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ragzonacamrencruise · 9 months ago

Note

For the first sentence of a fic ask

Katara’s choking sound filled the room which gained the attention of her friends until Katara stopped and turned to face Azula with a shocked face.

hello bestie!

this is too funny . . .

okay so hear meowt-

***

THE PROPOSAL

Katara’s choking sound filles the room, which gaines the attention of her friends until Katara stops and turns to face Azula with a shocked face.

Azula, sitting closest to Katara in the enormous dining hall, is half way down slurping her noodles when she notices the racket. Her own eyes grow wide as she witnesses Katara holding her throat and gasping for air, but not getting any.

Now, for the people who've been following Azula around in the palace since she was a little kid, they know it's common knowledge that Azula, would quite normally, enjoy watching the person choke themselves into oblivion instead of rushing to help them.

And in this case, Katara being the one who's the traditional healer of the group, no one else knew what to do in this situation. They could only sit and watch their friend choke helplessly. The waterbender's eyes begin to water as she looks all around frantically.

So, it's safe to say that it comes as a surprise when Azula calmly places her chopsticks near her almost empty bowl, stands up, walks behind the now standing Katara and envelops the choking waterbender in a hug from behind.

Everyone's too shocked to speak as Azula places a fist right under Katara's now matured chest and pushes it into the waterbender forcefully. Katara jumps up high in her arms at the impact. But Azula simply does it again.

And again.

Until Katara coughs something out of her mouth and it comes flying out to hit Sokka on the head, who's sitting exactly opposite to Katara. The waterbender gasps in a lung full of air and then lets out a string of coughs, her hands desperately holding on to Azula's strong arms wrapped around her stomach, keeping her from collapsing.

Azula flattens one of her palms over Katara's back and rubs soothing circles. "There, there, peasant. We don't want you dying on us now, do we?"

Katara wipes around her mouth with the back of her palm, trying to calm down from the sudden adrenaline rush of almost dying. Sokka, being the naturally curious person that he is, bends down under the table to pick up whatever the hell hit him on his head. When he brings it out to the light, he gasps out loud.

"It's a Water Tribe betrothal pendant!!"

Katara looks at the round, blue, glimmering, piece of jewellery in Sokka's fingers. She immediately extends her hand to take it from him.

"It's not stone!" Katara exclaims, running her eyes all over the pendant. "It's some kind of . . ."

"Copper." Azula states as she removes herself away from Katara's person and takes back her seat, picking up her chopsticks non-chalantly to gobble down the rest of her noodles.

Katara turns to her immediately. "What?"

"It's Copper." Azula says with a roll of her eyes. "Clearly you peasants have no knowledge about this metal's existence. It's crystalized Copper. And very difficult to carve, by the way. I spent literally hours trying to get that thing carved."

The waterbender blinks, not believing what she's hearing. "Y- You made this?!"

"Yes."

"Why?!"

"For you, of course." Azula shrugs, filling her mouth with noodles.

Katara could only let her jaw hang.

"You're giving my sister a betrothal necklace?!" Sokka's voice is a high-pitched shriek.

Azula looks confused. "What are y'all yapping so much about? Isn't it traditional to betroth a girl when she's 16 in the Water Tribe? I know I'm an year late, but it still counts, right?"

"You're asking me to marry you?!" Now Katara's voice is an octave higher.

"Wow, you filths really are dense in the head." Azula wipes around her mouth with a napkin kept at the table like the proper royalty that she is.

"No!" Katara exclaims.

Azula looks at her with her brows furrowed together. "No, what?"

"No, I will not be marrying you! Are you crazy?!"

The princess stands up, having done with her meal. "I was three years ago. But not anymore." She says with a smirk, before bowing curtly and leaving a hall full of dumbstruck people.

....

Katara flips the pendant in her hand, deep in thought. She looks down at it, tracing the intricate carvings that adorn it with a finger. She's lying on her stomach, on the bed inside her room in the Fire Nation Palace, having had an eventful supper. She frowns when she notices something strange.

The carvings look exactly like her mother's betrothal necklace. Not even a single line out of place. She touches her mother's necklace and gasps softly.

Azula must have one hell of a brain if she can carve something out just from memory.

Then she thinks back to everything that conspired during their meal.

She must've slipped the pendant in my noodle soup when I wasn't looking, or something, to surprise me.

The pendant's beautiful. Too beautiful. She would've mistaken it for glass if it didn't radiate such a glossy blue glow, refracting candle light through it in a translucent haze. It's mesmerizing.

But the thing that nags her the most is, why would Azula of all people give her a betrothal necklace?! Does she like her, or something?!

Sure, Katara couldn't help but get lost in the princess's elegance from time to time, and blush like crazy whenever the firebender got even remotely close to her, thankful for her complexion hiding her flustered state, but that is beside the point.

Katara sits up. There's no way in hell she's going to sleep without talking something through with the very firebender that proposed to her. Determined, she gets up, wears her night robes and walks out of her room to the princess's chambers.

....

"Your highness?" Katara calls out softly, peeking inside a dimly lit, enormous room. Her eyes look all around before falling on the princess's frame by the table, sitting on a chair and reading a huge book by the candlelight hanging above her head.

The firebender takes a second longer to acknowledge Katara, her eyes hurriedly running over the last few lines on the page she's reading, before looking up. "I figured sooner or later you'll be here."

"Ha ha." Katara laughs humorlessly as she walks into the room and shuts the door behind her.

Azula places a peacock feather over the page she was reading and closes the heavy book. "State the purpose of your visit this late at night, peasant."

Katara scowls. But she's unable to hold it much longer when she spots the princess pulling out another chair by the table, gesturing her to take a seat.

The waterbender's bare feet make no noise when she walks up to the table, adjusting the chair a little bit, before sitting down, close to the firebender. It's the beginning of winter and nights, even in the Fire Nation, are getting pretty chilly.

When she finally settles down, with her knees almost touching the side of Azula's thigh, she looks up in contentment. The princess is still waiting for her answer, when Katara's eyes fall on her.

Katara takes in a deep breath. "I still haven't thanked you."

Azula frowns. "Whatever for?"

"For saving my life."

Azula clicks her tongue, in irritation. She turns back to the book before her. "Leave. I still need to complete this chapter and I need peace and quiet."

"No, I mean it. Thank you, your highness . . ."

Azula doesn't answer as she flips open the heavy book again.

