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link4eva · 4 years ago

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Kiro’s Work Visit Date (探班之约) Translation [CN]

Hi! Just a couple of notes before you begin reading...

This fluffy and wholesome date was just released (March 11, 2021) in the CN server and will eventually be released in the ENG server sometime next year.

I also don’t know any Chinese myself so all of this translation was done through the power of Google Translate and with help from the lovely @keliosyfan .

You can read his Couch Potato call that comes with this date here!

Hope you enjoy!~

*Spoilers ahead for future content!*

[First Part]

MC: So now the question is….

Kiro: Wait a minute! I didn’t seem to understand too much of what was said. Let me take a look!

During the video call, Kiro suddenly moved his face close to the screen with excitement.

Kiro: Miss Chips, do you mean that….you’re going to go in person and be a host on the show?

MC: Pretty much….

Some time ago, I did a variety show about a certain European town called “Cloud Tourism”.

The reason it’s called “Cloud Tourism” is because I’ve never been to this small town before. I only got a preliminary understanding of the traditional customs there through a novel.

Out of an abundance of interest, I consulted a lot of relevant sources and finally released a program with the concept of “seeing words as faces”.

Originally it was just an experiment inspired by an idea that didn’t really make any big splashes in China.

Unexpectedly, an internet celebrity from the small town recommended this program on his personal blog which led to it becoming popular very quickly.

Kiro: Oh….slowly but surely, I figured it out. Not only has this show received great praise, the local TV station also sincerely invited you to come and do some interviews. Even in the form of a reality show, I must say that Miss Chips is amazing!

MC: ......

MC: I think you understand it pretty clearly but some parts are exaggerated….

Kiro: Congratulations, MC!~

Kiro: If I wasn’t shooting abroad, I would definitely take you there to celebrate! But we can celebrate like we did before….

MC: Wait! Wait a minute! I haven’t decided whether to go or not yet….

Kiro: This is a great opportunity to promote the company. Why are you so hesitant?

MC: Although I have previous experience, this would be my first time shooting as the host….

MC: What if I’m too nervous in front of the camera? It’ll affect the shoot.

Kiro: Miss Chips.

On the screen, Kiro sat upright and pushed his glasses up that were nonexistent.

Kiro: It seems that you’ve forgotten that there’s an experienced acting teacher right in front of you.

MC: Pff….I would like to ask Mr. Kiro how I can act natural in front of the camera.

Kiro: It is very simple. Step one is to do the warm-up exercises in advance. Your shoulders should also be really relaxed. Then imagine the camera as a friend who can’t speak and has big eyes….

A few minutes later, Kiro was still “teaching” very professional acting techniques on the phone screen.

Kiro: Hello, MC, are you still listening?

MC: Um….I don’t think I can do this.

His bright eyes suddenly crinkled upwards, hiding a triumphant smile.

Kiro: I’m just teasing you. In fact, you only need to remember the first few steps.

MC: But I’m worried that if I get nervous, I’ll forget those first few steps. I hope that I can become Kiro that day!

Kiro curled his lips up again when he heard those words.

Kiro: Then close your eyes and hypnotize yourself….

Kiro: “I am the superstar Kiro!”

[Second Part]

At five o’clock in the morning in the dressing room at the local TV station.

I tilted my head to face the makeup artist and held back yet another yawn.

The makeup artist whispered a few words to the accompanying translator and then left the dressing room.

Translator: Miss MC, the makeup artist has finished your makeup. The director will be here shortly. You can rest for a while.

I nodded gratefully. This country’s language is one that I’m not familiar with so the TV station specifically hired an interpreter.

As soon as I closed my eyes, I felt my phone vibrate.

Kiro: MC, are you still in makeup?

MC: Just finished. Are you ready to start work too?

Kiro: I’ve already been working for an hour.

MC: Why so early? It’s only five o’clock where you are!

Kiro: Don’t worry, I’m used to this kind of shooting routine.

Although I’ve known before that Kiro started almost every filming session in the morning, this was the first time experiencing it for myself. It’s hard work getting up early and putting on makeup.

What’s more, he often works overtime to catch up on his other stuff and rarely has enough time to rest.

MC: Then you must take time to rest!

Kiro: It’s okay. If I’m tired, I just close my eyes and think of Miss Chips’ smile.

Kiro seemed to take a deep breath on the other end.

Kiro: Hmm~ Charging is complete!

I seemed to see him being content and I couldn’t help being amused by him.

Kiro: By the way, what is your shooting schedule today?

MC: It’s sightseeing shooting. The director arranged to take me to several local attractions and I can also choose places of interest.

MC: The first stop on the agenda is to explore the shop on the pedestrian street.

Kiro: Great! I heard from the crew that there is a famous cake shop on the pedestrian street of that small town. I will send you the address.

Kiro: Only by filling up your stomach and replenishing your energy can you be in the best state!

(Cut to the street)

MC: Well….

I watched my stiff expression and rigid body in the video replay. I couldn’t help but curl my toes and pick at the ground.

Director: Take it easy, alright?

I nodded slowly.

The director looked at me with sympathy and discussed some things with the translator for a while.

Translator: The director wants to know if you have anything you want to do. He suggested that if we start with one of your interests first, you’ll get into the right state of mind faster.

MC: Well, there is one place….

I almost immediately thought of the cake shop that Kiro had mentioned.

(Cut to cake shop)

Because of how early it was in the morning when we arrived at this cake shop called “Flipped”, the first batch of pastries had just come out of the oven.

I was standing in front of the shop window outside the store while the director was preparing for shooting and I made adjustments for myself.

Shoulders down, jaw relaxed, a smile appeared on my face. I recalled the formula Kiro taught me.

Close your eyes. Look into your heart.

“I’m the “not afraid of anything” Kiro!”

A burst of mellow sweetness lingered wantonly in the air. I opened my eyes and focused on the window again.

A pair of bright and familiar smiling eyes appeared in the window. The owner of these smiling eyes waved to me.

I felt my heart jump out of my chest.

Kiro: Hello, Miss Chips~

Looking at the two intersecting faces on the window glass, I finally couldn’t help but smile.

Oops, I really did become Kiro.

[Third Part]

I didn’t expect Kiro to have secretly been planning to see me on set. I was pleasantly surprised and realized that I was deceived by him during the morning call.

I made a “follow me” gesture to him through the glass.

(Cut to alleyway)

In the alleyway next to the cake shop, I wiped away the shock in my heart and checked, again and again, to make sure that no one else had followed us.

Kiro: Don’t worry, MC. Almost all the folks in this small town will have no idea who I am. And….

He pointed proudly to the sunglasses on his nose.

Kiro: I also came prepared.

I looked around and around and deliberately put on a face of worry.

MC: Why are you here? Weren’t you filming in another country?

Kiro: Actually, I don’t have any shooting arrangements today. It only takes an hour and a half to fly to this country from the shooting location. And it only takes two hours to take the train from the town’s airport.

MC: No matter how easy you make it sound, that was no easy journey….

MC: And with this time off, you should be resting in the hotel.

He pulled down his sunglasses aggrievedly.

Kiro: But I really wanted to visit you at work for once, and give you encouragement at your side, just like what you did for me last time.

Kiro: And more importantly, I really missed you….

(Here’s a cute little clip of this dialogue uploaded by @cheri-translates !)

MC: Kiro….

All of my pretentious arrogance dissipated in an instant and I was about to reach out and hug him. But, he crossed his arms in front of him.

Kiro: But speaking of shooting, I just observed it secretly and your performance does have some small flaws.

Kiro: Your expressions are small and stiff, your movements are rigid and tiny, and your eye contact flutters from time to time….

Kiro: Also, you can walk without looking at the camera…. If I look at the camera while walking, [robot noises] don’t I look like a robot?

The more he talked about it, the more he assumed the coach position. He made a great show of it too.

I was so embarrassed that I nodded my head to accept the criticism with shame.

Kiro: Hahahaha--I’ll stop teasing you.

He leaned over and squished my cheek and curled his lips again.

Kiro: Although, I can see that you are a bit nervous. I’m used to seeing your confident working style as a producer on set….

Kiro: It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you this nervous. You can do it, love! *Did my own interpretation of what he said here cause I had no clue what Google was trying to say lol.*

He opened his arms and the morning sun fell on his shoulders.

Kiro: Come on, Miss Chips.

Kiro: Thank you for your hard work. For that, you get a rechargeable hug from Kiro.

I nodded my head hard and as soon as I took a step of joy, the director poked his head out of the alley.

Director: Stand by, sweety!

I slammed the brakes and took out my phone, pretending to take a call. I shook my head slightly at Kiro.

He immediately showed me an aggrieved expression and I gave him a wink.

MC: It’s okay, I’ve already learned a recharging trick from Teacher Kiro.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, sketching a picture of bright, smiling eyes on the pitch-black canvas.

When I opened my eyes, those smiling eyes gradually merged with Kiro’s in front of me.

MC: Charging is complete~

(Cut to inside cake shop)

Under the guidance of Kiro, “the super professional”, I calmed down and tried to get into the shooting state.

However, in order to not affect my shooting state, Kiro pretended to be a stranger and waited silently near the shooting location.

When I don’t know which dessert to choose, he would raise his voice and give me a hint.

With pastry crumbs hanging on the corner of my mouth, he pointed at the corner of his mouth and winked at me until I understood what he meant.

During the filming, there were children running around noisily, so he used the tablecloth on the table to do some tricks to attract their attention.

Perhaps because of his “invisible” companionship, I really became more natural before I knew it.

Translator: The shooting in the store is OK! The director said that we are going to shoot some scenes on the pedestrian street next. Miss MC just needs to walk around the street casually.

After checking the route with the director in the cake shop, I realized that the table where Kiro was sitting was empty.

(Cut to the street)

I walked out of the cake shop and looked around but did not find him.

Without giving me too much time to think, the director shouted to start behind the camera.

I tried to walk the streets with peace of mind but my eyes subconsciously looked for Kiro.

Although the sun is shining in the early spring, there is still a bit of a chill in the air that has just warmed up.

Inexplicably, my heart is a little empty.

There was hustle and bustle on the other side of the street and my gaze followed the prestige in the center surrounded by a group of local children. The familiar blonde hair was dazzling and shining.

Kiro was holding a few yellow balloons in his hand with the children cheering around him as if he had helped them stop the balloons from flying away.

He squatted down and handed them the balloons one by one.

As if he could feel my gaze, he turned around and gave me an unreserved smile.

The empty part of my heart instantly filled up at this moment.

I retracted my gaze and found that the director was gesturing at me to continue walking. I quickly continued to walk.

When I pretended to spontaneously look to the other side of the road, I found Kiro with his hands in his pockets walking at the same pace as me.

Although separated by the road, he walked with me in such a special way.

The approaching noon sunshine finally had the temperature as spring.

[Fourth Part]

The shooting had finally come to an end before dusk came.

But Kiro disappeared when I was filming the last scenic spot.

As soon as I had finished work, I took out my phone to check it and found that Kiro had sent me two text messages half an hour ago.

Kiro: MC, I will have filming tomorrow so I have to rush to take the last train.

Kiro: Also, you performed well. I know my MC is the best.

I hurriedly called Kiro but the call informed me that his phone was turned off.

I took a look at the time and it was about 20 minutes away from the shooting location to the train station in town.

Maybe Kiro has boarded the return train and even arrived at the airport….

However, before I could think rationally, I didn’t hesitate to reach out and stop a taxi.

(Cut to the train station)

Due to the small population of the town, the train station at dusk is deserted.

I couldn’t understand the local language on the big screen at the station so I stood on tiptoe and looking into the waiting area in the hall.

Benches in the waiting area, a window for manual ticket purchases, on both sides of the platform, beside the vending machine.

Kiro wasn’t there.

My shoulders drooped in disappointment and I walked slowly towards the station gate.

The setting sun gives off the last bit of its light and the half-curved dome clouds shroud half the station hall in the shadows.

A slender figure stepped out of the shadow and looked at the phone in his hand, his face was as disappointed and lonely as mine.

The sunset gradually kept coming down for another minute but it just happened to pass through the windows around the station, covering the entire lobby with a layer of gold.

I looked at the young man illuminated by the golden light and couldn’t help but shout.

MC: Kiro!!!

He raised his head with a surprised expression.

Kiro: MC?

I waved at him frantically and ran in his direction.

He regained his senses after a brief moment of disbelief and then opened his arms wide like everytime he hugs me.

The moment his breath came to my face, my heart was filled with contentment.

Kiro put a hand around my waist tightly, lowered his head, and rubbed my forehead.

Kiro: Why are you here?

MC: I remembered that I borrowed something from you today, so I ran to pay you back.

Kiro: What’s that?

I tightened my arms around his neck.

MC: Isn’t this for you?

His breathing seemed to be slightly stagnant. He slid his hand on my waist to my hair.

Kiro: Then I’ll gladly take it.

MC: I….

He bowed his head slightly, and put the words that I was eager to confide in between his lips.

Trains in foreign towns are always prone to delays. Thanks to this, Kiro has been at the station until now so we now have the opportunity to be alone outside of our schedules.

As soon as the setting sun fell, the stars scrambled to fill the sky.

We were dressed in starlight, sitting side-by-side on the benches outside of the station, waiting for the late train.

Kiro: How was the last scenic shoot? Did it go well?

MC: OK! But when I was eating a snack, I poured all the ingredients inside by accident.

MC: But in fact, you’re just supposed to pick a flavour and eat it as a dip. The director laughed and shouted “CUT”....

Kiro: Pff….hahahahaha! Fortunately, I wasn’t there or I would’ve been laughing even louder!

MC: And there was….

I counted all the interesting things about today’s shooting, and laughed happily with Kiro.

Kiro: I’m glad I was able to come to the shoot today. Otherwise, I would have missed so many interesting things about MC.

MC: Kiro, do you feel that our current conversations seem to have the roles reversed?

MC: I used to visit you at your shoots, and you talked with me about all the interesting things that happened during them.

MC: Today, we “swapped” identities, and I feel a little delicate.

Kiro: Can I interview the delicate mood of Miss Chips?

He held his hand out to me as if he were holding a microphone and placed it in front of my mouth.

MC: Well, when I was shooting before, I could always feel your gaze. I felt it a lot today.

MC: It turned out to be difficult to stop myself from gazing back.

MC: Obviously, I saw you all day, but I had to hold back from looking at you.

MC: Obviously, you are by my side, but I have to resist the urge to hug you….

My cheeks were slightly hot and I avoided Kiro’s gaze. I lifted my head to look at the stars in the sky when I heard a “click”.

I turned my head and found that Kiro was taking pictures of me with his phone, the power bank that I had given him was still hanging from it.

MC: !

I took a look at the phone in his hand and saw the picture.

MC: It’s ugly! Delete it quickly!

Kiro: How is it ugly? The most natural MC is obviously the most lovely MC!

MC: I’m not letting you keep the power bank to charge your phone as revenge. Delete it quickly!

I struggled to snatch the phone from him, only to find that all the pictures he had taken today were of me.

I randomly clicked on a picture Kiro had taken of me eating a grilled sausage with an exaggerated expression, with me nervously facing the table in the background.

MC: You little….!

I glared at him angrily then clicked on other photos.

I frowned and watched the replay. I was stubbornly asking for another shot and I looked at him in the distance.

Kiro: Miss Chips….

He prolonged the ending, slowly coming closer to me.

Kiro: Don’t delete them. They’re all my precious memories of you. I want to keep them.

MC: No wonder your phone is out of power. You took too many photos!

He heard the relaxation in my tone and happily took the phone from me.

Kiro: Is this really too much? Compared to all of the photos of me on your phone, this is nothing out of the ordinary.

I blushed and tried to retort.

MC: Well, that’s because you are Kiro!

Kiro: But to me, you are MC.

He said this in a sincere tone.

Kiro: Just like you said, I also felt MC’s unusual mood today.

Kiro: I was worried whether you would be thirsty after talking for so long. And worried that you’d be tired after shooting for so long.

Kiro: You did well. I'm proud of you.

Kiro: The most important is….

He slowly came closer to me. I was the only thing in the reflection of his eyes.

Kiro: Although the scenery of this small town is beautiful, your shooting content is also very rich.

Kiro: But just like this moment….

Kiro: Under the starry sky, I can only see you.

Kiro: You are the unique star in my world.

[END]

#mlqc #mr love queen's choice #mr love game #mr love kiro #mlqc kiro #date translation #mlqc spoilers #zhou qiluo #AAAAAAAAAA #HE IS SO PRECIOUS #I LOVE HIM SO MUCH!!!!#WHY ISN'T HE REAL?!?!?!#周棋洛

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danurso · 4 years ago

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That's pretty D.U.M.B

Part 0 - Part 1 - Part 2

Oobleck: Which one of you is going next!?

Ruby: . . .do. . .do we have to doctor?

Oobleck: what do you mean miss rose?

Ruby: i mean that you already tested and found out that the machine works, couldn't we stop here?

Oobleck: OF COURSE NOT!!! science has in its basis constant testing! one single success can't let any scientist or researcher like me satisfied! Why did you suggest that miss rose!?

Ruby: it's just. . .i don't know, the other Weiss seemed nice but, Jaune was a bit. . .

_WBY/J_P_: Rude?/Mean?/Stuck up?/S-scary?/Abrasive?

Ruby: yeah, all of that, what if we bring another jaune like that? Or one even worse?

Oobleck: Well, considering the infinite possibilities out there, it wouldn't be impossible to bring other Mr.arcs like the previous one, but the same way a bad Mr.arc can show up, a good one can as well.

Yang: yeah. plus, we're talking about vomit boy, how many evil versions of him can be out there?

Ruby: i don't know, and i honestly don't wanna find out.

Yang: come on, he wasn't that bad, he was just like weiss cream would be if she was a boy but still had to deal with her period 24/7 and weiss cream was just like jaune if he was a girl, which, i think wouldn't change much aside from what's between his legs.

Jaune/Weiss: HEY!

Ruby: still, i'm not sure if we should keep going.

Yang: Come on, what if the next Jaune that comes up is a reaper that uses a cool gun just like yours?

Ruby: . . .it sounds cool, but still. . .i don't know about it.

Yang: *sigh* welp, then i think i'll have to go next.

Ruby: w-what? Yang you-

Yang: relax, considering what happened last time this Jaune is probably going to be a cool brawler who loves parties like i do.

Oobleck: while that is indeed a possibility ms. Xiao long, i wouldn't take it for granted until we see who's coming through the D.U.M.B.

Yang: welp, only one way to find out, right? *walks up to the D.U.M.B* you're coming vomit boy?

Jaune: err, can't we just listen to ruby and stop here?

Yang: you too? C'mon, man up vomit boy! Its gonna be fun!

Jaune: you only say that because you weren't the one watching a mirror version of you looking at you like a pathetic little bug, i'm not looking forward to that again.

Yang: come on, how bad can the next you be?

Jaune: i have no idea.

Yang: and that's why we have to find out! *holds jaune's arm and drags him to the D.U.M.B, placing both of their hands on the device*

Jaune: w-wait, yang i-

Suddenly, the device lights up with an yellow aura similar to yang's, before it fades away.

Blake: and it did it again.

Weiss: *sitting behind a table* i am not taking another explosion.

Ruby: *hiding behind weiss* me neither.

Weiss: what are you doing you dolt!?

Yang: *grinning and with her semblance on* ready vomit boy?

Jaune: *with closed eyes and bracing himself* not real-

*BOOM*

Once again the room was filled with smoke, this time though it was a yellow one, which quickly started to dissipate thanks to the open windows.

Jaune: *on the ground* oww, why does this thing has to explode to work?

Yang: *shrugs while still standing, her body covered with aura* no idea, but seeing you fly is funny.

Ruby: *still behind weiss* so? What jaune showed up?

Oobleck: *fanning some smoke away* they're probably still in the smoke ms.Rose. The device seems to have worked again, but we still need to wait to see who-

A blur then jumped out of the smoke, and in the blink of an eye collided with doctor oobleck, it happened so fast that the group barely had time to react, and only realized what happened when they saw oobleck pinned on the ground.

(A)Jaune: *wearing a white T-shirt, blue pajama pants, with several visible scars on his legs and arms, holding oobleck down by the throat and holding a handcannon on his forehead while glaring at him with scarlet eyes and black scleras*

RWBY/J_P_: *shocked*

(A)Jaune: i'll ask this only one time, and you better give me a good answer. What did you just do?

Oobleck: *sweating bullets* w-well, you see, i-i-

(A)Yang: jaune!

(A)Jaune: *looks back at the smoke cloud*

(A)Yang: *coming out of the smoke, wearing her usual sleeping clothes but with a yellow robotic right arm and rubbing her eyes* don't you think it's too early *yawn* to be causing havoc?

(A)Jaune: *looking back at oobleck* look around yang, we're not at the dorm.

(A)Yang: *looking around* huh? How did we- *notices the group, including herself and another jaune* . . .okay, what the hell is going on? Am i still dreaming?

(A)Jaune: you're not dreaming, and i'm trying to figure out exactly what is going on.

(A)Yang: by scaring the hell out of everyone around you?

(A)Jaune: do you know a more effective way of getting answers?

(A)Yang: yeah, did you tried to ask first before going straight into violence like we talked about?

(A)Jaune: hmph, do you realize how much of an hypocrite do you sound like right now?

(A)Yang: punching someone is way different from holding them at gunpoint bad boy. Now, why don't you just let poor professor Oobleck off the hook before he vomits out the rivers of coffee he's always drinking?

(A)Jaune: . . . *sighs, eyes going back to white scleras and marine blue iris* fine. *gets up and stands next to yang* but if your way doesn't work out i'll-

(A)Yang: dismember them, kill them, yeah yeah i know the drill with you, so relax and just leave it to me okay bad boy? *grins and winks at him*

(A)Jaune: *crosses his arms* hmph.

(A)Yang: i'm sorry for him, he gets grumpy when you wake him up out of the blue like that, specially on a sunday.

Pyrrha: *helping oobleck up* to the point of hurting a teacher?

(A)Yang: can we all just be happy that "hurting" was all he did to professor oobleck? If you did that a few months ago jaune would've probably beheaded him.

Oobleck: *gulps*

(A)Yang: speaking of which, what the heck just happened? I was enjoying my warm bed on a cold sunday morning and now we're on a classroom, with people that look way too much like us.

Oobleck: w-well, i am sorry to disturb you and mister arc with this experiment miss xiao long, but we are testing a new device, a device with the power to bring other versions of peoples to our universe.

(A)Jaune: *raises eyebrow* so we are in a different universe?

Oobleck: precisely!

(A)Jaune: that explains why there's another "us" here. How do we go back?

Weiss: wait, so you will just believe in what we're saying?

(A)Jaune: i've dealt with things stranger than this before, jumping into a new universe isn't anything too out of the common really. Plus, i know when people are lying.

(A)Yang: you did that before?

(A)Jaune: no, but it's not really worse than salem's shenanigans.

Ozpin: salem you say?

RWBY/J_P_: WHA-!?!?

Weiss: where do you teachers keep coming from!?!?

Ozpin: *behind the students* that's a very good question miss schnee. *sips coffee, completely ignoring her very good question*

(A)Jaune: Oz? You're here too? Guess this universe is not that different from ours. Do they know about her?

Ozpin: no, at least not yet mister arc.

(A)Jaune: good, ignorance is a blessing.

Blake: what are you two talking about?

Ozpin: nothing that really matters miss belladonna, i'm here just to observe oobleck's experiment. *sits on the farthest table.* please proceed as if i'm not here.

Weiss: why are all teachers in beacon so weird?

Yang: you talk like we're any better.

Weiss: we're not. . . .okay, point taken.

Oobleck: answering your previous question mister arc, this device has a time limit of half an hour or a manual trigger for you two to go back.

(A)Jaune: good, i'm tired and want to go back to bed as soon as i can. How does the manual trigger works?

(A)Yang: hold up you lazy bun. come on, we're in a whole different universe, don't you wanna take a look around? See if we can find something interesting?

(A)Jaune: i've already seen my fair share of weird stuff on our own world, i'm not interested.

(A)Yang: *grins* oh really? *walks up to yang, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and pulling her closer* are you going to tell me you're not interested in a world with two of me?

(A)Jaune: . . . . *blushes a bit and looks away*

(A)Yang: oh? What is that? Did you just think about something naughty bad boy?

(A)Jaune: . . .no.

(A)Yang: *grinning* li-ar~

(A)Jaune: i'm not lying.

(A)Yang: *gets closer, booping his cheek* of course you're lying, how can you not love the idea of having two me's around you?

