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supergito · 1 year ago

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Fusion Revived - CH 6 (Family)

➤ This story is actually complete (finished Sep 2021) over on my Ao3 already; I'm just publishing it here on tumblr too for archival purposes. I hope any and all curious readers enjoy if they haven't checked it out yet!

SUMMARY: Majin Buu has been destroyed, and the Earth has known peace for close to a year now. Life hasn't been too peaceful for the person responsible for saving the world and the entire universe however, but when an ordinary woman meets him one day, things start to change.

RATING: Teen and Up. PAIRING(S): Vegito x OC/Reader, alluded Gochi, alluded Vegebul CONTENT: Canon Divergence, Slow Burn, Friends to Lovers, Family Drama CW(s) THIS CHAPTER: None.

It’s funny how different things feel now. It’s like Vegito is an entirely new person to her, having gone from a friendly stranger to someone she truly does consider a friend. A dear friend, even.

He told her all sorts of stories about the adventures he’s had, or rather, what Goku and Vegeta had. While possessing his own mind, he does have their memories, and he was able to talk about them like he himself had been there.

How Goku and Vegeta met one another sounded like something that came right out of a movie. Actually, everything both Saiyans went through sounded so out-of-this-world that you would only see it in fiction. But Vegito had no reason to lie, and she got no impression he was, so she ate up every word. There were some parts that were…awful, namely every heinous act Vegeta committed in the early years of him knowing Goku and his friends, and how he gave his soul to Babidi just for more power, but he finally tried to at least do one good thing. His sacrifice to Majin Buu, though it didn’t work, showed just how far he’s come.

Vegito told her more about the demon, and that they used objects called dragon balls to fix the messes he caused, along with erasing the memories people on Earth had of him. The existence of a magical, wish-granting dragon that emerged from little orbs that you had to gather from around the world was probably the most ridiculous thing out of them all, but she accepted it. She accepted everything, having already come to grips with how Vegito flipped her understanding of the world onto its head.

Nothing would ever be the same again, and she was ok with that.

Vegito went into a little more detail regarding the Saiyans, only divulging that they were a warrior race containing members that were physically stronger than any typical earthling, and that they were virtually extinct now due to their homeworld Planet Vegeta getting destroyed. He seemed to not want to go into what they did on the planet or how the Saiyans lived, but he did go over how Vegeta was their prince and would have eventually become their king.

He touched more upon his relationship between the two Saiyans’ wives, explaining that he didn’t feel comfortable trying to be a husband to either one of them. Goku is Chi Chi’s husband, Vegeta was Bulma’s, and he didn’t want to step anywhere in that kind of territory. She interpreted this as him saying that he was single, which she may or may not have grown especially happy about…

The last thing she was told that her attention clung to, was Vegito’s level of strength. Being a potara fusion, he had Vegeta and Goku’s power combined, and multiplied. He was the strongest person on Earth, and in the entire universe, which makes him the perfect guardian for both. If anything like Majin Buu appeared again, he would be ready.

A consequence to his power however, was that there was no one around who could give him a challenging fight.

He trained his sons Goten and Trunks, and sparred with someone he called Piccolo every now and then, but he couldn’t use his full strength or even a substantial amount because they or anyone else can’t handle it. Unable to experience any thrill in fighting, and demotivated from training regularly since he was already at the top of the universal pyramid, he was left stricken with boredom the majority of the time this past year.

That must’ve been part of the reason why he became so motivated to pester her. She made him feel entertained, more often than he’s felt since he destroyed Buu.

She doubted she has the heart to ever grow genuinely mad at him again. She’s grateful he’s allowed her in like this.

༻ ❁ ༺

A day has passed. As the weather was fair, the two of them were outside yards away from her home, getting fresh air.

She was catching up on a novel she was hooked onto, while Vegito sat next to her, resting against the tree with his legs crossed and eyes closed. The tip of his tail was in the grasp of one of her hands, held gingerly as her fingers stroked its fur. He remained still and quiet, but the blush on his face spoke enough on its own.

He trusting her enough to let her touch his tail tickled the woman pink. He did warn her to not squeeze it as it was sensitive, which is why he usually kept it wrapped around his waist, but he was content to let her pet it as much as she pleased. Either he was willing to indulge her, or it must have felt good. Or both.

She managed to go through two chapters of her book before Vegito’s tail twitched abruptly. He was sitting up straighter now, posture stiffened, and eyes open.

“Something up?”

“Goten and Trunks are approaching us.”

He answered, staring to his side, up at the sky.

“…Is that a bad thing?” He looked vigilant, so she couldn’t help but wonder.

“Not inherently.” He popped his neck, rubbing it with a hand before he moved to stand up. She let go of his tail so she wouldn’t accidently pull it, and got up onto her feet as well.

Looking ahead, she could see two blurs of aura steadily growing larger, as the two boys that gave them off drew nearer. They landed smoothly before their father, and for a second, she was envious that two kids were such expert fliers. She has still been thinking about taking that lesson from Vegito…

“What is it boys?” He crossed his arms.

Goten’s eyes were downcast and he was frowning, clearly upset about something. Trunks took the initiative to answer the adult. He too didn’t appear to be thrilled, but unlike Goten, he was more calm overall.

“Our moms need to talk to you. They’re waiting at Capsule Corp.”

He wasn’t even speaking to her, but she flinched. She couldn’t see Vegito’s face from where she was, but she caught how rigid his stance became.

“…Fine.” He answered after a pause, and he placed two of his fingers against his forehead, preparing to use Instant Transmission. The boys took the cue and grasped the fabric of his trousers. He didn’t vanish right away though.

His head rotated until he was looking at her. His expression was neutral, but his eyes told a different story.

“I’ll…see you later, _____.”

“O-Ok…”

He and the boys were gone then. She was left with a sickening feeling of dread, that made her stomach twist and turn.

༻ ❁ ༺

When they arrived inside Capsule Corporation’s headquarters and home of the Brief family, Vegito already sensed something was amiss. Goten and Trunks’ moods hinted as such, but he was hoping whatever the women needed him for wasn’t serious.

He noticed them standing before him with similar disgruntled looks, and he steeled himself for another argument that was surely on the horizon.

“Thank you, kids. Go off and play, the adults need to have a discussion.” Chi Chi addressed the two without taking her eyes off of Vegito. They nodded and ran out posthaste…but they did hide in a close room, far too apprehensive to not eavesdrop. They knew what their mothers were going to tell him.

“Let’s not beat around the bush. Bulma and I have come to a decision regarding you, that we hope will repair things for us all.” Chi Chi begun, and immediately, anxiousness made his fists clench. Annoyance also seeped up, as they decided on something involving him without asking him about it first. Of course.

“The boys want their fathers back. We want our husbands back. So…” Bulma’s head tilted upwards, gazing down her nose at him. Like he was someone beneath her.

“Whenever they become active sometime in the next few days, we’ll be gathering the dragon balls and wishing for you to be unfused.”

… … …

It took him a moment to understand.

And the second he did, he was outraged.

“Unfuse? ME? Did I not tell you both that this fusion was PERMANENT?” Vegito snarled, composure utterly gone. The warrior was aware that level-headedness with a key trait to have for one’s character, but…they were technically threatening him with erasure here.

For his state as a fused being, that might as well be death.

“We have faith that won’t stop Shenron.” Neither of the women were deterred by his anger. Which, frankly made him more mad.

“Faith? So you aren’t even sure that the dragon will be capable of granting it?!”

“We won’t know unless we try. Vegito, we’re both TIRED of living like this. Living with you…being here. It isn’t right!” Chi Chi’s temper was also starting to rise.

But, her demeanor had nothing on his. Like in his unpleasant encounter with Bulma before, sparks shot off of Vegito’s form, but with more ferocity now. Faint vibrations passed through the ground. He glowered, and his black irises turned a muted cyan.

“Did you two forget that your husbands created me for you? For you, your children, and this planet you live on? You’re disrespecting them and their sacrifice, for what?”

“We can undo their sacrifice, and bring them back to us. Everything can go back to being truly normal, how it should be.” Bulma disregarded the meat of his questions, solely focusing on their plan.

Their plan to kill him.

“Do I have ANY say in this? Does what I think and feel not matter to either of you?!”

“You can’t change our minds Vegito. We’re not backing away from this. Stop being selfish. Accept your fate.”

Bulma tossed a variation of what he told her before, right back into his face. And, did he feel it burn. His aura intensified, and the vibrations strengthened to the point that the contents in the room they were in trembled. His muscles were tightened, as if he was ready to jump forward to combat the threat before him.

He didn’t. He couldn’t. He couldn’t ever harm them, even if he wanted to.

“FINE! Collect the dragon balls, wish for whatever you like. It won’t work. But if it does…I will never forgive you for taking my life away from me.”

The enraged Saiyan used Instant Transmission and disappeared, with the chaos in the room following.

Chi Chi and Bulma shared a sigh, and spoke with lowered voices with one another. Until the dragon radar was able to detect the signals the dragon balls emitted when active, they had to wait a little longer. In the nearby room, their sons shook off the nerves troubling them. They both can sense ki, and Vegito’s was spiking to overwhelming heights before he left.

“Trunks…do you think this is a good idea?” Goten meekly questioned.

“…Kind of. I miss Dad, and Mom’s been so sad lately. If Shenron can bring him back, that should make her happy again. It’s why I reminded her about the dragon balls.” Trunks appeared sure, but the unsure tone under his words was a strong contrast.

“I dunno…this feels wrong. Did you hear how mad Vegito was?”

“Of course he’d be mad. But it’s whatever. The most important thing is that our dads will be back.” He nodded, dispelling his fears. Goten wasn’t so convinced.

He desired to see his own father again greatly, having the memories of overhearing his mother crying during multiple nights over he being stuck with Vegeta as one person, but the boy wrestled with himself mentally to forget how Vegito felt about all this. He wanted his mother to be happy again too.

This was for the best. It had to be…

༻ ❁ ༺

The fusion appeared on the painfully familiar beach that had Kame House upon it, but he wasn’t planning on entering to say hello to Master Roshi and Turtle. He wasted no time in blasting away, flying above the speed of sound through the air. His destination was merely a remote island, devoid of other people on it.

As he touched down, his pent up energy and fury became too strenuous to bare.

“Damn it! DAMN IT!!!”

Vegito screamed, and a column of light surged from his body and enveloped him, blasting away everything around him. The earth shook with the force of a staggering earthquake, and a fierce gale blew up a dirt cloud mixed with smoke. When it faded, he was in a massive crater that sunk down almost a mile into the earth’s crust. He didn’t release all of his energy, as that would’ve blown a hole right down to the planet’s core like a hot knife through butter.

That vent did help him steady himself, but the curbed fury allowed a tidal wave of fear to wash over him. He fell to his knees, and his hands slid up to his golden hair, gripping it tightly.

In his mind, over and over again, did the plea repeat.

‘I don’t want to disappear.’

He honestly didn’t know if Shenron actually could unfuse him, but the possibility being there and the women taking it was enough for his shell to crumble. He knew not what the unfusion process was like, but there would be no question that with Goku and Vegeta separated and regaining their own consciousnesses, his own would cease to exist.

There isn’t an Other World for him. There isn’t a second life waiting. There is only a void, where for all he knew, he would be trapped in for the rest of his creator’s lives in this world and the other. This would be it. The end.

He thought that Bulma and Chi Chi would eventually learn to accept him, some day. The thought of being intimate with either one of them, especially BOTH of them, made him extremely uncomfortable. The Goku in him cared little for Bulma and wanted only Chi Chi, but Vegeta’s essence leaned towards Bulma and coiled in disgust at the image of laying in bed with Chi Chi. There was such a high degree of disharmony in his core over the topic that gave him a migraine if he thought about it for too long, so it felt immensely better to keep away from them both. The women themselves constantly acted as if he repulsed them anyway.

He did still carry love for them regardless, and he used that for fueling himself to be a supportive figure, rather than a husband. And it wasn’t good enough.

Goten and Trunks… The boys were very young and didn’t completely understand just how complicated things were, but they wanted their true fathers back, plain and simple. The same went for Gohan, the fusion knew. He would never suffice. Never be enough.

Would his creators ever need to fuse again? He knew better than anyone else that they probably would refuse to, even if it was necessary. Just like him, they were both prideful and valued their individual strength too much to rely heavily upon another. He was a special occurrence, one born out of adrenaline and desperation. A one-hit wonder. Whenever the dragon balls reactivate, which the women said would be soon, he could leave this universe for good and there was nothing he could do about it.

Everything HE wanted, everything HE was devoted towards and strived towards…

None of it mattered after all.

One of his hands came free to slam into the ground as a punch, creating another but smaller crater. His eyes stung, but he would not let himself cry. He was a warrior, and he would face whatever happens with his dignity upheld.

There was a flash in the pit of his mind. The appearance and voice of a lovely woman he became attached to…

‘_____...’

How was he supposed to tell her this? Could he? Would it be worth it? If the wish was beyond Shenron’s power, then he’d worry her for nothing. But if he kept it secret and found his two halves becoming their original selves, she would be left in the dark, wondering where he was. Unaware of the fact that he left this realm, likely forever.

Why exactly did that make his heart twist? Why was he so…smitten with her…?

The Saiyan was at a lost. He’d much rather be placed in the life-or-death situation of fighting Majin Buu again than deal with any of this.

He fell in a heap to sit, powering down from his Super Saiyan state, exhausted more than he’s ever been.

#story: fusion revived #selfshipping #x fem reader #canon x reader #canon x oc #fanfics #dragon ball fanfiction #fanfiction

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phantasmagoriaoriginals · 2 years ago

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Can I please request the people list of the asks question for Gigi?

👁️ EYE - what color are their eyes? do people notice their eyes? is there anything special about them (shows emotion easily, literally magical...)?

Her eyes are a soft shade of ocean blue, and have a kind, yet distant look in them. However, it's difficult to judge her emotions just by looking in her eyes, and they often seem a bit hollow.

🤥 LYING - are they good liars? do they have tells to show they're lying?

Giselle is a very good liar. She's used to putting on a front around nearly everyone she interacts with, so by now, lying comes easily to her. So long as the lie isn't too outlandish, she can pull it off with virtually zero signs that she's being dishonest.

👻 GHOST - do they believe in ghosts? what are their "ghostly experiences", if any?

No. The only ghosts she knows about are the ones that haunt any Diviner who lives long enough to find them.

💥 COLLISON - what emotions do they have trouble dealing with?

Giselle generally manages her emotions well, but she strongly dislikes feeling cheated or used. She wants her actions to benefit her in some way, so going to a lot of effort only to fail or find no reward bothers her— not that she'll show it much, if at all.

😭 CRYING - what makes them cry? do they cry easily?

She doesn't cry easily at all. Giselle is generally a placid, rather emotionless person, so there's not a lot that bothers her. She's good at looking happy even when she doesn't feel it, and to her, crying just feels like a waste of time. After everything she's seen by now, there's not much that could make her that emotional.

👊 PUNCH - are they quick to violence?

Typically, no. Outside of combat Giselle sees little reason to be violent with anyone. There's no point in getting worked up over little matters, after all, so she doesn't have much of a temper.

💢 ANGER - what are some habits they have that will take some getting used to?

