean, a little bit, but.” He plops his head down in his hand. Glances sideways at her, and then away again. “Promise you won’t laugh?”

Yang is almost offended that he thinks SHE of all people might laugh at him for what is obviously a trauma response. Friendly negging, sure, but never laughter. She wouldn’t do that to anyone, let alone him. But then a certain magenta and cyan cat with a wicked grin and sharp tongue comes to mind, and she’s reminded that laughter in the face of pain is probably all he’s known for years.

She hates that fucking cat.

“I promise, Jaune. I won’t laugh.”

He studies her for more than a moment, searching her face for any hint of insincerity. Of course finding none, he sighs. “You remember Little?”

Yang blinks. Not where she thought this was going. Roll with the punches. “Yeah. Kinda hard to forget a talking mouse.”

“Right. Yeah, of course.” Jaune laughs weakly, running a hand through his hair. He scratches at the back of his neck, reaching for a ponytail that isn’t there. “Stupid of me.”

Yang grabs his hand, and he starts. “Hey. None of that,” she reprimands, stopping his downward spiral before it has time to start. Her thumb rubs a circle in his palm, and she can feel him untense. “What about Little?”

“They’re why I don’t wanna eat meat,” he admits. He's speaking quickly, like the words are being drawn out of him.

No laughing, not now, but Yang can’t help her skeptical look. Little, by their own admission, had never been away from home. And sure, Jaune was there for decades, but he didn’t seem to know the mouse.

Jaune sees her look and clarifies. “Well not them specifically, but like… the Afterans. Everything there was so… alive, they could talk, think for themselves. Everything. The mice, rabbits, deer, birds…”

His grip tightens on her hand. “I didn’t have a choice in the beginning. It wasn’t fun, but what else could I do? I had to eat, and after the clock fruit I didn’t trust the plants, so the animals…” Jaune swallows thickly. “The animals seemed like the safest bet.”

If her hand was flesh, she’s sure his nails would be biting into her skin. As it is, she can feel the way his hand is gripping hers like it’s the only thing keeping him from running. And it’s horrible, because Yang thinks she can see the end of the tunnel, the destination this story is going to.

“I knew how to do it. Hunt animals, I mean,” he says, his voice horribly detached. “I used to go hunting with my mom when the food stores were low. And in Mistral, with Ruby and Ren and Nora. So I knew how to catch an animal and skin it and cook it.”

Jaune laughs again. “It wasn’t pretty, Ren could definitely do a better job. So cooking and cleaning it wasn’t the worst part. The worst part…” He swallows thickly. “The worst part was killing it. It was alive, Yang. It was alive, and it was staring at me, and it didn’t want to die.” He stares down at the lizard on his plate. It stares back at him, accusing almost.

“How… how do you know it didn’t want to die?” Yang asks tentatively, even though she’s pretty sure she knows the answer.

“It told me.” His voice is horrible, wretched. The green is back in his cheeks and Yang hates that she now knows the reason why. “It told me! And I still killed it, and cooked it, and ate-” Jaune’s voice chokes off. The words seem to catch in his throat. “It was like… it was like eating…”

“Like eating a person,” Yang finishes, the train now having reached the horrible station. Jaune nods, horror stricken, and Yang trades which hand is holding his so she can rub circles into his back. He’s still just staring at his food. “Gods Jaune I… That’s so fucked, I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”

“I had to eat, or I’d die. And I couldn’t die because I had to wait for you all to arrive. So I had to eat.” The way he says it, so matter-of-fact, Yang can’t help but wonder what else he’s internalized as being what he had to do, no matter the harm it caused him.

She doesn’t know what to say. Picky eating, she could handle. Trauma, she could handle that, too. At least, to an extent. But sometimes it was just too much.

“How long?” Yang asks eventually. “You weren’t eating meat while we were there, how long did you have to do that?”

“A week. I think,” he responds. “Time was difficult.” And isn’t that the understatement of a century. “Once I found the Hunter Mice they showed me which plants were safe to eat. Some of them were hit and miss, but I was good from then on. Especially when I made it to the Market.”

The lizard stares up at them both. Yang glares back at it, as if the dead desert dweller was the one who sent Jaune back in time and made him so desperate to live that he was forced to… do that.

“So… no meat?”

“No meat,” Jaune confirms. “I could probably choke it down if needs must, but…”

“Not even dino nuggies?” she grins.

He barks out a laugh. “My only weakness. No, not yet.” Not yet. That was better than she was expecting. His cheeks are still a little green, but he’s not shaking anymore at least. “Maybe at some point, but not now. No meat.” He grimaces, poking at the lizard. “And especially none with eyes.”

“Well in that case, come on.” Yang stands. He finally pulls his eyes away from the plate, and blinks up at her. “Let’s go!”

“Go where?”

“To find you something to eat!” Hand still firmly clasped around his, she hauls him up and scoops the unwanted plate up in the other. “I’m sure Sun knows someplace around here that serves vegetarian options.”

“Oh you don’t have to do that,” Jaune protests. “I already ruined your whole lunch with this.” He gestures vaguely between himself and the plate.

“No way, you didn’t do anything.” Yang jabs a finger in his chest. “If you need an ear to listen, I’m happy to be there. You’re not imposing, you’re not too much, I’ve got you.” She doesn’t tell people that enough. A tea cup and a wooden tomb. She needs to tell people that more. “I’m buying you lunch. Veggies. Fruits. You name it, you get it.”

“You really don’t have to do that.”

“Oh, I really think I do.”

“I’m not going to change your mind about this, am I?” he smiled, allowing Yang to drag him from the cafeteria.

“No-sir-ee bob,” she said, swinging his hand back and forth. “You are not leaving my side until we get some desert fresh veggies in your stomach.” She passed the uneaten plate to a volunteer by the door. “My treat.”

#rwby #jaune arc #yang xiao long #mine #my writing #asks #ftkicker98 #healing rust au

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pruneunfair · 1 month ago

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Things I have been told in internet arguments on reddit and Instagram.

1: "It's dark romance, if you can't handle it, don't read it"

You might be shocked to hear me say this but to a certain level, I agree but it depends. As the internet is, there is tons of gross media out there, it's all over the place and a lot of times, the best you can do is ignore it. This is the case for a lot of miscellaneous fetish porn you would find on an adult site that usually isn't well-known enough to deserve anyone's ire or everyone already agrees it's awful. HOWEVER, What I specialize in is awful media that is praised to no end despite being awful along with a few positive reviews and humor based posts because not everyone who follows me is gonna wanna watch me bitch about something over and over.

theres a big difference between: A pornographic story fetishizing abusive behavior that is either despised or forgotten to time and a generally awful story that is still praised to high end because it meets the ideas of what an "Adult" relationship actually is. If something like Cry or better yet beg or any other average booktok themed manhwa continues being glamourized as romantic I will say something about it. I'm not going to not criticize something for being gross just because I'm not seeing it through your little dark romance brain.

By the way, those abuse fetish stories aren't even real dark romance, dark romance is an actual genre that is all about the realistic and even sometimes messy parts of a relationship that most fluff romance don't look over into. Sometimes there can even be abuse in these stories BUT in an actual dark romance, nothing is being glamourized as good if it's generally repulsive, it simply wishes to tell a story about a relationship when the honeymoon phase is over.

2: "Your just karma farming!"

You know what? Yeah, I am, and I'll keep doing it.

Why do I say I'll keep doing it? Cause it's literally my past time, that's my thing. I read garbage, I sometimes read it again just to make sure I am indeed seeing that shit right, and then I complain about what I hated about it or I gush about what I did like about it (usually the characters) and I make random villainess posts on the side.

Again, why should I stop critiquing something gross and defended just because it'd be "Karma farming"

3: "It's just fiction."

This isn't entirely wrong either. Even though I would say I believe fiction can affect reality, that doesn't mean I think that say, if someone watches one of the Halloween movies they're gonna have urges to want to kill their sibling. A good example of dark fiction is Lolita, a book famously known for its very detailed subject matter related to pedophilia and grooming, ignoring the movies that missed the entire point of the original book, Lolita is a story that shames this behavior, you are not once expected to root for Humbert as a person even as he tries to manipulate the narrative into a way that absolves him of any blame. See? That right there is a good example of dark fiction that is actually a good and classic read.

Another example is Freida McFaddens housemaid trilogy, the first book starts off as a typical trashy "I slept with my boss and his rich wife is a crazy bitch" booktok story you'd find in target but by the time you reach to the halfway point, you are thrown dark twists and turns about what really happened. (Honestly, I don't want to spoil anymore because the housemaid is one of my favorite books I've ever read and I cannot recommend it more)

Both of those stories have the same subject matter: Abuse, but they aren't trying to peddle that abuse as romantic, they show it how it is, abuse.

This is different from countless other stories like there are no saints, try begging, cry or better yet beg, abandoned empress, Haunting Adeline, who stole the empress, Bastian, and I'm not even close to finishing up the list. Lolita doesn't try to justify Humberts disgusting behavior with "He just doesn't know how to express his emotions" The housemaid doesn't try to give Millie a plot induced lobotomy to go in a certain direction. Those stories on the other hand find an excuse to justify the behavior of abusers in order to go in a certain ship direction, usually because the author doesn't want to cut their losses when they realized the love interest is a terrible person or because it's simply a degrading kink put on the shelves of a Barnes and noble.

And when stories like this end up popularized on tiktok, webtoon and Instagram, young teenage girls are going to see that. Of course, while not ever teenage girl is going to believe it, many still will. That the only way they can ever be loved is if someone rapes them or if they are locked away from society, that abuse doesn't matter as long as whoever is withholding you is giving you expensive gifts and paying your rent. It essentially can damage their way thinking, sure, it's rare for this to happen if they read one of these books but if this is all that's being promoted to young teenage girls, it will start to prey on insecurities and distort the view of a healthy relationship.

4: " I'm still gonna read *insert manhwa here*"

Okay, have fun.

5: "But this villainess did this bad thing! Why are you justifying them?"

First of all: If I were justifying villainesses for being villainesses, I would adore Dodolea from my in laws are obsessed with me.

I don't make my villainess centered posts to convince people they did no wrong, I just like evil ladies and believe they deserve to be respected as characters the same way a heroine is respected.

Plus if thousands of people can defend Matthias for having expectations of being perfect and just being a man in love despite raping Layla, then I think I'm allowed to say that Stella was done dirty by the writers of helluva boss.

6: "You just don't get how complex the story is!"

I don't have to immediately understand every nook and cranny of a story to know that rape is wrong, nothing justifies rape. It's not like justifying murder with self defense or stealing to survive another day, rape is one of the only crimes that can only be done to have power over another person.

Complex stories with this topic can be done well, Lolita was one I already mentioned but we also have stories like speak and not sew-wicked stepmother that take the topic of sexual assault well. You can make a collection of several good plots including sexual assault AS LONG as it is both A: not written to be romantizced and B: you do your research so it has both an effect on either the plot or the character, that way it won't feel like soulless shock value, don't forget too that the victim in question should still be written as a person and not just a victim, give them so character outside of their trauma.

And as you can probably tell, a lot of media don't even follow rule A. So yeah, you can give your male lead the saddest, most heart string pulling backstory the mind can manifest and it still wouldn't justify him molesting someone just because he's unable to properly express his feelings.

7: "Why are your posts so centered around villainesses?"

8: "It's a fantasy/historical story so *insert problematic subject matter here* is okay"

Admittedly I can see the logic. I actually used this logic myself as a younger helluva boss fan to defend the shows excessive use of swearing and sex jokes with "They're demons so of course they are going to be crude." And theoretically, this logic could work under the right circumstances. If there was no modern morality being inserted along with the slavery or child marriage and if the art can still give off the intentions that you aren't supposed to see this as okay then yes, you can make an interesting story.

The reason this logic barely works is because modern is usually inserted within these plots. For example, plenty of manhwa in historical settings have slavery, sexual assault, workplace abuse etc. All of that is excused by "She's a noble in the 1600s, this is normal." While said story would condemn cheating even though mistresses and concubines were common.

#manhwa #webtoon #the remarried empress #cry or better yet beg #sister i am the queen in this life #stella helluva boss #helluva boss #hazbin hotel #media

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daughterofcain-67 · 1 year ago

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𝙾𝚞𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝙾𝚞𝚛 𝚃𝚒𝚖𝚎 (pt. 9)

(Soldier Boy x Female Reader)

(masterlist)

𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: Your main goal while you’re riding with Butcher is to make sure you can get Ben back no matter the cost. After getting to Grace Mallory’s last known residence, you hope you can find what you’re looking for. The sooner you’d find Ben, the better off you’ll be.

𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: cannon level violence, nothing to explicit. Alternative ending to the final episode of season three in a way, or an alternative version of the aftermath rather. Hope you all enjoy!

You could hear the way Butcher was grumbling obscenities to himself all throughout the car ride to get to Grace Mallory’s home. You didn’t catch all of it but you knew Butcher wasn’t exactly thrilled to be going back to a place where he was unwelcome. It surprised you since you assumed he got used to the feeling of being unwelcome considering his record.

“You know, you aren’t the only one in the car. You sound like a psychopath talking to yourself when I’m right here.” You said as you continued to look out through the windshield.

“I just don’t get why you’re going through all this trouble for a guy who’s willing to kill children like Ryan just to get to his goal. What kind of heartless bastard is he?” He asked, glaring at the road and you shrugged a little.

“And you were completely fond of Ryan when you found out he was the spawn of your wife’s rape? A spawn of Homelander? Don’t tell me the thought hadn’t crossed your mind, so that argument is kind of unfair to Soldier Boy.” You commented and you heard Butcher continue to grumble.

“That’s a different bloody story. Becca didn’t ask for any of that shit to happen to her. She went missing for so many years and I had no fucking clue what happened to her. Hell, there were times I thought she was dead.”

“Soldier Boy is my Becca. You went a handful of years without her. I’ve gone decades without Soldier Boy. And he didn’t ask to be taken to Russia, didn’t ask to be robbed of the opportunity to raise his own son. Who knows, if Soldier Boy really did raise Homelander, maybe he wouldn’t have turned out to be such a dick.” You continued.

“I hardly think Soldier Boy is really as helpless as Becca was though.”

“That’s not what I’m saying.. Yeah he’s strong and for the most part he can take care of himself if you take the damned Novichok out of the equation. No, he’s not as helpless as your wife was. And I’m sorry for your loss and I hate to hear what happened to her. Maybe that wasn’t exactly the best example.”

“You think?” Butcher muttered as he started to turn on a certain road.

“Okay, okay. Bad analogy. Maybe it would be better like this… The same love Becca felt for you? The way she loved you is the love I feel for Soldier Boy.”

“Oh now you’re comparing me to Soldier Boy? Thanks, that’s such a bloody compliment to be compared to the cunt.” He said and you sighed.

“Well, all I’m saying neither of you are perfect. You both have your flaws. Like a shit ton of flaws and no one in their right mind should care for either of you. Both of you have blood on your hands whether you wanted it or not. But Becca accepted you, flaws and all. She knew you’re far from perfect and she wasn’t blind to the fact that you’re not exactly the greatest guy on the planet, but her love for you was still strong and unconditional. And I love Soldier Boy even with all of his flaws and mistakes.”

Butcher was silent for several moments while his gaze remained transfixed on the road ahead of the two of you. You turned your head and looked out of the passenger window.

