#not saying anything about the 6/4 rats accusations

[not-5-rats]

I am definitely not five rats

reblog if your url represents who you really are 

[linos-luna]

My Baby (Pt. 10) 🥀🔪

Yandere!Bang Chan x Fem!Reader x Minho

(Pt. 1) (Pt. 2) (Pt. 3) (Pt. 4) (Pt. 5) (Pt. 6) (Pt. 7) (Pt. 8) (Pt. 9) (Pt 10)

Warnings: 18+, Yandere! Crying, some self harm, violence?

—————————— 🎀 ——————————

Minho was a wreck, losing sleep over your kidnapping for a whole week. Frustrated with the police, he hired a private investigator; however, they were only able to find some old friends of the man. So Minho decided to take matters into his own hands, confronting Chan's old friend Felix

“I haven’t seen him in over 3 years!”

“You're lying!” Minho accused, causing a scene.

Jeongyeon tried to calm him down, but Minho pressed Felix for more information.

“Listen. We know you were in communication with him a little over a year ago…” Jeongyeon said with her arms crossed. “Whether you understood the situation or not…”

“I-I can’t just rat out my friend—”

“Your friend has my girlfriend!” Minho interrupted.

“I… I only know of three places he’s lived at…” Felix said while looking down. “One apartment. Two houses…”

“Spit it out!” Minho said while pulling out his phone. He wrote the addresses on his notes app and sighed.

“That’s it?!”

“Yeah. I swear!”

“Thank you.” Jeongyeon said while pulling Minho away.

“I wasn’t done!”

“We got what we needed!” She snapped. “We don’t even know if he’s even at one of those old places.”

“Yeah but it’s a good place to start…”

——— 🎀

It was late into the afternoon. You were taking a nap and for the moment, it was quite peaceful.

You didn’t even realize that Chan was right next to you. He was also napping, on his side facing you.

You didn’t even notice until you started waking up.

He looked more at ease, as if he hadn’t had a good rest in a long time. His curly dark hair was grown out but suited him well. His features, well, you were reminded of one of the many reasons you originally fell in love with him.

His hand rested gently on your waist, showcasing his caring side. With a bit of light shining through the window, he just looked… soft… and well… handsome.

I mean, things weren't all that bad. He changed a little, loving as always but not as scary. At least he’s making an effort to be gentler and control his emotions.

He looked exhausted. You wondered if now was the time to sneak away. However, you couldn’t get yourself to move. He just seemed so much happier and relaxed when you’re here, almost like you give him purpose for his caregiving nature.

Sitting up, you watch as he moves a bit. There was a slight moment of panic when he didn’t feel your body, but you quickly grabbed onto his hand with the both of yours. Insanity.

You say there for a good ten minutes just watching him. And he was happy to see you there when waking up.

He woke up, finding his baby looking at him with concern. "Hi, baby," he smiled. "Didn't expect you up first."

"You looked tired," you said timidly.

"Don't worry about me, y/n," he replied, sitting up and kissing you. Surprisingly, you didn't resist.

"We need to talk."

His tone shifted, and a sense of unease filled the room.

"I just don't get it," he sighed.

"What?"

"Why would gop with another man?" he said, agitated. "Let him corrupt you…"

"Corrupt me?"

"I saw him with you!" he yelled, making you flinch.

"No, I'm sorry!" he softened, grabbing your arms. "Don't be scared!"

"Stop it!" you yelled, pushing him away. "He's my boyfriend! I'm not a baby!"

"My sweet babygirl," he said, unclear if serious or mocking. "You don't know anything. That's why you need daddy here."

"No! No! No!" you cried, shaking your head as tension rose.

“You need me!”

“Stop!”

“You stayed.” Chan continued. “Why would you do that? What would you stay as long as you did if you supposedly hate me?”

"Because I love you!" The words burst out before you could stop them, and you instantly covered your mouth, shaking your head. "N-no, no! Wait!"

"You still love me..." Chan said quietly.

"LOVED! I meant I LOVED you!!" You tried correcting yourself to no avail.

"I knew you still love me."

"No!"

"You missed me…" he continued as he watched you starting to sob.

"No! No, I don't!" You sobbed while smacking yourself on the head. "Stop it! Shut up! Shut up!"

"You just wanna be held… and loved… just need someone to take care of you—"

It's almost as if your mind was starting to slip. All these contradicting thoughts were overwhelming. What do you want? Do you still love him? Do you like him caring for you...??

"— because you're still my baby."

That was it. Almost as if something else had overtaken you. You practically threw yourself at him, clinging onto him and sobbing into his chest. Chan rubbed your back and held you tight while rocking you lightly. Have you finally lost it?

————— 🎀

“The houses. Those are our last options.”

“And what if she’s not in one of them?” Jeongyeon sighed.

“Dont say that!” Minho snapped.

Jeongyeon frowned at his reaction and took a deep breath.

The two of them were at a local restaurant trying to brainstorm. That is, until Minho looked up and recognized a freckled boy not to far away.

Minho realized something. He’s seen this man here before. Here at the same time when you were here.

“You’re right…” Minho muttered. “She’s probably not there…”

The man gets up, making the other man nervous when making eye contact. Before Felix could react, Minho grabbed him by the shirt, pulling him close.

“You lied to us, huh?”

Instead, the man was quiet.

“Say something!!”he yelled, making the patrons of the restaurant turn to watch.

“Minho!”

“No! He knows something!” Minho yelled back.

Surprisingly, the diners went back to eating and going about their business, acting as if this was normal. It was a little unnerving.

Getting frustrated, Minho drags Felix to the men’s bathroom and lets him go, making Felix slip to the floor.

“I’ve had enough.” Minho grunted. “You know where she is. You know where he has her. You’re still in contact with him.”

“Minho!” Jeongyeon was banging on the door, not sure if she should just barge in.

“Listen, I don’t know what kind of sick friendship you have with Chan, but I’m begging you to give me the correct address of where he is.”

————— 🎀

Not too long after, Minho and Jeongyeon found themselves standing outside Chan's house. Jeongyeon was actually surprised that Felix had coughed up the information.

"Shouldn't we get the police? Maybe some professional—?" she suggested

"No!" Minho interrupted. "I'm getting her! She's MY BABY!"

The intensity in his voice took Jeongyeon aback. He hadn't slept for over 24 hours, and it was evident he wasn't in the right headspace.

"You can go now," Minho said solemnly.

"She's my friend... I want to help," Jeongyeon insisted.

Meanwhile, Chan was feeding you. It seemed like you had given up on resisting. He paused when his phone buzzed, revealing a text from his friend.

< Lix >

[ I’m sorry! They made me tell!]

The man sighed and got up, confusing you a bit as he suddenly lifted you up.

“What are you doing?” You asked as he carried you to your basement room.

“Just stay here.” He replied while setting you down on the bed.

“W-what?!”

“It’s okay, baby.” He said while kissing your forehead. “I’ll be back…”

So what happened? It all flashed by so fast. You were in the basement, listening to the commotion upstairs, but you couldn’t make out exactly what was happening.

You were startled as the door burst open, revealing your best friend, Jeongyeon.

"Y/n!"

"Jeongyeon?" Your voice carried a mix of surprise and relief as your friend enveloped you in a tight hug, clearly thrilled to see you.

"Thank god you're okay!"

"Why wouldn't I be?" you replied.

Jeongyeon didn't know how to respond and quickly pulled you toward the stairs. Hoping to guide you towards a window for a possible escape. However, your attempt was short-lived, and you were spotted rather quickly.

"What are you doing??" Chan's voice rang out.

It appeared that the two men were engaged in a heated argument… or more like a fight? Chan looked frustrated but oddly calm, while Minho, on the other hand, seemed disheveled. It was a contrast between a rested man and an unrested one, both brimming with desperation.

Maybe that was the plan. For Minho to distract him while jeongyeon snuck you out. It wasn’t supposed to get violent…

"Y/n!" Minho's expression changed as he was so happy to see you.

You wanted your run to him. To be in his arms again, but someone stood in your path.

"Baby, go back downstairs!" Chan's voice echoed loudly, leaving you frozen in fear as your friend attempted to pull you away.

Minho looked around, coming up with something on the spot. He grabbed a glass cup from the table and smashed it against the wood. The contents spilled everywhere; he disregarded the large shard cutting into his hand as he ran forward, stabbing Chan in the shoulder. Stunned by the pain, Chan tripped over, and Minho loomed over him, ready to make the final blow.

"Don't!" you called out.

"Why shouldn't I?!" Minho demanded.

"Because—because—!"

"—because she still loves me…" Chan finished with a sly look.

Enraged, Minho threw the glass aside, landing a punch that instantly knocked Chan out. He got up, dragging the unconscious man by the leg into the basement. You and Jeongyeon followed.

You quickly went through the nightstand drawer, grabbing the cuffs that he’s put you in before.

As Minho practically threw Chan onto the bed, Jeongyeon cuffed him to the rail. She turned to you. "Is there another one?"

You nodded, finding another pair in the closet. The three of you returned upstairs, and tears streamed down your face.

"Minnie, I... I don't love him..."

Without hesitation, Minho hugged you, holding on tight. He fought back tears, wanting to appear strong for you. “I know…”

"Are we gonna call the—?"

"Let him suffer," Minho said in a low tone, interrupting the woman while holding you tight. "It's what he deserves! It's what he gets for stealing her away! For stealing away MY BABY!"

Both you and Jeongyeon paused. You pulled away briefly to look at Minho, while Jeongyeon eyed him with concern. Was he becoming what he hated? His actions were almost lethal. He could've killed him. The irrational possessiveness scared all three of you.

"Jeongyeon... call them," Minho said, looking down.

—————— 🎀

A moment of calm enveloped you, feeling at peace in his loving embrace that provided a sense of safety and relaxation. Spooning, was that the right word?

"We should finish packing," Minho suggested.

"Mm... 10 more minutes?" you replied with a sigh. "I'm sleepy."

"We've been in bed all day," Minho teased, with a playful smile.

"Oh well," you giggled, turning yourself around to be face to face with him. Minho gently rubbed your cheek, admiring your adorable features.

"Okay, that's fine. But Jeongyeon will be back soon."

"I can't wait until we move to the new home. And I'm so happy that Jeongyeon is coming with us." You giggled.

"We'll be our own little family," Minho said with a smile. "The three of us and maybe a few cats…"

You planted a quick kiss on his lips and cuddled up into his chest, breathing a sigh of relief.

[ALTERNATE ENDING]

——————————————— 🎀

Tags 🏷️

@salfetkablog , @gyuhbfr @jihyun2monster ,@henrietta-whor3 , @stanskzsstuff , @leah-berkley-17

@lixxiebrownies , @minervasystem

@casarse0446-blog , @kuin7s @jlady-016 , @arthistt @iilliess @marrykat @generalbearangel el , @bunnyxoxodarling @hoeforbangchan n @cozyleeknows @lailac13

to those you read and love the series, I hoped to bring a good conclusion 😅

Don’t forget to like and reblog so others can read it too! I really appreciate you all for liking my writing and I hope to bring you more good fics and series!

I have a few in the works:

Pt. 4 of My Queen ❣️🔪 (yandere!Hyunjin x Reader)

Pt. 4 of Eternally ❣️🔪 (Yandere!Vampire!Jin x Reader)

[theartistknownaslymond]

OH also I’d love to know about Will Scott’s music interests (I say because I think interest probably transcends ‘taste’ into the realm of Will being very !!!! about stuff he likes, bless him).

Reasonable Proof

A playlist for running away from your comfortable, if sectarian, upbringing to join a blacklisted rock star accused of supporting terrorism. It makes a good soundtrack to strip poker, too.

1) Bay City Rollers - Shang-a-Lang 2) Alice Cooper - I Like Girls 3) T. Rex - Children of the Revolution 4) Warren Zevon - Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner 5) The Boomtown Rats - Rat Trap 6) Blondie - Rip Her To Shreds 7) Tom Robinson Band - 2-4-6-8 Motorway 8) The Clash - Should I Stay or Should I Go? 9) David Bowie - Rebel Rebel 10) Adam & the Ants - Prince Charming 11) The Undertones - Teenage Kicks 12) Queen - I Want to Break Free 13) Mott the Hoople - All the Young Dudes 14) Elton John - Breaking Down Barriers 15) Quiet Riot - Love's a Bitch 16) Feargal Sharkey - A Good Heart 17) Patti Smith - Gloria: In Excelsis Deo 18) Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel - Here Comes the Sun 19) The Clash - I Fought the Law

Please forgive me, there may not be much nuance here because I’m worried my idea of Will lacks nuance these days...but I have tried to be fair. Harsh, but fair.

Will Scott likes glam.

Faceclaims: Dave Mustaine and Ewan McGregor, though both are sorely lacking in visible freckles.

We've talked about Will having very dogmatic ideas on what is cool and what is not. The thing is, like you say, I don't think Will's actual tastes are at all cool, except occasionally, by accident. He's just very good/loud at claiming they are - and no one in his vast family knows anything about popular music so they let him win the arguments. Step-mum Janet would really prefer it if he put one of his nice demo tracks (they're not NICE, ma!! they’re about smashing the system!) on in the car instead of the hair metal though, dear (it just makes your father angry because he's losing his!). Francis, not giving a fig about what other people think is cool or tasteful, finds Will's hang-up on this to be both hilarious and deeply frustrating.

So the vibe of the Will playlist is…obliviously tasteless/just as obliviously excellent meets defiantly bitchy.

Sorry, I don't make the rules, but the oblivious tastelessness comes largely from Will's enthusiasm for glam and the fledgling hair metal movement. Hence Alice Cooper (for I Like Girls, imagine Will is Compensating For Something and r63-verse Willa is just going 'no, but it's a good song that's all!'), T-Rex, Mott the Hoople, and Quiet Riot. Additionally, Adam and the Ants might be considered a bit naff by some of the trendsetters - but 'ridicule is nothing to be scared of'! They're a natural progression from the glam scene, too. Bob Geldof has always been a bit cringe, and Rat Trap is no exception, but it's so earnest!! So insistent! IT'S A RAT TRAP, JUDY! AND WE'VE BEEN….CAUGHT! Very Will.

Oblivious excellence comes from Warren Zevon (Francis is genuinely impressed by this one, Zevon's not brilliantly well known, especially not on this side of the pond. Will never admits it was the werewolf song that got him into it), Blondie, the Tom Robinson Band (Will does get a bit flustered if you ask whether he knows Glad to be Gay though), The Clash, Bowie, Patti Smith, Steve Harley…

One of those weird crossovers that Will doesn't quite get is why, when Teenage Kicks is objectively considered cool by people, he's mocked for liking Feargal Sharkey's solo stuff? He's also not really sure where Queen and Elton John stand. They have been considered cool, but seem to have become uncool now they're 'mainstream', but the songs are still good? Does not compute. He has no shame about listening to the Bay City Rollers either because they're one of the biggest, best known local bands, why wouldn't he think they were amazing??

More to follow when I get round to answering your other ask about Will/a :) and while I keep writing about Will here, I think some tracks probably fit even better for Willa!

Key lyrics/reasoning:

1) Edinburgh’s 1970s teen sensations! Though the decade ended in splits and unpopularity, Will is fiercely loyal to when he first heard of them (probably in the wake of his mum’s death) and won’t hear anyone say it’s childish to like them. Anyone who says so is probably just jealous of how successful they were, right? 2) “Quit my job, quit my school / Quit this place / My mother cried / My father was fried / Hey, I've got no time, man / I wanna say goodbye to my babes / I like girls.” 3) Seems self-explanatory: You won’t fool the children of the revolution! 4) Yeah, he heard the werewolf one first, but Will likes the globe-trotting romance of this song about a Norwegian mercenary killed by the CIA for being too good at helping rebellions out. It’s kind of how he imagines the international touring life to be? Poor thing never gets to experience it, though. 5) “Billy don't like it living here in this town / He says the traps have been sprung long before he was born / He says 'Hope bites the dust behind all the closed doors / And pus and grime ooze from its scab crusted sores' / There's screaming and crying in the high rise blocks / It's a rat trap, Billy, but you're already caught / But you can make it if you want to or you need it bad enough / You're young and good looking and you're acting kind of tough...” Just. Will Scott vibes off the charts here. 6) I can just see Will humming this under his breath every time he looks at Francis like it’s enough to convince him he hates the lead singer really. “She looks like the Sunday comics / She thinks she's Brenda Starr / Her nose job is real atomic / All she needs is an old knife scar / Ew, she's so dull, come on / Rip her to shreds...” 7) It is, on the one hand, a simple rocking tune. On the other hand, the Tom Robinson Band is otherwise best known for the song ‘Glad to be Gay’ (which is on the Thatcher downfall playlist...). “Well, there ain't no route you could choose to lose the two of us / Ain't nobody know when you're acting right or wrong / No one knows if a roadway's leading nowhere / Gonna keep on driving home on the road I'm on...” 8) Don Luis scene, anyone? “This indecision's bugging me (Esta indecisión me molesta) / If you don't want me, set me free (Si no me quieres, librarme) / Exactly whom I'm supposed to be (Dígame que tengo ser) / Don't you know which clothes even fit me? (Sabes que ropa me "quedrá"?) / Come on and let me know (Me tienes que decir) / Should I cool it or should I blow? (Me debo ir o quedarme?).” 9) Truly, there is a Bowie song for everyone. “You've got your mother in a whirl / 'Cause she's not sure if you're a boy or a girl / Hey, babe, your hair's alright / Hey, babe, let's stay out tonight / You like me and I like it all / We like dancing and we look divine / You love bands when they're playing hard / You want more and you want it fast.” 10) I like this idea of this as a bit of a redemption arc soundtrack for Will :’) finding himself again and reminding himself to do the right thing even if it means making a tit of himself/admitting he was wrong. 11) Just - all that sweet, earnest enthusiasm again! “I'm gonna call her on the telephone / Have her over 'cause I'm all alone / I need excitement, oh, I need it bad / And it's the best I've ever had / I wanna hold her, wanna hold her tight / Get teenage kicks right through the night.” 12) More Will obliviousness...he hears it and loves it and relates to it long before he sees the video with the band in drag and is all ‘??? what??? no?’ when he sees that. But not enough to stop loving the song. Don’t worry, Francis has him on stage in a dress by DK, all gangly and gorgeous like Nicky Wire:

13) Another British glam staple, with Bowie connections: “Now Lucy looks sweet cause he dresses like a queen / But he can kick like a mule, it's a real mean team / But we can love / Oh yes, we can love / And my brother's back at home with his Beatles and his Stones / We never got it off on that revolution stuff / What a drag, too many snags / Now I've drunk a lot of wine and I'm feeling fine / Got to race some cat to bed / Oh is that concrete all around / Or is it in my head? / Yeah / I'm a dude, dad.” 14) If you’re down with Elton, Francis is down with you. “I guess you know you were not the first / You may not be the last / But you have shown me a better way / And now I'm learning fast / You gotta go where the feeling flows / I take it while it's hot / You gotta give if you wanna to get / And I want all you've got / I'm breaking down the barriers / Making up my mind / I'm breaking down the barriers of time / I'm taking down the barriers / And loving what I find / I'm breaking down the barriers that lie / Between your love and mine.” 15) Hair metal scene! Will is all for opaque lyrics and imagery. Plus this makes me think of the night in jail he’s going to have to spend as a Threave equivalent. Thank about what you’ve done, boy! “Like a cat with diamond eyes / Love's power it can hypnotize / Done me in more than twice / She'll make you think that it's overnight / You’re all alone in a room that's wrong / Your body shakes, your feet are cold / Love's a bitch, baby.” 16) The lead singer from the Undertones, all grown up into contemplative, heart-string-pulling pop: “My expectations may be high / I blamed it on my youth / Soon enough, I'll learned the painful truth / I'll face it like a fighter / Then boast of how I've grown / Anything is better than being alone / I know, 'cause I learn a little every day / I know, 'cause I listen when the experts say / That a good heart, these days, is hard to find (a good heart) / True love, the lasting kind...” 17) Mainly I just love this version of this song and it’s sheer triumphalism and I think when he’s redeeming himself Will deserves the triumphalism. It’s a little skeevy, but not quite as skeevy as My Sharona, which I really thought was such a Will song, then looked it up and thought it was too gross to go on the playlist. Perils of researching this, alas. But Gloria is a million times better anyway: “Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine / Melting in a pot of thieves, wild card up my sleeve / Thick, heart of stone; my sins, my own / They belong to me / Me / People said beware but I don't care / Their words are just rules and regulations to me / Me / I walk in a room you know I look so proud / I move in this here atmosphere where anything's allowed / Then I go to this here party and I just get bored...” 18) Steve Harley covering George Harrison’s finest moment, and making it sound like an ice cream truck? I’m not sure how Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel link to the glam scene, but apparently they do, and this has such a cheery, cathartic, but odd vibe that I think Will and Francis would enjoy it a lot 19) I mean...*gestures at the lyrics* I think ‘I fought the law but the law won’ is a fairly accurate summary of Will’s attempt at becoming a mercenary.

[jadoue1999]

The X-Men and the member they lost - Chapter 2

Summary: Erik finds out he has a son. But life doesn't like seeing him happy, so it made sure he was already missing when he learned about his existence.

Previous parts: chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 4, chapter 5, chapter 6, chapter 7, chapter 8, 

Chapter 2: Erik and his rotten luck with family

It had been a week since the 70s episode had aired and no new episodes had shown up since. That left plenty of time for thinking and pondering on what was this WandaVision show. After many theories, they had conceded to Hank’s idea. It definitely seemed like a glimpse into a parallel universe. The mystery of Peter’s implication still lingered in the air. Charles wasn’t sure if he really wanted the answer. This all-powerful woman with the same surname as the speedster could have decided to do anything with him. He had yet to show up anywhere; they had combed the background for signs of him, but they had found nothing. The team went as far as to call it a misleading clue, but he didn’t let himself believe that. It was too strange to simply be a coincidence. The telepath was in his office one night when Raven entered.