(A)Jaune: *looks back at her* because you're the only yang i love you dumbass blonde.

(A)Yang: *blushes* . . . .that's a low blow.

(A)Jaune: you started it.

Ruby: is it me or these two really look like they like each other?

Weiss: *deadpans* wow, how did you figure that one out ruby?

Yang: so me and vomit boy from the other dimension are together?

(A)Yang: vomit boy? Why do you call jaune like that.

Jaune: oh god, please don't-

Yang: because the first time i saw him he ended up puking on my shoes.

(A)Yang: PFF! HE WHAT!? YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING!?

Yang: *grinning* i'm serious. guess seeing me for the first time was too much for him.

(A)Yang: *starts laughing*

Jaune: *red* i have motion sickness! It's a very common problem!

(A)Jaune: so i not only look like an idiot here, but act like one as well?

(A)Yang: i don't know, i kinda like the idea of a softer and dorkier version of you.

(A)Jaune: i don't.

Pyrrha: but why are you like this?

(A)Jaune: what?

Pyrrha: you are a lot different from our jaune.

Ruby: yeah, yang looks almost the same, but you are a bit different.

Weiss: a lot different actually.

(A)Jaune: judging by how he acts and looks like, he probably had a comfortable normal life, with little to no training.

Jaune: h-how-

(A)Jaune: the moment i attacked oobleck i saw everyone tensing in reaction, it's an combat instinct to get ready whenever something unexpected happens, you were the only one who didn't reacted like that, which means you have barely any combat experience.

Jaune: i. . .can't argue against that.

(A)Jaune: meanwhile, i didn't had it so easy.

Weiss: let me guess, your father was a heartless bastard?

(A)Jaune: *snaps to weiss, eyes get red and surrounded by a black sclera* say that about my father again and i'll cut your throat.

Weiss: *shivers*

(A)Yang: *flickers his forehead* hey! cut it out bad boy. i know it's hard to believe but for once ice queen wasn't trying to be mean, she was just asking a question.

(A)Jaune: R-Right. . . *sighs, eyes going back to normal* sorry.

Yang: what's up with his eyes? It almost looks like a grimm.

(A)Jaune: that's because i am partially grimm.

PR__Y: what?

Oobleck: *taking notes* please elaborate more mr.arc.

(A)Jaune: genetic enhancement. I got through a lot of experiments when i was seven.

RWBY/J_P_: SEVEN!?!?

(A)Jaune: the genetical enhancement is lethal on adults with fully developed bodies, only small children have a chance to survive.

Ruby: just a chance?

(A)Jaune: yeah, fifty children ranging from five to ten were tested on, only three survived, one of them being me.

Pyrrha: oh my god. . .that's so cruel.

(A)Jaune: not really, we all knew what we were getting into.

Blake: how can any five year old consent to something that has a chance of killing them?

(A)Jaune: because they would wind up dead without this power. We all agreed to go through this because we all had the same objective, take revenge on the organisation that killed our families.

RWBY/J_P_: . . . .

(A)Jaune: when i was a kid, a man tried to recruit my father to be part of his organization, when my father refused he blew up our home, killing my sisters and my mother, only me and my dad survived, but he lost an arm and was really hurt, he carried me as far as he could but the man found us and killed him. . .i only survived because of my mentor Qrow branwen and his sister.

Ruby: uncle Qrow? He was your mentor?

Yang: *shocked* wait. . .did you say his sister was there too?

(A)Jaune: yeah, they both saved me and took me to the Reaper organization, they offered me a choice to try and have a normal life or join the reapers, qrow wanted me to have a normal life but i didn't listened to him, i was so full of anger that i signed up and proceeded with the Reapers.

Oobleck: reaper program. . .sounds like something i heard before, but the project i knew was stored for being not very ethical.

Jaune: makes sense, the program consisted in making genetic enhancements on kids and making them go through the toughest training possible.

Blake: what kind of training?

(A)Jaune: several kinds, ranging from survival training to durability training, they would expose us to harsh places and teach us to survive, as well as expose us to high levels of pain, heat, cold, electricity, poison and others just so our bodies could get used to it.

Blake: that's. . .inhuman, how could they do this to children?

(A)Jaune: we did this to ourselves, we asked for the training. . .we just didn't knew how insane it would drive us.

Yang: i mean, i'm not a specialist but you don't really look that insane.

(A)Yang: that's because you met him now, he wasn't like this a year ago.

(A)Jaune: because of the grimm essence and the painful training, me and the other two kids didn't turned out very well, i was probably the most mentally balanced out of the three.

(A)Yang: and he still tried to kill me at least three times.

Weiss: and you're dating him!?

(A)Yang: *shrugs* he's wasn't that bad after you got to know him well, specially compared to his friends. One of them was a sociopath that tested the most painful ways to kill on his enemies. the other was a wild animal that killed anyone who got near him.

(A)Jaune: unless this person was qrow, oz, ironwood, raven or steph.

(A)Yang: yeah. Jaune was the least fucked up of them, yet he tried to kill me twice and two other teachers as well on his first week on beacon.

(A)Jaune: *deadpans* why do you keep bringing that up? I apologized didn't i?

(A)Yang: only after we started to get together, and every time remember you pointing that gun to me i get annoyed, *grinning* specially because your handcannon is not the kind of gun i like to see you pointing at my face.

(A)Jaune: can't you leave the dirty jokes for later? Or just stop with them altogether?

(A)Yang: you know i can't.

Ruby: so, jaune got through a lot and became a killer. . .please tell me you aren't evil too yang.

(A)Yang: well, last time i checked they didn't had my size on the killer's clothing store, so i guess i'm with the good guys for now.

Yang: what about my arm? What happened to it?

(A)Yang: i lost in a grimm attack.

(A)Jaune: *looking down* it was my fault.

(A)Yang: no it wasn't, and even if it was you still made up for it, so don't go getting gloomy because of it, okay? Basically a group of grimms came after me, i was so distracted with the fighting that i didn't noticed one had a bomb attached to it.

(A)Jaune: i tried to shield her from the explosion but in the end it still took one of her arms away.

(A)Yang: which was still a pretty cheap price to pay for the result, even though i still think you're an idiot for doing that.

Yang: what did he do?

(A)Yang: in our world, there's a woman who can control grimm, and she was the one who sent the grimms after me by request of the same guy who killed jaune's family.

Ruby: but why did he wanted you dead?

(A)Yang: because i'm jaune's angel.

Weiss: you what?

(A)Yang: angel, i'll explain that later. Well, this idiot right here *points to (A)Jaune* had the great idea to go after her even with the injury of the explosion leaving him vulnerable.

(A)Jaune: i already told you why i did that, i was angry and couldn't think straight.

(A)Yang: *glaring at him* and i already told you i don't give a damn to your reasoning, you're still an idiot. Anyways, he obviously failed and had to run away, but while he was running away he found my missing mother and saved her.

Yang: Raven?

(A)Jaune: Summer Rose.

Ruby/Yang: *shocked*

Ruby: m-mom is alive in your universe!?

(A)Yang: yeah, she disappeared during a mission when we were really young. . .we thought she was dead, but she was being kept alive in suspension so they could understand more about her. . .special powers.

(A)Jaune: i woke her up and managed to escape with her. Nowadays she is working as a teacher in beacon while trying to rebuild her marriage with qrow.

Ruby/Yang: SHE'S TRYING TO REBUILD WHAT WITH WHO!?!?

(A)Yang: i know right? It was one hell of a surprise, we had no idea they were married, but after uncle qrow saw mom again and kissed her in front of everyone, it was kind of hard to keep it a secret.

Ruby: wait, does that means i'm-

(A)Yang: uncle qrow's secret daughter? Yup, you are.

Ruby: oh my god. . .it's so much to think about that my head is starting to hurt.

(A)Yang: i don't blame you, it took awhile to digest everything weird that was happening in my life. One day i'm just good ol' me, going to beacon like i always wanted to do, and suddenly i lose an arm, my dead mom is alive and back, i find out she was actually married to my uncle, my sister is technically my cousin and i am the new angel of the guy who tried to murder me a few times when we first met.

Weiss: you mean girlfriend?

(A)Yang: *shrugs* works too, it's the same thing.

(A)Jaune: *frowns* no it's not, an angel is one of a kind, you can find other girlfriends but an angel is unique, you're the only one i ever confided with my fears and weaknesses, you're the only one who ever saw me cry and the only one who i ever showed my love to, you might be my girlfriend but before that you're my angel, because only an angel like you to bring peace to a demon like me.

RWBY/J_P_: . . . .

(A)Jaune: . . . *red* can you stop staring at me like that?

(A)Yang: *smiling* i can't, i love when you get on your poetic mood, it's too cute.

(A)Jaune: ugh, i should've just stayed shut.

(A)Yang: yeah, you should've known better than giving me ammo to tease you at this point.

(A)Jaune: i hate you.

(A)Yang: nope, you don't. But putting the cheesy and cute poetry to the side, an angel is like a break to the reapers, they usually don't trust anyone and are terrible people, but when they find someone special that they can trust they change a lot. I told you about jaune's friends earlier, the one who liked to torture people as a hobby now likes to plant flowers and care for them on his free time with his angel, meanwhile the psycho animal got just like me, a fun guy who loves to crack jokes and tease other people, though he isn't as cool as i am.

(A)Jaune: but is still a lot more perverted than you. . .if that's even possible.

(A)Yang: i know right? I don't know how that girl survived dating him for so long, if all the reapers have the same level of stamina i wonder how she isn't on a wheelchair.

(A)Jaune: now you're just being dramatic.

(A)Yang: remember when we first did it? And i couldn't stand without my legs shaking like leaves for almost a whole day? Imagine a girl going through that almost every day.

(A)Jaune: . . . . . .yeah, you got a point.

(A)Yang: i know. though, if she keeps having sex with him so much it's because she likes it, sometimes i imagine how it feels to do it all the time.

(A)Jaune: *deadpans* knowing you, i'm sure you do.

(A)Yang: *grins* are you saying that you don't think about that too? We're almost on our vacation you know? We could go out for a few days and find out~

(A)Jaune: *blushes* y-you-

(A)Yang: pff *chuckles* you're too easy to mess with sometimes.

(A)Jaune: *sighs* Can we leave already?

Oobleck: *looking to his clock* well, since you've been here for twenty seven minutes and forty three seconds i don't think there is much time left anyways.

(A)Yang: well, it was good while it lasted.

(A)Jaune: yang, we didn't do anything but tell them how our world is.

(A)Yang: *ignoring him* It was nice to meet you awkward jaune, i mean, vomit boy. *winks*

Jaune: *chuckles awkwardly*

(A)Yang: oh, and other me.

Yang: yeah.

(A)Yang: you better not let him slip, i had to work a lot to make this jaune here soft, you already got a softy ready for you, they might not be the same but if he's also jaune then i'm pretty sure you're not gonna regret.

Yang: i'll think about it.

J_P_: you WHAT!?

Yang: what? If i'm the one saying it then it must be true. Not to mention that Jaune does look cute so its a double win for me.

Jaune: *blushes* i-i'm cute?

(A)Yang: good. *starts glowing along with jaune* i don't know much about your jaune, mine was a knucklehead most of the time but when he wanted to be, he was very kind and supportive, he helped me to deal with a lot of old issues, and i'm pretty sure your vomit boy isn't different on that aspect.

Yang: right. . .i'll keep that in mind.

Ruby: err, other yang?

(A)Yang: yeah?

Ruby: can you do me a favor?

(A)Yang: i don't think i have much time left to help you other rubes.

Ruby: no, it's nothing really big, just. . .when you go back, can you please tell mom that i love her?

(A)Yang: . . . *gives her a small smile* sure, i promise i'll tell her when i get back.

Ruby: *with a shaky smile* right. . .thank you.

(A)Yang: and hey, please don't cry, my ruby or not i still don't like to see you sad.

Ruby: right. *sniff* i'll try.

(A)Yang: good. *glow gets stronger* Bye everyone, it was nice meeting you.

Yang: same.

*(A)Yang waves one last time before vanishing completely from the room*

Blake: . . .once again, that was something.

Yang: ruby? *puts a hand on her shoulder* you okay.

Ruby: y-yeah, i'm fine, i just. . . *sighs* i wished i could go there myself, even if i could just go for a minute to see her. . .

Yang: yeah, i know how you feel.

Oobleck: well. . .it seems that you just got through a very sensitive moment mr.rose, would you like to take a break?

Ruby: no, it's okay, i. . .i think i'm fine.

Yang: you know you don't need to push yourself, right ruby?

Ruby: i know, and don't worry, if it becomes too much i'll stop, but for now. . .mr.oobleck?

Oobleck: yes miss Rose?

Ruby: can i go next?

#rwby #jaune arc #yang xiao long #weiss schnee #ruby rose #pyrrha nikos #jaune x yang #yang x jaune #rwby dragonslayer #dragonslayer #jaune x harem #colorguard #That's pretty D.U.M.B

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faulty-writes · 4 years ago

Note

'Tis I - the original Bakugou vs Mirio requester! I have come with another idea, should you choose to accept it: Rescue training. yn is chosen to be the damsel in distress for the exercise. It's timed. Bakugou speeds through the course, is insensitive towards the 'victim', and flails her around like a ragdoll. Bakugou bombs the exercise even though he finished on time. Midnight then tells Mirio to show him how it's done. Mirio literally sweeps yn off her feet during the exercise. Baku is MAD.

[ This turned out much longer than I originally thought. But regardless, I hope you all enjoy the Mario save the Princess vibe. ]

Midnight smirked as she stood in front of Class 1-A., whip in hand and it was almost eerie how she looked at each student with those piercing eyes of hers. “Is that understood?” she questioned, having just finished explaining the exercise. Apparently, it was a simple rescue mission, of course when it came to any type of training. U.A. was anything but simple, you knew there had to be some catch and sure enough, there was.

“Excuse me!” Iida was the first one to raise his hand and get Midnight’s attention. “Forgive me, but you claim this to be a simple rescue mission, yes?” Midnight’s eyes sparkled with mischief and she smirked. “Correct!” she exclaimed as she pointed her whip toward him and a few of your classmates flinched in response. You watched Bakugou huff and cross his arms, you wondered if he was actually scared of anything.

Considering how odd things have been between you and him lately, well more specifically you, him, and Mirio. “You are to go through the obstacle course, which in this case is a castle. The point of this exercise is to use both your offensive and defensive skills. As well as test your rescue skills, for you see. One of you will be playing the hero and the other the poor damsel in distress!” she declared as she placed the back of her hand to her forehead.

For an R rated hero, she sure tried hard to be an actress. “How will the hero and the one to be rescued be decided?” Iida asked, with his hand enthusiastically in the air. “Hm…” you were standing in the front row and shivered as Midnight’s eyes settled on you. “For the first round, Y/n! You will be the damsel in distress!” you took a step back and your content expression twisted into that of horror.

“What?! Why me?” you questioned, though Midnight ignored you before pointing to Bakugou. “Bakugou will be the hero! Will he be able to save the lovely Y/n on time? Who knows, the rest of you sit back and watch his performance on the screen.” Midnight said as she pointed to a large oversized television that almost seemed to defy gravity as it hovered high above the training ground. Of course, the students would be taken to the observation room which was equipped with several televisions as well as communication systems.

You almost wanted to beg your classmates to stay, Bakugou didn’t exactly seem very compassionate for this type of exercise. Still, you watched as your classmates followed Midnight’s instructions and shyly looked at the ground. This was a little embarrassing, why couldn’t someone else have been chosen to be the rescue victim? Your eyes widened when you heard Bakugou approach you, “Hey, dumbass! Lift your damned head so I can look at you!” he demanded and in a way it both scared and offended you, Bakugou really needed some lessons on how to talk nicely.

Though according to Kirishima, the angry blond did have a soft spot, and when he did speak calmly. It was like he was a completely different person. Still, you couldn’t bring yourself to believe that. Yet, somehow you found yourself following his command and slowly raised your head. A shiver ran down your spine as you saw the smirk he was wearing and how his tongue came out to swipe across his lips.

He reached over and grabbed you by the shirt collar, pulling you against him. “Just watch, babe.” you narrowed your eyes at the nickname, why the hell did he call you that? “I’ll finish this course and rescue you quicker than All Might himself.” you gasped when he released you and began to walk away. You turned to look at Midnight who seemed almost as if she were coming off of a high of some sort, she loved youth and drama apparently. “Oh, now isn’t that spicy!? A challenge from the student, can he beat All Might’s record and complete this rescue mission?” she questioned before walking over to you.

“Time to get into position, you’ll find an elevator located on the side of the castle. Go on now so this exercise can start.” Midnight urged as she pushed you, “Alright, alright.” you grumbled before following her instructions, the elevator ride seemed to take longer than you wanted to admit. But once you reached the top you found yourself stepping into what looked to be a circular room. There were bars on the window and only one door. Naturally, you walked over and pulled it, only to find it was locked.

“That’s right.” you jumped at the sound of Midnight’s voice over the sound system. “Our damsel in distress is locked away, there is no escape from the room they are in. Which leaves the hero one of two options. They may climb the tower and try to reach their rescue victim through the barred window or they may infiltrate the inside and break down the door. But be fair warned, villains are around every corner.” Bakugou spread his legs and parted his fingers as small explosions sounded from his palms.

“Pff doesn’t sound like much of a challenge to me!” he declared before rocketing himself off the ground which left behind two large holes. If anything Bakugou was an expert at using his quirk when it came to projecting himself through the air and with multiple “villains” around, which were just more robots that U.A. seemed to like to use. It was an easy task for him to take them out with one solid explosion. Pieces of metal and wire were left in his continued path of destruction.

“Looks like Bakugou made it through the first level, but how will he handle the bigger villains that await him on level two!?” Midnight continued to narrate and you curiously ran to the window to see what was happening, sure enough, you could see the large explosions caused by Bakugou and even make out the pieces of metal that soared through the sky. Was he just planning to blast his way through everything?

Part of you wondered just how many robots U.A. had to replace the ones Bakugou was killing off without a second thought. Your fingers tightened around the bars of the window, “Looks like our rescue victim is enjoying the show! Don’t worry, your hero will come for you soon. That is if he can stand the final challenge.” you raised your eyebrow, final challenge? You gasped as you felt vibrations course through the castle, it was enough to send you off your feet.

“What is going on!?” you questioned as you tried to stagger your way back to the window, grabbing onto the bars as tightly as you could. Though it was hard to stand without your feet slipping from underneath you. Your eyes widened as you watched a large mechanical being come into view. It was at least three times bigger than the castle and in a way, it reminded you of the zero point obstacle you had to overcome during the entrance exam.

But as usual, once Bakugou had a goal set there was no stopping him. You hated to admit it, but that was one of the qualities that you happened to admire about the angry blond. No matter how bad things looked, he always seemed to keep going. “Oh! Looks like he’s going for an air attack!” Midnight said and your eyes frantically searched the sky, but the shadow of the robot made it hard to see as it blocked most of your view.

“Ah!” you cried out when a bright flash came, he really needed to learn how to control his quirk better. “Hah! Not so fucking tough without an arm, are you!?” Bakugou said with a twisted smirk before breaking the robot down piece by piece which seemed to awe and disgust the rest of Class 1-A. “Sheesh, he always goes in full blast. What’s up with that?” Kirishima asked before turning to Kaminari who shrugged in response.

“I don’t know, but you gotta admit. He gets the job done, though I’m not sure if I’d make such a mess,” he replied as he continued to watch the screen. Bakugou was now standing in the pile of what remained of the robot beast. He was panting softly and covered in a light sweat. For a moment, it seemed like he was going to collapse as he took one step forward. But then, he clenched his fists. “Y/N!” he suddenly screamed as he tilted his head up toward the tower.

“YOU’RE NEXT, BACK AWAY FROM THE WINDOW!” he warned before he focused most of his quirk to his palms and another explosion sounded before he flew off the ground, barely scraping by the stone that made up the tower. “YOU BETTER HAVE LISTENED TO ME, DUMBASS.” he growled as he latched onto the window with one hand. You gasped when you saw his figure and quickly pressed yourself into a corner, crouching down with your arms covering you.

It was no surprise what he was going to do next. He let out a loud cry as he reeled his hand back and sure enough, a loud explosion came. You felt the heat of it and the room filled with smoke which made you choke. But Bakugou had successfully melted the bars and though you didn’t hear him enter the room. You nearly screamed when he grabbed your wrist, his grip was a little too tight for your liking. “Come on, let’s go! Damn it!” he snapped before turning to run.

You stumbled to keep up with him as he decided to take the fast approach and jump through the window. You took note that the bars though now melted had jagged ends that still burnt a light orange. “Uh Bakugou, slow down!” you pleaded and tried your best to break yourself of his grip. But he only laughed, “Scared, are you?” he stopped at the window and turned to face you. “You’re only going to slow me down if you’re like this.” he noted with an angry pout, “So come on, let’s go!” he demanded before roughly throwing you over his shoulder.

You were in disbelief and pounded your fists against his back. “Put me down!” you demanded but he ignored you before climbing onto the window sill. “W-Wait a minute, you’re not going to…” you realized too late and let out a scream as Bakugou carelessly jumped out the window, your nails dug into the back of his costume which seemed to catch his attention. “Your nails are digging into my skin! Stop it!” he demanded and his elbow came to try and jab you.

“Hey!�� you cried out, the wind was causing your eyes to water and your hair was blowing around like crazy as you continued to fall. You instinctively let go in an attempt to get away from his elbow. But instead that sent you flying up and you let out another scream as you found yourself free falling. “Dumbass! What’d you let go for!?” Bakugou snapped as he tried to reach out for you, though the gap was too much.

Your panic wasn’t helping as your body spun around and before you realized. You had hit the ground with a loud thud and pain riddled your body causing you to let out a hiss. “Ouch…” you moaned out before trying to push yourself up, however, that’s when the ground began to shake again. “Oh no…” you yelped as you forced your body to sit up, your hand was desperately clenching your ribcage that radiated with pain and made it a difficult task to breath.

However, at that moment it didn’t matter. As seconds later, your breath hitched when a large shadow came and you trembled as you looked up. A scream caught in your throat as the mechanical beast reeled one of its sharp talons back. You knew what was going to happen next and much like before, you seemed to curl into a ball with your arms over your head. Just waiting for the impact that may or may not cause your death.

However, instead, you felt the heat of Bakugou’s explosion as the arm was severed. “Sheesh, can’t you do anything right!?” he snapped as he turned around to face you. Though you looked to be in bad shape, covered in dirt and a thin line of blood was seeping from your nose. Part of you wondered if it was from the smoke you had inhaled earlier.

But Bakugou didn’t seem to care about that and once more roughly grabbed you by your wrist and hosted you over his shoulder. You yelped in pain and hit his back with your fist. Trying to hold in the scream that was threatening to escape but Bakugou just huffed. “If you try escaping again, another robot is going to lock onto you. We need to make it to the exit, come on!” he snapped before he kicked off the ground.

Every time he took a step, his shoulder dug into your side and caused you more pain. You were in tears by the time he passed through the gate and a little surprised when he actually lowered you to your feet instead of just simply throwing you to the ground. “Well, you still have a few seconds to spare. So you completed the challenge, however.” Midnight walked over to you and lowered herself onto one knee.

She looked you over and took note of your current state which was a direct result of Bakugou’s carelessness. “You defeated the villains just fine, however you were sloppy with your rescue. You were careless when you decided to take the window as a means of entrance and injured your rescue victim. Not only that, but you also failed to ask if they had any injuries prior and you mishandled Y/n. That is, you decided to drag them by the wrist and throw them over your shoulder which is a horrible way to treat your rescue victim, and for that, you fail.” Midnight declared and Bakugou growled.

“WHAT THE HELL YOU MEAN FAIL!?” he snapped, his explosions sounding off. Midnight ignored him and looked to you, “Recovery Girl should be here any moment, after which we’ll be bringing in a special guest to show you all how a proper rescue is performed.” you swallowed and looked over as your classmates approached. Each one of them seemed concerned about your well being, but you couldn’t help but turn your attention to Bakugou who snapped at Kirishima and promptly stomped away.

Muttering something about how this was a stupid exercise. You disagreed and wondered if Bakugou was truly as bad as he seemed. He did put you through hell during the exercise, but was something else bothering him? You weren’t entirely sure, but you felt more or less relieved when Recovery Girl showed up and used her healing quirk to fix your injuries. You smiled, though you were still covered in dirt. At least the pain was gone.