"The remedy for choking is still not known by many." Katara says softly. "Where did you learn it?"

Azula's eyes find Katara, without ever turning away from the book. "I read about it somewhere." She explains before letting her eyes fall to the book before her again.

Katara hums. She unintentionally falls silent as her gaze finds itself helplessly drawn to the princess's perfectly crafted face. She traces curves and crevices sculpted in astonishing precision, even when the firebender is devoid of any make up. Her golden brown eyes shimmer in the candle light's flicker, and the sight puts Katara in a trance.

"You can stare all you want after you marry me." Azula says without turning away from her book, and that jolts Katara awake.

"Who says I'm marrying you?" The waterbender is quick to deny, her face getting heated rapidly. "I never said yes to your proposal, remember? If you can even consider that a proposal. You didn't even ask me properly!"

"Your father." Azula states.

"My father? What about him?"

"Yeah . . ." The princess looks up from the book. "He met with Zuzu to negotiate a stable course of action, considering the amount of overwhelming peasants from the Water Tribe opposing the idea of working together with the Fire Nation."

Katara's eyes are wide and attentive as she can almost predict where this is going.

"So," Azula continues. "They put their heads together and came up with this; a marriage alliance. And as Zuzu is already planning on marrying Mai . . . You're stuck with me. Personally, I think it's okay, considering how nothing really is satisfying you barbarians."

"Hey!" Katara exclaims. "If anyone's a barbarian, it's you people! You started the hundred year war and butchered an entire nation!"

Azula stares at her. "Out of all the things I said, that is what you choose to respond to?"

Katara pushes her chair back and jumps up, her knees bumping Azula's thigh. "Whatever! I'm gonna talk to my dad first thing in the morning to cancel this supposed 'marriage alliance'."

"Suit yourself." Azula says, turning back to her book as Katara storms out of her chamber in anger.

....

The next morning, Katara finds herself grumpily sitting in the dining hall for breakfast all alone, as all others have already had theirs. The meeting with her dad dragged on longer than she would've liked.

It's stupid, considering the fact that Katara never really entered her father's chambers to discuss the crisis at hand. She just paced outside his room, for a long time, contemplating what to say and how to say it. To be honest, she wasn't really that opposed to this marriage alliance anyway. She came here just out of spite. She was turning on her heels, already loosing her nerve and giving up, when her father came out, ready to head for breakfast. And it certainly did not help when she randomly blurted out 'I don't want to marry Azula' out of no where when he greeted her with a good morning.

Her father had just laughed it off stating it's just jitters and he's "seen the way you look at Azula".

Katara had then spent her whole morning contemplating living under a rock from embarrassment, but then her stomach growled and she dragged her feet to the dining hall reluctantly.

Her brooding comes to an end when she finds the object of her crisis walk into the hall, her hair up in a small topknot and the rest of it long and falling freely over her shoulders, her signature bangs still in place. Katara's eyes follow the princess as she takes a seat opposite to her, clad in a simple, light red, yukata with short sleeves.

The waterbender notices Azula's skin coated with a slim layer of sweat, making her glisten in the morning sunshine wafting in through the hall. She averts her gaze hastily.

She's not supposed to be feeling this way towards her! Even when she's supposed to marry her!

"Slept in?" The princess's mocking voice makes Katara look back up at her.

"Not really." The waterbender replies politely. Then she catches the drift of what Azula's implying. Didn't she tell her yesterday night that she was gonna call off the marriage alliance? It really is a slap in the face for Katara when she realizes that she never broke off the betrothal. And she's not ready to make peace with the fact that she doesn't really want to break it off.

Their breakfast arrives and Azula's upon it even before the servant places it on the table. Katara looks at her with amusement. "One would think you were starved for weeks." The waterbender teases at the way Azula gobbles up the food.

"Never go easy on breakfast." Azula swallows a mouthful as her manners of not talking while eating kicks in. "Especially after a good workout and training."

"Training?" Katara raises an eyebrow. That explains the sweat.

"Yeah. Every morning. You don't?"

"Not really." Katara chooses to say again, trying not to pay attention to the way the princess's arms flex when she's using them, fresh out of a workout.

They both fall silent, only opening their mouths to eat. When they're done, Katara wipes her hands and face in the hot napkin placed on the table and stands up to leave. So does Azula. The waterbender walks out of the hall, slowing down near the doorway to wait for Azula when she comes out.

But she never comes.

Instead, Katara hears someone speaking beyond the dining hall inside what she thinks is the kitchen. And because it's so quiet in the morning with only the chirping of birds to keep her company, she frowns softly as she follows through the kitchen to where the voices are coming from.

She hears Azula speak, so she braces herself against the wall beside the entrance to the kitchen, out of sight from anyone who might want to look outside.

". . . but the flavours were thick. Make sure you simmer down on the basil and lift up curry leaves. It would provide useful and time saving and, dare I say, delicious. And, Zata? We need to incorporate more from other nations if we're supposed to excel at anything we do. This goes to cuisine as well . . . And prepare stewed sea prunes for lunch, will you? I'm told it's the Water Tribe princess's favourite." The princess is saying.

"Yes, princess." Katara guesses it's Zata who agrees with the firebender.

"Keep up the work." Azula says finally.

Katara hurriedly makes herself scarce from the vicinity as she hears the princess's footsteps staring to echo out.

Katara's sure her blush is visible for miles when she makes her way to the royal gardens to cool off.

....

The lunch, as expected, fills the whole dining hall with the aroma of stewed sea prunes and Katara doesn't even have to look at the bowl before her to know it.

Azula's sat directly opposite to her and the waterbender can no way in hell meet the golden brown gaze annoyingly fixed on her. She struggles to make it through one spoonful of stew without blushing like a maniac.

This is so absurd! Get it together, Katara! It's not like she gave you the whole world! She just made you your favourite dish. It's not a big deal!

But . . . it's Azula we're talking about! When has she ever done something this nice to someone else?!

"Is it not to your liking?" She hears a voice in front of her and she has no other choice than to look into those scrutinising eyes.

Azula's eyebrows are merged together, deep in thought, watching Katara struggle to eat her lunch, unaware of the problem. The waterbender, however, is hyper-aware of it, the smell of the stew reminding her every second that it was because of Azula.

Katara offers her a small, nervous smile. "It's good, your highness."

Their friends are present in the dining hall, so Azula doesn't press the issue further. But her face remains thoughtful the entire duration of their lunch.

