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katyaromanoffpetrova · 5 months ago

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Is this the end? (part I)

Katya is new at SHIELD. When she messes up during her probation, she thinks Fury will send her away. To ease the pain, she distances herself from Nat.

• Natasha Romanoff x Fem!OC • Wordcount: 2.6k • Warnings: angst, mentions of self-harm (not detailed) •A/N: I couldn't fit everything into one post, so there will be a part two in a few day's time :) Masterlist

Do not repost my work as your own or translate my work!!

2007

The Triskelion slowly emerged in the distance. Tall, massive, impressive. A building fit for a strong organization like SHIELD. A statement to scare off their enemies.

It used to intimidate Katya too, back when she worked for that enemy. All Hydra agents were warned to stay far away from SHIELD HQ, unless they wanted to die.

But in the past few months, it had amazingly become her safe space. A place where she could breathe for the first time in her life. A place she eagerly returned to.

Not right now, though.

On this sunny, late afternoon in cold November, Katya dreaded landing the Quinjet on the flight deck and getting out. Her hands shook as she pressed the buttons and flipped the switches, forcing her breathing to stay normal so the SHIELD agent in the co-pilot seat wasn't alerted of her anxiety.

She failed her mission. She messed up. Badly. She let Fury down.

And she was still on probation.

Her boss was very clear; make one mistake and she's out. And Fury always meant what he said. Always.

Katya didn't think she could keep going if she was kicked out of the one place that showed her kindness. If she was forced to say goodbye to the love of her life once more.

That was the worst of it all; her failure would come back on Natasha. Natasha who was responsible for her. Natasha who promised Fury that Katya was fit for duty. Natasha who had faith in her to become a better person.

Not only had Katya let herself, the safety of the world, and her boss down, she had disappointed the woman she loved. And that stung more than anything.

The Quinjet barely wobbled as it touched the ground—at least she could do one thing right—and Katya helped her co-pilot with the shutdown procedure before lifting her heavy body out of the pilot seat.

She didn't want to go out there. As long as she was in the jet, she was safe from being fired. Or she could pretend that she was safe, at least. So Katya took her sweet time collecting her things, triple checking that the Quinjet was ready for its next use before reluctantly making her way outside.

Her anxiety was miles high as she crossed the flight deck. She felt like a pig being led to the slaughter. Every step of her booted feet took more effort than the last. Katya kept her gaze ahead and avoided the scared agents that jumped out of her way, refusing to let them see the fear in her eyes.

She thought about running. It was her first instinct after she managed to escape her mission earlier today. It shouldn't have taken her fifteen minutes to decide to call in a SHIELD pickup, but it did, and she felt so ashamed about it.

That part of her life was supposed to be over. Done. But it tempted her like a line of coke tempted a drug addict.

Being on the run, being alone, it was so much easier. The only responsibilities she had were to herself. The only person she could disappoint was herself. If she messed up on a shady deal, they would be hunting her for a while, but only her.

Having people who counted on her was harder than she thought it would be. Emotions were harder than she thought they would be. Her default setting was to isolate and be alone. To run when things were bad.

But she wouldn't take the easy way out this time. She refused to. With a deep inhale, Katya stepped inside the building.

To her surprise, nothing happened. She expected some agent to materialize and take her to Fury, or for people to stare and gossip about her failure. She had even imagined Natasha standing there, a disappointed frown on her face. But life inside SHIELD HQ went on as usual. They barely spared her a glance.

Without further hesitation, Katya mixed with the group heading for the elevators. Maybe if she blended in, she could hide and avoid having her soul broken for a little longer. Maybe, if she was fast enough, she could make it to her room and hide from Natasha as long as possible.

The agents around her should know how hard her heart pounded as they shuffled away from her. How scared she was. It could be the last time they saw her face. It could be her last day in this building. Her last time riding this elevator.

Katya's throat closed up. The tiny room suddenly felt extremely crowded. Panic pressed on her lungs. When she arrived at her floor, she bumped some shoulders in her rush to get out. As soon as she crashed through her apartment door, she sank to the floor, shaking.

The silence inside her apartment was terrible. The thoughts in her head sounded ten times as loud in the silence. They were overwhelming. The angry voices screamed at her, calling her a failure, a loser, that she would be better off dead.

She wrapped her arms around her knees in search of comfort. Comfort that she didn't deserve from anyone else.

How did she manage to mess up this badly? The mission Fury gave her was so simple, nothing she hadn't done before. Infiltrate a Hydra building—one Katya had marked as one—and steal some information. In and out.

But somehow, they spotted her. Katya still didn't know how. She knew nobody could have heard her, or seen her. But the alarms went off and all the exits were blocked. She was trapped with no way out.

It took her locking herself into a room and hotwiring one of the alarm boxes on the walls, to lift the blockades and escape. She ran for five miles through the hills and hid before calling a SHIELD jet to pick her up.

Now they had seen her face, knew she worked for SHIELD, knew their facility was compromised, and knew what information they were after.

It was the worst thing she could have ever done. She might as well have sent them an email. Fury would not be taking this lightly.

Katya only noticed she was hyperventilating when someone slammed a door shut down the hall that made her jump.

She felt ridiculous, rocking back and forth like a baby on the floor of her apartment, but it was her apartment, her safe space. She felt in her bones that she started to belong here, that this was where she should be. So it hurt a million times more, knowing she herself was the reason she would lose it all.

Katya sat on the floor for hours, digging her nails into her arms until welts started to form. Only when dusk set in did she pick herself off the floor, exhausted and covered in cold sweat. Nobody had come to check on her.

She did her coming-home routine on autopilot. Shower, unpack, turn on her phone that she couldn't take with her on the mission, eat something—even though her stomach was in knots and she felt nauseous.

She had four missed texts from Natasha, each more worried than the last.

Nat (3:44 PM): Welcome back. Hope the mission went according to plan :)

Nat (3:46 PM): Are you okay?

Nat (4:18 PM): Can't get out of this meeting, so I can't check in. Can you let me know if you're alright?

Nat (5:52 PM): I hope you fell asleep. Dinner later? My last meeting ends at 7. If I don't hear anything from you, I'm taking it as a yes.

Guilt started to pile up on Katya's shoulders. She couldn't tell Natasha what happened. She couldn't handle letting her down. She couldn't handle breaking her heart. She couldn't handle having her own heart broken again.

Katya left the messages unanswered. Maybe Natasha would take that as a sign to not come and find her later.

She didn't. When she showed up at 7 PM and knocked on the door, Katya pretended to be asleep. She stayed "asleep" for the rest of the night and never answered the texts in the morning.

This streak of avoidance continued throughout the week. Katya woke up earlier on purpose, so she finished breakfast right when Natasha walked into the cafeteria. She changed her workout schedule from early mornings to the late evenings to avoid Natasha, who trained in the morning. She walked the other way when she saw Natasha in the hallway. She didn't answer texts, or answered very late.