“I was a little worried about you when I saw how Bakugou handled you, I almost wanted to hug you when that final obstacle came. I don’t like seeing you scared, Y/n.” you were too busy looking at your newly healed body that you didn’t notice when Mirio had walked over to you. “M-Mirio?” you questioned, seemingly in shock as you watched him smile at you. He was dressed in his hero costume and his cape blew gently behind him. “Yup, that’s me!” he declared with a large smile as he pointed to himself before offering you his hand.

“Looks like I’m up next to show your class how it’s done, but I’m really happy I get to rescue you, sunshine.” you couldn’t help the soft flush that came to your cheeks as he called you by that nickname. You wondered if he was just being nice or if that nickname was something special. Either way, you took his hand. “Well, well, well, I see you’re already acquainted with our brave hero.” Midnight said as she walked up to the two of you with a smile.

“Oh uh, yeah...we kind of are,” you admitted as you sheepishly rubbed the back of your head before looking over your shoulder. You could swear you felt someone’s glance on you. Turns out, Bakugou had taken a few minutes to calm down before returning. He took note that once more Mirio seemed to be trying to take his spotlight, he partly wondered what the hell you saw in the third year.

It pissed him off that you’d even spend your time with Mirio, he was just playing you for a sap anyway. What third year was interested in a first-year? He crossed his arms over his chest and followed the rest of his classmates back to the observatory room. He was practically glaring at the screen which showed Mirio doing some stretches before taking off. He had a determined glance in his eye, along with a smile that wouldn’t soon fade.

Unlike Bakugou, who blew the enemies to pieces. Mirio was more skillful and careful to avoid making such a mess. Simply phasing through them before cutting their heads clean off. He smiled as he watched them fall to the ground and proceeded to the next level. The higher the level, the bigger the obstacle. But Mirio took them down with ease, that was in part due to the fact he had more experience.

Still, the way he handled the enemies and villains was something to be admired. Their bodies laid in the dust before he reached the final stage which was the biggest obstacle in his way. A hint of worry came across his features as he noticed the large robot was near the castle where you were being held. He needed to make sure you were protected as well as figure out a way to take down the enemy.

“Hey! Down here, big guy!” he called, effectively catching its attention. He could hear the mechanical whirring of gears as its head turned. “Target acquired,” it spoke and stepped toward Mirio, the ground shook underneath its massive weight but Mirio wasn’t intimidated. In fact, he smiled and continued to lead it away from your location. Sure, you were still someone he had to rescue. But as long as this big fella was away from you and you were still “safe” for the time being.

He’d be more at ease. However, once he was far enough away. The robot tried to land a hit, but Mirio was quick. Easily dodging the clawed hand that crashed into the ground, causing dirt and rock to scatter. He then circled around the robot and proceeded to use his quirk to phase through the ground, effectively disappearing from view. He smirked as he came back up and directed himself toward the robot’s foot, punching clear through it and making it off balance.

Once the robot fell to the ground, Mirio jumped onto its back and ran toward its head. Though he had to be careful as the robot squirmed and tried to push itself up once more. Mirio made quick work of disabling one of its arms by phasing through it, but at the last moment. He deactivated his quirk and used his foot to slice the appendage clean off. Then he went in for the kill.

He jumped up and used his legs to create a large dent in the robot’s head. He could see the various wires sparking through the broken metal. But at least it was down for the count. “Thanks for the fight! But, I’m off to save my sunshine!” he said as he waved the dying robot goodbye before making his way back to you. He smirked and phased through the wall of the castle, taking note of the many stairs and low-level robots.

“Hm…” he tapped his chin, debating if he should waste his time fighting them to get to you. As romantic as that would be. He could always climb up the castle like Bakugou had. “Oh, looks like our incredible hero is making a decision, what will he do next? After such a performance, he’s sure not to disappoint!” Midnight just had to comment and you rolled your eyes from your position in the locked tower. Truth be told, you couldn’t help but feel a little nervous.

Mirio and Bakugou seemed to be fighting over you an awful lot lately and you weren’t even sure where their affection had come from in the first place or if they actually had feelings for you. Bakugou seemed to be keeping his emotions at bay while Mirio was openly affectionate. If you ever had to make a choice between the two of them, you weren’t looking forward to the fight that would happen. You took a breath and crossed your arms before letting out a sigh.

“Sunshine.” you jumped when you heard Mirio’s voice and turned around. Almost snickering when you saw the way he was hanging onto the window, both hands were gripping onto the bars and it looked like his knees were bent which meant he was pressing both feet against the outside wall. “I’m glad to see you’re okay, are you injured?” he questioned, knowing that was an important aspect of rescuing someone.

After all, you had to make sure your rescue victim was alright or figure out a way to continue the rescue even if they were injured. You tried to bite back the smile coming before answering. “Yes, I’m alright.” Mirio nodded, “Well in that case.” you watched as he phased through the window and stood tall on his feet. His hands were on his hips and his smile was as bright as ever. He truly was the perfect picture of a hero and once more you felt yourself flushing.

Though from the observatory room, Bakugou was practically fuming. Clenching his jaw and his fists were coiled so tightly he was beginning to frighten his classmates. “Uh, heh. Bakugou are you…” Kirishima reached out to try and touch Bakugou’s shoulder but ended up stumbling back when Bakugou glared at him. “Shut the hell up, idiot!” he snapped before Jirou voiced her opinion.

“Sheesh, calm down. What are you so puffed up about?” she questioned before Bakugou turned his glare on her. “Shut it, lobes!” he snapped before crossing his arms over his chest, what the fuck did the third year have that he didn’t? He hated feeling as though he were beat, damn it. He had to figure out a way to win you over and quickly. “Here, I’ll carry you,” Mirio insisted before walking up to you, though you took a step back which made him pause.

He titled his head, “Are you okay?” he questioned and you almost felt ashamed for having stepped back. But you cleared your throat and nodded, “Y-Yeah. Sorry, I was just a little nervous. You’re not going to throw me over your shoulder, are you?” you questioned and Mirio laughed, almost as if he found your words amusing.

“Of course not, a beautiful rescue victim doesn’t deserve that treatment. I was thinking more of doing this…” he smiled as he approached you and gently placed his arm around you and leaned down before placing his other arm underneath your legs. You squeaked as you found yourself being lifted into his arms and pressed up against his rather muscular chest. You couldn’t help but blush as you looked up at him.

He was pretty handsome, but when he was playing the part of a hero. Somehow, he became more attractive. Was that possible? You weren’t sure, but either way. You found yourself staring at him for longer than you should and Mirio turned his head to look at you. “Here, wrap your arms around me. I would never want to risk hurting you, so I hope you hold on tight,” he said, his voice as cheery as ever.

You nodded, “U-Uh, of course.” you replied before doing as he asked, though you already felt safe in his arms which said a lot. Unlike the tension you felt with Bakugou, Mirio’s positive attitude could put anyone at ease. “Alright, ready? I guess we’ll do the same as Bakugou and take the window,” he said before jumping onto the ledge. He surveyed the area, more than likely that same final obstacle would appear.

However, that was only if the sensors were set off and with you in his arms. He couldn’t use his quirk to avoid them, though he would never risk your safety and leave you behind. Though he could still try and avoid it if the sensors were on the ground. “Oh, what a daring rescue! What better way than in the arms of your daring hero. Oh, youth! I love it!” you almost wanted to roll your eyes, Midnight was certainly excitable.

Still, you wondered what Mirio was planning and you felt his grip on you tighten. “Hold on tight,” he warned before he stepped over the ledge and pressed his feet to the outside wall. He focused his quirk on his feet to keep himself on the right path. Much like before the wind was causing your hair to blow all over the place and you tucked your head into the crook of Mirio’s neck. “Hey, it’s alright. I got you, you are safe. Sunshine.” he spoke gently and it made a shiver run down your spine.

He smiled as he neared the ground and deactivated his quirk, allowing his feet to become solid once more. With his cape flowing behind him, he released his hold on your legs though his arm kept you tightly against his chest. He reached over, grabbing the end of his cape, and used the wind to help him change direction. You held on tightly, your eyes wide as you felt yourself shift. Mirio was now running along the side of the castle, something that surprised you.

Was he just planning on circling around until he got dizzy? It was a silly thought but a moment later, you felt him kick off the castle and go flying into the air. You gasped when you felt his cape wrap around you and looked up at him, even in the midst of the motion. You could see that kind smile looking down at you and soon his free arm came back to hold you, keeping you secure as you two hurtled toward the ground.

You thought you knew what he was doing and braced yourself for the impact. However, Mirio used his shoulder to land and effectively kept you shielded as he rolled along the ground. He got up before you could register what was happening, despite the fact yet another earthquake came. “Uh Mirio…” you said, a tad worried as you clung to the front of his costume. “Just don’t look back,” he instructed, his eyes seemed to be focused on something else.

He knew that there were two options to complete the rescue exercise. One was to defeat all the enemies and the other was to make it past the safe gate which was decorated with the image of Principal Nezu. Mirio was determined to make it to that gate, even with the mechanical beast quickly gaining speed on him. “Come on…” you heard him whisper to himself as he forced his legs to go faster.

At this moment he was your hero and he took that title with pride. Of course, he got a little nervous as he watched the shadow of the robotic arm reel back. More than likely ready to smash both of you, Mirio clenched his jaw. Damn. Well, guess he’d have no choice but to deal with the final obstacle while keeping you safe. “I’m going to protect you, but you have to trust me. Okay?” he said, though you were a little scared as to what was going to happen.

Your arms tightened around him, almost as if signaling he had your okay. He took a deep breath and waited until the shadow of that arm grew closer and used his instincts to time his jump. As soon as he felt that do or die emotion, he quickly dodged and used the arm as a point of leverage. He grunted as he landed on it, you were in disbelief as Mirio ran up the length of the arm and once more jumped into the air.

“You won’t hurt my sunshine!” he screamed before bringing his leg up, though he didn’t give it his all as his foot collided with the robot’s head. You could hear something rattle around, more than likely that kick was just a temporary distraction. “Ah!” you cried out as you saw the ground approach. However, Mirio once more proved he could handle himself and landed on the ground with ease. Still, holding you close though you were beginning to worry about the state of his legs.

Still, he continued on. Much like Bakugou, he held that determination of never giving up. No matter how bad it looked. You were still wrapped in his cape as he passed through the gate and the rescue exercise was finished. “Wow did you see that!? He took care of two things at once! That robot and he made sure to keep Y/n safe, that’s so manly!” Kirishima exclaimed before Bakugou elbowed him in the stomach.

“Shut up!” he snapped before following behind Midnight. He growled as he watched Mirio put you down and begin to receive praise from a few students. Mainly the damned nerd Deku and his gang of idiots. He growled and failed to notice that he was using his quirk, angry explosions sounded from his closed fists which caused a dark line of smoke to seep out from between the spaces of his fingers.

“Uh, Bakubro...you alright?” Sero asked as he walked up to the blond, Kaminari was right behind him. But he looked less brave as he cowered behind Sero. “I’m fine! This exercise was stupid anyway!” he snapped before shoving the two boys aside and stomping away much like before. He hated feeling this way, damn it.

He hated having feelings for you, he hated feeling jealous whenever that damned Togata was around. But at the same time, it made him all the more determined. He’d figure out a way to steal your heart away and make you forget all about that damned third year.

#mirio x reader #bakugo x reader #togata x reader #katsuki x reader #bnha x reader #bnha requests #Anonymous

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heartofsnark · 3 years ago

Text

Can You Feel The Sun? (Chapter Four): Leave My Head Among The Stars

Notes: Okayyyyyy, so here’s the thing, I started to write this chapter and what I planned to have in it and then I suddenly had 66 pages of content. So, I had to split it up. So I have three chapters, including this one, written up. So, these next couple updates for this will be fairly quick. I’m trying to get to johnny quick, but act 1 is a doozy, I hope you’re still enjoying the content though.

Word Count: 9268

Chapter Warnings: Mild violence, weird sexual tension,

If you haven’t yet, you can read the previous chapter here!~

Fingernails scratch at V’s back, the merc whining as she’s gently stirred awake. Her eyes are still blurry with sleep and the sun is just beginning to filters in through her window when she looks up at the older woman. Sunlight illuminates Cecelia, makes her freckles stand out on her tanned skin and turns her eyes molten gold. Her lips move and V has to refocus, not just stare at the far too out of her league woman, and focus on reading her lips.

“….work….”

That’s all she can read across Cecelia’s lips and she grumbles, rolling off of the older woman. V wraps her blankets tightly around herself, forming a cocoon as her fuckbuddy leaves the bed. She watches for a minute, before it hits her; she makes a vague disgruntled noises as she grabs the hem of Cecelia’s shirt, stopping her from leaving. The older woman looks at her for a moment, like a deer caught in headlights as she looks at the sleepy curled up merc tugging at her clothes.

“Pancakes…” Is all V says, assuming her voice sounds as heavy with sleep as it feels, she grabs some eurodollars off her bedside table. The merc pushes the money into Cecelia’s hands, paying her for the food she brought in last night. Cecelia’s face drops, though V’s sleep laden brain can’t begin to understand why.

“Well...kinda...feel...prostitute,” V’s unfocused eyes struggles to read Cecelia’s lips, but she can fill in the blanks. That this exchange of money, even if meant for pancakes, has made Cecelia feel like a prostitute.

“Don’t worry,” V yawns, signing a little sloppy from exhaustion, “I don’t pay for sex, so you’re fine.”

Then V’s passed back out against her pillow.

V wakes up, an hour or so later, rolling out of her sheets, Cecelia already long gone. She rubs at her sleep laden eyes and shoots a quick text to Jackie, letting him know she’s ready to meet up whenever he is, so she can see his big news. He texts back almost immediately, proclaiming he’s on his way. V decides to use her time to quickly clean up the mess of last night; cleaning her toy and changing out her sheets. She’ll have to do laundry soon, but that’s an issue for later tonight… or later this week...or month. V will figure it out, at some point. She grabs a quick shower and changes her clothes.

Despite the heat, she opts for a cropped hoodie, jeans, and her old slightly ratty backpack. Her mask, air hypos, max docs, bounce backs and extra weapons packed inside along with ammo. Night City necessities. It may seem like a bit much but, her mask can’t fit in her pocket and Jackie likes to spring gigs on her. She slides her optic contact case in her pocket, alongside her phone, turns on her translator choker, then puts in her hearing aids. Her ears twinge, still a little raw, she was more focused on sleeping than doctoring them last night.

She tucks her favorite knife into a thigh holster and her preferred gun in a hidden holster in her waistband. Armed to the teeth, V ties her boots and heads out the door, letting it lock behind her, nose twinging again at the smell as soon as steps out. V starts out through the big walkway that goes into balconied steps, though the view is just more apartments, the elevator that leads to the front is a floor down across from one of the clusters of shops that sit on that floor. Every couple of floors there's a services level. In this one megabuilding alone there are probably twenty restaurants and forty gun shops. Hell, her vending machine in her apartment has the option to order a joytoy or sex droid from the brothel eight floors up.

Her holophone buzzes, bleeps, and lights up inside of her pocket as she walks past the cluster of vending machines. She checks, expecting a text from Jackie, that he’s already waiting on her. And instead groans.

REMINDER, TAKE YOUR MEDICATION!!!!!!! :3

Her phone notification screams at her and she groans under her breath. She stomps back up the stairs and back into her apartment, grabbing a flat Nicola Sakura and using it to swallow down her immunosuppressants, then she leaves her apartment, again. V’s mentally cursing her own forgetfulness, she can remember to keep twenty different weapons on her, but her medication manages to slip her mind routinely.

The chatter of strangers fills the services floor as she walks through, past the initial pocket of vending machines, then restaurant stands, and then as if to mock her when she eats that garbage; a gym section of the floor. All of which is followed by a gun shop. It's all a weird medley of sounds and smells that her sensitive self struggles with.

Theres the clinging of sodas from the vending machines, the searing sound of cooking dishes, the talk of strangers, the grunts of people working out, the thwacking of people hitting punching bags, the clanging of weights, advertisements screaming at her to buy something, the muffled sound of gunfire from the Second Amendement’s shooting range, and robotic whirrs of Coach Fred’s punching bag robot.

And the smells, dear lord the smells. Gunpowder, sweat, and cooking food; all mingled with people’s own body odor or perfumes with just a sprinkle of hot trash.

She considers turning her hearing aids off and grabbing her chapstick, as she passes by Coach Fred’s section of the floor where he offers boxing training, a raised platform to box on. He punches and trains against his training droid.

“Hey, V!” The older man calls out, before she can mute the world, padded robot stopping next to him, “How you like my new Punchin' Bag? Just gave me a nextgen ass-whoopin', he did. Be curious to see how he handles the likes of V... Heh. So how 'bout it?”

“Pff,” V can’t help but scoff just a little, Coach Fred is easy a foot or more taller than her and more muscular, but he wants to see her take the damn thing on, “sure.”

“Light on your feet. Keep that head movin'!” The boxer tells her as she steps up into the crude boxing area and he steps out.

V cracks her knuckles as the automated training bot stands in front of her, the small merc raises her fists, all the only sign the droid needs to initiate combat mode. It swings a right hook at her and she dodges. A left hook next and she blocks, countering with her own punch, knuckles connected with it’s padded head. That first strike knocks it off balance enough to land two more, the bot stopping in defeat. Easy enough, maybe Coach Fred put it in easy mode?

“You got one helluva punch there, champ. Ever thought of monetizing it? I can arrange a fight or two. Whaddaya say?” The former coach asks her, sitting down on a bench.

She’s not so sure, most of her combat skills being focused on killing opponents and getting the drop stealthily. She can hold her own, but fighting a gangoon on the street where only one of them is going to walk away from it is different from a controlled fight with rules. Sparring with Jackie and the odd training session with Fred or Vik her only experience in boxing. But… money is money. She can give it a shot, go low stakes on the first one, she does well keep going. If she blunders it, no big loss.

“You arrange fights still?”

“Mmhmm and I think you got a knack for this, You've got sharp instinct, good edge. You can go far, especially if you get chipped. These fights… let's just say they aren't legal. Buuut… very lucrative.”

“And you get a cut, I assume.”

“I get a small percentage of the total winnings, you know, as your agent. You get the rest.”

“Of course, I’ll consider it, zip me the details of the first fight.”

“Like I said, good instinct.”

V rolls her eyes and continues through the service floor with a wave bye, passing by a Fuyutsuki and someone spray painting a cement wall. The bright neon red of the Second Amendment gun shop sign bathes the end of the services floor, just across from the elevator.

“V!” Wilson calls out and by god, why’d she turn on her hearing aids, “got some sweet new .45’s in, come take a look!”

“Can’t right now, in a rush, when I get back, promise!” She signs quickly, uses her elbow to jam the call elevator button.

It thankfully reaches her floor fairly quickly, allowing her to wave a quick bye to the older man, and stepping inside. There’s a slight relief as the doors close and she hits the floor she needs, the elevator carriage rocking into movement. While the screens still play advertisements, it's one sound, instead of a hundred. She uses some more lip balm, vanilla flavor on her lips and the sweet smell hitting her nose.

She adjusts the volume slightly on her hearing aids, lowering it just a bit more as the elevator comes to a stop. While not technically a services floor, the front entrance of the building is nearly as bad. There are at least ten or more restaurant stands in that area, V walking past everyone trying to sell her a burger or hot dog.

The sunlight hits her as she walks down the stairs that lead to her building and she spots Jackie, well his back. He’s sitting at a food stand that’s a very short walk from the building, because there certainly is not enough inside of the building. He’s got his face buried in a takeout box of synth-beef chow mein, not even noticing as V creeps up on him.

V’s nearly at his back and the street vendor raises an eyebrow, no doubt wondering if his customer is about to be robbed. Then she’s jumping to throw her arms around Jackie’s neck in a mock headlock, more so just hanging off the giant’s back.

“And its V with the headlock~” She jokes, voice low in his ear and he laughs. His chuckle making his chest vibrate and she can feel it.

“Someone’s feeling better,” he comments as she detangles from his back, “you, get your beauty sleep or…?”

He waggles his eyebrows at her as she climbs up onto the seat next to him, swinging a foot out to kick him. Her boot just bouncing back off his shin.

“I don’t kiss and tell, Jackie, you know that,” she signs and rolls her eyes, red flushing up her cheeks at the thought of giving details.

“Yeah, I just like seeing your face go that shade of pink, hehe.”

“I swear to god if your big news was just an excuse to give me shit.”

“Nah nah, got something to show you, first, chica.” Jackie grins ear to ear, like the cat that ate the canary. He tosses his trash into a bin and smacks her shoulder to follow him, bouncing like a kid on their way to the christmas tree.

“I’m already terrified,” she taunts as she hops down and follows him to a curb, a motorcycle parked there.

It's an Arch Nazare, slightly older model but not ancient by any stretch. From the sideview, the detailing is slick. Black with red branding and detailing, the exhaust and some pipework a bright gold color. The gold’s a little gaudy for her liking, But, she sideyes Jackie. His favorite red and black jacket, heavy gold jewelry bouncing on his chest. Gonk probably sunk more into the paint job then he did the actual bike. She can’t help but chuckle and when he proudly leans against the bike, his grin ear to ear, megawatt and shining brighter than the sun. When she peeks at the top detailing she can see a Calavara style skull decal on the dash. It screams Jackie.

“What’cha think, jaina?”

“It's beautiful and very you; how’d you manage to score a ride like that? Custom paint job too, I presume. Must have cost a pretty penny.”

“Muy peque, took out a loan , but ah, totally worth it. Got her on the cheap actually, Dorsett job dividend.”

“You already blew your cash from that job?”

“Someday you’re gonna have to actually spend your money and live a little, V, you know that?”

“Nothing wrong with saving back for something nicer down the road,” she retorts, thinking of her little jar of cash in the storage space beneath her bed. She’s been trying to take so much from every payday aside to save.

“And uh, what are you saving for again?”

“....a Kusanagi...or a Projectile Launcher...or a bigger apartment...or…”

“You’re stockpiling cash and you don’t even know what for, chica,” he laughs at her indecision, her ultimate splurge item she’s saving for changes weekly, “look, check this out.”

He straddles the motorcycle and turns the ignition, the Arch roaring to life and it’s… loud and rumbly, not even remotely subtle. She can picture it now, him showing up to a gig on it and getting blasted to pieces immediately.

“No, V, don’t,” he cuts the engine, pointing a finger at her from where he sits on the motorcycle.

“What?”

“Don’t make that face at me!”

“What face?”

“The face you make when you’re about to piss all over my parade.”

“I do not piss on your parade.”

“You do and you’re about to do it right now, I know you V, you got a billion thoughts rattling around that skull of yours and not one of them is good.”

“All I was going to say…”

“Mmhmm.”

“Is, you should maybe consider swapping out the tailpipe.”

“It’s got a rumble, the chicas love that.”

“It’s got a rumble that tells every gangoon within a twenty mile radius that you’re coming their way.”

“Fair enough.”

“And… you should probably tinker with the fuel injection too, upload a new map, and slap on some thermal tape until you fix the exhaust.”

“V!”

She folds her hands on his shoulder, then balances her chin on top of them, giving him puppy dog eyes. He’s huffy, not meeting her gaze. V knows damn well her tendency to be a buzzkill, especially in comparison to Jackie. Its a bad habit that always leaves her feeling guilty, but also an impulse, because...if she isn’t prepared for worst case scenarios...that’s death.

“But I am really happy for you, it's a gorgeous ride and you look like a total badass on it.” She whispers, close enough that only Jackie can hear, hoping the honey sweet words will make him feel better. And she can see the smile pulling at his lips, that soon becomes that big grin she loves as he finally meets her gaze.

“Okay, okay, your buzzkilling is forgiven. You can stop blowing wind up my ass.”

“Hehe,” her face drops with realization, “Jackie, where’s my car?”

“Oh, uh, I dropped it off to my guy, Miguel. Fixed it up like new, you can call it whenever you want. But I figured, you’d rather grab a ride on this baby.”

“Ooooh, hell yeah.”

“C’mon, was planning on stopping by Misty’s, lets go.”

That’s all the provocation V needs, hopping onto the back of the Arch. The backseat space is limited, Jackie taking up the vast majority of the seat. But she slips behind him easily, wrapping her arms around his stomach. Her hands can’t quite fully meet around him, having to just tangle her fingers in the front of his jacket. Then the engine comes roaring to life, Jackie taking off from the curb.

She can’t help but laugh, Jackie not holding back as they go speeding down the city roads. He blasts the radio, blaring a song she doesn't know from the bike's speaker, mingling with Jackie's laughter and the wind whipping around them.