Katara is the first to leave the hall, having gulped down the hot stew directly from the bowl, in an attempt to get out of there soon. She can heal her burned tongue later. She just needs to . . . get out.

She hurries off to her chambers, plopping down heavily on the bed, shutting her eyes close.

....

The royal gardens, that evening, sees Katara watering the plants, temporarily trying to get a certain firebender out of her insistent thoughts. The setting sun casts a warm glow over the flowers and trees, beautiful and sophisticated. A cool breeze flows in the garden and the waterbender is grateful for it, given the way her body heat seems to rise up eveytime she thinks about the fire princess.

Katara bends the water from a nearby pond and lifts it up, gently letting it fall, spraying over the fire lilies. She smiles, feeling rejuvenated with such a simple act. When she's about to turn around to water the other part of the garden, something, or rather someone catches her eye as she looks up.

She almost has a heart attack when she realizes it's Azula, leaning against a courtyard pillar, watching the waterbender do her thing. Katara freezes, eyes locked on the fire princess helplessly.

Azula, realising her presence is no longer unnoticed, pushes herself away from the pillar and steps into the garden, her gaze never leaving the waterbender. She walks towards Katara, gaining distance by the second and the waterbender's no longer in control of her own breathing.

The setting sun hits the firebender's eyes, and Katara's put in yet another trace with the way it gleams, looking at her in a way that makes her stomach flutter.

When she finally does get close, close enough for Katara to feel her warmth, Azula lifts her hand up, gently moving a strand of hair away from the waterbender's shoulder to expose her neck. She eyes her mother's necklace already placed on Katara's delicate neck and shifts her gaze to the waterbender's sparkling blue ones again.

"Marry me, Katara." Azula says, ever so softly. It's a command, but it sounds so desperate and so loving, that the waterbender's heart starts raging against her ribs. Katara can only let her lips fall open in a silent gasp, dumbstruck with the way Azula's making her feel.

The firebender searches her eyes, waiting a second longer for her to answer, before letting out a soft, glum sigh of defeat, turning around and walking out of the garden as quick as her own lightning.

Katara finds it difficult to catch her breath, even after a few minutes of just standing there.

....

That night, Katara finds herself standing before the giant doors of Azula's chambers again. She thinks of knocking, but then decides to just screw it and opens the door.

She enters the room and shuts and locks the door behind her. When she turns around, she notices that Azula's sat in the same table over the same book. Her wide golden brown eyes fall on Katara as she watches her with a rare glimmer, completely uncharacteristic of her.

When Katara walks inside, Azula stands up to meet her halfway. The flicker of the candlelight hanging above right beside them, bounces off of something shimmering, catching the firebender's sharp eyes right away.

Azula lifts her hand to Katara's neck, an ecstatic expression filling her face. She touches the cool, smooth, carved, crystal Copper hanging from the necklace on the waterbender's neck, and lifts her gaze to the matching blue eyes looking at her with longing.

Their eyes stay locked for a moment longer, before Katara opens her mouth to gasp, "Yes."

Azula's hand immediately reaches out to grab the waterbender's waist, as she pulls her flush against her. Katara swears she can practically taste Azula's smile when she leans forward and kisses her, deep and long.

By the time they break apart for air, Katara's brain is stuck in one giant daze, blinking up at Azula, hanging onto her shoulders desperately, unable to form coherent words except, "Your highness..."

"Bed. Now." Azula's voice is deep, bathed in dark hunger, and the waterbender can do nothing but nod frantically.

Katara didn't know that almost dying would end her up with a fiancé, but she isn't complaining much now at all.

....

"You really didn't like the stew, huh?"

"No. I loved it."

***

butterflies. straight up butterflies when i wrote this.

this could've been longer. but i tried to make it simple 😭🖐🏻 its funny because i was already thinking of their dynamic in marriage proposals and BAM the perfect opportunity presents itself in the form of an ask inbox.

thank you for the ask bestie! @waterfire1848

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iwasbored777 · 1 year ago

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Y'all since we already know that Gwen can and probably does look at Peter B being happy now and think how her Peter never got a chance for a better life cuz he died so young because she accidentally killed him now imagine she goes to Earth-42 and finds Miles-42 fatherless and she knows that she almost let that happen to this Miles. I get that we assume Miles will understand that she had her own problems and was forced to be in Spider Society and he would eventually forgive her but I'm saying that I don't think she will forgive herself, ever.

#friendly reminder that peter was also in love with her and i feel like that and the fact that he didn't hate when he was dying just added #more weight to the whole thing #cuz he forgave her immediately and she never forgive herself because of it #she knows she didn't do it on purpose but she still did it and that's what always follows her knowing that she was the one who did it #so far every other spider man that i know caused the death of their loved one but wasn't the one who did it and this was all her #it wasn't a supervillain that did it it was her #and on top of that her own father blamed her for it for years and after knowing it was her #so imagine her after staying with the spider society thinking of that like was this really my fault my own father thinks so maybe i was too #forgiving to myself i did it so i should stay away from everyone and she even had jess tell her all the time to not grow attached #sorry for so many tags lol but think about it it's wild from her pov #gwen stacy #miles morales #spider man across the spider verse #beyond the spiderverse #spider man beyond the spider verse #across the spiderverse #Spiderverse

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only-the-shippers-can-bully-nrmt · 2 months ago

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(Original Japanese on the left with translations under the break, Fan Translation in the middle, and Official Translation on the right.)

Saw some things flying around that have (unintentionally or otherwise) been giving people the wrong idea, so here are the comparisons to show that, yes, Miles was referring to Phoenix near the end of the second Miles Edgeworth Investigations game. Miles does bring up Gregory too, but Gregory being "that man" during the famous "shines brilliantly" scene was actually a change in the official English release that does not line up with the original Japanese version (even MTLs will get across the Wright meaning).

Also, "shining brilliantly in one's eyes" can be both how a son might look up to his father but also how a ruffly prosecutor might strongly/romantically see his courtroom partner; the line is simply intense enough to not easily carry the label of an "average" relationship. We don't need to elaborate when we tell family members/friends/significant others "I love you" (even if it's at the same time) for similar reasons, and I don't see anyone arguing that this means that Miles must see Phoenix like a father because he grouped them together in some form.