“Is this a good time?” Wondered the shapeshifter. The professor nodded his head yes and she closed the door behind her before taking a seat. While he didn’t look into her head, he could sense her determination and hesitation about what she was about to tell him. Finally, she took a breath, “we need to tell Erik. About Peter.”

Erik. How could he have forgotten?

He was the boy’s father after all, even if he didn’t know it yet. Raven had told him as she filled him in with what had happened when they were fighting Apocalypse. She had mentioned Peter’s confession and how close he came to tell his father the truth. He had kept silent since, deciding that no one was in the right to inform the metal bender other than his own son. But now Peter was missing, they had to get him back. Erik needed to know.

Charles agreed with her and they were off to Erik’s room. The man was reading a book in front of the fireplace, seemingly enjoying a moment of peace and quiet. He turned to them as they opened the door.

“Charles. Raven.” He greeted them as he closed his reading. “What’s going on?”

The professor wheeled himself forward to his friend, he knew he had to break it to him gently. “It’s Peter,” he started. The man looked at him, his thoughts echoing his confusion as to why he was bringing up the speedster. “He’s missing. Has been for about two weeks, but I wanted to make sure before telling you.”

“Okay,” Erik replied after a few seconds of silence, “have you found anything?”

He could feel Raven’s frustration growing as the metal bender barely showed any concern. Charles didn’t blame him; the man had only seen Peter for an hour at most in the last ten years. He felt the same level of concern to the boy as he would with any other students at the school.

“We have found something, we’re not sure what it is, but it’s definitely linked to his disappearance.” He paused, trying to see if Erik was starting to understand. He continued when he found no reason to believe so. “Do you remember when he broke you out of prison?” The man nodded. “And when he came back to help fight Apocalypse and was injured in the process?” Another nod, more hesitant this time. Erik clearly didn’t get where he was going with this. “What I’m trying to say is that he’s a very special person, I hadn’t seen his type of power before meeting him and Hank found him fascinating as well. Can you believe he agreed to break you out just for the challenge? Quite extraordinary if I say so myself. But my point is, Peter’s-“

“He’s your son, you moron!” Snapped Raven, earning herself an offended glance from Charles. “What? You clearly weren’t going to tell him with all that rambling.”

The pair looked at Erik, awaiting a reaction. Had they not been aware of the situation, they easily could have believed that he was doing an aneurism. The man didn’t speak, but the metal in the room started shaking. Raven called out to Erik to try to calm him down, but her voice fell on deaf ears. Only when Charles shouted at him to stop that the man gradually calmed down.

“I... I have a son?” He seemed beyond shocked as he finally acknowledged the truth. Charles nodded yes and met Erik’s gaze as the man spoke once again. “What did you gather about his disappearance?”

“Don’t you need a moment to collect yourself and take in the situation?” Wondered the telepath. The man’s thoughts were all over the place, filled with shock and worry. It was obvious he needed some time alone. “Erik, please take some time, join us when you’ll be ready.”

The man didn’t protest as Charles and Raven exited the room. They closed the door and met up with the team, informing them about the situation.

...

Erik, in all his life, had never considered himself lucky. He had lost his family in Auschwitz and was then used as a lab rat by Shaw. Once the evil man had been taken care of, many years later, he had then accidentally paralyzed Charles, one of his few friends. Then he was wrongly accused of killing the president and imprisoned for nearly a decade until he was freed. By his son. But of course, he didn’t know, because life was just like that with him, and he had gone on a quest to show the world the true power of mutant kind. That, of course, ended horribly; so, he went into hiding. He had built a family, a happy one even. He truly had hope for a better future, but life loved to prove him wrong. Madga and Nina had died, and he had been chosen to be a horseman for a god. He had, in his grief, accepted and it led to Peter having his leg broken. He felt sick to his stomach as he recalled the panicked look on the young man’s face, his eyes pleading him to do something. He didn’t know, why hadn’t he known? The boy had almost died, and he did absolutely nothing.

How could he even consider himself his father when he had already failed him so much?

Still, he might not even get a real chance to properly know him now that his son had gone missing. Erik definitely wasn’t a lucky person.

He looked at the fireplace that had previously given him comfort and suddenly felt like the heat was choking him. He paced quickly through the mansion; the corridors were empty due to the late hour. After getting outside, he decided to walk around the lake. The little waves created by the soft breeze always helped grounding him. His Nina always loved the water. They had installed a bird bath because she had requested that the surrounding animals should always have something to drink when they came to visit her. He wore a small smile on his lips as he sat on the grass in front of the lake and sighed.

“Hello, my darling,” he told the water. “It’s already been a year since you and your mother left. I hope you’re happy wherever you are.” A curious bird landed next to him, looking at the man with puzzlement. Erik smiled, perhaps Nina lived on in all the creatures she loved so much. He held out a hand to the small animal, not really expecting anything. Surprisingly, it flew towards him and landed on his finger. Erik felt his heart grow warm as the bird let him pet his back. The soft feathers felt so similar to his daughter’s hair. “You might not believe it, but I just discovered that you have a half brother. He’s older than you, but I’m sure you would have gotten along well.” The bird chirped at his words. He stopped stroking it, “but I’m afraid he’s gone for now. What do you think we should do?” The bird looked at him with its small eyes and stretched its wings, taking off in the sky to regions unknown. Erik dared a hopeful smile as he watched it fly away. He looked at the sky, contemplating the stars before getting up. “Don’t worry Peter,” he told the wind, “we’ll find you.”

...

The moment he had gone back in the mansion, he was intercepted by Charles who called him to his office. The wheelchair bound man had a few files open on his desk. He motioned Erik forward as he spotted his friend.

“I’m glad you’re feeling better, I take it you want to know what we’ve gathered so far?”

Erik nodded, of course he did. Charles took the files with him and led them out. They entered the room containing Cerebro, he was about to ask him their reason for being there, but he was interrupted by his friend.

“Before we start, I want you to keep an open mind. We don’t know what exactly is going on.”

Erik frowned but agreed to the conditions, nonetheless. The bald man pressed a few commands on the board and the screens lit up.

Whatever he was expecting to see, it wasn’t this. He had expected government videos showing his son dragged out of a car, him being taken or even tortured. He certainly hadn’t expected to see a sitcom that somehow changed decades every episode. It seemed completely irrelevant, but the few cuts and creepy details kept him from dismissing the whole thing as a joke. The third episode was particularly strange. Fear creeped into his veins as the woman menacingly approached her friend. He wasn’t sure what was worse, the cut that showed nothing or the possibilities of what could’ve have happened to the poor woman.

When everything was done, he turned to the telepath. “What does this mean Charles?”

The man sighed, putting a finger to his head for a second before looking at him again. “I’ve called the others; they’ll be here soon.” He turned to the screen that showed the rolling credits. “From what we’ve gathered, this is a parallel universe. The woman, Wanda, seems to either control this world or is trapped there as well.”

“But what does this have to do with my son? As far as I’m aware, he’s never met this woman.” Their discussion was interrupted by Jean, Scott, Kurt, Ororo, Hank and Raven coming in. They had probably been woken up by the telepath’s call, judging by their yawns and sleepy eyes. After a few seconds of questioning from the tired young adults, Charles motioned them forward and opened one of the files he had with him.

“This is Peter’s file, I hadn’t really thought about reading it, since he’s past high school age, but Wanda’s comment made me curious.” He pointed to his personal information, it contained his name, address, and schools he had previously attended. Nothing seemed amiss. “I did some digging and it turns out that ‘Peter’ isn’t his real name. It was changed when he was very young.” He flipped the page, showing a government document authorizing the name change. The team looked at themselves in shock as they read ‘Pietro Maximoff’.

“So, what does it mean?” Chimed in Hank. “Sure, he has the same name as the woman’s dead brother, but there’s no way they’ve ever met.”

Charles scoffed in amusement, “yes, you’re right. But I searched through various archives to find more about him, and I came across this.” He pulled out an old newspaper clipping. It read: mysterious death of a teen leaves the police baffled.

The article had one picture, it showed a teenage girl smiling, like any other child her age. Erik looked at Charles, demanding confirmation about his suspicions. The telepath nodded, “this is a picture of Wendy Maximoff, Peter’s twin.”

The group was silent for awhile when Jean suddenly gasped. “Oh my god,” she covered her mouth in horror. “I once asked Peter why he didn’t like celebrating birthdays and he told me how he used to have two cakes but only had one now.” She looked towards Scott and Kurt. “I- I assumed he was being greedy, but the loss of his twin could explain it!”

Erik didn’t listen to the group’s reaction; he was too busy processing the information he had just learned. How could he miss so much of his son’s life? He should have been there to help him and make sure that he would be alright. Instead, he was too focused on getting revenge and he had missed nearly thirty years of Peter’s life. And with his disappearance, it unfortunately was very possible that he’d miss more. Everyone’s rambling was interrupted by Cerebro lighting up again. Erik watched nervously as the front of a house appeared. The woman and her husband were trying to get their babies to sleep, something they were apparently not keen on. They continued trying, Wanda even tried to use her magic on them, but, surprisingly, it didn’t work. Their neighbor came in, saying how she had heard them and could help. Then it became strange as Vision suddenly suggested that she shouldn’t help. Agnes looked at Wanda for instructions, asking if she wanted to restart the scene. Erik didn’t have to look around to know that everyone here was confused. Wanda brushed it off, to the confusion of her husband. All of a sudden, the crying stopped; the twins were asleep. Except they weren’t in their cribs. A slight panic settled in Erik’s stomach; the loss of a child seemed too dark for a show like this... right? Strangely enough, the twins weren’t missing, they had aged up to five. The screen cut to the theme song.

“Are the children mutants?” Asked Raven, uncertain about the change of event.

Charles has a pensive look to his face, “I’m afraid I cannot say, for now.”

The episode continued, with the twins adopting a dog. Curiously, Wanda seemed tired of hiding her powers, going as far as using it in front of their neighbor. The most peculiar thing happened when the two parents settled that the twins were too young to keep their dog. They suddenly aged up again, now ten years old. Erik had to give it to Charles, this show definitely wasn’t just a coincidence. Were they looking at a new concept for a mutant prison? It certainly seemed like it.

The scene changed to show the husband’s workplace, they were installing computers and people around him were trying to figure out how to make it work. After some corny jokes, an email showed up and the whole room read it together. The X-Men watched Vision wake up his co-worker who seemed to panic about contacting his father.

“That’s mind control,” gasped Jean, “I know that panic, it’s horrible.”

The man screamed about a woman in his head, probably Wanda, and became more and more agitated. Vision zapped him again and, like a switch, he was back to Norm, the friendly co-worker. The group watched in stunned silence as it cut to Wanda and her children. Billy was training the dog and seemed pretty good at it. The twins excitedly got up, wanting to show their father but Wanda told them he was at work. The conversation then turned into a classic “family is forever” speech; telling them how they’ll always have each other, no matter what.

“Do you have a brother, mom?” Asked of the boys.

She looked off in the distance, obviously wondering how to explain her brother’s situation. “I do,” she said, “he’s far away from here and that makes me... sad sometimes.”

Erik didn’t have time to dwell on the possible meanings of her words as the dog suddenly ran out of the door. The twins and Wanda ran out, chasing it. They lost sight of it. Suddenly, the redhead looked up at the sky in anger and told the boys to continue look for Sparky without her. The scene continued with the boys walking alone.

“What do you think she meant by far away?” Asked the boy in green, Tommy, if he remembered well.

His brother shook his head, “I don’t know, but how cool would it be to meet our uncle?”

The boys giggled and continued calling for their dog. Seeing how the episode was significantly darker than the other ones, Erik didn’t have much hope for the poor animal. Turns out he was right; it had eaten a poisonous plant and the boys were heartbroken. After some strange comments about bringing back the dead, they were back at the house. There was tension between Wanda and Vision. He told her about what happened at his work, accusing her of being the cause.

“You can’t control me the way you do them.”

The woman tilted her head to the side, clearly challenged by her husband’s words. “Can’t I?”

There were scoffs of surprise in the room as the credits suddenly rolled. The android didn’t let that stop him as he pointed out the problems with the world, they lived in. He went on to say that he had no memories of his life before the show. That was puzzling, did this place erase people’s memories to guarantee their good behavior? Vision then pointed out the lack of children, something Erik hadn’t noticed but was unmistakable once you realized it. Wanda sat on the couch, trying to explain why she wasn’t controlling anyone. Suddenly, the doorbell rang.

“I swear, if Agnes comes in at that moment, I’m going to lose it,” whined Scott.

“I don’t know,” replied Ororo, ���usually she just lets herself in.”

The doorbell rang a second time and Vision watched Wanda with accusations in his eyes as she walked to the door. She opened it and was immediately shocked at whoever was at the door. The android asked his wife for the identity of the guest with suspicion. The camera slowly panned over to the person, only showing to back of their head.

Showing his silver hair

The suspense didn’t last much longer, the camera showing that it was indeed the missing speedster. Quiet gasps were heard as Peter walked towards the woman.

“Long-lost bro get to squeeze his stinkin' sister to death or what?” His voice echoed on the walls of the room.

“Pietro?” He nodded his head and the two shared a hug. It lasted a few seconds and Peter pointed to Vision as he walked in.

“Who’s the popsicle?”

The audience laughed at his joke and the screen faded to black, leaving the team stunned as the credits rolled.

“We have to go get him,” said Raven. “I don’t think he’s safe with her.”

Hank nodded, “I think I can find a way,” he pointed to Jean, “I think you could open a gateway to wherever Peter is. I’ve adjusted the machine to focus on the frequency. If you really concentrate, I’m sure it’ll work.”

“Alright, Raven, Erik and I will go,” decided Charles.

Kurt stepped in, “you might need a quick way out, I can help.” He shook his head as Raven and Charles were about to protest. “I’m the one that noticed he was gone; I want to be there when we bring him back.”

The professor agreed and told them to go pack whatever they’d need and to be back as soon as possible.

***

Jean put on the helmet and closed her eyes in concentration. She held out a hand to better focus her power. Nothing much happened, but she frowned her brows with renewed efforts. Flickers of orange light made itself known, slowly gathering together to form a small circle. She grunted in efforts and the portal grew bigger. She opened her eyes which were now glowing a fiery orange and she let out a screech. The gateway was now big enough for them to go through. They quickly said their goodbyes, Charles leaving Hank in charge for the time he was gone. The four shared a look and took a determined step forward. Passing through another dimension definitely felt strange. Nothing seemed solid as they were suddenly free falling.

They landed on the grass. Erik quickly helped Charles back into his wheelchair and took a look around. There was a military base with soldiers that stared at them with dumbfounded faces. He could hear an alarm, probably trigged when they came in. An older man that seemed to be an authority figure started shouting at them, but Erik didn’t hear him. All he could see was the sign that indicated that Westview was in front of them; and the force field surrounding it.

***

Notes: I have to say, Erik talking to Nina is probably my favourite part of this chapter. I've also made up a scene of the boys talking together based on the image of them walking alone that was in the SWORD base in WandaVision. Next up: The x-men meet Hayward (Erik doesn't like him) and learn about who Wanda Maximoff is.

[tinyboxxtink]

Helpless *Part 5*

Note: I appreciate the support guys, you have no idea. You believe in this story and it makes me SO happy!! <3

Masterlist:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 6

Tag List: 

@wanniiieeee

@chasingeverybreakingwave

@word-scribbless

@dumauier

You promptly followed Arianna to the back, practically stepping on her heels.

"You're WRONG about him, Arianna. He's too smart for this, for me-- for us," You warned. "AND he works for the MAYOR. Do you really want to go to prison when he figures out our game?!"

"See but THAT'S how much faith I have in you babe," She didn't even hesitate to shut you down. "I know you would never get us in trouble..." She wrapped an arm around you.

"...EVER," The arm going around your shoulder was soon pushing you back out into the restaurant, where a now composed Rafael sat, watching you intensely.

"....What the fuck was that?" He said in an eerily calm voice.

"W-What are you talking abo--" You tried to speak but he immediately jumped over you in an angry voice.

"What the FUCK, was that?!" He asked again, then proceeded to talk not waiting for you to answer.

"I have never, EVER spoken ANYTHING about my father out loud. To ANYONE. I have spent my entire adult LIFE making sure of it. And here 30 minutes with you and I'm making a flippant comment about my childhood trauma?!" His fist pounded the bar.

"What, the fuck...did you do to me?" he growled.

Alright, keep calm. You had this.

"What did I DO to you?" You snorted, like it was the stupidest question in the world.

"Rafael 10 minutes ago you didn't even BELIEVE in the science, and now all of a sudden I put a SPELL on you? Are you out of your mind?!" You rolled your eyes with a dismissive laugh, clearly agitating him more. People tended to be easier to read when they became emotional, and certainly easier to manipulate.

"Then how do you explain it, hmm?" He licked his lips, signs of disgust. God you hated this.

"Gee, I don't know Rafael. You ever stop to think maybe it was something MORE than science, some kind of different 'voodoo'?!"

"Like what...?" He blinked at you, trying to figure out what you were implying.

"Something about you just makes me feel...safe," You placed your hand over his once more, playing with the hair on his knuckles.

"Look, I understand why you're upset. But-- you know, it's not only you who's vulnerable right now," You lowered your voice into a soft, soothing tone.

"You know, I've never told anyone else about me and Ari before," you bit your lip and looked at the floor. Sure you hadn't, except every other guy Ari had made you scam.

"You ever think that's why you just blurted out stuff about your dad? Maybe that we had a connection that was bigger than some emotional reading bullshit?" Gaslighting was always a great way to knock someone down real quick.

You saw Rafael's anger dissipate from his face; you watched as his eyes filled with hope. You knew you were preying on his very obvious need for acceptance and affection, and you hated yourself for it. 

"I...well, maybe..." he rubbed the back of his neck, you saw the logical side of him fighting with his emotional side, trying to remind him that 'soulmates' or 'connections' didn't actually exist. And you watched it lose, as a beautiful smile crawled across his lips.

"Maybe you're right," He now took both your hands, and looked deep into your eyes. Right then you could see every little bit of trauma, hurt, anguish, wanting, all being pushed down by the growing look of hope, and security. And suddenly, you couldn't do it anymore.

"No, I'm not," you dropped his hands, unable to look at him anymore.

"Wh-What? Seriously?" He shook his head in utter disbelief, trying to figure out how the hell you were so hot and cold from one second to the next.

"Look just, take this," You scribbled on a check and handed it to him. "Go pay at the register, and get out of here. And don't come back,"

"What the fu-- are you on something?" he stared at the check, then you, then the sky like he was looking for answers.

"Look, I'm--I'm begging you, Rafael. Walk out of here RIGHT NOW, before Arianna comes out here," you almost whispered, praying she wasn't listening.

"....Why do you not want--"

"Just, forget it. Please, go. PLEASE," Your voice was shaking, tears lined your eyes. You had literally never been this unhinged emotionally in front of someone other than Arianna before, EVER.

"I..." Rafael was clearly shocked and disturbed by what was unfolding, but he didn't want to see you like this. You could see him backing off because he pitied you, he felt sorry for whatever inner turmoil was happening with you, even if he didn't understand it. He put his hands up and walked to the register, pay and give you one last sad look before disappearing into the night.

You felt your legs shaking, your heart beating outside of your chest. You had NEVER let Arianna down before, ever. You had never just...broken, like that. Lying was your LIFE. You barely had a moment to process what just happened before Arianna came storming out from the kitchen.

"What the HELL, Y/N? Where did he go?!"

"H-He caught on, Ari," you looked at the ground, terrified to meet her eyes.

"HOW is that possible, you never--"

You jumped over her words immediately, defensively yelling at her:

"I DON'T KNOW, okay?! He--He came from the bathroom all freaked the fuck out because he had literally never told ANYONE about his dad, and then he-- he accused me of DOING something to him! Like I was a witch or something!" Well, you weren't lying. Not like she could've been able to tell, like she said she didn't have your skills. 

"He wouldn't let me say ANYTHING. He just grabbed his check and stormed out of here! I didn't have TIME to work him over, okay? I'm sorry. I failed you," The tears around your eyes now dripped down your cheeks, little did Ari know they weren't for her. 

"Aw...honey," Arianna's anger vanished, you knew she couldn't stand to see you cry. She wrapped her arms around you and coddled you like a mom to a toddler.

"I know, you tried your best. And I know it must've been hard, giving up your abogado like that," she stroked your hair. 

"You'd just better pray we find another benefactor, FAST" her strokes turned into her acrylic nails running down your face, mildly aggressively. You looked into her eyes, she knew something had happened. She didn't know what and she would never accuse you, but you knew she knew. She always knew.

"I'm on it," You quickly tried to get away from her. "I promise,"

------

The night wrapped up pretty routinely, and the evening went about the same. The next day, you and Ari were walking up the subway towards Fazzoli's when you saw him-- Rafael was waiting, discreetly. Well, discreetly to him anyway.

"I uh-- You know what I forgot to make change before we left, I'm gonna hit the bodega real quick. I'll meet you inside, okay?" You quickly moved in front of Arianna as you talked, praying to God she hadn't noticed him. Luckily, she was thoroughly engrossed in a game of CANDY CRUSH.

"Mmmkay," She nodded and waved you off, not looking up from her phone.

As soon as she was inside, you walked straight up to Rafael and pulled him around the corner into an alleyway.