“He really wasn’t a bad guy in the beginning. Arrogant, sure. But he never wanted innocent people to get hurt. He just got suckered into Vought’s trap like a lot of Supes do. They say the road to Hell is paved with good intentions after all. And after a while, I guess he, like most supes, lost a lot of their morals somewhere along the way…” You said.

“He was telling me about that. Just before we were on the way to fight Homelander.” Butcher finally spoke again.

“As much as I don’t like what Annie said about Soldier Boy, and as much as I think she grew a little bit self centered for it, I’m still glad she stepped away from Vought when she did.” You spoke as you remembered that Annie was still the one that gave you that unreleased photo of Soldier Boy.

“I can tell her heart is still in the right place, so there’s hope for her yet. She’s just got a bit of growing up to do.” At this, Butcher only hummed.

You sighed a little, ready to get out of the car. It felt like you had been driving for most of the day, but really it’s only been about two or three hours, “How much longer ‘till we get to Mallory’s?”

“Won’t be too much longer.” Butcher said, starting to get short again.

When you glanced over, you saw that he wasn’t in the right shape and you noticed that something seemed to be leaking from his ear. Your frowned a little.

“Is that from the temp V you’ve been taking?” You asked and pointed at your own ear.

Butcher glanced at you and he touched his own ear. He glanced down at his fingertips and muttered a curse as he wiped the residue on his pants. Lovely.

“Yeah.”

“You must’ve taken a lot of those doses, huh?” You asked.

“Eh, mistakes have been made. I’m just glad the Kid didn’t take anymore. It would’ve killed the little fella.” He insisted.

“So… what made you protect him? Isn’t that kind of out of your character?” You inquired, which caused him to shoot a glare at you.

“I’m not that bad of a guy either ya know. I’m doing this with the whole, Hell with good intentions thing you were talking about.” He commented as he looked back at the road.

“But anyway.. Hughie reminds me a lot of somebody I knew.” He finally answered your question after a few minutes. You smiled a little to yourself, knowing Butcher couldn’t have been that bad of a guy deep down.

“Friend?”

“Family member… brother.”

You frowned a little, getting the feeling from the way Butcher went stoic with his facial expressions that something bad must’ve happened. You glanced down at your hands, “I’m sorry.”

“Ain’t nothing to be sorry for. Only thing that can fix anything is a Time Machine at this point.” He told you, though the comment didn’t make the frown leave your face.

“So how long do you have left?” You asked, getting the feeling the temp V may just be costing the man his life.

“Doctor’s say I’ve got about 18 months, that’s if I’m lucky. Which so far in life, I haven’t been so lucky.”

“I’m sure Hughie may be able to help you find some kind of cure. Plus you’ve got Frenchie who’s apparently one Hell of a chemist.”

“I haven’t told the lot of them yet. And I don’t plan on it.”

“You know Hughie’s going to be crushed if you don’t say anything to him and he finds out some other way.” You reminded and Butcher shook his head.

“I got him wrapped up in this mess from the start. I’ve dragged all of them through the trenches, so most of them may even be glad to hear I’ll be dead and out of their lives for good.” Butcher said.

“That’s awfully pessimistic of you.” You replied and he gave a slight shrug.

“It’s the truth though. Not much helpin’ that one.”

You looked out of the window again when the conversation didn’t go any further. But then after a few minutes, the two of you made it to a house that must’ve been Mallory’s. Butcher pulled into the driveway and the both of you got out of the vehicle.

“Look’s like she’s not here.” Butcher said when he noticed there weren’t any vehicles, and he remembered this was the last place she was when she was still looking after Ryan.

“Still, she’s bound to have some sort of notes, maybe even a computer so we can look through her emails and see what we can find. If she’s not here, there are always other ways to find out where she’s keeping Soldier Boy.” You insisted, hearing Butcher sigh you walked up to the door.

You noticed there’s a padlock on the door and you lifted a brow as you tried to think of what sort of codes to try. As you started to press some of the buttons, you heard the shattering of glass. You stood upright and looked around, but the next thing you knew, Butcher was opening up the door from the inside so you could come in.

“You’re in a rush, right? Let’s get this over with. Pressing buttons and solving puzzles won’t get you anywhere fast.” He said and you smirked a little.

“Let’s see what we can find.”

Ben woke up yet again feeling drowsy as Hell. He honestly had no idea at this point how long it’s been since he’d been taken. He stopped counting the hours, especially since he couldn’t when he was blacked out some of the time because of the damned gas or whatever they were putting in him.

He felt drained, but at this point it wasn’t a new feeling. It was still a humiliating feeling though. When he finally opened his eyes again and glanced down ward, he saw someone was drawing blood from him. As much as he wanted to move his arm away, he couldn’t because they put more restraints on his arms as a precaution from last time he was able to get one of his arms free.

“What have the results been so far?” Ben could hear a familiar voice question.

He slowly looked over and saw Grace was standing behind the woman taking his blood. The bitch looked even worse up close. He couldn’t say anything though. Mask and all.

“Nothing. I’m getting to understand why the Russians just put him away. Pretty much nothing can kill him and we aren’t making much progress with finding any other weaknesses.”

“And you’re taking his blood, why?” Mallory inquired.

“We’re hoping to see what kind of genetic weaknesses he could have and we need his blood to do some tests for that.” The doctor said.

Ben winced when he felt yet another needle in his arm and he assumed they were taking more blood from him. He tried to jerk his arm away but that did nothing to help him.

“What other procedures will you be performing in the meantime while you wait for the blood tests?”

“We’ll be seeing different ways the Novichok and maybe some other vapors can effect him. Maybe we can use that to kill him rather than using the radiation like they did in Russia.”

That sounded like it would be a painfully slow process. All the Novichok did was make him feel sleepy, almost like an anesthetic. But if he were to die in his sleep, Ben supposed he’d take that over a painful and torturous death.

“You know, maybe we can save some of the blood. If we can use his genes, maybe we can make a different hero. One that’s better than Homelander. Raise him up to take Homelander down.” Mallory suggested.

“Work for us? They’d be labeled as just another super terrorist or supervillain or whatever the term is. Are you sure that would be a good idea?”

“If we can shut down Vought once and for all, then anything would be worth it.”

Ben couldn’t stand for it. He wouldn’t let his DNA be used for someone else’s experimentation. Especially not after the last child turned out to be such a damned disappointing excuse to be called his son. He wouldn’t let that happen again.

“No…” He managed to speak and Mallory looked over at him.

“No what? I don’t think you have much control over what we do here.”

“Do not.. make another kid. Not like that bitch Homelander…”

Mallory heard the comment coming from Soldier Boy. She was almost amazed that he could even gather up the consciousness to form a sentence with how much Novichok they were gassing him up with. She hoped he wasn’t growing some sort of immunity to it. That would be disastrous.

“Trust me, Soldier Boy… if we do find a way to make a child from your DNA, the last thing we want is another Homelander.” She said, but she could tell the thought wasn’t comforting to the fallen hero. Not that it was intended to be a comfort anyway.

“It won’t be like you or Homelander. Maybe it’ll be even stronger than Homelander’s so called son, Ryan.” Mallory shrugged and that was when her phone began to buzz.

She pulled her device from her pocket and looked down, realizing there was an alert from her last residence.

Her eyes widened when she saw the security footage. It was not only the familiar face of Butcher breaking one of her windows to get into her house, but he was working with none other than Quake.

Grace could see from the phone they were looking for something. When Grace watched you look through her office area and she saw you open up her laptop, her stomach dropped. She didn’t know how quickly you’d be able to find this lab, but Mallory knew it would only be a matter of time before you’d be on your way here.

“Keep him sedated.” Mallory said as she turned on her heel while she was about to walk out of the door.

“What’s happening? It’s not like he’s going anywhere.” The doctor said and Grace looked back at Soldier Boy.

Once they made eye contact, Ben knew something must’ve happened. He smirked when he saw a glimpse of weakness in Grace’s eyes, a glimpse of fear.

“We may need to move him. My last location’s been made.” Grace said and walked out of the room.

The smirk remained on Ben’s face as he looked back up at the ceiling. If his assumptions, his hopes even, were correct… you’d be there to get him out of this Hell-hole in no time.

You saw the information on the laptop screen and you smirked before you looked over at Butcher who was just looking over your shoulder.

“I take it you’ve found it?” He asked.

“Yep. Let’s head out. If I know Mallory and her security plans… she may already know we’ve been here.” You commented and wrote down the address. Then you folded the paper in your hand and stood upright.

“We need to move now before she tries to move Soldier Boy.” Butcher nodded before he turned on his heel and headed for the door that’s been left open.

With that, you and Butcher both left the house and rushed to the car because the two of you could hear sirens in the distance. Mallory must’ve sent some kind of security to her home or something because of the break in so now it was time to haul ass.

Neither of you really bothered to buckle up and Butcher started the car and drove off. Meanwhile you grabbed your phone and started typing in the address on the GPS so Butcher could head that way.

You could tell Butcher was speeding with how you felt like you were about to sink into the seat as he took off. The sirens were close for a moment but as Butcher drove the sirens started to sound like they were getting further and further away.

Once you put the location in the GPS and put the phone on the little phone stand, you looked in the passenger mirror, “Do you think we lost them?”

“Ain’t no tellin’ so we may have to take advantage of our other precautions… check the glovebox.” Butcher told you so you opened it up and saw a gun.

“Let’s hope we’ve lost them.” You said, not sure of your aim with a gun and if you could get their tires or if you’d end up missing them and hitting someone else. Boulders you could handle, guns? Not so much.

But unfortunately, you could hear the sirens again and they were gaining on you pretty fast. You looked in the passenger mirror again and you felt a little uneasy.

“Quake, you’re gonna have to use that bloody thing if they get any closer to us. And from the looks of it… they’re coming pretty quick.” Butcher said and you looked down at the gun in your hand.

“Aim for the tires and you should be fine..” You whispered to yourself and you made sure the safety was switched off and you carefully got out of the seat and tried to steady yourself, though it wasn’t so easy since the road was starting to get a little bumpy.

You leaned out of the window and faced behind you. Sure enough, some cars were gaining speed behind you. You tried to steady your breathing while you lifted the hand that was holding the gun and aimed forward for their tires.

You pulled the trigger the first time and flinched when you heard both the gunshot and the tire blow on the first car. Your eyes widened when you saw the first vehicle struggle to keep control and they went off the side of the road.

“And you thought your aiming was bad. Now knock the dust off those other cunts.” Butcher said from the driver’s seat and you nodded to yourself and you pulled the trigger again, then again, taking care of the other two cars. You saw as the front of the two cars met and you could tell they were totaled with the way the airbags went off.

You felt a hand at the back of your shirt to pull you back in, though you realized it was just Butcher. You thanked him and switched the safety back on the gun and put it back in the glovebox. You ran a hand through your hair before you glanced over to the phone, looking to see how long it would be until you’d get to your destination.

“You think Soldier Boy will still be there if Mallory knows we’re on the way?” You questioned, trying not to doubt now of all times.

Butcher shrugged, “We’ve already made it this far. We won’t know if he’s there until we get there.”

After about ten more minutes, you finally arrived at your destination. Butcher went for his little black bag and you knew the V was in it. You put a hand over his and he looked at you.

“What?”

“You’re already dying. Don’t make the process speed up. The only supe that’s in there is Soldier Boy and he’s incapacitated.” You said and you reached into the glove box and pulled the gun out.

“Stick around for Hughie for as long as you can.” He looked at you with an oddly soft look, uncharacteristic of him and you didn’t like it but you could tell he was at least trying to let your words set in. You knew he cared for Hughie a lot, and he was kind of the only voice of reason Butcher seemed to have. It kept Butcher human in a way.

But you couldn’t be sentimental much longer after that.

The both of you got out of the car and they already knew you were coming. Some of the guards were already holding up their weapons and you raised up your hands as a wall of rock and dirt appeared between you and Butcher and the guards. Then with a pushing motion, the wall you created plunged forward and knocked all of the guards down.

When that happened, you already started to feel a little lightheaded. You supposed you weren’t completely at full capacity after the incident at Vought’s tower. But you couldn’t focus on that right now. You had to get Ben out of there. The sooner, the better.

You lifted a boulder and you threw it into the door, breaking a gaping hole into the building and you and Butcher came in. Butcher started shooting at even more of the guards. It was nice to know that even if he didn’t have much of a choice in this matter, he still had your back to a certain extent.

When you caught a glimpse of some people rushing down the hall across your path and you had a feeling you ought to follow them. You bit down on your bottom lip before you started running into that direction.

“What’s happening?” You heard someone call.

“It’s Soldier Boy. He’s trying to break free again. He’s already snapped the leather straps on one of his arms again.”

“Who the hell was watching him?!”

You didn’t care to hear the rest of that conversation because you knew they’d try to get Ben back into that vault. So you followed them and you slammed your fist against the floor.

“W-What was that?!”

“Quake! She’s here!” One of the scientists said and when you looked up you saw the look of terror on their faces. You smirked a little before you put your hands in the crack in the floor you created before you pulled your hands apart, thus splitting the floor open and they fell into the hole. You left it opened so they could at least try to get out on their own.

Then you ran to the other end of the hall, desperately looking for any sign of Ben.

You could feel something tickling your nose and rolling down and as you ran, you lifted a hand to your nose and looked down. You noticed the blood. “Fuck, not now.”

You shook it off and you rubbed your nose before you continued running. That was when you ran past a window where a light was beginning to glow. You opened the door and you saw that some scientists were frantically trying to keep a mask over Ben.

“Ben!” You exclaimed and you caught a glimpse of his gaze. Your eyes locked and then you diverted your attention to the scientists who were working but some of them went to you and they were coming towards you.

They were trying to corner you and you glanced around to see what exactly you could do but then you saw a scalpel. You picked it up and you started stabbing the scientists. As they cried in pain while gripping their arms or sides, you lifted another hand and twisted your wrist a little to try and take a chunk of the wall closest to them and you pushed them out of the room.

The last two scientists that were once hovering over Ben were coming at you. But then your vision was starting to get blurry no matter how hard you were trying to focus as they were coming at you. One of them tackled you to the ground and you were trying to fight them off with the scalpel.

One of them managed to take the scalpel from you and they held it up against your throat but then before you knew it, they went flying somewhere and you thought you heard some kind of crash. Sounded like one of them landed on a table or something, but you couldn’t really be sure.

But when you looked up, you saw Ben was the one hovering over you.

“Y/N, come on. Wake up. You can’t black out now.” You could hear his voice, hearing a twinge of concern and you knew he was right. This wasn’t over yet.

You could tell from the slight strain in his voice he must’ve gone through some sort of Hell of his own these past couple of days. But you couldn’t focus on that right now. It was getting harder to focus on anything but you started to get up and you felt Ben’s hand grip your arm as he basically dragged you up from the ground.

“How are you feeling?” He asked you and you nodded your head slightly, not wanting to move it too much because you felt like your head would explode if you did.

“Fine. Let’s get out of here.” You said and as you were rubbing your eyes to try and get them to focus again, Ben must’ve taken one of the doctor’s scrub pants because when you opened your eyes again, he had a pair of those light blue pants on and some poor guy was sitting there with nothing to cover his lower half.

You and Ben rushed out of the room and you could hear some gunshots.