The main thing about her that's hard to adjust to is how two-faced she is. Her dishonesty comes as a serious shock to anyone who knows her outward personality, and once one is aware of how selfish and apathetic she can really be, it's difficult to like her as much as they would have before�� at least, not until they realize that she'll keep acting as kind, pleasant and helpful as ever.

👪 FAMILY - what is their family like? what is your ocs relationship to them? does your oc have any siblings?

Her youth was spent with her parents constantly worried about her health, and Giselle, while grateful for how much they cared, still became a bit resentful over it. She's mostly gotten over that, however, and currently has a pleasant-yet-distant relationship with them, where both sides know she won't live for much longer.

😨 FEARFUL - when scared, do they go into "flight" or "fight"?

Few things legitimately scare her, but Giselle's reaction completely depends on the situation. she's used to ignoring her fears and dealing with problems directly, but she also often doesn't want to bother with difficult, painful problems.

💤 SLEEPING - do they fall asleep easily? what helps them sleep?

She sleeps a normal amount and rarely has trouble falling asleep. There's nothing she needs to help with the process.

#Signal Flare #Giselle Francis

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healertm · 5 years ago

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I’ve decided to man up and just make a post about this finally. This being... Lyra’s Powers / Abilities

In no specific order...

1. Healing

Her most notable and most used form of magic. Lyra is an ADVANCED healer, as she has been practicing the art almost her entire life. Put simply, this allows for the restoration of biotic organisms to optimal health. The major applications of this type of magic are:

‣ Regenerating damaged nerves and cells which can prevent scarring ‣ Reattachment of a lost limb can occur under the condition that it was recent ‣ Internal organs being near-completely healed ‣ Disease being detected sooner than normal ‣ Alleviation to suppress symptoms of pain or nausea ‣ To build the immunity of the subject to certain disease

Healing DOES NOT allow for:

‣ Reanimating the dead ‣ Mental/emotional health manipulation ‣ Immortality or expanded lifespan ‣ Reattachment of completely nerve/cell dead limbs ‣ Transferal/Draining of one’s health to another individual ‣ Permanent fixture of wounds/injuries

2. Healing Nullification/Unhealing

A magic that is never used by Lyra but is completely capable to use. Unhealing is, as it suggests, anti or reverse healing and can:

‣ Reopen wounds ‣ Reverse injuries ‣ Inflict diseases ‣ Pain inducement ‣ Wound memory ‣ Drain life energy from a subject ( VERY LOW SUCCESS RATE ) ‣ Slow down or stop the healing process

Skill LIMITATIONS include:

‣ Only working within close range, via touch ‣ Reaction can be delayed/not automatically ‣ Effects may not be permanent ‣ Inflicting disease upon someone must require they have had the disease prior to ‣ May not work on certain injuries or diseases

This type of magic is seldom used by healers, but each of them have the ability to harness it. Using this type of magic may lead the user to degrade themselves if it is used often enough, leading to mental and physical damage and the possibility of insanity.

3. Enhanced Empathy

The ability to interpret, feel, and sense the emotions, moods and temperments of others. Lyra is an INTERMEDIATE empath, and may have difficulty performing this upon higher magic users that hide or manipulate their own self. This is mostly used for:

‣ Understanding a person’s drive/motives ‣ Detecting lies ‣ Deceiving others ‣ Ability to help imagine what someone may be going through ‣ Clairaudience ‣ Allows the user to hear heightened thoughts and receive “echoes” related to certain emotions and memories ( NOT mind reading, LOW SUCCCESS RATE )

The LIMITATIONS of using this skill are:

‣ Mostly experienced through physical touch ‣ Experiencing constant headaches ‣ May become panicked or unable to handle large amounts of emotion at once ‣ Does not work on some individuals ‣ May wear on the user’s mental health if unable to “turn off” their ability

4. Defense Magic

Magic that allows the user to defend themselves. Lyra would, in any situation, prefer to defend herself or whoever it may be, rather than fight. She is a NOVICE in the arts of defense and her abilities include:

‣ Create/generate small forcefields ‣ Temporary intangibility that allows attacks to pass through the body ( LOW SUCCESS RATE ) ‣ Deflection of small objects

LIMITATIONS of this magic:

‣ Requires a lot of energy ‣ Drains the user quickly ‣ Chance of being over-charged and wounded if not used sparringly ‣ Chance of defense being shattered or broken easily ‣ May require outside sources of matter for the creation of defense shields

#ღ—— about. / yours truly #ღ—— headcanons. /#[ this may/may not be edited in the future #but here are her current abilities #her magic is all based around either people or defense #she knows virtually nothing on any fighting magic #or anything outside of botanical or nature related magic ]

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allalrightagain · 3 years ago

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ONE GIANT FOLDER COMING YOUR WAY

Ooh a giant one you say?? Ok, here’s my DADA prof conspiracy theory:

(under a cut because I wrote you an essay. oops.)

SO! One of the biggest mysteries of the whole series is what on earth Dumbledore was thinking when he hired Gilderoy Lockhart of all people to teach 11-18 year olds defensive magic, especially the year after he confirms that Voldemort is definitely still around and kicking and trying desperately to come back to power/get to Harry. Obviously the last prof died etc etc and the “willing and able” population is extremely slim pickings after 30-40 years of needing a new person every year, so there might not be anyone who would actually say yes that Dumbledore was willing to take.

(This is true even when you consider the professors who do accept for the next few years— Moody and Slughorn come out of retirement to take it, Umbridge and the Carrows hardly make Dumbledore’s “Not a Chance in Hell” list, and Lupin, well... would he take the job? If Sirius had not broken out of Azkaban? Would Dumbledore have even offered it? More on this later!)

But there’s a war brewing, even if Dumbledore’s the only one who knows it, and he doesn’t do anything without thinking it through his General brain (though the same can’t always be said for his Politician or Professor brains).

So what on earth does Dumbledore gain by hiring Lockhart?

Well, he fills the spot, that’s for sure. Best case scenario, he skates by for a whole year, nobody dies, the kids maybe learn a little, and next year we do it all over again.

Except— Harry.

Dumbledore has already proven himself by this point to be relatively focused on Harry in particular and preparing him for the future, both skills/knowledge-wise and “virtue”-wise (ie having him live with muggles, not know about his fame etc). It seems strange to intentionally choose not to provide the best possible education (specifically in Defense Against the Dark Arts) to the kid you absolutely need to survive until he's old enough to die at the hands of the right person (or, since CoS takes place before Dumbledore encounters a horcrux, until Harry is old enough to kill Voldemort for good).

Once you start reading Dumbledore’s hiring choices specifically through the lens of teaching Harry in particular, they start to make a lot more sense.

(a quick note is needed here to mention that the books focus on Harry as the main character etc etc it’s a children’s book but the worldbuilding should still be able to stand on it’s own. Whatever. We’re taking a Watsonian explanation because it’s more fun.)

In order:

Quirrell is a test, and a trap— Dumbledore has set the stage: a bright young man just returned from the place Voldemort was cited having been in at least 2x; a magical object that grants immortality; and a virtually untested, unknown 11yo Harry. This is Dumbledore getting the lay of the land and verifying that Voldemort is in fact alive and that Harry can handle the path set for him. If Quirrell doesn’t end up possessed or otherwise working for Voldemort, then Dumbledore has found another ally against him

Lockhart on the other hand is a lesson, specifically in what not to do/be— Harry grows up as far away from fame as physically possible, and Dumbledore expresses concern that the fame within the wizarding world could get to his head on several occasions. So Dumbledore sees Harry at 11: modest, but with a habit of rule breaking, a Quidditch star, the potential for becoming comfortable with his role within this new society. And Dumbledore shows him the worst possible version of where he could end up if he lets it go to his head. Nothing screams “don’t rely on your fame” like Gilderoy Lockhart. (in as much of Dumbledore’s defense as I’m comfortable providing, this was literally the only year where he didn’t know in advance of the school year what exactly would make it a difficult/dangerous one, so he probably felt he could get away with someone who didn’t need to be able to defend the students. They were supposed to be safe.)

Lupin is bait, and education (!!)— There’s history there, and Dumbledore knows it. Remus draws in Sirius, so Dumbledore knows where he should be headed, and he should protect Harry if it came down to it (and if he doesn’t, then Remus ends up dead or in Azkaban and Dumbledore has shaken out another possible traitor). Remus is also there to teach Harry— about defending himself, which has become increasingly necessary— and to hold the same role he did in school: to keep Harry in check. A teacher who is specifically and singularly interested in Harry first and foremost is a teacher who might actually be able to keep a determined child of James (and Lily) from throwing himself in harms way, especially if information about Sirius gets out.

Moody (or well, Dumbledore’s hope for Moody) is protection and to train soldiers for a war— Again, Dumbledore knows what’s coming this year. Or at least like, 50%. He knows Karkaroff will be there, he knows Pettigrew ran off to Voldemort, and he knows these kids are nowhere prepared to fight in a war. If nothing else, hopefully Moody will scare someone straight.

Umbridge is obviously against Dumbledore’s will, but she does teach them all about politics (in the worst possible way)

Snape sets the stage— It’s part of Dumbledore’s final moves on the chessboard. It teaches Harry actual, useful magic (and is almost as good as Dumbledore teaching Harry what he needs to know directly). It’s NEWT level magic, specifically geared towards fighting a war that Harry, Dumbledore AND Snape (plus… literally everyone else) knows is happening. It sets Snape up to leave re: the curse, however he needs to in the moment where things start falling apart.

Bonus: Slughorn, gets the memory and scares Harry away from using his connections— Dumbledore knows he’s going to die. He knows this war won’t be finished by the time he does. He knows it’s going to rely on Harry finishing the horcrux hunt and doing it with enough of a martyr complex to walk to his death at the end. But he’s also set Harry up with a support system within the Order out of necessity and desperation less than a year ago. So what can Dumbledore do to ensure Harry doesn’t go to any/all of the adults in his life on the occasion of Dumbledore’s death, present them with the horcrux hunt and ask for help? He gives Harry Slughorn, who is the epitome of a Slytherin who knows how to use their resources, and he does so blatantly and without a shred of shame. Harry is supposed to look at him, assembling the Slug Club, bragging about tickets he’s gotten and correspondence he keeps, and think “I do not want to be like him.” Slughorn is supposed to isolate Harry from anyone who would tell him not to walk to his death, and, just like Lockhart makes Harry even more uncomfortable about his fame, it works because it perpetuates the abuse Harry has endured.

TL;DR: Dumbledore chooses DADA profs to teach Harry something specific, in the case of Lockhart (and Slughorn), it’s specifically a moral lesson on who not to be and what not to do

Send me a 📂 and I'll give you a useless/random headcanon

#you did say a giant one #never forget dumbledore is a tactician fighting a war everyone else has forgotten #some of this is paraphrased/plagiarized from another post I made about this but not a lot #this is useless because unless you're writing from dumbledore's pov this doesn't matter #or writing a story that explicitly fucks with him but that's so hard #trust me I've tried #ask games #lt talks #hp #hp meta #the remus bullet could have been like 8 times longer but I was trying to stay on topic

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0poole · 4 years ago

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I LOVE No Straight Roads

Honestly it’s hard to keep me away from a game with great visuals and even greater character design. I knew from the INSTANT I saw these characters that I was going to love it. I just finished it because it’s (unfortunately) pretty short, and even though I cheesed the final boss through it’s very lenient death mechanics (Instant respawn at the cost of a good rank) I actually appreciated that it wasn’t a pure cake walk. I’ve yet to rematch all of the bosses, but since I had genuine trouble with the later ones I’ll hold off on that.

But who cares about gameplay, am I right? I sure as hell don’t. I would’ve bought the game no matter what the hell it was. I wanted the characters (and the music, although I realized that second) and that was it.

First of all, I love any world that is super fantastical but cheesy in its concept, ala a city powered by music, and battles between artists using music. Ideas like this only spawn from a mind that wants to create a fun atmosphere, if nothing else, and it was sure as hell fun. I genuinely love when someone goes so far into a crazy idea and doesn’t waste your time explaining it with real world logic. Wanna know how a city can be powered by music? Shut up and look at the cute virtual mermaid. Lord knows I did. Every once in a while, it does you good to just let the player/reader/viewer just revel in the idea without having to go out of your way to make things seem realistic. It’s not about “turning your brain off” or whatever, it’s picking your battles.

Also, I can seriously love a world with great background characters to it. Any game with the right situation to insert the random nobodies you find onto the streets into the art in the credits really played into the greatness of the world’s less important characters, and that’s always a good thing. It’s technically world building. But, since I always love to pick favorites, I’d have to say my favorite background character is easily Mia, the NSR infodesk assistant. It’s funny, because you can literally search “nsr characters” into Google and she’s the third image result. I love how jumpy she is when you first interact with her, since NSR probably spread the word about B2J suggesting they’re rock thugs who’d beat up anyone, so for all she knows she could die right then and there with a guitar lodged in her skull. She’s probably just some intern trying to pay for college. She don’t want trouble.

Also, I just realized that 90% of the characters in this game have the same body structure that I always love, that being having arms/legs that sort of fan out in width into relatively large hands/feet. It’s a kind of limb structure I fall into so much because it just really hits me right for some reason. I really can’t explain why.

Anyways, I gotta talk about the big boys individually:

Mayday and Zuke are an amazing duo. I’m always a sucker for a cute and crazy girl, but honestly Zuke hit so many of the right notes too. I will say it’s weird to pair the martian Zuke with the humanly-skinned Mayday, but honestly it doesn’t even matter because he looks so cool on his own. I love his weird blocky blue dreadlocks, and his weirdly shaped shirt which bares his chest in the weirdest way... And, oh my god, Mayday’s weird Spongebob background flower eyes? It’s little tidbits like that that really make me jealous. How could I have ever thought of that? It looks so perfect, and I don’t know why. And her little booty jig she does in her idle animation? Adorable. I played as her as much as was reasonable not only because I’m a filthy button masher with little strategy but also because she’s so damn cute. I can also appreciate how she has a tough-as-nails persona while still keeping a semi-girly attitude, like with her falling for 1010 and Sayu. Characters are so much better when they’re a perfect blend of characteristics, instead of being all one-note, like how Zuke is the quiet one but gets heated against DK West, and all.

Honestly the voice acting for every character is great, but I love when Mayday’s VA’s accent shows through. It’s a perfect twang to accent (consider this the only acknowledgement of a pun in this post) her snarkiness.

DJ Subatomic Supernova was going to be an easy favorite since he’s all space-themed. Also, I don’t know why I always end up liking the egotistic characters. Not in the sense that I like their egotistic-ness, but in the sense that I like everything else about them and they just so happen to also be egotistic. The same applied with Empoleon (maybe like my 2nd favorite Pokemon) and Rarity from MLP, probably among others. Either way, I’ll never not love space themes. Not to mention he’s got a funky disco theme, and I’m slowly starting to realize that I am in extreme love with techno-funk styles of music. The instant I heard his music he cemented his place into my playlists.