TL;DR: The official translation mucked up some context and stuff happened because of it. Keep shipping and feel free to use this as a reference post because the shippers did not misinterpret anything. We can have a conversation about how the change affected the moment, but the original context is still important and Phoenix was part of it.

Besides the translations, there are other points under the break as well, including a bonus of one of the nice and harmless additions the official translation changed/added with the "saved me from myself" line:

Translations (provided by a friend of mine who knows Japanese; edited at times to sound more natural in English or help get across the intended meaning)

........以前、ある男が言っていました。

……..In the past, a certain man once said:

被告人の唯一の味方になってあげられるのが弁護士だと。

the only one willing to be the defendant's ally is their lawyer.

依頼人を信じることで、《真実》に近づいていく････

By believing in the defendant, the truth draws closer....

その男の姿は、私の目にもまぶしく映りました。

The image of that man was so bright in my eyes, it was engraved into my mind.

There's a bit more added here for clarification's sake and people like me who have a habit of taking metaphors too literally; essentially, the first part that's in the game is saying that the sight of "that man" was so blinding that it stuck in Miles's mind/memory eternally, so the translation in the fan version is correct in a direct translation and what it means is closer to the official.

(fun fact that if you go for an MTL, a translator may translate what in English was "image"/"sight" as "appearance" or "figure" which is technically accurate but obviously not the intent when translated, just as "so bright"/"shining brilliantly" may become "dazzling"; doesn't mean I won't mention it for people to imagine/have fun with though :3c "That man's figure was so dazzling in my eyes." my god)

法廷で戦う父と、同じように････

In the same way my father fighting in court does….

(without the clarification it's more like "In the same way my father fought in court...." but as above, message is clearer this way)

しかし、それはあくまでその男や父の生き方です。

However, that's just the way that man and my father lived their lives.

This is the big one since it makes a clear and blatantly obvious separation between "that man" and Gregory himself.

Here's another translation in a reblog of the post I linked, which follows even closer to the fan translation and is more straightforward.

My asks are open for any further translation clarifications people may want to make (don't want to bog down reblogs when edits can simply be made) but this was a long-winded way of saying that the fan translation was super on point with accuracy and the only thing of note is the "burning into memory" that the official one has to help get the point across (though I think more was definitely lost the way it was done).

Other Points

1 - Staying on the official translation, its use of "that man" is rather... bizarre, even if one hasn't seen the original. Such a use is typically for:

someone the game wants the audience for figure out on their own (so the character knows it but the player needs to go talk to the person themself once they figure it out)

someone who the character speaking isn't really familiar with (like, "oh yeah, that guy, I kind of remember now")

someone the game tries to keep secret a little longer for the sake of mystery (example being the fan translation where Ray refers to Gregory without a name drop for the build up that Ray worked for him)

Miles using the phrase and then saying "my father" in the very next sentence made me do a double take because I was totally caught off guard by how it was done.

The shot of Miles sepia toned in the courtroom (the fourth shot) doesn't even make sense anymore if he's only talking about Gregory since obviously he's never seen Gregory from across the courtroom while Miles has been behind the prosecutor's bench (nor do they do a camera slide as if Miles is only imagining himself across the courtroom from him; it flashes to white instead). It only makes sense if he's taking about Phoenix.

2 - Looking at it from a fan's perspective, it makes 150% sense why "that man" would immediately be associated with Phoenix in the context of the moment. Not only did the last case of the first game have that exact thing too ("In a situation like this… what would that man do…? What would he who can turn any desperate situation around do…?"), thus making it a near-perfect continuation of that, but "a defendant's only ally being their attorney" was a huge part of the original trilogy.

In fact, the official translation actually actively makes it weirder to leave Phoenix out of that bit because of the change "a friend to the friendless" it did, which catapulted me back so violently to Turnabout Sisters - the first serious case in the entire series - that it could've put me in a coma.

This is even disregarding how important the whole "trusting clients" and "finding the truth" stuff was in cases, especially 2-4.

It's like, "ah yes, Mr. Fender, that was yours and my father's life, not mine and also no one else's; honestly, not a single other important person in my life who I could have mentioned comes to mind" lol)

3 - From my own personal perspective, I'm not stirring up a fuss over shipping, it's not about that (though shippers getting thrown under the bus absolutely sucks). I'm far more baffled that it takes the already-not-around Phoenix and chucks his mention away for later.

4 - Anyone lamenting the loss of "shining brilliantly" for something else without the context has every right to be confused and should not be criticized for it. Shipper or otherwise, most wouldn't imagine for a second that the end of Miles's arc/self-reflection would have a significant change that takes 50% of the original meaning out.

This taken into account with my comment about the visual aid of Miles behind the prosecutor's bench in sepia during that very line furthers this. Obviously people will (still) think it's about Phoenix.

5 - I only linked to one of the comments/posts I saw in case I was accused of making things up. I don't actually recommend approaching/confronting anyone because I don't think it's worth the time/effort, so this is more for anyone who felt gaslit/like they'd gotten it wrong or wanted the actual evidence. I did check the blog of the person who I linked and they made a long answer to a person who was complaining about the people complaining about said post, but hadn't made an edit to their original post telling people that there were misinterpretations being made.

That's not actually me being aggressive in any way (it's their business and their blog), but pointing out that it's not something important to people like that. I'll also grant that some might simply not know enough about the fan translation/original meaning to get it, so don't stress about it is all I'll say. :)

6 - Here's the "saved me from myself" line as promised, congrats on listening to me babble and making it all the way down here~

#fandom silliness #narumitsu #wrightworth #the sight of that man still shines brilliantly in my eyes #I know I'm late to the party but I just got here and happened to see all this while scrolling #Combination nrmt post and me being confused as someone who has known the OG meaning forever #Gregory's already in a significant chunk of this game like obvs not many people are going to latch onto Gregory's mention at the end.#They'll focus on Phoenix. We already know Gregory has a huge impact on Miles's life and we don't get Miles's perspective in most games.#Gregory shines brilliantly in Miles's eyes like a son who looks up to his father as THE role model to be #and Phoenix 👀 SHINES BRILLIANTLY 👀 in Miles's eyes like [fill in blank with interpretation].#Even barebones interpretation that Miles sees both men as role models/people to aspire to be doesn't take away nrmt content #It alone shows that Phoenix is someone irreplaceable to Miles on a similar level to the man who was so crucial in his life.

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ultraviolet-ink · 3 months ago

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Youmacon 2024: Day 2!!