“Come on, we have to find Butcher.” You said.

“Wait, you brought that asshole with you?” Ben asked.

“Ben, I had to. He was the only one that I could get to tell me where Mallory lived so I could even find this place. Can we talk about that later?” You said.

The two of you began running and that was when you saw a glimpse of Mallory trying to get out of the building and you glared, “Oh Hell no.”

Just as she made it outside, you rushed outside as well. Then you lifted your hands and several boulders appeared from the ground and you used them to crush each and every car that the woman could have possibly used to escape. There were about six vans, three cars, and two cargo vans that must’ve been used for the equipment they used to torture Ben. Every one of them were nothing but useless car parts now.

You saw Grace look back at you before she tried to run off and you clenched your fist and pulled your hand to yourself. Just as you did, the earth rose up and grasped Grace before pulling her to yourself. You rotated your wrist and the earth moved to make the old woman face you.

“I thought of all people, you’d know how much Soldier Boy meant to me. You even worked with me to bring Vought down just to prove they were the ones behind his whole so called death charade. To think you’d be one of the ones that would try to take him from me again.” You said and Mallory looked at you.

When we figured out what we needed to, we would have given him up.” Mallory said and you scoffed.

“If it were up to you, you would have given me a rotting carcass.” You continued.

“How far did you get, huh? What exactly have you found?” You asked and she shook her head.

“I haven’t found anything other than the Novichok because of Frenchie.” She said and you glared as you tightened your fist, causing the earth to act as an iron maiden, threatening to pierce the old woman’s body.

“I swear! Radiation does nothing but strengthen his energy blasts. Vapors just act as an anesthetic to keep him stabilized. That’s all I know.”

“Good… that’s the last thing you’ll ever find out about him.” You promised and with a snap of your fingers, the spikes went through Mallory’s body. She didn’t even have the chance to scream before the life left her eyes.

When you released the earth’s grip on her body, she plopped to the ground almost like a sack of potatoes. She was nothing but a bloody mess with holes in her clothes where her wounds were.

“Y/N! What did you do?!” Butcher called out.

When you turned around, you saw both Ben and Butcher walking forward. But everything that’s happened in the last several moments took a lot from you. The blurriness returned and that was the last you remembered.

Ben’s eyes widened when he saw you start to fall and he started running to you.

“Fucking Hell.” Ben said as he caught you just in time, knowing you must’ve overdone it. Your recovery time must’ve gotten longer since the tower. This whole rescue thing didn’t help at all.

“She bloody killed Mallory!” Butcher exclaimed and Ben glared.

“Like you’ve never killed anyone before.” Ben reminded.

Ben noticed Butcher went over to the woman and watched as Butcher sighed a little.

“She was ready to see her family though. She’d been ready for a long time.” Butcher said and Ben just let out a hum, not really interested as he looked down at you.

He put his hand on the pile point in your neck and let out a breath of relief. Then, Ben looked over at the building that had kept him the past several days. He carefully laid you down on the ground for a moment before he focused his energy to his center again. Afterwards, the next thing he knew there was another explosion and the building and everything inside was destroyed.

“You’ve gotten better at that, haven’t you?” Butcher said and Ben looked over at the man in the coat.

“I guess.” He said before Ben turned his attention back to you. He knelt down at your side before he took you into his arms again and he stood up. He felt the way your body leaned into his chest and he was honestly glad you found him. But he needed to get you some place safe so you could recover.

“You think she’ll be alright?” Butcher asked as he walked over but Ben could sense the sort of caution Butcher had.

“You know I’m not a ticking time bomb, right? Yeah, she’ll be okay. Just need to get her somewhere safe so she could rest up.” Ben said.

Butcher rubbed the back of his neck. A part of him didn’t want to help Soldier Boy since he would have killed Ryan if he had the chance, but aside from the threat you made, you were alright for a supe he supposed. You weren’t his favorite person in the world, but you did promise to keep Soldier Boy accountable and you said you’d stay away from everyone’s families if you got Soldier Boy back.

“Come on… I know a thing or two about stealing cars. I’ll give you a card and you can get her to a hotel to rest up.” Butcher said.

Ben looked up at Butcher, almost wondering if this was some kind of joke or if this was some trick. Could you blame him for being hesitant when the man turned on him back in the tower?

“Why? I didn’t kill Homelander and Y/N killed your little friend.” Ben said.

“If she can keep somebody like you in line when you can’t be killed, then we need her around. The world does. Just don’t let anyone here catch you around. Especially MM. He still wants to kill you.” Butcher said.

“Now are you coming or not?”

Ben was still skeptical about this whole thing, but he knew he didn’t have any other choice. So he nodded and he carried you out to Butcher’s car and the three of you rode somewhere to try and steal someone’s car from some gas station or something.

Ben was sitting down beside you on the bed while you rested. By that time, Ben had already used the card to buy himself some clothes so he wasn’t wandering around in scrub pants. He was wearing some t-shirt and some sweatpants and he had some socks on his feet.

Other than that, he hadn’t left your side. He wanted to make sure he was there for you whenever you’d wake up. Although he knew it may take a little longer than he wanted to. Still, it had been several hours since the both of you left Mallory’s little lab or whatever. It couldn’t be too much longer now, could it?

He gazed at your figure and he reached out to brush a stray hair away from your face. Then he moved to reach for the remote on the night stand so there would be some kind of background noise rather than the silence.

Ben looked over at the television and noticed some trailers for some new movies were out. He rolled his eyes a little. There were times where he got really tired of seeing supe movies. So Ben used the remote to try and find something worth watching. Then he saw a black and white film, something that took him back in time.

He recognized Clark Gable and Doris Day on the screen and it made him smile when he was able to at least recognize those faces, even if they weren’t exactly his favorite actors. The movie was apparently called Teacher’s Pet when he saw the title on the screen before it flashed away.

Ben started growing a little more interested in the old movie, there was something about it that felt more familiar to him. Maybe it was because it was something from a familiar time.

“You know, I loved Clark Gable back in the day.” Ben heard a familiar voice say and when he looked down, he saw your beautifully colored eyes opened and on the screen.

He smiled as he turned the volume down since the television switched to some adds now and he turned to face you, “You’re awake.”

“How long was I ou-“ He interrupted you with a kiss, unable to wait any longer.

He could hear you chuckling against his mouth and he slowly pulled away and he looked down at you, “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing…. I’m just glad to see you too.” He heard you say and he grinned before he cupped your face in the palm of his hand.

“You over did yourself again.” Ben stated.

“Twice.” You answered.

“I know. You wanna tell me about the tower?” He asked and you shook your head a little.

“Not much to tell. You went out the window, I went to panic mode that switched to some kind of rage mode. I’m surprised I was awake right after. I looked for you but realized I hat to run. Found some abandoned building to crash in and I crashed there for a while. The first two days I felt like I’d puke if I even thought about standing. By day three I was able to at least walk.” You said and Ben sighed.

“You really shouldn’t use your powers for a while.”

“Since when did you become a doctor?” He heard you ask and he saw your smile.

“I’d make a pretty shit doctor. But I’d rather not watch you black out again.” He admitted and you nodded before he felt you move closer to him, so Ben wrapped an arm around your smaller frame.

“What about you? How are you feeling?” Ben heard you question and he smiled a little. But then he remembered some pain killers or whatever other kind of drugs Butcher handed him before he went back to his little group.

“I’m fine. A hell of a lot better now that I’m away from that place. But here, take this. Butcher said it’s supposed to help with whatever migraine you might get.” He said and handed you some water and a couple of pills.

He watched you sit up and you took the pills before you started drinking some water.

“How long have I been out?” You finally asked him and Ben shrugged a little.

“Several hours.”

“So… what do we do from here?” He heard you ask and he chuckled a little.

“I thought you would have thought about it a little more. What’s the situation with your house? Couldn’t we just go back there?” Ben asked but then he watched you shake your head.

“No, Vought got to it and destroyed pretty much everything. Honestly, I think our best bet may be leaving the country.” You admitted and Ben frowned at that idea.

“You really think we have to go to that extreme? Mallory remained off the radar for several years and so did you, and you were able to stay in the states.” Ben stated, you hummed a little.

“Yeah, but I’m not sure if I can go into hiding again so soon. Who knows if Vought has people all over the country looking for me. Maybe even you if word were to get out that you’re alive.” You said.

“You act like Vought’s got a shit ton of snipers crawling all over the place.” Ben sighed and you shrugged.

“Who knows… you never know what Vought has up their sleeves. And I really don’t want to stick around and find out.” You said.

“If we’re out of the country for at least a year, maybe two. That way Vought thinks we’re out of the picture and it opens some sort of door for us to come back. You know they’re all about their fake deaths for supes they lose or force into retirement. Until then, maybe we can travel. It could be really fun.” You continued.

“Traveling.. might sound alright for a while. At least until things quiet down a bit. People already think I’m dead because of Vought I’m sure.” Ben commented and he watched you nod, confirming his statement.

“So where do you think we should go first?” You asked and Ben felt you place a hand on his own, causing him to grin as he intertwined your fingers.

“As long as we aren’t in Russia, I’ll be happy.” Ben reminded.

“Well, I kind of figured that would be a given… what about Ireland?” You suggested and Ben thought about it for a moment.

“You know what? I think that sounds like a great idea.”

Ben watched the way you smiled softly and he leaned down and placed a soft kiss on your forehead while you snuggled closer to him. He looked down at you, loving the fact that you were in his arms again.

“Thank you.. for coming and saving me.” He whispered and you hummed softly.

“Ben, that’s not anything to thank me for. When you love someone, you’d do anything to make sure they’re safe. I lost you once when you went out of the country, then again at Vought when Queen Maeve pushed you out of that window. I couldn’t lose you again after I just got you back.” You insisted.

Ben’s gaze softened. If he wasn’t mistaken, that may have even been the first time you said you loved him, even if it was in some sort of descriptive way. He knew you loved him based on the letters you’ve written him over the years, but he’s never heard you actually say it.

“God, you’re nothing like Crimson Countess, are you?” Ben chuckled and you rolled your eyes.

“I don’t think I could hate you nearly as much as she did.” You replied, he hummed as he looked down at you, observing your features.

“My world would crumble if you hated me half as much as she did. Then it would completely disappear if anything were to happen to you, if I lost you.” He admitted.

There was a change in the dynamic between the two of you in that moment, a shift in the atmosphere in a way. It was something the two of you hadn’t been able to sit and relish in ever since he came back. The two of you had been so preoccupied with his mission of killing the members of Payback, then the Homelander fiasco, then you rescuing him from Mallory’s lab.

“You know… when I woke up and heard the TV… a part of me wondered if everything that’s happened this past week and a half has been a dream.” You admitted.

“How do you mean?” Ben said gently.

“I mean… You’ve been gone for so long… I spent years in my house writing all of those letters. I’ve spent countless nights dreaming of what it would be like if you were to come back. This whole endeavor… A part of me thought after Mallory’s lab, that was just the end of another dream. A part of me wonders if I’ll ever get over the surrealism.”

Ben chuckled, “You really must’ve worn yourself out if you’re still thinking it was all a dream after this whole time.”

“Well, Ben… why don’t you show me how real all of this is?” You asked him, then a smirk started to appear on Ben’s face.

“With pleasure.” Ben said as he leaned down for a kiss. A kiss that would surely take your breath away and show you that this was reality. That this would be your new reality for the rest of your life and that you’d never lose him again.

After so many decades of being away from Ben, you knew what it was like to wander the earth as if you’d lost your other half. You knew how it felt to be so alone for so many years. You’ve felt out of place for so long but with Ben in your grasp again, you felt whole, complete. It was a happiness you hadn’t felt in so long and you were glad you finally had the man you loved beside you again and you couldn’t wait to see how the next several decades would treat the both of you.

It would certainly be an adventure, one you were more than eager to share with Ben for the rest of your life.

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feroshgirlsims · 4 months ago

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Chapter 7.2 - You Can't Go Home

AKIRA

As they filter off the train, the smell of iron gets further away and Akira finally begins to relax.

He asks her a ton of questions, partly because he's curious and partly because he wants to keep the focus off himself. Alice is in the middle of talking about her class when her body goes rigid.

Akira scans for a threat but comes up empty. Train stations are generally pretty clear of supernatural creatures, except low-level spellcasters and baby vampires at night. They aren’t much use when you can transportalate, turn into a bat, or run for miles in wolf form. And the fae avoid them altogether.

“You good?”

She flinches when he reaches for her hand. “I-I’m fine,” Her smile doesn’t quite reach her eyes. “Do you smoke? Weed, I mean, not cigarettes. I…I think I’m gonna smoke. Do you wanna come with me?”

“I thought you said you had to turn this assignment in,” he reminds her.

She stares across the platform, but he still can’t figure out what she’s looking at.

“I’ll do it later. And you don’t have to come. That was weird of me to peer pressure you,” her laugh comes out high-pitched and wrong, “You're probably busy. I’m good. I’m gonna go. And you’ll go, and I’ll just see you later.”

She's babbling and her hands are shaking. There is no universe where he just leaves her like this.

“Yeah, I smoke," he takes her hand and leads her to the exit. "And I got time. No classes, remember?”

Akira has been to the Commons a few times (for creeper reasons), but he's never climbed the tower. The air is especially crisp, but Alice doesn't seem bothered by it.

Despite resisting earlier, he finds himself wishing she would extract some promise from him—some commitment to keep him tied to her. It's a terrible idea. He knows better. Akira has always been careful not to break one of the rules he’d learned by brute force.

“This is a shit weed,” he coughs.

“Hey!” Alice playfully points an accusatory finger, “I invite you to my secret perch and share my paltry stash, and you insult me?”

“You need a new dealer if this is your stash.”

“And a new bank account!” She laughs. “Try to chillax, my dude; you are working against the medicinal benefits.”

He tries. His lungs fill, but it takes three more rounds of coughing before he evens out. Alice, meanwhile, is a professional. She barely coughs, though she's had twice as much as him. He's not even sure she's high.

"Why photography?" he asks when she joins him on the bench.

"Most of the time, I get asked about painting; no one even thinks about photography."

He shrugs, "Your focus isn’t Fine Arts. Why am I gonna ask you about something you don’t do? You want me to guess?" When she nods, he waves a hand across the sky, pretending to paint a picture. "Art lets you remake the world in a more pleasing image, which is kind of nice because the world is shit. But you do photography because you want the shitty stuff upfront. No lies. You'd rather tango with the truth."

She straightens, suddenly alert. "Maybe. Kind of. But photography is also lies. All you do when you snap a picture is capture a moment in time. You can still tell yourself a story about the emotion you saw or what really happened. It's just a different kind of lie from painting."

The weed is definitely kicking in, but he likes her explanation.

"So what are you studying?" she asks.

Direct questions are the hardest to dodge. Especially now when he feels like he’s floating a hundred feet in the air. "I'm studying nothing," he says honestly. "I just follow what interests me."

"Why?"

"Because I have a lot of time." Infinite, actually, if he kept his head attached to his body and didn't end up on the wrong side of a curse.

"If I had time, that's what I'd do too. And catch up on back seasons of 7 Wild Dates."

Akira laughs, "Stop. I changed my mind. That show is moving to the bottom of my watch list."

“Don’t be mean!” Alice sticks out her tongue, "That's quality programming you're missing."