As for design, I still have no idea what the fuck he is. Clearly AI is at human levels in this world, but if he’s a robot why does he still have hairy legs? But, if he’s a human, is that weird orb his head? Is it just some sort of puppet which he controls from inside his giant jacket? I know I dissed explaining things realistically but I actually want to know with this guy. Even the wiki doesn’t say. Either way, he’s clearly the logical extreme of “being at the center of your own universe.” Even his jacket depicts a solar system, with his hood being the sun. Didn’t see that until I tried to draw him. I really wish this guy wasn’t so tied to his DJ stand so I could reasonably draw him without it. I don’t want to draw his hairy ass legs. It is a great touch for his design though (although I prefer his beta look with pants and long boots, another design trait I tend to gravitate to) since DJs could reasonably not wear pants, since they’re always behind a table.

Sayu is my favorite. It’s so plainly obvious. It’s weird to say that sometimes, because some characters like Sayu are so clearly engineered to be as adorable as possible, to the point where they’re basically a parody of whatever they’re supposed to be emulating, but then they do that so well that they are still likable for what they’re trying to parody. Also, even though I’ve never looked into any vocaloid superstars myself, the fact that they exist and are loved in real life is absolutely perfect to be used as a character design in a world like this. It’s so weird conceptually, but we all know it’s normal and realistic. But yeah, she’s a giga-cutie whom I’ve already drawn and I’ve listened to her theme on loop on many different occasions. Favorite character, favorite track, favorite weapon of choice (What did I say about Empoleon?), which, and I wouldn’t have noticed this myself, looks like the USB symbol you see above USB ports on computers. How crazy perfect is that?

Even apart from my unbridled love for cute monster robot(?) girls, her boss fight is probably the 2nd greatest of them all, at least conceptually. She’s just a hologram, so you can’t touch her, but you CAN disconnect the artists which control her in order to defeat her. It’s the kind of concept for a boss fight that could only work for this type of character. I’m a sucker for the cute girl that provides her voice, but I love how the animator (video editor? the yellow one) actually attacks you with a mouse and lowers the brightness of the setting once he appears. Also, the mocap guy being the deeply-voiced type but still providing the adorable movements of her body. It’s such a great combo of characters, and their little extra art in the credits makes me like them even more. I just wish we could interact with them individually.

DK West was probably one of the most interesting characters visually, especially since I knew of every other NSR member long before the game came out, but I only just heard of him closer to the release. I wasn’t sure where he was placed, but I definitely assumed his gig was the weird shadow demon we saw in the trailers. When I finally saw him in game, I was shocked to hear him speak an entirely different language most of the time, which was really cool. Also, finding out he was tied to Zuke and wasn’t strictly an NSR artist really made him more interesting. You know, if his fucking shadow clone magic didn’t make him crazy cool enough. Even though I suck at his game and am not especially fond of his raps, the visual of him rapping with this giant monster behind him and dozens of weird shadow wingmen by his side hyping him up was probably one of the coolest in the entire game. The dark way they were hyping him up too gave such a bizarre atmosphere, especially since it parallels his seemingly chill and smiley demeanor.

I definitely hope they’ll introduce new bosses as DLC in the future, and make them sort of in the same vein as DK West, where they aren’t the biggest artists ever, but they want to pick a fight with B2J. I’d kill for any extra content this game can provide.

Yinu is obviously special since she was the subject of the demo they put out for the game. Even though I knew all her bells and whistles, she and her mom still beat me a few times in the full game. Considering she’s semi-tied to story-ish spoilers I kinda want to go more into her in a separate section. It is worth considering playing the game first since it’s not hard (with the easy going deaths) and it’s short length.

1010 seriously grew on me as I learned more about them and interacted with them. I got their shtick when I first looked at them, but after seeing that animation of them touring the city on Youtube I was kinda falling for them. Then, I learned that they’re apparently repurposed navy war robots? I mean, maybe not them specifically, but it seems to heavily point in that direction, with the warship cars and “attention!”s and all. It took me a bit to get into their music too, but once I actually fought them and put their actions to the music I fell in love with it. I swear, Neon J’s weird dancing can has some of the smoothest moves in all of gaming. I don’t know whether they mocapped out those movements or got one of the greatest animators ever, but it looks so impossibly clean his part of the song gets me like 30x more hype than it would normally.

Also, their little art piece of them looking at fan mail in the credits is probably one of the most adorable things ever. Even if they’re just Neon J’s puppets, that piece of art really makes it seem like they love every one of their fans. I’m not gonna lie, I might swoon a bit too if they picked me out and gave me some special attention.

Oh yeah, and the fact that Mayday was super sad in her showstopper against them was adorable and hilarious at the same time. The little tweaks they made to the showstopper for each fight were great.

Eve just has to be Lady Gaga, right? Like, an even crazier Lady Gaga. DJSS is Daft Punk (or any artist with a helmet persona, you know what I’m talking about), Sayu is Hatsune Miku, DK West is Kanye West, Yinu is a generic child protege, 1010 is a KPop boyband (just pick one) and Eve is Lady Gaga. That’s just how things are. But, again, this is the kind of boss fight that only this type of character could provide. It’s not just surreal imagery, it’s ARTISTIC surreal imagery. The fight is so mesmerizing in every way, especially by how it starts off so slow and calm and progresses to insanity, as well as the increased emotional investment in the fight making you feel so much more into it than just “That’s the boy band. Let’s fight.” Not only does it get you more invested, but it makes her artistic persona go deeper than just “she looks weird.” She is genuinely conflicted about her relationship with Zuke, and naturally that leads her to literally split him and Mayday apart. That mechanic specifically was the coolest, although I do wish they made it more obvious when you needed to switch over to a different side. I was getting pulverized by her fight too, since there were so many things to pay attention to. Her fight was definitely the best one.

Tatiana and Spoilers:

Let’s be real with ourselves, the twist was so obvious. I do also think, though, that obvious twists aren’t bad if they’re just good reveals. At some point, a person just has experienced so many stories that “only pretty good” twists are easy to spot. It doesn’t mean that the twists are bad, it just means you yourself experienced.

I feel like her transition from rock to EDM was pretty understandable, even as a non-musician. She was so caught up in what she assumed was popular that it basically consumed her. It’s easy as an artist to want to forgo what you truly want to make in favor of what makes you popular, and clearly since her transition to EDM made her the CEO of the biggest company in the city (world?) that probably made her think she truly needed to change her outlook. Then, when she saw B2J try to bring it back, she sort of coined them as being as misguided as she was and knocked them down a peg. Plus, they were kinda being jerks about it.

It’s kinda like the Trolls sequel, where everyone pegs rock music fanatics as being too stuck up in their own heads to appreciate other types of music, which honestly seems more like the case than the alternative. When I first heard of the story of the game, I was seriously hoping they did put an asterisk on B2J’s ambitions because they were a bit sketchy from the start.

That’s kinda where I want to talk about Yinu, because she was the true turning point in what they were doing. She’s literally 9 and yet she’s getting dragged into all this BS. When she said “I hate you all” at the end of her fight, and played a somber tune on her broken piano after the fight destroyed it, you kinda got a kick in the face to realize you’re kinda being an asshole to some of them. Sure, they fight back, but they wouldn’t fight in the first place if they didn’t have to. They are just people who play music under a joint name that B2J just so happened to get in hot water with.

Then, of course, there’s Kliff, who also reeked of surprise villain, and who’s basically the embodiment of the bad side of B2J, where he just wanted to destroy for his own sake and not for the actual greater good. Once B2J realized their mistake, they backed off, but Kliff was so hard pressed to do what he planned on in the first place he wouldn’t stop. I kinda wish he got a bigger fight to his own since he’s clearly a big enough tech genius to divert a whole satellite into one specific building. Maybe the Elliecopter chase bit was his thing, but I do kind of wish he was there to fight against them too.

Even though Tatiana did kind of reform a bit quick, It’s still not too crazy to assume she could see that B2J was just misguided and the fact that they worked to revert their wrongdoings for her sake would make a pretty strong impressions. They clearly can hold their own, so it’s not like she wouldn’t want them to join NSR too.

Oh yeah, and her boss fight was clock/time themed. If there’s a theme under space that I love, it’s clocks/time.

And If I am to be respected by the internet, I must provide a negative opinion to balance out my positive one. I will say that the character model physics (like Mayday’s braids, DK West’s vest thing, Neon J’s fluffy neck thing, etc) got kinda funky at times. Especially DK West’s vest, which was completely messed up for every scene he was in... Also, even though the voices are mostly great, some lines felt a bit off. Just a bit. That good enough? Good.

But yeah anyway that’s another favorite game to add to the pile. Eventually I’m gonna have to compile a true list of my all-time favorite games/movies because I do kind of want to have a solid idea of what my all-time favorites are.

#nsr #no straight roads #bunk bed junction #dj subatomic supernova #sayu #yinu #dk west #spoilers #1010 #eve #tatiana #rambling #review #poole #etc #opinions #rant

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mcmactictac · 3 years ago

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Ramble time!!!! Boy oh by do I have thoughts today!!!

(It’s been a while since I’ve read the books, I plan a re read soon so sorry if everything isn’t totally accurate!)

Why do I never see anyone talking about how low Percy’s self esteem is? I feel like we all make him out to be this cool, know it all guy who is super confident right? But he ISNT. And throughout the series you can see aspects of his mental health shown in different ways, but I find it the most interesting to look at the difference a POV change makes.

We as a reader know that Percy is powerful, but we don’t get a sense of how he comes off to other people until we get Frank and Hazels POV’s in Son of Neptune. Both of them are in awe of this kid, I mean Hazel thinks he’s a GOD IN DISGUISE when she firsts meets him. That’s no small feat, and almost everyone seems to find him incredibly impressive and intimidating too.

But when we get Percy POV’s (I’m talking mostly PJO here but HOO is also applicable) he’s totally humble? This is the kid who beat the god of war as a 12 year old with virtually no training in combat, or of his powers. That’s a HUGE deal. And Percy never really has that big moment where it’s like “woah, I just beat the God of war, that’s a massive deal”. He constantly undermines his own achievements, simply in the lack of acknowledging and appreciating them. It’s just another thing to him, something he did to save others. He’ll literally hold the sky and brush it off like it was nothing. And it seems like it’s nothing, but he consistently does it! The readers don’t notice it as much because we don’t know any different. It reads as just being insanely humble, but there are times when you deserve to step back and appreciate what you accomplished. Percy rarely (if ever) does that, and often just passes it off as luck or a mistake that it worked. Something that worked out by chance, and not a pattern him being successful.

I personally like to believe he doesn’t notice or brag about any of these things because of his low self confidence. Objectively, beating a god is an incredibly impressive thing, that Percy would praise in other people, but when it’s HIMSELF it doesn’t matter. That’s what his expectations for himself are. It isn’t an achievement but more of a “congrats, you didnt screw up this time. Don’t know how you pulled that off”. It’s more of being excited/surprised you didn’t fail, instead of celebrating the achievement.

Battle of the Labyrinth. There’s a lot going on there. Literally most of the main characters in this book have a crush on him. Annabeth, Rachel, Calypso, and Nico all express interest in him, some more clearly than others. And for the most part? They are NOT subtle. Even though readers only have Percy’s POV, it’s still blatantly obvious to us that Annabeth, Rachel and Calypso all have feelings for him. So why doesn’t Percy recognize it? I mean you could argue that he is unobservant, but we see everything narrated through his eyes. Which means he sees and processes everything we know. He is totally aware of the signs of people flirting with him, but he just cant comprehend the fact that someone could be showing interest in him and doesn’t even consider the possibility. Most of the time his reaction is genuine surprise when he realizes someone has feelings for him. He can’t wrap his head around that idea without being explicitly told. I feel like this relates into confidence again because despite all the signs being there, he automatically assumes that he’s misreading them. He basically doesn’t view himself of someone worthy of having a crush on.

People with ADHD also have a tendency to have way lower self confidence: Since they are constantly told they’re doing something wrong, or misbehaving, or corrected on something they can’t control, it can be really challenging to not feel like a failure, or think something is wrong with you: Not meeting up to neurotypical standards can be incredibly challenging, and can make people feel bad about themselves when they don’t meet those standards. People with ADHD often receive so much external criticism, and If you don’t realize what you have it can potentially be even harder, since you are constantly trying to match a neurotypical level, and not understanding why it’s so much harder to reach. That negative talk you hear so often around you gets internalized into your own narrative, and makes you more critical of yourself as well. I’m sure having an abusive parent only made this worse. The way Gabe talks to Percy and about Percy sets him up as this problem child who doesn’t deserve anything. Sally is amazing, and I love her, but she can’t magically undo the negative impact all of that commentary from Gabe, teachers, and peers has had on Percy’s view of himself.

It’s also interesting when you look at HOO, when everyone is comparing Percy and Jason, and who could win in a fight. Everyone has their thoughts and opinions, and it’s something Jason thinks about a lot. Jason and Percy view this “rivalry” in a really different way. Jason has been raised to be the best, he is a strong and capable warrior who is pretty confident in himself once he starts to remember who he is. Jason worked his way up and earned his position as a leader, it was something he wanted and chose to be. He is confident in himself, and just wants to prove to others that he is strong and capable, a leader worthy of putting trust in. Percy on the other hand was forced into a leadership role. He was forced to take his first quest and he had no choice in being the child of the prophecy. He doesn’t even really want to be, I think he would have been perfectly happy if it was Thalia’s problem instead. He adapted and learned, but he still doesn’t see himself as a leader. He feels as fake as he did as a young kid, having no idea what he was doing. Faking it all and hoping that no one would notice the doubt he hides from them.

Just because Percy doesn’t see himself in a “negative” light, does not mean he doesn’t have severe mental health issues. Since it’s a children’s series, obviously a lot of it is glossed over or lies more in the subtext, but I wish it was something the fanbase acknowledged more because its so interesting!!

#percy jackson #percy pjo #percy jackon and the olympians #pjo hc #hero’s of olympus #pjo/hoo #pjo text post #pjo analysis #jason grace #annabeth chase #I don’t know what else to put here #I hope this finds the target audience lol #is this niche? I have no idea

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talesofphantombandits · 4 years ago

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Zero to Six ~ The Death of Six - Edited version.

Greetings and salutations! So I know this isn’t what everyone wanted but people are still reading Zero to Six and I’m honestly so grateful that a year on, people are still loving this series. But I never felt like I wrote it properly, the chapters where always too short and I felt like they were never detailed enough so I wanted to bring to you an edited version (that probably still won’t be perfect.) one that I’m more satisfied with. I will be keeping the original version up just in case people prefer that one, maybe one day I’ll take it down? who knows but yeah so enjoy! <3 P.s I’ve missed you all so much and I’ve really missed this series. Hopefully sometime soon the Prequel will be out which I have started and named ‘Before there was Six, there was Zero.’

Characters: Four X Zero (OC) Summary: Zero was the first person to be ‘saved’ by One, she was his first honorary Ghost. Her knowledge in tech meant she got the role of ‘Hacker’ she recruited new team members, looked for missions and locations and made sure every security measure was looked at. You know normal hacker spy stuff. But her tough up bringing meant that if needs be she could fight, she was maybe even better than some people on the team knew. But due to One’s protectiveness over her she had to stay hidden, she was more of an actual ghost than the rest of the team was. This didn’t mean she couldn’t have her fun though, over the months of being with the full team she had formed quite a passionate love/ hate relationship with the handsome Four. Who knows what sparks would fly if they were ever to meet. Warnings: Slight swearing, some suggestive flirting in later chapters.

Tagg list: (I know this is a edit of my original story but if anyone wants to be tagged let me know.) @raylan-c

Zero to Six ~ Part 2. Edited Version. Masterlist.