"What did I say?!" You hissed.

"Well first of all, this is my favorite restaurant, and I was here first, so you're not gonna 'ban' me from eating here," he stated. "And second, you need to tell me what happened last night,"

"No I don't have to tell you anything," you scoffed.

"But you want to,"

"HOW do you know that? You don't know that," you crossed your arms and rolled your eyes, signaling him to back off.

"Then what was that insane Dr. Jekyl/Mr. Hyde act? One second you're batting your eyes at me and the next you're literally throwing me out! Are you nuts?"

"YES. Yes, I am unhinged and a psychopath, Rafael. Clearly. So you need to--to stay away from me," You huffed and turned to leave, but he grabbed your arm.

"I was right last night, wasn't I? That's why you freaked out,"

"...What are you talking about?" You stopped and turned slowly to face him again.

"You're not the only one who can google," he pulled out his phone and began reading an article he had found.

"...Behavioral scientists are hesitant to teach micro-expression reading to the masses, as it can be used for nefarious purposes,"

Your face fell-- You were right, he WAS too smart for you.

"People with these skills can easily manipulate any sort of information out of anyone, if trained properly," He continued, looking you straight in the eyes.

"I...Um.." Jesus Christ this had never happened to you before-- you literally COULD NOT lie to him.

"YES, okay? Yes, I manipulated you last night, are you happy?" You threw your arms up, starting to walk away again.

"No, I'm not! I wanna know why," He jumped in front of you preventing you from leaving the alley.

"Why? You wanna know-- does it matter?" You tried moving past him, but he wasn't budging.

"YES, it matters! For fuck's sake Y/N you-- you had me thinking-- I..." He trailed off, you saw the pain in his eyes. He had actually started to fall for you, and you had crushed him.

"Because it's what we do, okay?" You sighed. "It's not personal,"

"NOT personal? What 'we' do? What, you and Arianna?" he narrowed his eyes.

"Yeah, but you don't understand ok? We, we lived in our CAR, Rafael. We didn't eat for WEEKS at a time, we started going through garbage like actual rats,"

"And then I found this book, and I studied it, and I just tried it ONCE--Just for a meal," you looked up, trying not to get emotional.

"And Arianna latched on to it. HARD," you looked everywhere but Rafael's eyes.

"She--She grabbed anything she could with information on micro-expressions, she quizzed me, she coached me-- she helped me," Finally, you let yourself look at him.

"So you could help her," he looked at you seriously.

"So I could help US," you argued.

"In six months we had enough money for a nice little studio apartment in the Bronx and a full refrigerator!" you heard yourself defending you and Arianna's life together, but saying it out loud you didn't know how much you believed it yourself anymore.

"...And what exactly do you do," His words made you shift uncomfortably on your heels.

"Y/N....." ," He lowered his voice, emphasizing his seriousness.

"I...we...Arianna picks a target, someone who's in the public eye and has money. and I...sweet talk them," you glared holes into the ground.

"...And then I get something out of them, something they don't want the public to know, that they don't want ANYONE to know," You could literally feel how these people must have felt because this was the last thing that you ever wanted Rafael to know, for anyone to know.

"...And she finds out more information about it and--"

"And shakes them down," He finished your sentence, you could hear the disgust in his mouth.

"Look I'm sorry, okay?" Your voice shook a bit.

"I know you are," He stepped closer to you.

"....Okay? Just like that? You're just gonna believe a professional liar?" you half laughed, rolling your eyes.

"Yeah, because if you really wanted to-- you wouldn't have kicked me out last night," a very small micro smile came across.

"I--Yeah, well um-- I...I couldn't," you bit your lip.

"Which makes me think you don't ever really like doing it at all, do you?" he looked at you with knowing eyes.

You shifted uncomfortably, not willing to verbally agree.

"So why do you let Arianna manipulate YOU?"

"Because she's all I have, Rafael!" You cried.

"She's literally the only person I have. It's been me and her against the world since high school, I can't...I can't just, abandon her! I can't let us starve,"

"You have honest jobs now, do you not?"

"Yeah I know, that's why I was pissed she asked me to do you-- I mean, use you," you bit your lip over your Freudian slip. 

"She KNEW I was in love with you, and she just--" you stopped talking, noticing a smirk spreading across his face.

"I'm sorry, what?" He asked you with a shocked expression. You looked at him in confusion, then realized you had just spoken without thinking.

"I--It's a figure of speech. Like, "oh my god I'm so in love with Justin Beiber I could just die","

"...Don't like being compared to the Beebz like that but okay," he chuckled.

"Just...shut up. She knew I LIKED you, and she-- she just-- PERVERTED it," you spit out the words, your anger bubbling up. You knew from the moment he caught you sniffing his glass that you and him had something pure, and she just made it into something dirty, something evil.

"So...what EXACTLY happened, last night Y/N?" He stepped even closer, lowering his voice but his tone was soft not serious.

"I...You...You came in, and--everything was fine. It was just me, and-- and you, and we were--" You waved your hands, trying to be casual about it, but he grabbed them and made you look directly at him.

"...It was real," you whispered.

"And THEN, Arianna started telling me that I needed something out of you," your face went red again. "That-- that she hadn't 'planned' on using you, or me, but when she found out you were the ADA she just-- snapped," you went on again, feeling your anger rise again.

"She thought that she could use my actual feelings for you to get what she wanted, and I played along," you folded your arms, ashamed of yourself. You looked away, but Rafael's hand cupped your chin and turned you back to him.

"...But you didn't,"

"I COULDN'T," you could barely speak, tears choked your throat. Suddenly, feeling very uncomfortable having any kind of kindness being shown to you right now, you once again backed away from Rafael and paced around the alleyway.

"I...you don't get it. Lying is my THING. And--And usually okay maybe I have moral qualms about seducing dudes and exploiting them but I get over it, and I do it anyway!" You shook your hands into the air.

"B-B-But you, with you--your stupid eyes, god dammit those eyes!" you paced faster, shaking your head. Those fucking eyes.

"These eyes?" He pointed to his eyes, a very small smirk on his face.

"This isn't funny, okay? You--You made me betray my BEST friend," you stopped and stared into those eyes.

"With my eyes," he couldn't stop a smile.

"YES! I-I gave you that sappy load of bullshit about us having a 'connection', because I knew that was exactly what you wanted, what you   ," you looked away in shame.

"Wow..." Rafael shifted uncomfortably, you did know what you were doing.

"A-And you just, you ate it up! YOU, the most level headed, narcissistic, pessimistic lawyer, you just-- believed me," you almost laughed, the thought was actually unbelievable.

"And you were so happy," you added sadly, feeling the guilt rise in your gut.

"...And I think I started to believe it myself. And then I just...I couldn't--" You walked back up to him, this time taking his face in your hands.

"With everyone else I am a shark, but with you I just felt...helpless," you pressed your forehead to his for a brief moment, an intimate moment to say goodbye.

"So I sent you away. And I told you to stay away!" You literally pushed him away, gesturing out of the alley way.

"Why send me away though?"

"Because Arianna will KNOW now,"

"So? Let her know," he scoffed.

"NO," You stepped back into his face, trying to show him how serious you were.

"She's given up on you, because I told her you figured us out,"

"And she bought that?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Well not figured figured out, just that you knew something wasn't right and we couldn't risk going to prison or something,"

"But if she knows that I just...let you go, she'll start digging on her own," your eyes grew wide with fear for him.

"And she will dig until she finds something. Something other than 'daddy issues'," you rolled your eyes.

"...And you think she'll find something?" he asked.

".... You're really telling me you don't have ANY skeletons in your closet, counselor?" now you raised an eyebrow.

"...I'm not leaving you alone with her," he took your hands again.

"Oh come on, I told you. She's my PERSON, she's not gonna hurt me. I don't need protection from her," you rolled your eyes, the thought of being afraid of Arianna was ridiculous. Kind of.

"That doesn't mean I won't fight for you," he touched your face.

"Raf please--" you pleaded once more.

"Give me your phone," he ordered, and you obliged.

"Wha--Okay..."

He took it and programmed his number into it, then handed it back to you.

"Arianna is NOT the only person you have now," he took your hand and kissed the back of your knuckles, before winking and walking away.

...What just happened?

[berkmansimagines]

Taken (Part 5/7)

A/N: I’ll post part 6 in the next couple of days. Thanks for reading!

Summary: Fuches kidnaps Barry’s daughter.

← Part 4 | Part 6 →

“I didn’t think it would take this long…”

Fuches and Barry have been parked across the street from the target’s place for over an hour, waiting for the man to return home. Barry is killing an old client before he has the chance to rat them out to the police. Fuches drove Barry to the hit himself. He wanted to make sure Barry finished the job. 

“These things take as long as they take,” Barry shrugs. He was also growing impatient and being stuck with Fuches wasn’t helping.

The phone in Fuches’ hand buzzes. He reads a new text message.

“When this is done you’re taking me to Y/N,” Barry tells Fuches.

After Fuches dragged you out the door in the middle of the night, a handcuffed Barry passed out on the floor. He woke up to the sound of Fuches returning to the apartment. Your father had no idea where Fuches took you. For now, Barry would have to go along with whatever Fuches said in hopes of getting you back.

“Hmmm… We’ll see,” Fuches grumbles as he sends out a quick text.

“Fuches-”

“Well she’d be in the backseat right now if it wasn’t for that little stunt you pulled last night,” Fuches smugly replies.

Barry looks down at his lap. He blames himself for what happened. He should’ve been able to protect you and get you out of there, but he failed.

“It’s probably for the best that she’s not here. Gives us time to catch up. This reminds me of the good old days… before you left for LA.”

Barry rolls his eyes. He didn’t want to catch up with Fuches at all. 

“Good old days? What good old days? I was miserable here. I hated my life,” Barry says quietly.

“Oh stop being dramatic,” Fuches snickers.

Barry glares at Fuches. His former handler didn’t understand and he never really tried to. Fuches didn’t care about Barry’s safety, happiness or the fact that he didn’t want to hurt people anymore. The only thing that mattered to Fuches was his own self interest. 

“So I was thinking after you kill the cop, we can-” Fuches begins, then gets interrupted by Barry.

“After? There is no after! As soon as I’m done with these two hits, I’m taking my kid home.”

“Are you sure you want to do that?” Fuches asks.

Barry’s eyes narrow in on Fuches, “What are you talking about?”

“I had an idea…. Maybe you can stay here and come work for me again,” Fuches admits.

“Jesus, Fuches! Was that your plan all along? Why would I even consider working with you again? You’re out of your fucking mind,” Barry challenges.

“Think about it! If you leave LA that means the Chechens, Bolivians and everyone else you pissed off at the monastery that night won’t be in arms reach anymore. You want to keep your girl safe? Moving back to Cleveland means all those threats are gone,” Fuches tries to persuade Barry. 

“Don’t pretend like you give a shit about me or my daughter. If you cared at all, you wouldn’t have kidnapped her in the first place. I never wanted Y/N involved in any of this. All those threats will go away? Don’t you get it, Fuches? You are the threat!” Barry scoffs.

“You don’t think I ever cared? Who got you out of that hospital in Germany, pal?” 

Barry raises his eyebrow. He’s about to speak up when suddenly a car pulls into the driveway of the target’s house. This is it. He’s finally home. Barry and Fuches quickly change into work mode.

“Remember, you need to be in and out of there in ten minutes,” Fuches tells Barry.

“I know,” Barry nods, “Then afterwards, we’re going to get Y/N.”

Fuches shakes his head.

“C’mon, man. She’s scared and I don’t want her to be alone,” Barry tries.

“She’s not alone,” Fuches reveals.

Barry’s face drops. Shit. This entire time he thought Fuches was acting solo. Was he wrong?

“Wha...what?” Barry stutters.

“Barry, you think you’re calling the shots right now but you’re not,” Fuches coolly warns your father, “Just shut up and do your job and the girl won’t get hurt.”

Barry clenches his jaw. He’s seething. It’s taking everything inside of Barry right now not to reach across the car and strangle Fuches with his bare hands. The only thing stopping him is you. Barry knows he can’t do anything until he finds out where you are.

Fuches shifts in his seat and pulls a gun out of his coat pocket. He points it at your father.

“This should go without saying but if you make a move against me, your kid is gone forever,” Fuches threatens.

Barry takes a deep breath and nods. He won’t try anything. It’s a risk he’s not willing to take.

“Ten minutes,” Fuches repeats, handing the gun to Barry.

Barry gets out of the car. He keeps the gun close to his side as he discreetly approaches the target’s house. Fuches remains in his vehicle, watching Barry’s every move and making sure he doesn’t step out of line.

Barry returns to the car less than ten minutes later. It was a simple job. Barry was able to sneak in through an open window. The target was lounging on his couch watching TV. He barely had time to react before Barry shot him dead. No fuss, no fight, easy clean up.

“Nice work,” Fuches pats Barry on the shoulder.

“It wasn’t really work,” Barry mumbles. 

Fuches takes his hand off Barry’s shoulder but keeps it held out.

“Give me the gun, Barry.”

Barry squeezes his eyes shut and shakes his head. He’s done playing Fuches’ sick game. Barry then opens his eyes and gives Fuches a cold look before turning the gun on him. 

“Who has my kid, Fuches? Where is she?” 

“Give me the gun before you do something you’ll regret,”  Fuches cautions.

“Where is she?” Barry repeats the question, gun still pointed at Fuches.

Fuches gulps.

“I dropped her off with this guy Nick. I partnered up with him on some jobs here after you left,” Fuches explains.

“Let me see her! I want to talk to her,” Barry demands.

“Fine,” Fuches sighs.

Fuches sends out a quick text message. A few moments later-

RING, RING

Fuches answers on Facetime and shows Barry his phone screen. Your father’s heart breaks. He sees you crying on a concrete floor. There’s dry blood under your nose and a nasty bruise is forming under your left eye. The person holding the phone roughly grabs your chin forcing you to look into the camera. You look absolutely terrified.

“Y/N!”

Your eyes widen. You try calling out to Barry but it’s muffled by duct tape covering your mouth. 

“Thanks Nick! That’s enough…” Fuches announces.

The camera abruptly flips to a man in a ski mask. He smirks at Barry. Then the connection goes dead.

Barry’s entire body tenses up.

“Did you hit my kid?” Barry angrily accuses Fuches. Thinking about your black eye is making his blood boil.

“I didn’t do that! It must’ve been Nick,” Fuches puts his hands up in defense.

“You shouldn’t have left her alone with that creep,” Barry argues.

Barry takes deep a breath trying to calm down but he feels himself getting madder and madder. He just wants to pull the trigger and he can’t. He still has no idea where you are or how to get to you. Barry can’t use the tracker on your phone. It was long dead and Fuches left it at Barry’s apartment. 

“Look the quicker you do the next hit, the quicker you’ll see your daughter again,” Fuches does his best to pivot Barry back to business, “I already did some research on the cop. He’s divorced and lives alone. His condo is across town. We’ll go there and wait until he gets home from work.” 

“I’m not doing any more hits, Fuches! The guy didn’t talk to the police and now he’s dead. This case is over. If I kill a cop, the police will grow more suspicious. You’re a fucking idiot for thinking this was a good plan!” Barry goes off.

“Oh I’m an idiot? Barry, the only one who doesn’t understand what’s going on right now is you. If you don’t do the hit, if something happens to me, if I stop responding to Nick’s texts… he’ll leave town with the brat. Do you know how much some people are willing to pay for her? You pissed off a lot of people for what you did at the monastery and they have no problems taking it out on your family. Nick is prepared to deliver her to the Chechens on a silver platter,” Fuches dictates in a menacing tone.

Barry’s eyes widen. He’s so furious that he finally loses control over his emotions and snaps. Barry starts hitting Fuches in the face repeatedly with his gun as hard as he can. 

“WHERE IS SHE?” your father yells.

Barry continues attacking Fuches. Fuches tries to defend himself but he’s no match against Barry’s rage.

“Ok, ok, you don’t have to kill the cop. The job is done! It’s over!” Fuches concedes.

Barry stops beating Fuches but keeps the gun pointed at his face.

“Fuck the job! Where’s my kid, Fuches?” Barry asks through gritted teeth.

“Not like this. Put the gun down. You can’t kill me, Barry. If you do it then Nick takes off with the girl. She’s gone forever. Would you rather kill me or save your kid?”

Barry sighs and hesitantly lowers his weapon. He grips the gun close to his side. Fuches won’t disarm him again.

“If you get out of the car now, I’ll give you the address of where he’s keeping her. They aren’t far from here, you can get there in a few minutes if you run fast enough. And I’ll tell him the job is done. He’ll leave her alone.”

Barry reluctantly nods. He wishes he can kill Fuches but he’d rather save you. Fuches gives him the address.

“Fuches, if she isn’t there or if anything happens to her… I will fucking kill you. Never go near me or my daughter again,” Barry warns in a low serious voice as he gets out of the car.

Barry slams the car door shut and Fuches books it out of there. Your father immediately looks up the address on his phone. It’s only five minutes away.

He races to get to you as fast as he can...

--

Taken series taglist: @midnightseance​, @ihatemyselfmorethanmydepression, @fangirl-imagines​

[eternallyrisen]

6:00 AM - Wake up

Delano wakes up with a start. He rolls onto his back with a quiet hiss. What is it this time? What woke him up? Rats in the walls? Uneasy dream? Does it matter?

6:05 AM - Breakfast

Delano pours kibble into Fang and Spike’s bowls before he cooks bacon for himself. While the bacon cooks, he prepares a cup of instant coffee to go with his breakfast.

06:15 AM - Shower

He didn’t shower the previous night, so he has to shower now. The soap stings on where his skin broke last night while he was straining against the restraints.

06:20 AM - Leave the apartment

Delano pockets his phone, keys and wallet, recalls Fang and Spike into their pokeballs, gets his shoes on and steps out. After making sure his door is closed and locked, he makes his way out. Surprisingly, he doesn’t meet any neighbours passed out on the stairs or in the corridors, nor his landlord, who likes to stop Delano to complain about his habits. Coming home too late, being too noisy or paying rent too late, accusing him of feeding the rattatas in the walls.

06:30 AM - Second breakfast

Delano’s a big man. A little bacon and a cup of coffee never keeps him full for long. On his way to work, he stops by a konbini and gets a sandwich, along with an iced coffee from a vending machine.

06:40 AM - Arrive at work

Delano lets himself into Celadon Game Corner by the staff entrance at the back. He makes a beeline to the locker room and to his locker. Unceremoniously, he changes to work clothes.

06:45 AM - Doing the rounds

Delano checks that the Game Corner is as he left it last night. Everything seems to be in order, no one broke in last night. He meets some grunts on their way to the HQ through the secret entrance.

06:55 AM - Coffee

Delano gets a cup of coffee before opening.

07:00 AM - Open Game Corner

Delano will never understand why Game Corner has to be opened at seven fucking AM, but those are the rules. What Delano will also never understand is how and why there already are people waiting to get in and gamble. He hopes those people will get better soon.

1:00 PM - Lunch

After he makes sure someone competent will be left to watch for things, Delano steps out to get a bento box and a protein milkshake from a nearby konbini. He also gets an energy drink, but saves it for later.

1:23 PM - More caffeine

Delano notices he’s starting to nod off, so it’s time for the energy drink.

4:00 PM - Shift ends

Delano’s work days are mostly uneventful, and today is no exception. Delano’s shift ends without a hitch and he’s free to go. He changes back to his casual clothes and leaves.

4:10 PM - Class

Since Delano missed out on lots of education in his teens, he’s trying to make up for it now. He’s not having much success, to be honest.

6:10 PM - Groceries

Delano stops by a konbini and gets dinner supplies.

6:20 PM - Home again

Delano beelines to the kitchen and releases the dogs from their balls. They get fed before Delano starts cooking himself a simple dinner.

6:45 PM - Nap

After dinner, Delano ends up passing out for a bit. He has a lot of sleep debt, after all.

7:15 - Wake up

Delano wakes up with a quiet curse. He didn’t mean to fall asleep.

7:10 PM - Study

There’s still time to kill before the prime time for his side job. Might as well get some studying done meanwhile. The words keep jumbling and mixing in Delano’s eyes. Why do people keep reading and writing if it’s this hard??

8:20 PM - Call of the night life

Time for the side job. Delano puts on cologne and deodorant and leaves the apartment.

8:30 PM - At the club

The music is thumping, rattling in Delano’s chest and his head. He gets a drink, just to get a pleasant buzz on and to lower his rare, still-remaining inhibitions. Then he dives into the writhing mass of people on the dance floor.

8:45 PM - Someone takes the bait

Delano finds someone who seems interested. He’s kind of young, but luckily above the line Delano is comfortable with. He seems to have some internalized issues, with how his aggression seems more compensating than anything, but Delano isn’t here to figure that out. He doesn’t give a shit.

8:50 PM - False alarm

The guy seemingly gets cold feet, judging how he tells Delano he needs to take a leak, but clearly heads towards the exit of the night club. Whatever. Delano will find someone else.

9:10 PM - Let’s try that again

Delano manages to find a second guy who was more upfront with what he wants. Delano sucks him off in the restroom and gets 200 pokedollars for his troubles.

9:15 PM - Another guy

After the second dude fucks off after getting what he wants, Delano finds a third guy to flirt with. He ends up dancing with the guy for some time.

9:30 PM - Still dancing with him

Delano dances and flirts with the guy, hanging on to his every word, pretending that he’s already completely head over heels for him. It’s, of course, an act, a small ruse to make the client feel special and desirable. Some people like that, and it’s just another service Delano offers.

9:55 PM - Going home with him

The guy invited Delano to go with him. Delano accepts. The taxi ride to the guy’s apartment is spent in silence, but exchanging a few heated looks.