@spazz981 and I went to a zine workshop, it's pretty easy to figure out which person made which zine lol!

Some very cool cosplays (And Nina ToT <//3)!!

I was so happy when I found my fellow AA cosplayers!! <3

And of course, swag:

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alackofghosts · 2 months ago

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a strange glint in his eyes

#inspired by. of all things. mister miracle (1971) next issue synopses #uhm idk how to tag this #warrior of light #i guess for consistency #speedpaint #i draw sometimes #endwalker spoilers #Final Fantasy XIV #in my wol's canon ardbert clocks that smth is off a mile away because zenos!wol is carrying the axe all wrong #because 1) he's just seen how the wol holds it so many times and 2) he's still got this weird twinge of a muscle memory that's not his

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angelnumber27 · 8 months ago

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It’s so embarrassing and heartbreaking being in so much pain over losing someone while knowing they don’t give a fuck if you live or die. Your favorite person becoming a stranger is a special kind of hell.

#I fucking hate having bpd #while I’m at it I don’t understand the fuckin audacity some people have to say they love you and do horrible things to you #I feel so stupid #I feel so stupid for believing all the lies #but I was so in love and put him on such a pedestal that I just allowed it all.#thinking about someone constantly and grieving over them and knowing they’re perfectly fine and to them you don’t exist #I’m still in such a state of grief and I don’t understand why time hasn’t healed #it honestly feels like it’s gotten worse w time #I just torture myself but I can’t help it my brain wants me dead #it’s so painful I feel so fucking stupid #being abandoned with no closure by someone who’s your entire world #for someone they were unfaithful to you with multiple times (I don’t even know how many and dony want to know) immediately #like that was the plan all along #he took our cat hundreds of miles away and I don’t even know if he still has her or if she’s still alive and I miss her every day #I never loved someone like that and it feels like the heartbreak is actually physically killing me #i spent 1/5 of my entire life with him #I was my prettiest and had the best body at the time and I wasted it on someone who didn’t appreciate me #not wasted. it wasn’t wasted. we had some incredible times together #I’ll never be that beautiful again #and now idk what do so bc i can’t decide which is worse: being alone and isolating or loving deeply and ending up horribly hurt all over #it’s all just so upsetting.#and I feel so stupid for allowing it all #he knows more about me than anyone and he made me feel like he loved me so much sometimes and then did horrid things and it’s so fucked up #nobody read this I’m so embarrassed and horribly broken #it traumatized me so much there was so much abuse and pain idk if I’ll ever recover #I deserved it but it still hurts my heart #I was so mentally ill and sick I know it had to have been miserable to be around me #there are so many things only he understands and knows about me and I need to talk about them I j wanna b able to b there 4 each other #but that girl is so beyond insecure and controlling so. if I want to talk to who fuckin gets me I’m just fucked #why lead someone on like that for years knowing you’re going to abandon them the second it’s convenient

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whereisyourstar · 1 month ago

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That's Me

Part 4 of the Stand By, Hold Back, Be Patient series

Part 3, Part 5

Rating: SFW with mild and minimal explicitness at the end

Word Count: 5k

Warnings: Brief mention of talking with an abusive family member, brief mentions of blood, murder, etc., awkward walks, the slow burn is starting to kindle

Life goes on. Payday comes and goes, May starts in a cool, rainy earnest, and you begin to settle in.

You make some adjustments to your living room's layout, adding an ugly, overstuffed yellow-green ottoman that goes with nothing else in the room, because it was free on the side of the road and you liked it. Heracles gets a dog bed that he never uses save as a convenient place to put his toys, the favorite of which is a stuffed lamb he whined over at the store. He worries over it constantly, and you have to stop him from taking it with him when you go for walks in the forest, which has gotten you thinking, however hesitantly, that perhaps Heracles could do with a friend. You remind yourself that you're a long way off from being able to take care of two dogs, but you do keep an eye on the various animal shelters around Crystal Lake.

The locks on every single one of your doors has been replaced, and you've even added a latch to the porch's screen door, which you're devastatingly proud of. It took days of on-and-off labor, half of which you spent sure that you'd ruined your good, strong doors, but the end result is a cabin that just feels safe again. That's the important thing.

You got around to answering some of those piling up messages on your phone, too. Some lie about having to wait until payday to reconnect your phone gets you out of most of the vitriol, but it brings up a whole slew of lectures about how you've always been awful with money, and what were you thinking buying that cabin, and what are you going to do when you need to get a real job out there in the sticks, and when are you coming home? You add answering at least two messages a day to your schedule, but do nothing about the calls. She's your mother, but there's limits.

The truce with Jason holds. You've seen him twice in the week since coming to an agreement. The first was just as a glimpse in the forest while Heracles forged a trail up ahead, heading the opposite direction to do…whatever it is he does when he's not terrorizing you. The second time when you were switching the lock on the front door and he rounded the corner of your house, completely casual, like he owned the place just as much as you. Heracles, who had been idly sniffing around the trees while you worked, launched himself like a rocket directly into Jason's arms, surprising you both, and you'd been left apologizing for him between laughter. You'd tried to explain what you were doing with the locks, that it made you feel better to have something sturdier on your doors, and you still couldn't tell if he actually understood. He'd shown no interest in going into your home again anyway, so you supposed it didn't matter.

It's a bleary day when you see him again. The rain hasn't let up all morning, lending a little extra lifelessness to your daily scrolling and reporting, but right as you break for lunch and get a day-old croissant in you—you got a box of six half off at the store because they're slightly too brown, and they're the most delicious thing you've had in weeks—the patter on the windows abruptly stops. It surprises you enough to pull back the curtain on the window over your kitchen sink and, like a beacon, a patch of sun burns through the cloud cover.

You turn to Heracles, who has been watching the final crumb of croissant like with complete focus, and ask, "Wanna go?"

It's a win-win-win. He gets to pee without getting drenched, you get to finish your croissant without judgement, and you both have a chance to stretch your legs. There's just something extra intolerable about being inside when you have to be, and extra freeing when you pull in that first lungful of rainsoaked, cool, green-smelling air.