“You’re stalling.”

“I’m not stalling.” Zero could practically hear the smirk in Fours voice over the coms. “I’m simply just working myself up to it.”

She laughed. “You always say that, and you’re always stalling.” She was playing on his last nerve, she knew it but this would be good for Four and entertainment for her. He always worked better when he was frustrated and no one stressed him out quite like Zero.

Four had been doing parkour for most of his life, or that’s what he told them. Yet he was still fearful every single time, still I guess that’s what made him great at it the fear of always falling gave him the adrenaline he needed to make the jumps.

Another breathless laugh fluttered through Zeros left ear. “Don’t test me darling.” Now it was his turn to make Zero sweat, this always happened. Zero would insult and tease and Four would flirt right back, although most of the team were used to it by now they still broke them up from time to time.

“Whatever monkey boy, just be ready for when Six gets his ass in gear!” She clicked her tongue. “I can hear you mocking me asshole, remember I hold the key here I can make your life a living hell with just one click of a button.”

“You already make my life hell darling, But I live for it everyday.”

“Swear to god Four, you’re a pain in my ass.” She mumbled as she typed away at the computer trying to figure out their next move so she could be ready with any instruction they needed.

“I’m sure your ass is pretty fine, I can’t wait to see it someday.” She could practically feel the smirk.

“Yeah? And I can't wait to punch the smirk off that pretty face one day, only you could be in a life or death situation and be thinking about my virtual ass.”

“Wait, did you just admit to fancying me Zero? Guys she called me handsome, I think I’m getting somewhere.”

“Go for Four!” Saved by the bell it seems, One’s voice rang through coms. Zero silently thanked god for she did fancy Four, who wouldn’t fancy that absolute Greek god of a man? With that honey voice and the moves he had! moves he could use on her, she shook her head hoping the images of him forming in her head would magically fall out of her brain never to return, but she wouldn’t be so lucky.

“Shut the hell up, stop thinking about ways to seduce Zero and get your ass down here we need you!” And just like that, it was go time. “NOW!”

Zero had been working with this team for a while now, but she was more on the surveillance side of the missions, which meant that she had never officially met the team face to face. The only person she had actually met was One, who had recruited her. He would visit from time to time, she liked to think they had a special bond. She was in fact the first person in need that One had found and ever since then he had become a sort of father figure to her.

Two was next who was sort of cold at times, Zero put this down to her CIA training but she had never been anything but caring towards Zero. Then she found Three, a hitman who she was reluctant to look into at first but she knew now it was the best thing for her and the team. Despite his past he was one of the most sweet and caring men she’d ever met, and he never failed to make her smile on a bad day. Ever since recruiting Four, she felt the atmosphere in the group shift slightly, there was nothing bad about him but they both couldn’t ignore the growing attraction between them, and this was just over cyber space. She then found her best friend in Five, she was different from the rest. Not as violent and rash but still amazing at what she did and protecting herself and others, Zero knew if she ever needed someone the first person she’d go to was Five.

Six was her latest recruit, one that she knew was extremely talented in not only driving but in all things mechanical too, they had chatting a few times about servers and bots and he’d promised her a round in their shared favourite video game once this mission was complete.

She’d be lying to herself and everyone else if she said she didn’t want to meet them all in person, they were the closest thing she had, had to family. However she knew that if she was to meet them nothing could ever come of her and Four. One would definitely not allow it, and most likely lock her straight back up.

Still they were sort of this dysfunctional family, and she was definitely the odd one out. She couldn’t remember the last time she had, had a normal conversation with someone who wasn’t ‘dead’ the only time she was allowed to leave the flat was when One said it was moving day. He didn’t like her staying in one flat too long, she must have moved at least four times this year already. While she was alone in her flat eating ready meals they were all back at base eating together, she sometimes pretended she was there eating with them. Three telling her some stupid story that no one else is listening to because they have heard it at least a thousand times, but she would just be so happy to hear his beautiful accent in person that she would listen to anything he was telling her. How she wished she could hug three in real life. The closest she had gotten to eating with them was over coms, sometimes they would leave the line open for debriefing but it still made her feel like an outcast.

“I’m coming down!” Everything was going wrong, Six had gone the wrong way. Which Zero wasn’t surprised to see as everyone in the car was shouting at each other, she sat there in her gaming chair drinking Dr Pepper and enjoying her fried chicken meal while everyone was losing their minds in the field. Maybe getting to stay in the comfort of her flat wasn’t so bad after all?

“Good boy.” She praised Four. “Finally putting those parkour skills to use, other than robbing some innocent person.”

Even before he started to speak she could tell he’d started to run because his speech came out in huffs. “Shut up, at least I can do parkour which makes me cooler than a girl who sits at her computer all day.”

She had to laugh. “What are you? Five years old? Try again when you can think up better come backs, I can’t take you seriously right now.”

Wherever One moved Zero was never too far away from where the team worked, the first time the rest of the team worked this out was when Zero first used the drone to help navigate them someplace safe. That was also the first time she finally got to see Four in action, the image of him running along the rooftops like a monkey in the jungle both amused her and impressed her. Hence the nickname she had given him. But there were also times when he would have close calls, where he had nearly fallen to his death that’s when the breath would get knocked out of her and she would only calm when she knew he was safe on the ground again.

“Right over you guys.” He said in a strained voice while leaping onto another roof.

“So guys, just look out for the flying monkey above you. That will be Four.” Most of the teasing with Four was just to pass the time while they were out in the field having fun and mainly it was just way too fun to hear him get so frustrated.

“Zero, that’s not helping us.” One said in a sing-song voice.

“Maybe it’s not helping you, but it is definitely helping me pass the time.” All she could hear was a disappointed grunt from One which just made her chuckle,it was also very fun to piss One off.

“Six! SIX! Wrong way god damn it!”

She cringed at how loud Four had screamed down the coms. “Come back! I’ve got an idea.”

“Ladies and gentleman, for the first time in his life Four has an idea!” She said mindlessly typing away trying to find the best route for them to escape by.

“You know what Zero, when we finally meet I’m going to run that fine ass of yours into the ground.” He all but growled.

“You can try monkey boy, but you’ll have to catch me first.” She smirked to herself, she secretly hoped that, that was more of a promise than a mere threat. “Oh, challenge accepted sweetheart. I’d love to have a game of cat and mouse with you.”

“You two do remember that we are on a mission right now, right?” Six moaned. “What with you two flirting, and these absolute idiots fighting beside me in the car. I’m finding it very hard to concentrate on driving!” With every word Six’s voice got more agitated and louder.

“We are not flirting!” Both Four and Zero exclaimed together.

“Aww they even said it at the same time!” Zero just rolled her eyes at One’s teasing. “No one cares, now both of you shut up so we can all get out of here.”

“That’s it Six, keep coming towards me!” The drone was filming just above the action, once she’d wiped her hands and they were free from the grease on her chicken. She finally realised what Four was about to do.

Suddenly the car that was tailing Six was being impaled by five metal tubes. “God, okay I’m definitely done eating now. That was so gross.”

Then the screaming started to fill the coms. “Guy’s, what the hell are you doing?” All Zero could make out was something about an eyeball.

“This is so stressful! Can everyone stop arguing and speaking over each other?!” Zero was getting agitated now.

“YOU THINK YOU’RE STRESSED?! I’M TRYING TO DRIVE WHILST ALSO TRYING NOT TO KILL ANYONE, DID I MENTION I ALSO HAVE AN EYEBALL ON MY LEG?!” Six all but screamed down the coms, loud enough that Zero had to remove her earpiece until she was sure he was done with his rant.

“Six sweetie,” she said as calmly as she could, trying not to laugh. “Are you okay?”

“DO I SOUND LIKE I’M OKAY ZERO?!” She knew he would say that, she finally let out the chuckle she was trying to hold as to not irritate him further.

“Sorry I was just asking. I swear I‘m not using your painful situation to make myself feel better.” She held her hands up in defence even though he couldn’t see her.

He just let out a huff. “I’m going to ignore you now Zero, you’re pissing me off more than these guys are.”

After the commotion things went quiet for a while, there was now a helicopter tailing them so all effort and concentration went on losing it. While there was little chatter over the coms the main sound that dominated the air was the gunfire, Zero silently prayed to herself while she watched the drone that everyone would make it out of their first real mission alive. One finally found a route for them, conveniently inside of a building that would shelter them enough to lose the aerial surveillance they were under.

“The drone will meet you on the other side, good luck and please try not to make too much of a mess in there Six. There are some priceless statues in there we would all like preserving.” Just as Zero finished her sentence she heard a loud crash.

“You were saying?” Six chuckled nervously.

“You didn’t.” Zero stared shocked at her screen, mouth wide open.

One was the one to respond to her though. “Unfortunately he did, don’t worry we’re all just as disappointed in him.”

“Okay we finally lost the chopper, Zero do you have a visual?” One asked surprisingly calmly.

“You mean the bright green car, kind of hard to miss. Good choice Six you really blend in.” Zero laughed. “I see you, there are two black vans heading your way. Shake them off then head to the arranged rendezvous spot where Three will be waiting for you.”

Six’s voice was strained when he spoke. “Listen, fast and convenient was what I was told to get. So that’s what I got.”

Zero would have responded but she was more distracted by the sight of Four on a skateboard holding a launcher. He jumped off the board and leaped up onto the stone wall just as one of the black vans passed, he aimed and shot, never missing the mark. She was impressed for a moment but then saw the smug smile on his face, he looked directly into the drone and winked at Zero. She just scoffed, what an absolute show off.

“Seems like we have a superhero on our team.” Six laughed impressed.

Zero scoffed again, but this time loud enough so everyone could hear it over the coms. “I wouldn’t exactly call him a superhero.”

“Then what would you call me darling? A Greek god?” This is the thing about Four, he’d never met Zero in person but he knew exactly how to push her buttons. She’d be lying if she said she didn’t enjoy the banter from time to time.

“Hurm more like a vein asshole that thinks far too highly of himself.” She snapped back.

But he just laughed, the complete opposite of what she was expecting. “I mean everyone else loves me, might as well love myself too.” She rolled her eyes, She really couldn’t blame him though he was a very handsome man but no way in hell was she ever going to tell him that. “One day you’ll fall for the charm that everyone else falls for. I know you’re already obsessed with me.”

“In your dreams Four.”

“It already happens in my dreams, every night darling. I’d be happy to elaborate later on in a private chat.” Zero audibly gagged.

“Guy’s can we please cut out the flirting until after the mission? We’re nearly there and I don’t think any of us want to hear whatever this is.” One sounded tired and Zero just laughed at how much their fighting annoyed the other members.

“Yes boss!” She added in a salute even though One couldn’t see her, he could feel she was mocking him.

Just then the drone cut out. “Shit! Someone shot down the drone. You’re on your own from here guys.”

There was a commotion through the coms, one that didn’t sound at all good. Car tyres screeched, bullets rain down on the metal of the car Zero held her breath as she waited for anything. Even just a breath so she knew at least someone was still alive, her heart stopped when the line had been silent for too long she had to know what happened.

“Guys, come on talk to me. What’s going on? Why are you all being so silent? What happened?” There was another breath of silence and her mind went straight to Four, she shook her head. No! She wasn’t going to let herself think about that, she scolded herself for getting too attached to the little shit.

The was a crackle over the line, Five cleared her throat. “Six is dead, we’re in the van, the space is clear.”

Zero sucked in a breath, she felt like her lungs were burning. “What?”

“Zero listen to me, you need to turn off coms now.” One must have turned from the group, he was using his quiet, serious voice. “I’ll handle this okay, I’ll check back in with you later.”

Just like that he was gone, she clicked the switch to turn off almost absentmindedly. She sat back in her chair, only snapping back to reality when she felt something wet fall on her hand. She softly touched her face to find her cheeks were wet, when had she started to cry? Six wasn’t someone she knew in person, he had been the last member of the team but still a very important piece of their puzzle. She thought about the game he had promised to play with her after the mission, this would never come to pass now. Now he was really dead, and it was all her fault.

For the first time Zero started to think about the whole team and if One’s master plan of being ghosts to take down the world’s evil was such a good idea after all, why had it taken a real death in the team for her to even think about this. What if it had been Four, she didn’t think she could live with herself if anything ever happened to Four, maybe it was a good thing they had never met. Seeing him in person, hearing his deep honey voice, feeling his warmth would definitely make her fall deeper then she already was. He was just a voice over the coms but behind that was a real person, one that probably wouldn’t even share the same feelings towards her. So she thought ‘Yes, It’s a good thing I’m behind this computer screen and not with them in person.’ She had to try to distance herself from now on.

......

Just wanted to say one last Thank You! for the continued support for this story <3

#ben hardy #ben hardy fanfic #ben hardy fanfiction #ben hardy four #6 underground #6 underground fanfiction #6 underground four #6 underground fanfic #6 underground billy #four #four fanfiction #four fanfic #four x reader #four x oc #four x zero #billy x reader #billy x oc #billy x scout #6 underground x reader

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slythergirlimagines · 4 years ago

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Life Changing Adventures with Zuko

Summary: Zuko and the Reader get into some trouble when they meet a witch who switches their bodies. The Gaang tries to help them switch back. Pretty much fluff, not much angst! (GIF is not mine, but I absolutely love it!) Words: 5,659 Request: Yes Masterlist

****Also, would you guys be interested in me making a masterlist of all my fics? Let me know!

Life Changing Adventures with Zuko

You should have never come here. That’s what you’re thinking as you and Zuko climb up the incredibly tall, dangerous mountain to see what’s in the mysterious cave.

“I don’t like this.” You say, crossing your arms in an effort to preserve some sort of body heat. Of course, Zuko didn’t have to worry about the cold and he seemed no more bothered with this excursion than he would be anything else.

Zuko glances back at you, black fringe hanging in his amber eyes.

“Just calm down, we’re nearly there.” He says, and continues his climb up the winding, steep path.

You roll your eyes, but hurry to match his pace. You definitely don’t want to fall behind in this place, but Zuko’s long legs are growing increasingly hard to keep up with.

You can feel it in the air that something’s not quite right. There’s an undercurrent of something undefinable. Like magic. It hums all around you, and gives you goosebumps.

Up ahead, the wind whips through Zuko’s raven hair. It also blows his tunic tight against his body, and you can just make out the contours of his muscles.

Mentally, you slap yourself. Why do you care about Zuko’s muscles? He had chased you and your friends for months, and he had been responsible for a myriad of bad things that had happened to you. You had forgiven him, but you guys fought all the time. Your bickering often drove your friends crazy, and had been nonstop since he arrived.

“Life changing adventures with Zuko.” Toph had once called the personal journeys your friends had taken with him. You and Toph were the only people who hadn’t had one, and you certainly hoped today wasn’t your day.

Zuko stops and cocks his head, listening. You slowly approach him, taking care to keep silent. If Zuko was concerned then you should definitely be concerned as well. Your eyes dart around, but you don’t see or hear anything out of the ordinary.

The sun is starting to set, and it’s making this damn mountain even colder than before. The trees cast long shadows over the path, and it all feels foreboding. Subconsciously, you gravitate closer to Zuko.

“Remind me what we’re doing here, again?” You ask. You’re trying your hardest not to show any fear, but everything in your body is telling you to leave.