When Natasha did manage to talk to her long enough to make plans, Katya canceled them last minute with some lame excuse.

It stung. It hurt every fiber of Katya's being to ignore Natasha like that. The woman didn't deserve it. She should be getting angry with her, but instead Katya triggered her insecurities too.

When she asked if Katya didn't want her around anymore, the blonde swore she heard her heart shatter.

But this was necessary. Even though Fury still hadn't called her in, Katya knew her exit from SHIELD was close. She needed to create a distance between herself and Natasha beforehand, so it would hurt less when that time came.

"Stop avoiding me."

It was lunchtime, Tuesday, and Natasha had finally managed to corner Katya. Literally. She'd grabbed her wrist in passing and forced her into a random supply closet in the hallway. Her body pressed Katya's against the wall, a fire in her green eyes.

"I'm not. I'm busy," Katya answered with a hint of annoyance, impatiently eyeing the door. She had places to be, people to avoid.

"Don't lie to me," Natasha bit back, vulnerability in the back of her voice. "We're beyond that."

"Nat." Katya tried, avoiding her gaze at any cost. She didn't want to do this.

"What is going on? You better tell me right now," Natasha demanded.

Katya scowled. "Nothing. Let me go."

"Kat—"

"I said, let me go."

Slowly, Natasha stepped back, giving Katya enough space to escape. The brunette eagerly took advantage of that and slipped back into the hallway. They may not be in a good place, but they always respected each other's boundaries.

Natasha was at a complete loss. The only thing she knew was that everything changed after that mission. If she wanted to know why Katya was avoiding her, the key lay at that mission.

The problem was; her clearance wasn't high enough to get any information. She'd tried to get into the system, but it blocked her. The only thing left to try was going to the person who knew it all.

"I need to know what happened. And no confidentiality bullshit."

Natasha stood in front of Fury's desk, her arms crossed over her chest. She was angry. At Katya, at herself, at the secrets. She was tired of the emotional rollercoaster, of being left in the dark. She wanted answers, now.

Fury lazily gazed up at her, unimpressed and calm. "It's simple. Petrova failed her mission."

A wave of nausea hit Natasha. Deep down, she wasn't surprised to hear this. She suspected something like this. But actually having it confirmed was something else. She, too, knew what it meant if Katya failed.

"Lots of us fail our missions."

"Correct. But we've also never had a Hydra deserter join us before," Fury said casually, reorganizing some folders on his desk.

Something clicked for Natasha. She didn't know the magnitude of the mission, or Katya's failure. But if Fury was this calm about it, and if Katya was still here, a week later, something else must be going on. As always, the Director of SHIELD had ulterior motives.

"You set her up," she realized with disgust. "You set her up to fail."

Fury didn't blink an eye at her accusation, only proving that she was right. "Only when they face death do people show their true faces."

Natasha boiled with anger, clenching her fists to keep herself contained. He really sent the woman she loved into a building full of hostiles just to prove her loyalty. "She could have died!"

"I knew she could get herself out of that situation."

Natasha had never felt as protective over someone as she did right now. "Katya doesn't deserve your mistrust. She's been loyal since she set foot inside this building. She hasn't lied about anything."

"Loyalty runs deep. We shouldn't underestimate her ties to her former employer."

Natasha swallowed back some nasty words. To call the Director of SHIELD an asshole was risky, even for her. Maybe especially for her.

"If your goal was to make her terrified of losing everything good she found, then you succeeded."

Fury sharply glanced up at her with his one good eye. "We are not a charity, Agent Romanoff. Petrova needs to understand that her stay here isn't guaranteed."

Natasha clenched her teeth together. What an outrageous way to prove a point. "If she has to go, I'm going with her. Just so you understand that too."

"Message received," Fury said dryly, returning his gaze to the desk. "Loud and clear."

A mess of emotions raged in her body as Natasha left his office and legged towards Katya's apartment. It was false hope that sent her there. Hope that her small, meaningless conversation with Fury would calm Katya down enough to talk to her.

She was still furious at him. Furious for sending Katya into a trap, for mistrusting her, and for being the perfect director. She was angry because she couldn't be angry at him. In his position, it was a logical move to test Katya's loyalty.

But Natasha's love for the woman clouded her judgment. Funnily enough.

"Open up." Her knocks were fast and impatient on Katya's door. "It's me, and I'm not leaving until you hear me out." She was determined this time, willing to kick the door in, now that she knew why Katya acted so strangely.

To her surprise, Katya opened the door. Her body shielded Natasha's wandering eyes from seeing her apartment. She had dark circles under her eyes, pale skin, and a slow way of moving about her. "What is it?"

Natasha pushed past her before Katya could stop her. It had been a while since she had been in the apartment, and what she saw broke her heart. "Why do you have everything packed?" Katya didn't answer. All her personal belongings were in bags. "You don't have to leave. It was a test. And I think you passed it."

Katya snapped her head up, her eyes suddenly wide awake. "How do you— Ты говорил с ним (You went and talked to him)?"

Natasha was taken aback by her sharp tone. "I—"

"мне не нужна няня (I don't need a babysitter)!" The brunette raised her voice. "I made a mistake during probation. He has every right to send me off, test or not!"

"But it's not a fair test if he set you up to fail!"

"That doesn't matter! Failing still isn't an option! Test or not!"

Natasha thought she would be easing Katya's mind. But the woman only saw failure, clouded by fear. Katya was too terrified to lose everything to think rationally. "You're being too hard on yourself," Natasha continued gently. "You're an amazing agent. All your other missions went perfectly."

Katya huffed, raising her arm to scratch her head. "You can save 20 people, but we both know you only remember the one you killed."

Natasha barely heard her words. When Katya lifted her arm, her short sleeve lifted enough to show red welts on her arms in the form of nails. Clearly self-inflicted. Pointedly, Natasha looked at that arm, the spots now carefully covered. "Nothing is worth doing that to yourself."

Katya watched her go with a broken look in her eyes.

#katandnat #katyaromanoffpetrova #forgotten ghost series #natasha romanoff #natasha romanoff x fem!oc #natasha romanoff fanfiction #natasha romanov #natasha romanoff fanfic #marvel #avengers #mcu

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cantquitu · 1 month ago

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I keep making the foolish mistake of reading the comment sections of news stories about Liam. "If the hotel employees thought he was a danger to himself, why did they leave him alone?" My brother in fucking Christ, on what planet is a hotel employee equipped to handle something like this? Maybe they were concerned about the safety of their employees? "Why did his girlfriend leave him alone if he was struggling?" First of all, if she was tired of being in a foreign country, she is permitted to go home! Secondly, if he was experiencing mental health and substance abuse issues, she could not help him if he did not actually want help and being there could have been worse for both of them. Can we all just have a little more fucking grace for the people actually up close to the situation? Holy hell.

I'm not reading the comment sections, but it's always at times like this that I get intense "People are weird" feelings.