They smoke more and talk about nothing, which feels like talking about everything because Alice leaps from topic to topic. She knows a little about a vast number of subjects, like knowledge for her is a series of wading pools and she's just hopping from one body of water to another.

It's how Akira operates too. Once he gets the gist of something, he's ready to move on.

“Tell me one thing about you so you can stop accusing me of hanging out with a stranger," she says, "Where are you from?”

A flash of pink sky.

A veil that never seems to part.

A home he can’t get back to.

The yearning is so real he jolts. “What if I told you that nothing about me or my life is what it seems? And because I don’t want to lie to you, you’re probably gonna find I won’t answer all your questions. Maybe any of them.”

Alice thinks for a minute. “I guess I’d say tell me what you can, not what you can’t.”

Akira wants to praise her wordplay. He wants to kiss her. He does neither.

“I love horror movies,” he confesses, “When I was like, 10, I snuck into the Moonlight Massacre Marathon at the theater downtown, and I was fuckin’ hooked.”

The whole story comes tumbling out, even the part about Titania being a little shit and ratting him out to their parents. Alice laughs and complains about her step-sibling, and Akira viciously guards every drop of information she shares with him.

“I like horror movies too. If I throw in Moonlight Massacre II, will that elevate 7 Wild Dates on your watch list?”

His phone buzzes with a reminder about tonight’s job. He gets to his feet. “Next time,” he tells her.

“You promise?”

A promise is a dangerous thing.

—A binding thing.

A vow.

No promises.

Akira nods, “Yeah, I promise.”

PREV | NEXT

(Part 3 of 4)

#ts4 #simblr #The Save File Chronicles #Season 1 #POV: Character Name #Sims 4 Story #tw: panic attack #tw: drugs #akira is down so bad #its honestly ridiculous

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retphienix · 1 month ago

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Well heck yeah :)

I finally beat a game I loved as a kid :)

So I'll say a few things on the whole run instead of just the ending :P

Surprise surprise, Kirby isn't really a hard game series at base line, but I DEFINITELY see where the hang ups were as a kid- 64 has a few more challenging moments (comparatively) that's for sure!

Some instant death crushing that kid me DEFINITELY despised for one, and those final two bosses for Shiver and Ripple aren't kidding around by asking the player to care more than not at all about their positioning when attacking (yes, basic stuff, but they got me!).

I FULLY get why kid me couldn't beat Shiver's robot boss and just kept loading the 100% save to play on, he killed me a few times here too!

He isn't like "CHALLENGE challenging" (not that he would be better or worse if he was, heck actually maybe he'd be worse because that doesn't fit the adventure in the slightest) but both him and the final bosses first form ask you to just. Not run into them when you attack them (Robot's slamming hands and the die eye's body after he transitions back to it) and something about that goes against my Kirby 64 instinct to "PRESS THE ATTACK BUTTON WHILE JUMPING TOWARDS ENEMY" lol

Basically, kid and adult me both treat this game as if pressing the attack button makes me invincible forever because 99% of enemies react that way, but bosses and a few enemies don't, so despite my brain screaming "Just Position Yourself Next To Them And Attack" I kept leaping into them and taking damage for no reason lol

Not sure why adult me continued that trend when I.... recognized it, but hey, Robot only killed me like once (or maybe twice?) before I corrected myself and the Die....

Well the Die killed me like 10 times because you can 'basically' leap into him for 2 of the 3 hits each form takes (because he'd either avoid hitting you by accident or the specific power kind of bounced you off) and something about that destroyed my brain's ability to process "But the 3rd hit he'll revert to the Die and you'll take damage so don't do that!" and I'd just keep doing that.

Lemming.

Anyways anyways, the main game of Kirby 64 fuckin' rules. Always has. It's chill like the entire time and playing with the abilities is a blast every time.

Like I want to go on and on about that but like, what do I say? This is the Kirby game where you can slap together 7 base abilities (which are great just on their own) into 49 combos, which + the 7 is 56 different abilities.

It rules!

You have powerful ones, referential ones, silly ones, just plain bad ones, it's awesome!

The game having such an incredibly Full toybox like this is why it was one of my favorite games to just turn on and jiggle the sticks as a kid. I never needed to progress because the best part was just seeing what 2 powers became and then using it for a while against a few levels :)

But yeah, beyond that my childhood memory was around collecting the enemy info cards (I got a ton on this run) because I loved having a little collectible to go after, and the AWESOME multiplayer mini-games.

This was the era of nintendo games often having tacked on completely "pointless" (the point is fun with friends!!!) multiplayer modes and I LOVED it.

The best will always be the block one because my sister and I would just play this against each other for like an hour at a time, just tossing in a stray run of catching fruits or jumping to break it up, but always returning to the fun as heck block drop.

Anyways this was a lot of fun to return to :)

I suppose there's a boss rush, and finishing my enemy dex, if I ever get the itch again- and I might :) Or when I get that itch I'll just take a couple hours out of my day to 100% the game again because despite taking a few days on the blog- that was with pacing myself and taking the time to record segments for gifs- the game is a delightful breeze of a playthrough all things considered- very digestible if beating it is your intent :P

Good time, this was a joy to cross off my list :)

Oh and I included the gif of the rock bomb specifically because I don't remember the hard hat at all- I think kid me never knew about it! I was using the move going "Jeez, I forgot this thing hurt you so much for no reason" and then I found it lol So either I forgot the hat and didn't take damage as a kid, or I never knew about the hat, either way I'm forgetful.

And I double checked the list of powers and can say this replay/first complete playthrough lead me to using every single power at least a little bit EXCEPT I never combined ice and rock for the curling puck lol

Funny that without even trying to specifically explore them this time, I tried nearly every power anyway :)

#retplays #Kirby #Kirby series #kirby 64: the crystal shards #Kirby 64

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naussensei · 6 months ago

Text

Satosugu's First Mission

“Not gonna lie, this is a little depressing.” Said Suguru, kneeling to inspect the lower Ferris wheel carts. “Why did our first mission together have to be in a grim place like this?

“Easy.” Said Satoru, he was doing the same thing on the other side of the ride. “Places like this hold large amounts of cursed energy. All the emotions from the people who came here. It lingers.”

“I would’ve thought this was a place for happy memories only.” Suguru said, trying to pry open a rusty door handle. He grimaced as it fell off, and he wiped the rust off his hand with a look of disgust. “Isn’t this where kids come for birthdays or something?”

“And where couples come for dates and stuff. Exactly.” Satoru agreed as he stood up. “But anywhere people gather can turn into a curse hotspot. Subway stations, shopping centers, amusement parks. Just imagine – the kids scared of heights, couples breaking up, parents arguing… the list goes on.”

It was no surprise to Suguru now that Satoru could be quite knowledgeable sometimes. Not that he would ever tell him that to feed his ego, but he could still acknowledge it in his mind.

They continued to inspect the ride together, Satoru in the front, climbing up the next cart, pulling Suguru up. He was just about to keep climbing when something occurred to him.

“So, couples, huh?” He said in the most nonchalant way he could manage, to hide his discomfort with the subject. He didn’t know a single thing about dates, or amusement parks for that matter, he had never been to either of them, and the thought of Satoru having more experience than him was almost humiliating. “Is that like, a thing? People go to theme parks for dates?”

“Duh, obviously.” Satoru said with a confident grin, then paused for a moment. “I mean… I guess. That’s what I’ve heard, anyway.”

Suguru’s curiosity was piqued. “Have you ever been on a date?” he asked.

Satoru scoffed, inspecting the inside of the cart. “Do you think the strongest sorcerer has time for dating?”

Suguru couldn’t help but grin. “So you haven’t.”

“Have you ?” Satoru countered.

“Me?” Suguru said, smiling with resignation. “Do you think the biggest weirdo in the normie world has time for dating?”

Satoru turned to him then, and Suguru was taken aback for a moment. The moonlight poured through the shattered window, casting a faint glow on Satoru’s face. Suguru couldn’t see his eyes behind the shades, which made him feel a bit uneasy, but by Satoru’s expression he seemed to be assessing something carefully, something that Suguru could not quite figure out.

“Fair,” Satoru finally said, and the moment he turned away again, Suguru caught a glimpse of a faint smile. The slightest feeling of satisfaction warmed Suguru’s chest when he did, because for once, he’d made Satoru laugh more than once in a night. Suguru’s own smile grew then, too, because he knew the meaning of that subtle smile. It was the perpetuation of a silent ‘were not that different after all’ that Satoru would never voice, but he didn’t have to.

“By the way… Shoko has never been on a date either.” Satoru said with putty lips, as if that made the situation more acceptable for them. “Not that I know, anyway. I never see her talk to any guys, other than Kusakabe.”

“Uh, right…” Suguru uttered. He had a good idea as to why he hadn’t seen her talking to guys, but he would not be the one to tell him that. For all he knew, Satoru could be interested in her. He’d rather redirect the subject to them again.

“16 and not a single date.” Suguru said, taking a seat on the worn bench to look out the window. “What a bunch of losers.”

“I’m still 15 for your information.”

“Yeah?” Suguru’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “When’s your birthday?”

“Why?” Satoru’s eyebrows rose even higher than his as he grinned. He bent down to Suguru’s eye level. “Are you gonna buy me a present? Otherwise I won’t tell you.”

Suguru sank back into his seat a little, yet held his grin. “Sure. I may, actually. That’s… if we don’t die tonight.”

“Dumbass.” Satoru scoffed, rising to kick Suguru softly on the shin. “Nobody is dying tonight.”

He collapsed on the seat in front of him, hands still in his pockets, the weak cart wobbling a little as he did. Then he looked outside the broken window. Suguru did so as well.

The night was still as ever, a cool breeze seeped through the hole in the window. It was dark and cold, but somehow, it was not unpleasant at all. Suddenly, Suguru did not feel like moving anywhere.

“December 7th,” said Satoru all of a sudden.

It took a moment for Suguru to realize he was talking about his birthday. “I’ll keep that in mind,” he said with a smile.

Satoru cocked his head at him. “Yours?”

“February 3rd.” Suguru shrugged, giving him an apologetic smile. “Turned 15 this year.”

“Ah, that’s not fair.”

“You kinda already gave me a birthday present.” Said Suguru, taking out his new phone from his pocket.

“Oh, that’s right!” Satoru said excitedly, moved to sit beside him and take the phone from him, no permission asked whatsoever. His face glowing with an excitement that Suguru could not relate to, but enjoyed watching in Satoru either way. “Did you change your wallpaper already? What tune did you customize it with?”

“I haven’t.” Admitted Suguru, slowly taking his phone back and moving closer to the window to make some space between them, and felt that if he moved any further he would fall out the cart. “We’re on a mission, Satoru. Now it’s not the–”

“Oh, give me that. It takes five seconds. I’ll send you one from my phone.” Said Satoru, his fingers already working on it before Suguru could even decline.

Suguru watched him do so in silence. It was a good thing at least one of them seemed to be entertained.

“Here you go, loser.” Satoru said as he threw his phone back to Suguru with a playful smile.

“Thanks.” Suguru chuckled. “So, how does it feel to know you're just as much of a loser as I am when it comes to dating?”

Satoru rested his hands behind his head and sighed. “Feels pretty fucking terrible, not gonna lie.”

“Hmm,” Suguru brought a hand to his chin and looked up, thoughtfully. “Well, we can count this as a date. Kinda feels like it, doesn’t it?“

“Uh, no… pretty sure it doesn’t.”

“How would you know if you've never been on a date?”

“Right,” Satoru scoffed, “because chasing cursed objects in a shitty place like this sounds very romantic.”

Suguru’s smile was smug. “Didn't take you as a romantic.”

“I’m not.” Satoru elbowed him softly. “Now stop talking and focus on the mission. ”

“Why?” Suguru’s grin grew wider. “Are you embarrassed?”

“I’m not.” Satoru said, averting his gaze, hand still behind his head. “I just wanna get this over with quickly. I don’t want Yaga or Yamato to yell at us for taking so long.”

Suguru leaned forward, seeking Satoru’s avoidant gaze. “We can still count it as a date and feel a little better about ourselves.” He said with a comforting smile, but Satoru had just stood to move out of the cart and begin their descent. Suguru followed closely behind.

“We’ll just omit the part about it being with a friend.” He insisted as they landed on the ground. Seeing that Satoru would not react, he added with a playful wink. “I won’t tell if you don’t tell.”

“Ugh,” Satoru hung his head forward. “Why are you talking so much today? You never talk. I liked you better when you were quiet.”

“Oh?” Suguru speeded up the pace to walk by his side. “Are you saying you did like me before?”

“Do you ever shut up?” Satoru whined as he dragged his feet to continue their way to the next ride.

Suguru circled closely around him to walk on his other side. “But you’re always complaining that I’m too quiet and boring, and that I try to be ‘mysterious’ and don't share enough about myself, and now suddenly you don't want me to talk?”

Satoru rolled his eyes and made a disgusted face. “And you couldn’t have picked a better time than in the middle of a fucking–”

Suguru could not hear the end of Satoru’s sentence. His voice was swallowed by the deafening roar that came from under their feet, the same kind they had heard back in the shopping mall earlier, but several times louder and more unsettling. They looked at the ground, exchanged a glance, and looked down again. The earth rumbled under their feet briefly, until it went quiet again.

“What was that?” Suguru said, catching his breath, his heart still jumping in his throat.

“A curse, evidently.” Even Satoru seemed a little startled. Though he quickly composed himself, and was now gazing up at the buildings, eyes moving rapidly, as though machinating a plan.

“Curse?” Suguru chuckled ironically . “More like a giant animal. I thought we were after a cursed object, not freaking Godzilla.”

“It definitely seems like a big one.” Satoru agreed, gaze still upwards as he began to look for a way up. “We should climb higher, to get a better visual. It may not be the only one around.”

“Wait,” Suguru stopped in his tracks, holding Satoru by an arm. “I have an idea.”

From: Our Last Summer in Ao3

#satosugu #satosugu fic #satoru x suguru #geto gojo #gego #goge

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avelera · 9 months ago

Note

How the hell do people think that ANNE RICE is anti sex and homophobic?? TVC is weird sex stuff with queer people the book series??

I have no idea how people got that idea but I have seen posts floating around (mostly during S1) that seemed to be from people who thought that IWTV could "finally" show Lestat/Louis as canonically gay because Anne Rice had passed away or that she would be "rolling in her grave" if she saw Lestat and Louis kiss on screen which is... baffling nonsense of the highest degree. As you know, Lestat and Louis are canonically a couple in the books.

Here's what I think happened:

1)People conflated Anne Rice being anti-fanfic with her being anti-slash shipping. Since many authors of the era did have a problem with fanfic in part because of slash shipping, I can kind of see how this misunderstanding would happen. But no, her issues with fanfic were mostly legal and partially creative (she thought people's time would be better spent writing original works that they could one day publish rather than writing fanfic of her work, but I think that was more her misunderstanding the purpose of fanfic than being necessarily derogatory towards fanfic writers, even if her choice of words was somewhat dismissive, but I digress).

2) I saw one theory that Anne McCaffrey (of the Dragonriders of Pern novels) and Anne Rice might have been conflated, which again, kind of makes sense since they were popular during the same era? Supposedly (I can't confirm this) Anne McCaffrey was very against slash shipping of her characters so that might have got mixed in with the whole Anne 90s-Author is against slash fanfic game of telephone.