The forest is waterlogged after so much rain and within minutes of walking you realize that your comfy hoodie isn't going to cut it against the drops still sliding down the tallest trees. Looking up is an exercise in getting errant water in your eye, but you keep craning your neck backward to watch the tops of the trees while Heracles leads you around. It's dizzying how tall some of these trees are, and you're not even in a particularly old part of the forest. Far east of your cabin, caught between the lake and the town, is where the vacationers and residents alike don't go, the forest thick and dark and old out that way. You heard someone mention bears and mountain lions who make that part of the Crystal Lake woods their home and decided you had no business over there.

You're staring at sky between layers of branch and leaf and twig, idly fascinated with how quickly the silver clouds pass by while Heracles sniffs the base of a tree with gusto, when a branch snaps to your left. There's a moment where you don't recognize him as he ducks under a low bough a few feet away—so he does own other clothes, this ratty grey-brown jacket making a stunning debut with the usual outfit—and your heart does an odd flip when you take in the hockey mask. Instant relief, because it's just Jason, not some stranger. A stranger catching you in the woods opens up an entire gamut of possible outcomes that you're not prepared to deal with, but Jason? He's a known quantity, as much as someone like him can be known. Just here to catch up with Heracles and maybe check that you're not making a nuisance of yourself on his land.

The relief and a small helping of embarrassment at being caught quite literally watching the clouds translates into being downright friendly on reflex. "Hey!" you sign hello, muscle memory pulling your lips into a smile. "Here to—"

The rest hardly matters, because Heracles finally tears himself away from the tree long enough to run to Jason, pulling you right along with him. You stop just short of him while Heracles makes quick work of jumping up and scrabbling muddy paws all over Jason's legs. You wince and suck a breath in through your teeth at the twin trails of newly wet muck on the pants despite all the filth already encrusted on them. "Ahhhh…" you say half behind your hand, watching Jason's reaction carefully. He pays the paws and the mud no mind, even squelches onto one knee on the drenched forest floor to rub at Heracles' ears. Still— "We've been working on that. I like his enthusiasm, but he nearly bowled over a kid with a burger in town yesterday, so…anyway, sorry about the muddy hello."

Jason makes a noncommittal gesture before going right back to lavishing Heracles in attention. He has, however, caught your dog doing the only thing he loves more than receiving undivided attention—exploring and sniffing to his heart's content. Much sooner than normal, Heracles pulls away from Jason and starts tugging on the leash, harness straining. A thought you're not sure what to do with immediately pops into your mind—spending time with your dog is the only thing keeping you breathing at the moment, so what happens if Heracles can't meet that quota? So far these visits have stretched anywhere from an hour to fifteen minutes, and granted, you don't have the best data considering how new this all is, but you're certain a minute isn't anywhere near enough.

So you make an invitation of it. Arm straining against Heracles' impressive resolve to drag you with him, you look to Jason and say, "Ah, you actually caught us in the middle of a walk, and he's not going to want to stop for at least another hour. If you're not busy, would you like to…come with us? For a bit?"

He surprises you by agreeing once he's stood—that same careful slowness in his movements that you just can't figure out—with a yes. And then you're off, Heracles' tail high and wagging to have his two favorite people walking behind him.

It's…awkward. Awkward in the way that you don't want it to be awkward, but you're the one that created the situation in the first place, so you kind of just have to deal with it. Jason chooses to walk with you, not up with Heracles like you thought he would, and puts roughly four feet of space between himself and you wherever the forest allows. It's the kind of room that would insult you if you thought he was doing this for any other reason but to hang out with Heracles. As it is, you just do your best not to veer too closely to him while Heracles chooses his path.

The silence is expected, and even kind of nice once you get used to another person being there to share it. There's a good rumbling in the distance that says the storm isn't done with Crystal Lake just yet, but it sounds far enough off that you're not too worried about it yet. Birds chirp and flit around in the trees, sometimes accompanied by much heavier wildlife that you can't see, and it doesn't take too long for you to become absorbed in the forest again. And you take a few extra glances at the clouds and their silver-gold interplay with the hidden sun, because it's still gorgeous out here even with a serial killer on your left. It's enough to make a person nearly forget to be afraid.

What you don't expect is for Jason to be the one to break that silence. He draws your attention back by plucking the leash in your hand like a guitar string, pulling you back from admiring a brown bird that seems common for the area. You try not to let your sudden spike in fear show on your face when you turn back to him.

Dog, he signs, then points up ahead where Heracles scratches at a spot in the mud. Dog.

Your brain whirls to try and figure this one out. The two of you haven't communicated at all, really, since the day he forced you to take ASL off one of your brain's shelves. He hasn't seemed interested, despite you continuing to sign all the words you know when you talk at him. This comes out of left field and you have to kick your brain out of nature-appreciation mode to answer. "Heracles? Oh, he's fine, he'll start walking again in a—no?" Dog, he signs, then points at Heracles again. "Y…yeah, Heracles. Did you forget his name?" And you slip the leash's handle around your wrist so you can sign name, two fingers tapped to two fingers. Jason jolts, leaves making wet noises under his shoes when he half-turns to sign yes while pointing at your hands.

Lightbulb. "Name!" you exclaim, spurred on by his enthusiastic yes. "You wanted to know the sign for name! Do you want to know why Heracles is named that—" and you sign why, intent on making good on your self promise to teach him question words "—or maybe you go by something else? Or—"

Jason points to you and signs name.

What a way to realize you never introduced yourself to him. A mix of mortification and confusion no doubt colors your cheeks, because yes, you never thought to tell the mass murderer your name, but you also didn't think he'd be interested. He's here for your dog, not you—you're just a conduit through which the dog can be experienced. But he did ask.

When you tell him, you watch his mask very closely, try to get a better look at that very brown eye you saw before. There's not enough light in the forest to illuminate the deep eyeholes of the mask, but you do get to watch in quiet awe as Jason perfectly fingerspells your name, just as you did. There's something about watching his big, gloved hands work so delicately around the movements of your name that you feel…something. Maybe pleased? Impressed that he picked it up so quickly?

"You got it," you tell him, and you can't stop the little smile that comes upon you when he signs it again. Like he's trying to commit it to memory. "That's me."

Heracles has less patience for this interlude than you do, but the dam's been broken now, you're pretty sure you won't annoy Jason by talking to him, so you try to keep the conversation going when the walk starts up again. "You know," you start after a moment, catching him turning his mask nearly over his right shoulder to better look at you. So that sagging eye is mostly or completely sightless, then. He's going to hurt his neck like this, craning it over and down to see you, and you make a mental note to walk on his left next time. "It's kind of funny. You're Jason, he's Heracles…we've got an Argonaut theme going. Maybe if I get another dog I'll name it Orpheus…or Nestor, I always liked Nestor." You glance up to find Jason staring down at you, and you say, a little meekly, "Like…the Golden Fleece? The myth?"