I really think human brains haven't caught up with the internet. The comments you mentioned are the kind of things people have always said. But in years gone by they would have been muttered over breakfast while reading the morning paper, or maybe said to your wife as you listened to the news in the car. Not words posted for the whole world to read on the internet! Words that can reach people actually involved, or those that love them.

"Why did she leave him alone if he was struggling?" Even the most cursory think about that question brings up countless possible answers, and many of those possibilities are heartbreaking. So if you HAVE to comment, all you need to say is "His poor girlfriend, hope she's ok". And jog on.

As for questioning the hotel front desk manager....my god. They tried to help! In the emergency call they actually said they couldn't get into the room, but even if they could, he was smashing up the place! What were they supposed to do?

Even within fandom, within 24 hours of Liam dying, fans were already back on their bullshit. Pulling apart the statements the 1D boys made on Instagram.

I saw people saying Louis' heartbreaking post was fan service, for attention. Can you imagine thinking that? And then writing it on the internet??!

People saying Harry's post was so impersonal, he has no soul. Over 14 million people have liked Harry's post since last night. Can you imagine, in your grief, knowing that millions and millions of people are going to read your words the second you post them? You haven't posted anything publicly in well over a year. Maybe you don't fucking WANT to write something about the person you have just lost and put it on Instagram for strangers to read! Maybe that is not how you express your grief! Maybe you're not ready! But you do it to pay tribute, because people need you to.

I just cannot understand some people's inability to put themselves in another person's shoes. Perhaps they are lucky enough to not have experienced or witnessed the grief and shock of sudden loss. Because if they had, they would know that the way people respond to it - the things they do, the things they say - are different from individual to individual.

Have some empathy and exercise some self-control in your comments. These are real life people ffs.

#liam payne #louis tomlinson #harry styles #1D

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ghost-in-the-hall · 1 year ago

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Flowers (Phantom x GN! Reader) FLUFF

WARNINGS: Recreational smoking 🌿, doesn't go into detail, all fluff, Primo being a dad, Phantom being sweet, cute, and nice. Just a good old innocent mutual crush. Not proofread, sorry if there's any mistakes with keeping it GN, please feel free to let me know if I missed anything so I can correct it!

My Masterlist! ~ AO3 Link!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Good morning Papa." You greet Primo with a smile, carefully setting down the cup of tea you had brought him on his work bench.

"Good morning il mio Bambino." He responds softly, completely engrossed in his task of pruning one of his many bonsai trees. "When you get a moment my dear would you be able to do me a small favor?" You breathed out an amused sigh. You had been Primo's assistant for a while, enjoying the slow pace of working with the eldest Emeritus brother.

"Papa, you don't need to ask." You giggle, bringing a smile to the older man's face. "Anything you need I'll take care of, don't worry."

"You truly are too good to me." He shoots you a wink causing you to playfully roll your eyes. "There's some produce that needs harvesting in the greenhouse. I was hoping I could have your assistance collecting it all."

"Of course. Let me just make sure I don't have any paperwork to file first." You give his shoulder a gentle squeeze as you pass, leaving him to finish his pruning. You fell into the chair at your desk with a sigh, flipping your letter opener around in your hand to sort through the daily mail. You paused as something caught your eye. A single sunflower sat at the edge of your desk. You picked it up curiously, a smile finding its way to your lips as you spun the stem between your fingers. "Thank you for the flower Papa!" You call into his office. You hear the scraping of his chair against the wooden floor, Primo emerging in the doorway moments later.

You glance over your shoulder as you hear him chuckle. "That flower isn't from me, my dear." He raised an eyebrow at you. "Perhaps you've caught the attention of someone special, hm?" You couldn't stop the blush from spreading across your cheeks as you giggled.

"I doubt that," you state with a wistful tone as you continue to admire the flower in your hand, "I'm pretty plain compared to a lot of the other Siblings. This was probably supposed to be a gift for you if anything."

"I'd like you to keep it regardless." He gently pats the top of your head. "And you are not plain. You have a smile that could light up any room, a laugh so melodic it would rival Cirrus' piano. You're a kind, beautiful soul inside and out. Not to mention your Papa's favorite." He teases with a wink.

"Thank you Papa." He holds out his arm for you to take.

"Come il mio bambino, we have a lot of work to do." You slide your hand into the crook of his elbow, allowing him to prattle on about whatever came to his mind as you made your way to the greenhouse together. No matter the task, working with Primo always managed to put a smile on your face. Over your time as his assistant you had grown quite close to him, Primo had become somewhat of a father figure in your life. The two of you would sit and chat about everything while you worked; filling each other in on the gossip you heard around the Abbey, Primo telling you stories of when he was in his prime, both of you unwinding with a nice cup of tea at the end of the day in his cozy office. Today was no different. You were both droning on about how, somehow, Sister Imperator had been even more stern than usual lately.

"Maybe you should offer her a joint, it might help her stop being so uptight all the time." Primo chuckles at your statement.

"You might be right, I heard she used to be quite the stoner in her day." You both paused at the sound of the greenhouse door slowly creaking open. Primo began to stand, you motioned for him not to trouble himself.

"I'll go see who it is Papa, it's probably just one of the Siblings from the kitchen." You rise with a groan, meticulously pulling off your work gloves before stuffing them into your pocket. As you approached the entrance you were met with the sight of a Ghoul curiously looking over the plants. He froze the moment he picked up on your presence, like a child getting caught doing something they weren't supposed to be. His shoulders relaxed as he realized it was you who emerged from the greenery and not the eldest Emeritus. "Phantom?"

"Hey." He returns your greeting with a sharp smile, fangs glinting in the bright afternoon sun that glimmered through the glass roof. "I was sent to ask Primo about some of his tea." He nervously shifts his weight between his feet.

"Oh, he's right back here actually." You motioned for him to follow you. Phantom takes a couple long strides, allowing himself to walk by your side. "You help in the greenhouse too?" He asks genuinely. You nod, giving him a small smile.

"I work pretty much wherever Primo needs me." You chuckle softly. "If I'm being honest I'd rather be out here than at my desk, it gets awfully stuffy in there sometimes." You whisper to him, as if it was a secret just for the two of you. You found Primo still diligently harvesting the produce you had left him with. "Papa, Phantom needs to ask you about some tea."

"Papa," Phantom bows his head slightly in a polite greeting, "Copia sent me. He's having, uh… that problem again. He said you'd know what I meant." His eyes widened slightly as he waited for Primo to remember what particular ailment he was referring to.

"Right," Primo claps his hands together. "I'll go grab the senna." Once Primo is out of view Phantom's attention immediately shifts back to you.

"What are you two harvesting?" You smile at his curiosity, aside from Primo and the other Siblings that helped in the gardens no one ever seemed interested about the work you did in here.

"Berries mostly." He trails closely behind you as you return to the plant you had been previously seated in front of. "The raspberries came out wonderful this year, I don't think we've ever had this big of a crop." Phantom kneels next to you in the dirt, eyes darting between your hands as they worked and your face.