3) I only vaguely remember this, but I think a quote of Anne Rice's might have been taken out of context. Something to the effect of Lestat and Louis not needing to be shown kissing or having sex to be a couple. And I think people read it inversely from the meaning. She wasn't saying, "The vampires don't have gay sex." She has almost always said some variation of, "Sex is different for vampires. Blood drinking basically replaces and transcends it, as it replaces and transcends all physical pleasures. Louis and Lestat don't need to have sex in order to be a gay couple. Their existence and love as vampires transcends are our understanding of the physical, it is deeper and more all encompassing and and entirely strange to our understanding of sex and relationships on a physical and spiritual level.

Now, keep in mind, at the time when a creator said, "Oh, these two same-sex characters aren't gay their bond transcends sexuality." They were sidestepping and meant, "I'm uncomfortable with same sex relationships and only want to see them as friends." Anne Rice absolutely did not mean that ^ . Anne Rice wrote tons of queer erotica in addition to her queer supernatural novels. When Anne Rice said, "They transcend gender and their sexuality is completely untranslatable to ours." She wasn't being like "So they're not gay." She wasn't saying they were straight either like other creators meant! She was literally, as someone who spent a lot of time thinking and writing about alternate genders and sexualities outside the mainstream, exploring ideas like the fact that if you no longer had the biological imperative to eat, sleep, or reproduce as humans do, your understanding of intimacy and sexuality would change dramatically as well.

(FFS, as you know, Lestat has a relationship with his mother after he turns her because they basically are no longer related at that point, or they are related on completely different levels as fledgling and sire, the whole plotline is tied up in how becoming a vampire is about transcending human norms but also how Lestat is deliberately, gleefully fucking around with taboo and social structure and the forbidden as a matter of course so like... yeah this isn't a one off, the vampire novels are all about how being a vampire means you now naturally break every societal taboo with regards to sex and relationships because you're not human anymore, they become meaningless and therefore we as human readers can also explore the metaphors of gender and sexuality and taboo vicariously and ponder what matters and what doesn't.

I mean, one reason it was so offensive to me to see Anne Rice mistaken as homophobic is that she's basically the reason I'm not homophobic and even felt able to explore my own bisexuality and rejection of gender as a construct after growing up in a conservative household like all you had back then as a teen was Anne Rice and Mercedes Lackey. ANYWAY).

So yeah, this rant got away from me, but while I will say over and over that Anne Rice isn't perfect, there's a lot of things she did in her life that I disagreed with and people have no obligation to like her works or her view of the world, she was actively dabbling in the forbidden and in taboo in ways that might make people justifiably uncomfortable, one way she was doing that was by normalizing same sex relationships way way way before almost anyone else was doing so in genre fiction and that's while I will fight to the death anyone accusing her of homophobia.

#anne rice #the vampire chronicles #iwtv

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rogersevans · 2 years ago

Text

she’s just not that into you

Summary: You were never one for parties, so how did you end up at the biggest frat house on Saturday night?

18+ Content Below the Cut, Minors DNI

masterlist

Parties. Something you’d never gotten the hype over. In your opinion they were filled with alcohol and bad decisions. You’d been to the odd few house parties in high school, you were the person that always found the animal, spending most of the night on floor with them or quietly observing everyone getting shitfaced, whilst also keeping a watchful eye over your best friend. College parties were different, or so your friends had told you, something about them being ‘next level’. The comment alone had piqued your interest which is how you ended up spending your Saturday night in the house of the biggest fraternity on campus, the music so loud you could feel the vibrations under your feet.

Your roommate, and best friend, Robert, had convinced you to come with him. You took pity on him after he’d spent the best part of 5 hours following you around the apartment begging, pleading you. He took great pride in the fact that it only took him that long to convince you, knowing how stubborn you are. That smug smile hadn’t left his lips since you said yes.

It wasn’t like you were a recluse or had no friends. You had plenty of friends, some days you were hardly at home. You’d just never seen the appeal of getting shitfaced at a party with people you didn’t really talk to or plan to talk to in the future. Although, watching people make idiots of themselves was somewhat amusing to you.

“Having fun, flower?” Robert husked in your ear, his hands resting firmly on your hips, holding you close to him and giving them a reassuring squeeze.

“Tons.” You deadpanned, leaning your head back against his shoulder to speak into his ear.

“Come on, flower.” He tried, gripping your chin and turning you to face the crowd of students dancing and having what seems to be the time of their lives. “You’re tellin’ me, this doesn’t look like fun?” His chin resting on your shoulder, turning to look up at you flashing his pearly whites.

“Oh yeah,” you sarcastically started. “Getting shitfaced with a bunch of strangers, who don’t understand personal space seems like a great way to waste our Saturday night.”

Guilt started to build up in the pit of your stomach when you heard Robert huff in annoyance and his face drop slightly. You remembered him telling you that he’d signed up for formal rush with this fraternity, which is why he dragged you along tonight and why going was so important to him. He wanted to make himself known to the guys.

“Sorry, Robbie.” Turning to face him in his hold, cocking your head to the side. “Come on, let’s go get a drink.” Taking his hand in yours you began to lead him through the house, pushing your way through the sea of bodies and various rooms.

Jesus, how big was this fucking house?

“Whatcha drinkin’, my flower?” He husked against the shell of your ear, his hands finding your hips again as he guided you over to the counter were all the alcohol sat in tubs filled with ice to keep them cold.

To anyone looking in from the outside, your friendship looks like something more. You’d both lost count how many times people would assume you were a couple or would insist that you crazy kids should admit your feelings and date already! Robert always joked that if he had a dime for every time someone made that assumption, he’d be able to buy you the world. You’d both given up going out of your way to correct people a long time ago. But you and Robert were purely platonic, with a capital P. You’d grown up together, your fathers were best friends and business partners, and his mother took you in as her own when yours left.

The dynamic of your friendship often intimidated guys, which explained why you were still painfully single at the ripe age of 19. Downey was the biggest walking cock block around.

It wasn’t malicious though, not in the slightest. Robert was protective of you and guys often didn’t believe that two people of the opposite sex could be that close without sleeping with one another. But you were like his baby sister- he's older than you by three months, a fact he never lets you forget. Someone has to vet the guys you date, look out for you. As Robert always phrased it.

“Surprise me, handsome.” You hummed as he moved around you, your eyes catching the sign taped to the cupboard above the drinks: ‘Flavour Station’, making you snort.

“You really not having fun?” Robert eyed you as he poured your drinks.

“Ask me in an hour.” You couldn’t help but wince at the amount of vodka he put in the red solo cup before adding lemonade. “Jesus Rob! Are you trying to get me drunk or give me alcohol poisoning!?” Your high-pitched squeak caused the brunette to roll his eyes in response.

“Don’t be such a party pooper.” Jutting out his bottom lip before leaning over the counter and tapping your nose with his index finger. “Maybe you’ll actually get laid, show off the girls.” His right eye dropped into a lazy wink before dodging your clenched fist, which was aiming for his shoulder.

“You’re a pig.”

“What?! You have a great pair of tits, and you should be proud of them, I know I am.” Rolling your eyes as he continued his rambling about your chest, plucking the red solo cup from his grasp and lifting it to your lips. “They really came into their own, it was touch and go for a short while. But they really pulled through.” Before taking a sip, you leant forward again to flick him on his forehead. “Ow! Hey!” He huffed out, rubbing the spot you’d just flicked. “Ask any guy at this party, they’ll say the same.” He now leaned in, his voice lowering as his spoke. “They’ve been starring at your tits for the past hour, flower.”

His words going straight to your cheeks, them now deepening in colour slightly. You couldn’t stop yourself from wrapping your jacket tighter around you, covering your chest from the view of everyone.

You knew this top was too revealing.

“Oh no you don’t!” Robert protested loudly, smacking your hands away and then pointing at you. “Don’t be such a priss.” He instructed firmly. “Or I’m takin the jacket.” Nothing but humour in his tone, he’d never go out of his way to make you feel uncomfortable, knowing how you’re already out of your comfort zone just being here.

That was the amazing thing about Robert, you could be feeling the worst you’ve ever felt. No bra. No make-up. Clad in sweatpants and an old top. He’d still build you up like you’ve just jumped off a runway. Now, whenever you doubted yourself, his words would echo through your mind. “Honestly, flower, take it from someone who adores the female body in every sense of the term... Believe me when I say, I’d do anything for those tits.” Was by far your favourite. Sure, his delivery wasn’t that of a gentleman. But you knew he meant every word.

“Johansson.” Chris called, his gazed fixated on you from across the room. When he was met with no response, he let out a low whistle, snapping his fingers in the general direction of his best friend and her date. “Johansson.” He sang now, his eyes finally leaving you before falling to the blonde who currently had some guy whispering something in her ear. Chris didn’t need super abilities to understand what he was saying, the look in Scarlett’s eyes said it all.

His blue eyes fell back onto you, his pulse jumping at the sight of your cheeks tinging in colour at something the guy you’d been clung to since you arrived said. Not being able to control the jealousy that oozed off him at the memory of you pressed against his front, as he whispered something in your ear.

He remembered you, how could he not? You’d approached him when he was in the middle studying for a test he had that morning, leaving it to the last possible minute. As usual. He remembered the flustered look on your face, your cheeks warm as you blew a stray piece of hair out of your face. You’d asked him for directions to the library, a small pile of books tucked under one arm whilst the other clutched the strap of your bag on your shoulder. The baby blue sweater you wore displayed the curves of your upper body perfectly, your jeans clinging to your thighs deliciously. It took him a few seconds to gather himself before answering, standing to his feet and pointing you in the direction of the library, standing closer than he should’ve. Your perfume clouding his senses when you moved to look in the direction he was pointing, the very existence of you had the front of jeans tightening.

He felt enamoured with you in those brief seconds, resisting the urge to follow you.

The memory alone had him salivating. “Scarlett.” His tone a lot harsher now, tugging on her elbow not caring how impatient or annoying he was being. “Oi, Cassanova. Detach yourself for a hot minute, yeah?” His stare hard on the stranger, whilst his grip stayed on Scarlett’s elbow.

“Stop being a dick, Evans.” The unnamed date sneered in Chris’s direction; Scarlett probably did tell him his name, but he didn’t care enough to remember. He’d be gone by morning anyway.

“Don’t even think about it.” Scarlett finally piped up, pushing herself off her date, moving to stand next to Chris. “Go get me a drink, I’m thirsty.” She dismissed him with ease with a simple flick of her perfectly manicured hand, her tone void of emotion. All it took was for her bottom lip to poke out slightly and his shoulders relaxed before delivering a quick peck to her lips, leaving to get her that drink.

The beauty of Chris and Scarlett’s friendship, no one came between them. Ever. No matter who they were. If Chris required her attention, he’d get it. If Scarlett needed help to ditch a date, Chris was always the fake ex-boyfriend who’d show professing his love for her. No stone was left unturned in their friendship, every part of their lives, they shared.

“I’ll never understand how you can be such a raging bitch and still have them at your beck and call.” He watched as she pulled out her pack of smokes, tapping the box against her palm before opening it.

“All straight men are pussy whipped my friend, even you.” Plucking a fresh smoke out of the box and resting it between her lips, fishing out her bright pink lighter from her pocket. “Oh please,” she started when he grimaced at her statement. “I bet when that one girl comes along, you’ll be so pussy whipped, you won’t even realise it.”

Silence fell between the two friends and Scarlett took the time to light her smoke and take the first puff. Chris found his gaze drifting back over to you, now you were laughing. A noise he couldn’t currently hear due to the loudness of the party going on around them, he felt robbed, he wanted to hear your laugh. When you scrunched your nose, your head falling back and the corners of your eyes crinkling slightly, he swore he could feel his heart hammering against his chest.

What the fuck was wrong with him? Was he having a heart attack?

“Now, what was so desperate that you needed to disturb my fun.” Scarlett caught Chris just before his eyes flew back to her, his cheeks flushed the tiniest bit. “Oh! I know that look! Who?” Suddenly giddy, the smoke now resting between her fingers as she scanned the room.

“Her.” Chris moved closer to the blonde, his fingers gripping her chin and turning her head in the direction of you.

“Oh,” she muttered quietly, more to herself. Instantly struck and speechless at your effortless beauty.

“Shes mine Johansson.” Chris warned, letting go of her chin and folding his arms across his chest.

“Relax caveman, I have my entertainment for the night.”

“Just shut up,” shaking his head he huffed out a laugh. “Who is she?” He asked carefully, his eyes falling back to you, again. Not even ashamed of how obvious he was being.

“She’s a freshman. Works at the campus Starbucks, makes a mean iced coffee. Her best friend is Downey, your newest, wannabe pledge.” The beauty of Scarlett Johansson, she could effortlessly give you a three-page report on everyone in this room.

“Downey?” Chris asked suddenly, his brows knotting together in confusion.

“You know that kid who told Billy to go fuck himself after he found him sniffing around her.” Now pointing her manicured fingers at Robert’s back, his head thrown back in laughter to match yours. “He’s a baby pledge.”

“Oh shit, that was him?” Chris was impressed, not everyone had the balls to stand up to Billy, at least not when they were trying to get into the fraternity.

Which meant one thing to Chris, he’s protective. Which also meant he’d be attached at your hip. Making it difficult for Chris to make his move.

Over the years Chris had become known for his reputation around campus. Ladie’s man. But in the most respectful way, he would never lead a girl on, but he would never commit to one either. Every girl on campus wanted to be the one to change him, swearing they can squash his commitment issues.

It’s a long running bet that Scarlett and Anthony had set up secretly at the start of junior year of college. A bet Anthony was currently winning. There had been a close call a year back, when Chris had spent half a year dating the same girl. But that swiftly ended when she asked him to meet her parents over Thanksgiving break. Putting Anthony back in the lead.

“Yup. Remember Billy’s face?” She snickered, taking a puff of her cigarette, blowing the smoke out in front of her. “That shit was hilarious. Billy nearly shit his pants.”

“Yeah, yeah. What else do you know about her?”

“Well, she’s friends with Lizzie’s younger sisters. I’ve seen them around campus together.” Chris inwardly cringed at the thought of you running in the same circle as his ex-girlfriend, the only one he’s ever had.

Elizabeth Olsen. The only girl to ever pin Chris Evans down. They dated for 3 years, breaking up the summer before junior year. They met through Scarlett and Chris turned into a lovesick fool within seconds of meeting her. The only girl Chris Evans had loved. But things had become stagnant in their relationship, becoming more like friends than lovers. When things ended it was friendly, both still wanting to maintain a friendship.

“I don’t really see her at parties.” Scarlett continued, stubbing her cigarette out in the ashtray on the table next to her. “Must be her first one.”

“Yeah,” Chris mumbled more to himself than anything. His eyes fixed on you, a soft smile tugging at the corners of his mouth as he watched you scrunch your nose up in distaste at a couple in the corner all over one another.

“So, see anyone you like?” You ask, leaning across the counter and resting your chin on your palm. Your eyes going wide as you spot a couple in the corner devouring each other, your nose scrunching up at the view of her leg hitched up and wrapped around her date's waist. “Jeez.”

“Jealous?” Robert asked, smirking down at you. “Poor flower.” Reaching over to pat your head condescendingly, “want someone to ravish you like that?”