But it's not overwhelming, not too much, never could be with Jackie.

They weave through traffic, riding on the middle lane and not letting anything stop them as they pick up more and more speed. She’s pressed tight against his back, leeching off his warmth as the wind manages to send a little chill up her spine. Her cheeks ache from grinning as they cruise over a hill in the highway, catching air for a moment, her entire body bouncing when the bike hits the road again. If not for her tight hold on his jacket, she might have gone flying which only makes her laugh harder.

He doesn't slow down until they start to reach the stretch of city where Misty's store and Vik's clinic are, Jackie slowly pulling up onto a curb to park. Their bodies shifting forward at the stop, V’s chest pressing even closer into Jackie’s back for a moment.

"Joyrides over, jaina," he says, playfully tapping her hand where it sits on his stomach.

She lets go, allowing her friend to pull away and get off the motorcycle. His body language starts to shift, as he stands in front of her, looking off somewhere else. He takes a deep enough breath that she can see his chest move with it, then he crosses his arms and kicks at the pavement.

"She's a smooth ride," V signs to him, swinging her legs over the side of the bike so she can face him directly. Is he second guessing his decision? She didn't mean to make him feel bad about the choice.

"Uh," Jackie scratches at the back of his neck, "remember what I said, about having big news?"

"Is..the Arch not the big news?" She asks, pulling a leg up onto the motorcycle and resting an elbow on her knee.

"Ah nah, I'm proud of it, but this...chica, is so much bigger than that.”

"Okay...you wanna tell me or…?"

"Got a sweet ass j-o-b lined up for us; you, me, and Bug."

"I get the feeling this is different from our usual gig.”

“I mean, maybe it's not as big as that,” he puts his hands on his hips and shrugs, trying to play coy with his news, “Just that it's fronted by a little-known someone named Dexter DeShawn.”

“What!?”

“Only the top fixer in Night-fuckin'-City! Fat-assed Black Jesus of the Afterlife. Three hundred pounds of partly gold-plated cool.”

Dex Deshawn is one of Night City’s best, a fixer known for working in the Afterlife club, where the best jobs and contracts are done. Two baby mercs like her and Jackie couldn’t dream to set foot in the place, still cutting their teeth and making their name. Hell, Dex hasn’t even been active in NC for two years and V’s still heard of him, leaving that much of a mark on the city. But, she chews the inside of her cheek.

“He’s back in the city?” She asks first, wanting as much detail as possible.

“Yeah, gang wars two years back. Somehow Dex got caught up in the craziness. Lotta bodies lyin' in the streets by the time the shootin' stopped. Eh, Dex got lucky, though. Managed to slip under the radar tir tempers cooled. Took a while… but he's made one hell of a comeback.”

“Two years is a hell of a break, the fuck was he doing?”

“Ah, guessin' he shoved pizzas in his mouth while jerkin' off to hardcore virtus. Important thing is he's back, needs a fresh crew and he found us.”

If he’s made such a comeback and is still that high up in the underground world, why would Dex come to them? They’ve been steadily building themselves up over the past six months sure, a solid network of fixers who work with them and a reputation for clean work. But, they still aren’t legends, not major league players. V isn’t even chipped much beyond the basics. People like Dex have a black book of borged out solos with corp money funding them, that can do basically anything they can do but better and quicker.

Only difference is, they’d be cheaper. So, unless he’s looking to exploit them for some rinky dink shit job…

“Okay,” she signs, deciding to just ask, “but why the hell would he be scouting us? You and me ain’t exactly major leagues yet.”

“You, me - nah. But T-Bug, she's the one that hooked us up, got us talkin’ knew it was a done deal the moment he laid eyes on me. 'Cause, c'mon - ain't nobody who can resist this. Am I right?”

“Wait, when? Where the fuck was I?”

“Uhhh, probably in the sheets with Cece, if I had to guess.”

“You said you had a date with Misty last night!?”

“I did, didn’t I.”

“What the fuck, why didn’t you tell me?”

“Dex is big on meeting his crew members one on one. Wanted to get a read on me, without anyone else around. No point in getting you excited until he was sold on me."

“Okay, fine,” she rolls her eyes, she would have appreciated a heads up, but there’s worse tragedies, “So, what’s the gig? He give you the specs?”

“Well, that's the thing, you see. Our lord and savior wants to tell you everything himself. Face to face, have your turn in the hot seat.”

“Oh, okay… how’d it go with you and Bug?” She can’t help the nerves suddenly bubbling up inside of her. V has to meet one of Night City’s top fixers, convince him she’s worth hiring. That’s only vaguely terrifying.

“Eh, not that bad, but… T-Bug and Dex go way back. And my face is yesterday's news, you’re the wild card here. Dex says he needs to check you, talk to you No pressure, but the whole thing is riding on you at this point.”

“Yeah, no pressure.”

“Ain’t as bad as you think, okay? Trust me. Dex is the real deal when it comes to fixers. Don't get me wrong, don't got nothin' against the Padre or Wakako, but… Dex is in a league of his own You know what I'm sayin'?”

“Still a fixer, may just be roping in the cheapest gonks he can find, so he can drop our corpses in the landfill once everything is said and done.”

“Hey now,” his tone dipping a little lower than usual, “didn’t pull you out of the trash just to see someone to throw you back in, mija.”

She doesn’t miss the softness in his eyes, the hazel green looking at her so affectionately, then his large warm hand ruffles through her hair, bringing that tinge of red back to her cheeks. Mija is a rare term of endearment from him, just that bit more familiar and sweet than his usual chica or jaina. As much as she worries, she knows if anything does go sideways, Jackie will be there to help her.

“I know that, Jackie,” she signs, then jabs his stomach, trying to dispel the tender mood, she searches for a topic switch,“so, when's the meet with Dex?”

"Uhh...now."

"What?"

"Just around the corner, next to Gramsci Burgers, he's waiting on you."

"What!?" She blinks, in disbelief. V has to meet him, today, now. Completely unprepared. Has Jackie lost his goddamn mind?

"Time sensitive stuff, V, we gotta get this ball rolling, and quick.”

“And you couldn’t have said any of this before?”

“No worries, you’ll be fine, I’m gonna go pop in to see Misty,” he points his thumb back over his shoulder, “while you talk us up and seal the deal, alright?”

“Not alright, none of this is alright.”

“You got this, chica, just make us look good.” With a heavy clap on her shoulder, he starts to walk away. Fucker.

“I’ll key your fucking bike!” She signs, upping the volume on her translator.

“Love you too, jaina, text me when you’re done!~” He yells back, knowing her threat is an empty one.

Then he’s gone, disappearing into the crowd around the storefronts. V groans, pinching the bridge of her nose. Why on earth does she let him do this shit? A heads up, that’s all she asks for. Now, she has a meeting with one of the most influential fixers in Night City, with no idea of what to say or how to handle it. Make them look good, how the hell does she do that? He’s a loud mouth and she’s deaf, they sound more like a sitcom duo than a competent pair of mercs.

V shuts off her choker translator and gets her mask from her bag, sliding it onto her face and putting her hood up. The young merc climbs down from Jackie’s bike, leaving the dusty boot print on the seat, a little bit of petty rearing its head. She wrings and twists her hands together as she walks towards Gramsci’s Burgers, boots stomping across trash strewn pavement. She passes by hot pink tinted windows in buildings with strippers dancing to entice passerbys, a large open alleyway where a few groups of homeless people cluster in together.

The merc keeps her head down as she passes a skirmish between a group of Tyger Claws and the NCPD, a blood bath beneath an overpass. Between pigs or tigers; she has no preference. Not her fight. The sound of an emp grenade being thrown, pushes the merc to change the side of the street she walks on, she’s gotten used to the violence of Night City before the smell.

Shaded beneath a cement overpass is a sleek black limousine; Chevillion Thrax 388 Jefferson. An expensive well armored vehicle, one that certainly suits a man of Dex’s status. If the car itself was not enough protection the six foot seven bodyguard standing outside the rear doors tops it off. A portion of his face silver plated and his eyes hidden behind sunglasses. She takes a few steps closer when the large stoic mass of a man sees her. He says nothing, only opening the rear door.

V swallows the lump in her throat and adjusts her mask; nerves pit in her stomach, a chilled sweat on her skin that doesn’t come from the August heat.

The smoke hits her first when she starts to climb inside the car, despite the open windows and door, choking her through her mask. If it were anyone other than Night City’s top fixer, she’d already be gone. Instead she sits in the leather seats, sitting next to Dex. While crude, Jackie’s description was apt.

Dex Deshawn is a large man; dark dreadlocks and a rounded belly. He puffs away on a cigar, his right arm gold from the elbow down. The fixer and Jackie have similar tastes in colors it seems; red, black, and gold. Gold cyberware, a gold watch, and gold chains all adorn the fixer. Red leather vest over a black shirt and red tinted sunglasses hiding his eyes. The guard shuts the car door.

“Miss V, masked merc herself. A pleasure,” he greets her, his voice deep and smooth. His bodyguard is moving to get into the driver's seat.

“Happy to meet you,” she signs and she can see a little twitch in his eyebrow, as her tech translates. Its unorthodox.

“Weren’t joking ‘bout you; no face, no name, and no voice,” he chuckles, seemingly amused at her quirks before speaking to the driver, “let's roll.”

A beat of silence, V’s mind already spinning at those words. Jackie is incredibly excited for this gig, she’d hate to be the reason it tanks, not to mention it’s a great chance for her too. A chance into the major leagues, to really prove herself and make bank doing it. But if Dex is… put off by her secretive tendencies and unorthodox presentation, that could spell disaster.

“Mind if I ask you something right off the bangle?” Dex’s voice pulls her back from her thoughts, the car moving as the fixer switches his cigar from gold fingers to flesh ones.

“Go for it.”

“Would you rather live in peace as Miss Nobody, die ripe, old and smelling slightly of urine? Or go down for all times in a blaze of glory, smellin' near like posies, 'thout seeing your thirtieth?”

The question takes her aback for a moment and the gears in her head start to turn. Honestly, she never even thought she’d make it to twenty. Felt like she’s been living on borrowed time ever since she was a kid; the first press of iron against her skull from her own father at nine. There are corpos pushing two-hundred and she can’t comprehend living beyond thirty. Doesn’t mean she doesn’t want a long, happy life. But, it’s never seemed like an option. She doesn’t necessarily want to die young, it just seems inevitable, but she can’t say she truly cares if she dies old either.

“Quiet life was never on the table for me. But, truth is, no matter the lifestyle you live, we’re all one stroke of bad luck away from death.”

“That so?”

“Look, I’ve been dodging death all my life. Been shot, beat, stabbed, hacked, strangled; you name it, someone’s done it to me. More close calls than I can count. And I’m still sitting here. This girl used to live with her sister, just a few floors above mine. Then she caught a stray bullet coming home from the gas station. Went to buy a snack and a gang fight broke out. She wasn’t in a gang, wasn’t a merc, just a nineteen year old kid who’d chat my ear off about how she wanted to have her own bakery one day. So, why did I make it to twenty and she didn’t? “

Death doesn’t discriminate and it doesn’t care what kind of life you’re trying to live. Its nipped at her heel all of her life, but hasn’t taken her and won’t until it’s damn ready. What’s the point in hypothesizing whether her life will kill her sooner or if she’d live longer if she settled down; neither are a guarantee of anything. She might as well live her life how she sees fit, hit the major leagues, and death will strike her whenever it sees fit. V has watched and heard so many tales of those in her megabuilding, good people, better than her… losing their lives for no good reason. Because there is none; no logic to suffering, no rhyme nor reason to why or when death takes us.

“Jackie did say you think too much,” Dex laughs, “though maybe he just doesn’t think enough.”

“Not the answer you wanted?”

“No right answer, just a pet topic of mine, helps get a read on people. T-Bug voted for the quiet life, been planning her retirement for years. Jackster went blaze of glory, no shock there. And then there’s you, throwing the whole damn question out.”

“Someone’s got to keep you on your toes.”

“Maybe so.”

There’s something in his slight grin, his tone, and smooth voice that tells her this is going well. That somehow, she hasn’t fucked this entire thing up, yet, emphasis on yet. Her hands itch to fiddle with her shirt, no longer signing and needing to keep busy. But she stifles that instinct, forces her leg to not bounce with nerves.

“A’ight,” Dex speaks up after a moment, “listen close. Scannin' a serious job, now. Plain gargantuan compared to smashin' up a scav haunt.”

So, she’s gotten the gig? Don’t act excited, she tells herself, exited puppy merc is not a good look.

“What’s the job?” Moments like this she’s so glad she’s nonverbal, her throat feels like sandpaper. Her palms sweaty as she signs.

“There's this… prototype tech - a biochip, to be precise. Job’s to grab it. Simple.”

“Simple, sure… Assuming the tech belongs to a corp?” It has to be something big for Dex to be scouting for it.

“Mhm - Arasaka. Surely that's no problem?” His brow raises above his glasses.

“Course not, corps fuck us over everyday, be a crying shame not to return the favor every now and again.”

“Shit, you ain’t playing around. Got a feelin' this could be a start of a beautiful friendship built on heaps of eddies.”

“One step at a time, you got some sort of plan for grabbing this chip?”

“Two things,” he holds up two gold plated fingers, “First's a conundrum with the Maelstrom boys. Needs active resolvin', that. Second's a rendezvous. Simple. Client who brought us the job's anxious. She wants to parley with one o' the team.”

V’s face scrunches; why would the client need to meet? Its unusual to say the least, clients don’t usually meet the mercs directly. That’s the entire point of a fixer, a middle man to get them in touch and keep the deal fair. They’ve already got in touch with the fixer and arranged the gig. The hell else do they need?

“What’s the client’s deal? Why she need to meet?”

“Woman's name's Evelyn Parker. Vettin' her wasn't easy. Put the word out was lookin' for any kinda intel…”

The merc rolls her fingers, when Dex’s words drop off, encouraging him to explain further.

“Some brothers from Pacifica got back to me. Tol' me to stop lookin', end of convo, heheh. Anyway, our lil client insisted on meetin' someone with skin in the game - you know, who'll be there for it all. Yours truly'll be remote, T-Bug ain't no people person, and Jackie's only good at some things - I know you know what I mean. Pretty much leaves you.”

“Because I’m sure being unable to see my face or hear my voice will put her right at ease, I’m sure.”

“Ain’t there to give her the warm fuzzies, Miss V. She needs to know I sent a solid merc who does solid work.”

She both gets it and doesn’t. Jackie is the most sociable of their little motley crew, but he can be hard to take seriously, coming across as a bit more goofy. Its not a dig, she loves that about him. But, if you’re trying to convince a client you’ve gotten the best mercs for a job it can be a detriment. T-Bug tends to make people, especially strangers, feel downright insulted. So, V supposes she presents as a middle ground. Serious, yet vaguely off putting in her presentation, but competent and she won’t call the client an idiot even if they are.

“Understood, whats the deal with Maelstrom?”

“Slot in the shard,” he explains, getting a shard from the door compartment, holding it out to her. She takes it and slots into her mask, the interface suddenly clouded with a map and UI interface.

“Got a classic tale for ya. Psychogang, doin' its thing two weeks back jumped a Militech convoy, got away with the gear. Corp don't even know Maelstrom's involved. Now see, convoy was carryin' the Flathead - a little combat bot, a prototype. And I need me that bit o' high-grade military tech. 'Cause if we don't get that bot, we don't get no 'Saka chip. An' we sure as hell don't get no happily ever after. But don't get excited, it's a single-use toy.”

The images shift to show her the bot and its details, it reminds her of a spider. A flat metal base with spindly legs from its sides. The serial coding of the tech comes up.

“Now, I flat out purchased the damn thing from Maelstrom. Problem is, I did so from a gent went by the name of Brick. I say "went" 'cause Brick was the leader. Three days after we'd sealed our deal, his friend and gangmate, one Simon Randall, AKA Royce, plain dropped his ass. Royce is in charge now.”

The interface shows Brick; his actual name Declan Griffin. He has the pretty standard Maelstrom look, more metal than flesh. Glowing red optics implanted into his face, sandy hair shaved on the sides. Then it switches to Royce; no less decked out, but bigger and wider built. His head completely shaved with a thick dark beard; his red eye optics seeming to go further back, like his entire frontal lobe might be gone. Standard Maelstrom attitude; scrap out the flesh that matters, switch it out with chrome and damned the consequences.

“ And I got no way of knowin' if he aims to honor his predecessor's word. To add to this ‘shitstrom,’ one Meredith Stout of Millitech has developed an interest in said convoy.”

A woman pulls onto the screen, long blonde hair slicked back off of her face, icy colored eyes and dressed in tight black corp clothes. Sharp facial features and cyberware around her left eye. Standard corp look. The shard deactivates, nothing more to show, the world comes back to her view.

“New leader, what’s his deal?”

“Straight psychopath- chrome-lovin' kind.”

“And the skirt?”

“Corpo agent, internal affairs, Been skittin' 'round town askin' after the convoy as if her life depended on findin' it. The one lead she got's zip-tied in her trunk. Stick up her ass ain't growin' any shorter, so she must be gettin' desperate. Be wise to think how you could use that,” he smirks, “ ‘Course, to do so you'll need that frazzled cat's info. Sendin’ it now.”

V’s holophone lights up, as Dex’s optics glow beyond his glasses, him sending her the contact information. She’s not entirely sure if and how she’d use the Militech angle.

“Okay, think I got everything I need to get to work.”

“Why that's just music to my ears. I'll set up the meet with Miss Parker at Lizzie's Bar. Flathead, though, is gonna be all you.”

They both go quiet for a moment, V thinking as Dex continues to puff away on his cigar. Dex seems to approve of her, going ahead and giving her the prep work, but this opportunity could still be lost. If the client doesn’t approve or the Maelstrom debacle goes sour. This isn't a done deal, not yet. But she got through step one, which feels herculean. But something is still nagging at her.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Something I wasn’t clear on?”

“Why us, me and Jackie? T-Bug I get, but why me and him?”

“Think I’d be better off looking elsewhere?”

“No, no, I ju-”

“Chill, I’m just teasing, Miss V. I get it, really, not even a year in the city, right?”

“Yeah…”

“As far you’re concerned you’ve barely cut your teeth, right? Wondering why I’m scouting someone out who’s still in merc diaper?”

“About sums it up.”

He’s laughing again, seeming to find her confusion funny, or maybe there’s a joke she’s missing. But that doesn’t make the knot in her stomach go down any easier.

“Talent don’t always recognize itself, I suppose,” he laughs, “thing is I took a break from the city for a good two years and its left me with… a bit of appetite. Wanted to scout a fresh team. New Bug from before and I heard Jackie name around before I took my leave, just in passing not a merc you’d look twice at. Heywood boy with some messy work.”

“Hmm,” she hums behind her mask, hoping this isn’t going to be Dex shit talking Jackie.

“Nothing against the cat, I know you’re chooms, but when I get back to NC and start looking for talent; well turns out Bug is working with Jackie on the regular. Ask her what’s changed, tells me he got himself a new partner. Skilled merc who’s helping him out; stealthy, effective, and damned good at what she does. Bug don’t give out compliments like candy. Ask around a little more, well, damn near every fixer’s got something to say about Jackie and his newest partner Miss V. Six months and she’s more talked about than some mercs who’ve been doing this for years.”

“I don’t know about all that.”

“Believe it or not, I got a couple years on you, Miss V,” he jokes, “so trust me, I know talent when I see it.”

“Thanks.”

Silence falls back over the car ride, V taking in what he’s said. He’s blowing smoke, he has to be, she’s not anything special or talented. She just does a job like anyone else. Maybe Bug’s word does mean a lot, but V still can’t say she’s doing anything more than anyone else.

“One more thing, Miss. V,” Dex says as the car takes a turn, “Quiet life or blaze o' glory?”

She can’t say she has a more concrete answer, still not confident she prefers one to the other. V can’t imagine herself doing anything else, she’s not cut out for it. But, doesn’t mean there aren’t parts of that life she doesn’t crave. Stability, security, and eventually settling down; doesn’t sound too bad. She finds herself thinking of Jackie and Misty. Despite Jackie wanting the blaze of glory, she knows he talks about marrying Misty and having kids one day. His life no more quiet than hers, but he still has plans of becoming a husband and father…

The car starts to slow, pulling up to the curb around Kabuki Market, construction work scaffolding lining a space between two buildings.

“Later, now,” Dex gives a short farewell as the car stops and V gets out of the limo, scuffing her boots across the pavement. The limousine pulls away, leaving V alone on the sidewalk. An empt

She tugs her holophone from her pocket, pulling up Jackie’s contact. The first ring barely starts before he’s answering; his face in a video call panel in her mask’s optics. There’s no doubt in her mind that he’s been messed up with anticipation.

“Just got done chatting with our new fixer.”

“Heheh. Gordito's a big deal - literally and not, yeah?”

“Intense, but guess I faired alright, wants us to klep some tech, but we got prepwork first.There's this combat bot, military prototype. Maelstrom grabbed it. He paid to take it off their hands and then they had a switch in management.”

“Right, right, heard about that. Royce versus Brick - hostile takeover.” Jackie’s tone is terse, uneasy. Valentinos and Maelstrom have a history, while Jackie might have left the Heywood gang, it doesn’t mean that history is suddenly gone.

“Yeah, we got to talk to the new guy, Also gave some details of a Militech agent, in case we could use her to get what we want.”

“Ehhh, I don’t know about that, chica. Militech’s more likely to cut you throat than cut you a deal.”

“Not a fan of getting the corp involved either, but I sincerely doubt they’ll just hand it over. And I really don’t want to have to spend eddies on a tech he already bought.”

“It’s your call V, but I say keep the corpos sidelined.”

“Well, then there’s the other thing. Client who puts the job on the job wants to meet with me.”

“What? Why?”

“Apparently, she’s intent on meeting someone who will be there directly, I got the go ahead.”

“The fuck is Dex gonna do? Ride around in his limo, chat chicks up on the holo?”

“Hey, said it yourself, his job means his rules.”

“Must know what he's doin'… So, how you wanna play this? Maelstrom or Client, what's first?

“Client, she’s the one putting the job on the table. If she doesn’t give us the nod, then there’s no point in risking our neck with Maelstrom.”

“Orale, In that case, I'll head to All Foods, put my nose to the ground, sniff around. Hasta luego.”

Jackie hangs up and V sucks in a heavy breath; checking the time on her holophone. It’s five, an hour until six which is when Lizzie’s opens up. That alone seems like, an interesting choice on the client’s behalf. A braindance club run by the Mox, one of the only gangs V can say she genuinely likes. It’s made up of mostly sex workers who defend other sex workers. The club is mostly used for people to get braindances of the sex workers; but there’s a bar and dancefloor as well. V and Jackie have been there on gigs before. Not a bad little joint, but she has to wonder if this means the client is a Mox, a joytoy trying to rob Arasaka blind?

Speculation will get her nowhere, she decides, rubbing her face under her mask. She has some time and she’s not far from where T-Bug said she should pick up her little gift. A layered roof store on the top of two floored structure across the street, a bridge over the road leading her to it. Having to find a stairway outside the marketplace that loops around to the bridge.

T-Bug sent her to a dark little netrunning shop where a girl wearing dark glasses works at the desk. The exchange doesn’t take long, T-Bug had the clerk save back a Ping quickhack. A fairly basic little daemon that works with V’s mask, contacts, and internal cyberdeck. The clerk lets her play with it, pinging their security camera. Then V’s finding herself leaving the store with barely five minutes killed.

She fiddles with her phone, considering the Militech woman’s contact. Jackie’s right, not that she needed the reminder that corps are a fucking nightmare. But, the truth is she doesn’t truly know what the hell to do about Maelstrom. They need the bot; Dex made that clear. But the chrome loving gangoons don't really like to honor their deals, they’d sooner carve out V’s tongue and replace it with a cyber one just to see what happens. They’re going to expect Jackie and V to pay again. Or they’ll expect a war. And starting a war with a gang, on their turf, while they’re fresh off robbing a Militech convoy… Its a death sentence.

Fuck it, won’t hurt just to meet with the corpo, see if it gives her any ideas. V’s smart enough to handle herself against any corpo bullshit, she decides. Sorry Jackie. She presses the contact and rings Meredith Stout. In a short moment, the corpo woman’s image is in the video call panel. She looks just as she did in the shard, black formal clothes, slicked blonde hair; though the video panel has a layer of smoke as she puffs away on a cigarette.