10:05 PM - His place

As soon as the door closes behind them, the guy is on Delano, hungrily kissing him. Hands pulling him close, exploring his torso, slipping under his shirt, pulling it up and off. They blindly stumble into the bedroom.

10:25 PM - Reclining

“Is this enough?” the guy asks, leafing a few bills to Delano.

Delano takes them and counts them. 500 pokedollars. “Yeah,” he says. “Thanks.”

The guy smooths his palm on Delano’s chest and kisses him. “Stay,” he whispers.

Delano places his hand on top of his. “I will.”

Delano waits until he falls asleep, then gets his clothes back on and quietly leaves.

10:45 PM - Red lights district

Right then. Another client. Delano meets with some co-workers while walking. It seems that one of Delano’s regulars isn’t out and about tonight.

11:05 PM - Text

Delano gets a text from another of his regulars, asking if he’s free.

i am. should i come over?

The usual place. 😘

Delano pockets his phone and starts making his way to the client’s apartment.

11:15 PM - At the client’s

“Hey, babe,” the client smiles as he lets Delano in.

“Hey, sexy,” Delano replies with a smirk.

The client’s smile gains a sharp edge. “On your knees,” he says.

Delano obliges.

11:40 PM - Cooldown

“Here’s your money,” the client says, throwing the wad of cash on the pillow.

Delano, still out of breath, grasps it with shaking hands. There are already bruises forming on his wrists.

“You should go,” the client says. “I have an early morning tomorrow.”

Delano grunts out an agreeing sound, carefully sitting up. He suppresses a groan as the movement pulls on his sore muscles. Without a word, Delano gathers his clothes, dresses and leaves.

As Delano makes his way out of the client’s apartment building, he counts how much he got paid. 1000 pokedollars. Not bad. He tucks the money away into his coat pocket before letting himself out on the night streets.

While he’s walking, Delano considers heading back to the red lights district, but he’s just too sore for more work. He heads home.

0:05 AM - Home

It took Delano longer than usual to get home because of his soreness and a new limp. When he finally makes it home, he would love nothing more than take a long soak in a hot bath, but he doesn’t have a tub. He’s not sure if his legs can keep him upright for a shower.

0:10 AM - Shower

Delano takes a warm shower, heavily leaning on the wall.

0:15 AM - More studying

Delano stumbles to the crate that serves as a table and picks up where his studies left off earlier. The letters and words still blend into each other and jumble into a flurry. Why does he keep doing this? He doesn’t even enjoy this. 

0:50 AM - Tired

Delano is starting to nod off. He decides to call it a night and get to bed. He brushes his teeth and lies down on the sleeping bags that serve as his bed. He’s asleep before the clock turns to 2 AM.

[logicalstansadvice]

Dear pissed off anon defender of said blog, may I remind you that you started all this shit? No one here was talking about that blog's so called analysis. There was an anon who simply asked our mods if they think Sebastian has mental health problems. And they replied. Coincidentally, their reply contradicted that blog's analysis, and rightfully so. No one has the right to judge a perfect stranger like that.

Then you came all high and mighty and said we are all retarted and that if something happens to Sebastian, we are to blame. Remember?

So how the actual fuck do you have the balls to come back here now after you started this whole shit, and scold us like we're supposed to be burned at the stake in the public square for having a different opinion than yours? Especially after your ludicrous accusations that we would be to blame for something we can't even control?

If you're so worried about Sebastian maybe convince your friends to stop harrassing him and his girlfriend. If anyone is causing emotional turmoil for him, it's you and the rest of the bullies, not us.

Anon 2: Oh this is funny. You asked the blog aaaaaaaand surprise! the blog didn't admit and say "yes I received multiple civil anons telling me it is wrong to diagnose a stranger with mental illness based on his sm content, but I chose not to post them". Seriously anon? You really expected her to admit she only posts what she agrees with? Ffs are you 12? Under what rock were you hiding until now? And you have the guts to come and preach to us, when you called the mods and anons here 'retarted' when you first started your defense for your precious blog? But hell, why should that surprise me. You and your friends diagnose people with mental illness based on what they post on instagram, so why not diagnose all of us as well.

Anon 3: To the person in the comments. None of the anons posted here has mobbed this blog. They just expressed their concern, lack of understanding, etc. We are allowed to speak our minds. But No one here has taken offense at the tone. That's the great thing about the logical blog. People here are behaving decently. Disowning someone obviously as a drug addict is bullying to me. You don't like people talking about your friend? Do you think Sebastian likes that your friend said these things about him? Would you like to be diagnosed by an amateur-psychologist-fangirl? I don't think so. If your friend writes such a controversial text, she has to deal with it being talked about. I'm not going to talk to her because she won't listen to me. She's perfectly fine with posting that and hasn't said anything about it yet, that there are people who don't think it's okay.

Anon 4: /// I think you got it wrong little girl. Sebastian was cyber bullied by rats like you. And stop with your stupid blog already. Nobody here cares! Are you advertising it or something? The issue here is you anons harrassing Sebastian and then pretending to care about his emotions. Not the blog. Learn to read!

Anon 5: God I'm all against violence but I would so ruffle some feathers right now. Can't you block that lunatic?

Anon 6: It's an opinion post, people can agree or not, this blog was polite. I didn't see anybody here attacking anybody, just people saying how offensive it was because there are people with mental illness, it made them uncomfortable, and about nobody meeting seb in person. The blog mod should apologize to people with mental illness. If it were me... I'm so sarcastically mean.

Anon 7: Let me get this straight, the mod from other blog posts an opinion, but she doesn't want to receive attacks or people being mean? Her minions think she doesn't deserve hate. Because of that she won't post the mean comments? The same people who attacked Seb last year for allegedly blocking people, are they the same people who can't handle negative comments? It's the same people who said Seb deserved to be dragged along and get negative comments, but they themselves can't deal with it! How is it possible? I remember people saying Seb was censoring them, so where are these negative comments? The hypocrisy.

Anon 8: The mod who did the analysis posted an anon who was telling her to get help because what she did is not normal and a therapist might be able to help her move on. Lmao and she was pissed! I guess when someone analyzes their mental health is not as much fun as when they do it to another person, huh? What goes around comes around.

Anon 9: Lol the empathy and worry is gone. Seb liked his gf's last post 😂😂😂😂 Now they are no longer worried about him.

💄

[tellywoodtrash]

immj2 13.10.20 lb

askjdshkfjdhkfkjdhfkj vansh being told the number of things that went wrong in the 24ish hours he wasn't in this house of horrors and his face is like THIS IS EXACTLY WHY I DON'T LEAVE YOU FUCKING DUMBASSES ALONE

lol, like i said in the firsttttttttt lb, vansh is taking this news realllllllll chill. he's not mad at riddhima at allllllllll for keeping all this from him. 

saasuji, chachi, and aryan adding some shuddh desi ghee in this aag. can't blame them. riddhima IS a colossal pain in the ass.

lmao one more bomb thrown on vansh, ki sejal bhi kidnap hui hai aur yahin kahin hai. yaaaaaar, i never thought i'd feel this bad for Ghar Ka Bada Beta after shivaay, but this man is truly having to deal with The Most.

accusation after accusation thrown left and right, and vansh is literally like

man, idk why kabir does any of this devious planning and effort. with allllllll this dumbfuckery, it's just a matter of time before the raisinghanias go extinct from SHEER STUPIDITY. he should just bide his time and let them wipe themselves out. should take like, 3 months, tops.

VANSH HAS A BOMB OF HIS OWNNNNNNNNN: “SEJAL MERE PAAS HAI.” WHUT??!!?!?!?

lmao the panic on allllllllllll these fools' faces hearing that vansh has sejal. dadi and siya are the only oblivious and unbothered ones here.

hahahahahaha vansh turns around and sees YET another fucker who's out to test him and is like MOTHERF....... AB TU KAUN HAI BEYYYYY

vansh playing march 24th waale modiji and is like NONE OF YOU FUCKERS LEAVING THE HOUSE FROM NOW ON. NO ONE. EVER.

dang this growly vansh aint the smiley simp from the last 2-3 eps. i'm intrigued.

he promises everyyyyyything's gonna come out in a bit. yissssssssssssssss *grabs my popcorn from the rasoda*

vanshhhhhhhh OUT!

my queschun is ki does mishra know he's fully being made to shady shit by kabir or not!?!?!??!?

mishra not picking phone. he dedddddddddddd, lol. #RIPMishra

KABIR WTF DON'T BE PULLING THE DUDE'S WIFE AROUND LIKE THIS. OH GOD THEY'RE FULLY GONNA GET MURDERED TODAY. 

ainvayi ka nakli fikar and some chugli against vansh.

REJECTED. honestly, she's really asking to be murdered, lol. sis, you can't be playing both parties like this.

lol kabir is meeeeeeee, so sick and tired of heterosexual ppl in love.

blah blah blah find out what he knows.

lmao everyoneeeeeeeeee is panickkkkkk.

WHY DOES HE KEEP TAKING HIS BLOODY MASK OFFFFFFFF

AND DESTROYING PROPERTY AND MAKING NOISE TO DRAW MORE ATTENTION TO THE ROOM. KABIR, SATYAAANAAASH, I THOUGHT YOU WERE THE SMART ONE HERE.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP.

lolololololololololllllllll mummy ki haalat kharaab.

kabir using his half brain cell and not panicking out of control. good.

god bless this vapid praani. idhar sab ki hawa tight hai aur isko apni hairstyle ki padi hai. he's like an evil rudra from IB.

chachi is relatably stress-eating carbs. my most potent coping mechanism.

aryan is like, chillllllll this is mauke pe chauka type situation. 

ASDLFKDSLKFJDLSKFJDLSJFLDSKJFL VANSH WHY ARE YOU LIKE THISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS HE LAMINATED IT AND EVERYTHING HAHAHAHAHHAHA GODDDDDDD I LOVE HIS PETTY ASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

chalo inn madam ki baari ab, phat ke haath mein aane ki.

helllllllllllllllo, sir. immediate aankhon ko thandak now that he changed out of that red suit.

damn, my aankhein not the only thing thandiiiiiii in this room. temp just dropped to -20 with how chilly he's being to her.

SIS HAS WIPED HER SWEATY UPPER LIP SO MANY TIMES KI FREEFUND KI MOOCHON KI WAXING HO GAYI HAI FRICTION SE. BEHEN POWDER THAT SHIT AND STOP TOUCHING IT; YOU'RE GIVING THE WHOLE GAME AWAY. JESUS. ISKO SPY BANAAKE BHEJA HAI?!?!?! ISKO?????? 🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️

lol does he look like he gives a rat’s ass about sejal and your ramkathaa??????

DUDE STOP RAMBLING. JESUS. YOU'RE SOFA KING BAD AT THIS.

speaking of bad sofas, wth is up with the RIDICULOUSLY high backed chairs in this house, they look fucking insane.

vansh willing her to STFU with his eyes is honestly me.

“maine apni pasand badal li, riddhima.” yiiiiiiiiikes. he's not just talking about cologne, is he???

but also, you deserve much better than this twit, so good for you, my man. you deserve to be with someone who at least has six (6) brain cells.

dhat tere ki. he still seems into her. bloody heterosexuality. hum sabko le doobegi.

“itni nervous kyun ho tum aaj?”

NERVOUSNESS JAAYE BHAAD MEIN; I WOULD FUCKING NEVER LET ANYONE TOUCH MY FACE WITH THEIR BLOODY HANDKERCHIEF EXCUSE ME SIR THIS SKIN TAKES A LOT OF MAINTENANCE I CANNOT HAVE YOU DABBING AT IT WITH YOUR FILTHY POCKET CLOTH AND RISKING BREAKOUTS I MUST INSIST YOU REASSURE AND COMFORT ME FROM 2 FEET AWAY THANK YOU

riddhima trying valiantly to bluff her way through this conversation but vansh is like me on online shopping sites after filling my cart full of stuff: NOT BUYING IT.

literally me any time someone touches my face. internally screaming and thinking about how i’ll have to go dab tea tree oil all over to preemptively stop a breakout.

uhhhhhhhhhhh, she didn't say anything about wanting to know what sejal said to you????? mind-reading is very rude and an invasion of privacy, vansh!!!!!

4 pm, kab bajenge bloody 4, out with it alreadyyyyyyyyy.

lol that tinnnnnnnnny smirk of his as he leaves.

no but forreal, imagine living with this dramaticass man who promises big shows at a given time, like honestly i would be so fucking annoyed. at least shivaay never planned his big living room all-family conferences and made ppl WAITTTTTTTTT for it.

mummy is like kabir plsssssssssssss gtfo.

riddhima is useless as ever and has no info. big surprise.

AEDKLSJFLDSKJLFSKJFLKSDJL HE SNUCK UP ON HER

mummy always been knowing that riddhima is a fucking nikammi.

ok notttttttttt cooool my man. phone is private shit. 

off kardiya shaaaani ne.

lol kiskoooooooo pappu bana rahi ho behen, this man knows everyyyyyyyyything.

was that HIS phone he just picked up and left? usmein recording kar raha tha toh??????

honestly can you even blame vansh for being such a shakki shakeel, his house is filllllllllled with fucking snakes.

THIS FOOL JUST BE WALKING AROUND USING ALL THE MAIN DOORS AND SHIT WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU MANNNNNNNNN

asjdkasjdkajshkdsj and the prize for most valiant effort at hide and seek goes to.................

peripheral vision naam ki bhi koi cheez hoti hai, bhai. use karle.  

4 BAJ GAYE LEKIN PARTY ABHI BAAKI HAI, ABHI TOH PARTY SHURU HUI HAIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 🥳🥳🥳

hahahahahhahahaha what the fuck his ass actually has a fulllllllllblown sirens blowing at 4 pm. like not a small tinkly alarm too, this is like those sirens they have blaring at big factories and shit.

riddhima dressed in that promo waali sari where nothing good happens so............ good luck sis.

(but also this is the sari anika wore when they fucked in laal ishq so maybeeeeeeeeee good times are incoming???)

HE ACTUALLY TURNED AROUND AND TOOK HIS PLACE, FOR MAXIMUMMMMMMM EFFECT. THIS MAN AND HIS FLAIR FOR THE DRAMATIC. I LOVE IT.

“yeh sab kya ho raha hai vansh??”

“chaar baj gaye, dadi.”

yes. totally a satisfactory explanation for this shit. thanks vansh. but you COULD have mentioned in your notes ki 4 baje ko jo hona tha, was a scheduled fire drill.

ANY HIGH TENSION SITUATION MAKES ME WANNA PEE REAL BAD, AND GIRLS, MY BLADDER IS REAL HURTY RN.

also lord, this one’s base makeup is too yellow toned too. just look at the contrast between his face and his ear.

askdlajlkdjlasjdlasjlkj he sat right on THAT table.

“toh bataao mujhe: kya hua, kyun hua, aur kaise hua.”

.............. like.... who are you talking to? and what exactly are you referring to? you want me to like start from the big bang and the creation of the universe and evolution and all that jazz, ya like, from this morning when i woke up?

(it’s stupid shit like this i would ask that would get me fully murdered in a sitch like this. damn my smartassery, it’s gonna get me killed.)

lol aryan is up first. we love to see it. OUT WITH IT, YOU WEASELLY LITTLE SHIT.

noooooooooooooo, he didn't even let him properly stew and sweat over it. ouff vansh, kuch toh dramatic pause dete.

“afwaa phaili hai ki meri nazar baaz se tez hai..........”

why all the guys on colors these days gotta be baaz and cheel and god knows what else?!?!!?

OH DAAAAAAAAAAAAMNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

OH HELLLLLLLLLLLLLL HE DID USE HIS PERIPHERAL VISION AFTER ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLL GOOOOOOD JOBBBBBBBBB VANSHHHHHHHHHHH

KABIR TU TOH GAYAAAAAAAAAA #RIPKABIR

akjsadkjhskjdhkjskask ngl i am fucking thrilled by this development

riddhima and mummy having simultaneous heart attacks though. lol idc, die bitches.

lmao kabir looking reallllllllllll ulta-chor-kotwaal-ko-daante for someone who got caught hiding inside a table.

DANG, I ACTUALLY CANNOT WAIT FOR THE NEXT EP????????? SHIT. THIS STUPID SHOW HOOKED ME IN SOOOOOOOOO EASY. 😫😫😫

[murasaki-murasame]

Thoughts on Higurashi Gou Ep1-6

It took me way longer than I expected to get around to writing this, and now we’re like one day away from ep7 coming out so that’s a bit awkward, but better late than never, lol.

Anyway I’ve slipped back into full-on When They Cry brainworms mode because of this new series, and I have a whole lot to say about it. 

One thing I wanna say before I put the rest of this post under a cut, though, is that I think Gou should be approached as a remake/retelling first, and a sequel second. That might change later on, but I think Ryukishi and the director really meant it when they said that they wanted this to be accessible to new fans.

Since we’ve already gone through one and a half full arcs, I guess I’ll just start off with my overall thoughts on the series, and how I think it’ll go in the long run, before I get into the specifics of what’s happened thus far.

Like I said above, I really do think that this was written from the ground up as a remake or retelling first and foremost, with the sequel aspects being more like background fanservice to give old fans something to chew on. In spite of the various changes and cuts they’ve made to the story thus far, they’ve been very faithful about replicating the overall experience and vibe of the VN in a way that works well in an anime format.

For one thing, I think this is basically the reason why Rika seems to be weirdly hands-off about everything in this series, instead of actively interfering with everything going on and telling everyone about what’s going on. I get why it frustrates people, but I think it really just boils down to how Gou is specifically trying not to spoil new fans on the story in advance, so they’re keeping Rika pretty much entirely as a background figure who doesn’t actually do much. I think it’s a good set-up, though, since instead of having Rika dominate the narrative in the same way as in Minagoroshi and Matsuribayashi, Keiichi is still the ‘primary’ protagonist of Gou, who’s perspective aligns more with that of new fans, while Rika is a secondary protagonist of sorts, who old fans can see things from the perspective of because of what we all know about the story.

Which I think is actually pretty similar to the VN, since if you go back and reread it, you end up seeing things more from Rika’s point of view, even though she’s more of a background figure for most of the story.

I know there’s the whole scene from the start of ep2 where she’s talking to Hanyuu in the fragment world, but now that we’re further into this new series, I think that scene didn’t actually change a whole lot compared to the VN. It’s mostly just there to spell out that supernatural elements and time loops exist right from the start, instead of only revealing it later on. But in the long run it’s not really that important, so I can see why they decided to just get it out the way immediately. And they still intentionally side-stepped having Rika actually say anything explicit about who the mastermind is, or what the rules of Hinamizawa are, so new fans are still mostly in the dark about what’s actually going on.

Anyway, I��ve been kinda surprised by the sort of pacing and structure Gou’s had thus far, especially since it’s ended up feeling more like a full on remake with mostly superficial differences from the source material. I was worried about how it might go when it became obvious that it’d probably only be 24 episodes, but at this point I think they know what they’re doing with this. And even though it seems to still be trying to cover the same plot beats as the VN, I honestly think that they can pull it off in just 24 episodes. As long as they’re willing to make some ambitious and controversial edits, at least.

I suppose it’s still possible we might get a second season later, and that it’ll end up playing out more like the pacing of the 2006 anime, but I doubt it. The fact that they intentionally combined different elements of Tsumihoroboshi into the Onidamashi arc makes me much more inclined to think that this is going to be a more compact retelling of the VN, with it all being condensed into just 24 episodes.

Going by how many BD/DVDs there are gonna be for Gou, and how they divide up the episodes, I think it’s safe to assume that this will be split into five arcs with 4, 4, 5, 4, and 7 episodes, respectively. Which gives us a better idea of how things will go later on. I think it’s at least safe to assume that they’re splitting up the arcs this way, since that seems like a very strange and lopsided way to split up the discs, and we’ve already seen that Onidamashi was four episodes, and Watadamashi will probably be the same, so it seems to line up thus far.

Basically I think that after this we’ll get a new version of Tatarigoroshi covering five episodes, and then the rest of the series will be made up of two ‘answer arcs’, which will probably be where Gou gets more into original story stuff, and/or more major plot editing. I know the 2006 anime covered the first two answer arcs in season one, and then basically spent the entirety of Kai on the last two answer arcs, but I’m leaning more towards assuming that they’re actually going to cover all the important answers in just these two arcs.

Which seems kinda hard to believe, and I’m still kinda wary about how it might pan out, but there’s a lot they can do to shorten the answer arcs. For one thing, I think everyone’s already guessed that Takano probably won’t be the main villain anymore in Gou, so if that means they can basically skip over all/most of her material from the VN, that’d already let them cut out a lot. 

And for one thing, it seems like Gou’s whole framing device with Rika is kinda already doing the same stuff as Minagoroshi, so I think that basically already makes most of that arc unnecessary for this series.

This is just my speculation at the moment, but I think that Gou’s ‘game board’ might be based on the timeline where Takano’s parents don’t die, and she doesn’t end up involved in the politics surrounding her grandfather’s research, which is I think how they’ll explain her not being the villain anymore. Even though she seems to be the same sort of person thus far in Gou, it’s entirely possible that in this version of events she’s just a regular nurse who has a bit of an obsession with Hinamizawa’s history, but isn’t actually part of any nefarious conspiracies. 

At the very least I think this is the ‘simplest’ theory for where Gou’s heading, since it’s just based on stuff that already happened in the VN.

I also don’t really think that there’s a ‘new villain’, so to say, even if Takano’s more or less out of the picture in this version. I think we’re gonna find out that Featherine and Bernkastel are responsible for throwing Rika back into the loop, but I think that’s a bit different to the idea of there being some entirely new villain or something causing problems.