The snort that follows his question is loud and obvious, shoving his hand away from you and moving to stand up straight. The alcohol you’ve consumed has made you relax significantly, even if the drink is 90% vodka, 10% lemonade. “Jealous?” Scoffing at Robert’s shrug of his shoulder’s. “Please, he’s practically licking the inside of her mouth. She’s a girl, not a washing machine.” It was Robert’s turn to snort with laughter.

It was like a sudden blip had happened. He wasn’t there, and then he was. His bright, blue eyes a striking contrast to the black t-shirt he had on. The sleeves stretching delightfully around his bulked out biceps. You couldn’t help but focus on the St Christopher pendant that rested just above his collar bones, it swayed as he moved-

Wait. Was he walking towards you? Shit.

Your eyes locked onto his, the smug smirk that was greeting you was a dead giveaway that he’d clocked you shamelessly admiring him.

“Downey!” Chris suddenly cheered, bypassing you and holding his hand out to the brunette at your side. “Our newest pledge...” He trailed off; his smile didn’t quite reach his eyes but crinkles formed at the corner of his cobalt's nonetheless.

“H-hey, Chris.” Robert stuttered nervously, taking his hand and giving it a firm shake.

“This is my friend, Scarlett.” Chris nodded towards the blonde that was stood in the doorway, leaning against the doorframe and looking incredibly intimidating. You don’t know if it was the way she was starring you down, her green eyes bright with, excitement? Or the way her blonde hair, which was shoulder length, flowed perfectly with a simple twitch of her head.

“Best friend.” She corrected smugly, a twitch of a smug smile pulling at the corners of her lips. You couldn’t pull yourself to look away from her, your eyes widening slightly when she took a few steps closer to you. “You got a name, little one?”

You felt your lips move but you couldn’t remember any sound coming out of them, but you must have because you watched as Scarlett repeated your name, her head cocked to the side. “That’s a pretty name. Do you smoke, little one?” You felt your cheeks heat up at her close proximity, watching as she reached into her jacket pocket to pull out her pack of smokes.

“Depends on what you’re smoking.” You startled yourself at how confident you sounded, your eyes looking over her shoulder to find Robert and Chris, pouring four shots.

“Oh!” The blonde perked up even more, her eyes lighting up in excitement, the green twinkling under the dim lighting of the kitchen. “You’re more of a green smoker!” When you nodded silently, she continued. “Well colour me surprised! You don’t give off pot head vibes.”

“I give off vibes?”

Scarlett opened her mouth to respond, her new cigarette resting between her middle and index fingers. But was interrupted by the boys making their way back over to you both, Robert and Chris flanking either side of you. Chris’s cologne filling your senses, his hard chest rubbing against your arm.

“Hi beautiful.” He rasped in your ear, the nickname making you visibly tense.

You couldn’t stop your nose from scrunching up in distaste, shuffling back and pressing your back against Robert’s chest. “What did you just call me?”

“Shit,” you heard Robert curse under his breath. “Flower, he’s just being nice, have a drink?” He tried to calm you, his voice soothing in your ear. He held up the shot glass in front of you to try and tempt you, but you were too irked by Chris’s tone to listen.

Robert liked to pride himself on looking after you, making sure no harm came to you under his watch. But he knew that you could handle yourself, the number of times he’s witnessed you putting guys in check when they’ve crossed that line. He remembers how close you were to ripping that dick, Billy, a new asshole when he wouldn’t take no for an answer.

“Beautiful?” Chris asked, his brows knotted in confusion.

“Hmm,” you started, tapping Robert’s arm to lower the shot. “That work on all the girls? Let me guess, you deepen your voice, invade their personal space and flash those pearly whites and they’re putty in your hands?” Your head now cocked slightly, and your hip jutted out as you rested your hands firmly on them, narrowing your eyes in on him.

You tried to ignore the way his eyes drew you in, the way they glinted in excitement as you questioned him, not even hurt that you’re smart enough not to fall for his usual tack ticks that would have girls clinging onto his arm at this point. His lips looked so inviting as they stretched into a wide grin, the way his grin turned into a smirk within seconds had your head spinning.

“Let me guess,” he handed Scarlett the second shot which they both knocked back with ease in unison, placing the empty shot glasses on the counter. “That’s not going to work on you?”

“Bingo.” Now it was your turn to smile and Chris swore he felt the world stop turning at the sight.

“Oh shit, dingus.” Scarlett snorted, now stood by Chris’s side, her small hand gripping his forearm as her eyes danced between you both, waiting with bated breath. “I like her! I like you.” Pointing at you with a wide grin.

“Can I get you a drink, sweetheart?” It was like the confidence had come surging back into his body, never had he been rendered speechless by a girl. Not even Lizzie could do that to him, he always found a quippy comeback.

“Try again.” You tsked, taking a step closer to him.

“Princess?” He tried, a smug grin now on display. “Gorgeous?”

“How are you so bad at this, my guy?” Jutting your bottom lip out and taking another step closer, you don’t miss the way his eyes carefully watch as you reach out to rub his arm sympathetically. “Don’t worry champ, some people are just meant to be single.”

In the moment Chris knew he had to have you, no matter what. Everything about you was so intoxicating and he could practically feel himself falling head first. The urge to lean into your touch had him come crashing back down to earth. Your hand still resting there on his arm, creating a warmth through the fabric of his t-shirt. His mouth suddenly dry.

Ignoring the snickering from Robert and Scarlett, you gave Chris a sympathetic, but smug smile, giving his bicep a quick squeeze before stepping around him to leave.

“Is she always like this?” You heard Scarlett ask. “I just thought she was some shy freshman.”

Robert took a couple of seconds to compose himself before he answered with a simple yes, nothin’ shy about her. Both now holding their stomachs as they continued to laugh.

“Wait, firecracker.” You heard Chris call after you, stopping you dead in your tracks before turning on your heels to face him. “Better?” He asked in surprise when he noticed your brows shoot up.

“Surprisingly so.” Was all you said, folding your arms across your chest. You watched as Chris fought with himself internally to not let his eyes drift down to your cleavage and that filled with you an odd sense of pride, your chest practically blooming with it.

He nodded his head towards the drinks behind him, his hands now stuffed into his pockets as he bounced on the balls of his trainers. “Let me get you that drink.”

“He’s not going to give up, is he?” Robert whispered to Scarlett, his eyes never leaving the pair of you.

“Not a chance.”

“What makes you think I’m not capable of getting my own drink?” You quipped back.

“I never said-”

“I couldn’t possibly know how to pour a drink, right?” You insisted, watching him start to fumble over his words which only encouraged you to continue your torment. “Let me guess,” you quickly added, stopping him from speaking. “You’re just trying to be a gentleman?”

It was like he’d suddenly turned into a mute, like his tongue had been pulled out of his mouth. He couldn’t speak.

“Tell me, Chris...” You trailed off, now standing in front of him, your chests almost touching. “If, and that’s a big if, I allow you to get me a drink, do I have to spend the entire night glued to your side? Laughing at everything you say? Twirling my hair around my finger? Holding onto you and telling you how funny you are?” Your voice now low as your spoke, your adrenaline was running at an all-time high as you reached for his pendant, twiddling it between your thumb and index finger.

Chris’s breath hitched when your eyes met his, looking up at him through your lashes. He knew he was stood there like an idiot, but he couldn’t find it in him to move. It was like he was cemented to this one spot, everything else around him a blur, the music now fading into the background and all he saw was you. Like time had slowed down.

Your throat dried up when you saw his tongue poke out and wet his lips. Not even noticing how your hand now rested firmly on his chest, the pendant cool under your palm. Soothing your hot and flushed skin. It was like you couldn’t pull yourself away from his eyes, watching how they searched yours, flicking between each eye.

His touch was so light it took you a couple of seconds to realise it was there, his fingers ghosting over the exposed skin of your hip. Pulling you back to reality. “That’s what I thought,” you cleared your throat, your cheeks flushing at his smirk. “I’ll pass. Good effort though.” Giving his chest a couple of pats before spinning on your heel and disappearing into the party.

Leaving nothing but your perfumed scent in your wake.

#chris evans #chris evans fic #chris evans x reader #chris evans x y/n #fratboy!chris evans #chris evans x female!reader #chris evans x fem!reader #chris evans x female reader #cevans #cevansedit #evansedit #chris evans smut #chris evans fluff

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paingoes · 8 months ago

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random destroyer trivia

+the emperor was in his 40s when paris was born. paris’s mother was nineteen. she died of sepsis when paris was around seven years old.

+martino has two adult daughters. they’re both surprisingly well adjused. simon is aroace with no children.

+delta can play piano!! hes kinda out of practice from living on the thorn but hes still good. it helps him with precision and hand-eye coordination.

+the institute that delta grew up in was burned to the ground after it closed and its remnants were turned into an illegal rave site

+nezu has been family friends with the emperor for a very long time. he’s known paris since he was a baby.

+paris gets upcharged like 150% by all his dealers

+simon’s parents were hippie generation. he spent a lot of his childhood on the road traveling to different encampments and festivals. they settled down more once he was in his tweens.

+paris is unironically very socially intelligent and can pick up on peoples emotions very quickly he just doesnt care about them

+on her home planet lorelai is the ten time junior champion of cowboy mounted shooting !!!

+delta got fast-tracked to learn high level math and physics because its an absolute requirement if he wants to use his powers correctly. the institute deliberately does not teach any of their subjects anything relating to the humanities, history, or political theory. that would be counterproductive.

+delta does read a ton though, so he comes across forbidden knowledge on his own time. hes good w nonfiction but he’s also really obsessed with genre fiction is a very stupid and sort of insincere way. i think he’d actually be a really good satirist. his writing is very snarky in comparison with his speech.

+paris is in like 7 different “The Boyz 🥶💯” groupchats with people from his school. he never opens them and does not care if the people in them live or die. most of them are unrepentant ass kissers but the more honest ones are like “yeah paris is a total cunt but hes our friend”. he is not their friend.

++he will deign to party with them in spite of this

+delta is totally unable to let an internet argument end. hes arguably better known for this online than he is for the data leaks.

+a lot of the political and military personnel in the upper echelons know to be careful what they say around delta because he WILL snitch to paris

++paris is grateful for this but at the same time it confirms for him that delta can be sneaky as fuck

+BTS info: paris getting significantly more cruel and unhinged after his near death experience was inspired by the illness of roman emperor Caligula!

#destroyer

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writing-nothing-but-spilled-ink · 1 year ago

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An au if batman characters including the bat family were in the avatar universe

Jason would be like jet most likelubsteal from the rich give to the poor and would fight against the fire nation would also probably be a mercenary and a nonbender, would have knowledge of how to chi block and would be unofficially a dual sword master and great with hand to hand combat as well as have deadly precision with throwing stars/blades like mai

Dick would be the male version of tai Lee he'd be a master chi blocker light on his feet wouldn't kill definitely would make life for fire nation soldiers difficult if he sees them harassing people of weaker means he'll do something about it with a smile he'd also be your worst nightmare trying to take him in hand to hand combat even if your a bender

Damians weapon of choice would be a katana he'd be quick and deadly you'd think you have him then surprise you don't when he attacks it would feel like it came from the shadows you wouldn't have time to think he'd have deadly precision and hed be light on his feet hed be able to go toe to toe with benders like its nothing and would know how to use there strengths against them hed also have short blades to throw and an array of poisons on hand jusy in case hed have a shit ton of contingency plans

okay Bruce obviously nonbender he'd probably know a bunch of techniques he'd be similar to iroh in terms of knowledge minus the spiritual aspects and the kindness portion as well he'd be similar to asamis dad hirashi sato he'd have all the advanced technology even during aangs time only he wouldn't rely only on thr technology and inventions hed also be a sword master, know how to chi block and how to counter most bending techniques remember how iroh swung those boulders with his chains with just shear strength and howw zuko smashed them with his foot yeah that would be bruce minus the fire bending, he'd also have bombs similar to sokkas stink bombs only they'd knock u out...

Swamp thing would definitely be a water bender like the swamp water benders but way more powerful and he'd love in the same swamp the gang visits and finds out they need to seek out toph I also feel like he'd be an incredibly powerful blood bender

Poison ivy would also be a water bender I actually feel like she'd be similar to swamp thing but also very different she wouldn't live in the swamp but off the grid she'd travel all over the world of Avatar just studying medicine and poisons she wouldnt really feel a need to truly interfere with the war unless someone outright makes it her problem or goes after her personally or her home

Harley would be a non bender similar to Dick but like way worse because she's incredibly unpredictable she'd also use blasting jelly at any given moment and God help you if u underestimate her because she's not a bender I feel like she'd have knowledge of a bunch of different weapons as well as an intimate knowledge of explosives she would be a bit of an anti hero in the avatar universe she wouldn't necessarily support ozai but I don't think she'd feel any need to truly go out and attack fire nation soldiers unless she sees them attacking kids or women or forcing themselves onto someone shss huge on consent

Joker are u insane I'm not giving him bending absolutely not no thank you lmaoo y'all really thought I'd give an actual thought for the joker nope but feel free to comment if u like

The flash would be an air bender not monk gyatso level air bending but still powerful

Wonder woman I can see her as being a bender but also a kyoshi warrior and definitely against the fire nation and would oppose them at every turn I feel like she'd be a metal bender and the way she'd metal bend would be similar to how Lynn does in legend of Korra but more powerful then lynn

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pocketramblr · 2 years ago

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Ask game, please! After the whole MLA kidnapping him debacle, Giran sells out everyone and gets rehabilitated. Please.

1- so, Giran watches the new combined group generals announce their plans to the canon fodder and that's the last straw, he knows which of those two categories he's in now. So he texts Compress and Twice that he needs a vacation after dealing with everything and he's headed to the beach, he'll be back in a week, do they want any souvenirs? Twice asks for twenty things, Compress tells him to not worry about it and that he'll go to ReDestro if anything in his prosthetic needs maintenance, enjoy his week, and promptly forgets to pass this on to Shigaraki or the others. Giran slips away.

2- Hawks, who keeps an eye on threats, notices he's very suddenly gone and wonders if he was sacrificed fully for the MLA merger, and asks a few questions- Twice says nah he's just on vacation at this beach, and gets distracted and forgets about that too. Hawks tells a handler, who sends an agent to the beach- though Giran isn't actually there, just close and watching for it. When he sees the agent, he follows them to leave.

3- Grabbing the agent, Giran explains two options- either he can call Twice and say the trap worked and they found the mole, killing Hawks before he can get out of the villa... Or, Giran can make a deal and get his own. The agent agrees to make the call about the deal, Giran with a hand on their arm and ready to use his quirk at any moment. The commission agrees to his terms in exchange for information- and Giran has a lot of it.

4- including, you know, Dabi's real identity- the guy hadn't killed anyone at the beginning, lost his gun to a fourteen year old, and was clearly not going to play nice with the league, Giran would have dropped in with some other low level group if Garaki hadn't told him to keep him close and why. And Compress's identity, not that it super matters. And how to restrain Twice effectively. And how to bring in the MLA generals. And their accurate numbers. He knows more than Hawks about everything except Garaki's plans for Shigaraki, so the MLA move quickly, having Hawks sedate Twice and extract him first as soon as Shigaraki goes under the procedure.