"Can I ask a silly question?" He inquires sheepishly.

"There are no silly questions." You give him a reassuring smile, gently bumping your shoulder against his.

"What do raspberries taste like?" You paused. You had gotten so used to seeing Phantom dart around the Abbey that you had forgotten he had only been summoned a little while ago. Something as simple and well enjoyed by you he had never experienced before.

"Would you like to try one?" He nods eagerly. You search through the bush, looking for the best looking berry you could find. You carefully held it between your fingers as you offered it to him. "Now, I'm going to warn you, they have seeds and they're kind of fuzzy." He squints at the fruit, bright violet eyes analyzing it closely. He takes the berry between his teeth, taking extra care to make sure his fangs didn't accidentally graze your fingers. He chewed it slowly, eyes never leaving your face.

"It's good… sweet." He smiles proudly at his small triumph. His gaze travels to the top of your head. "You, uh, have a leaf." He points to your hair. You attempt to brush it away on your own but you could tell by the expression he was giving you that it was still there. He cautiously reaches towards you, untangling it from your strands before discarding it on the ground. His eyes scan over your features, a smile coming to his lips as he brushes the disturbed hair back into place. "Beautiful." You let out a flustered giggle. You both jump as Primo speaks up.

"This should take care of Copia's problem." He holds out a jar of herbs to Phantom. Seeing both of your bashful states he pauses. "I'm not interrupting anything am I?" He gives you a smug grin.

"No Papa, we were just talking." You nervously fidgeted with your fingers as you spoke.

"Thank you for the tea Papa. (Y/N), hopefully I'll see you soon." He flashes you another dazzling smile before making his leave. You couldn't stop your eyes from trailing after him as he left, turning back to Primo once he fully stepped out of sight. You had to stop yourself from rolling your eyes at the shit eating grin he wore

"Don't look at me like that." You tried to hide your flustered state.

"I see we fancy ourselves a Quintessence Ghoul, do we?" He returns to the plant at your side with a laugh.

"We were just talking Papa." You reiterate again to try and get your point across.

"Just talking wouldn't cause the two of you to jump like that my dear. I've witnessed my fair share of crushes in my day, it's nothing to be ashamed of." He addresses the matter casually.

"Papa!" You exclaim through a giggle.

"Fine, fine." He accepts defeat, holding up his hands in surrender. "But, when you do finally come to terms with the fact you're attracted to him, I'll be here to talk." He smiles patiently.

You laugh and shake your head, "I don't have a crush on Phantom, it's just…" you trailed off for a moment. You couldn't exactly put into words how you felt. You had always been pretty close with all of the Ghouls, so when the newest members were summoned you were one of the first to be introduced. When you had first met Phantom he was timid, still feeling somewhat awkward in his more humanoid form.

"Walk me through what you're thinking tesoro, maybe I can help you sort things out." You both kept busy as you talked, knowing if you actually allowed yourself to focus on the words spilling from your lips you would end up overthinking.

"He's very easy for me to talk to. It took me a while to form the friendships that I have, but with him it almost felt effortless. The first night I met him there was something about him that was just so… captivating. He was unlike any person or Ghoul I had ever met." You explain.

"You two definitely seemed to hit it off pretty quickly. Up until he met you I don't think I had ever really seen Phantom interact with any of the Siblings, he mostly kept to himself. Perhaps there are a few members of his pack he's close to, but compared to the rest of Copia's Ghouls he seems a bit reserved." Primo remarks.

"That's the thing Papa… he's not." You thought back to one of the times it had just been the two of you. "Phantom is loud, boisterous, confident." His infectious laugh echoed through your memories, bringing a smile to his face. It wasn't uncommon for Phantom to coincidentally stumble across you smoking alone in the garden, enjoying the twinkling starlight as the pungent smell of herb filled the air. Being with him only added to the dizzying head rush you had. Gazing into his eyes felt like you were running through a field of lavender, his fingers bumping against yours making your pulse thrum in your ears, entirely consumed by the image of him mere inches away from you. The two of you in your own world together as you resisted the urge to lean into him. You were snapped from your day dream as a thorn pricked your finger, you winced slightly, letting out an exasperated sigh as reality set in once more. "Him and I just get along really well, that's all." Primo just smiled knowingly. He had seen that far off look in your eyes many times before; pining Siblings stumbling into his confessional to pour their heart and soul out to him over a friend who they swore would never be anything more than just that. You didn't say much for the rest of the afternoon, the memory of Phantom playing repeatedly in your mind as you tried to convince yourself none of that mattered.

"I'll see you in the morning." Primo waves over his shoulder as the two of you part ways in the halls. You headed back to his office, having a few things to check on before fully retiring for the evening. You look behind you as you hear another set of footsteps join your own in the empty corridor. You were a bit surprised to see none other than the Ghoul occupying your every thought round the corner. You smile at the sight of him, pausing to let him catch up.

"Copia wanted me to bring Primo a thank you note for the tea." You found yourself shoving your hands deep in your pockets, the slight brush of his hand against yours sending a jolt through your body, causing you to have an urge you didn't dare give into.

"Primo decided to turn in a little early tonight…" you trail off, glancing at him out of the corner of your eye. "But, I am heading down to his office now. I wouldn't mind the company if you'd like to walk with me."

"I would love to." He smiles down at you. You blush, quickly darting your eyes down to your feet so hopefully he wouldn't catch your flustered expression. "You seem nervous." You remarked how that was a statement, not a question. You flashed him your most convincing smile, trying to shove your anxiety away so he wouldn't worry.

"It's just been a long day. I'm not really feeling fully… myself, I guess." You found yourself wanting to be honest with him the more you spoke. There was something about being with him that made you feel so undeniably safe that you couldn't lie about how you were feeling. The question flashed through your mind about whether or not Quintessence Ghouls possessed some type of mind control power to make you tell the truth. You noticed him glance over at you out of the corner of your eye. "I promise it's nothing to worry about." You slid into your chair as you arrived at Primo's office, Phantom perching himself on the edge of the desk at your side.

"Have you eaten?" He suddenly chimes. Your stomach decided to answer before you had a chance to, giving off a low angry growl over your hunger. "I'll take that as a no." Phantom chuckles. You return his laugh as you open some of the new letters that had appeared on your desk. You groaned as you recognized Sister Imperator's neat script.

"What now?" Phantom's brow furrowed at your distress. "Great, another meeting with Nihil, Papa's going to be thrilled." You drop your head into your desk with a groan. You felt Phantom's warm head slide across your back, rubbing soothing circles in between your shoulder blades. You reluctantly picked up the receiver of the old rotary phone, dialing the number for Primo's quarters as you propped your chin up in your hand. "Hi Papa." He sighed at the tone you greeted him with, already knowing what was in store for him. "We have a meeting with your Father." You held the receiver away from your ear as a loud string of Italian curses exploded out of it. "I'll be there in ten minutes." You inform him before hanging up. "I'm sorry to run off-"

"It's alright." He cuts you off, grimacing slightly as he realized he had done so. "Are you going to be in the garden tonight?"