Zuko squints and stares in the direction of the cave.

“Aang asked us to check it out.” He says in his low rasp. This however is partially untrue.

Aang had asked you to go check it out, not Zuko. Aang claimed that something felt wrong up here, but he was currently trying to the closest village from being occupied by Fire Nation troops and didn’t have time to check. You weren’t a bender, but you were a capable warrior, and Aang trusted your abilities.

Zuko, on the other hand, had volunteered the moment you agreed to go. He claimed that it was because he couldn’t have Fire Nation soldiers recognize him, but his hastiness made you suspicious. He was always doing that, hovering around you during missions and tasks. It got on your nerves how little he trusted in your ability to defend yourself.

“I don’t think we should be here.” You reiterate. “It just feels....”

“I know. I feel it too.” Zuko says. He turns to you and offers a large hand. Sighing, you take it and allow him to lead you closer to the cave.

Zuko stops behind a tall tree, and peeks his head around to observe. The tree is hardly wide enough to conceal his broad shoulders, but at least you are in the shadows. You notice that you are still holding his hand, and drop it before he can read too much into it.

In an effort to look busy, you squint into the dark, trying to make out any sort of object that could be important. Without Aang here it is virtually impossible to know what you need to find.

Zuko seems to be following the same train of thought as you, and scans the area with his eyes. The light is almost dark enough to conceal his scar. Your fingers twitch with some foreign urge to trace over it. You ball your hands into fists. Maybe you just want to punch him in the face.

“I don’t see anything.” Zuko mumbles, still watchful.

“Me neither. I say we go back to camp and tell Aang that there’s nothing up here.” The wind has picked up since you got here, and you’re teeth are chattering.

Zuko notices your shivering for the first time, and rolls his eyes. He flexes his fingers, and you can tell what he’s about to do from the look on his face. You can’t have him firebend here.

“Don’t.” You say harsher than necessary.

“You can’t give that away, especially if someone’s here.” You hastily add. You don’t know why you’re suddenly so concerned about sparing his feelings.

“Yeah...you’re right.” Zuko says, but there’s a strange look in his eyes that you don’t quite understand.

Suddenly, the cave bursts into life and a bright light pours through it. The hairs on your arms prickle as the hum around you intensifies. You can practically taste whatever it is in the air.

“We need to get closer, see what’s going on.” Zuko says, “Maybe this is what Aang meant.”

You swallow loudly, but nod your consent. Hesitantly, you trail behind him, nearing the cave. The light illuminates the wideness of its mouth, and its seemingly never ending depth. Anything could be in there, but what could be of any importance to you?

However bad you think the idea is, you know you have to go inside. Something is waiting for you in this cave, and you have to face it.

You look to Zuko to see if he’s come to a similar conclusion, and you find the same grim expression on his face. Locking eyes, you nod at each other, and start the trek inside.

Zuko lights his fists on fire, and the flames dance around his knuckles in beautiful patterns. Even though you wish he wouldn’t bend, it’s Zuko’s flames that you focus on to keep yourself from becoming panicked. For the first time, you’re truly glad he’s there with you.

So focused are you on Zuko’s flame, that you don’t notice that someone is sneaking up on you. You hear the sound of their footsteps too late, and then everything goes dark.

————————————————

You wake up to a pounding in your head. Groaning, you move to lift a hand to your injury, but find that they are bound to something. That something just so happens to be a warm, angry firebender.

“Y/n?” He asks, and you can’t help but notice that his usually crabby voice is laced with concern.

“Ugh.” You groan in response. The back of your head is exploding with pain.

“Are you alright?” He questions lowly.

“Head hurts.” You mumble.

You feel Zuko moving behind you, and assume he’s nodding.

“You got hit pretty hard.” He whispers. You’re appreciative of the fact that he has lowered his voice. “Good thing your head is so hard.”

And there it is. You decide to be the bigger person and ignore him.

“Hit with what?” You ask.

“Magic, dear.” Says a wheezing voice. All of a sudden, light fills up the cave again, and you squeeze your eyes shut against it.

Your head pounds viciously in response to the brightness, and you groan again.

“Sorry about that.” The voice says again, and this time you can tell that it belongs to a woman. An old one by the sound of it.

You hear shuffling near you, and then something is pressed to your lips.

“Drink this, it’ll make you feel better.” She says.

You shake your head, but she pressed the vial through your lips anyways, and forces your head back.

“Leave her alone!” Zuko snaps.

“Don’t worry firebender, I haven’t forgotten you.” The old woman says.

The sweet liquid slides down your throat, and instantly your pain fades. You open your eyes to a wizened woman with a shock of bright white hair. Her eyes are crazed, and instantly you have a bad feeling about her. She winks at you and then moves away, one of her legs dragging behind her.

You briefly take stock of you surroundings. The room is made of stone, so clearly you haven’t left the cave. That at least would make it easier if you escaped. The room is cluttered with vials, plants, and random torn pages. On one of the make shift tables you see a large cauldron and a mortar and pestle.

“You’re a witch.” Your voice is flat.

The old woman let’s out a shrieking cackle.

“If that’s what you want to call it! Now I think it’s time you answer a few of my questions.” She says, crossing her arms.

“We don’t owe you anything!” Zuko says through clenched teeth. You can feel his anger heating his body from where your backs touch.

“No?” She says coyly. “You came to my cave to attack me!” She squeals, one eye twitching.

“We didn’t come to attack you.” You say, trying to maintain the peace. Maybe she could be reasoned with. You feel Zuko tense behind you, and you know he’s preparing for a fight.

“Then why were you sneaking into my cave, with this one on fire?” She says nodding in Zuko’s direction.

This is the tricky part, figuring out how much to tell her. She clearly isn’t a fan of the Fire Nation, due to her reaction with Zuko, but maybe that isn’t true. Maybe she knows who Zuko is, and is a Fire Nation sympathizer.

“Well?” She questions.

“We’re traveling with the Avatar, and he sent us up here to check this place out while he went to help the nearby village.” You blurt. It comes out of nowhere, and it was definitely not what you meant to say at all.

Horrified, you gasp. Zuko tenses begins you.

“What did you do to her?” He demands.

“Just a little truth potion.” She hums. “Can’t hurt to know the people around you are honest.”

You clamp your mouth, biting into your lip hard enough to draw blood.

“We’re not your enemy.” Zuko says. “You don’t need to restrain us. Or trick us into telling the truth.”

You watch as the old woman paces back and forth.

“I am Kara.” She says finally. “Years ago, I made a deal with Fire Nation to protect my people. I would provide them with some magical assistance, if they would spare my village.”

“You’re helping them?” You cry out.

“Don’t judge me too harshly girl.” The woman snaps. “I did what I could for my people, just as you try to do.”

“The Avatar will free you’re village.” Zuko says. “You will be able to prosper without Fire Nation soldiers breathing down your neck. Let us go, and we will be able to help him.”

Something in his voice makes your heart stutter. Maybe it’s the sincerity in his voice, or the hard edge of determination. You have got to stop thinking about Zuko that way.

Kara laughs and shakes her head.

“No one will be able to defeat them. Not even the Avatar.” She shakes her head, sadly.

“We have! Many times before.” You say. You don’t like Kara talking badly about Aang. He has almost mastered all of the elements, and you know he has what it takes to defeat Ozai. You all have done so much good for people already.

Kara just shakes her head again, and resumes pacing.

“I’m sorry.” She says finally. “I wish your friend well, but I can’t let you leave without knowing you aren’t a threat to the Fire Nation. If they know that I didn’t do anything I could to help them, they will hurt the people I love.”

Kara begins muttering under her breath, and you tense up. You hate being completely vulnerable and open to an attack. Zuko must be on the same page, for you can feel him struggling against the bonds.

“Heat them up.” You whisper as quietly as you can. “Burn them.”

Kara starts going around and picking out various objects from her jars.

“I can’t. Your hands are too close, I’ll burn you.” He says.

“You’ll have to. It’s the only way we’re getting out of here!” You snap.

“No.” He says, hotly.

“Zuko!”

“I’m not going to hurt you, y/n!” He growls.

To your dismay, your arguing has caught the attention of Kara. She has a bright gleam in her eyes as she’s watching you two.

“I see.” She says. Then she starts laughing hysterically, wiping tears from her eyes.

“I know just what to do! But first, young lady, just how much does this boy mean to you?”

The truth spills from your lips again without your control.

“A lot.” You say, and then you’re whole face turns red. You’re mortified, but at least Zuko can’t see your face.

Kara giggle with glee and then nods to herself

“Oh yes, just the thing.” She comes over to you both, and plucks hairs from your heads.

“Hey!” You and Zuko both protest.

She sets the hairs in a bowl, and then starts talking to herself again, this time loudly enough for you to hear. She’s speaking in a foreign language of some sort, and hastily you begin to tug on your bonds again.

“Zuko, just do it!” You say.

In a surprisingly fast move, Zuko manages to wrench his wrists away from yours and singe the ropes without burning you. He is up and shooting flames at Kara in an instant.

The bowl catches on fire, but it’s a pink fire, something magical and not from Zuko.

“You’re too late!” She cackles gleefully. Then she disappears in a plume of smoke, and you and Zuko are left alone in the cave.

——————————————

You are both on high alert as you make your way back to camp. Every noise makes you jumpy, as you wait for Kara’s spell to start working. You make it out of the woods without so much as a scratch. Though it looks like you’ve avoided her wrath, something feels off.

“You’re too late.” She had said. Chills race up and down your spine.

Zuko keeps lighting and extinguishing his fists. You think maybe he’s trying to make sure he can still bend. Possible scenarios play over and over in your head. There were thousands of things she could do to sabotage you and Zuko. She could take away his bending, paralyze you, or turn you into bugs. The possibilities are endless, and yet nothing has happened.

The Gaang is waiting up for you when you finally arrive back at camp. You tell them about the witch and her curse. Sokka rolls his eyes and seems unconcerned.

“She’s just a crackpot you guys. Obviously nothing will happen.”

Toph seconds his notion, but Aang and Katara look wary. Katara makes you and Zuko repeat the story until you’re blue in the face, but she can’t figure it out any more than you can.

You are too embarrassed from your admission to talk to Zuko, or even bicker with him like you normally would. You quickly excuse yourself to go to sleep, and spend the rest of the evening hiding in your tent.

You fall into a restless sleep that night. You dream of the horrible things you considered happening to you. In one dream you’re a frog, in the other you’re pinned to the ground unable to move.

You’re utterly exhausted when you’re woken up by you’re own screaming.

————————————————-

You sit up in your tent immediately. You knew you heard yourself scream, but it hadn’t come from your mouth. Seconds later, you burst into your tent.

Your clone stops and look at you, with wide eyes.

“Y/n?” Your voice asks you.

“Yes?” You say, but it isn’t your voice that comes out when you speak. Instead, it’s Zuko’s rasp that forms the words.

All of a sudden the pieces of the puzzle start clicking together.

“Oh no.” You say horrified, and look down at your body.

You have muscles now, and you feel stronger, bigger. You reach a hand up and grab a handful of short, ebony locks. Your other hand traces your features, and you feel the rough scar under the pads of your fingers.

“This can’t be real.” You say in Zuko’s voice. “This can’t be happening.”

“It’s happening.” Zuko says.

It’s weird to see yourself objectively like this. You have this horrible out of body feeling, and it’s making your head spin. Anxiety hits you, and you start breathing heavy. You’re going to pass out.

“Calm down!” Zuko says, rushing over to you. He wraps his arms around you, himself? Ugh it’s too confusing.

“If you don’t calm down, you’re going to burn this tent down and hurt yourself!” He says. He awkwardly starts rubbing your back. “Breathe with me.” He instructs.

Slowly, you start to calm down. Zuko lets his, your?, hands linger for a moment longer, before he pulls away and puts some distance between you.

“What are we going to do?” You ask. Zuko makes a face at how weak his voice sounds.

“I don’t know.” He says. His mannerisms look so weird on your body. You can tell that it’s him, just by the way he holds himself. You wonder if he’s experiencing the same thing watching you in his body.

“We need to go back to the cave, demand that Kara gives us our bodies back.” You say.

Zuko rolls your eyes.

“I’m sure that will go over well.” He says.

“Don’t make me sound all crabby.” You snap at him.

“Don’t make me sound all girly and pathetic!” He retorts.

“Pathetic?!”

“Oh Zuko,” he mocks “what are we going to do? Save me Zuko, I care a lot about you!”

“You’re so annoying!” You shout, embarrassed that he remembered your confession.

“Can we not fight this early in the morning!” Sokka says, throwing open your tent.

“Oh.” He says, looking between the two of you.

You realize in embarrassment that you and Zuko are awfully close together, and you are in Zuko’s body in your sleeping bag. It has to look like Zuko slept in your tent.

“Sokka, we can explain.” You say.

Sokka hurriedly shakes his head, raising his hands.

“No, no. Please don’t.” He says.

“Sokka listen, the witch really did curse us.” Zuko says. “She made us switch bodies.”

Sokka looks between the two of you and then bursts into laughter.

“Ok well I have to say that’s the first time I’ve hear that excuse.” He says, wiping tears from the corners of his blue eyes.

“We’re serious!” You snap at him.

Sokka sobers up, looking between you two again.

“You really did perfect your impressions of one another.” Sokka says, suddenly sounding a bit more unsure.

“Ugh!” You snap, and push out of the tent in a huff. You need to find Toph. She could prove you weren’t lying.

It’s cold outside your tent, and to your horror you find that you’re not wearing a shirt.

“Zuko!” You screech. “Why the hell aren’t you wearing a shirt!”

“I’m a firebender, y/n. I get hot!” He defends.

“Get me a shirt!” You snap. Zuko rolls his eyes at your dramatics, but leads you to his tent and throws a tunic at you.

It smells like him when you pull it over your head. You try not to obviously inhale, but it’s the first time you’ve really noticed how Zuko smells. It’s not the first time you’ve noticed his muscles, but now you have a first hand look. His abs are hard and defined, and you blush quickly finishing dressing.

“Are you done starting at me?” Zuko asks.

“I’m sorry, it’s just weird!” You tell him.

Sokka’s jaw is nearly touching the ground as he watches your exchange.

“No way.” He says, finally believing you.

“Yeah, Sokka.” You say.

——————————————————

Toph confirms your story, and everyone sits in dumbfounded silence. Even you and Zuko don’t have much more to say.

“Well you have to go talk to Kara.” Katara says helpfully. “We’ll have to make her change you back.”

“Wow that’s helpful. Thank you Katara, why didn’t we think of that.” Zuko says.

“Y/n!” Katara says, hurt.

“Zuko.” You and Zuko both correct her.

“Whatever.” She mutters, angrily.

“Katara’s right.” Says Aang. “We’ll all go. Maybe if I can convince her that I can help, she’ll change you back.”

There seems to be no better plan than this. Sokka and Toph stay behind at the campsite, while the rest of you start the hike up the mountain.

The breeze isn’t so bad now that you’re in Zuko’s body. He’s right when he says that he doesn’t get cold. He, on the other hand, is openly shivering in your body. You almost feel a little bad, but you remember him telling you it wasn’t that bad last night, and think better of it.

“How do you survive like this?” He moans when you come to a stop. “It’s so cold all the time.”

You smirk at his dramatics.

“That’s what you get.”