Anyway, I think it might be a bit more clear if I go into my thoughts on what went down in Onidamashi, lol.

Basically I think that 90% of what happened in Onidamashi was just Rena being infected by the virus like in Tsumihoroboshi. Rika and Satoko’s deaths is a bit of a mystery, but the main thing is that I think Rena killed Tomitake and Takano on the night of the festival. I think it’ll be a bit more clear what’s going on when the next episode comes out and we see what happens to those two again in Watadamashi, but I think it makes sense that Rena killed them in Onidamashi. I think she’d already killed Rina and Teppei before the story even started, and she seemed immediately suspicious of Tomitake when she first saw him and Keiichi joked about how he might be a spy, so I think she ended up killing him and Takano out of fear that they were gonna find out about the murders she did. Also there’s the whole scene where she was ominously watching them on the night of the festival, so there’s that, lol.

And on the note of Rena’s paranoia in that arc, it’s worth noting that the bit where she accuses Keiichi of hiding stuff from her at the dump site is [I think] entirely new, and seems to heavily imply that she was paranoid about the idea that he might have found out about the murders she did. So it makes sense to me that she might have had similar fears about Tomitake. It’s also probably the main reason why she ended up trying to kill Keiichi at the end of the arc, since he’s the other person who she would have been afraid might rat her out to the police.

I think there was also some element of her believing in the idea of Oyashiro-sama’s Curse, and going along with the expected patterns of that, but mostly I think she was concerned about protecting herself and her father.

I’m also assuming that at some point we’ll find out that Keiichi hallucinated the second half of their fight, and that what probably happened was that Rena got knocked unconscious when she hit the table, and Keiichi then went over the edge into full-blown virus paranoia and started attacking her, while hallucinating that she’d woken back up and started stabbing him.

On the other hand, I’m leaning towards assuming that she wasn’t actually involved with Rika and Satoko’s deaths, since there wouldn’t have been any real motive for that. With Keiichi, Tomitake, and by extension Takano, she had clear reasons to be suspicious of them and to want to get rid of them, but there’s no real reason she would have suspected Rika or Satoko. I think they also got killed in their house, so she would have had to really go out of her way to kill them, which seems unlikely. It’s also worth noting that Rika was convinced the whole time that she was back in the Onikakushi route, which is made more explicit in the manga version of Gou where the scene with her and Hanyuu happens after the end of the arc. For one thing she reveals that she was murdered by someone [but she doesn’t remember who], so we can at least rule out the idea that Rika killed Satoko and then herself, but it also indicates that Rika was assuming the whole time that Rena was totally innocent, which is why she told Keiichi to trust her. So I think there’s no real chance that she confronted Rena about her murders and then got killed by her.

So basically I think their deaths are completely unrelated to the other stuff going on in the arc. Which is why I don’t really have any super confident theories about them, lol. My best guess is that, unless there’s some entirely new and unpredictable stuff going on, maybe Shion was off in the background dealing with her own version of the virus. So maybe like how the Tsumihoroboshi scenario seemed to be going on in the background, it’s possible that the Meakashi scenario was happening too. Which would at least be a fairly understandable explanation for why Rika and Satoko would wind up mysteriously dead.

I’ve seen people also raise the theory that maybe Shion also killed Mion, and that it was her disguised as Mion talking to Keiichi at the hospital at the end of the arc, but I’m not entirely sure about that. It’d be a neat twist, though, and in a way it’d help address one issue I’ve always had with the VN, in that Shion seemed to be 100% completely irrelevant to the events of Onikakushi. 

I’m also very curious about the scene where Keiichi goes to the Irie Clinic and finds that it’s being remodeled. Which seems to imply that they were basically packing up shop and abandoning the village. I imagine it’s a response to Tomitake and Takano dying, but it might still be consistent with my theory of Takano not being very important this time around. Even if she’s not involved in all that anymore, it’s possible that just means that Tomitake still is, so maybe it was his death specifically that caused the rest of the team to stop their mission and leave the village.

Either way, I think it goes to show that either Tomitake and Takano both actually died this time around, or they were at least taken out of commission in some way or another. Even when Tomitake dies in each arc, the clinic still continues it’s operations since Takano never actually died.

It makes me wonder if the Great Hinamizawa Disaster would even happen in a version of events where Takano isn’t in charge of things. Unless we’re meant to think that it happened off-screen while Keiichi was in the hospital, it’s odd to think that they’d just pack up and leave before doing it.

Keiichi probably got more or less assassinated by that random nurse at the end of the arc, though, so I think the people from Tokyo in general are still around, and are still at least somewhat aware of the virus. I’m not sure how that might impact things with the GHD, though.

Anyway, I’ve got less thoughts and predictions related to Watadamashi since it’s only halfway done at this point, and is a lot closer to the VN than the last arc was, so I’ll just go over them quickly.

In general I really do think that the arc’s been 1:1 with the Watanagashi arc thus far, aside from Keiichi giving the doll to Mion, which I don’t even think is that important. After ep5 I was wondering if maybe they were going to avoid showing Mion and Shion together until the very end of the arc, but then they immediately went into that in ep6, lol. It looks like they’re trying to make it a bit more obvious what’s going on with the whole Mion and Shion thing in general this time around, though, which I think is a good choice. I think it’s still the same as it was in the VN, but my current understanding of the timeline here is that Mion was pretending to be Shion, and we only first see Shion herself when she invites Keiichi to the cafe in ep6. And I think for the rest of the episode they were just being themselves.

There also seems to be a subtle difference in how Mion and Shion’s eyes are drawn in this version, as a hint to who’s who in each scene, so that’s neat. They’re similar enough that it’s kinda hard to be sure sometimes, but still.

Going by the ep7 preview images, I think the arc will continue following the same path as Watanagashi, with us seeing the group breaking into the Saiguden and talking about Hinamizawa’s history. Though one thing that’s really interesting is that in one of the preview images, Takano seems to be holding a folder of some kind inside the Saiguden, which makes me wonder it’s the same folder of documents she gave to Rena in Tsumihoroboshi, and that she’s gonna talk to Keiichi and Mion about her theory with the virus. That’d at least be one way to bring certain plot points up earlier, and it’d be another way to let them skip Tsumihoroboshi.

Since Watadamashi seems like it should be four episodes, but has also been going notably slower than the 2006 adaptation of Watanagashi, I think it’s safe to assume that like with Onidamashi, it’ll have a more abrupt ending than the VN, and skip over some stuff. There’s already several scenes from the PVs that seem to be from the whole torture basement part of Watanagashi, so what I think will happen is that Rika will just preemptively avoid getting herself and Satoko killed by Shion, and the story will just go more immediately from Shion killing the other family head people to Keiichi and Rena interrogating her. Assuming that the arc as a whole continues going in the same direction as Watanagashi, at least. And I can’t really imagine Rika letting herself and Satoko get killed yet again like this, so it’d make sense to just cut out that part. Also, if I’m right about my guess that Shion killed the two of them in Onidamashi, that’d be another excuse to skip that part in this arc, and that way they’d just be moving it to a different arc instead of outright skipping it.

After how Onidamashi went, it’s hard not to assume that this arc will diverge heavily from Watanagashi at the end, but honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up being more or less the same. I think Shion would have basically the same motives for everything even in this version of events where Mion got the doll. And if I’m also right about the idea that Takano might talk to them about the virus theory in the next episode, maybe that’d push Shion over the edge for basically the same reasons as Rena in Tsumihoroboshi. At the very least I’d prefer them to keep Shion as the villain instead of making Mion the villain just for shock value, since it’s an important part of Mion’s character that she doesn’t ever do that.

I think the only way I could see it working is if Mion does the murdering in this arc not because of paranoia or the virus, but just because of her family obligations. Like, maybe she finds out about the Saiguden break-in, and ends up being obligated to kill the four of them as punishment for it. I still think that might be kinda contrived, but it’d be better than making her get the virus for the first time in the whole franchise.

I’m also still really curious to see if they’re going to talk about Satoshi at all in this arc, since they haven’t really talked about him at all thus far in Gou, which has been one of the more notable cuts. They did still show that one shot of him killing his aunt when Oishi was explaining how the past incidents went, so I don’t think he’s been completely written out of the story, but they’re being a lot more evasive about him than in the VN. At the very least, like with how the last arc contained references to Tsumihoroboshi, I wonder if this arc will reference Shion’s whole relationship with Satoshi, or if that’ll only be revealed later.

Also, since Onidamashi’s ending felt pretty similar to Watanagashi’s ending, I think the very end of this arc will go in a different direction to shake things up. I dunno what to expect from that, but maybe it’ll play out more like Tatarigoroshi, and Keiichi will leave the torture basement only to find out that the GHD’s happened.

Anyway, that aside, I wanna go back over why I think that they’re basically cutting Tsumihoroboshi out of the story, and moving different parts of it to other arcs. Like I said, I think the whole scenario with her killing Rina and Teppei was going on in the background in Onidamashi, but there’s also multiple instances of them reusing quotes from Tsumihoroboshi in that arc. The main one is that, when she’s venting out her paranoia to Keiichi, she says part of her monologue about ‘trying really hard’, which in the VN was from when she was explaining her motives for killing Rina and Teppei when she confessed to her friends. I don’t think there’s any major twists or subversion there. I think that was straight up just her alluding to the murders she’d done, even if Keiichi didn’t know what she meant this time around. The manga version of this scene is also a fair bit longer, and contains much more of the Tsumihoroboshi monologue, which makes it even more obvious.

Along the same lines, the manga version of the fight between Keiichi and Rena in this arc also used Keiichi’s internal monologue from the rooftop battle between them in Tsumihoroboshi, so that’s another example of them reusing stuff from that arc in Onidamashi. It’s not quite as obvious in the anime since they don’t really have any internal monologues at all, but the manga makes it very obvious.

And like I said above, it’s possible that the next episode of Watadamashi will also reuse elements of Tsumihoroboshi by having Shion find out about the virus from Takano and get paranoid about it.

Also there’s the whole fact that Keiichi was having flashbacks to Onikakushi throughout the last arc, which is also what basically happened in Tsumihoroboshi.

So basically there’s just a whole list of reasons why I think they’ve decided to skip that arc in Gou and spread out the important bits of it to other arcs, which is a major reason why I think they’re going to try and cover the whole story in just 24 episodes.

If they skip Tsumihoroboshi entirely, and cut out huge portions of Minagoroshi and Matsuribayashi depending on how they handle Takano, then I think it’d actually be pretty easy to just cover the remaining parts of the answer arcs in just two arcs across 11 episodes.

Considering that they haven’t really referenced Meakashi at all thus far, unlike how Onidamashi was blatantly a mash-up of Onikakushi and Tsumihoroboshi from start to finish, I think they’re going to basically have Meakashi just be the fourth arc in Gou, and be kept mostly intact. But going by how it’ll probably be four episodes long, compared to being six episodes long in the 2006 anime, I think it’ll focus mainly on the flashback stuff, and the present-day part of the arc will be changed so it’s shorter and doesn’t feel like a repeat of Watadamashi.

In general I think a lot of the changes and edits they’re making are being done to avoid unnecessary repetition between the different arcs, so yeah, if they do a Meakashi arc, I think they’ll try and make it a bit more unique.

After that, I think the final 7-episode arc will effectively be Gou’s version of Matsuribayashi, but that’s probably be where it gets more into it’s original plot points and stuff.

I get why lots of people would be worried about them condensing the answer arcs that much, but I think it could work just fine, and if anything it might end up just feeling less back-loaded and slow than it was in the VN.

I think the overall structure of the last arc will probably be fairly similar to Matsuribayashi, though, with us probably revisiting the earlier fragments and seeing what was going on in the background. Which would probably be where we’d get reveals for stuff like what happened to Rika and Satoko in Onidamashi, and whether or not Keiichi hallucinated any of his fight with Rena.

Also, I agree with basically everyone who thinks that Featherine is gonna end up being part of Gou’s story [since she literally shows up in the OP, lol]. And probably Bernkastel as well, by extension. I’m not sure exactly how that’ll play out, especially since in Umineko, Featherine was more of a passive observer than anything else, but still, the idea of them being directly involved in Gou’s story is extremely interesting to me. Mainly just because it makes me wonder if maybe they’re setting up for an Umineko remake, since it’d feel kinda weird to bring up Featherine if they aren’t.

I’m kinda worried that Featherine coming into play would alienate pretty much everyone on both sides of the fandom, since it might seem confusing to new fans, and irritating to old fans who don’t want Higurashi and Umineko stuff to get merged together to that extent. So I hope they pull it off well.

At the very least, I think Bernkastel would work fine if they make her into a major part of Gou’s story. She’s technically the one who created the timeline where Takano’s parents survived, if they follow up on that here, and also she’s literally Rika, so it’d probably be pretty easy for new fans to understand their connection and any emotional stakes involved in them getting into conflict with each other.

I’m not really sure at all exactly what their motives might be for throwing Rika back into the loop, but that’ll probably be the core of what Gou’s endgame is about.

One thing that’s interesting, though, is that Rika was a teenager when she died and woke up in the fragment world with Hanyuu, and I think Ryukishi’s implied that we’ll find out more about that later on. So I think the circumstances behind her death as a teenager will also be a big deal.

Going by how she was apparently wearing the same uniform as Shion, it makes me wonder if maybe she got bullied into suicide, or if maybe Satoko did, and Rika fell into despair afterward and killed herself. Which kinda makes me wonder if maybe part of the whole story and message this time around will be about Rika struggling to come to terms with actually moving on with her life after leaving the loop. Maybe for a variety of reasons she just isn’t able to cope with it, and without really realizing it she just wants to return to the time loop where she at least got to hang out with her friends in a comfortable, familiar environment. But who knows, lol.

If Featherine does end up being important here, I hope they make her connection to Hanyuu a bit more clear, since that’s always been a bit vague. It’d also make me wonder if they’ll also elaborate on Lambdadelta and her whole history with Bernkastel, but I really can’t imagine how they’d have her show up without her completely clashing with Higurashi’s whole aesthetic and tone.

Anyway, I could probably make a whole separate post about my feelings on a theoretical Umineko anime remake and what I’d want and expect from that.

Also, before I forget, my current prediction for the next arc in Gou is that it’ll basically just be Tatarigoroshi, but this time around they’ll mix in Onikakushi elements with Keiichi learning about all the stuff with Satoshi and becoming paranoid that the whole town’s out to get him. I also think they might move the part with Keiichi’s letter to the reader to the end of that arc. They included part of it in the PVs for Gou, so I assume they’ll include it some way or another, and I think it’d make a lot of sense to have it happen at the end of Gou’s version of the question arcs.

Oh, and I’m also expecting that Himatsubushi will get entirely cut out, since at least if we assume that Takano won’t be the obstacle this time around, there’s no real reason to include anything related to Akasaka, and they’ve already spelled out that Rika’s part of a time loop and knows what’s going on, so all of that foreshadowing from that arc would be kinda pointless here.

So yeah that’s basically all of my predictions, and my thoughts on the whole structure and plot of Gou thus far. But aside from all that, I’ve also just really been enjoying Gou in general. I get why a lot of people dislike how it’s been surprisingly similar to the VN, but I really like it. I think it’s doing a great job of preserving as much of the whole experience of reading the VN as possible, while repackaging it into a more condensed, cinematic format. Rather than being a very slow-burn, dread-filled thriller in the VN, Onidamashi felt more like a concise yet effective horror movie that built up to an abrupt, violent conclusion, so I think that was handled really well.

I’ve also really warmed up to the character designs over the last few weeks. At first they felt a bit too shiny and cute to me, but the more I see them, the more I think they work well, especially in the more serious moments. It’s going for a slightly different sort of vibe to basically any other iteration of the character designs in the franchise, but I like it.

Which also reminds me that my favourite version of the character designs might actually be the ones from the light novels, but that kinda feels like cheating since those are just used for covers and illustrations, lol. But I just really like the simple, atmospheric, painterly style that artist has. I’d love to see a version of the VN sprites done in their style, but that’ll probably happen.

And on the note of the LNs, they’ve recently gotten a new print run to celebrate Gou coming out, so I’ve decided to start importing them. I know I’m not even fluent in Japanese so I can’t even properly read them, but I’ve always loved the artwork for them, so I’ve been wanting to own them, but I think they were all out of print before Gou came out. Maybe they’ll eventually get released in English, but I don’t want to risk it. It’s a lot more likely that the Gou manga will get released in English sometime next year, so I’ll probably wait for that instead of importing it in Japanese.

[Also, I recently bought the VN on Steam since it’s on sale and the first arc is for free at the moment, so I’m gonna start rereading that soon to compare it more thoroughly to Gou]

Anyway, this got MUCH longer than I would have wanted it to be, but that’s what I get for waiting so long to start talking about this, lol.

[geezsims]

Doctor Amber Gonzalez — interview for @toxoplasmajuice​’s Atkins’ MMBC!

1. Tell me a little about yourself. Y'know, name, pronouns, age, where you’re from, anything else you might say if I asked you, “Who are you?”

I’m Amber. Well, I should say Amber Gonzalez, or Dr. Gonzalez if you want to be formal. I’m hoping you won’t be for too long... [chuckles drily] It’s hardly the time for formalities, wouldn’t you agree? I feel similarly about pronouns, if you must know—a tedious necessity while we remain shackled by language as it is now. [another chuckle] TL;DR: you’re welcome to use whatever pronouns take your fancy, though I tend to default to ‘they/them’ for the sake of ease. I’m 21 years, three months, and sixteen days old.

As for who I am... I am an acolyte of science. Always pushing the boundaries of what can be accomplished through the power of the mind. [momentary pause] I’m not sure there’s much to know about me beyond that.

2. Before the world ended, did you have any long-term goals? Where would you picture yourself in the future if the future didn’t crumble in front of our eyes?

There were countless projects amongst which I was dividing my time. The memory’s a bit... blurry around the edges, but I’m pretty sure my primary focus at the time would have been cloning. Or was it robotics? [shakes head] No matter. Many of my resources have gone kaput in the aftermath, but that isn’t going to stop me from dedicating myself to other scientific endeavours. Even if I have to resort to... [shudders] anthropology.

3. Any talents or skills? What about hobbies?

My skills are mostly restricted to science and research, though I’ve been known to dabble in the occult when the mood takes me. Alchemy especially is a dear hobby of mine, and one that doesn’t require anywhere near the amount of power demanded by my large-scale experiments.

Mh... after giving it some thought, I should also add that I have another hobby. One that doesn’t slot quite as neatly into my pioneering lifestyle, but that may be of interest to Clyde. It may also shed some light as to why I’m here, ah... [coughs] Let’s just say that some of my bags coming here are weighed heavy with hurriedly salvaged romance novellas. For reasons I cannot rationally explain I simply can’t get enough of those formulaic love stories!

4. If you feel like sharing, what was your love life like before this? Totally fine if you don’t wanna talk about it.

[another cough] If you must know... apart from the aforementioned literature things have been pretty quiet on the romance front for me. I’ve just never found the time for anything more serious than the occasional fling with a spicy lab assistant.

5. Besides the sanctuary part, what made you sign up for this BC?

I, ah, would like to meet Clyde. Very much, in fact. But I won’t pretend that some safety and security to get back on track with my experimentation doesn’t hold a certain appeal. Given the circumstances, I’m sure most if not all the contestants are going to be bringing some sort of ulterior motive to the table.

6. Okay, okay, hot take: this question is fucking stupid. First of all, MMBCs have happened even with this question, so it’s not even protecting anybody. Second, if we really needed this information–or if the network did–there’s better ways to do background checks. You can just lie here. You can literally just lie.[*] Third, it’s just so vague. Sure, if you’ve got some degree of murder on your record, maybe that would be important, but–what, being caught with a gram of weed in the summer of ‘15 is supposed to tell me you might be a murderer? And, most importantly, it blatantly contributes to the stigma against felons. Non-violent criminals, people who’ve changed for the better, people who were falsely accused–we’re basically saying all of them might as well be murderers. And I’m not for that. But the program we’re doing this through is requiring that I ask, so, whatever: do you have a criminal record?

Not that I know of. I seem to remember some former test subjects, ah... holding a bit of a grudge, but I don’t recall any charges. As I’ve mentioned previously, my memory is not the best, but I doubt I would forget something as grave as that.

7. Anyway. Random fact about you?

Hmm... how about this: due to a past experiment, there is always a slight current of electricity about my person. My hair often crackles and stands on end depending on what sort of floor I’m standing on. Oh, and I’ve taken to wearing these gloves most of the time to avoid giving people nasty electric shocks when they come into contact with me.

8. Is there anything important I should know about you? Health-related stuff, ancient curses following you, that sort of thing?

Barring my spotty memory, my body and mind are pretty robust. There are some other side-effects from my experimentation which surface from time to time—glowing eyes, erratic sleep schedule, energy bursts followed by severe lethargy...—but nothing so serious as an ancient curse. Apart from my own hubris, which is scheduled to catch up with me any day now. [laughs] That was a joke.

9. Is there anything or anyone you had to leave behind to come here? (This one’s optional, too.)

Ah, no. No one. [drily] Just the proverbial smoking ruins of my life’s work and a dozen or so lab rats.

10. What’s the first thing you’re gonna do when things calm down and we can leave the BC house again?

It all depends on the state of the world then. I’m a highly adaptive person. If my abilities are required in the aftermath, I’ll provide as best I can, but I’d be equally happy to seal myself away hermetically at the first chance and simply get back to work. There is so much left to be discovered!

OOC questions:

1. May I draw your Sim? (No one’s ever said no to this, but it never hurts to ask, right?)

Of course!