You nodded slowly, "probably. I'm sure I'm going to need to unwind after this." You stand with a groan. You collect your belongings, smiling at Phantom as you turn to leave. In a moment of boldness, more than likely brought in by the aggravation of having to deal with Sister, you paused. "These meetings usually take about two hours. I'd really like to see you tonight if you have time."

"I'll be there." He responds eagerly. You try your best to hide your excited smile as you hurry off to meet Primo. The second you entered his quarters he noticed your change in attitude.

"Well, what do we have here? You seem awfully happy my dear." You met Primo's gaze in his reflection. His papal paint half done, still dressed in his gardening clothes. "Might I venture a guess this has something to do with a certain Ghoul?" You knew there was no lying to him in your current state.

"I may or may not be seeing Phantom after our meeting tonight." You spit out your statement hurriedly, knowing he was going to make a big deal about it.

"Hm," he hums, grinning at you, "sounds like a nice little date to unwind after a stressful day, no?" You haphazardly comb your fingers through your hair, trying your best to appear somewhat decent.

"It's not a date Papa, just two friends meeting up." He chuckles at your response.

"Tell me tomorrow if your feelings on that subject have changed." You breathe out a laugh, shaking your head in disbelief for how sure he was of himself. You helped him shrug into his Papal robes before heading to the never ending meeting. Every second felt like an hour, your eyes practically glued to the clock as you waited for the meeting to come to a close.

"You are dismissed." The second Nihil groaned out the words you bolted for the door, not missing Primo's amused expression on your way out. You headed straight for the garden, expertly winding your way to the spot where you and Phantom always managed to run into each other. A smile instantly spread across your features at the sight of him. He had set out a blanket in the pathway, a small spread of various foods set out for the two of you.

"What's all this?" You ask with a soft laugh as you approach him.

His eyes darted to the ground nervously, you noticed him swaying on his heels slightly as he spoke. "Well, I know you haven't eaten so I wanted to bring you some food. I didn't know what you liked so I asked Mountain and well…" He trails off, motioning to the spontaneous picnic. "I was thinking maybe you and I could have some dinner together?"

"I would love to have dinner with you, Phantom." He beams at your response, excitement immediately overtaking his nerves as he motions for you to sit. You sat and talked with Phantom for hours, your body and mind feeling lighter the longer you spent with him. As time passed the two of you eventually cleared off the blanket, opting to lay side by side to gaze up at the stars, a lit joint passed between the two of you. You watched the smoke curl high into the air, the warmth of Phantom's body seeking into your shoulder.

"I really like spending time with you." He speaks up suddenly. You blush at his statement, feeling his fingers ghost over yours both of your hands intertwined carefully. You didn't need to respond, he knew you felt the same way. The two of you took turns pointing out different constellations you recognized until, eventually, you decided you should probably get back to your dorm. Phantom's fingers remained intertwined with yours as he stood, hoisting you from the ground after him. You stumble slightly, falling into his chest. You felt the quick, steady rhythm of his heartbeat under his palm. His free hand lands on your waist to steady you. Your eyes snapped up to his, they glowed a beautiful violet in the moonlight.

"Sorry." You giggle nervously. He chuckles, giving your waist a gentle squeeze.

"No need to apologize, are you alright?" You nod, both of you blushing and mumbling out an apology as you realized you were still holding onto each other, taking a moment to separate. The two of you walked in a comfortable silence through the halls until you reached your dorm. You stood across from each other in front of your door, nervously swaying in your heels. "That was fun, maybe we can do that again sometime."

"I'd like that." Both of you searched for something, anything at all to say, to stay with each other just a few moments longer. But nothing came to mind. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Goodnight, (Y/N)." He smiles at you, beginning to turn away. You reach out, catching his wrist in your hand. He looks back at you, a hopeful expression in his eyes. You stand on your toes, pressing a soft kiss to his cheek.

"Goodnight, Phantom." You take one final glance at him before you slip into your room. You fell into your bed with a sigh, dragging your hands down your face. "He's so handsome." You groan to your empty room. You let your arms fall out to the side, staring blankly up at your system as you remembered Primo's words from earlier. "I've witnessed my fair share of crushes in my day, it's nothing to be ashamed of my dear." You grimaced, that old man really could read you like an open book. You got ready for bed, dreading talking Primo tomorrow that he was right. But you needed advice. You had never taken the whole romance thing into consideration. Sure, you had dated a few people in the past, but none of those relationships really went past the honeymoon phase or initial hookup. You could already tell that if by some miracle Phantom did reciprocate your feelings this wouldn't be a simple fling. You woke with a start, getting into your overalls as you prepared for a long day weeding the flowerbeds. As you entered the garden you found Primo already waiting for me, a cup of tea waiting for you on the bench next to him.

"Good morning il mio bambino." He greets you with a smile. "These were left on your desk this morning." He picked up three white roses, all tied together with a purple ribbon.

"Was there any note?" He shook his head. You held the flowers to your nose, inhaling their sweet scent with a smile. "I'm going to put these in some water." You quickly run to the greenhouse, placing the blooms in a vase so you could take them home later before returning to Primo. You picked up the tea cup he had set out for you, sitting by his side and enjoying the stillness of the early morning air.

"So, how did last night go?" He prods.

You sigh, "it was perfect, I don't know what else to say about it." You chuckle.

"Are you still trying to keep up the façade that you're just friends?" He asks before taking a long sip of his tea.

"As much as I would like to, I don't think I can." You admit with a bashful laugh. "I've definitely got a bit of a crush on him." You spent a good portion of your morning catching Primo up on the events of the night prior.

He looks at you with an amused smile, "dare I say I think he might be feeling the same towards you my dear." He grins.

"I hope so, I don't know how much longer I'm going to be able to hide this from him." Primo collects your cup from you as you finish your drink.

"Well you'll have plenty of time to think things over tesoro. Enjoy the flirting, romance is supposed to be fun, you should be basking in the glow of young love." You blush, shaking your head as you playfully roll your eyes.

"I'm going to get started out here, I'll come check on you in a couple hours." He pays your head before heading to his office.

"Don't work too hard." He calls over his shoulder as he disappears from the garden, allowing you to get to work.

"Well what do we have here." You jump slightly as Mountain bounds up beside you, a basket of vegetables perched on his hip.

"Hey Mount." Your hand claps into his as he helps you out of the dirt.

"Primo's got you on weeding duty today?" He asks, a bit confused. Weeding was usually a job saved for new Siblings, Primo believing in a hierarchy of sorts until they got settled in.

"I needed a task that would let me reflect on my feelings." You preach back to him in your best Papa impression. "He's had some suspicions that are proving to be correct."

"Everything alright?" He motions for you to walk with him.

"Yeah." You trail off for a moment. "If I tell you something, can you promise it'll stay between us?"