“For what!” He questions, and you can feel the fight brewing.

“Oh I don’t know, maybe ‘You’re so dramatic y/n.’” You mock. “’It’s not that cold, y/n. Calm down, y/n’”

“I wasn’t telling you to calm down because you were cold.” He snaps. “I was trying to tell you to stop panicking!” He throws his hands up and stomps ahead.

It’s a little embarrassing, and you think back to every tantrum you’ve thrown. Maybe this is a somewhat positive experience. You’re definitely learning about the annoying things you do.

You and Zuko bicker all the way up the mountain. Though it’s not unusual for you all, but you can tell it’s driving Aang and Katara crazy.

“Can you all please knock it off!” Katara yells, eventually. All three of you jump, and she crosses her arms. “I am sick and tired of hearing you all argue. That’s all you do every day! Can’t you all come to some sort of truce?”

You and Zuko both narrow your eyes at each other.

“No!” You say at the same time.

“Ugh!”

—————————————————-

You make it up the mountain alive, but barely. Everyone’s tempers are running high by the time you break through the trees.

“Alright,” Zuko says. “We need to be careful. She knocked y/n out with one blow. She’ll do it again if we aren’t careful.”

You’re about to protest the way he makes your ambush sound, but Aang mediates before your get riled up.

“Just let it go.” He tells you.

You all enter the cave quietly, heads constantly scanning the area as Zuko leads you down to the belly of the cave. You recognize the room when you get to it. The evidence of Kara is everywhere, still littered around the floor.

“She isn’t here?” Zuko says.

“Great observation.” You retort.

“Guys, guys!” Aang snaps. “Enough. Let’s look through the books around here. There’s got to be something that tells us how to fix this.”

The four of you spend what feels like hours combing through the books and pages around the room.

“There’s nothing here!” Zuko cries, slamming a book onto the table.

“That’s because it’s a spell of my own invention.” Kara’s wheezy voice says.

You all jump into defensive stances, ready to attack. Kara holds up a wrinkled hand, but otherwise looks unbothered.

“Please.” She says passively. “I’m not here to hurt you.”

“Change back my friends!” Aang demands. “It’s me you have a problem with.”

“Ah the Avatar.” Kara smiles. “You really are here.”

“Yes. And I promise I will free your village. But first you must free my friends.” He says.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that.” She says, eyes glittering again.

“Why not?” Katara challenges.

“I can’t change them back, because they must do it themselves.” She smiles.

“What do you mean?” You ask, broad furrowing. There’s a light protesting from Zuko’s scar at the movement.

“Save my village and I’ll tell you.” She says. “And you better do it fast, because in three days this will become permanent.”

————————————————-

Freeing the village from Fire Nation troops is going to be a bigger struggle than you anticipated, you realize as you and Zuko stroll down the streets. You currently have a hood pulled way over your head to hide your identity. There seemed to be hundred of them, and there were only six of you.

“We’re never going to be able to pull this off.” You mutter under your breath. “I’m going to be you forever.”

“How do you think I feel?” Zuko laments. “I’m losing my bending, my honor, everything.”

“Well we wouldn’t be in this mess if I had just gone up there alone.” You snap as you approach the center of the village.

“Right, if you had gone alone you would’ve been killed!” He snaps back.

“Why do you assume I’m so incapable of taking care of myself?!” You’re infuriated now. “I took care of myself for years before I ever met you!”

“Don’t see how!” He growls. “All you ever do is get yourself in trouble, and someone always has to be there to help!”

“Excuse me?!” You roar. “How dare you?!”

The Fire Nation soldiers are slowly starting to gather around you, curious about the fight.

“How dare I?” Zuko ramps up the volume. “How dare you?” He points a finger at your chest.

So far, your distraction seems to be working. Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Toph are all getting into position. You just have to keep up the fighting a little longer.

“You’re always babying me, and acting like I need a keeper! I’m not a child, and you don’t have to take it upon yourself to be my caretaker! I’m just fine on my own!” You yell, channeling his body’s natural penchant for rage.

“Somebody has to!” Zuko snaps back, and over exaggerates putting his hand on his hip. “You never do it yourself. You’re always doing reckless things for other people, and your not as equipped to throw yourself in danger like everyone else!”

Suddenly this fight feels a bit too real, and you find yourself getting actually offended. How dare he insinuate that your lack of bending meant you weren’t a good fighter!

“What so I’m not allowed to care about my friends and do things to protect them?” You screech. “I’m sorry I don’t have all your talents, my lord. Next time I’ll make sure I get your permission first before I try and help somebody out!”

“You always take everything I say out of context!” He snaps.

“Hey guys?” Aang says, garnering the attention of the crowd. “I think that’s good enough, thanks.”

Then all chaos breaks loose. Katara, Aang, and Toph start the fight with their bending. The Fire Nation soldiers, though caught unaware, do not take long to start fighting back. You wish that you knew how to utilize Zuko’s firebending, but you settle on using his physical strength instead.

Most of the defense moves you know are geared towards you being smaller than your opponent. Not all of them work now that you’re Zuko’s size, and you find yourself struggling more than usual in your fights.

Zuko seems to be having a similar issue learning how to fight in your body. You notice he has a habit of getting into bending stances out of pure habit. You notice that he’s getting cornered, when you go to help him.

Together, you fight pretty well, instructing each other on moves as you go. Sokka’s boomerang flies about, knocking out opponents left and right. Your benders are doing well too, and soon enough, you’ve defeated the Fire Nation soldiers.

You’re sore, body aching from exertion, but the happy villagers make it feel worth it.

“Thank you, Avatar!” Someone yells after Aang explains who you all are.

Your eyes find Kara’s in the crowd. It was time you got your body back.

“Hey!” You yell as she walks away.

“Y/n?” You hear Zuko call behind you as you take off, pushing through the crowd.

“Hey! Stop!” You yell at Kara. “You owe us an explanation!”

Zuko catches up to you, and you both chase after her. Finally, Kara stops in the woods, away from all the people.

“I thought you’d want some privacy!” She cackles. “I saw your little distraction out there. Seemed pretty real.” You and Zuko shuffle and avoid eye contact, as the rest of the Gaang catches up with you.

“We saved your village!” Aang says, “Now tell us how to fix this.” He waves a hand at you and Zuko.

Kara’s eyes sparkle as she looks at all of you.

“As I said, I can’t change you back. You have to do it yourselves.” She sings.

“How?” Zuko grounds out through his, your, clenched jaw.

“All you have to do is kiss!” She says gleefully clapping her hands together.

Everyone is silent as you all take in this information.

“There has to be another way.” Zuko says. There’s a desperate edge to his voice that hurts your feelings. Is the thought of kissing you so awful that he wouldn’t do it even to get his body back?

Rolling your eyes, you stroll over and kiss Zuko’s, your, cheek. It’s a weird experience for sure, knowing that you’re kissing both Zuko and yourself.

“Not that kind of kiss.” Kara says, smiling like a maniac. “A real one!”

The color drains from Zuko’s face, and the rest of your friends remain silent. You can feel their eyes watching your every move.

Zuko’s disgust is plain, and even though it hurts, you just want your body back and to forget this every happened.

“Zuko, I know you’re absolutely disgusted, but I’d like my body back before I’m you forever.” You say annoyed. “You can wash out your mouth and vomit when you have your own body back.”

You can hear the muted hurt in your own voice, and it’s kind of embarrassing that you know everyone else can hear it too.

“I’m afraid it’s the only way.” Kara adds.

“If it helps just think about the fact that you’re kissing yourself, not me.” You say. More than ever you want this experience to be over, so you can go mourn your hurt feelings somewhere in private.

Zuko sighs, and then approaches you.

“Fine.” He says.

Awkwardly, you both fidget, unsure how to initiate the kiss. It doesn’t help that literally everyone, including Momo and Appa, are looking at you.

“Some privacy?” You ask them.

“Oh yeah sure.” They all mumble, whistling and looking away. The second you turn back to Zuko you can feel their eyes on you. Some friends.

“Let’s just get it over-” you get cut off by Zuko pressing his lips to yours.

Instantly, you feel the switch happening. You feel yourself being pulled and re-anchored into your own body. Your limbs feel normal again, and then you really start to feel the kiss.

Zuko pulls you closer to his warm, muscular body. Everything is exploding around you, and all you want to do is be even closer to him. You bring your arms up and settle them on his broad shoulders. Your hands wind themselves around his neck, and you play with the ends of his hair.

Zuko’s large hands are also doing their fair share of exploring. One rests on your hips while the other tangles itself in your hair, and both pull you closer. His tongue opens your lips and you let him in, a moan escaping from you. It feels right, kissing Zuko like this. Like it is something that was always meant to happen.

Somebody clears their throat and breaks up your moment. Slowly, you and Zuko part. You’re thrilled to realize it’s his swollen lips and amber eyes that you see when you pull away.

“Well that was something!” Kara squeals in delight.

Heat pools into your cheeks, as you asses your friends’ expressions. Aang looks embarrassed, Katara has heart eyes, and Toph and Sokka both look disgusted.

“It worked.” You say breathlessly. Already you have the intense desire to kiss Zuko again, but suddenly you’re insecure. What if he hated it? He had seemed so disgusted before.

“Yeah it did.” Zuko says, and then he smiles at you, eyes crinkling at the corners. “Some privacy?” He asks everyone, tightening his grip on you. Butterflies explode in your stomach as he does, and you’ve never felt so fluttery before.

Your friends make themselves scarce, telling you they’ll be at camp. Kara scrambles off too, cackling all the while, and then you are alone.

Your heart is pounding, and you’re really unsure how to tell Zuko how you feel. What if he doesn’t feel the same?

Suddenly, Zuko presses his lips to yours again, and it feels like he’s devouring you. He’s passionate and fiery, and every press of his tongue against yours makes you feel like you’re on fire. Your body is buzzing when he finally pulls away to catch his breath.

“I didn’t mean what I said during our fight.” He says, leaning his forehead against yours and wrapping his arms around your waist. “I don’t think you’re incapable or less than because you aren’t a bender. I think you’re one of the most talented people I know, and I also know that you can take care of yourself.” He says taking a deep breath.

Zuko takes a step back, and removed an arm to put a finger under your chin. He lift your chin so you’re looking into his eyes.

“I worry about you. All the time.” He says. “I’m so scared that you’ll get hurt and I won’t be there to protect you. My number one instinct is to protect you. That’s why I always ‘hover’ and volunteer to go on missions with you. If something happened to you....”

“I feel the same way about you, you know.” You say smiling. “I couldn’t stand the thought of you getting hurt either. And I don’t necessarily hate it when you’re around.” You tease him. “Or when you kiss me.”

Zuko laughs, a deep happy laugh. It’s one of the first times you’ve ever seen him look so buoyant. You take the opportunity to kiss him this time, and he sighs happily into your mouth.

“What are we going to do now?” You ask him.

“Probably get back to our friends.” He says, grabbing your hand in his as you start making your way to your camp site.

“You know, Zuko, Toph’s right.” You say. “You really do take people on life changing adventures!”

A/n: Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed this! I’ve been working on my requests so hopefully I’ll have a few more stories out for you guys over the weekend. I’m going to be adding some things to my ‘Fanfic prompts’ post, so be sure to check it out if you want to request something! (also I’m fine with people requesting things that aren’t on that list if you have something specific for me to write!) Have a good weekend, and you can find all my other writing under the tag slythergirlimagines. I think I tagged everyone who asked to be tagged in my atla stuff, but if I missed you please let me know and I’ll correct it!!

Taglist: @galacticamidala @a-random-queer-kid @taeeemin @realimbo @samsmultifandomblogs

@fire1ordzuzu @shortmexicangirl

#slythergirlimagines #atla #zuko x reader #prince zuko x reader #zuko x you #prince zuko x you #zuko x y/n #prince zuko #aang #katara #toph #sokka #appa #momo #atla fanfic #avatar the last airbender #avatar #avatar the last airbender fanfic #fanfic

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bards-witcher · 3 years ago

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This is just me venting about s2 of the witcher because if I dont I might go crazy so spoilers under the cut.

If anyone does read this they are just my opinions, you are welcome to disagree but these are some of my gripes about the show after just having finished watching it.

First off WHAT THE ACTUAL EVER LOVING FUCK did they do to my boy Eskel. That is not the character depicted in the book or game. They made him unlikable and seemingly incompetent from the offset when he's supposed to be soft spoken, applauded for his professionalism and Vesemir praises his reliabilty. I know its an adaptation but come on.

Also Vesemir seriously considering about making new witchers and also doing it all behind Geralt's back just felt so wrong to me and I can't believe was an actual plot. Plus I feel the reveal of Ciris elder blood was a bit early.

I also dont like how they added all the extra witchers just to give them no screen time or story and kill virtually all of them by the end. If they were serious about making new witchers having the original group of 5 from the books surely would have driven that point further that they need more of them instead of showing like 20 of them.

Another point, no hate to Paul, it was the dialogue as well, but I felt like Lambert was written a bit ott. I always took him as a blunt, insult you cause he likes you person but will always be there if you need him, but here he just felt like he was a bit cruel and blasé

Book spoiler - They took a part of Ciri's story and gave it to Yennefer which given her use of fire magic is fair enough but it's going to be a bit tiresome if they decide to repeat that whole arc again so like 🤷‍♀️

And what point did Cahir serve, he pretty much ended in the same place he started, still serves Nilfgaard so...

Also was I going crazy or did Geralt say Volus Meir chose Ciri so they could get to their home sphere? Does that mean every monster is going to try and find Ciri so she can send them home?

Next, what is up with the Tissaia and Vilgefortz relationship? Literally came out of nowhere and probably won't serve any purpose apart from she frees him at that scene

Also I thought the witchers were keeping Kaer Morhen secret after the pogram so why are they happily welcoming a bunch of whores who could easily bring a small army back to finish them, and how does Rience even know where Kaer Morhen is anyway?

I also just felt the Yen/Ciri relationship was too rushed by the end? I'm sure they'll try and establish it better next season but Yennefer sacrificing herself and declaring to help Ciri sounded like it was more for Geralt's sake than her helping Ciri which I'm sure is what it was supposed to be.

And they really had Phillipa appear as an owl for 99% of the season? Did they run out of budget or something?

Given they're planning 7 seasons I feel like they did the Emhyr reveal a bit too early but thats probably just me.

And the fact one minute Vesemir was so ready to kill Ciri, then help, then kill, then help just felt too flip floppity and not genuine?

I dunno I guess I just felt characterisations, especially for the witchers just weren't true to the original characters and just feels a bit shallow and the relationships surface level like a tell, don't show kinda thing.

Plus I know Henry wanted to talk more but I felt some of the dialogue was just a bunch of nothing and repeating the same thing a few times and just overall got a bit tired of it in some scenes.

And probably my final point for now, again probably just me, but I didn't really rate that fight scene in the temple of Melitele but 🤷‍♀️

#witcher s2 spoilers #witcher spoilers #witcher s2 #the witcher show #s2 spoliers #again just my opinions you probably have different ones to me

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k7l4d4 · 3 years ago

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Owl House AU Idea: Kengan Ashura Crossover

Hey, I just had an idea for a crossover between The Owl House and Kengan Ashura. Essentially, Luz is the daughter of a Kengan Fighter and regularly attends Kengan Matches, which are brutal blood-sports that don't end until either a surrender is declared or a fighter is incapable of fighting anymore, and develops a fascination with violence and combat from an early age, obsessively researching martial arts and fighting in general as much as she adores magic. Heck, she even managed to make a name for herself in a junior Kengan League for younger fighters! When she ends up in the Isles, she brings the ultra-aggressive anything-goes combat culture with her.