“Stout here. Start by telling me how you got this number,” she says, a cold sharp tone and it sounds like there's a man groaning, struggling somewhere out of view.

“Little birdy told me you lost a convoy,” V teases, and can see Stout’s expression draw tight, brows furrowed. Then theres another groan, louder and sharper.

“You! Shut him up!” a smack rings out, “Spill what you know. Don't make me wait.”

“Not over the phone, meet me in person and we’ll cut a deal.”

“A deal… Fine. First exit off Skyline driving towards the NID. Storm channel under the overpass - meet you there.”

It’s still not that far away, roughly a five minute drive through China Town and up to Northside. Balls deep in Maelstrom territory; meaning Militech must already have an idea of who’s stole their shit. Not that they truly need the tech back, the militarized corp could lose a few hundred tanks and not see a dent in their bottom line. But pride or something.

She calls her car from her holophone when she reaches the road, her car pulling next to her in just a few moments. V climbs into her car and cringes when the radio turns on as soon as she starts the engine, Jackie’s station of choice coming on. She flips it off and drives, watching as Night City somehow manages to get worse as she gets closer to the meeting spot. Northside, use to be a hub of jobs and opportunity, now its just abandoned buildings covered in Maelstrom graffiti. V would call it the bad part of Night City, if not for every other part of Night City. But it is the biggest eyesore. Hell, Pacifica is a crime infested mess, but at least your mugging will have an ocean view.

V doesn’t go all the way down below the overpass, choosing not to meet them directly and immediately by going through the tunnel. Instead, she takes a left near Charter Street, going up towards the top of the overpass. She stops as the road is cut off by rickety metal gating, a homeless man passing through. V parks and walks through, there’s a bridge that crosses over the storm channel and she drops to a crouch as she walks over it. Getting a look at what waits for her below.

A Chevillion Ragnar Militech van; painted sleek black and armored beyond comprehension. Three people; two muscular guards and Meredith. The guards are chipped to hell and back; intensive cyberware. Something to be expected of any Militech employees, especially ones hired for muscle. There’s a small, childish, urge to hop down and surprise them. But that very well could end with her being shot. Instead, she behaves, makes sure her gun is loaded, and takes the stairs down; ill maintained metal steps with chipping yellow paint.

“Look lively!” Meredith calls out to her men as she catches sight of V, her expression nearly wrinkled with disgust at the sight of the masked merc, but extends her hand, “Meredith Stout. Take it you were the one to call.”

“That’s me,” V starts to sign with one hand and goes to shake the corpos hand with her other.

Then a fist collides the side of her head, quick, heavy it shoots pain through her skull. She’s knocked to the side, falling to the ground, stars dance in her vision. She fumbles to get her knife and stand up, but the guard is quicker, grabbing her wrists and yanking her up to her feet, just to wrench her hands behind her back. He’s easily over a foot taller, able to pull the small merc around and hold both wrists in one hand. Holding V back as Meredith draws closer, gloved hands reaching out and ripping the merc’s mask off, revealing the glowering blonde behind it.

“Thought you could blackmail me, bitch!” Meredith pushes her fingers into V’s hair, then yanking and tugging the merc’s head to the side as the guard shoves a jack into her neural port, “Set conditions?! Got any more for me?!”

V spits in Meredith’s face, her skull is white hot with pain between the yank of her hair and the punch. She can’t help but grin, watching her spit stick to to the corpo’s skin. Meredith lets go of V’s hair; reeling her hand back then smacking her across the face, sharp and strong enough to make the merc’s head move. Meanwhile the guard does god knows what, without her mask or contacts, V has no optic interface to tell her what’s being done; what the Militech goon could be doing.

The van doors open for a second behind Meredith, the other guard yanking a man out of it at gunpoint. A small, weasley guy in a suit with a face bruised black and blue.

“Christ Meredith!” He yells out.

“Shut your trap!” she looks at the guard holding V, “That fucking thing ready?

“All set.”

Leather clad fingers dig into V’s chin, Meredith forcing her head up, no doubt leaving bruises across the merc’s face, “Now answer my questions. Honestly. Forthrightly. Are you here alone?”

“I use ASL,” V forces herself to growl out, blood boiling. Who the fuck does this cunt think she is? Not only has V’s comfort of anonymity been ripped away, but her preferred form of communication is too.

“Sounds like you speak English just fine to me, now answer my fucking question, are you here alone!?”

“Yes. You crazy fuckin’ cunt, I’m here alone!”

“Its the truth,” the guard says, a fucking lie detector, of course.

“Do a sweep, now,” Meredith commands and a silver drone leaves the back of the van.

“Now listen close. This piece of shit,” she looks at her other captive, “Anthony Gilchrist is he your contact? Is he the one who leaked intel on the convoy?”

“Get your fucking hands off of me!”

“You answer to me bitch, Anthony Gilchrist!”

“Got no fuckin’ clue who he is or why I’m suppose to give a shit!”

“Checks out,” the guard tells Meredith.

“Came here cause I know who jacked the convoy, where the tech is.”

“Hmmm,” Meredith hums.

“I told you, I fucking told you, I’m not the mole!” Anthony screams out.

“Shut him up!”

“Unhand me now before I-- ungh!” Without another word Anthony is shoved back into the van.

“Her, you can let go. I wanna hear what she has to say.”

The guard rips the jack out from her neuroport and lets go of her wrists. The skin is bruises she notices as she grabs her mask off the ground, the snaps thankfully not broken as she slides it back on, tension in her shoulders easily only slightly with her face covered and arms free.

“We’re a little beyond that now, don’t you think,” Meredith remarks snidely, rolling her eyes.

“Fuck you,” V signs first thing.

“Stop wasting my god damn time, what do you want?”

“Gang has your tech, given where we are, I assume you know which one. All I want is one combat bot from it, thought we could help each out, but I’m not so sure.”

“Hmm, you have a plan of how to deal with them?”

“They’re expecting payment, but I don’t have the eddies laying around.”

“Course you don’t,” Meredith quips and V rolls her eyes.

“So, without cash, the option is to take it by force.”

“You’ll pay, but with our money.”

Meredith holds out a credchip shard, little chips that hold a certain amount of cash on them. V chews the inside of her cheek, looking at the green shard held in a gloved hand, it seems too good to be true. Because it certainly is. But, she takes the credchip.

“You pay with that chip, and that's all you gotta worry about. Try to fuck me in any way, and I'll be seeing you real soon,” Meredith delivers a final threat before climbing into the van, her last guard clambering into the drivers seat.

“You're making a mistake,” Anthony screams from inside the van as it takes off “This cunt's already good as dead! And she'll take you down with her!”

And then they’re gone; V left with a bruised face, a tender scalp, and a credchip in her hands. Jackie was right, she’s sure, god knows aligning with corps isn’t her way of doing things. There’s no way in hell, a Militech rep is just going to hand off ten grand without a plan.

V takes quick and steady steps back up the stairs and she sees it as she gets above the storm channel. The Militech drone, still hovering. Following her, tracking her. Her hands on her pistol in the next second, promptly shooting the drone down in sputtering sparks. Meredith can fuck off if she thinks V is just going to lead them to the Maelstrom hideout.

The assault and interaction bit up a chunk of time, so she climbs back into her car, time to meet the client. Anxiety pitted tight in her gut as she drives back down the Night City roads.

#cyberpunk 2077 #cp2077 #jackie welles #meredith stout #johnny silverhand #silverv #eventually #aidan becker #aidan v becker #female v #can you feel the sun?

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hewwocopter · 3 years ago

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Bros. Here’s a little taste of what I write when I’m not writing fanfiction, but rather my own original works. I wrote this at the end of 2019, so my writing is bound to be different than it is now, but I think you guys will get a kick out of it!

Also, all my two brain cells are spent on writing fanfiction.

Two McFricking Idiots

Sam and Cheyenne go to the mall.

Sam was bored.

Scratch that, he was extremely bored. Sam isn’t sure that he’s ever felt this bored before, but hey, there’s a first time for everything.

Like that one time he nailed Chicky in the face with a pie? Sure she nearly beat the crap out of him but it was totally worth her reaction. He’d pay to see her get hit in the face again.

Preferably with him ten miles away when that happens of course...

Sam groaned and flopped onto his back, staring up at the sky. He was in a park under a tree, laying in the grass. Cheyenne was sitting next to him staring into space (he could tell she was just as bored as he was). It was mostly void of people as it was too hot for anyone to spend their spare time sweating all over the grass.

Unless they were total idiots.

Which that description fit Sam and Chey perfectly.

Which was why they were here.

Actually, the main reason they were starting to form into puddles of fur and flesh was because Chicky had kicked them out of the house. Apparently, she couldn’t handle a little prank! Who cares if the house was on fire, they could just get another!

Chey looked over at him. “First time?”

“If you don’t stop making meme references I will be forced to skin you alive.”

The cat stopped and stared at him. “But you love meme references, man.”

Sam groaned. “Not if it’s a hundred degree weather and I’m too hot to care about anything right now!” He threw his arms up in the air and let them fall to the ground in defeat. “There’s gotta be something we can do about this.”

”Well, we can either take our fur off which would be incredibly painful, or we can go back to the h-e-double-hockey-sticks which is our house. Which is in flames right now.” She stopped and flicked her ear up. “I can still hear the sirens from the fire trucks, actually.”

Sam snorted. “And my mixtape.”

Chey let out a laugh. “Heyyy! There we go! You’re getting back into the meme spirit already! Although that meme has been dead for like, a year man.”

“Nyehhh. I’m too hot to care.” Sam rolled back onto his stomach, muffling his words into the grass.

There wasn’t much to say after that, so the two sat in silence. An occasional breeze blew into their sweat matted fur, which was blissful for Sam.

After a few minutes, Sam shot straight back up, startling Chey.

“We have to do something!”

“You said that five minutes ago.”

“This time it’s for real. I’m getting sick and tired of this heat,” He stood up, legs tingly from sitting down for so long. “I’m going to get some daggone AC.”

Chey hummed, as though entertaining his thoughts. “That doesn’t sound too bad, actually... where would we go, though?”

Sam smiled, looking down at her. “The store. They’ve got some ice cream and stuff there, duh.”

“That’s a fantastic idea and all, but weren’t we banned from all stores within a twenty mile radius of our house?”

“...”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about....”

A deadpan look. “You were going around the fish section at the grocery, dumping out the fish tanks yelling ‘BE FREE, MY FISH CHILDREN! BE FREE!’”

“I was releasing them from their captivity! And you’re not so innocent either! You were there with me, helping me dump out the tanks!”

“Hey! I’m not about to deny a free snack when I see one!”

“...Fair.”

Chey huffed. “Aight. Good thing we came to an agreement.”

“...Uh huh.”

More silence.

“Remember that one time at Taco Bell where we harassed the employees?”

“Wait, which time? There was that one where you pelted a jerk with Mild Sauce packets and the other where you flipped over three tables before you had to be forcibly removed from the premises.”

Sam piped in. “Hey- don’t forget about when you made their soda fountain explode!”

“Ahh, good times, good times.”

“Yyyyep.”

For what seemed like horrible pacing and a long time, they sat there reminiscing about their shenanigans.

“Wanna go to the mall?”

“Frick yeah.”

—

The two preteens (although they very much did not look like preteens) walked down the tile floor of the mall through the crowd of people. Some looked down and recognized them from their previous... adventures, wisely stepping out of their way.

Pff. Weenies.

There was a wide variety of smells, some varying from delicious foods to even MORE delicious foods. It made Cheyenne’s mouth water. Maybe they could go to the pretzel stand at some point...

They were walking past the generic toy shop when Sam stopped abruptly. “Here!”

Chey looked up at the store, then peered inside of it. There were children bounding around from one display to another, begging their parents to get one.

“Here?”

“I can feel it. There is something in there... it’s... it’s drawing me towards it.”

“You said that at Taco Bell when you snuck into their kitchen and ate their entire supply of nacho fries… which you remember how well that ended, but let’s go anyway.”

“Heck yeah.”

Without further ado, they stepped inside.

Some of the parents took one look at them and dropped the toy they were holding, picked up their child,, and left. One of them even hoisted their daughter over their shoulder like a sack of potatoes. She hadn’t even paid for the doll that the kid was holding.

Well, that was somewhat uncalled for. They hadn’t even done anything yet!

“Sam, what did you say about...?” She trailed off when she saw that the anthropomorphic boy was gone.

She looked around the store, seeing a brunette robot- lady- whatever she was, holding a nerf machine gun. When the lady turned, she was holding the item with a malicious grin as well as a glint in her eyes. Chey stepped back, opting to look for Sam.

“Oh. My. God.”

“Sam?”

“CHEY LOOK I FOUND HIM!”

“Him?” Chey frowned as she rounded the display with a yellow mouse wearing sunglasses and holding a machine gun on it. Behind it, Sam was hugging a box in his arms.

“Wassat?”

“Our child.”

“...What.”

“Hear me out, Chey.”

“You have a few seconds to explain to me why you’re hugging a water gun, before we get kicked out of the store.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Chey could see the store cashier nervously hiding behind the counter, presumably calling for security. They hadn’t. Even. Done anything yet! Give them a break!!

“This... this is no water gun, Chey. He’s special. I can feel it.”

“You’re hugging the box, so, yeah, I guess you can feel it...”

“Nonono! I can FEEL. IT. This water gun- he’s destined for greatness! And that’s with us!”

Chey could hear the footsteps of the security guards coming their way. “Sam...”

“C’mon, Chey! Pleeeease?”

One look into those puppy dog eyes- those dang eyes- had Chey caving in. “Fine, man! Let’s pay for it and get the heck outta here.”

At that moment, the guards stepped into the store. Parents and their kids were looking around confusedly, until their eyes laid on the sight that was Chey and Sam. Another mother picked up her son, hauled him over her shoulders like sandbags, and booked it out of there.

Goodness.

Sam was already on it, though. He jumped and grabbed Chey with his tail, dragging her towards the entrance. She barely had time to throw the money at the cashier, who was cowering behind the counter.

They were met with resistance of course, but Sam was prepared. Somehow the water gun had made it out of the box, and Sam whacked the guard in the face with it.

“VIBE CHECK!”

Another smack, the guard letting out curses as Sam cackled wildly. He let go of Chey and they bolted into the main area of the mall. People were scattering as soon as they saw the two hellions make their way towards the foot court.

One of the guards behind them yelled out. “Oi! Get back-! You’re not supposed to be here!”

Sam, being the entity of chaos he was, ignored the men and went straight for the tables. Chey resisted the urge to groan as he slid under them, knocking them over (while people were still eating at them no less) in an effort to... well, Chey had no idea what he was doing, actually.

Chey shook her head as she sidestepped fallen chairs and the mess of food that littered the floor. Sam was up ahead of her, crashing into more tables and chairs.

The normal noisy chatter of the food court soon became loud yelling and screaming as the customers tried to avoid the onslaught of the entity that was Sam. There was no escape, however. Chey had learned that the hard way.

“SAM!”

Somehow, somehow- Sam had spawned a sock in his hand. He held the water gun in the other, while spinning the sock in circles uncontrollably. There was something at the end of it, and oh g-

More tables went down as the sock knocked them over. It hit people too, socking some in the stomach as they fell down in defeat. The boy(?) left a trail of fallen tables and people behind him as he continued his escape.

Chicky was going to murder them...

Although, this scenario has happened many times before. Why would it be any different this time? Eh, they’d live.

...Hopefully.

#you don’t need to know anything about them to read!#go ham!!#hewwocs #writing #posted 6/27/21 #it’s a butter sock. he was holding a butter sock #the people are fine; just tired of Sam’s bs #hewwo writes

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vannahfanfics · 3 years ago

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Tsuyu’s Extra-Special Snow Day

Category: Friendship Fluff

Fandom: My Hero Academia

Characters: Tsuyu Asui, Izuku Midoriya, Tenya Iida, Ochako Uraraka, Shoto Todoroki

Tsuyu’s eyes were lidded as she smacked her lips contentedly, the heady scent of the coffee brewing in the pot slowly filling her sleep-addled mind with morning clarity. Her hands wrapped around the ceramic surface of a lily pad-patterned cup; her palms could almost feel the warmth bleeding through the painted sides, though the mug remained empty as the dark brown liquid dribbled down into the brew. Placid with the rhythmic bubbling sounds drifting from the coffee machine, she relaxed into the soft, downy cotton of her lime green pajamas and basked in the cloud of warmth floating in that corner of the kitchen. Everywhere else, the chill of winter seeped through the cracks and swirled around like a fell wind, eager to lull Tsuyu into a state of hibernation.

That wouldn’t do, she thought tiredly, reaching for the coffee pot when the machine finally chimed. She filled the coffee cup with a heavy amount of the strong brew, then added some milk and sugar. When the warm, toffee-colored drink kissed her lips, her green lashes fluttered in pure exultance. The caffeine practically exploded on her tongue on the way down to her awaiting belly, and as warmth and energy flooded through her, she hummed loudly. Tsuyu tried not to rely on caffeine to get her going in the morning, but in the deepest thralls of winter when her frog instincts were at their peak, coffee was a must.

She turned towards the kitchen entryway when she heard a stampede of footsteps thundering down the stairs, accompanied by loud giggles and shouts. She watched with interest as her classmates paraded by dressed to the nines in winter gear, streaming out of the dorm like men and women possessed. As she shuffled into the common room, the coffee still pouring past her lips, Izuku slid to a halt to look at her breathlessly.

“Tsuyu, Tsuyu, have you looked outside? The yard is absolutely covered in snow! We’re all going outside to play; you should come with us!” he cried. The excited sparkle in his emerald eyes made Tsuyu’s heart flutter with desire; a day playing in the snow sounded like so much fun. However, a frog girl like her had no business frolicking in freezing weather.

“I’m sorry, Izuku,” she croaked, finally pulling the coffee cup away from her mouth. Her tongue tingled, instantly missing the flood of caffeine. “I can’t play in the snow. If I get too cold, I get really, really sleepy, ribbit. I can get very sick.”

“Oh, really?” Izuku blinked. The way he deflated in disappointment made Tsuyu sad she’d said anything, but it was better than coming up with a generic excuse that would probably make him feel worse. By this time, Tenya, Ochako, and Shoto had come tromping back to search for Izuku, trailing clumps of fresh snow with them. “That’s too bad, Tsu. It’s not fair that you have to stay inside while the rest of us get to go play.”

Tsuyu had never really considered the fact that she couldn’t play in the snow to be too troublesome. It was just a fact of life growing up; none of her family could, so they usually spent snow days inside playing games or watching movies. She’d never really missed it. However, as Izuu gazed at her empathetically, she would be remiss to say that this time, she really did long to know what it was like. Was snow as soft as it looked? How fun was it to make a snow angel? Could she make a snow frog?

Tsuyu’s bottom lip wobbled, prompting her to bring the cup back to her lips to hide how upset she was growing.

“It’s all right, ribbit. You all should go have fun. You shouldn’t stay inside on my account.”

“Now, Tsuyu!” Tenya barked with an emphatic wave of his arms. “What kind of friends would we be if we allowed our classmate to wallow away inside while we enjoyed the best festivities that winter had to offer?” He continued to flap his arms like a robot as he shouted his feelings with all his chest. “I for one would not be able to enjoy myself knowing that you were being left out!”

“That’s right, Tsu,” Ochako smiled as she walked up to her side, gently laying a hand on her arm. “Instead of leaving you behind, we should find a way for you to enjoy the snow with us! That’s what friends do, right?”

“Right!” Izuku nodded firmly. Tsuyu couldn’t hide the shaky smile that curled up over the rim of the coffee cup at their kindness. She blinked a few times as gratified tears bloomed in the corners of her eyes. She really did have amazing friends.

“Okay, ribbit. What can we do?”

“If you can’t go outside, then why don’t we just bring the snow inside?” Shoto suggested with an epiphanic expression, lightly slamming his fist down onto his palm as the idea struck him. “That way the ambient temperature won’t be too cold for her, but she can still enjoy it.”

“That’s a great idea! But, how do we do that?” Izuku frowned. This stumped Shoto, as he immediately tucked his chin into the web of his thumb and forefinger to engage in deep thought. Izuku started mumbling to himself, eyebrows scrunched up tight; the words spilled so fast from his mouth that Tsuyu could only understand snatches of the babble, none of which seemed particularly helpful. While her friends deliberated on her problem, she just drained the last dregs of her coffee and wondered if she should get another cup. Already, the cold was beginning to prickle at her skin, even with the heating system trying its best to fill the dorm with comfortable heat.

“I know!” Ochako squealed suddenly, making the other four of them jump. “We should get everyone’s help using their Quirks! We can shave snow off of Shoto’s ice and transform the common room into a winter wonderland for Tsuyu!”

“Fantastic idea, Ochako!” Tenya commended, chopping her on top of her head as a gesture of praise. Part of Tsuyu wanted to pipe up that their teacher probably wouldn’t approve of winter-wonderlanding the first floor of the dorms, but she was more curious as to how this would turn out, so she decided against it. While the three boys began avidly discussing the best way to go about their plan, Ochako steered Tsuyu upstairs so they could layer her in winter clothes. Even though they would be inside, they still didn’t want the chill from Shoto’s ice to lull her to sleep.

But, Ochako may have overdone it a little, Tsuyu considered when she realized she couldn’t step down the stairs. She was wearing fur-lined boots, two layers of pants, two shirts, a sweater, a downy overcoat, gloves, a scarf, and a hat. Even with the chill permeating the air, Tsuyu was beginning to sweat a little under all that cotton. She grunted as she stretched out her leg as far as she could, but the clothes restricted her movement so much that she couldn’t make it down to the step.

“Ochako, I think we have a problem, ribbit.”

After trying to get Tsuyu down the stairs and nearly sending her tumbling down like a boulder, they opted for just floating her down. When she touched down at the base of the steps, the soles of her boots crunched on a thin layer of ice. She breathed in deeply with awe, stomping around a bit and marveling at the pops and crackles the ice made under her boots. She then slowly looked up, her eyes widening and mouth falling open underneath the scarf wound around the lower half of her face.

The common room was now encrusted in a thin layer of ice. As the light spilled in from the floor-to-ceiling-length windows, the beams refracted off the crystals, making everything sparkle like it was made of diamond. Snow flurries had been thrown up in piles around the room, thick drifts lining the walls. Tsuyu toddled up to the closest one to stick her gloved hands in; even with the dense cotton she could feel the chill clinging to the fibers. She squealed as the soft stuff gave way to her touch, and as she flopped her hands around, snowflakes flurried up into her face. She grabbed a pile of the snow to pack it into a snowball, the first she’d ever made.

She squeaked in alarm as something exploded against the back of her head. She looked around wildly, snow falling from her green hair, until she spotted the pine-green tufts of Izuku’s head peeking out from above the couch.

“Did you throw a snowball at me?” she blinked.

“Maybe,” Izuku shrugged, his cheeks shining pink against the ice-encrusted couch. “Are you going to do anything about it, Tsu?”

Tsuyu looked down at the misshapen snowball in her hands. She then waddled around the side of the couch to look at Izuku, who was crouched down with a small pile of them by his legs. She blinked, then flung hers into his face.

“Pff-pff-pff!” he spluttered, spitting the snow out of his mouth. Tsuyu giggled delightedly at his funny reaction.

“This is the first time I’ve had a snowball fight, ribbit.”

“Tsuyu! Do you want to make a snow angel with me?”

Tsuyu turned around to see that Ochako had made her way to a particularly thick drift. She was lying on her back, sliding her arms and legs back and forth. Tsuyu nodded eagerly and hurried as fast as the cumbersome layers of clothes allowed her to, then flopped down on her back in the snow. It embraced her like a soft and pillowy cloud. Following Ochako’s lead, she flapped her arms back and forth several times, digging deep into the snow. Ochako helped her to her feet once she was done; there in the snow back were two perfect snow angels, with wide skirts and big wings.

“How do you like your winter wonderland, Tsu?” Tenya asked, his breath fogging in front of his face as he trotted up. Shoto came behind him, bits of frost clinging to his skin from where he’d overexerted himself with his Quirk. Tsuyu found her heart swelling with gratitude; they’d done all this work for her, so she could experience what a snow day was like. Her tears turned into little ice crystals, clinging to her dark green lashes.

“It’s really fun, ribbit,” she sniffed. She wiped at her eyes in embarrassment, but only succeeded in smearing snow across her face. “Thank you guys so much…”

“Of course, Tsu!” Ochako said and hugged her tight. The boys followed suit, and Tsuyu’s heart swelled even more as their warmth surrounded her. It was so much better than the warmth of coffee in the morning. “You’re our friend and we want you to have fun, too.”