"Of course, you know you can always talk to me." He nudges you.

"So, there's been someone leaving flowers on my desk the past couple days. Which is super sweet, but I need to find out who it is. Recently I've… come to terms with the fact I have feelings for someone." You chose your words carefully, hesitant to give away who the object of your affection was despite the fact you knew you would end up telling him regardless. "Then on top of that I don't want to say anything to this other person because they might not feel the same."

"First off, I wouldn't worry about confessing your feelings. You're amazing, whoever it is would be so lucky to have earned your affection. Regardless of the answer I'm sure everything will work out for the best. And if you want to know who's getting you flowers, maybe hideout in the greenhouse, they're bound to show up sooner or later." You nodded, that wasn't a terrible plan. "Now, the real question is, who's your secret crush?" He asks in a teasing tone.

"Promise you won't say anything?" You felt ridiculous, you felt like you were in high school all over again. You were a grown adult acting like a teenage girl. Yet you couldn't help the butterflies that erupted in your stomach at the mere thought of him.

"You have my word." Mountain promises.

"It's Phantom." He pauses, looking down at you with the biggest smile. "What?"

"You have to tell him, the two of you would be such a great couple!" You attempt to stutter out a response, Mountain's bluntness getting you completely fluttered. "Seriously though, I think it would be worth a shot telling him. You never know, maybe he could've been your secret admirer the whole time." He chuckles before the two of you parted ways. You headed to Primo's office, already having gotten a good deal of weeding done today. You pushed through his office door with a groan.

"Good afternoon my dear." He greets you jovially despite not looking up from his paperwork. A pair of thin, wire framed reading glasses sat perched on the end of his nose.

"Afternoon Papa, do you need me to take care of anything?" You refill his glass of water in his desk.

"Actually there is, I have a stack of hymns that need to be returned to the music hall. It took me a while to decide which ones I wanted for mass this week." He chortles. You accepted the stack from him with a smile. "When you return we'll have so tea, I believe you're due for a break."

"Of course Papa, I'll be right back." You read through the stack of sheet music as you walk through the halls, humming the melodies presented before you. You kicked open the door to the music hall with your foot. Your ears were instantly met with an all too familiar tune. You glanced up to find Phantom perched at the edge of the stage, his usual black guitar resting comfortably over his thigh as he rehearsed by himself. You sit yourself in one of the chairs in the room, watching as his fingers effortlessly moved across the fret board. He jumped slightly when he noticed you were there.

"Now how did I end up with such a pretty audience." He flashes his fangs at you as a wide grin spreads across his features.

"No matter how many times I see you play you always amaze me. You're so talented." You compliment him, earning a bashful chuckle that made your heart flutter in your chest.

"Thank you." He stands, slowly striding over to you. "Now what brings you all the way down here." You held up the stack of papers.

"Primo needs these returned." Phantom takes the stack from you, knowing howuch of a pain organizing hymns tended to be.

"Want some help? I'm pretty familiar with how Cumulus has it set up in here." He offers.

"That would be great, I'd be here all night doing this by myself." You joke. Phantom clicks on the radio, some oldies station buzzing to life. He slings an arm over your shoulder, guiding you to the filing cabinet where the hymns were stored. Phantom seemed much more relaxed than normal today. He was consistently making jokes, the two of you idly chatting as you sorted everything away. "I love this song!" You exclaim, turning up the volume of the radio. You swayed around the room, humming along with the tune. Phantom chuckles at your excitement. He sets his remaining sheet music down, stepping closer to you so he could pull you towards him. You laugh, letting your fingers intertwine with his as the other slides over his shoulder. The two of you swayed along with the rhythm, Phantom giving your waist a gentle squeeze as he smiles down at you. He spun you around, causing you to giggle. "I didn't know you could dance."

"I wanted to learn to impress someone I like." He winks at you, both of you letting out bashful laughter.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I need you for band practice." Sodo leans against the doorframe, eyes darting between the two of you. Phantom reluctantly released his hold on you, holding your hand a few moments longer than necessary before joining the other Ghoul.

"I'll see you soon." He promises.

"Bye Phantom." You smile at him, waving to Sodo as they both leave. You finish filing away the hymns, clicking off the radio before heading back to Primo's office. The rest of the day passed in a blur, the feeling of Phantom holding you close clouding your every thought. You had decided to take Mountain's advice of waiting in the greenhouse, wanting to tell your secret admirer that you already had your eye on someone else. So, once you had said goodnight to Primo, you slipped out into the gardens in hope of capturing the mysterious florist in the act. You hid in a relatively secluded corner, tucked away behind some lush bushes where you couldn't be seen. Luckily you didn't have to wait long for them to show up. You heard their soft humming approach where you were. The soft snips of pruning shears as they collected their flowers. Your eyebrows knitted together as you realized that this was a voice you recognized. You peeked out from your hiding place. You smiled softly at the sight before you, stepping out into the open, you cleared your throat.

Phantom's eyes shot up to you, he froze as he realized he had been caught. He looks nervously between you and the flowers he held in his hand. His mouth fell open but no words came out at first. When, finally, through all his nerves he actually takes a moment to look at you. Your whole face lit up with a smile, eyes searching his face as you waited for him to say anything. He couldn't believe how cute you looked as you nervously wrung your hands. He stands, offering a small bouquet of red chrysanthemums. "I'm assuming you've been getting my flowers." He chuckles. You carefully take hold of the bunch, gazing it down in awe before placing them off to the side. Your body moved purely on instinct, arms sliding around Phantom's waist as you pulled him into a hug. He tenses up for a moment before wrapping you tightly in his embrace.

"They've all been beautiful." You mumble against his chest. You slowly separated from each other, his gaze catching yours. He smiles warmly at you, those gorgeous, glowing purple eyes causing you to melt.

He gently takes your chin between his fingers. "I feel… strange whenever I'm around you." He admits, a mischievous glint in his eye.

"Strange how?" You ask through a smile, laughing as he tugs you closer.

"Sweaty mostly." He jokes. "You make me nervous in a good way." He continues to ponder out loud. "My heart starts to beat really fast, and all I can think about is reaching out to hold you… what kissing you would be like." You blush at his admission.

"You're more than welcome to find out for yourself." Your voice shook as you spoke, a soft breathy laugh punctuating your statement. His thumb ran over your bottom lip, his eyes tracing over every detail of your face.

"I'm sorry if I'm not any good at this." He chuckles.

"Just follow my lead." You tease, your hands sliding up his chest and into his hair as he closes the distance between the two of you. His lips crashed into yours. A satisfied hum left your lips as you pushed your body into his. He held you tightly, as if he let you go you would disappear before his eyes. The kiss started out slow, you slowly guided him through the motions. You had found out that Phantom was a very quick learner. His pace gradually increased, the kiss growing more passionate by the second as he grew addicted to the feeling of your lips on his. You pulled back with a gasp, both of you panting softly. You didn't even have time to catch your breath before Phantom's lips were back on yours, earning a surprised squeak as he pulled you flush against him one more. He pulled back slightly, his breathing ragged.