And, so deliberately that it's almost comical, Jason signs yes-no. Maybe, or I don't know.

While Heracles pulls the two of you along, you tell him. It's a barebones overview of the Golden Fleece tale—neither of you have the kind of time required for the full myth—that you have to look into the furthest pits of your childhood Greek myth obsession to scrape together, but before you've hit on the even-more-mythical Jason and his Argonauts departing Iolcus, the present-Jason has stopped you over a dozen times. With a bit of work on both your parts, including finally getting those who, what, where, and why signs into play, he's got a working understanding of the main characters and the meddling gods before too long. You're fully warmed to the topic by then, using your hands not to sign, but to just gesture as you put together biographies of ancient heroes, and you can feel how much you're smiling. Every question is more than welcome, bringing with it the validation of poring over dense, flimsy-papered tomes of myth as a kid, and you're more than happy to explain what you can. It's clear Jason's getting into it, too—his stiff body language shifts the longer you talk, the more readily you answer his questions. He trips over his own fingers more than once trying to sign who or where and you have to bite your cheek to keep from thinking out loud about how nice this is. It doesn't feel like something you're doing to placate him, and you don't think he's the type to indulge you, so it's truly just…talking. Talking with someone who wants to know what you have to say.

Jason's hands are literally and metaphorically stained with the blood of innocent people, good people, and he's also the most engaging person you've spoken with in years. An ethics scholar would have a field day with the way you're feeling right now.

It gets to a point that, when Heracles abruptly yawns and starts to turn back, you actually feel your heart sink a little. He stops for a pat from Jason when he passes between the two of you, but he's clearly finished with his explorations for the day. You try to keep your expression and tone neutral when you say, "Looks like he's done out here. It's been…what, an hour? Hour and a half since we left?" You check your phone and wince—closer to two, but then, Jason did join on about thirty minutes into the walk. The energy of seeing him probably kept Heracles going longer than normal. Still, you look up at the sliver of sky you can see from here and bite your lip. Jason's signing what when you pull yourself back. "Heracles'll just take us the way we came, which wouldn't normally be a problem, but there's no way we're beating that storm."

As if on cue, a huge clap of thunder rings out somewhere nearby, and both you and Heracles jump. Jason just lifts his head to stare at the same patch of sky you did—lots of neck on display, all of it sparking that unnatural-discomfort-wrong part of your brain—before tapping his chest and pointing a direction perpendicular to Heracles. Then he takes off in that direction using these long, purposeful strides, and you have to run with Heracles just to follow behind. He checks over his shoulder only once and slightly readjusts his speed, which means you were right to follow and he isn't just attempting the world's rudest Irish exit. "Come on, follow Jason, buddy," you tell Heracles needlessly. He finds it fun trying to keep up with Jason, meaning you're dragged behind at a half-jog for who knows how many miles.

The sky threatens to break open for the entire twenty minute jog back, but it holds out just long enough for Jason to deposit you and Heracles back to to the awning-side of your cabin. You knew Heracles didn't take you too far into the forest on these walks, but being so close this whole time surprises you, and you let out a surprised "Oh!" as you step out of the woods. A glance at the sky shows it dark, the sun on its descent making for an eerie ambiance, but you're grinning when you turn to Jason. "Thank you! That was so much faster, thank you so much!" You're panting around the words, but you do mean them. He just makes that same noncommittal gesture from before, then turns to go.

Something in you can't accept him just walking off like that. You should be glad to see him go, and a part of you is, but still…you enjoyed yourself this afternoon, however improbably. He didn't have to listen to you like he did, and he certainly didn't have to show you this more direct route to the house. So you shout, "Wait!" after him and before he's turned round again, you ask, "Do you eat?"

Over his shoulder, still mostly pointed away, the mask dips down. Yes.

"Okay, stay right here for just a minute, I have something for you." And you don't check that he's staying behind as you get your door unlocked, taking it on trust that he's not about to let you embarrass yourself. Where that trust comes from is anyone's guess, but it urges you to ignore the mud Heracles tracks inside while you take a day-old croissant from the box and hurriedly wrap it in a clean yellow gingham patterned kitchen towel. You're back outside in an instant and your heart does a curious little leap to see him still standing there, waiting for you. You run right up to him, fear completely forgotten, and hold the parcel out in the space between. "Here, it's just a croissant, but it's genuinely the most incredible thing I've had since I got here. You have to try one."

Jason eyes you, then the wrapped up croissant, then you again. Pointedly does not take it when he signs why?

"Because I had a lot of fun today," you say, entirely too honest. "No one's let me go on like that for…I don't know, years? It was nice, and I appreciate it, so…here. There's no poison in it, promise."

You're close enough that you can see the shape of Jason's working eye scrunch a little, and his shoulders lift, like you've said something funny. But he does take the croissant, all careful, tentative movements, and you shudder at the feeling of his gloves against your bare knuckles. There's a moment where he just holds it in his huge hands, staring at it, then he looks up at you and nods once. A thank you, you think.

The sky ruptures into a torrent of cold, harsh rain, so you don't linger. Still, from the safety of your front door, you watch as Jason tucks the croissant into some interior pocket on his jacket, which is just extremely gratifying.

You wonder if you should have invited him in as you're wiping off Heracles' muddy paws, the dog in question collapsed into a puddle of sleepy bliss. He got you home in time to avoid the rain, but you assume he lives somewhere in the denser, older part of the forest with all the other dangerous creatures. That's a long walk, even for someone with his stride.

It would have been polite to invite him in, but even if he'd said yes, you don't think there's any getting around the fact that the last time he was in your house it was with the intention of killing you. (And you do want to know, more than ever now, why he chose not to that first time. And the second. But that requires a level of communication that will take a lot more than just a walk or two to achieve, you're sure.) Then there's the fact that, the time before that, he killed an entire shift of construction workers in here. You could ask what he did with the heads, probably, but do you really want him to show you? What if he decides to add yours to whatever nefarious skull pile he's building?