Question I received: Who would be her father? Why not Carlos Mendel (in this universe he is with the kengan association) , THE EL DORADO, the man with the “light speed jabs”, master of the capoeira fighting style, the man who backed the Thai God of war into A corner During their Purgatory Vs Kengan match. I can actually see that happening.

Response: Hmmm... it could work. Who her dad is doesn't necessarily have to be anyone of importance, or even be named, but having a big name she wishes to live up to could push her enthusiasm into overdrive. Either way, I've been thinking about just what kind of fighting style she'd use, or if she'd combine several aspects of known ones to make her own unique style. I think she'd be drawn to the more exotic and bizarre styles of fighting and combat. I can see her drilling herself into the ground in terms of learning the fundamentals, if only to make sure she has the flexibility of choice to fall back on during drawn out brawls where more complicated techniques wouldn't offer as much of an advantage to be worth their use. After wracking my brain for something cool but not insane to have her start with, I eventually went back and looked up one of the earliest bits of weird awesomeness in Kengan that stuck out to me: grip strength. Basically, one of the first fights Luz sees involves that weirdo Lehito, you know, the guy whose fingers are strong enough to act as razor blades? Inspired by his rip and tear fighting style, Luz decides to extensively train her hands in the three forms of grip strength, being pinching, crushing, and retaining. Her Retaining Grip allows her to easily grapple and restrain the movements of enemies even three times her size, allowing her to use her opponent's body as a fulcrum and lever to launch flying attacks from virtually any direction, as well as force them to the ground and redirection their attacks, being especially effective against fighters that rely on distance and movement for their attacks and techniques. She can also use her Retaining Grip to catch and ground the force of attacks sent her way, once having managed to catch a curveball clocked at 80 MPH with nothing but her bare hands and being completely okay, aside from a mild stinging in her palm for a minute or so. Her Crushing Grip enables her to deliver punishing blows to her enemies through squeezing. She once managed to reduce a professional boxer's hand to pulp; she mostly did it because the man called her mother a whore, but she still managed to deal horrific damage to a man who fights with his hands for a living. The nature of her Crushing Grip allows her to dislocate her opponents limbs, digits, and joints through carefully selected applications of force, and she's been recorded damaging the muscles of her opponents directly, causing both excruciating pain and severely reducing their fighting efficacy. One of Luz's habits when thinking hard is to pick up stones and similarly strong materials and crushing them into powder between her fingers. Her Pinching Grip is essentially a scaled-down version of Lehito's infamous "Razor Blade" skill, allowing her to rip open bloody gashes and slashes in the flesh of her opponents. It's described as scaled down due to lacking the natural ease of flow of the original, seemingly more like a rending claw than a slicing blade. Due to lacking the speed of the original, Luz's "Claws" tend to be easier to react to for even those who have no clue her fingers can slash through flesh, but make up for it by being able to cut deeper and leave messier damage, making recovery for her opponents harder. She can also use her Pinching Grip to deliver puncturing strikes into her opponent, giving herself extra handholds for leverage and setting up the true core of her fighting style: savaging the opponent from the inside out. By combining the disparate aspects of her Grips, Luz can perform crippling blows of agonizing pain. By mixing her Pinching and Crushing Grip, she can physically rip out pieces of her opponents flesh, muscle and bone, chunk by chunk. By mixing Pinching and Retaining, she can punch her fingers through the flesh and bones of her enemies. Mixing Crushing and Retaining allows her to inflict massive trauma to the muscles and blood flow of limbs and joints, causing fearsome internal damage, with some of her worst fights necessitating invasive surgery and long-term physical rehabilitation for her opponents, though she was hardly left unscathed herself. What makes Luz a true force to be reckoned with for her age and experience, however, is when she combines all her Grips into one. By merging the principle aspects of Crushing, Retaining, and Pinching, Luz is able to tear open her opponents down to the bone, and rip out the bones themselves, if she doesn't outright powder them. Fortunately, due to the horrific and borderline depraved implications of this, Luz only employs the "Devil's Grip," as she calls it, when the fight is truly a matter of her being in danger of death if she doesn't. The downside to all this, in the end, is that Luz is still a young girl, lacking the development of a full grown adult and lacking the years of training and experience needed to fully exploit her chosen fighting style. Luz's body and constitution aren't up to snuff to push her brutal fighting style to where it needs to be, meaning using even the mildest applications of her fighting style inflicts insane trauma upon her hands and arms, causing her to receive multiple trips to the emergency room over the years. It's only due to blind luck and her own unshakable will that Luz hasn't reached a point where surgery was needed to recover, and many doctors have shown shock that she hasn't lost all use of her hands considering the brutal trauma she's dealt to them in pursuit of her desire to fight. An odd aspect of Luz's psyche as a result of her passion for fighting is that she frequently fantasizes brutal battles between herself and the people around her, often internally picturing herself and her classmates into bloody fights to the death, either ending in her or her opponent's demise. Despite this, her fantasies contain no real malice, merely embodying her obsession with combat and the pulse-pounding rush of a death match. When Luz enters the arena, all conscious concern she may have for herself or her opponent disappear, vanishing under the uncontrollable urge to rip and tear until either her or her opponent are no longer moving. However, outside of the arena, Luz often shows remorse for the horrific brutality she displays in battle, particularly for those unaware of the violence surging through her being. Luz has a visceral hatred of cheating and shortcuts, with even the idea of cheating being enough to draw a sliver of her battle mania to the surface in response.

#the owl house #owl house au #owl house crossover #kengan ashura #luz noceda #fighter luz #martial artist luz #martial arts #death match

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unmaskedagain · 5 years ago

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Agent Marinette

Okay I have struggled all week with a massive case of Writers block and today I beat it. This a crossover fic. Guess it by the end.

In retrospect, Marinette should’ve realized eventually other forces outside of Paris would take an interest in the masked heroine. At least they had been polite enough to wait until AFTER Hawkmoth was defeated.

Marinette was eleven when she became the hero Ladybug. And her world shattered a bit.

Marinette was fourteen when Hawkmoth was finally defeated.

Marinette was fourteen when Ladybug retired. And her world shattered again, this time a bit more.

It had taken nearly every miraculous they had to take the villain down but eventually, Gabriel Agreste was taken down, his memories of the miraculous erased. (Nathalie with him) His son Adrien Agreste surrendered his own miraculous, his position as Chat Noir, and his own memories of being a hero and everything he’d ever learned of magic and Kwami. All to prevent his father from ever learning of them again.

However, erasing his memories of his life as Chat Noir, unavoidably included erasing his memories of his friendship Ladybug, with Marinette. A friendship that had grown stronger, in and outside the mask, over fighting the evil that haunted Paris back together. Keyword: together.

On the same day, Ladybug had lost her best friend, Marinette did too. Both lost the boy she thought she’d marry one day. They could never be together. She’d have to lie to him for the rest of their lives. Marinette would never be able to do that. And she wouldn’t let Adrien’s sacrifice be in vain.

So she distanced herself from him. She couldn’t look at him without seeing Chat Noir. She couldn’t look at him, knowing she knew just about everything about him but he knew nothing about her. To him, Marinette was just some girl in his class; a sort of friend he was never really that close to.

Strangers, really.

It was why Marinette transferred out of Bustier’s class. The best thing for her heart was to stay away.

Still, she thought in a way, it was a happy ending. The best happy ending she could get. Hawkmoth was gone. Paris was safe. Ladybug was retired. Fu had reclaimed all Kwami and had disappeared. The world was good.

Until it wasn’t. Until one rainy Thursday. Her parents had gone out for a date night. They never made it home. There had been an accident. The other driver had been drunk. The funeral was on a Tuesday.

Marinette’s world had shattered once again, more than ever before.

Marinette was an orphan.

Her grandmother Gina sold the bakery, put the money from the sale and the life insurance into an account for Marinette, and moved Marinette into a nearby apartment, and then was gone. Legally, the older woman was Marinette’s guardian. But otherwise, Marinette was on her own. It was fine. Her dad had always warned her that his mom was a free spirit who never liked to be tied down.

She would talk with her grandmother once every other month if she was lucky. They primarily only communicated through email. The reception was spotted in the parts of the world Gina like to frequent.

At only fourteen, Marinette got used to paying bills, buying groceries, and virtually being an adult. She got used to living alone. Just like she got used to not being a hero anymore. Just like she got used to not having any friends after Lila came knocking on the class’s door.

A year later, the young girl was thriving. Her grades were at the top of the school, right after Max. She was class treasurer and on the track team, having missed the feeling of running as fast she could. She started Kuoshu classes; her mother had always wanted her to learn Chinse martial arts for defense. And Marinette missed the adrenaline she used to get after a fight.

It was a good life. A simple life. Marinette had only normal life worries to be concerned about.

…Again, she really should’ve known the other shoe would drop eventually.

Still, no fifteen-year-old girl who was minding her own business, casually walking down the street, wanted to suddenly have a black bag over her and tossed into the back of a van. In fact, it was every girl, woman, and human being’s worst nightmare.

She was tied up. She was gagged. She couldn’t see. She couldn’t hear. Marinette had no idea how much time had passed. Or where they were taking her. Or who had taken her? She fought the tears that burned in her eyes as she struggled with the bonds around her hands. No matter how hard she tried, they wouldn’t break or budge. By the coldness of it, she knew she was either in handcuff or something similar made of metal.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, Marinette felt herself be picked up and carried. She struggled against her assailant. She tried to kick her with her bound legs, hit with her tied fists. Nothing.

Marinette found herself being lower onto something. A chair she quickly realizes as she pressed her back to it.

Suddenly, the metal band around her hands released. Marinette quickly pulled the black bag off her head, undid the tap around her mouth, and took the plugs out of her ears.

She was in a mostly black room that only lights overhead, a vent the size of a phone, the table she sat at, and a large mirror across from her. Marinette figured it was a two-way mirror-like on cop shows, and that she was being watched. However, what concerned her most was that there was no sign of any door. Just walls and that mirror.

There was no escape.

Marinette glared at the mirror, at whoever was behind it.

She didn’t know how long she waited as she plotted her escape. Considering all variables for when they came back to her. Would they have guns? How many people would there be? Could she fight her way out? And just who her kidnappers could be? Child traffickers? Serial killer? Her past enemy, Hawkmoth, comes back for revenge? Who?

When a portion of the wall, next to the mirror opened, Marinette tried not to flinch back in surprise.

In walked a man at least twice her age. He wore a black suit and tie with a serious expression on his face. He was handsome with short dark hair and dark eyes and cheekbones that could cut glass.

The door closed behind him once he stepped through. He said nothing as he sat down in the chair across from her. They started at each other silently.

Marinette cracked first, “Who are you? What do you want? Where am I?”

A small smile appeared on the man’s face, “You’re a very hard girl to track down, Marinette Dupain-Cheng. I’d have thought it would’ve been easier considering all you’ve done.” He had an American accent.

“Track? What?” Why would he want to track her down? “I didn’t do anything. Nothing! Okay?!”

He gave her a curious look, “Really? Well, I wouldn’t call saving all of Paris on a nearly everyday basis for what two years, nothing.” He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. “Don’t try to deny it. We have pictures, videos; evidence.”

It was like someone had thrown ice water over her head. Marinette swallowed the lump that had built in her throat. “Who. Are. You.” She managed to get out.

“Me? I’m a friend,” He answered. “You can call me Black Heart.”

“Black Heart?” Marinette snorted. “You’re serious?”

“Oh because Ladybug is so much better,” He rolled his eyes. “It doesn’t matter. I have questions. You’re going to answer them.”

He wanted to know about the miraculous, she guessed. Or how she got her powers. Marinette crossed her arms, “I have nothing to say.”

Black Heart chuckled and stood up. He put his hands on the table, “Listen very carefully, Marinette. Because there are only two ways we can do this.”

Marinette smirked, “Is one of them the easy way?”

A look she couldn’t recognize briefly flashed over Black Heart’s face but gone just as quick. “No,” He answered.

“Oh.”

“Who are you?” He asked her.

She paused before answering, “…My name is Marinette but you know that. I was the hero Ladybug but you know that as well.”

“What happened to HawkMoth?”

She felt fine answering that. However, she gave the same answer she gave to the press, “Hawkmoth was defeated. He was stripped of his powers and destroyed.”

“You killed him?”

It wasn’t the first time Ladybug had been asked that question. “…Yes.” She lied though it didn’t feel like much of one. Hawkmoth was dead after all.

Blackheart nodded. “What happened to Chat Noir? And the other heroes? Dead too?”

Marinette fought to keep her face blank, her fists clenched. “Yes,” She said. “They were causalities of the final fight with Hawkmoth.” Technically not a lie. Every Parisian hero had given up their miraculous once and for all after Hawkmoth was gone. There was no need for them anymore.

The man raised an eyebrow, “Gabriel Agreste is still very much alive last I checked.” She reared back as if slapped. “So is Adrien is otherwise known as Chat Noir. Alya Cesaire aka Rena Rouge, her turtle boyfriend. The monkey guy. The tiger. The snake; Luka, I believe. All alive and kicking. So much for that lie…”

“They were retired,” Marinette growled. “Permanently.”

“Truth,” Blackheart nodded. “How did you erase their memories?”

It had taken the combined power of Fu, Marinette, Tikki, Wayzz, and Plagg to do it. “I didn’t do anything.”

Black Heart gave her a hard look, “Where do your powers come from?”

Marinette smiled, “I don’t have any powers.”

“Fine! Where do Ladybug’s powers come from?”

“I am Ladybug,” She told him. “And Ladybug doesn’t have any powers.”

“You mean anymore?”

Marinette nodded slowly.

Black Heart sat back in his chair, “You’re telling me that you busted your ass saving Paris for two years, only to have your powers taken from you? You were tossed to the side just like that? Like you were nothing? I’m supposed to believe that.”

“I wasn’t needed anymore.” By anyone.

“You took down one of the biggest threats to this world,” The man said. “You fought. You bled. You sacrificed everything. From what our intelligence has gathered, you even gave up the love of your young life. Only to be cast aside; alone, forgotten, abandoned…”

“That’s not what happened,” Marinette shook her head.”

“You weren’t useful anymore,” Blackheart tutted. “So you were thrown away; left to fend for yourself in a cold, cruel world. No friends, no family,”

“Shut up,” Marinette whispered.

The man leaned forward, “How many internships did you turn down because you were too busy being a hero? Two? Three?”

“Shut up!” She said louder.

“Wait, it was five. That’s right.” He continued on as if she said nothing. “Five internships with some of the biggest names in fashion today. And you gave it up. Now what you have to show for it? Nothing!” He said. “You live this mundane life halfheartedly, struggling to find your place again, trying to get back even a fraction of the feeling you had when you fighting for this world!”

“SHUT UP!” Marinette roared.

Black Heart shook his head, “I asked you who you are. But I already know who you are. I know who you were. You were a hero, a martyr, a leader, a little princess who believed in fairytales and the goodness of people. You were someone who believed this world could still be saved! So I just want to know three things. I have three questions to ask you and then you never have to see me again! You can go back to pretending to be whatever the hell you want. I don’t care.”