"That was nice." He chuckles. He places another few short pecks to your lips causing you to laugh softly.

"Does this mean you won't be bringing me flowers anymore?" You laugh.

"Sweetheart, I'll bring you flowers everyday if you want me to." He says with a smile as he pulls you in for another passionate kiss.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tag List: @spookyghostjelly @ramblingoak @kissingghouls @mustluvecho @belnovacaine @the-hole-in-terzos-shoe @herripinkle @iamsarahsaysso @fleagutz @jennmakesitweird @gothdaddyissues @i-fondued

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duskyashe · 1 year ago

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CAMP NANO DAY 12

[AO3]

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Danny could have cried in relief. All of his hard work (and Jazz's pointed words with the more friendly of his rogues) had paid off—Danny could finally, finally take a nap. His homework was caught up, all his chores were done, his parents were off terrorizing yet another ghost hunters convention, and the only ghost he'd had to deal with the entire day had been a blob ghost making itself at home in the neighbor's trash can. With Jazz and his friends on deck for emergency ghost wrangling, Danny couldn't find it in himself to feel anything but relief as he buried himself under his blankets on his rarely used bed.

As the sixteen year old half ghost started drifting off, eagerly looking forward to catching up on his sleep, a familiar green glow appeared over his bed and a bone chilling gasp got stuck in the back of his throat, startling Danny awake. "No, no, no, come on!" Danny cried out in frustration. "Just one undisturbed afternoon nap, is that too much to ask?!" Half expecting Wulf to come tumbling out of the dimensional tear that was suspended above his bed, Danny changed forms and sat up against his headboard. If the Esperanto speaking ghost showed up, Danny wanted ready access to his ghost half's innate understanding of all languages spoken by the dead and the NeverBorn.

Instead of Wulf, however, the person who fell through the unstable portal and onto his bed was wearing an armored costume. A very familiar armored costume. What was Nightwing doing in his bedroom?!

The Gotham vigilante quickly rolled off his bed and landed in a crouch, visibly taking the situation in. It was something Danny, himself, had done many times over the past two years, and personal experience had him raising his hands and carefully holding them away from himself as a peaceful gesture. Even though Danny was hella confused, he let Nightwing dictate when the questioning began.

He wasn't even going to think about the kinds of questions his bedroom would raise or the deductions that one of the superhero community's greatest detectives would be able to make from this experience. That way led madness.

Apparently satisfied with his visual scan of Danny's room, Nightwing turned the majority of his attention to Danny and asked, "Who are you?" Overall, definitely one of the better questions to ask in this situation.

"I'm Phantom," Danny replied, then cringed at the remembered lecture from Pandora about titles and using them and amended his statement. "King Phantom, I guess."

Nightwing's attention narrowed in on him at that, feeling almost like a laser. "King Phantom? Ghost King Phantom?"

Danny scowled at that, suddenly understanding the gist of what had happened. "Let me guess, some hoity toity big wig fruitloop kidnapped and sacrificed you to the Ghost King, either for favor, power, immortality, or all of the above?"

His reaction seemed to have set Nightwing off balance somewhat, as the man hesitated slightly before responding much less hostilely. "Yessss? I mean, the Lazarus Pits have been growing less and less potent over the last two years, and Ra's seems to be getting more than a little desperate. Apparently he did the same ritual once before, about four hundred years ago, and ended up with the Lazarus Pits. The same Pits that are losing potency at a frankly astonishing rate."

"Of course," Danny mumbled with a curse and a facepalm. "Here's the problem. Two years ago, there was a different Ghost King. He was very much not a good dude, very power hungry and very evil. He probably received that sacrifice four hundred years ago and decided it was a good investment, and so created those Lazarus Pits as a show of favor. They probably granted inhuman power and the ability to cheat death, right?" At Nightwing's nod, Danny continued. "Yeah, see, there's no real way to cheat death, not like that. Death comes for everyone eventually, you can just prolong the inevitable. Ever since I defeated the previous King in ritualistic single combat, all favors, spells, and curses put in place by the former King have been dissolving without the power of the throne behind them. Unless the new King, me, reinforces those favors, spells, and curses, they will eventually wither into nothing." Danny saw Nightwing start to pale and hurried to reassure him. "Luckily for you, I have no intention of doing that. You'd become my thrall and effectively die right here and now if I did. I really don't want to do that, you're one of my favorite heroes ever, so instead what I'm going to do is basically quicken the process of those Lazarus Pits drying up. Anyone willing to sacrifice one of the heroes of the world for a little bit of power and prolong their death will never find favor from me," Danny declared, feeling his eyes flash silver as his Royal Decree was written in the very fabric of the universe. "Now! How about we get you back to where you belong!"

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So sorry for missing yesterday, my boyfriend flew in from out of state, so I had to go pick him up from the airport, which was almost three hours one way, and I ended up with hardly any time to write. I also forgot to write for a good portion of today, so this was a bit rushed and not at all what I was originally planning on writing (⁠^⁠～⁠^⁠;⁠)⁠ゞ but hey! Another prompt from the Batpham server has been written and published! (⁠ノ⁠^⁠_⁠^⁠)⁠ノ

I'm trying to finish Cryptid Crash Course chapter 3 for y'all, but I can't quite get the opening to work the way I want it to, so I'm letting it sit and marinate in the back of my head (⁠；⁠^⁠ω⁠^⁠）don't worry, I'm planning on finishing the entirety of Cryptid Crash Course this month! I just don't know when that'll actually be ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠⊙⁠_⁠ʖ⁠⊙⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

Once again, if anyone wants to add on to this, please feel free! I fully intend for this to be the only time I touch on this world, so it's free game, y'all (⁠｡⁠•̀⁠ᴗ⁠-⁠)⁠✧ have at it!

Have a good morning/day/night wherever you are!

#danny phantom #batman #dp crossover #dpxdc #fanfiction #danny fenton #dick grayson #nightwing #ghost king danny #ra's al ghul #well #the dude is mentioned #but that's it #poor danny #can't catch a break #or some z's #camp nanowrimo 2023 #camp nano 2023 day 12

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klbwriting · 10 months ago

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Adventures In Atlantean-Sitting

Chapter 1

Fandom: Aquaman

Pairing: Ormxfemale!Reader

Warnings: violence

Summary: Atlanteans have attacked a coastal surface city, framing Orm for the attack. In a bid to keep Orm secret and the council off his back Arthur gets the help of YN, a metahuman with tracking abilities, to track Orm and let him stay with her while they figure out the real attacker. Orm is not too pleased about having a babysitter.