5- the HPSC spins the whole media narrative about the quirkless doctor who's been experimenting on people and corpses to make villain minions for All For One- including the dead hero student Shirakumo, and Endeavor's eldest dead son- and how he was going to do the same to Shigaraki... Until Endeavour stopped him and avenged his poor dead nomu son, [camera coverage switches to live takedown of hospital as heroes attack the villa as well, not bringing students along because that really might hurt the whole publicity win they tried with this.... Tons of heroes still die tho ah. Definitely a hard fight. And oh yeah none of the heroes knew about the story being aired until after so Endeavor has his breakdown at the hospital and Mic almost kills more people for bringing Oboro into this like that.]

+1- Giran, watching the plan succeed fairly well, takes his money for his info and doesn't exactly "rehabilitate"... He does lay low and live comfortably for a while though as he watches the balance of power shift, many heroes wanting to change or pull away from the hpsc after what they pulled (the Todoroki family is in tatters and they aren't the only ones), different villain and vigilante groups probing out the new space in power, AfO fuming at so many plans down the drain while he's still in Tartarus, etc. I'm sure Giran will come out of retirement once he figures the new playing field, the new players he respects or tolerates, and how to turn a profit with them.

#total social upheaval! just with more people alive to see it #you know kinda like what the lov actually professed to want before they got too into the 'burn it all down' idea without considering like #how they were going to have food to eat after all that. or anything. anyway #pocket talks to people #gentrychild #Giran temporarily allying himself with the hpsc bc he knows they'll implode afterwards and he didn't respect them enough to prevent it: 😎#and then he DOES actually go to the beach for a vacation lol #ask game

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joelletwo · 11 months ago

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wrestling with the 4devas bitchslap again to convince myself its fine if graveyard wins the best ep tourney: it's not the other bloggers who are wrong, it's me

not a complete response to but definitely in conversation with and asking some of the same questions again as @reductionisms's 4devas essay, which tries to square gintoki's "life doesn't need to be fun, i just need you to live" being a series-sanctioned message he's given to villains as an arc-concluding moral continuously up until 4devas with it here being an incorrect worldview that needs to be (physically) corrected by shinpachi, the straightman tonal signpost of gintama

a conflict i have been perplexed by ever since i got to this line on my first watch a year or two ago, since i've seen this line before! all over fandom! as part of the general "dont [bottom text] kill yourself" motivational messaging of gintama that i love!

and, briefly, when i hit 4devas i was also in the middle of being really frustrated by the new arc pattern i was seeing crop up: i loved the villains-turned sympathetic-turned someone worth saving by gintoki tune of the first half of gintama, but it fell massively flat for me in Yoshiwara in Flames, where i was never convinced to be on housen's side but had to watch him get a heartwarming redemptive death at the side of the woman he abused anyways.

then shortly after i had the same exact experience in Red Spider with jiraia, and i thought, if this is what gintama is gonna do with its shitty dudes from now on im gonna quit the fucking show. and then shortly after that i met jirochou and saw him cut down otose the woman he loved (under a raining sky!!! the fucking sky motifs!!! the signpost im about to watch a dude be shittily violent to women and be expected to feel sorry for him about it) and saw too much red to really take in the rest of the arc level-headedly or care about anything in it lol.

so it was written off in my mind as the 'otose almost gets fridged' arc until i rewatched it this week. then i had to remember, oh yeah, there's a ton of political maneuvering fakeouts in this arc that i never actually squared back with how the plot presented itself prior to the reveals, so i'd still been thinking about the "fakeout" plot. then i read the manga version with all the "truths" in mind from the start, and finally i felt like i could understand what this arc is doing a little better.

(way) tldr (4.4k words. sorry): do i love this arc? eh. do i still hate it? eh. but it's doing stuff!

first, i was able to see an echo in all the "actually i was planning to betray you the whole time" "actually i was working to help you the whole time" plot beats of what sorachi does with the larger edo/universe story further into the back half of the manga. if i ever sound like i didnt enjoy or wasnt convinced by the execution of these "reveals," it's because i didnt and wasnt, lol. but it's fun that he had fun with them i guess.

the arc starts with pirako ingratiating herself into yorozuya, then having a classic "bump into you and pretend to be injured to extort you" encounter w her dad's gang. to resolve this without escalating into violence, gintoki... does it back to them, which is really funny. but thus the tone is set for the arc of: DISHONEST APPROACHES TO CONFLICT.

pirako isnt honest about her overall intentions the, like, seven different times that she "admits her real ones." kada plays at peacekeeper in the devas while being the ultimate person scheming to get the upper hand over everyone else in the end. (she's also secretly harusame, evil amanto outsider who acts as a unifying force for the kabukicho fighting itself to band together against and expel: sorachi's favorite move! the problem was never internal, it's the shadowy REAL antagonists who infiltrated us)

jirochou and otose are ultimately doing a pantomime of conflict to try to keep temperatures down and escalations from breaking out, so no one they care about has to get hurt. gintoki doesn't know this until the end, but he follows in their footsteps after his encounter with them in the graveyard: he plays at having given up to the rest of yorozuya so they'll leave and escape the coming kabukicho war, the same thing otose was trying with him. it fails both times. i'm really not sure why gintoki and otose thought it would work, honestly. they should know their kids are stubborn as hell.

but gintoki is in a bind because of the things he needs to protect, and all of his actions are primarily in service of that, to the detriment of how he'd prefer to act if he were less restricted. he is unsurprised and unoffended to hear saigou is only willing to warn them, not help them, because her son is in danger if she acts directly. all four devas are, seemingly, being mutually restrained this way, holding back even when blatantly manipulated to do so. the other constant of this arc: everyone is dishonest, and no one wants to risk losing what they have.

gintoki understands that! of course! he's had to make that calculus before, after all :)

and this arc is just one big cliff scene echo: the entire graveyard scene pushing gintoki to emotional regression because he thinks he's losing another parent figure, one he's just seen the Gintoki Figure of the arc cut down, no less (takasugi stolen valor when he goes berserk against him and only ends up uselessly bleeding out on the ground about it, honestly). otose goes into this willingly so gintoki can live. he accepts this decision because he values protecting her values (her kids living on) and is briefly broken by it (the story says, before giving him shinpachi to "put him back on track"). prior to the bitchslap, after saying he just wants them to live, even if it has to be without him, he says:

i dont have a good understanding of when we start getting reveals of gintoki's backstory versus foreshadowing because i went into gintama already knowing most of it, but definitely by the recent red spider where we get our first real look at (or really, first listen to) shouyou. but here we actually get some of what gintoki felt about it, which he keeps closely guarded even when the whole truth comes out: he's done his best to survive having lost, but it was so unbearable he can't face losing again.

(also, honorable mention backstory echo, the person calling him a brother sets his home on fire to drive him and his parent figure out of town. as i liveblogged: this one would really hurt gintoki if gintoki cared about anything oboro ever did!)

but with the shinpachi story-rerouting, they get the good end, keep everyone (otose, yorozuya, all of kabukicho, even pirako and her dad - everyone but kada) safe without having to sacrifice a single thing, even keep gintoki hopeful for this outcome. so, as goose points out, we are left to understand that there could have been a good end on the cliff, that something is different here than there, and, skipping a lot of math, that that is the people around gintoki.

which i do find really funny to imagine as a slam on takasugi and katsura. sorry you kids suck too much, your teacher dies bc u were cringefail. but lets look at it.

everyone is dishonest, no one wants to risk what they have: gintoki rallies himself to keep fighting but is determined to do it alone. kagura and shinpachi fight him on this; they can't leave because they don't want to lose their home, they can't let him fight alone because they don't want to lose him. they're just as restricted by what they have to keep safe, but their only option is to act where everyone else's is inaction. shinpachi says:

if i may skip over the bitchslap itself for now, gintoki does consent to let his allies fight with him after it. yorozuya stands alone against saigou, who's heavily demoralized but resigned, strongarmed into fighting them by the threat to her son. but on seeing their resolve to keep protecting their own precious home and family she says:

and, to skip straight to my thought, i think this is what turns the tides back in their favor. there are more twists and turns to the fight. pirako equates what binds saigou, which she herself equates to what binds the yorozuya, to what binds her:

(with an intentional distinction that she's willing to actively destroy the others', as opposed to their purely self defensive fighting, which is echoed at some point in her distinguishing gintoki from jirochou in the same way, that jirochou not only lives to protect like gintoki but is willing to destroy in the process. i don't find that part as interesting, but it's more fuel to the power of having something to protect as a driving force as an arc theme.)

so now all three stand on the same ground, absolutely unwilling to give up what they hold dear, but all their cards are on the table. they aren't dealing in 12 dimensions of tricksy defensive pre-emptive moves anymore. they know it wouldnt work, anyways, since they all know their drives to protect are the same and no one will be talked into backing down. now they can directly duke it out and let the winner be determined that way, on strength of will. even before the actual circumstances change, the fight somehow feels freer seeing how inevitable it is. and with everything out in the open, yorozuya can now protect each other and saigou's son, taking out one side of the conflict.

(and with everything out in the open, the ultimate 4devas villain can become the single person who continues to betray the others, kada, whose further machinations - with everything out in the open! - saigou (and later yorozuya) can choose to protect pirako from. everyone wins! because everything was out in the open! do you see where i'm going)

and so we come back to the question: gintoki is corrected, the arc is rerailed to the better outcome. so is the correction justified?

what does the correction accomplish outside of its moment? most convincingly to me of goose's presented options, i also think it's done as a thematic shift, a, okay, just live was a strategy that worked before but now doesn't suffice, so we need something more.

as to why this is needed now and not earlier or later...tldr bad planning <3 but like.

we have, prior to this, a consistent thrust of arcs where gintoki teaches people to lose. as well, while we meet the harusame and we visit space and we get the barest glimpses of takasugi's weird shadowy background moves there, largely we're dealing with kabukicho characters and kabukicho stories. we see or only hear about the shogun for short comedic moments only. we've largely dropped the series intro focus on things like the shinsengumi or hasegawa acting as foreign diplomats. it's a local series, a hometown series, a kabukicho and not even an edo at large series, a personal story about gintoki making personal connections with his personal experience as a flawed person with a flawed approach to life that has let him, chronic slacker, get by on the bare minimum.

at this moment, chapter 300, we have a slow trickle of gintoki backstory starting to come out to us. we've recently expanded the story focus to include yoshiwara, which gets a callout in this arc by kada to keep it relevant. we have an arc of sorachi testing out plot beats that he'll use again for the endgame, in all the political maneuvering and alliancing and betraying and shadowy outsider space governmenting, where he's also doing a lot of echoing of that backstory that only becomes clear later. so it's possible he's thinking about shifting gears and setting up for the eventual endgame, which means getting out of the episodic cycle so things can stick.

and after this arc, to my opinion and memory, we stop getting the classic gintama flavor sympathizable'd antagonists. a lot of the bigger arcs don't even have clear Big Shot antagonists anymore, being more about the shouyoucore theme of characters fighting against themselves, or if there is one they're always explicitly part of the Shadow Government now, a unified and more daunting force than someone they can win over with an inspiring gintoki interaction.

so 4devas does act as a turning point at least in some way. and it's not possible to say this definitively, since all gintama arcs are ultimately never going to be about gintoki or his friends Actually losing something instead of beating the odds, but it does feel like theres a different flavor to, say, dekobokko with its direct look at how chars lives could be different and better and they will still choose to keep struggling as themselves. and Kintama arc definitely doesn't feel like an early days arc, like it can only resolve the way it does with a gintoki who is now able to face his past and the possibility of losing again and again and again (now with, natch, his faith that yorozuya will by his side when he does).

why now, after 300 chapters of letting it sit ignored in the back of his brain working out perfectly fine except when it doesn't (the very reminder of shouyou in a fight making him go Demon Mode, which is like regular gintoki but worse at fighting, bc he is so unprepared to think about shouyou)? well i personally am in big favor of the "take a decade off" strategy for facing problems. it worked for me too. realistically watsonianly its nice to let things percolate in the brain and do some of the processing behind the scenes until its less immediately painful. and he's made many bonds over these 300 chapters, shown in this arc when the whole town rallies behind him, that are there to support him when he needs it now and weren't there before.

realistically doylistly eh. bad planning.

and so we come back to the question: gintoki is corrected, the series as a result is rerailed to a writing space where things can start changing (leave the episodic, as you guys say, sazae-san format). it's useful in the future. so is the correction justified in terms of what comes before it? was the correction needed?

thinking about the bitchslap leads to thinking about the cliff scene leads to (sorry kagura and katsura, you guys arent really relevant here) pitting shinpachi and takasugi against each other in how they act with something on the line they can't bear to give up.

i don’t need the lesson of 4devas to apply logistically to the cliff scene. once they were set up on that chessboard, frozen in their assigned places as a backstory, it’s not like takasugi could’ve power of friendship’d his way out of being physically retrained if he decided he wanted to. it’s set up as a forced choice, it has to play out as a forced choice.

but we see that even before it’s asked of him, takasugi is willing, prepared, unbothered to give up his own life for shouyou’s. this is, goose lays out in the sequel, the cardinal sin in gintama - a teacher shouldn’t outlive their student. it would have been especially egregious to shouyou, whose whole desired life’s purpose is to raise students who can outlive him and outgrow him, take his lessons and go out into the world and do their own thing with them. takasugi doesn’t expect to do this and doesn’t seem to see a point in the possibility if shouyou isn’t back with them.

though we can also think of shouyou as a little too quickly willing to give up on the cliff - sorry, gintoki, the suicidal guy has thought about it for .02 seconds and decided the best outcome is for you to kill him even though he could get out of this no problem. maybe its no wonder gintoki gave up too. can we ask katsura what he would’ve done?

and is takasugi different from shinpachi there? he rejects the mentor’s attempt to exchange his own life for his. he’s not willing to consider a life without him.

but shinpachi is convinced no one is going to die. because they’ll be there together. incredibly naive - shinpachi and kagura, restricted to one option by what they need to protect like everyone is in 4devas, have acting as that one option because they are still free in a way gintoki and the other adults aren't. they’ve never actually experienced the impossible choice that forces you to give up, so they can act as if there isn’t one - what else would they do? why would they think to give up?

but gintoki is defined by having lived the impossible choice. its built into the foundation of him as a character and leaks out everywhere. he couldn’t have relied on his friends on the cliff because they were quite forcibly removed from the picture as an option, not by his or their choice. its written as an inevitability, logistics we find out later be damned.

if we refocus to 4devas, we can look at the Gintoki Figure for a different angle. jirochou, after he and gintoki resolve the arc conflict by being able to team up because they - say it with me - put everything out in the open, tells gintoki about his impetus for abandoning his family and coming back to his wayward life in kabukicho, the death of otose's husband.

it's, um, another now really obvious parallel to gintoki, lol. characters talk about how jirochou does everything he does in this arc to try to atone for his failure to both otose and tatsugorou, and i guess thats true bc he was written that way but he has an odd way of showing it, but anyways he resolves that, despite his guilt over this, all he can do now is keep living and keep protecting what they loved together. he's come to the usual gintama message all on his own, reinforcing that this is the correct way to live in this series. he had his own unavoidably shitty situation, and he came to terms with it.

so then where did jirochou go wrong, in the narrative's eyes (other than abandoning one woman and their child to deal drugs in the town of his other woman while ignoring her)? was there a point he could've changed how their trio's story played out? but he loved and trusted tatsugorou, and he was happy to step aside and let him be the one by their otose's side. i doubt he would have been happy stealing her away even if it were possible.