“That’s a nice sentiment and all—” came a gravelly voice from across the room. All of them whipped their heads around, eyes owlish, to see Aizawa-sensei in his gray sweats and a tee shirt looking at the ice and snow with tired eyes. “—but who’s gonna clean up this mess?”

“Ribbit?” Tsuyu croaked nervously, and they all exploded into giggles, still hugging Tsuyu tightly. They would have to clean up later, but Tsuyu still wanted to enjoy her extra-special snow day just a little bit more.

Enjoy this oneshot? Feel free to peruse my Table of Contents!

#dekusquad #my hero academia #mha #boku no hero academia #bnha

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bubbletimestories · 4 years ago

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Dance with me, doll

Summary : Do you remember the Stark expo where Bucky and Steve go with two young women? What if you were James' date for one night? What if it was a wonderful evening?

Themes : love, dance, hugs, friendship, Stark Expo

A/N : As usal, translated with Google. Quick prompt for a dear friend, happy birthday @harlekin6 ❤️ 🖤 ❤️ 🖤

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27903499

**********************************************************

For the sixth time in an hour, you change your mind about the dress you plan to put on for tonight, examining yourself in the mirror from every angle and regretting that you can't wear nylon stockings, that's more chic. Sitting on the bed, your friend puts on lipstick, sighing, the prospect of spending the evening holding the candle does not delight her at all but you promised you would earn her one. Besides, she will not be alone, this is the opportunity for her to meet a charming young man full of qualities even if there is little chance that she is interested in a weakling with fragile health. You love Bonnie, but she's very… superficial.

- Y/N, is he a soldier at least? - No, he would like to get involved, but there are a couple of things that stop him. It's no worse, it means he's available. - Pff... why are you the only one entitled to the sexy guy in uniform?

The uniform... this is something that attracts women but not you. Well, James is very elegant in his, he wears it beautifully but this outfit reminds you constantly that he is going to risk his life, he who always puts himself at the service of others. You don't want him to be hurt or worse. The truth is, you don't see the soldier in him, only the boy you knew years ago and became friends with. But it would be a lie to say that you don't think of him as a man. At night, you think of him far too indecently for a simple friendship. This way he smiles, as if all the misfortunes in the world didn't matter… You couldn't say when your heart started to beat faster when you saw him but you dream of his smile like a light that would warm you.

Daydreaming too much you'll miss your bus, it's time to finish getting ready and jump in your shoes, there's no way you'll be late. Your gaze lingers on the framed photo on your dressing table, the two young men staring at the lens even though the smaller of the two looks embarrassed. The three of you had gone to see a baseball game but Steve felt sick, poor man. The two nicest guys in Brooklyn, for sure. They have hearts of gold, but tonight you hope you can spend some quiet time with the one you love. Maybe even tell him how you feel.

***

Tomorrow's World Expo has drawn far more people than you ever imagined, people flock to the various demonstrations while you wait impatiently, leaning against a large statue and watching for the crowds. Above your head, a suspended train goes back and forth, sliding with a slight noise. You are still a little worried about it falling on your head, but your attention is constantly being diverted by the music, the fireworks and especially your expectation. Finally, you see Bucky and his friend appear and give them a big sign without being able to stop you from smiling or preventing your heart from beating very hard. What reassures you is that James looks as happy as you that you are together, which is a good thing. He’s even bigger tonight, more manly, but it's probably just your imagination. Your friend gives you a little nudge, her gaze says it all when she sees Steve. Sorry Bonnie, but you'll see he's got plenty of qualities.

You enter the expo, passing between display cases presenting the latest innovations, future inventions such as a spacesuit or research into the use of heat from the Earth's core. This is all fascinating and you go into ecstasies with every step, Bucky's hand tight in yours, your fingers entwined without being ashamed. You can feel him enjoying the moment, happy to be here just as you are to be with him. At no point does he stop smiling, even when you start to pull him more excitedly towards the stage where Howard Stark is going to present his latest invention. You've heard a lot about this playboy engineer but genius in his field and you can't wait to see what he came up with. Applause crackles as lovely young women in tuxedos announce the arrival of Mr. Stark, just as you manage to slip into the front row. Having not said a word since arriving, Steve uses the moment to offer a peanut to Bonnie who ignores him royally. For their part, it will be a sword in the water, it's official.

"Ladies and gentlemen, what if I told you that in just a few short years, your automobile won’t even have to touch the ground at all. With Stark robotic reversion technology, you’ll be able to do just that. "

As the engineer speaks, the ladies remove the wheels from the vehicle and you lean in a little more curiously, feeling an equally attentive James close to you. An engine noise is heard, the car hums and lifts several inches under your astonished eyes. How amazing is a flying car? This is original, even futuristic. All excited, you hug yourself against the soldier's arm, happy to share this special moment with him. Unfortunately, the technology is not yet fully developed and sparks start to crackle before the car slams into a crashing crash. Howard Stark makes fun of it and you laugh heartily before asking Bucky to go dancing. The night is beautiful, the mood is right and you can feel his fingers against yours, it's perfect. The young man turns to suggest the idea to Steve, but he is gone, disappearing into the crowd.

"Sorry Doll, I’ll go see what he’s doing and I come back soon. Don’t fly away "

You promise to wait for them, your smile way too big and way too bright right now, you can't help it. It's stronger than you, Bucky makes you feel like that every time. You watch the soldier cut through the crowd easily, he looks so good in his uniform but you prefer him in a shirt, on days when you were just chatting together, when he happened to chop wood. The eyes shining with the effort, the muscles sticking out and the sleeves of his shirt rolled up… You had felt so funny in front of him. While James is gone to find his friend, you turn to Bonnie with a laugh.

"Don't look like this, cutie, we're having fun. Okay, Steve isn't muscular and very manly, but he's kind, caring, very smart and… you don't really care. Okay, I got it, I promise to make it up to you again. But I'm having a magical time! "

If she is mad at you for forcing her to hang out with a weakling, your friend is glad to see you so happy and she's fixing your hairstyle, making sure she can figure out how to charge you. You both laugh as you watch your partners return from the army pavilion. What makes sense when you know Steve's desire to get involved and serve his country in this terrible war. The two are arguing and it seems the tone is rising, you don't want them fighting since they are like brothers. How many times has James told you about his friend, his worries about him ...

“Hey, Sarge! Are we going dancing?"

You wave at him, hoping to divert attention and interrupt their argument, your hand clenched in Bonnie's, who rolls her eyes. Your intervention nevertheless seems to bear fruit as the two men give each other a brief hug before Bucky comes back to you, putting a hand on your waist with that smile that would melt an iceberg. He gives you a glance, declaring that the orchestra is playing your song and without further ado, he leads you to the track, not without asking Bonnie if she doesn't mind that he steals you from her for a moment. Your friend bursts out laughing, too happy to be able to throw herself into the arms of the first handsome soldier. Maybe you should be worried about her, but she knows how to defend herself and you want to enjoy every second with the sergeant. James takes your hand in his as you spin around in the middle of the other couples, your bodies tight as you keep your eye on each other. You gladly get lost in icy blue pupils, listening to music only with a distracted ear.

- Is the evening to your liking, doll? - Obviously, I've seen some amazing inventions and I'm dancing with the most beautiful soldier of the event, what more could I ask for? - Um ... I have an idea or two ...

The teasing look James gives you makes you blush and you can't imagine what he's got in mind, he's still so playful but a gentleman. You lean lightly against him, letting him guide you to the rhythm of the songs that come together without you realizing it. Bonnie slips away after a while, in lovely company even though you know nothing will happen. She has a knack for stopping things when she wants to. For now, you are not sure how far you would like to go with the young man tonight, you only think of the touch of his hand in the small of your back, the way he looks at you as if you were the most beautiful woman in the world.

Most visitors are long gone by the time you finally decide to come home after a drink or two and too many dancing to count. With rosy cheeks, you catch your breath as you squeeze the flaps of the jacket Bucky put on your shoulders so you don't get cold. It's far too late to take a train, he walks you back to his car, one arm around your shoulders hugging you gently against him. If this is a dream, you don't want to wake up. Everything is perfect and you are enjoying it all the more since you know the man you love is going to go fight soon. You suppress a smile when you see James' car, it's far from a Rolls Royce with its noisy engine and dented hood, but it's his little treasure and he takes great care of it. You sit on the bench which smells like its owner, a mixture of cinnamon, sandalwood and obviously leather. For a brief moment, you imagine coming home, to an apartment that is all your own, where you are newlyweds. Luckily, it's too dark for anyone to see you blush. The journey seems way too short to you and you refuse to go back, staying on the steps in front of your building, keeping Bucky's hand in yours. He traces circles with his thumb, his blue eyes shining like two stars in the night.

- I had a great evening, thank you Buck-buck. - The pleasure was mine, Y/N, I can't wait to do it again. - You better come back soon so we can dance again then. - Promised. In the meantime, we just have to seal this deal.

And with infinite gentleness, he puts his hand on your cheek as he straightens up, pulling you against him as he envelops you in the warmth of his arms, catching your lips in a tender kiss where you feel a touch of impatience. You've been holding yourself back for a long time and you close your eyes, kissing him in turn, a hand on the back of his neck whose short hair you stroke, being careful not to drop his cap. You don't even feel your leg lift up like a pin-up on a poster, but that’s the impression you make, the pretty young woman kissing her soldier.

#fic #stark expo #1943 #love #happy birthday my dear friend #bucky #bucky x reader #sebastian stan #james bucky barnes

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kasu-meow · 5 years ago

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⭐SE Heacanons - Ellie’s reaction to her prank failing/someone spoiling her plan:

Whether it was the perfect prank or just a small idea she came up with on a whim, you can be sure she planned everything to the last detail

So, when her target (probably Tadashi) starts moving right on schedule, she can feel the excitement bubbling up in her chest and it makes her want to jump around

At least, that’s till an unplanned-for disturbance shows up on her radar

Be it Alistair distracting Tadashi and making him go elsewhere, or a random student telling him to “watch out” for something, or whatever other interruption that could have occurred that was unaccounted for, that means her plan is now ruined and she can feel the excitement wearing off

If you’re the one who unknowingly spoiled her prank and you happen to notice what you just did and try to confront her, she will jokingly snap at you a little (not that jokingly, though) and tell you you two are cool, but you can notice a tinge of annoyance in her voice

She will try to take her frustration out on whatever robotic project she was working on at the time, angrily tinkering with the pieces and scaring off all the other students in the computer lab

She wants to forget about it already, but she has a bad feeling in her chest that she can’t seem to shake off, it’s the same feeling she gets when she has to leave one of her projects unfinished, and she can’t stop picturing how glorious Tadashi’s face would have been had she been able to go through with her plan

The fact that she couldn’t probably saved her from a couple hours of detention though and she is grateful for that at least, or so she tells herself

You can see that she has been grumpier lately, her signature grin replaced by a small pout and furrowed

You ultimately decide that you can’t stand seeing the ray of sunshine so depressed, so you take matters into your own hands (and if you were the one who ruined her plans, let’s face it, you feel a little guilty too)

It might take a couple sleepless nights, but you devise the perfect prank, one that you are sure will cheer up Ellie

You make sure to account for every possible disturbance, maybe you even get a couple accomplices, and when you are sure there is nothing else you could possibly adjust or perfect, you finally decide to let Ellie in on what you’ve been planning

You approach her after class and you present her with your masterpiece, giving her the command and the main role in the operation

Ellie’s eyes light up and you can see that spark that defines her make its why back to her face, and before you know it, your eyes are met with her usual, sunshine-filled grin

You carry on with your plan and your unsuspecting victim (probably Tadashi) falls for it just as expected and in your humble opinion, it’s glorious

Until Tadashi spots you and starts angrily walking towards you, detention slips already in his hands

That’s when you feel a tug on your sleeve, and you notice Ellie by your side, gesturing to you to start running

As you two hastily make your way to the garden, leaving a series of Tadashi’s swears behind, you can’t help but laugh

“That was the perfect prank,” you tell Ellie

“Perfect? Pff. It was a good one, I’ll give you that, but you’re still an amateur! I’ll show you what a perfect prank looks like… next time.” And she winks at you

A blush starts making its way to your face, but before you can react to her words in any way, you are met with a detention slip (more like a detention slap) right to your face

Tadashi managed to catch up to you two, so maybe it wasn’t the perfect prank after all

Detention with Ellie doesn’t sound so bad to you, though…

#sweet elite #se headcanons #sweet elite headcanons #se ellie #ellie collins #ellie headcanons #i'm so nervous!! this is my first time posting my writing on tumblr >_<#well my tags don't really work anyway ahah

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purplerose244 · 5 years ago

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Of Koi and Kindness

Hello everyone, here’s a fic for the Ninjago Secret Santa hosted by @coco-jaguar! Thank you so much for you work and dedication, I had a lot of fun like every year, it’s one of my favorite events 😍

This is my present for @ookamihanta, one of my favorite artists in this fandom! An absolute pleasure writing about your OCs, I hope I gave them justice! I love your art and I hope you spent the best Christmas! 😊😊

Here we go, enjoy! ^ ^

(These characters do not belong to me, they belong to ookamihanta for Sunny and Chiru, and the Ninjago crew for Ronin)

“Chi, I don’t wanna be that person… but it’s been one full hour since you started trying, so I’ll be that person.” Sunny sighed, shaking her head at her friend’s apparently unbreakable concentration over the target. “You’ve tried enough. It’s time to go. Come on.” There were many other ways she could had spent that snowy night. Stuck in front of a shooting gallery with a very mediocre thrower didn’t really come first on her list.

Chiru pouted, holding the ball in his hand for dear life.

“But this is the one! I can feel it!” That guy could have a future as a writer. ‘But this is the one I can feel it’, a biography by sore loser Chiru. He squeezed his eyes, eyeing the cans that were his targets. “I just… have to… aim…”

Sunny shook her head.

“Cupcake, there’s a Cafe with a special menu for smoothies just waiting for my order, please? I’m dying for a strawberry and banana right now.” And for a warm place to stay in in general, her coat was warm enough but her cheeks were starting to hurt. Winter festivals were fun, especially in the center of Ninjago City. But only there someone could find a shop for antiquity – apparently in possession of a very flawed heater –, that for some reason decided to set up a very attractive looking shooting gallery with koi fishes as prices. Just what she needed with Chiru and his newborn burning desire to have a koi fish.

When the fist sneeze came out Selene gulped nearby, her big blue concerned eyes all over her. Her cat grabbed her pants, almost climbing the girl by herself. Sunny picked her up, leaving her snuggling around her neck like a black fur collar. She was fluffy and warm, the perfect scarf. Sunny scratched her head to thank her, earning a satisfied purr.

Chiru grunted, throwing the ball again. It got the cans, but not enough to make them fall over. The man at the stand, sitting on a chair with his feet on the counter, snickered. He had a big hat slightly inclined over his face, partially hiding his eyepatch.

“Not like I wanna interrupt the stream of money… I really don’t, keep going.”

“I’m gonna get the fish, you just wait old man!”

“Feel free to try as much as you want kid, you don’t hear me complaining.” The man looked at the teens, smirking. “And it’s Ronin. Wanna know an old man, spend like two minutes with one of the ninja. That geezer master can come from everywhere.”

Sunny’s eyebrows went up.

“That Ronin? Aren’t you supposed to be in jail? Or with the heroes?… or both?” That name sparked too many controversial big newspapers titles.

“Not today, today I got these koi fishes from an old client and discovered that for Christmas kids don’t want fishes… but dragons. ” He shrugged, bring his hands behind his neck. “It’s a sad time of the year for pet marketing. Alas this is the only productive method I came with to earn some money and try to get rid of these little things at the same time. They call me many, many, many unhappy names, but lazy isn’t one of them.” Looking at the robot arm and the variety of mechanical components of his body, it seemed a sincere statement.

Aaand another ball thrown pointlessly got stuck into one of the items hung on the wall – some kind of trophy with a blade on top of it, how bizarre. Chiru growled, dropping his head on the counter, the red and blue locks of his white hair falling flat on the surface.

“This game is rigged!”

Sunny smiled sympathetically at him. She turned to Ronin.

“Can’t I just buy one? You said you just want money and for the koi fishes to be gone.”

“I mean yeah. Although, first, that defeats the economy purpose. Statistically I gain more by his tries than his victories. Then second… of course, I wouldn’t have half the fun I’m having right now.” The ball slipped from the trophy and fell down, Chiru growled louder in response. “Aha, see? I haven’t had this profitable entertainment since fire boy tried to negotiate with me for an aeroblade!” Ronin shook his head, getting more comfortable into his position. “Wanna try too, kid? To avenge his fall or some hero baloney?”

Sunny frowned, looking at her friend still dulling over the counter. After all, it was a Christmas present like another, and he really wanted a koi fish. But she had another plan in mind for the execution. She took Selene off her neck – shivering – and placed her down, then scooted closer to the guy, a hand on her hip.

“How about a deal instead?”

Ronin arched an eyebrow.

“I’m listening.” She leaned her elbow on the counter, offering a hand. “Arm-wrestling? Please sweetheart, I’ve been in Ninjago long enough to recognize an elemental master when I see one. Not gonna fall for the old ‘I’m totally not magical’ trick.”

Sunny smiled brightly at him.

“Elemental master of Moonlight to be precise, nice to meet you. With my good friend master of Blood right here.” Chiru waved without getting his head off the counter. “And I wasn’t going to use my powers, don’t worry.”

“How can I trust you?”

“Well… I’m not you?”

The man snorted, pondering for a moment with the face of someone who just really wanted to forget for a moment about working in a freezer-like shop as a living – or maybe it was just her. Ronin looked at the guy dulling all over his counter and shrugged, getting up and grasping her hand. It was the rough hold of someone who’s been through a lot.

“Why not. Bring it on, kid.”

“Gladly.”

They looked at each other for a moment, her calm expression and his sly smile. Then, on an imaginary bell somehow replaced by Selene’s determinate meow, they both started to push through their hold, trying to make the other fall back. Ronin grunted, holding on as Sunny’s hand trembled for the effort, putting more strength. They stayed in the middle long enough for the both of them to silently pant – and for the defeated with white hair to take a little peak. Then finally Sunny’s blue-polished snails clenched strongly around her rival’s hand, slowly and with an unbearable pace pushing him against the counter.

As soon as he lost the man exhaled the longest breath, looking at her in disbelief.

“You gotta leave half of a dignity, girl. Please tell me you used your powers.”

“It was a power, yes… it’s called workout.” Ronin widened his eyes then started laughing. Sunny giggled too, while Selene jumped skillfully over the counter happily watching her. “But it was a nice challenge, I thought all the strength you had was in the robot arm, not this one. And I’m pretty sure I would had noticed a hero slash public enemy walking around a gym.”

“Pff, I would never do something this fancy, I just need to compensate for what I do for money.” Ronin shrugged, pointing at his treasures for sale. “If you run away as much as I did you end up putting some muscles without really trying. Well, Moony, a deal is a deal I guess.” He looked a little grumpy, the kind you pretend to be just to playfully make things a little less too easy. He opened the fishbowl with all the koi fishes, pointing at it. “Alright kid, which one?”

Chiru finally got up from his gloomy position, wearing a very annoyed look. He slowly put his black mask over the mouth, then pointed at Sunny, who blinked in confusion.

“Didn’t need help. Could’ve done on my own.” His muttering against the cloth sounded extremely sheepish. And his pouty voice and freckled cheeks reddening said otherwise.

Sunny snickered.

“You’re welcome, cupcake.” The colorful koi fishes were swimming rapidly in the little container, scooting a little further when the master of moon peaked at them closely. White, red and black, so color so bright over the scales. “They are so beautiful… Selene don’t you dare!” The black cat stopped the paw in midair and looked annoyed at her master, even while obediently complying. “Well, which one do you like the most?”

Chiru took the mask down. He hummed and looked over as well, still squinting his eyes.

“I don’t know…”

“Is anyone looking at you?”

“Of course they are, I look like a beacon of light!” He grinned, blowing a lock of hair with superiority. Then his eyes widened and he suddenly squished his nose against the glass. “Wait a second, why is that spot so slow?”

Ronin frowned. Sunny shrugged.

“He has bad eyesight, he means the fish.”

“Oh, well, I think the little guy or gal has a lame fin, don’t know if it happened during the fishing or the transport. It can’t help it I guess.” Those big eyes were definitely ahead of him, since Ronin immediately frowned. “You want this one?” The guy nodded convinced. “Well alright, it’s your choice.” Ronin took a plastic bag and a little net, making sure to properly seal the bag with the little koi fish inside. “Here you go kid.” Chiru looked in awe at the fish being extended towards him. He slowly took it with his left hand, never taking his eyes off. The coat he was wearing barely hid his missing right arm, the stump was leaving half sleeve empty. Moving it right now, it kinda looked like a fin. The same fin that was still making it swim. No matter what happened.

Slowly a sweet smile appeared over his face.

Sunny’s eyes softened. Selene immediately rushed to get to the same spot around the girl’s neck, purring softly. The elemental master of Moonlight then turned to the man, leaving on the counter a handful of coins in front of a very confused expression.

“Why…?”

“I kinda played at your shooting gallery, so I’ll pay it as a shot.” She smiled at him. “Thank you, you didn’t have to just agree with my little game.”

“… ah, you kids are so corny.” The man rolled his eyes and took the money, a big smirk on his face. “Get out of here and get yourselves a nice Christmas I guess. At least until this city will be under attack again.” He went to get busy over his merchandise as the teens got out, muttering something about strong female elemental masters always getting the best over him.

The streets were covered in white wonder, it had been since a few days already. The roads and the buildings all together looked created a winter wonderland, with different areas set up for ice-skating and random stands selling hot cocoa. The decorations were bright and colorful, from the big neon signs of the different shops to the Christmas lights climbing every single corner. Walking along the main street many citizens were just wandering around, cute families getting closer to each other with big smiles, nice couples holding hands running towards the closest warm place. It was a rare sight in such a chaotic place.

Sunny sniffed the air, the coffee scent already present. Just one of her favorite Cafe, with a big selection of smoothies in the menu. Just when she eyed the wolf shaped sign of the place, with the irreplaceable O&H signature, Chiru cut her off, suddenly entering some kind of bakery nearby. Sunny froze, a little startled, looking through the shopping window. The guy looked very impatient as he ordered, struggling to hold that new package and the fish with one hand.

When Chiru finally got out he looked at Sunny, still pouting a little. Then he slowly gave her the little pink box of what seemed to be a strawberry shortcake.

“I could’ve got them without help, really! But… thank you.” He blushed, more for the embarrassment than the cold – so there was no backup excuse for that. And even though it was one extremely cute reaction, the master of Moonlight decided that seeing him frowning for an hour over a game was teasingly enough. So she smiled thankfully, taking the present, slowly starting to walk again with the master of Blood by her side.

“So, how are you going to call it?”

“… I don’t know if it’s male of female, I would like to know first. Until then… Nemo I think.” Chiru shrugged. “Too obvious?”

Sunny giggled, scratching her cat’s chin.

“You’re telling me? She’s Selene because of the moon goddess, I can’t exactly judge.” A big bang made them both tremble, but the shiver turned into excitement as a bright green firework exploded into the night sky. “Would you look at that…” Selene meowed, a little concerned, snuggling closer to her neck. After a few more bangs she was already getting used to it, her tail twirling just a little harshly after every single boom.

Chiru held Nemo as close as he could, looking at the show just like all the people that had decided to just stop and watch. Like there was time for beautiful things. Like there was no rush when there was enjoyment. He looked at his friend, smiling.

“Merry Christmas, Sunny.”

Sunny turned to him beaming. Another explosion of light reflected sparkles of purple into her soft cyan irises, adding just another shade of beauty.

“Merry Christmas, Chiru.”

#ninjago #lego ninjago #christmas #christmas fanfiction #ninjago oc #original character #ookamihanta #oc #sunny #chiru #fanfiction #ninjago fanfiction #ronin #ninjago ronin

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saanphoenix · 6 years ago

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This goes out to @edwobcharlisle, who just really wanted Connor in booty shorts.

Disclaimer: There’s a lot of swearing and Reader has about the same emotional awareness as Connor, tbh.