2. Do you have any tips for writing your Sim that you feel the interview and/or your intro post don’t already give me?

She’s often sarcastic and prone to long tangents. And she alternates between quite formal speech and casual informal, bordering on the over-familiar when presented with strangers. Just quite chaotic in general. I can see her not getting along with everybody as she can be pretty wrapped up in her own shit at times, which can come off as self-absorbed, but she also won’t ever judge a book by its cover.

As for the clone thing—she isn’t one, as far as I’m concerned, but due to her excessive experimentation she sometimes worries she can’t prove to herself or others that she isn’t. It keeps her up at night sometimes.

3. I want to start decorating contestants’ rooms this time around. Do you have any pointers as to decorating your Sim’s room? General themes are fine, and if you have any specific objects you want me to put in your Sim’s room (EA content or CC), that’d be great.

Aw, that’s a cute idea! Really just any odd gadgets and doodads, maybe the robot stuff that came with Ambitions (I think? It’s been a while, lol!) rather than the overly fancy/modern stuff from ITF. I’m picturing kind of Spartan sleeping arrangements, metal flooring and/or walls, maybe those biohazard posters (no idea where they were from, sorry). Don’t worry if you can’t find any of those things, that’s just kind of the general vibe I’m imagining. Her favourite colours are bright orange, grey, teal-ish blue and neon green, if that’s useful at all :v

4. Will you generally be around for random questions I have regarding your Sim? I might need random bits of information from everyone from time to time… for reasons. :)

If not here, then on Twitter for sure!

[sayingthesamethings]

Magic Shop (Part 4)

Pairing: Poly!BTS x Witch!Fem!Reader

Summary: Underneath the concrete and pavement, between the towering buildings, Seoul is thrumming with magic. Too much magic. It’s become a hot spot for magical beings seeking to feed off of such intense energy. BTS is unaware of such dangers until they come across a witch trying to manage the mischief of other magical creatures while creating her own trouble.

Warnings: Depictions of death, mentions of blood

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7

Author’s Note: No one had said anything, but I just want to clarify that this does not take place during a specific era. These are the hair colors for the boys:

Namjoon - Blonde | Jin - Black | Yoongi - Mint | Hoseok - Orange | Jimin - Pink | Taehyung - Silver | Jungkook - Black

A bit of a longer chapter this time. Thank you for reading!!

A few days after they wrapped up shooting for their newest muster, Namjoon had decided to take Taehyung out for a small celebration since the two had finished up their individual photo shoots before the others. The vocalist had teased Jimin up until their departure, leaving the other 95 liner pouting on set as the photographer tried to regain his attention.

“We should go get japchae!” Taehyung had suggested as he practically danced around Namjoon. The older male chuckled as he affectionately ruffled his boyfriend’s carefully styled hair, though the vocal had no qualms and took the gesture in stride.

Namjoon commented, “Jin just cooked japchae two days ago.”

Taehyung huffed, “So? I want it again.” He pulled out his best aegyo, the one Hoseok and Jimin always had a hard time saying no to, and tugged on the bottom hem of Namjoon’s shirt. “Please? I’ll even do the dishes tonight!” he pleaded. Namjoon shook his head with a quirked brow.

“I thought we agreed on just getting some snacks,” Namjoon said while leading Taehyung towards the convenience store just a few buildings down. Even though it was only 11 o’clock on a Tuesday, Sejin insisted that they at least take one bodyguard with them down the street.

Taehyung continued to moan about japchae and just food in general even as Namjoon languidly pulled him closer towards the entrance to the store with their bodyguard not too far behind. Namjoon was almost to the automatic sliding doors when Taehyung firmly planted his feet and yanked the rapper to an alarming stop.

Frowning, Namjoon began to scold the young male, “Taehyung, I get that you want japchae but that doesn’t mean you can just-”

“YOU’RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE!” The two idols eyes trained on the frazzled business man screaming at a young woman not too far from the entrance to the store.

With his arms spread, he continued to cut off every escape attempt the female made. His eyes held a crazed look, and his breathing was ragged.

Meanwhile, the (H/C)-haired female stared back at the man before her with a stale gaze. The furry creature resting on her shoulders hissed viciously at the man with its hackles raised.

“Let’s go, Taehyung,” Namjoon urged, but the words felt like cotton in his mouth. “Come on.”

Taehyung firmly shook his head and yanked on Namjoon’s arm. “We can’t just leaver her, hyung! She needs help,” he protested as he tried to pull his boyfriend over towards the commotion.

Sternly, Namjoon replied, “No, Taehyung. We can’t cause a scene.” His eyes couldn’t resist trailing over to the woman despite his best efforts to avoid staring. Taehyung frowned at his hyung’s answer and looked back in time to see the strange man grab at the woman’s shoulders.

Namjoon cried out his boyfriend’s name and watched Taehyung dash towards the two strangers. The silver-haired idol quickly but carefully removed the (H/C)-haired stranger from the hold the business man had on her before stepping between the two.

“Please stop making trouble, ahjusshi,” Taehyung demanded. The man looked about ready to lash out at Taehyung but when his eyes met the idol’s, the stranger froze, and his jaw fell slack. His eyes then darted immediately to Namjoon, who was frozen in place.

“Y-You, you,” he stuttered and began stumbling backwards with his eyes trained on the woman standing behind Taehyung with a grim expression. His whole arm shook as he pointed an accusing finger at the female. She moved past Taehyung but at the sign of her getting close, the man bolted the opposite direction and disappeared into one of the many alleyways.

(Name) swore under her breath and considered running after the man but quickly remembered that she had an audience. Furious, she spun around only for her anger to suddenly resolve when she met Taehyung’s concerned gaze.

“Are you okay?” He gave her a very quick and modest once over before meeting her eyes again.

(Name) could feel her resolve to scold him soften, and she heaved a long sigh.

“You didn’t have to do that,” she mumbled and ran a hand down one side of her face. Taehyung tilted his head to the side, and his brows furrowed.

He replied, “He looked like he wouldn’t leave you alone.” (Name) scratched the back of her neck with a small shrug.

“You’re not entirely wrong.” (Name) eventually felt a smile tug at her lips, and she couldn’t help but gaze at the young male affectionately. “Well, I supposed I should thank you for getting me out of that situation as quickly as you did.”

A large grin took over Taehyung’s handsome features, and (Name) had to laugh a little bit at the visible pride in the idol.

It was at that moment Namjoon decided to snap out of his shocked stupor and rush over to Taehyung and (Name). He grasped Taehyung by his shoulder and slightly shook the younger man as he began his lecture.

“Taehyung! What were you thinking? You could’ve gotten hurt!” the blonde scolded. Taehyung frowned and visibly deflated. (Name) stared at the saddened idol for a moment.

“Ah, I’m sorry for the trouble I may have caused,” (Name) intervened. The two looked to the witch in mild surprise. (Name) felt herself flush a little bit under their intense gazes, but shook it off. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to treat him for helping me out,” she offered. Before Namjoon could protest, (Name) grabbed an eager Taehyung’s hand and pulled him into the store.

The two grown adults giggled uncontrollably at the sound of Namjoon yelling. They ducked into the snack aisle and smothered their laughter behind their hands. Taehyung pulled (Name) behind a fairly big soda display just as Namjoon rushed by.

“So what’s a world famous idol doing at a convenience store?” (Name) inquired in hushed tones as she and Taehyung emerged from their hiding place.

Taehyung stiffened, and his gaze focused on the ground. (Name) smiled softly and held a finger up to her lips.

“I won’t tell, promise,” she said. Taehyung shrugged, knowing full well that he should leave and find Namjoon, but he froze when he glanced up. Slowly, he raised a finger and pointed at the air above (Name)’s head. The witch frowned and glanced behind her.

Taehyung shook his head and swallowed before he stated, “There’s a rat on your head.”

(Name) jumped in alarm and quickly reached up to pat her head, and her hand collided with something firm and fluffy. (Name) could feel her eye twitch when she heard Jaewon let out a short yowl. She plucked the ferret from her hair and dangled the rodent before her face so that she could glare directly into the odd eyes of her familiar.

“I thought I told you to stay hidden,” she hissed and rolled her eyes when Jaewon scrambled out of the woman’s hold to scramble into the depths of her large cardigan. Her eyes met Taehyung’s curious gaze, and she flashed the male idol a bashful grin. “Uh, sorry.”

Taehyung grinned and rubbed at the back of his neck. “I won’t tell if you don’t.” (Name) blinked at him owlishly before nodding.

“I mean, I wasn’t planning on it, but whatever makes you feel better,” (Name) mumbled as Jaewon curled up around her shoulders. (Name) scanned the aisle before grabbing a small bag of chips off the shelf. “So what are you two doing here?” she asked as she walked further down the aisle. Taehyung followed closely and began piling up snacks in his arms.

“Hyung and I just finished up our schedule for the day so we’re getting treats for everyone,” Taehyung explained as his eyes scanned the rows of mineral water. (Name) hummed in acknowledgement and pick up a one of the bottles to read the packaging. “Why was that man yelling at noona?” Taehyung asked as he balanced a third bottle of mineral water in his arms.

(Name) furiously shook her head as she pulled a stray shopping cart close to them so they could dump their snacks in.

“Ah, you don’t have to call me that,” (Name) sputtered. Taehyung tilted his head to the side cutely.

“But I don’t know noona’s name,” Taehyung pouted. (Name) stared at the idol and suddenly burst into a fit of laughter.

She wiped a tear from the corner of her eye and took a shaky breath. All the while, Taehyung watched her, mesmerized.

(Name) settled and said knowingly, “You’re right, you don’t know my name.” Taehyung snapped his fingers, breaking (Name)’s amused state.

“Oh! You’re the owner of the coffee shop we filmed at!” Taehyung exclaimed. (Name) mentally exhaled out of pure relief as she pulled a tight-lipped smile.

“Wow! I’m surprised you recognized me,” (Name) commented offhandedly as she and Taehyung began to walk down the snack aisle. “Well, Taehyung. You can call me (Name).”

Taehyung smiled his signature boxy grin just as Namjoon, looking frazzled, rushed down the aisle towards them.

“There you are!” Namjoon exhaled with a frown. Jaewon jumped from his resting spot and hid inside (Name)’s large cardigan. “I can’t find Beomsoo anywhere. He didn’t follow us in, and I checked outside the store but he wasn’t there. We should head back,” he explained.

Feeling discouraged and guilty for worrying his hyung, Taehyung nodded slowly before casting a longing glance towards the snack pile in the cart he and (Name) had shared.

Easily reading the sulking idol, (Name) smiled sympathetically and began pushing the cart towards checkout. Taehyung instantly lit up and began practically bouncing after the witch. Namjoon, speechless over the fact the witch had brushed him off so easily, took a moment before he followed.

“...your favorite type of coffee? I don’t like dark coffee at all, it’s too bitter. Jiminie and I like to get these caramel flavored ones from this one cafe in Busan-do you think you can make something like that?”

Namjoon overheard Taehyung as he assaulted poor (Name) with his endless excitement, but she didn’t seem to mind. She allowed him to ramble as she loaded the snacks onto the counter for the cashier to scan.

(Name) shook her head with an apologetic smile and replied, “Sorry, Taehyung, but I actually don’t know how to make coffee. It’s my friend that’s in charge of that.” Once all the items were out of the cart, she turned to the male right beside her and offered, “I’m sure I can convince her to put a caramel drink like the one in Busan on the menu.”

Taehyung clapped his hands and chirped, “You’d really ask her? Really really?” (Name) laughed while nodding, not noticing Namjoon slip behind her with his personal debit card in hand.

Namjoon quietly paid for the two’s snacks as they happily moved from chatting about coffee to how Jin had cooked japchae for the whole group. He went on about how delicious it had been and how he was craving it again but would also settle for some street pot stickers he and the others had tried when they toured in Japan.

It was only when Namjoon had reluctantly cleared his throat, he had been too amused by Taehyung to break up their friendly interaction, that (Name) realized the leader of BTS had stolen her idea of paying for all the snacks.

“Wait, my snacks were in there too,” (Name) stated with a frown, reaching for her wallet. Namjoon shook his head with a genuine as he and Taehyung grabbed all the bags and bid the store employee farewell.

“Consider this my thanks for the coffee the other day,” Namjoon insisted as they walked out through the automatic sliding doors. The three came to a slow stop as Namjoon paused to continue looking for their bodyguard, Beomsoo.

(Name) took a moment before she mumbled, “You recognized me?” Namjoon nodded.

“Yeah. You’re the coffee shop owner, right?” (Name) nodded dumbly, obviously taken aback by both males remembering her from the brief moments they shared after she had wiped their memories. “I recognized you while you were talking to Taehyung at the checkout,” he said.

Namjoon dug out the bag of chips and mineral water Taehyung had identified as (Name)’s and handed them over. She graciously accepted them. Then, she noticed the concern on Namjoon’s face and questioned him.

Namjoon scratched at his jaw and with one last glance around before answering, “I can’t find our bodyguard, Beomsoo. He was with us when we walked here, but I haven’t seen him since we entered the convenience store.”

(Name) hummed and furrowed her brows.

“Will you two be okay walking back by yourselves?” (Name) inquired. Namjoon pursed his lips and rubbed at the back of his neck.

“Yes, but manager-hyung wouldn’t like us walking back by ourselves,” Namjoon said. (Name) hummed in understanding and sipped at her flavored mineral water, but she discreetly scrunched her face in disgust as Namjoon and Taehyung stood together, hovering over the elder’s phone.

As (Name) wiped the corner of her mouth, she looked to the two men accompanying her and paused to tilt her head to the side.

(Name) eyed the way the two pressed close together. Taehyung would rest his head against Namjoon’s shoulder but gently nudged it against the latter’s affectionately. Their fingers would brush together carelessly without pulling away as they scrolled through Namjoon’s phone.

I see. (Name) cracked a small smile, but it quickly dissipated when she felt Jaewon stir in beneath the cardigan. She looked back to the alley where the man from before ran off, and an intense feeling of unease enveloped her. Jaewon. Go check it out.

Thankfully, the two were on the phone with who (Name) assumed was their manager. This was the ferret’s chance to slip from his owner’s form and slip into the alleyway unnoticed. (Name) quickly turned back to Namjoon and Taehyung at the sound of her name.

“The others finished their shoots. They’re on their way to come pick us up with manager-hyung,” Namjoon explained. (Name) hummed in understanding as she took another reluctant sip from her mineral water. Taehyung noticed her distaste for the drink and teased her for her explicit disgust.

(Name) capped the bottle, deciding she couldn’t bear drinking any more of the water out of kindness, and slipped it into the large burlap purse she had slung across her body. Her fingers brushed across her spell book, and her mind wandered back to the man that had stopped her earlier.

(Name) found herself glancing back towards the alleyway Jaewon had entered not too long ago, but her attention unconsciously trailed back to the two idols next to her.

“I’ll stay with you until they get here,” (Name) proposed as she slowly pulled her hand away from her spell book to dig further into the bag. “In the meantime, let me give you this, Taehyung.”

Taehyung tilted his head to the side and watched (Name) curiously as she pulled out a pendant from her bag. She let the silver pendant rest in her palm so that the two men could get a closer look.

A long black cord hung from the silver bear pendant that took up most of the space in (Name)’s palm. The bear seemed to smile happily in its position curled up around a small ruby and appeared to be asleep.

Taehyung nearly squealed, “Aww it’s so cute! It’s a little bear!” He cupped his hands and was nearly vibrating as (Name) gently dropped the pendant into his awaiting hold. “I can have it?” he asked in disbelief as he looked more closely at the small bear.

(Name) nodded with a soft smile, enjoying the idol’s excitement. Even Namjoon couldn’t contain his fondness for his second youngest boyfriend.

“Yes. I wasn’t planning on ever really wearing this one, so I’ll give it to you as thanks for helping me out earlier,” she answered. A hint of a knowing smirk crossed (Name)’s lips before she commented, “I had a feeling you’d really want a necklace.”

“Thank you. I’ll treasure it forever!” Taehyung declared as he hurriedly slipped the cord over his head. As he continued to marvel at the pendant, he chimed, “It matches your ring, hyung.” Namjoon’s happy expression was suddenly marred with a slight frown and furrowed brows.

Namjoon echoed, “My ring?” His eyes darted to the silver band wrapped around his right ring finger and focused on the small ruby. “Oh, yeah. I guess it does,” he agreed reluctantly.

With full confidence, Namjoon could say that he didn’t remember putting on the piece of jewelry that morning, let alone owning it.

Taehyung giggled and as he was about to speak, his eye caught movement further up the street. He shouted in delight and rushed to meet a very concerned Jin. (Name) couldn’t make out what they were saying, but she could tell from the stern expression Jin wore that the young idol was being scolded by the eldest.

But then she noticed everything else.

The way Jungkook coolly let Jimin link arms together and how Hoseok affectionately ruffled Taehyung’s hair in greeting. When Hoseok moved back to Yoongi to huddle close to the older rapper, Yoongi feigned irritation but allowed Hoseok to rest his head on his shoulder as the polar opposite pressed closer.

(Name) tilted her head to one side. She smiled politely when the others’ eyes fell on her, and she offered a small wave as well.

Huh. Maybe I don’t. (Name) shuffled around as she watched the group greet each other lovingly while constantly checking over Namjoon and Taehyung.

Just as Taehyung motioned for (Name) to join him and his boyfriends, Sejin and the group’s bodyguards ushered for them to return to the van so that they could drive back to the company and wrap up the day.

Taehyung frowned as Jimin tried to pull him along, and looked back to (Name). The witch smiled with a shrug and waved goodbye to the idol.

“Wait, hyung,” Taehyung protested to his manager. “Can’t we spend a little time here and hang out?” Sejin sighed without looking back at the young member.

Sejin replied, “You can do that later tonight. I want you boys back at the company for now while we try to figure out what happened with Beomsoo.”

Taehyung huffed and fell silent. He glanced over his shoulder as he allowed himself to be pulled along by Jimin and Jin, and he waved wholeheartedly to (Name) as she watched them all leave.

Once they were out of hearing range, (Name) murmured, “Just when things were getting interesting.” The idol group was out of sight when (Name) turned her attention back towards the alleyway. Pulling her spell book out of her bag and allowing it to float in her hand, (Name) slowly entered the alley.

!! WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT DEPICTED BELOW !!

(Name) would've reeled back at the foul copper stench, but it wasn’t the first time she was near a fresh corpse. Jaewon sat patiently beside the body, waiting for the witch to approach.

I knew I would be too late. (Name) mentally chided herself as she kneeled down next to the man’s bloodied corpse.

(Name) observed gnarly bite marks all over his upper torso, stemming from his neck down to his waist. She grimaced at the sight and hovered her hand above the wounds as if searching.

The witch noted aloud, “So you were right, Jaewon. That goblin wasn’t alone.” The ferret remained still and silent, but (Name) could feel a thrum of agreement deep within. “Well, it looks like they scattered once they sensed us leaving the store. Let’s look around for the well,” (Name) said as she raised from her lowered position.

Jaewon led her deeper down the alley until they reached a manhole cover. Oddly enough, there was no sewer odor emitting from the small holes in the metal lid.

(Name) waved her book out of the way, and it hovered off to the side. (Name) fished out from her large bag a long silver chain that almost rivaled her height. She took a few steps back from the manhole and held the chain out in front of her.

A chant in a language long lost flowed from between her lips, and the silver chain unraveled itself from her hands and formed a loop above the manhole lid. (Name)’s spell book floated back in front of her.

In the center of the loop, a small gem began to form out of the energy coming from the well. Once it grew to the size of her fingertip, (Name) was satisfied with her work and finished her incantation. She observed the tiny gem floating in the air and gestured for her book to return to the depths of her bag.

“Did you already set up a ward, Jaewon?” (Name) asked her familiar. The ferret hopped up and crept up the witch’s cardigan to wrap himself around her shoulders. Another familiar thrum inside her chest answered her question. “We’ll head to the next well this weekend. For now, we’ll just patrol the others,” (Name) announced.

(Name) waited for Jaewon to get comfortable before traveling back over to the dead body. A tired sigh escaped her as she looked more closely at the deceased’s face.

The boys’ bodyguard from earlier. They must’ve caught him when Taehyung, Namjoon, and I rushed into the store. (Name) assumed as she pulled her cardigan closer to her body. She straightened herself out and cleared her throat.

“The pixies will eventually take care of him. Let’s go back home,” (Name) said as she walked towards the exit of the alleyway.

Leaving behind the corpse of Beomsoo.

[jadoue1999]

The X-Men and the member they lost - Chapter 9

Summary: Erik and Wanda have a little talk

Previous parts: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Interrupted

After Erik left his son’s room, he decided to walk back to where he had been before. Charles was still in the library, reading the same book. He glanced up as he saw him enter.

“How did it go?”

“Wanda tried a spell and it backfired. Neither of them told me what it was but they both seemed shaken.” He sighed as he sat down on the sofa in front of his friend. “I just wish Peter would talk to me, it’s clear he’s not coping well.”

The bald man nodded. “You’re right, I might not be able to see in his mind, but what he felt just now was bone chilling terror. Unlike anything I’ve ever felt from him.”

That was worrisome. If the telepath hadn’t sensed anything similar to what happened just now in the whole year Peter had been in the mansion, that meant that whatever he saw must have been horrible. Especially considering how close he had been to die when En Sabah Nur broke his leg and almost killed him. There was no doubt that he must have quite the nightmares after that experience.

“Charles, I can’t help, but think that Peter really has changed.”

The man frowned at him. “What do you mean, old friend?”

He sighed as he looked pensively at the floor, trying to sort his thoughts. “I know that he’s physically fine, but he’s been acting different ever since we saved him from that place.”