One nice, mostly one-sided conversation doesn't change what Jason is. It's good to remember that. But even still, you find yourself tucked up on the sofa for the requisite pre-dinner nap, Heracles already passed out and kicking in his sleep, and reading a retelling of the Golden Fleece myth. At the very least, if these random Jason appearances keep happening, you can make them interesting for him. And if you happen to enjoy it too, well. You'll leave that one to the ethics scholars.

Jason sits against the wall of his house and rips the bundle out of his pocket. He's dripping with rain that still hasn't let up despite the long walk, but what's important is that it's mostly dry here, and he can think. He thought plenty on the way over, he always thinks best while walking, but he needed to see this thing while poring over his own thoughts, and for some reason he just…hadn't been able to let the thing you'd given him be ruined by the downpour.

He unwraps the yellow cloth—clean, smelling faintly of soap and the bread it conceals—and finds you were telling the truth. You said it was a croissant like he was supposed to know what that is, but it's obviously just a cold, very brown, curved roll of some kind. It crackles under his fingers when he squeezes it, flakes fluttering from the cloth and onto his lap. Not like any bread he's ever encountered, in this life or his first, but it seems, for all intents and purposes, completely mundane. There's no poison in it, promise.

So what is your angle. You're not the typical trespasser, he knew that after his first encounter with you. You're fast, having taken him by surprise twice now with just how quickly you've been able to run when he's close by, but you're also smart. Anyone who recognized his sign—and he still doesn't know why that particular memory unburied itself that day, of his mother sitting across from him at the table and showing him the peculiar gesture for dog after she'd had success in teaching him mommy, trying to build his vocabulary with all his favorite things first—and was able to answer in kind had to be, but to then use those signs to give him the ability to answer questions, and ask his permission to stay…it puts him on the defensive just as surely as any weapon. He had thought he was dealing with a deer, all freeze instinct or breakneck speed when startled, and approached you with that idea in mind. No sudden movements, not while he was still making up his mind about what to do with you, in case you decided to run.

He kept the tactic after coming to the agreement with you, but after today…you're not the trembling doe he thought you were.

You're scared of him. You should be, he's intentionally terrifying, but that fear needs someplace to go when your life isn't in danger. A deer will run when it is scared and will bleat when it's caught, but a deer isn't as smart as you are, nor is it as protective. No prey animal he knows would go to such lengths as you have to protect Heracles, which means he has badly miscalculated, because you aren't prey at all. You're a predator, just like him. Intelligent, quick, and loyal—he thinks of your eyes, how you watch him just as intently as he watches you, and thinks hawk.

He puts together what he knows. You're dangerous, and he needs to understand how. Not in the same way as him, you were so easy to hold down—and he lingers, not for the first time, on the way your exposed throat had curved up, just daring him to touch it, when you screamed for Heracles to run—and the singular hit you've gotten on him was completely ineffectual. He could overpower you in an instant, but he hasn't, in part because of the way you speak to him. You know the signed language he learned pieces of as a boy and wasted no time in communicating with him. He wanted to answer your questions.

It strikes him that every single time you have demanded he wait, he did it without question.

You wouldn't be the first to manipulate him—there are still stains of blood on the floor here from the last time a victim deceived him, desecrating his mother's memory in the process—but you are the first to have the opportunity to do it over a span of time. If manipulating him is what you're doing at all. He can't tell, which is the point, and it frustrates him. How could it be anything else, though? Because just like with the questions, with the waiting, he wants to hear you continue that story. He wants to talk to you. He wants to see you again.

From where he sits, miles and miles away from where he left you, he can feel your presence. It's a sense gifted to him by this second life, this ability to know when his territory has been invaded. He tracks his victims by it, honing in on each individual presence until they are snuffed out. At this distance, he is aware of you, but passively. A caress on the back of his mind that is becoming all too familiar. His sense of you draws him in a different way than the others—he just wants to be closer.

Are you aware of what you're doing to him? Talking kindly to him, giving him gifts, in the hopes that he will care enough to continue to spare your life? And, worse than that, are you aware that it's working?

Jason lifts his mask and tears into the bread-croissant with his teeth and swallows it. It's harder than he remembers bread being, but the softer inside melts where it touches his tongue, tasting of butter. He prefers meat, but even in the midst of this newest crisis, he has to admit that it does taste…good. The most incredible thing you've had since you got here, though? You clearly haven't had the long, sweet berries that grow on the trees in his woods. They will be in season soon, maybe you would like—

He tamps down on the impulse with another bite, then a final one until all that's left is a million crumbling flakes in his lap and the towel the bread was wrapped in. He brushes the flakes off and he tries, he tries very hard, not to care that he's holding something you touched. He'll just put it in his pocket and leave it outside your door the next time he's in the area. He'll just put it in his pocket and leave it outside your door, and then he'll pet Heracles, and then you will say something new that draws him in, and he will stay longer than he meant to, and you'll get your talons further in, and—

The smart thing to do is throw the rag into a corner of his house and leave it to rot. Or maybe he can tear it into strips to make new wicks for the candles on mother's shrine. Maybe he'll carry it on him for a while longer, so he can shove it into a victim's mouth when their screaming can't be silenced by his machete quick enough.

But rather than do any of that, Jason carefully spreads the cloth over his palm. Then he removes the glove on his other hand, lets it fall to the ground while he touches his fingertips to the soft, clean material. His stomach feels tight, and his jaw clenches. He brings the material to his mouth and presses it to his lips, bunched up under his nose, and he breathes it in. Your hands were on this, however briefly, and through the scent of bread and soap, he tries to get the scent that is just yours. His tongue drags against the cloth, just once, as if he could taste you.

He feels himself stirring, stiffening, and he tears the cloth away, frustrated and disgusted with himself. None of that, not because of you, not because of anyone. He'll return the towel and stand in the rain and remove all vestiges of your influence on him.

Jason stands, his breathing the loudest thing within the walls of the house, and shoves the cloth into his pocket. But not before he rubs it between his bare fingers, just one last time, and spells the letters of your name against it.

#jason voorhees/reader #jason voorhees/female reader #jason voorhees x reader #jason voorhees x you #slasher x reader #I have nearly 4k words cut entirely from the jason section of this because I couldn't figure out how I wanted to write him #not entirely happy with it but god do I love that he's catching feelings #and his first impulse is to figure out what your angle is. man I think she's just nice.#reader curled up comfy on the couch: what a surprisingly nice day!#jason however many miles away in complete agony: fuck FUCK. I got her fursona wrong.

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