Word Count: ~2400

You gasp for air as you chase after Connor. He’s hot on the tail of a suspect--burglary, caught on camera a few blocks back--while you… You’re not-so-hot on the tail of Connor. You’ve been trying to keep up, legs and side screaming at you for the injustice you’re putting them through, but you’ve missed a few...weeks...at the gym, so caught up in work as you’ve been. It shows. You should be faster than this. You’ve been faster than this. But now? Now you’re yards away, hyper focused on the flapping Android jacket of your temporary partner’s while you pray he doesn’t take to jumping over any fences or taking any hairpin turns because you--

Connor hangs a right, down another alley. The action is precise. No doubt calculated to use his momentum to his advantage.

You have to grab hold of the brick wall to slingshot yourself around before you slam into a dumpster. The flesh it scrapes off your hand doesn’t feel too good but you make do. Everything else is burning, what’s one more thing?

The moment your eyes land on the chain link fence in the near distance you cringe. You can make it over. It’ll slow you down even more, and you won’t like it, but you can do it.

Thankfully, you don’t have to. The suspect slows in preparation of his climb and Connor, not needing to do such a human thing, keeps going. The man grunts as Connor collides with his back, tackling him to the ground.

“Man, get offa me!” The guy wheezes, Connor’s knee in his back. You fall beside them. Grabbing a hold of the suspect’s arms, with Connor’s assistance, you put him in cuffs. “I didn’t do anything!”

“Yeah, that’s why you ran,” you sass, breathless.

“Because you were chasing me!”

“We have you on camera,” Connor replies. He doesn’t flounder nearly as much as you do when the suspect tries to throw both of you off. “There’s no point in lying.”

Cuffs secure, you step back and let Connor haul the guy to his feet. There’s fight left in him, but the vice grip Connor has on his arm and the intense stare he gives keep the man in check. Connor may be a deviant--hell, all androids are now, technically--but that doesn’t detract from how robotic he can seem at times, like a machine hellbent on completing its task. A machine you don’t want to cross.

“Fuck you! That wasn’t me.”

Connor clearly isn’t convinced. After all, you know Connor can identify anyone with a quick face scan. There’s no way in hell this guy isn’t the burglar. Unless he has a twin who was wearing the same exact outfit and who just so happened to be in the same area at the same time.

You roll your eyes. “Save it for the station.”

“Don’t I get rights?”

“No--”

“You have the right to remain silent,” Connor interrupts. “Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you. Do you understand the rights I have just read to you?”

The suspect glares at him.

“With these rights in mind, do you wish to speak to me?”

“Fuck. You. I’m not talking to no fucking cop, and certainly not an android.”

Connor ignores the dig. You scoff and shake your head. “C’mon, let’s get this asshole back to the car.”

“I ain’t--”

“Either move your damn feet or we’ll drag you,” you snap. “You’ve done made me chase you across Hell an’ half o’ Georgia. I don’t have the patience for your stupid temper tantrum. Maybe next time you decide to steal something, make sure there’s no cameras, asshole!”

The man huffs at you, mouth set in a pissed-off frown, but as Connor tugs on his arm, he follows.

Back at the station, burglar in his cell and waiting for his public defender, you plop into your chair. It used to be Hank’s chair, but with the lieutenant on administrative leave it’s yours until he gets back. Whenever Fowler decides that’s going to be.

You scrub at your face with your hands.

“Something wrong?” Connor asks you. When you peek through your fingers at him, he explains, “You’re usually not this upset after catching one of the bad guys.”

You sigh and lean back, hands plopping into your lap. “It’s just… I’m tired. And I shouldn’t be. I ran for a few minutes and I feel like an old man. No offense to Hank.” Connor smiles, a quick twitch of his lips, and lets you continue. “I was way too far behind you. What if something had happened?”

“Nothing happened.”

“What if something had?” You stress. “I wouldn’t have been able to get to you in time. I’m too damn slow. And the kicker is, I used to not be!”

“I do recall you being able to keep up with me that morning we went jogging together.” He’s teasing you. You can tell by the inflection in his voice and the subtle expression on his face.

You snort. “You sure you didn’t just slow down so I could keep up with you?” When Connor cheekily doesn’t respond, you fake offense, gasping dramatically. “Connor, how could you! You know I can’t improve if you sabotage me like that!”

“I did no such thing,” Connor replies smoothly. He nods, face contemplative. “If anything, this just proves you let yourself go.”

“Ouch. Twist the knife a little more, why don’tcha?” You sigh. “But you’re right. I haven’t worked out in forever. I know I should’ve, but paperwork upon paperwork upon interviews… Time flies.” You nod to him. “You’re lucky you don’t have muscles to atrophy.”

“I am.” He sits down on the corner of your desk, head tilted to the side. He’s scheming. You can’t guess what until he opens his mouth again. “Why don’t we go to the gym?”

“What? Now?”

He shrugs. “Our shift’s almost over. They’ll have someone else interview the suspect we caught. I don’t see why we couldn’t.”

Until now, you’d been under the impression you were going to go home after work to ruminate on your physical shortcomings some more, but the longer you stare into Connor’s eyes the quicker that plan fades from your mind to be replaced by Connor’s suggestion.

To hell with it. You’re feeling spontaneous. “Yeah, alright.” You stand up from your chair, only too late realizing doing so has put you soundly in Connor’s space. He doesn’t seem to mind, but you find it a little unnerving to have him looking up at you with his head so close to your chest. You turn to reach for your keys, using the action as an excuse to give you both some room.

You step back to free him from the confines of your desk and he hops off to join you. You hold up your hand. He stops, curious.

“Before we go, I need to go home and change. This--” you motion down to your work clothes, “--is not good for sweating in.” You pause and consider his own attire. “And you should probably do the same.”

He frowns. “Why? I don’t sweat.”

You huff a laugh, “Yeah, but it was awkward enough jogging along with a guy wearing a suit jacket and a tie. And I’ve definitely never seen someone wear such an outfit to the gym. Shorts and a tank-top? Athletic wear? Yes.” You smile fondly at the pout Connor gives you. You can see he understands what you’re getting at, he just finds it foolish since it’s not practical to him. “You’ll stick out like a sore thumb, trust me. If you don’t have anything, I’m sure Hank could help.”

“He’s not home.”

“How do you--”

“I know his schedule.”

“Right.”

“I’ll think of something,” Connor dismisses. He smiles at you. “I’ll meet you there.”

“Okay.” You make it two steps away before you turn around and frown at him. “You know where my gym is?”

Connor’s smile morphs into a smirk. “I noticed the card in your wallet.”

“You went through my wallet?” You accuse.

“I saw it when you purchased donuts this morning.”

You nod slowly. “Is there anything you don’t notice?”

“There’s a few things.” He teases with a hint of truth.

It takes you about a half-an-hour to arrive at the gym, what with the drive home, change of outfit, and drive there. You expect Connor to already be there but he’s not. You don’t let the fact bother you too much, chalking it up to him having trouble choosing an outfit. Instead, you set your sights on a treadmill near the back. The TV above it plays the news. You wish you had access to the remote. Nothing is less motivating than the sorry state of the world.

When you finally see Connor enter the building in the mirrors you’re facing, you nearly fly off the treadmill. You turn the machine off hurriedly and spin around to gawk at the android as he spots you and begins to walk towards you.

You’re not the only one who’s noticed him. Damn near everyone in the gym has, some in confused disgust and others with hints of approval. You wonder if any of them know he’s an android, lack of LED making him appear completely human. A fact that might be awkward to some of the ones giving him more appreciative looks.

“What in God’s name are you wearing?” You breathe as he stops before you.

The smile he’s wearing slips as he blinks and tilts his head. The disbelief in your voice causes him to frown. “You said shorts and a tank-top or athletic wear.”

“Wah-- Uh-- Pff.” You reply eloquently.

Shorts. You’d said shorts, not booty shorts. Black booty shorts and a salmon-colored tank top. Connor is a disaster. A good-looking disaster but a disaster nonetheless.

At your silent gawking, he asks, “What’s wrong with my choice?”

You tear your eyes away from his legs and try to remember that his eyes are in his face and that that’s where most people talk to during a conversation. You immediately regret your decision because now you’re faced with a choice--risk hurting his feelings or let him feel good about himself.

“Nothing,” you squeak. You clear your throat. “Nothing. It’s just, uh, you have some really nice legs. Great form. Cute moles.” If you resemble a deer in the headlights it’s only because now you’re wondering if you’re flirting or not and if that’s a good idea.

Connor regards you and you get the feeling he’s just as unsure about your intentions as you are. He recovers quickly, however. “Thank you,” he replies. “They were designed in a lab.”

The joke effortless releases the tension and you can’t help but grin. “Yeah, well, mine were designed by my parents, so.”

“CONNOR!”

Both of you flinch at the very loud shout of Hank’s. You look in horror to the front door Hank’s just entered in.

The man’s wearing an old hoodie and some equally well-worn shorts, a small bag dangling in his loose grip. His slack-jawed look moves from Connor’s face to his legs to his face to you and back to Connor’s legs again. He gestures with his free hand towards the android.

“What the hell are you wearing?!”

Connor’s shoulders slump as he looks from the lieutenant back to you. He’s pouting again, no doubt frustrated and annoyed at the fact the two humans that he’s spent the most time around don’t seem to like his clothes for some unnamed reason.

You put your hand on Connor’s shoulder as Hank comes stomping over and wordlessly convey that you’ve got this. You’ll take one for the team.

“I’m sorry, Hank.” You apologize. “I wanted to work out, Connor volunteered to accompany me, but he didn’t have any clothes, so… I gave him some of my old ones.” You can feel Connor’s gaze on the side of your face but you maintain eye contact with Hank. You have to sell the lie.

“So you gave him booty shorts?” Hank demands.

“Well--”

Hank turns his attention to Connor. “Why didn’t you just ask me for some clothes?”

“You said you weren’t going to be home,” he defends.

“Because I was coming here!”

“...Oh.” Connor shakes his head. “I’ve never known you to go to a gym.”

Hank sighs. “That’s because I haven’t had the energy. Still don’t. But I’m never gonna get the energy if I don’t get off my ass and do somethin’. And being on leave’s just making me stir crazy.” He shrugs. “I figured, ‘What the hell?’” He scoffs. “But now I gotta see everyone in the joint making goo-goo eyes at my partner.”

You reach out, slap Hank on the shoulder, and ignore the affronted look he gives it. “Aw, don’t worry Hank. I’m sure with a little time and effort, you’ll be able to rock some booty shorts yourself, and then everyone’ll make goo-goo eyes at you.”

“Oh, fuck you,” is Hank’s immediate response. He throws his hands up. “You two can wear all the Daisy Dukes you want. Leave me out of it.”

You lean conspiratorially over to whisper loudly to Connor, “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

Connor leans his head down closer to yours to do the same. “He does seem a bit jealous.”

“Is that so?” Hank questions. He then flips both of you off and turns on his heel to walk away. He walks clear across the room to a free weightlifting machine, plops his bag down, and sits. With a cheerful smile, he waves to the two of you and then proceeds to flip you off a second time.

“Ah. Good ol’ Hank.” You turn your smile up to Connor. Your breath catches as you realize how close his face is to yours. Just like earlier, he doesn’t seem to mind. Just like earlier, you smother the feeling that comes with that knowledge. “Seriously, though. The shorts are growing on me. You should wear them more often.”

Connor smirks. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

#detroit become human #dbh connor x reader #connor x reader #long post #saan writes

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rpchive · 7 years ago

Text

Sixty Eighth Encounter-- The Ties That Bind Us

no comment tbh

Silky: Um, before the ship lands, just a few little questions for you guys... What's up? Silky: I'm still a little confused about what happened with you, but what the hell happened to Collin?? Collin: Oh, right, you weren't there for that. I uh... sorta became a demigod recently, apparently? Silky jokingly pats her armor down briefly before going "Oh, guess I missed my letter to Hogwarts..." Collin: To where? Is that some place in your universe? Silky: ...Ah, it was a joke, sorry. But honestly, how in the world did /that/ happen? Collin: We were paying Barbell and company a visit, and while we were there a bunch of cultists tried to bring back an evil god named Israphel. Their leader screwed up my hand with tainted magic, then kidnapped me when we tried to confront her. After that, she tried to turn me into one of the other magical gods so she could control them through me, but I... sorta got hooked up to an entire pantheon and broke free of her instead. Silky: Nothing good ever comes of cultists anywhere, huh? Collin: Not really, although being like this sorta makes me feel like I fit in a little better around here, honestly. Silky: Well, as long as there's no negative side-effects or something I guess it can't be all bad? At least you seem to be adjusting well. Collin: Nothing bad so far, although getting used to literal gods talking to me in my head took some getting used to. Still, I could shoot lightning and open portals with just my hands, so this just feels like a natural evolution to me. Silky: Well, if memory serves me right, you couldn't be in a better relationship either. Tori seems to be pretty well acquainted with sudden changes and odd powers, sometimes all at once. As long as it's working out, I think you'll be okay. Collin: Oh man, you have no idea. For once, I'm the one having a spontaneous drastic change. Who'd of thought? Nydins: Looks like we might be landing soon. I doubt it'll take all of us to let Nine know what happened... Collin: What, we don't wanna dogpile their front door all trying to talk at once? Nydins: No, really it's more like if we actually need to stay for something then everyone should come out. As it stands, there's somebody injured on board, so if anything does happen, we should guard them too. Collin: That's... a fair point. How's the kid doing, anyway? Nydins: No idea; nobody's checked since we brought them in. Except for Rio, but she's still there. Now that I think about it, she's probably never seen anybody actually get hurt before... Collin: Oh dear... Should I go check on her? Nydins: If you want to? It's up to you; either way, we'll be landing in a bit. Collin: Alright, just give me a few. I'll try to be quick. Collin heads out for XL's room. Rio and XL are the only ones in the room besides the child who, at the moment, is occupying the metal bed XL uses for patients. The fact that their sheet hasn't been pulled over their head seems to be a good enough sign. In the light of the room, you can actually make out a little bit more about their humanoid form. They don't seem to be very large, so they're likely actually still a child; they have short, messy, black hair that, at the moment, is covering their eyes; and from beneath the hair you can just barely make out freckles all over their face.

I’ve been meaning to mention for a while now that Fawkes’ lantern is in XL’s room, but we kept leaving it out of our IC commentary for some reason!

Collin: Uh, knock knock? How's everything in here? Turning to face the door, XL 'looks' at Collin. "Looks like a common stab wound that was...somehow half healed by the time I started to help. No internal bleeding; no internal organs; I'd say he's whatever Karumet is. As for magical damage, I'm not totally sure how to read what I'm seeing. Looks below average; I'm guessing they tried to defend themself or...something." Collin: Unfortunately this stuff is as much of a mystery to me as it is to you. Still, at least things don't sound dire or anything. XL: Seems like it. I guess they lucked out, but what in the world will we do with them? They're a kid; they can't just go dimension-hopping; especially not when we can't go two days without a big fight of some sort. Collin: Well, we're going back to Kujaar, right? Maybe they'll have a place for them? I'm sure they'd be glad to have another Kleivenn safe. XL: ...Yeah, I guess you're right. I don't know, under other circumstances, I'd be more than happy to be around a kid, but... Collin: Not as fun when they're hurt, yeah... Rio: Well, this is just...what we fight for, right? To make sure this doesn't happen anymore? Collin: Exactly. Try to leave things better than we found them, save the day, etcetera... It sounds kinda cliche when you say it out loud though, huh? XL: Maybe so, but you know we're literal superheroes to kids like this, right? Collin: ... Now that's weird to think about. XL: Hahaha; who knows, maybe we'll be on the cover of a comic book someday! We'll even have kids dressing up as us for Halloween; that's gonna be sooo worth it! Collin: Pff, sure, sure. I'd be interested to see how some kid pulls off doing your costume, though. XL: Nah, there's gonna be Novakids all across the sectors-- no, beyond them just begging for my brand! So many kids will go into medical or smithing fields because of me; I'll finally get all of us the reputation we really deserve! No more "stupid bandits and cowboys;" every single Novakid is gonna go above and beyond, 'cause I'm such a good role model!!

now you get to see more of XL’s character and personality outside of her being a medic/caring about Silky

Rio: Right now I think you just need to be a bit of a quieter role model... XL: ...R-right, right... Collin suppresses a smirk by covering up a fake cough with his hand. "Alright, well I'm glad to see things are going well here. We should be back at Kujaar soon, so I'm gonna get back to the console room." Rio: Alright! Good luck out there! He nods slightly before making his way out of the room and back to the others. Tori; Karumet; and Silky remain in the console room with Nydins. Demo is nowhere to be found. Collin: Where'd Demo run off to? Nydins: After everything that just happened, she kind of figured it'd be better to stay out of the way... Collin: I... guess I can't blame her. Can't be fun to have an evil dragon god lurking around inside your head. Nydins: I'm sure... Collin: So, have we landed yet? Nydins: Yeah, we just need somebody to check the door. Opening the door briefly, Tori quickly, yet gently closes it again before gesturing for Karumet to come close. Summoning quite a smaller version of one of his dolls, he places it gently into Karumet's hands and quietly says "Nobody speak..." Collin looks at the others for a moment before giving a confused gesture at Tori. As the tiny doll's hands fill with proportionately small balloons on strings, somebody opens the door of the IT from the outside. Wherever the group has landed, it is not Kujaar. Whoever the two people are outside of the IT are entirely unfamiliar. Behind them seems to be the interior of either a significantly sleeker building than those in Kujaar, or a ship much bigger than the IT. The larger of the two people is a heavy-set woman wearing a very bright blue jumper with orange trim. Orange, shin-high boots sit beneath it, and green goggles with yellow lenses hang around the collar. Tilting over to her thinner, more dragon-like companion, who is wearing a set of red and gold robes with blue jewels and beads dotting it, she mumbles "Where'd they go?"

Teylith and Thallion; though Teylith isn’t actually a villain...

????: It seems like they're hiding...do you know who's there? ???: Oh, um...let's see; one saa; a bug; two robots; two aliens; a human; a fire; and...two other things I can't really tell anything about. ????: But you can't tell where any of them are? Frowning, the woman shakes her head. "It's a miracle I even know this much. Whatever's in there doesn't want you there, that's for sure...oh, there's actually two saas! That one's hurt pretty bad though; he'd be a waste of time for you. ????: There are no wastes...merely more efforts... Collin looks at the others while mouthing out the words, "What do we do now?" Legitimately having to hold the doll to keep it from floating away with all the balloons it now has, Karumet gives an urgent, nervous look to Tori, who seems to be weighing their options still. He goes from looking like he has nothing to say to visibly needing to say too much, getting mildly frustrated trying to figure out how to convey what he needs.

since one of my abilities was to make diversions, my dolls were capable of mimicing other kleivenn abilities!

Collin points at the two mystery people now on the IT and quietly punches one hand into the other while giving him a questioning look. ????: ...Well, if you can't find them all, I suppose there's always the other option. Stepping over slightly, he lashes out, grabbing Tori by the throat. Eyes widening with horror, they flash a multitude of colors briefly before Tori snaps his hands up to the arm of the person grabbing him.

basically this sort of thing

????: ...Oh, you weren't the one hiding them? Then surely you know where the others are... alienrabitt: O...ver...my dead...body...!! Tightening their grip a bit, the dragon shakes their head. "Very poor choice in words...let's try that again. Where. Are. The others?" Tori struggles to get any sort of sound out at all, and the woman with the dragon looks progressively more uncomfortable with the situation. Throwing away any regard for his cover, Collin clears the distance between him and the dragon with a single jump forward, swinging down his arm onto the dragon's to break their grip as he comes down, and then releasing a small shockwave to knock them away. Very startled by the sudden reaction, the woman backs away as Collin gets between them and Tori. Between coughs and gasps, Tori manages to respond "There's one. Sure everyone else...is gonna be just as happy..." Rolling over, the dragon kicks themself back up off the floor, letting large, gold, butterfly-patterned wings with spindly, cyan appendages attached like a bat's wings stretch out and flap briefly, a handful of feathers floating away as they do so. "I suppose I had that coming..." Collin: That's putting it lightly. Now, you two want to explain why the hell you just barged onto our ship and started strangling my boyfriend, or am I going to have to keep swinging? He emphasizes his last word by punching his fist into his other hand again, this time releasing a burst of crackling energy on impact. ????: Boyfriend; who dates their own kleivenn?! You ignorant--...!! ???: Hey now, that wasn't the question. And to answer that question, let me ask you one: what the hell are you doin' here? You got at least two different types of kleivenn on a ship on Nine's yard like that ain't gonna attract every lunatic between here 'n Venus... Collin: We were actually on our way to pay Nine a visit. We've got important information and an injured Kleivenn on board, so we didn't exactly want to take the long way here. ???: Well, I could tell you had a hurt one at least; feel free to cut through the place. I'll get Thallion off your floor; breaking a mirror's bad luck, after all.... Collin: Right, well, where exactly is "here"? That place outside doesn't seem very familiar. ???: That's our ship. The door's quite a way from here, but I'm sure you'll figure it out if you can work a ship like this.

honestly not the first or last time we landed on/in someone else’s ship

Collin: Well alright. So the big lizard is Thallion, but who're you then? ???: Teylith. Collin: Teylith, okay. So we just... walk on through? Teylith: That's what I said, right? Just start lookin'; you'll find a way out somewhere. Collin: Suuure. I guess we can drop the disguise now? Teylith: Do what you want; I ain't gonna stop ya. Shrugging, she makes her way over to Thallion, who she grabs and lifts like a large dog. Despite their protests, she starts heading back for the door. Collin: ... Y'know, they could've just talked to us first. alienrabitt: ...Whatever. I don't know why they reacted like that...I'm just glad they're gone... Collin: So uh, what's the plan? I assumed we wanted to bring the kid here as well, but if we're going to have to make our way through some ship before that... alienrabitt: If we find the way out, we can probably make a shortcut of some sort. Collin thinks for a second before smacking himself on the forehead. "Oh God I'm an idiot." He casually points a finger at the wall and a blue portal opens up on its surface. "I'm way too out of practice..." alienrabitt: Eh, it's just been a while is all... Collin: Yeah, which I suppose is a good thing, all things considered, but... y'know. Everyone else alright? Karumet pops the small bouquet of balloons she's holding, revealing the remainder of the crew. "Looks like it.” Collin: So what was that anyway, Tori? Were those balloons doing some kind of camouflage thing? alienrabitt: Karumet has the ability to make stuff invisible when she holds her breath. It was keeping everything hidden with her natural breath. Collin: Ahh, neat.

neat? she can’t even use her powers continually for the length that doll would be able to; it’s literally better than her at the only thing she’s capable of!!