“I understand, he hasn’t been as reckless since he came back. It seems his experience made him mature.” The telepath pressed his lips together. “But I’m not the person you should tell that.”

Erik nodded, “yes, but every time I try to talk to him, he pushes me away. He denies every nightmare and every sudden memory flash. Peter doesn’t seem to trust me.”

Charles watched him for a few seconds, probably wondering if he should say whatever he was thinking. He cleared his throat. “Well, there’s always someone else you can talk to.”

“No.”

The wheelchair bound man put a hand on his and gave him a serious soul piercing stare. “Erik, she is the one that started everything in the first place, she has answers no one else knows. You have to talk to Wanda.”

The telepath didn’t give him time to protest, he simply left the room. Erik was speechless for a few seconds before he started thinking about what Charles had said. He was, as usual, right, but he didn’t feel ready yet to talk to the woman. Especially since what had just happened in Peter’s room. Erik sighed as he contemplated the flames in the fireplace; he knew what had to be done, but he didn’t want to do it. Not tonight at least, not after the confession he just told them.

...

It had been about five days since he had made the decision to eventually talk to Wanda. Erik felt ready, he had to confront her. He waited until everyone was in bed before knocking on the woman’s door. She opened it and her eyes widened in confusion as she took him in.

“Hi?” She said, hesitantly. “Can I help? Is it Peter?”

Erik shook his head. “No, I’m here to have a conversation that is long overdue.”

The redhead nodded in understanding and opened her door all the way, letting him in. The room wasn’t all that personalized, but he did spot a picture of her, Vision, Peter, and the twins smiling at the camera. It was on the table next to her bed. He figured she had conjured it as a way to remember them. She sat down on her bed as he pulled out her desk chair. Her body language screamed anxiety as she kept pressing her lips together and readjusting her position. Finally, she spoke up.

“Erik, I know I haven’t said it before, but I’m so sorry for what I did. To you, to your team and Peter. It was wrong and I should’ve controlled my grief better.”

The man gave her a small nod, “thank you, it truly wasn’t a fun experience. As for your grief, I did mean it when I said we were similar. I hunted down the man who used me as his lab rat for years, killing every Nazis I could find, and I allied myself with a powerful mutant that wanted to destroy the world when my wife and daughter died. I’m afraid I know all too well why you reacted that way; even if I don’t agree with what you did.”

After he was done, neither of them talked for about a minute. Both probably trying to figure out what to say next. Erik spoke first.

“Did you feel bad, at least?” He paused, letting the question hang in the air. “Putting my son back under mind control? Living with the fact that you were lying to yourself?”

He could see how Wanda tensed up, but he didn’t care, he wanted to know. The redhead slowly nodded. “Yes, I did,” she fiddled with her bedcover, not looking at him. “I had many intrusive thoughts that kept reminding me of what I did. But I was so distressed about losing my brot-“ she quickly glanced at him, “-Peter, that I ignored them.”

He sighed at how she cut herself off, “Wanda, it’s alright if you consider yourself siblings. You are, in a way. I saw the bond you two shared when you went trick or treating. And I’m glad you were aware that your actions were wrong and that you freed him in the end.”

The woman squeezed her eyes and her features twisted in guilt. “Yes, but I wanted to keep him,” she sobbed. “Even as I removed the necklace, I had to keep myself from putting it back on.” The redhead was now crying, tears quickly running down her cheeks. “I’m glad to be here, but it’s a struggle to not want to put things back the way they were. I miss my family.”

Erik acted without thinking and took the woman in a hug, surprising them both. He wasn’t sure what came over him, but it seemed to help her as she sobbed on his shoulder. A question popped into his mind, it was a stupid and hurtful one, but he had to ask.

“If you could have your brother back, would you choose him over my son?”

Wanda’s breath hitched as she heard him, she removed herself from his arms and looked at him with puffy eyes. “I- yes, but I cannot see a future without Peter at my side. I would probably try to have them both.” She chuckled sadly, “we could be the Maximoff triplets.”

He smirked at her suggestion; one speedster was already a lot. Not sure the world could handle two. Wanda suddenly stiffened and stilled for a few seconds. Her eyes were unfocused, something Charles usually did when someone was contacting him mentally. She finally moved again and turned to him.

“We have to go, something’s wrong with Peter.”

He didn’t protest and followed her as she passed through the halls. She was going as fast as she could without waking up anyone.

They could hear some noise coming from the speedster’s room. When they opened the door, they were greeted with a messy bed and a silver blur that kept going around the room. Everything that was on his path met an unfortunate end as his superspeed literally tore through it. Wanda entered the room first, unsure of what to do, but wanting to help in any way. Peter stopped in his track as he started looking around wildly. His eyes were filled with fear and panic. It was clear he was experiencing a nightmare and some sort of sleep walking.

“Peter,” called out the redhead, “what’s going on?”

The speedster swiftly turned his head towards her.

“Trebuie să ne ascundem!”

Erik froze as Peter suddenly took Wanda’s hand and brought them both under his bed. He was certain his son didn’t speak Romanian, even in sleep he still had an accent. Still there he was, telling the redhead they had to hide.

His eyes were locked unto an unseen something that was a few feet away, almost in his face. His face was twisted in fear as he kept holding Wanda’s hand; either in a way of comfort or to keep her with him he wasn’t sure. Perhaps it was both. Erik called out his son’s name, trying to make him realize it was only a dream. Only, he didn’t react and kept flinching every few seconds as whatever he was hearing. Wanda squeezed his hand, but he kept his eyes on the spot in front of them.

“Peter,” she said. He didn’t react to his name. Wanda seemed to realize something as she frowned in worry. “Pietro.” The speedster turned to her. “It’s alright, frate, it’s only a nightmare.”

Her voice was thick with her accent, something that he hadn’t seen her use before. Erik watched as the pair talked, both of them trying to reason with the other. Both in Romanian. Wanda finally brought a hand to Peter’s head and a flick of red filled his eyes. He seemed to suddenly relax, and he fell back asleep, still under the bed. The woman slowly removed herself from his side and shared a worried look with Erik.

“I can’t wake him up suddenly, his mind is too fast, it could hurt him.” She motioned him closer, intending to have him help her get Peter back to his bed. “He’ll wake up naturally in a few minutes.”

They slowly pulled him out and laid him down. His face was relaxed, there was no hint of the panic he had felt just a moment ago. Erik watched him sleep for a few seconds before turning to the woman.

“What happened?”

Wanda’s hand was brushing Peter’s face in a soothing motion. “That... wasn’t just a nightmare.” She looked at him, “that was one of Pietro’s memories.”

Erik turned to her with accusation in his eyes. “You have to remove them! Why does he still have them in the first place?”

She froze at his sudden anger, her eyes flickered between him and his son. “He- Peter didn’t want another person messing with his mind, I respected his wishes,” snapped Wanda. She breathed in, “I’ll see what I can do, but he has to be awake.”

As if on cue, the speedster groaned, complaining about the noise. Erik smirked as he muttered something about them yelling someplace else than his room. The particularity of the situation must have settled in his brain because he suddenly opened his eyes and looked at them in confusion. “Uh... hi? Any reason why you decided to settle your differences in my bedroom instead of, I don’t know... the danger room?”

Erik felt relief at the fact that it really was Peter, at least he didn’t wake up thinking he was Pietro. Wanda approached him with caution and took his hands.

“You had a nightmare.”

He suddenly tensed up and lowered his gaze. “Ah... you heard that.”

Peter wasn’t asking, that was a statement. Erik wasn’t sure how to react, it was obvious by what he had just said that his son had been having more nightmares than he let on. He doubted that singing to him like he did to Nina when she had a bad dream would do much. Especially since they weren’t just nightmares, they were actual memories of his alternate dead self.

“How long have you had them? Why wasn’t I aware?” Questioned Wanda, understandably shaken by the situation.

“Like I’ve explained before,” started Peter, “people don’t just get into my mind. And I suppose you’re usually asleep when it happens.”

In true Peter fashion, he was trying to shrug it off as nothing. But they wouldn’t let it slide, after what Erik had seen from the many files at SWORD, their lives had been riddled with war and trauma. But what they had just witnessed, he wasn’t exactly sure what it was. He turned to the woman.

“Show me,” Wanda looked at him confusedly. “What he saw, I want to understand.”

Peter suddenly straightened up in his bed. “Dad, I really don’t think-“

“I’m doing it,” he interrupted. He shared a look with Wanda, who gave him a quick nod. A red light glowed from her fingertips and she brought them to his temple.

Erik was immediately seized by a strong explosion. He turned to see two children on the ground, laying amongst the rubble. The little girl was pushing herself up in disbelief as she took in the destroyed building that surrounded them. While they both had dark brown hair, it was obvious they were Wanda and Pietro. There was a strong burnt smell in the air mixed with the metallic smell of blood. The girl was calling out to their parents as the ashes fell in her hair. She went to take a step, but her brother stopped her. He grabbed her hand and ran under the skeletal remain of the bed. The children were arguing about having to leave, but they were interrupted when a second bomb landed right in front of them. Erik gasped as he realized what Peter had been staring at when he himself was hiding under the bed. There was a beeping every few seconds. Erik watched as everything sped up, showing the children slowly starve and flinch at every noise that was heard. They were finally rescued, but it was obvious they were not alright. They clung to each other like their lives depended on it. The vision faded and Erik was back to Peter’s room. The pair was looking at him worryingly, waiting for the man to talk.

He first looked at Wanda, “I’m sorry you had to go through that,” he apologized. He then turned to his son, “this is what you saw?”

The speedster nodded, “yes, that was tonight’s nightmare.”

Erik raised an eyebrow at him, “tonight?”

Peter flinched; it was obvious he didn’t mean to share so much. Why was his son so keen on keeping everything to himself? The speedster shared a look with Wanda, “I have Pietro’s entire life stored in my head.” He cleared his throat. “It was simple in Westview, I only had them. Ever since I’m back to myself, it’s a constant fight between my life and his.”

Wanda covered her mouth in horror. “I’m so sorry,” her eyes were wide in shock. She sat next to him, “please let me help.”

She brought up a hand to his head. He seemed to want to push her away, but ultimately let her continue. Her fingertips glowed red once again and Peter took a deep breath and closed his eyes as the red swirled around his head. Erik watched as both the adults seemed to sync in their little tics and twitches. Both jerking their heads and frowning at nearly the same time. Wanda was the first one to open her eyes and she met his gaze with an apologizing look. Peter’s eyes finally opened, though he seemed slightly dizzy.

“Did it work?” He knew it was stupid to ask, the redhead was obviously trying to hint at him that it hadn’t worked. But then again, he had been clueless to his true lineage with Peter. Which was really obvious when you thought about it seriously for a few minutes.

The woman shook her head. “I don’t understand it, the memories are mixed together. I can’t remove anything without a high risk of erasing some of his real memories.”

“So…” spoke up Peter. “I’m stuck with them forever?”

“I’m afraid so,” apologized Wanda.

Erik took a few steps forward, considering the consequences of his son’s situation. He hadn’t met anyone with a double set of memories. Even less of someone with those of their alternate dead self. The closest he had as a reference was Charles. With the number of minds, he sometimes accidently and purposely read, he was a little similar to what Peter was going through. He did remember the telepath complaining about nightmares and having trouble sleeping occasionally, but he seemed to be doing better recently. Perhaps the man could teach Peter some tricks? But there was one thing that was still on his mind.

“How will this affect him?” Both of them turned to him. “What if his nightmares get the best of him and he eventually doesn’t know which memories and his and Pietro’s? What if your brother’s memories eventually replace his actual memories?”

“You don’t have to worry about me, dad,” reassured Peter. “I know which memories are mine. There’s significantly less war and trauma in my life.”

Wanda waved a hand into the air and a notebook appeared out of nowhere. She had a worried frown on her face as she handed it to him. “Please try to fill in as much as you can. I’ll be able to know which are which.”

The speedster’s expression showed how he didn’t think it was necessary, but he took the notebook, nonetheless. He put it on the desk next to his bed and looked around for a few awkward seconds before speaking up.

“So, I know you guys are badass and powerful and probably don’t need that much sleep because of some freaky mutation, but I do. Not that much, but the twenty minutes I got before you barged in, are definitely not enough.”

Wanda smiled in amusement and gave him a quick hug before leaving the room. Erik walked over to his son who was slowly settling back into his bed. He pulled the cover over him, Peter didn’t protest, either because he didn’t mind, or he was too tired to care.

“I can’t believe it’s my first time tucking you in,” Erik joked.

The speedster chuckled before mumbling something and burying his head in his pillow. The metal wielder smirked as he heard the man lightly snore, already asleep. He brushed a hand in his silver hair before walking out the room and closing the door behind him. He mentally called out to Charles, hoping the man wasn’t asleep yet.

“I’m in my office,” came his friend’s voice.

Erik quickly headed towards the telepath’s position. He made an effort to try to open the door silently, but that door obviously didn’t care that people were sleeping. Then again, seeing how the telepath perked up his head to greet him, it might have been on purpose.

“You talked to Wanda?”

Right, his discussion with Wanda. That felt so far away now. “I did, but we have another problem.”

“Oh?”

“Peter and Pietro’s memories have mixed together. Wanda heard his distress and we found him reliving one of his alternate self’s traumatic event.” He looked at the man, who was intensely staring at him. His eyes were filled with concern as he listened. “I fear he might eventually lose himself if he doesn’t learn to control them.”

Charles nodded, “I’ll try to give him some tricks, but we have to keep in mind that my telepathy and his experience are barely the same thing.” The man looked up to see the worry in his eyes, he cleared his throat. “Still, it’s similar enough. I promise you, Erik, Peter will be just fine.”

With that, the man declared it was time for him to go to sleep. He closed the files he had on his desk and exited the room. Erik sighed as he repeated what the telepath had told him.

“Just fine…” he whispered. “Let’s hope you’re right, Charles.”

***

Notes: next chapter: Peter and Charles try to find a solution

[palettes-and-prompts]

First, I have to say I'm a big fan of your work! 💖 Second, I was wondering if I could request some prompts for a female character that's devious and crafty but hides her real personality behind an innocent mask please?

You sure can! Also, I love characters like this.

Dialogue Prompts

1) "Would you mind helping me do it? This is way too heavy for me to carry." 2) "I wish I was as smart as you, you always know what to do." 3) "You may have everyone else fooled, but you can't fool me." "I have no idea what you're talking about, I'm just here with my friends." 4) "I know a con artist when I see one, and you? You're a good one. So what can I get you to drink?" "Cherry coke with extra cherries please!" "Alright, and what do you really want me to get you?" "Whiskey neat." "I'll add the cherries anyway since you wanna play innocent." 5) "Wow! That sounds really complicated, I don't think I could do all that." "It's really easy actually, want me to show you how it's done?" "Really? You'll show me?" "Of course, anything for you." 6) "What should I get? I like this one but I really like this one too. I can't get them both, I only have enough for one. Which one do you wanna see me wear?" "Baby, you know you only have to ask, I'll get you both of them." "You don't have to." "I want to, I like spoiling you." 7) "You do that little innocent act in bed?" "Don't talk to me like that." "I'm curious, they eat it all up, right? Just wondering if you're able to keep it going when they take you back to their mansions." "Why do you think they're still with me?" 8) "Look at that, looks like I was right, you're not so innocent after all." "You saw right through me?" "Pretty easily." "The other know?" "You going to kill me if they don't?" 9) "What are we doing here?" "Look at them, so desperate, they're the perfect people to steal from. Desperate and so naive. You and me are going to be rich. Follow my lead." 10) "You really hate me that much that you think I'm capable of doing something like this?" 11) "You really think I'd kill someone, do you really not trust me that much. I thought you said we were friends." 12) "Cut the shit, where'd you really hide the money?" "What money? I really don't know what you're talking about? I'm just Person A's assistant." 13) "How'd you know it was an act?" "Six inch heels aren't exactly what I'd say embodies innocence." 14) "I've been watching you from the side this whole time, playing innocent, playing perfect so you wouldn't notice me watching. You really should be doing background checks on your staff, especially the good looking ones. They've always got something to hide." 15) "Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just incredibly happy to see me again, detective?" "What have you been up to, Person A?" "Following the law like a good abiding citizen." "Uh huh, so I wouldn't find any money in your room or a bag full of wallets or anything?" "Detective B! Are you accusing me of breaking the law? I would never do such a thing." 16) "Watch yourself, Person A, I've got my eyes on you." "Oh yeah, do I look cute from this angle? Or do you prefer to have me in a different angle? Maybe bent over the hood of your squad car?" "How about in a pair of handcuffs thrown in the back?" "Officer B! I never knew you were so kinky!" 17) "I can't talk you out of jumping off the roof can I?" "Afraid not." "You'll die from this height without someone to catch you." "Think I don't have a plan?" "I think you have a death wish." "Oh, detective, don't you know cat burglars always land on their feet?" 18) "I see right through your cutesy act. This one is already mine, I've been working on this for three months. So walk your ass out that door before you fuck this up for me." "Three months? I could have had this guy for everything he owns in a day. You must be a shitty grifter." 19) "There's something about you that tells me you're more than a pretty face." "Oh yeah, what might that be?" "The gun in your pocket." 20) "Can you help me? I'm lost and don't know which way I'm going." "Sure thing, where are you trying to get to after you steal my wallet with this terrible tourist distraction." "Saw right through me, huh?" "Pretty face and clever ruse, but you a terrible actor/actress." "Like you can do it better?" "Watch and learn, amateur."

Regular Prompts

1) A is taught by a mother figure in their life to be polite, look pretty, and keep their mouth shut but ears always open. They're taught to be a good listener and taught to fight if they ever need to. To be more clever and work harder than any man they know, but always seem naive in front of everyone. 2) A's always been good at their job at being a spy until Person B sees right through them with a glance. When they can't stop thinking about them they try their hardest to make them see they're a normal person who's really naive and not manipulative. But B never buys it and tells them they have a tell. A then obsessively thinks about what it could be until they confront B in the night pissed off and clearly tired but very alert. B just tells them they read people for a living an that they're also a spy. 3) A is a con artist who's very good at charming everyone they meet, especially men. They're always racking up tens of thousands of dollars a night going to benefits thrown by millionaires. B is a millionaire who constantly sees them at benefits but never rats them out when they steal. When A chats when them all night they end up really hitting it off and when B's dancing they lean in close and ask if they're really interested in them or if it's the money they like. A doesn't steal from them and tells them they'll give them an answer at the next benefit. (Bonus if they end up falling in love and A teaches B how to steal more and make it look legal like they have.) 4) A is a burglar who seduces men and gets them to take them to art museums and show them all the art pieces and explain them. B is a detective who's been trying to find them for months. 5) A is a good looking model who plays dumb with mobsters and sells information to people for a price. B is a detective hiding undercover in the group who falls for A but can't make a move because they'd be endangering them. (Bonus if they both fall hard for each other.) 6) A is a smart person who acts as arm candy for men in the mafia. A plays dumb around them and lets them self get pampered by men while they're constantly avoiding sex/relationships with anyone. B is one of the members of the mafia who don't fall for A's act and treat them like a member rather than someone who's clueless and naive. 7) A is an actor/actress who can't find work but they manage to use their talents to be a great grifter. B is the one person who catches on fast and decides to recruit them with their gang of grifters and give them a place to call home. 8) A is a con artist who's main goal is to take down Person B who trained them to be great at what they do since they betrayed them. (Bonus if it's a game of cat and mouse for the whole story and the two end up falling hard during the chase. Maybe it even ends with A tricking them to get B to chase them back.) 9) A is always hanging around bad people, playing innocent and getting bad people to want them. Whenever they get them alone they flip the script and go completely bat shit and murder the ones they lure. It isn't until A meets B who tells A that they we're only pretending to be bad to impress them that they begin to do more research and make sure they're more careful with who they lure in with their looks. (Bonus if B is a murderer too and knows A's the one killing and knew exactly what kind of person they were and that's why they were attracted to them.) 10) A is a grifter who meets grifter B trying to score the same thing they are. While competing for it they become aware of the other person's skill and decide they can work together for the same thing and that they'll split it before they part ways. But when the grift is over they're sad to leave each other, especially if they've had some romantic moments, and decide to stay and work on more things together.

[nomimits7]

Undecided Chapter 7

Title: Undecided Pt 7

Genre: Investigation, murder, masked behaviour.

Warnings: murder, psychotic behaviour, might be triggering. Description of a panic attack! In this part, there’s a lot of switching between scenes. I am sorry if it confuses you, but it's necessary!

Members: detective OT7 x Forensic scientist Reader

Note: Phrases are just add-ins to help with the storyline… If they confuse you, feel free to ask!

Summary: Moving overseas for a once in a lifetime job offer was one of the scariest things Y/N ever did. That was until she got stuck in a twisted investigation of random murders, all with one link but no leads. Closing in on the culprit(s) Y/N doesn’t realize the danger she’s getting into. With no family or friends, can Y/N dare to trust those seven closest to her with her life?

A/N: Enjoy!!

Chapter 6

•♡•

Manipulation: The skillful handling, controlling or using something or someone

•♡•

you did what you had to do to keep your parents safe.  

“I do believe you owe us an explanation Y/N,” Jimin said as all seven boys stared at the phone. You knew there was no point in lying to them, besides its not like there’s anything they can do.

“I- You might want to sit down for this,” You said as you lowered your gaze o your hands.

Taehyung, Jimin, Jungkook, and Jin all took their previous seats as Namjoon, Hoseok and Yoongi all turned to you. You took a deep breath in an effort to try and calm your nerves. Slowly lifting your gaze to stare at something other than the seven pairs of eyes that were currently focussed on you.