“What?” Marinette asked. “What could you possibly want to know?” Need to know that he didn’t already. “Huh? Just tell me!”

“Do you still believe this world can be saved?”

Silence.

“…What?”

“Answer the question.”

Marinette blinked, “Yes. I do.”

“Are you still willing to fight for it?” Black Heart asked.

“Always.”

He smiled, and leaned back in his chair, “Last question… What do you know about Shield?”

Well, that was a twist. Marinette’s eyes went wide. She knew a lot about shield. More than any normal teenage girl should. But a former Ladybug had been an Agent. And Tikki told her everything... It was founded by Peggy Carter and Howard Stark. Shield started the Avengers. They had been protecting the world for decades.

“A lot,” Marinette answered. “What do you want?

The man gave her a small smile, “World peace.”

The doors of the room opened again in walked a beautiful young woman with long hair a bright smile on her face, “You done traumatizing the poor girl yet.”

The man groaned, “Dammit, Skye.”

Marinette officially joined Shield the next day.

Skye showed her the ropes and explained until she garnered some trust, most would give her their full name; maybe only even their code name.

In another life, Skye hadn’t joined Shield until she was well into her twenties. In this life, she was recruited by a woman named Hill as soon as she graduated high school. It had been nearly ten years since. Skye had met Black Heart when she was about three years in, and they had disliked each other.

Now they mostly tolerated the others’ existence. Only really dealing with each other on missions.

Skye would be gone the next day. And Marinette would only see her once in a blue moon.

Marinette would withdraw from school and finish her education taught by some of the greatest minds in the world. She would give up her apartment, and leave Paris. She would call her grandmother one last time for what would be months to let her know she was going to travel the world; her grandmother was pleased as she had done the same when she was not much older than Marinette. Gina disregarded the fact that she had been a legal adult at the time.

It would be the last call she made from her phone. The line was disconnected and the phone tossed.

Then she visited the place that had been her parents’ bakery, not their graves; because she would rather remember them alive, happy, and loving, then dead in the ground. And she told them goodbye.

Before leaving Paris for good, she dropped off a perfectly wrapped green and black present off at the Agreste home. Adrien’s birthday was coming up. Inside the gift box was a black leather jacket with cat-shaped buttons. She handed the gift to Nathalie.

This time, however, Marinette was quick to tell the older woman that MDC was sewn inside on the jacket; multiple times.

Then she walked away; not looking back once.

It was the last thing Adrien would ever get from her. The last thing he would unknowingly have of Chat Noir. Ironically, the masked hero the blond had come to idolize in recent times.

The jacket was all she could give him of his as a hero, and not even a fraction of all she had wished to give him.

One day he would forget her altogether. One day she would just be a random former classmate of his whose name he couldn’t quite remember.

However, Marinette would never forget Adrien Agreste and Chat Noir. She would remember when Adrien was Chat Noir, one of the greatest heroes Paris would ever know. And she would remember Chat Noir was Adrien, and Adrien proved to be a greater hero than even he ever dared dream Chat Noir would be.

Marinette would remember because she owed him that much at least.

The night she left Paris would be the last time she dreamed of a life with Adrien. A life where they got to grow old together; one where wedding bells were heard. And he’d kiss her every time she left. And she’d kiss him every time she came back. A life where they got to see where their love would take them, and maybe one day hear the pitter-patter of little feet on their floor.

A life where Marinette did actually become a fashion designer. A life where she married Adrien, Alya was still her best friend, her parents were alive, the world was good and kind, and two heroes got the finale they deserved.

A life where love was enough, and they got their happy ending. The forever they never got would haunt her forever.

Marinette was fifteen when she went she joined shield and went back to doing what she did best; helping people, saving the world.

Marinette was fifteen when she became an Agent of Shield.

Marinette was fifteen when she learned how to shoot a gun.

Marinette was fifteen when she joined Black Hear became her mentor. The training had been a killer. More than once, Marinette had nearly quit.

Blackheart would just shake his head at her and say, “Life is tough, kid,” He’d give her an easy smile. “But so are you.”

Marinette smiled.

“You and me?” Grant said. “We’re the same. We’re Kevlar. We do whatever it takes to complete the mission. We get the job done. Keep our feelings and emotions; personal wants and desires in check. For the greater good. Its who we are. Whatever it takes.”

“Whatever it takes,” Marinette repeated back. “But that doesn’t mean we have to shut people out; each other out.”

“Yes, it does,” Grant said firmly. “Yes, I do.” He stopped talking and look Marinette in the eyes, “There are things about me you don’t know. I’ve done things I… Thing you wouldn’t like if you knew.”

“We all have,” Marinette shrugged at her father figure. “It’s a part of the job. I get it.”

Grant smiled at her, “I know you do. I know you would. We’re the same. We know this world isn’t all happiness and rainbows but we don’t stop trying to save it. We don’t stop believing it can be saved; that what we’re doing has a purpose. But there are things I can’t tell you. Things about me… that you wouldn’t like if you knew. One day, I hope you understand though. I know we will. We’re the same. But You’re good.”

“So are you,” Marinette said. “Grant, you’re like the best guy I know. You’re good.”

“Not always,” Grant looked away. “You need to know, Marinette, I’m not a good man.”

“I believe you are.” She stated, “You can’t convince me otherwise.”

It would a year later after much trust was built, and they had gone of dozens and dozens of missions that she finally learned his real name.

Grant.

Over the next few years, Grant became like a father to her. And to him, she was like a daughter. He taught her everything he knew. Marinette did everything she could to make him proud. He made her believe that they could really save the world, change the world for the better.

Where Grant went, she followed; most of the time. Sky would slowly start to show up more and more; until it was clear she wasn’t going anyway.

Whenever she was hurt, and the mission was over, Grant would tell a story about his past.

Her favorites were the ones about a monster who loved the sky. It was clear that it was about him and Skye. “Do you want to hear a story, princess?” He smiled. “It’s about a man who struggled with his demons his entire life. Who asked for love throughout his entire life. But he never got it. Until she came. She made him feel important. She made him laugh. She made him better. She became his world.”

Marinette couldn’t understand what was stopping the two from getting together.

She met Nick Fury when she was seventeen and was sent on the first on her first solo mission.

When she was eighteen, Grant and Skye were approached by a man named Coulson. The same Coulson that had supposedly been killed by a god named Loki. The strangest part was Marinette was tapped to join too.

The team consisted of Coulson, May, Grant, Skye, Fitz, Simmons, and Marinette.

They were a team. They became a family.

However, then John Garrett was revealed to be Hydra; a man Marinette had thought she knew well. (Grant killed him. And she mourned with him the man they thought John was.)

Then project insight happened. Nick Fury was killed. Captain America exposed all of Shield in an effort to reveal Hydra.

Shield was labeled a terrorist organization.

The team was on their own.

But, Marinette thought more than once over the next coming months, at least they had each other.

They ended up at a place called Providence. They were given lie detector tests by Agent Eric Koenig. “Fury designed this himself,” The portly man said. “He wanted a lie detector Romanoff couldn’t beat.”

“Did she?” Grant asked

“Like Fury would tell!”

Marinette sat in the machine and tried to relax.

“We’re going to start with some easy question,” Eric told her. “Can I have your full name?”

“Marinette Clarissa Dupain-Cheng.”

“Eye color?”

“Blue,” Marinette stated.

The agent nodded, “Have you ever been married?”

Marinette shook her head, “No.”

“Please list your immediate living family.”

“My grandmother Gina,” Marinette answered. “My grandfather. I considered my team my family though.”

“What’s the difference between an egg and a rock?”

Marinette gave him an “Are you Serious” look, “One's food, ones a weapon.”

“Have you ever heard of project insight?”

“Never.”

“Have you ever had contact with Alexander Pierce.”

“I have,” She answered honestly. “Once. Just after the New York Invasion. Agent Hill introduced me.”

“You wash up on a desert island, alone. Sitting in the sand is a box. What’s in the box?”

“How big is the box?” Marinette asked curiously. “How did it get there? What island am I on? Am I near freshwater.”

“Just say the first thing that comes to your mind, Marinette,” He told her. “What’s in the box?”

“A pair of earrings.”

Eric gives her a funny look but notes her age and shrugs it off. Spy teen girls were still teen girls, after all. “Shield no longer exists. The agency has been labeled a terrorist organization. So why are YOU here.”

Marinette thought about the question. She had thought about it before. Shield had fallen. No one knew who was or wasn’t Hydra. She should’ve been gone in the wind. However, she had never even considered it. “Shield is all I have. Ward, Skye, Coulson, May, Simmons, Fitz, Trip; they’re all I have. They’re my family.” She told him. “And truthfully, I joined Shield because I believe this world is worth saving. I believe it can still be saved. I believe that it is good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for.”

“I love Lord of the Rings,” Agent Eric Koenig grinned. “Let’s get you a Lanyard, Agent Dupain-Cheng.

While Skye, May, and Grant stayed at Providence, Marinette joined Coulson and the others.

When Marinette returned to the base after saving the Cellist lady. The bus was gone. May was gone. Grant and Skye were gone.

What was left of the team had debated long about what had happened; why the three had left.

When Coulson said, “Worst case… We've had a wolf in the herd the whole time.”

Marinette didn’t believe that at first. Not until she heard the scream. Saw Agent Eric Koenig’s body. Saw the word written on the picture.

Ward is Hydra.

“Not Ward,” Fitz said.

“Not Ward,” Marinette repeated. “Not Ward.” Skye was wrong. She had to be wrong. Ward couldn’t be Hydra. He wouldn’t. He couldn’t.

Then Simmons gave the analyze of Agent Eric Koenig’s murder.

“Ward did this,” Simmons said.

In a fury, Fitz smashed a few things.

Marinette could only stare in space as the words penetrated her mind.

Ward is Hydra.

The man she thought she knew the best.

The man she had sworn her loyalty to, had given all her trust to, had loved like a father.

The man who had gotten her to swear loyalty to Shield.

Grant Ward had been her S.O. Her mentor. Her leader. Her captain.

Grant Ward was Hydra.

And just like that, Marinette’s world shattered again.

And just like that, everything she ever thought she believed in was questioned.

It would be months before she saw him again, and by then it had been confirmed without a doubt Grant Ward was Hydra. He was the enemy.

He would try to kill the team multiple times. Grant Ward would do everything he could to get her alone to speak with and or to Skye. Like he could change their minds. He had gone full psycho Hydra and didn’t seem to be stopping any time soon.

Marinette was captured by Hydra not long before her twenty-first birthday.

She was tied up and chained to a desk.

Grant Ward walked in with an easy smile on his face, “Marinette. This brings back memories.”

“Old Blackheart himself,” The bluenette hissed back. “Good to see you again. Oh, Wait! As your lot puts; Hail Hydra, right?”

He nodded and sat down across from her, “Ladybug.”

“Just kill me,” Marinette shrugged. “I won’t tell you anything. You know I won’t. I won’t Hydra. You and the rest of the freaking Nazi can go to hell.”

Ward looked shocked, “Kill you? You really think I would… I would never hurt you, Marinette!” He told her. “You have to know that. I would never want to hurt you.”

“Maybe not want to,” Marinette looked him dead in the eye. “But you will. All apart of the job, right.”

“Do you think this was easy for me?” Grant asked. “You of all people understand how hard it was; the impossible decisions that had to be made. You know what it's like to make a choice that breaks you inside. But we make them anyway. I made them anyway. Because that’s what I do. What we do.”

Marinette shuddered. “A Double Agent. Do what needs to be done. Betray everyone who loves you, cares about you. Because we don’t matter, only the mission does. Right? That’s what you tried to train into me; anything for the mission.”

“No!” Ward shouted. “That’s who you were before I ever met you. You don’t get to put that on me. That’s why Shield wanted you. Because you did whatever it took to stop Hawkmoth for good. Whatever it took for the greater good. That’s how I knew we were the same.”

Silence.

Ward stood up, “You’re good. I get that. I’ve always known that. But you understand me. You’re a soldier. I’m a soldier.”

“You are a monster,” Marinette said. “You finally convinced. There is no good for you.”

Coulson, May, Lincoln, and Skye rescued her not long after.

Grant and Marinette would face off with each other multiple; fighting to the death; fighting for the cause.

Then one day, Simmons would be gone, Coulson would go after her, and when they came back; Coulson would tell her Grant Ward was dead. He killed him.

Marinette wouldn’t ever admit it but her world shattered just a bit.

However, Marinette would see Grant again but he wasn’t Grant. He was hive. And Hive would nearly take Skye from the team. He would take Lincoln.

After months of fighting the monster for months; doing whatever it took to bring him down; Lincoln, a pretty blond man with light-colored eyes who dared to be a hero, sacrificed himself.

And for the first time in years, Marinette was reminded of Adrien Agreste. She had thought about him occasionally, sure. But seeing Skye cry over Lincoln had reminded her just deeply of her own loss. And remember that she was the one who erased his memories. He wanted the last thing he saw to be her before he never remembered her again.

Marinette was twenty-two when she went to the funeral of Grant Ward. It was in Paris. Marinette was the only one who went. There was nobody to bury but still, Marinette had him laid to rest, not too far away from her parents.

No matter how hard she had tried, Marinette couldn’t find it in her to hate Grant. She had loved him too much. He had been such a big part of who she was.

And she owed it to him to finally see him laid to rest. It was her duty, she supposed.

That was why she buried him in the once place she once thought she’d never return. The place where she once dreamed of another life.

As she stared at his grave, once again she dreamed about another life.

A life where Hydra had never returned. Shield had never fallen. The Avengers weren’t torn apart in a civil war. The world didn’t seem to always be on fire. Skye was still an Agent. Fitz and Simmons were married. Tripp was alive. Lincoln was alive. And Grant Ward was good.

It was a nice dream but she’d leave it in Paris with all rest of her childhood’s hopes, wishes, and dreams.

“You were right,” She told Grant, speaking directly to his headstone as if he was there. “We are the same. I do understand. I’ve always understood. In the end, we always do our duty. Its what defines us. Rest in Peace, Ward.”

Marinette walked out of the cemetery with her head held high. She would stop for ice cream, and cross paths with a tall, handsome, green-eyed, blond man. He’d look right through her.

And it only bothered her a little.

Months after she left Paris again, for good she swore, she would hear on the news about the untimely death of Gabriel Agreste.

She would notify an hour later that Master Fu has surfaced in Paris again. The man had been watched by Shield for years.

She would be told that Master Fu had been spotted around Agreste home.

Marinette didn’t blink twice. It wouldn’t matter. Everyone had moved on. Adrien had moved. Marinette had moved on. And as far as the world was concerned Marinette Dupain-Cheng was dead. She had died years ago.

Seven months later, Coulson would bring her in to help train a new recruit. She would walk into the training room of the bus and see a tall, a tall, handsome, green-eyed, blond man with hope clear on his face, standing next to Coulson, looking at her like he was seeing the sun for the first time in years.

“Kitty?” Marinette whispered.

“My lady.”

Marinette was twenty-three when her world shattered yet again.

#ml salt #Marinette deserves better #marinette dupain cheng #grant ward #agents of shield #Skyeward #adrien agreste #adrien deserves better

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