but if we look at the resolution tool of 4devas... he never put everything out in the open!!! everyone knows he loved otose, but in more of an open secret way. in classic romance plot, he never confessed for second male lead rejection closure. indeed, in the closest we ever get to a main character having a romantic plot in gintama, the very ending of the arc flirts with him doing just that now that he's made a little progress with the arc message, with the entire cast of the arc expecting him to (and interrupting before he can).

but if he had when they were young. if he had been honest with his friends. could it have opened up other options that weren't available on his own, that they didnt know to offer? i have a preferred one lol. but u can get creative with all sorts of life paths that avoid tatsugorou dying that way or, at the least, jirochou feeling chained to a shameful life (living in a town he doesn't go out in to protect a woman he doesnt talk to and feeling like he doesnt deserve the family he abandoned for this) because of it.

and then if we take this and rewind back to the cliff... we get to grind my favorite ax, "shouyou shouldve told literally anyone literally anything about his deal." if gintoki knew more about shouyou, they could've faced his horrors together, the whole time. he couldve known that shouyou was being literal calling himself a demon and not internalized his own identity as one for life just because shouyou bonded with him over it. i truly genuinely think the logical conclusion of all of gintama's big messages are that shouyou and gintoki should have been more open with each other.

but i don't think sorachi thinks that. and, you know, by 4devas rules, the unriskable precious things he was protecting by staying silent were his students' humanity, and secondarily his own fragilely newly hopeful heart that literally couldnt stand another 10 millionth round of rejection (killed himself and then went on a 12 year rampage over it. girl i would too).

and takasugi really isn't dishonest about what's going on in his head when he tells us he expects to die for shouyou. that's as cards on the table as i could ask. gintoki is, a little bit, by omission. he does what i'd want him to here - tells takasugi try just not dying - but doesn't give him a reason to, and doesn't tell him he has no plans of letting anyone die for shouyou.

so what goes wrong on the cliff - shouyou is happy, gintoki is happy, oboro's even kind of happy, katsura is irrelevant - is that takasugi is blindsided (whoops) by their silent agreement that betrays the one he thought he and gintoki had. and then ruins everyone's party about it and spends the next ten years doing so for good measure.

which is also, basically, what shinpachi is going through that prompts the bitchslap, too. he thought they were a team, that they had each others backs, not that gintoki is a one-way protector of them. he is blindsided by gintoki lying to and tricking them and hiding things from them. he is hurt by gintoki feeling hopeless all by himself when he could share that with them and be encouraged by their endless child optimism.

and would it need to have changed anything on the cliff? in the moment after the bitchslap, what contributes to gintoki changing his mindset is tama telling him, we trust that you're capable bc youve always shown us that, can you trust us this time? when, later in the arc, gintoki seems to regress by sending kagura and shinpachi away, he asks them to trust that he's still trusting them, relying on them to help shoulder his burden, and in return they know he's staying alive, not self sacrificing. maybe it would've helped just to feel on the same team and not shut out, to be able to trust gintoki like gintoki was trusting shouyou?

so. two paralleled instances of gintoki making a bad situation worse by keeping to himself and being too self sufficient. that feels clear cut that feels fine im okay with that as a takeaway. do i think its exactly what sorachi had in mind while writing this, as opposed to just a good series 'hey lean on your friends' moment to read cool and tug at the heartstrings? eh lol. i think theres definitely room to read takasugi into this arc (i still need to refind the takagin 4devas post...) but its not so baked in that i think he was a PRIORITY in the plotting.

but is the shinpachi SCOLDING necessary is the scolding justified... and yes its in response to life doesnt need to be fun i just want you to live. still a confusing framing i can't immediately square. but/and more immediately its directly responding. to gintoki opening up to them about his insecurities!!

which, as said, he doesnt do!! he doesnt talk about his failures! its basically like, here and to hijikata that one time and otherwise even when we know all the facts about what happened we still never hear gintoki himself talk about it. (so he really DOESNT learn the lesson here either. he stays dissociated and triggered every time utsuro comes up. he tries to solve the altana baby problem on his own. he doesnt talk to his new friends OR his old friends. bwah. gintoki. silver soul.)

so this is like. its just in the wrong order!! its just in a baffling order lol. if you want gintoki to share his burden do you need to punch him when he shares it. does it also need to sound like you're blaming him for not being capable of upholding his promise to protect anyone when thats the insecurity thats got him all discombobulated this arc in the first place (a whole set of notes i took on this that i didnt find a place for in this post)?? its so weeeeiiiiiirddd lol i dont liiikeee itttttt. theres plenty of things shinpachi can validly punch gintoki for but this is such a weird one.

so i guess. having a clearer understanding of this arc do i hate it less? YES honestly. i hate fakeout plots generally they irritate me but everything... more or less makes sense by gintama standards now that i have the whole plot in mind.

do i hate jirochou less SORT OF? i enjoy him. in his individual relationships. i like his shitty dad deal i love shitty dads. i like him pining for otose who genuinely likes him but also brings up her husband every sentence she says to him just to keep him down. i like his parallels with gintoki that they both explicitly acknowledge and find macho comfort in. hes still not theeeeeeeee most well-developed gintama antagonist but you know? i at least think otose and pirako would want to be around him after this.

do i feel like i have a clearer understanding of the bitchslap moment. NOT CONVINCED I DO. i feel like its going to be one of those things that slips in and out of my understanding like sand in cupped hands. i have a tentative understanding of it that i dont think sorachi actually had in mind. so i dont think ive solved it lol.

will i be cursed to think about 4devas forever? god i hope not. am i okay with it beating farewell shins in the polls. god i fucking hope it does. in the horrible timeline where i have to see 305 make it all the way and then lose i guess id rather it be to this one than to hijigin. consider this poll propaganda?

#sopping wet gintoki posting

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atsadi-shenanigans · 10 months ago

Text

Feeding Alligators 57 - Let the Bodies Hit the Floor

What to do with a boatload of goblins?

On AO3.

There are a shit ton of goblins. Goblins shrieking. Goblins belching. Goblins taking a piss in the corner. Goblins chanting, and goblins drinking and throwing bones at each other and two of them fistfighting. It reeks of sour sweat, rot, and alcohol. You regret every, single choice you ever made in your life that brought you to this point.

Until you spot the owlbear cub. At least, you think it’s the same cub. It cowers in a corner with three goblins around it. The lead one offers you a bet in a game she calls “chicken chasing.” And you ain’t one to knock on other folk’s games—your White side plays corn hole for fuck’s sake—but you draw a hard fucking line when it involves cruelty.

You decline her request as polite as you can. Which means letting her insult you. The others give you looks (Lae’zel seems especially disappointed in you), but you ignore that and ask Gale for a talking-to-animals potion.

It is the same cub. And he’s scared to hell. You offer your camp to him, but one of the goblins looks over and his little ear tufts fold back and he scurries off.

You survey the courtyard. Used to be a temple to a goddess named Selune. Shadowheart seems real pettily amused about the recent remodel. Calls it fitting. There’s maybe twenty goblins out here.

You look to Wyll. “Can you check the left side of the courtyard? Get a head count and general location of everybody over here?”

He nods. Karlach bounces all hopeful, so you ask her to go with him.

There’s a section above, and you spot movement up there. Look over the crew. You need somebody nimble, and somebody with good judgment.

“Shadowheart, would you mind taking Astarion up there to do the same?” you say.

Her flat expression smooths to Kansas levels.

“Please?” you add.

“Just counting?” she says. And oh. There’s something hidden in there, ain’t it?

No point in trying to sugarcoat it. “If the druid is alive, we’re gonna have to break him out. Don’t know what kinda condition he might be in, and if we can, I’d like a clear exit.”

Her head tilts back. Astarion’s eyes go all half-lidded and a smirk twitches on the corners of his lips.

Cause yeah. You’re planning murder. Your fingers find that horn in your bag.

You’re planning a lot of murder.

Lae’zel makes a short, soft sound. She watches you all cool. Has been since the spider fight. Still ain’t dragging you to her workout, but it’s the first time she’s responded to you with something that wasn’t a sneer.

“On it,” Shadowheart says.

Astarion meets your gaze, that malicious smarm all over him. He gives you a kind of flippy hand salute, and heads after her.

“You really intend to do this?” Gale says. Holds up a hand before you can do more than turn to him. “There’s a lot of goblins. I only worry we may be calling more trouble to ourselves than necessary.”

“That’s why we’re scouting around first,” you say.

Gale frowns thoughtfully. Or maybe it ain’t thoughtful, as the owlbear cub runs trilling in desperation with two goblins on his ass. “It may not be necessary to do what I suspect you’re planning. We might find a different way in, find the druid, and spirit ourselves out without calling attention to ourselves.”

You think of them tieflings. The bodies all over the place. Kahga tried to do that shit with the idol because she was scared (and also a despot well on her way to authoritarianism). And if that fuck-bitch who hit your brain is what’s causing all this…if she’s real. If this is a militarized group of fanatics…

You’re stuck here. Probably forever. You got skin in this fucking game, now. You know shit like this don’t stop once it starts moving. And that’s only when it’s being driven by one power-hungry asshole and his dipshit of a wife. But they throw in a mind-whammying goddess?

Goblins drink and tear into half-cooked meat. One of them is a human foot. They’re people—they got customs and dress, language and rules and games. But these particular ones are a threat to you and your crew and that whole grove and anybody they come across. Whatever shit they start next, they ain’t gonna stop until somebody makes them stop.

“We see what we’re dealing with here,” you say. “Ain’t got no other plans until then.”

Gale nods and turns as shrill hooting starts. A goblin leads a man in the most foppish hat you ever seen out onto a crude stage. He looks kinda familiar.

“Isn’t that Volo?” Gale says.

You notice most of the goblins is drinking from mugs. You also notice they’re refilling from a single barrel across the courtyard.

***

There’s one of them man-wolf guys running around—called “bugbears” for whatever reason. A crowd of goblins cluster around another with feathers in his hair as he boasts about killing somebody. There’s a naked dead guy at his feet.

This place reeks.

Y’all keep your distance.

The others meet back in the main courtyard. There’s red at Astarion’s neckline and Shadowheart’s nose is wrinkled.

You almost don’t ask. But you need info.

“There were five above, one of them was a bugbear,” Shadowheart says.

Astarion picks a tuft of fur outta his teeth. Flicks it away with a grimace.

“Past tense?” you say.

“It’s clear,” the cleric says. “There’s also a weak spot in the wall. I think Karlach could handle it, should we want to avoid the main door.”

“Some sort of obstacle course over there,” Wyll says. “Deserted, but I’ve spotted an alarming amount of goblin burrow holes. I don’t think the doors will matter much should a general alarm sound.”

So. A way in and out above, the path cleared. An ogre stands at the main doors, a bugbear to the right, and about twenty goblins in the courtyard, give or take.

That’s a lot of people.

But if you leave this, even if you get the druid out, the tieflings can’t stay where they are (you wouldn’t want to, either). And as long as this encampment is here, they’re in danger. You look to the big spit turning over the fire where a cut of ribs you highly doubt are pork sizzle.

This is your problem. And you know there’s no such thing as a fair fight. There’s winning. And there’s losing. And you been at the mercy of winners before.

None of the party-goers pays any attention to you as the bard warbles something about door rags. None of them notice you pull something outta your bag.

“That’s,” Shadowheart starts. Something flashes in her eyes. It looks a lot like…approval.

You catch Karlach’s questioning look (and it is a question, not any kinda concern, they don’t know shit about you).

“Wyvern poison,” you say.

“The one you said you’d drink should the tentacles start sprouting,” Astarion says. He shifts his weight to his back foot as his head cocks to the side.

“That’s called lying.”

His eyes narrow. Then he snorts. That almost looks like a smile.

“Poison?” Karlach says.

You don’t look at her. She’s good people. Violent as fuck—she ripped Harvey Dent’s head clean off like a Thanksgiving turkey drumstick—but she’s got a good heart.

“A coward’s weapon,” Lae’zel says, because of course she does, the woman oozes judgment.

“You wanna win, or you wanna die?” you say. “Or do you wanna just fuck around all honorably until your skin splits off and you throw up your own guts?”

She snarls silently.

And you make a decision.

This is an army. Whoever them goblins are as individuals, as a people, this band is an army and will kill everyone in their path.

Lae’zel hates this, both Wyll and Karlach are too good for this world, and the others…no. No, you need a sneaky bastard.

“Astarion,” you say. He’s a member of this crew. Y’all are working together to keep y’all’s faces intact. Whatever happened (whatever coulda happened) you gotta bury it and move on. “You’re good at sneaking. Can you get over to that barrel with this without getting caught?”

He examines you, expression buttoned down tight. Then comes to a decision of his own. His smile oozes bad intentions. “Rather easily, darling.”

You hand the poison off. He looks it over, nods, and sort of disappears it with a gesture.

The Volo guy from the grove is still prattling on, though a couple of goblins have started to hiss. One throws a bottle that misses him by a good four feet.

There’s your distraction.

Not all the goblins are sloshed. But it’s a good number of them. And what’s left…your fingers dip into your pack again and find the cool enamel of the war horn.

“Let’s go,” you say.

***

It takes maybe thirty minutes. Astarion disappears, only to reappear next to one of the ringleaders as she proposes a toast. You ain’t sure if poison does anything to vampires? But you do catch a subtle wrist flick from Astarion, and you know without asking the man just found a way to toss the contents of his cup.

As that’s going down, y’all join in on the harassment of Volo. And then goblins start dying. And that, naturally, pulls attention to all y’all.

There’s a good dozen goblins left, with others pouring in from the right side. So you pull out that horn, bring it to your lips, and blow.

It goes to fuck shit carnage after that. Them ogres ain’t kidding around. They tear through camp like an industrial corn thresher. At some point—you think it’s McClubby—dual-wields two goblins to swat other goblins in the most fucked up game of put-put golf you ever seen in your life.

Y’all barely have to do anything. There’s a couple of archers, and that ogre by the door, but an arrow from Astarion and a fireball from Gale, and both the archer and big boy go down right in front of them main doors, blocking them from opening.

Then it’s over. The Volo guy ducks out (says something retrieving his dog??) and promises to meet y’all back at the grove. The owlbear cub made himself scarce the second them ogres smashed through the front gate, and you hope he got away.

Leaves y’all standing in a field of carnage full of corpses as Mr. Eloquent and his, uh, lads get busy…eating.

Horf.

“I can see why you gentlemen are in such high demand,” you say, voice trembling with the urge to vomit.

Mr. Eloquent grins as he slurps up an arm still holding a mug. It crunches between his teeth and something squelches.

You swallow.

“It was a pleasure doing business,” he says.

He still got them piggy eyes. Time for y’all to get the fuck away.

“Damn,” Karlach says, brows raised. “I’ve seen some one-sided battles, but damn. D’you see them throw that guy?”

At another, fleeing goblin, yes. They both went down with broken bones and broken wails.

And this is just the courtyard.

Time to head in and see if any of this was worth it.

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#feeding alligators fic #these two shitheads #astarion #astarion x tav #tavstarion #slow burn #demisexual tav #plus size tav #isekai #the disclosure arc #goblin put-put!

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