“I was eighteen years old when I met a boy with the name Norman. He was part of my second year Genetics class. He was really nice to me and he had everything a girl wants. You know, a kind smile, bright eyes, and a very safe atmosphere. For some or other reason he took a liking to me and that made me blind to what he really was.

We started dating around two months in and it was going great. We did everything together and that only made me fall even deeper in love with him. Norman even made an effort to get to know Lusai and soon Lusai became his little brother. Sometimes, Norman even canceled plans with me to hang around Lusai. But I never really cared because Lusai was my best friend and I trusted him.

See I was never the relationship type because boys just never saw me that way, so I didn’t know how things are supposed to go so I missed the red flag that went up every time Norman canceled on me to ‘be with Lusai’. It never even crossed my mind to ask him what they did or why he always chose Lusai over me.” You began as seven emotionless faces stared at you.

“Okay, I’m guessing this Norman guy has something to do with whatever the hell is going on here?” Yoongi said. Nodding you lifted your gaze to the ceiling as you try to recall as much detail as possible.

“So that’s how things went for three months more before he changed. He became even more distant. Instead of just canceling he just didn’t bother to even show up. I grew tired of his games, so I decided to go to Lusai to see what they were up to. I can tell you this, I was not prepared to walk into a scene straight out of a porno. There were drugs on the kitchen counter, some still on the scale, there were about seven naked people scattered across the house. And guess where I found Lusai and Norman… Both men were in the master bedroom still busy unloading into some unknown chicks’ mouth and other places, I’m not really sure exactly who was connected were, I left to fast.

Lusai was the one who followed me, but I was long gone when he exited the house. Norman even had the audacity to call me that evening. He said he would kill my parents if I were to go to the police. Of course, I didn’t listen and two days after I alerted authorities, my par-“You said as your lower lip started to tremble, but before you could end your sentence Taehyungs phone rang again.

“Fuck, I’m so sorry Y/N,” Taehyung said as he took out his phone.

“Kim?”

The entire room was a mix of emotions. No one really knew how to feel about what you were telling them. One thing was for certain, that phone call was the last thing anyone wanted.

•♡•

The human body has a few steps in the decomposition process. Death itself is fairly unknown. In general, the human body starts decomposing +/- 4 minutes after death. 24-72 hours after death the internal organs will decompose. 3-5 days after death the body will begin to swell due to gas being released from the internal bacteria. Blood will also leak from the mouth and nose. 8-10 days after death the body turns from a green color to red as the blood decomposes.

In theory, death sounds like something anyone can handle, but what the books fail to mention is the other factors that accompany death itself. The smell for one is indescribable. Many have tried to describe it, saying it smells like a heap of dead rats or some rubbish mixed with feces, but these descriptions fail to prepare anyone for the real-life smell of death.

The best way to describe the smell would be to compare it with vomit mixed with sour milk that has a dash of feces for effect, that was left out in the sun in a sealed container for a month. In short, you and almost all the boys had to take a moment before you could enter the scene you were called to.

Besides the smell from hell and the condition the body was in, the scene was fairly clean. Well, as clean as a hotel basement can be. The grandest hotel in the city, besides the one where you were staying in, to be exact. The most important question would be, how could the victim not have been found for so long? Hell, he must have been down there for a good couple of days.

The victim's identity and cause of death couldn’t be determined from what was left of him. That the victim was male was the only clue you had to who this human was. After poor Seokjin and Namjoon left with the body to start the examination of the victim, the rest of you got to work.

For some or other odd reasons, the conversation Hoseok and Jungkook had kept replaying in the back of your head. What did they mean by Seokjin’s scene and Namjoon’s scene? They couldn’t possibly be referring to this, could they?

As these questions went through your mind Taehyung came up to you.

“Y/N, we’re leaving in 20 minutes. When we get back, I want to hear the rest of that story, we all do. We want to help you and your parents, but we need the whole truth. The case can wait, family’s more important.” He said as his concerned eyes made contact with your wide ones. Nodding you made quick work on packing all the evidence and securing the boxes.

This conversation isn’t going to end well if they are who you suspect they are.

•♡•

Arriving back at the office, you all encountered a very pale Namjoon standing bend over the trash can with an even worse looking Seokjin coming from the bathroom. Being in the line of work they were, you were surprised, to say the least, that is until you look through the viewing glass into the autopsy room.

There on the table as expected was the newest victim to the case, cleaned and already cut open. But instead of decomposed organs, the victim's insides were filled with holes. The entire oesophagus and stomach had holes the size of golf balls in them. What made matters worse was the fact that the organs hadn’t decomposed normally like the rest of the organs. A crumbly white, waxy unknown substance was visible on the inside of the stomach.

“Are you guys okay?” Jungkook asked concerned.

“In all my years of doing autopsies, I have never encountered anything like this. We’re fine it’s just been a while since I’ve worked with someone so decomposed as this. Just, just give us another minute or two. Can one of you just make the AC colder to stop the decomposition? And up the vacuum for the smell? Please” Seokjin said as he took another look at the victim.

“What the actual fuck. This dude’s intestines look like cheese” Jimin said in disgust.

“So, I’m never eating cheese again. Thank you Jimin” You said turning around, making a b-line for the briefing room. The rest soon followed as a few more cheese comments were made, making your decision final to stay away from it for life.

“Okay, all cheesy business aside. What the hell happened to that man on your table?” Taehyung asked turning to Seokjin the moment he entered the room.

“Well, from what I know medically, those holes were probably made by some type of acid. But that’s as far as we got before we had to be excused. The smell is worse than I remember” Seokjin said as he and Namjoon took their designated seats.

“Okay, that doesn’t really help. Anyway Y/N, we need the rest of your story so we can solve one problem before we deal with the next.” Taehyung said as he sat down.

“Hang on. Why are you so anxious to hear the rest of my story? Besides I’ve got a few questions of my own for you.” You have no idea where this sudden burst of confidence came from or why you thought confronting them with your ridiculous imaginative story was a good idea, but the way the room suddenly went dead silent was a good indication that there would be no turning back now.

“Oh? Please do continue Y/N…” Namjoon’s cold voice came from across the room.

The coldness of his voice was the only warning you got to think before you continue, yet you decided to ignore it and continue with your own interrogation.

“Who killed Daniel?” You asked as you crossed your arms.

“What do you mean who killed Daniel? We’re still working on the case Y/N, we don’t know yet.” Yoongi said sitting forward in his seat.

“Who killed Daniel? Who killed Rachel? Mae-Mae? Yeri-lee? Linda? Mary-lee? And now the latest victim on that table? WHO KILLED WHO?” you ended up shouting.

Your little burst of courage did little to pull any reaction out of the boys. In fact, they just stared at you as if you were nothing but crazy.

“Y/N? Are you okay baby? You sound like you were accusing us of the murders we are trying to solve?” Jimin said smiling at you.

Shaking your head you refused to make eye contact with any of the boys. You know what your mind was telling you, even if your heart said the opposite. You KNOW the signs of a murderer.

“No, You guys have to be the killers. What else was Jungkook and Hoseok revering to when they said Namjoon’s scene was done before Jin’s scene?” you said as your voice became frantic. These words seem to catch their attention.

In one swift movement, your arms and legs are pinned down by two sets of arms as the rest of the boys surround you. Their eyes staring holes into your soul.

“Now, what evidence do you have exactly Y/N?” Hoseok asked as he took your chin in his hands, forcing you to look him straight in the eyes.

You see that was the problem. You have absolutely no idea where this sudden outburst of yours came from. You had no evidence, just suspicions and your gut was telling you, you were right. But without evidence, your case has no ground to stand on. So, instead of answering you decided to keep quiet.

“Y/N, don’t make me use my methods to get you to talk. I would hate for you to end up broken inside and out. Now, be a good girl and tell us what evidence you have to prove we committed these crimes” Hoseok continued as he tightened his hold on you.

“I- I don’t have any. I just know it was you!” You said as his grip tightened. You know for a fact that’s going to leave a bruise.

“Well, it seems like you have a problem then,” Seokjin said. All of the boys now having smirks on their faces as they gradually came closer to you.

•♡•

“LET GO OF ME~ AAAaahh” Opening your eyes, five very concerned boys were staring at you.

No, you were not in the briefing room pinned to the chair. No, you weren’t being tortured by the boys. No, you weren’t even at the office, you were in one of the SUVs. The car wasn’t moving but it also wasn’t in the hotel garage or at the scene.

“You successfully scared the living shit out of us Y/N,” Jungkook said from his position next to you, still holding his chest.

“Okay, clearly she’s just as confused as we are based on the ‘what the fuck just happened’ expression on her face,” Jimin said, a smile taking over.

All of the boys let out a light chuckle as they finally observed your facial expression. You were pale to the bone, as you stared in confusion at the boys in front of you. Did, did you just have another elicit dream? Was none of that actually real? What?

“So, Y/N. Are you going to let us in on the dream you had? It sounded terrifying” Taehyung asked as he turned to face you. You could only stare, not even registering that he has even spoken to you. Your mind was running at a mile a minute to try and figure out what is real and what is not.

“Y/N? Hey, are you okay?” Hoseok asked, concern filling his voice. His hands reaching out to touch you, successfully making you flinch back and stare at him as if he just killed a baby puppy.

This was enough for Taehyung to give orders to Yoongi to get you home so they can have a look at you. He knew something was off and he was determined to know what. Pulling out his phone he quickly sends a message to Namjoon. If anyone would know what to do, it would be him.

•♡•

Pulling up to the hotel, you made a b-line for the elevator. You felt unsafe, your body going into complete autopilot as you frantically pushed the button to the office floor.

The boys could only watch as the elevator doors closed behind you. Having no idea what to do they reluctantly took the next elevator and prepared for a battle they knew was due to happen.

In your haste to get away from danger, you failed to realize the extent of your little show. One, the boys were beyond concerned and would probably do anything to calm you down. Two, being alone with your own thoughts right now wasn’t the best of ideas. And three, what are you going to do once these doors open?

Your mind was a mess. You didn’t know what was real and what was not, and that alone was enough to heighten your anxiety. Everything became too much as the ‘dream’ kept playing on repeat in your mind. You backed away into the corner of the elevator. Hands shooting up to your hair as a fresh wave of tears made their way down your cheeks. Your breath was shallow, your hands were shaking. Slowly you slid down the wall and curled up into a protective ball on the floor.

•♡•

There was an uncertain silence as the elevator made its way to the office. None of the boys knew what to make of what they had just witnessed. Hell, none of them even knew when you fell asleep. But that wasn’t the important part. The important part was what you had said while you were dreaming.

“Who killed Daniel? Who killed Rachel? Mae-Mae? Yeri-lee? Linda? Mary-lee? And now the latest victim on that table? WHO KILLED WHO?”

That sentence alone sounded like an accusation more than an analysis. Where you really accusing them of these murders? What evidence did you have against them? Did they slip up somewhere? If so, where?

“What just happened?” Hoseok asked. Panic evident in his voice.

“I have no idea, but it seems like our little Y/N has found something off about the cases and that must have led up to her conclusion that we are to blame. She’s not wrong, but how did she figure it out so fast?” Taehyung answered.

“We already know her secret past. So, we have ammunition if things go wrong. But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We can use this to get her on our side. You all saw those photos of Norman’s body, she could be a great allay. Even Namjoon said so.” Yoongi said from his corner in the confined space.

That seemed to relax everyone. They knew Yoongi was right. He’s always been calm and collected one out of them all. Besides, it was thanks to him that they all knew your secret in the first place. Poor Lusai never knew what hit him when Yoongi made the call. After a few words were exchanged between Lusai and Hoseok he sang like a canary. Yes, there was the problem with your parents being held hostage and all, but Yoongi had already taken care of that the very same day Lusai called you. Not that you needed to know that, not yet anyway.

All they had to do now was to calm you down. Namjoon had already told Taehyung over the phone that he would take care of you. Besides, the mind was something Namjoon was an expert in using.

A/N; Hope you liked it! I’m thinking of making the taglist permanent… thoughts?

Chapter 8 

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[rorynne]

Time Lost Chapter 10

Pairing: Bucky Barnes/Reader

Summary: An accident during a mission sends you back in time to the second world war. There you enlist the help of Peggy Carter, Steve Rogers, and Bucky Barnes to find the object that can send her back.

Warnings: Emotional pain.

Word count: 2k

Masterlist

Prologue Ch 1 Ch 2 Ch 3 Ch 4 Ch 5 Ch 6 Ch 7 Ch 8 Ch 9

Sticks snapped under Bucky's boots as he walked through the forest, distracted. He was supposed to be on patrol alongside Falsworth, who was currently the only one of the pair actually doing their job. Bucky was far too focused on the last few weeks to really be of any use.

You had been acting strangely, distantly even, but only around Bucky, or more specifically, only to Bucky. You refused to call him by any of the nicknames you had for him. Trying to get you to even stay in the same room as him seemed impossible. Bucky rubbed his face, frustration setting in. Asking you was met with the same few denials and excuses. Had it not been for the subject matter, he would have found your horrible attempts at lying to be hilarious coming from a trained spy.

"Had I known you were going to spend the entire patrol pining, I would have requested Jaques to come with me instead," Falsworth said pulling Bucky out of his stupor.

"'M not pining Monty." He grunted stubbornly, this hadn't been the first time Falsworth had accused him of pining, but it was largely a topic he didn't want to think about. It was no secret that he had a thing for you, but he didn't want to admit it was anything more than that when you were suddenly acting like you hated him. The last thing he wanted to do was make you hate him more.

"Right, which is exactly why you've been staring into space for an hour." Falsworth countered and Bucky shot him a look.  Bucky honestly didn't mind Falsworth most of the time, but God he was more of a busy body than Bucky's sister.

Bucky sighed, rolling his eyes. "You knew her from before the Commandos, didn't you? Why do you think she's acting like this?"

Falsworth shrugged, "She sacrificed her mission to help me survive a Russian winter after my plane was shot down." He explained to Bucky, stopping to state at him. "We were forced to get comfortable with each other's company out of necessity. I would hardly call that 'knowing her'." He patted Bucky on the back. "Out of all of us, I would say you know her best. Well, you and Agent Carter."

Bucky stopped in his tracks as a lightning bolt of an idea struck him. He hadn't even considered asking Peggy. God, he felt like an idiot, no doubt Peggy would know why you were acting the way you were. "You're a damn genius, Monty."  He beamed before sprinting off towards camp, ignoring Falsworth as he yelled obscenities at Bucky as he left Falsworth behind.

It didn't take long for Bucky to return to the camp, and it took even less time to find Peggy working away in the command tent. Peggy looked up at him as he approached, "If you're looking for Y/N, then you just missed her. She left about ten minutes ago " Bucky frowned, he wasn't surprised,  just missing you had become something of a theme the past few weeks, as much as he hated it.

"I was looking for you, actually." He said, and Peggy raised an eyebrow. "To talk about Y/N." He admitted, scratching the back of his head. The last thing he needed was for Peggy to think he was trying to flirt with her again.

Peggy's gaze softened slightly, "I'm not one for gossip Sergeant Barnes, Surely you could ask her what ever it is that you wish to know?"

Bucky sighed, "That's the first thing I tried ma'am." He said, taking a step closer to her desk. "Hell almost all of us have, but she just denies everything." God, he wouldn't even be asking for Peggy's help if just asking you was working in any form. He carded his hand through his hair, "I just wanted to know if she told you if I did anything to upset her."

Peggy furrowed her brow, all work now forgotten. “What on earth are you talking about?” She questioned, although, with her tone, it was more like she was politely calling him an idiot. “Why on earth would you think she’s upset with you, of all things?”

“Because she barely even looks at me?” Bucky answered with a shrug. Did Peggy really not know? Of all people, Peggy was the one you spent the most time with. If Peggy didn't know, then who even would? “She… hasn’t said anything?”

Peggy shook her head, “When did this all start?” Concern painted her features clearly finding this to be much more of an issue than Bucky was expecting her to.

“Since the meeting, we had on the bell she’s been looking for.” He explained, and understanding and realization seemed to bloom on Peggy’s face. “The moment I walked in it was ‘Sergeant Barnes’ this and “Sergeant Barnes’ that, and she only does that when I annoy her or upset her somehow, but I… just don’t know what I could have possibly done.” He just wanted things to go back to normal for christ's sake. He would give you the world if it just meant you would call him Bucky again.

“You didn’t do anything,” Peggy said, pity and Frustration mixing in her voice. “I did.”

Bucky looked at her like she was nuts, “I’m not sure I’m followin’ you.” What could have Peggy possibly said that would make you hate him? Did she mention his flirting with her when they first met? But then, he wasn't exactly secretive about his tendency towards flirting with women, although he was pretty sure you didn't actually believe it.

"The idiot is trying to either prove me right or prove me wrong." She said with a sigh, standing up. "I'll talk some bloody sense into her." She stormed out of the tent before Bucky even had a chance to ask what she meant. Leaving him more confused and frustrated than before.

Sleep didn't come easily to Bucky that night, tossing and turning in his sleeping bag. He had somehow gotten even more restless over the last few weeks, but even then it wasn't exactly like he slept well to begin with. He groaned and sat up, it was pointless to keep trying to sleep. He crawled out of his tent with a yawn, hoping a walk would be enough to clear his head.

He didn't hear from you or Peggy after she stormed out of the Command tent, which he wasn't sure if it was a good or bad thing all things considered. That also meant all of his questions had gone unanswered, however. He honestly wasn't sure what to make of any of it at all. Peggy had acted like you being angry at him was unimaginable. He took a deep breath, he was supposed to be clearing his thoughts, not jumbling them more. The only thing this whole ordeal had made him realize just how badly he had it for you.

He stopped when he saw a figure sitting in front of the dying fire in the center of camp. He was instantly brought back to another sleepless night five months ago now. You had looked so beautiful in the firelight, surrounded by falling snow. The sight of you that night had made that entire weekend of hiking and camping worth it. Even having you in his arms felt so right that he didn't even realize you were there until he saw your eyes looking up at him in surprise. He wanted to kiss you right then and there. It wasn't until you said something that he snapped out of your spell, and let you go. He still wanted to kiss you.

You were still beautiful in the firelight. You stared up at the sky, mouth agape as you counted the stars. He considered leaving you there, letting you be to enjoy your stargazing. He swallowed, steeling his nerves, and took a step forward. "The stars are beautiful tonight." He said awkwardly. He didn't even look at the stars to actually know the sky could have been completely overcast for all he knew, but he had to say something.

You yelped in surprise, turning to see him, "Jesus Christ Barnes, warn a girl before you sneak up on her next time." You said, a hand on your chest trying to steady your heart. Bucky smiled inwardly at your reaction, like a child vexing a crush.

His courage slowly took hold of him as he stood in front of you. "Didn't expect you out here to warn you." He said softly. "Can't sleep?"

You scoffed, "Are you kidding me? Peggy just got done chewing me out." You said as he stepped closer. "You really had to rat me out didn't you Sarge." You sounded tired, but god did Bucky's heart leap at the nickname.

"You've been avoiding me for weeks Doll." He said as he sat down next to you. "I thought I did something to make you hate me."

You sighed and looked back up at the sky. "Leo is out tonight." You said pointing upwards. Bucky followed your hand as you traced out the pattern in the stars. He always liked stargazing when he was a kid.

He looked at you, wondering if you just intended to avoid the subject completely. Really, he just wanted to know why. Why would you suddenly just start avoiding him? Why were you calling him Sarge again? Just, why? He decided not to push the issue, instead, deciding to savor the fact you were sitting next to him at all. He looked back at the sky, tracing out a pattern, "Hercules is over there."

“I’m not going to be here when the war is over.” You said unprompted. Bucky didn’t look away from the stars as he tried to process what you had just said. Were, were you planning on dying or something?

“If you think I’m not going to move heaven and hell to get you out of this war alive, Doll, then I-”

“That’s not what I mean, Bucky.” You interrupted. You were silent for a few beats before you spoke again. “When the war is over, I’m being reassigned. I’m not going home.” Oh. “After all this,” You gestured to the camp with your hand. “I’m going to be reassigned somewhere far away. Probably Russia if the current political climate says anything.”

“Is, Is that what you want?” He asked looking over to you. He watched you carefully, unsure of what else to do or say. For the first time in weeks, things were starting to make sense to him, and it hurt. No part of him liked where this was going.

You nodded, looking down at the fire. “More than anything Bucky.” Your voice was so earnest, it was as if you had told him some grand secret. “But after all this is through, I’ll probably never see any of you again.” You picked at your fingers as the last embers of the fire started to cool. “Peggy said… said I was going to end up hurting someone if I kept acting like I was, knowing what I know.”

“So you just started avoiding me?”

“I was trying to be more professional.” You explained. Bucky wanted to scream, professional was probably the last thing he wanted you to be with him. “And then Peggy came into my tent yelling that you thought I was mad at you or something.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me in the first place Doll?” He asked. He just… wanted- needed answers, after weeks of nothing. If anything, knowing he would likely never see you again after this hell of a war, he wanted to spend as much time with you as he could, not barely see you.

You shrugged, “I thought, Christ, I don’t know. I didn’t want you to take it the wrong way I guess.”

“What would have been the wrong way?”

You sighed, “Fuck, I don’t know. That we were anything more than friends?” Bucky frowned, his heart throbbing painfully. He had honestly thought, or at least hoped, there was something more than that between the two of you. To learn that you didn’t seem to agree…

Bucky shoved your shoulder playfully in an attempt to mask the pain he was feeling. “Next time Doll, just talk to me. Please.” He could feel his heart breaking as he spoke. This was not a good night.

You nodded, a forced smile on your face before pointing towards the horizon. “Cygnus is rising.”

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