Stepping out of the IT, Tori gets only a few feet away from the door before looking around in surprise. "Wh-what the--?!" Collin steps out behind him, placing a hand on his shoulder as he catches up. "What? What's wrong?" The IT is positively surrounded by other kleivenn in yellow robes with red trim; all of which are wearing masks with red, hook-like curves on the cheeks, eye slits curved upwards into a pleased expression. Thallion stands front and center, smiling smugly as their tail wags slowly behind themself. "That bit of information you had; was it about us, perhaps? Unfortunately, you've found us first!"

these guys

though the masks are based off uhh

that one; but we haven’t met Koi yet

Collin: Ah. I see. Huh. Collin: I don't suppose you guys are the "talk things out" type, huh? Thallion: Unfortunately not. Neither were your kind, but we eventually learned to...cooperate. Collin: Riiiight, well then, if you really wanna do this... Collin punches one hand into the other again, this time unleashing a rumble that shakes the floor on impact. "You are welcome to try." There's waves of laughter from the crowd around the IT. Thallion: You can't be serious. The two of you versus...thousands of us? The versatility of us would make that a very large gamble; are you certain? Collin: What, you want to give us another option? You said yourself that you aren't the "talking type". Thallion: Of course. We're on your side, after all. We're all about the capabilities of others... Collin: On our- You strangled Tori! Thallion: ...They're a kleivenn, why do you care? Collin: Did you not get the part where I said I love him? Tori's the most important part of my life, why would I not care?! Thallion: What even made you get that close to a kleivenn to begin with? None of you have ever...no, you've got to be playing some sort of angle. I don't like it. Whatever you're trying to do, stop it now. Your charade is up; we know why you're here. Collin: Oh really? And why is that, do you think? Thallion: Because humans don't find us without reason. Humans don't bring us other kleivenn without reason. You walked into Kujaar, tried to get close to their god, and now you're here? This is a delivery. You've brought us keys to their door, obviously. You're acting like their friend or better for...some reason; I assure you, if you had their trust, it was sincere on their end, but you've no reason to act further. Your job is done; there is no higher praise nor greater satisfaction than this. Collin: ... Thallion, listen. I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. Delivery? Keys? Whose door? I don't actually care. My point is that I've been with Tori and the others here for... God, at least a year if not longer, I haven't really kept track. All I wanted to do today was get to Kujaar so we could drop off an injured Kleivenn and warn Nine about something. That's it. Thallion: And dropped them off you have!! Have you really, truly come here not knowing where you came? I'll spell it out for you: this is the human ship! The result of your ancestors; the remnants of your war; your history; your legacy! Anything and everything you've done to further your race has happened here! And it continues to happen, thanks to people like yourself. Generous, clever, adventurous souls that go out into the world and weed out the remainder of our kind to further your goals... Collin: Human... ship? Is this some sort of human warship you've taken over? I don't think you understand, I had nothing to do with this stuff. I didn't find this whole Kleivenn business, it found me. I'm not trying to weed out anyone. Thallion: No, no, we've taken nothing. I'm sure you were expecting more humans when you found us, yes, but...well, there are humans, there's just a lot less of them now. Humans age; they forget; but saas; with the right wish? We've managed to carry on the human projects. Collin: Wait, so... Oh hell, I think I'm catching on now. But if the humans are almost all gone, why continue working for them? Thallion: You really have no idea how far a saa will go with the right wish in their heart, do you? Collin: I'm... starting to get an idea. Turning to take his leave, Thallion gestures with his tail. "Find the other kleivenn and bring them in; take the human to E or S; take his...companion to B." With this, the crowd parts to let Thallion through, then advances toward the IT. Collin steps ahead of Tori and puts one arm in front of him. "Ohh no you don't. No one is taking anybody." There are bursts of laughter from those close enough to hear Collin. "He's going to stand against us?" "Is this guy serious?" "Seriously stupid, maybe!!" "Don't kill or dismember anything; our orders are to bring them back alive." "Well really he just said bring them to a wing; he never said bring them alive!!!" Collin glances back at Tori. "The hell do we do now?" alienrabitt: I...I don't know. There's too many of them; they...ugh... Stepping back slightly, Tori raises his voice before any of the kleivenn actually start to attack: "None of you are getting into Kujaar without me!!" Several of the front rows stop and bump into or bowl over each other, while others in the back jump over or fly to get a better look. "And what does that mean?" "So we can kill the others?" alienrabitt: If you hurt anybody that came here with me, you're not getting in! So leave them alone, it's me you want!!

calm down there Steven

A note of worry creeps into Collin's voice. "This is not exactly the solution I was hoping for, you know..." Lowering his voice to practically a whisper, Tori does not face Collin when he responds: "It's the only thing I can do..." Reluctantly, the more excited kleivenn make way for those that seem to be a bit more reasonable as they wedge themselves between Collin, Tori, and the IT. Slowly, the group drives the crowd away as smaller groups start to escort Tori and Collin off to separate wings of the ship. Collin: I'm not sure what you think you're going to accomplish with this, but it's not going to work... ???: Don't worry; you're human, right? You have nothing to worry about. Collin: See, that doesn't really help. What do the others have to worry about, then? ????: Thallion only specifically mentioned you and your companion; and with your companion's demands; he's really the only one left in the picture. Collin: Look, quit dodging around the answer. What are you going to do with him? ???: He's a kleivenn, and our way into Kujaar. Whatever needs to be done for his cooperation will be, I'm assuming. Collin: Great, just as I thought, then... And what about me? Where are we going? ?????: "E or S..." Seems like it's our choice. Your...kleivenn wanted you alive and well, so I'm thinking S. Collin: Ah, good, I love places that don't kill me. It's a shame they're kind of a rarity, though... The group finally stops at a door in the S wing. One knocks briefly before a slat in the door is slid open. The tired, disgruntled voice of a woman responds: "What in the world are you doing back here at this hour? ...Oh, is this a drop off?" The sounds of multiple locks being undone can be heard as the woman opens the door again. "Let the human in." Collin rolls his shoulders and steps through the doorway. "The hospitality here is something to behold, honestly." Closing the door in the faces of all of the kleivenn guards that escorted Collin there, the woman steps back over to her desk, which she has visibly shoved as far away from the door as possible. As a matter of fact, most of the things in the room have been shoved opposite to the door; some have even been stacked in oddly accessible ways exclusively to keep their distance from the door. The woman herself seems to be in her 40s or 50s; long, brown hair, which has begun to gray, hastily pulled up into some sort of half-bun half-ponytail, spills over a white lab coat that has been pulled over some pajamas that have seen quite a few years and not enough soap. Drinking what is likely not her first nor last cup of coffee, the woman looks over some rather old glasses as she turns her chair to face you. "What brings you here? Haven't seen that logo in a while..." Collin: That's a very long story. The short version is that we were on our way to Kujaar to drop off an injured Kleivenn and tell Nine about some things we found out, and instead we ended up... here. ???: Nine wouldn't have been able to stop us. Not anymore. Collin: What makes you say that? ???: We've had so many kleivenn pass in and out of these doors, we're ready for just about anything. Even if we can't contain it, all it takes is... She trails off absentmindedly as she reflexively reaches for one of her arms briefly. "...You said 'we?' Who was with you?"

Em isn’t human; she’s a tagged kleivenn. she just doesn’t remember

Collin: A number of people. Why does that matter? ???: Guess it doesn't. I'm just trying to know why you're here. I could see it in your eyes the moment I let you in here; you didn't come here because you wanted anyone getting hurt. Despite what you're wearing... Collin: Yeah, I've been getting that a lot lately. Look, I already told you why we're here. What more do you want from me? Who even are you, anyway? ???: Well, normally it's my job to get humans to cooperate with kleivenn, typically saa-based, so we can see their abilities firsthand. You, however, seem to genuinely care, which makes my job easier since I...don't have to do anything. Collin: Well yeah. Don't most people get along with their Kleivenn? ???: Not after the war. Kleivenn distanced themselves knowing full well if they got too close to any humans they would die. Or wind up here. Or both. Not every human is like that, but of course they don't know that...and I suppose the reverse is true too; we were scared of their abilities; so we killed their gods and started wiping them out or experimenting on them... Collin: So you're with the people who did all of that, then? ???: With, yes. Willing, no. Thirty years ago I made my case stating that if this kept up after the war I'd walk with my team. Woke up the next morning to find out I no longer had a team, and if I wanted to stay alive, I would change my mind, so I've spent the rest of my life changing the minds of others like it's some sick joke. Collin: Jesus, I... I'm sorry. ???: No point in mourning the past anymore. That's why I asked who you came with; I want to help you escape. Collin: ... You what? I don't even know your /name/, and you want go against all these people for my sake? ???: Well...yes. It won't fix what I did or who I hurt, but if I can do even one good thing against these people, then maybe I'm not like them after all...

weeeeeeellllll....

Collin: ... I can understand that, at least. Seriously though, who are you? ???: ...My name is...well, honestly, I haven't heard it in so long, I think I forgot... Collin: You're kidding... ???: I'm not. ...Maybe it started with an M? Or something else...? Collin: Mary? Michelle? Michelangelo? Just throwing some out there. ???: Hahaha, no, none of those...I don't know; I guess it's not very important... Collin: Of course it's important, just- Ugh, okay, let's deal with this later. I'm just calling you Em for now, alright? Em: That's fine with me. I suppose we should find your...partner first, yes? Though if we meet anyone along the way, they'll probably be expecting you to, well, not be very concerned about him or your friends... Collin: I get the feeling that was supposed to be your job here? Em: Well, I certainly didn't talk the other humans into cooperating, unfortunately. Of course using those kinds of methods almost always ended very poorly on one end or the other, which is why I began to protest; had neither tried to do anything about it then maybe I could've just...stopped feeling anything about it, but every time one of them realized what had happened I just...I couldn't take it, but they just kept bringing people... Collin holds up a hand to her. "Em. It's alright. You don't have to explain yourself right now, I'm not here to pass judgement. Let's focus on the task at hand for now. Where did they take Tori, and what are they planning?" Em: Right; they didn't seem to know what sort of kleivenn he was outright, just that he was capable of getting into Kujaar. If I had to guess, they'll be looking for a way to force him to use his powers, unless they don't actually just want into Kujaar... Collin: And if they don't want to just get into Kujaar...? Em: Then they're probably just looking to have some fun, which is...arguably more unsavory. Collin: Then either way we don't have any time to lose. Where do we go now? Em: There's a pretty specific room used for newer...acquisitions that I'm almost positive he'll be in, if not for tagging then simply for temporary containment at the least. If we can beat them there before he's moved, we might be able to get you out with minimal fuss. Collin: Then let's get going then- Wait, quick, how am I "supposed" to be acting if we run into anyone? Em: Depends. Kleivenn won't care much how you treat your kleivenn; they'll be expecting you to not care much about them being treated poorly or hurt or something; other humans would probably expect you to condone them being treated however they see fit without any questions or resistance. Em: Though honestly the humans don't appreciate broken goods; if you raise concerns about anyone dying, they won't be too surprised as long as you don't make a big deal out of it. Collin: ... Alright, I can do this. Lead the way, Em. Undoing her multitude of locks, Em escorts Collin out of the room and back through the other parts of the ship. Occasionally, they pass by other kleivenn, who simply stare from beneath their masks, occasionally leaning over to comment to each other. Collin speaks softly as the kleivenn get further away. "Are you sure we aren't sticking out too much?" Em: We aren't. It's just been a while since they've seen a human as young as you. Collin: Mostly your age, then? Em: Mostly my age are still here; mostly your age were brought in. Collin: Ah. How nice... Reaching the room, there seems to be several rows of what appear to be things similar to bathtubs; a bit sleeker in design with no visible legs. Next to the tubs are some sort of terminals, though what they're for remains unknown. Thallion is at the back of the room, looking over something on a rather large computer screen with some other kleivenn. Collin puts on a neutral expression before speaking out. "Looks like you're busy in here." Turning to look at you, Thallion flashes a bit of a smile. "Not at all; just the usual amount of work. Your kleivenn is quite the curious case..." Collin: So I've gathered. He's always been sort of an odd one. Thallion: I'm sure. Still, if we can find a workaround, we can find a way in, and then all of this will have been worth it. We'll have more kleivenn then we'll even know what to do with during the time our remaining humans will have with us; but I'm sure over time you'll find a field you're comfortable in. Collin: I'll manage something, I'm sure. Do you have a plan for all the kleivenn you intend on catching? I can't think of why you'd need so many, honestly Thallion: The same thing I've done with every other kleivenn that's come through these doors; try to understand why what we're capable of is possible. Collin: What, "space magic" isn't good enough of an answer for you? Thallion: It was for us; you? Not so much. He raises an eyebrow slightly. "What do you mean?" Thallion: Humanity's inability to understand our abilities is the exclusive reason we do what we do. Collin: Ah, of course. Have you made any progress figuring out what Tori's deal is, then? Where'd you put him anyways? Thallion: He's in one of the tubs; and we have yet to reach a comprehensive understanding. If we can't get answers through field work, he'll be cycled out. Collin: Cycled out? Thallion: Yes, to a more...active field of work that will either produce results or provide a significantly more informative experience in regards to their capabilities. Collin: Uh-huh... So what's your plan for now? You mentioned "field work" a second ago. What do you mean by that, exactly? Thallion: This is the exact curious nature that is the reason we have this job. You'll experience such fieldwork firsthand should you continue these questions. ???: Leave the kid alone. Look, you're here to pick up your partner, right? He's at E-57; pick him up and move on to your initiative, 34-B. Both of you are wasting time talking here; get results or get lost. Collin: Alright, alright, sheesh. Collin makes his way to the mentioned tub, glancing at the numbers as he goes.

you should cross being a spy off your list of potential other jobs

Row E; terminal 57 displays the designation "34-A" and seems to monitor various bodily functions. Half-submerged in an odd, blue solution, Tori lies unconscious and alone among the remainder of the empty tubs. Stepping over to the terminal, Em empties the tub of its solution and patiently waits for Tori to regain consciousness, occasionally giving a nervous glance to Thallion and his company. Collin grips the rim of the tub tightly for a few seconds as he looks in. He then knocks on the rim several times with his armored hand.

"C'mon, rise and shine. Nap time's over." As Tori begins to wake up, Em quickly helps him out of the tub, glancing his arms over as she pulls him up. Frowning at something briefly, she quietly comments: "We need to get moving. Any more wasted time won't end well for either of you." Collin: Alright, fine. Good grief, everyone here is so pushy. After you, I suppose. Escorting both of you into the hall, Em glances the hall over before stepping between the two of you. "Less flavor; it shows as more than cracking. Also, he's been tagged. I suspect what we have is only half of his whole; we need to find his other half before you leave." Collin immediately drops his character. "Woah woah, flavor? Tagged? Half? What are you talking about?!" Em: You're getting a bit...sassy, I guess. And you asked a little too many questions. I think he's shrugging it off, but...hopefully it won't be an issue. To answer your other questions, there's a small, black rectangle on the inside of his left arm; it's suppressing whatever powers he would have on his own and likely keeping him from...well, being /him/. And for the third point, his heart is missing, or whatever the equivalent of it is. It's clear your companion isn't just a saa...

it was my right arm actually. guess you still can’t tell left from right, huh

Collin: I'm... not surprised, honestly. So we need to get rid of the tag and get the heart back. Do you know how to do either of those? Em: The tag is embedded; unless we can destabilize his physical form, there's only one way to get it out, and I'd rather not do that, especially in the open. As for his heart, it's in some other wing of the ship; if we don't find it before the solution works its way out of his system, he'll destabilize naturally, which, this far apart from his...actual self, would end...poorly. Collin: Do you have a better lead than "some other wing"? It doesn't exactly sound like we have a whole lot of time here... Em: A or Z. Two very different ends of the ship; only one will have the right answer; and alone, we don't have the time to check them both. We have to be confident in our choice, or he'll get hurt badly. Collin: Wonderful, a game of luck. I'm really good at those. Em: There's also the chance Thallion could have it on his person, which would make the entire effort a waste of time. It's a three-way gamble and I'm not sure which option is the right choice... Collin: Oh good God. Any other options we're overlooking, while we're at it? Em: Not that I'm aware. Either Thallion has it, or it's so far away we only have the chance to check one location... Collin: ... Y'know what, considering they were literally just studying Tori in there.. Collin turns back to the door as the black shard in his prosthetic begins to glow, and then delivers a single kick with it that blows the door off its hinges and causes it to skid halfway across the room. Both dragons turning to look at the array of equipment now damaged by the flying door, Thallion levels his gaze at you. "Decided not to play kindly?" Collin: Acting has never really been my strong suit, and "kindness" went out the window when you yanked out my boyfriend's heart and started experimenting on him. I'll give you one chance: Give me back Tori's heart, or I'll take it back by force. Thallion: He isn't even a saa; he had no heart to take! The only object we found on his person even remotely similar to that sort of functionality was an amulet that refused to respond to another kleivenn; we've been trying to force it to change ever since, but your cooperation would have made that much easier. Unfortunately, it seems one of the last of our humans was incapable of doing her job, as expected, so we had it moved away from you as a precaution. Collin: Are you saying you don't have it, then? A sword of purple energy shimmers into existence by Collin's side, hovering in the air and pointed straight up. Thallion: It's on the ship; not with me personally, but still around. The sword rotates to point straight at Thallion. "Where." Thallion: A-wing. The engine room, of course. We wanted to waste no time in making our entry. Collin: Perfect. I'll be on my way then. Collin turns to leave, but the sword remains in its place. He seems to remember something and looks back at Thallion over his shoulder. "Oh right, if I find out you're lying, this sword will find you and slice you apart, draining you of your energy as it works. Just throwing that out there..."

Thallion quietly watches Collin leave, anxiously flicking his tail as the dragon beside him edges away. Collin leaves the room and returns to Em and Tori. "It's in the A-wing. Which way, Em?" Escorting the pair out of the current hall, Em leads them to the A-wing with no resistance. There are significantly less kleivenn along the way as well. Collin: Seems a little quiet, doesn't it? Em: I don't know where everyone went. Maybe someone's in court. Collin: Court...? Em: It's...the field work Thallion mentioned; more of a gauntlet of sorts really. Fighting to the death for fun or science, whichever happens first. Collin: Sounds like a lovely place. Shame we don't have time to visit. Reaching the engine room, the trio discovers Demo and...what's left of what you can only assume were formerly kleivenn. The room itself has been torn apart; most of the equipment has been shattered, crushed, or smashed in, leaving little to no light left in the room itself. Prying something out of one of the frontmost terminals, Demo turns to look at the three of you, markings similar to those on the masks on her face. "You're still alive...?" Collin: Yeah, but... what the hell happened to you? Demo: ...I found Tori first.

you severely overestimate how much Demo actually cared about me

still, the implications of this are that the kleivenn here are still serving under Xen’s banner despite playing a hand in destroying him

I’m guessing it was because they couldn’t control him themselves, so until they could find out how, they took him out of the picture?

this is interesting...

Collin: Jesus... Are you alright? Demo: I'm fine. They won't be, but I'm fine. Collin: Right... A-anyway, we were told Tori's, uh, "heart" was here. Have you found an amulet here yet, by any chance? Demo holds up what they pried out of the console; an amulet with a narrow, rectangular stone set in the center. The stone itself is roughly an inch tall, and slightly less than half an inch wide. At the moment, it seems to be shifting between a sort of seafoam green color and a rather nasty shade of yellow. Collin: Ah, perfect! Mind if I snag that from you? Demo: Go ahead. She carefully tosses the amulet across the room to Collin. Collin snags it out of the air and quickly turns back to face Tori. He runs a thumb over the stone in the amulet as he tries to figure out how to alter it in its new form. The stone is cool to the touch, but currently does not shift colors in Collin's hands. Collin: Shit, I can't get the color to change. Did they lock it in this state somehow? Em: It might be that his tag is disrupting its ability to sync properly... Collin: Crap, I forgot about the tag thing. What do we do about that now? As Em begins to mull it over, Demo makes her way across the room and looks Tori over briefly. Two very different looks pass across her face briefly before she removes the arm from the elbow down in one swift movement. Reeling back in shock and pain, Tori clasps the lighted silhouette of the missing half of his arm, abruptly entirely aware of the situation.

so you took the left off, huh Lewis?

Collin reels back from the situation and almost faints on the spot, but catches himself at the last second while clutching the amulet to his chest. Demo very visibly struggles to respond for a moment before returning to the state you found her in, calmly stating "Problem solved." Collin struggles to respond for several seconds, his chest heaving as he struggles to remain calm. He levels an icy glare at Demo that could freeze an ocean, visibly struggling to string any words together in his head. Putting their back up against the wall, Tori breathes heavily as he tries to process the situation. Shakily, he turns his attention to Demo. "Wh...what the hell is going on? Why did you...?? Where is my...??" Closing his eyes for a moment, he looks over to you next. "What happened...?" Collin: The... The kleivenn here stole your heart and put this... chip in your arm that was keeping you sealed up. Demo removed the chip, so all that's left is this. Collin holds up the amulet, rubbing the stone again to try and get it to shift colors. However, upon lifting the amulet, it has visibly shifted to Collin's shade of blue before he tries to change it again. It remains the proper color even after his new attempt. Collin: Oh, well at least that worked. I guess this just goes where the heart used to? Collin approaches Tori and tentatively pushes the pendant against his chest. His chest remains as solid as a normal person's would be, and he looks at you a bit curiously. Collin: Y'know, I guess that should've been obvious. Collin lifts the pendant over Tori's head and gently lowers it around his neck. Though the amulet returns, Tori's arm does not repair itself. Sighing, Tori carefully tucks the amulet back under his shirt. "Demo, why the hell did you think that would be okay?" Averting her eyes briefly, Demo struggles to give a proper answer again, stammering out a mixed response: "I...I did what I had to. But I didn't want to--. I didn't know it wouldn't come back; but nobody else was going to help you in time; something had to be done, but..." Collin: ... So it's not coming back. What now? Demo: M-maybe it will come back later? alienrabitt: Look, don't worry about it; we should probably get back to the IT and get the hell out of here. We can figure this out somewhere safer... Collin: I think I'm gonna be sick... Em: I'm sorry; normally I'd let you wait this out a bit, but with this room torn apart, I'm sure someone will come to investigate... Collin: It's... It's fine. Do you have a way off this ship? Em: Personally, no, or I would've used it a long time ago. Collin, still struggling to hold himself together, looks at the other two for a response. alienrabitt: I...I can probably get us back to the IT at least. Hopefully everyone else is okay. Taking a deep breath, Tori focuses his power, warping the space around them until the four of them are back in the room where the IT had landed. The ship itself seems completely unharmed, and has not moved since Collin and Tori left. Collin takes a couple of steps forward after they enter the IT, and then yells toward the hallway. "Hey, are you guys okay in here?" Silky glances out of XL's room briefly before the others sort of pile out behind her. Rio is one of the first to reach the console room. Rio: Oh thank the stars, you're okay! There were so many things out there, I was worried you-- Slowly, Rio notices Tori's arm. "... Would get hurt..." Collin: You can thank Demo for that. Firefly is stunned for a moment before looking outraged; however Silky is the first to lunge out at Demo. Already crying, Nydins throws herself between the pair, trying to beg Silky not to hurt her while begging for an explanation at the same time. Genuinely scared, Demo starts to back away, the markings on her face receding as she looks equally as upset as the others. Demo: I...I'm so sorry, I didn't...I really didn't want to do that, it just...happened; I was trying to figure out what to do and I just...moved... alienrabitt: Look, it's...it doesn't matter. Silky: Doesn't matter?! Half your damn arm's missing because of her!! alienrabitt: So?? I'm made of magic; it probably just needs time to reform or something. It's not like she tried to kill me, alright? She saw a solution and just...took the window without thinking. Firefly: Seems like a lot more than just 'not thinking' about her actions to me... Collin: And what the hell is with those markings, anyway? Is all of this because of Xentrilis or whatever the hell his name is? Demo: ...Yes and no. I wouldn't have done that myself; it was more like an intrusive thought that he sort of just...did. Collin: Good, so I can add "spontaneous dismemberment" to my list of active concerns, then. Demo stands in an uncomfortable silence as Firefly and Silky immediately begin to lash out verbally, arguing between Nydins and Tori that Demo deserves to be thrown out; locked up; or punished equally. Nydins still continues to attempt to plead with them between crying, and Tori continues to stand by his belief that his personal injury isn't really a problem and that the entire situation is being blown out of proportion. Annoyed by the fuss, Karumet attempts to get between the two arguing groups, reminding them that this ship is still parked outside of Kujaar and that there's still an injured child on the ship that both need more attention. Several metallic thuds echo from the hallway, rapidly increasing in volume until Fawkes strides out into the console room. Simultaneously pitching his voice down and spiking his volume, Fawkes bellows out into the console room. "ENOUGH." The fighting stops as Fawkes draws the group's attention, Nydins still quietly sobbing despite the silence from the others. Fawkes' voice returns to its normal pitch, but the volume remains notably above its normal level. Fawkes: Nydins, go take a moment and pull yourself together. Someone else, get this ship moving before someone bashes our door down. Karumet, go with Tori and figure out if this is as minor of an issue as he thinks. The rest of you, pull yourselves together. We are not a mob. Understood? Nodding understandingly, Nydins takes her leave as Rio and Silky go to the console. Escorting Tori away, Karumet shakes her head briefly as she passes between Firefly and Demo, who continue to stare each other down for a moment before Firefly leaves to close herself in the bathroom.

I’ve never seen Fawkes angry before!

Fawkes turns his attention to Demo, his volume now back to normal as well. Fawkes: Demo. I can't pretend to understand what's going on inside you right now. I can't gauge how hard dealing with Xentrilis is for you, or what the extent of his influence is over you. What I do know is this: I overheard your conversation with Nydins. I know what you aspire to do with yourself, and in a way I can sympathize. After all, I was originally programmed to be a killing machine. I would like to see you overcome your programming too. Let this be a lesson to you, then. You cannot let this happen again. Xentrilis is actively trying to sabotage your goal. Tori will most likely be able to regenerate from his damage, but if you allow him to do something like that with someone else... I can make no promises. Demo: I didn't let him do anything, I just...ugh, it's just going to sound like an excuse if I try to defend myself. ...I understand. He's not hard to fight normally, but when I saw what they were doing to Tori, I just... Fawkes: If you understand, then my job here is finished. Find me later if you still wish to talk about it. I will be in my room for a while if you, or anyone else, needs me. With that, Fawkes turns back and calmly walks out of the console room.

don’t make me feel bad for her...

#[S3]

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