Notes: here is the second fic! I hope you enjoy! This will be posted in the evenings (for me at least), comments/critiques are appreciated

Traveling the US had become almost fun to Orm after the last year. He had explored national park, lakes, even got all the way to Alaska to see the northern lights. Anything that the country had to offer in nature he had done. Now he was ready to try maybe giving the less natural world a shot. That's what first led him to Coast City, shining on the California coast and one of the nicer cities in the country if the magazine Orm had read was correct. Being here he believed it. It was big, but not overwhelming, there was good food, the people were decent, and he even found a cheap place to sleep while he visited, something he didn't always have. For the first few days it was wonderful.

Then the attack happened.

Orm hadn't been exactly where it happened but he had seen the emergency vehicles, saw a green metahuman flying that way. So Orm went the opposite way. He had to keep his head down and out of trouble or else get sent back to Atlantis and that sandy prison he spent four years in. No thank you. Instead, he went back to his room, sat down and watched the news on the television. He had held no great love of the surface but seeing the destruction that was happening did not sit well with him now. Then he saw the attackers clearly. He was sure no one without enhanced eye sight would be seeing this clearly, thank Poseidon, but there were at least three Atlantean highborns with energy rays shooting randomly at buildings, creating as much smoke as they could. It was a confusing strategy. Why just make a mess? Was this some kind of warning? He knew Arthur wasn't the brightest man in the world...or even in a kindergarten class...but he had better sense than to do this. This was rogues, someone sending a message. Orm just couldn't fathom what it could be. He got up, going to the adjoined bathroom to get a drink and noticing the cup he had this morning was gone. Strange, they must replace them daily. How wasteful. He shrugged some and went back to the main room, turning off the TV and deciding on a nap instead.

"You found what at the attack site?" Arthur asked the council, looking at the documentation of evidence. Green Lantern had reported an Atlantean weapon found in some rubble, but the DNA that was on it couldn't be possible.

"The tyrant king Orm Marius's DNA was used to activate the weapon," councilwoman Yavon spoke. She looked pained at the statement. "It appears that he not only escaped his prison, but he also survived the attack against you with the Black Trident." Arthur sighed. This made no sense. Orm was in Coast City, Arthur knew that, but he had spent a year just walking around the country, being completely nonthreatening. He even seemed happy sometimes. What had changed? Arthur frowned more.

"How is his DNA even able to activate these weapons still?" he asked. The council shifted nervously, like they had hoped he wouldn't be smart enough to ask. People underestimating his intelligence would never not be annoying.

"It seems that some of the weapons' caches in that part of the ocean had not been updated to remove his ability to use them," council Horath spoke, sounding bored. Arthur glared at him.

"Are we keeping you from something councilman?" the king asked, wrapping his fingers around Atlan's trident. The councilman sat up a little straighter.

"No, your majesty, I am just glad that finally the escapee slipped up. I have been warning this council that the former king has been living, traveling the North American continent for a year now and everyone ignored my warnings. Well here you are, plan as day, seeing that he is in fact alive and now has found weapons to attack the surface with," he said. Arthur sighed. He couldn't hold off Horvath any longer. This was too much to argue with.

"Yes councilman, I see that we have gravely mistaken your warnings, what we thought was paranoia was insight into a criminal who was cunning enough to hide in plain sight. We will not make that mistake again," Arthur said. Horvath seemed satisfied, a haughty grin on his face. Another councilman, Orlan, stood up.

"Let me send my son after the king, he is a general with the battalion in that part of the ocean, Orvex will be able to find him and bring him to justice," he said. Of all the council member Orlan was the worst. He was constantly trying to undermine Arthur or wrestle just a little more power away from someone else. It was aggravating and unnerving and Arthur knew he had to be careful with the handling of this situation..

"Let us not jump to such things just yet. Sending a general to the surface with a small army may concern the people there. They might take it as an act of war and we don't need them trying to find Atlantis and drop a nuke on us Independence Day style," Arthur said, drawing blank looks from the others. God he missed his wife, Mera at least was starting to understand his references. "I know a metahuman on the surface. She has incredible power, she will be able to track down Orm and even subdue him, all without get the military involved. She lives around where the attack occurred and I'm sure she knows the area enough to know where he might be hiding. I just need the DNA evidence to take to her. She will use that to find and captured my brother." He could see Orlan seething at his son's big moment being taken away but Arthur needed to make sure that Orm didn't do this. If he did Arthur would cart his tantrum having ass back himself, but if he didn't he needed to warn his brother that someone knew he was alive. And was trying to use him to start a war with the surface.

#orm marius #king orm #ormmarius #orm marius x reader #king orm x reader #kingorm #ormmariusxreader #kingormxreader #ormseries5

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kidrauhlschik · 1 year ago

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2. Tangled Memories ~ Lee Know AU

Post Traumatic Amnesia (PTA) is a transient state of confusion, disorientation and memory loss that occurs immediately following a traumatic brain injury. PTA is sometimes also referred to as post traumatic confusional state and can occur from the moment of injury until the return of continuous memory.

The accident was a tragedy.

But it was the best tragedy to ever happen to you.

PT - 2 - See pt 1, 3, & 4 on the Masterlist linked above

Warnings: angst, f!reader, enemies to lovers, drunk driving, gaslighting, Fighting, yelling, cursing, angst, heartbreak, lies, angst, accidents, minho is mean, lmk if I missed anything!!

Words: 5.5k

In the hospital waiting area, the air felt thick with tension. No one could say a word, almost too afraid to speak.

It had been hours since the incident at that point. A witness came forward and gave their statement to the police. Apparently, you had been been walking alone with your eyes glued to your phone screen. When it came to the point of crossing the street, you made your way across without glancing up. Unaware that the light was red and a car was barreling down the road towards you. It had all happened very quick. A the sight of you, the driver immediately stepped on the brakes as he was speeding towards you, but the damage was done. No one dared to pick you up, too afraid of furthering the damage.

Once Minho told Chris what he had seen, the eight men packed themselves in two cars and sped to the hospital. Minho was planning to stay back but Chan wasn't having it. The second Minho said something in suggestion of not going, Chris blew up. You were his best friend after all.

He shoved Minho to the nearest wall. They never laid hands on each other, not like this. Minho's head hit the wall, causing a sharp pain, leaving him stunned, gaping at Christopher in confusion.

Chan got close to him, pointing an accusatory finger to his face.

"You're going, because you are the reason she walked out, you are the reason she was walking down the road, and you are the reason she's hurt right now. So god help me, Lee Minho, you better pray that she's okay because if she's not..." Chris stops himself from going further. He shoves Minho one last time and turns to grab his car keys.

Minho wanted to argue, he felt wrong going to the hospital, but Chan was right. He couldn't stand you, but he knows deep down, that if something serious happened to you, the guys would never forgive him. Indirectly, the accident was his own fault. So even now, in the waiting area, he knows that if he speaks, the response would be less than pleasant.

The doctor treating you emerges from the hallway, and immediately got swarmed by seven men, Minho being the only one to stay in the corner where he had been standing on for hours.

“Is she okay doctor? She’s okay, right?” Jeongin is the one to ask.

The doctor sighs and looks at his clipboard, “She’s going to be okay,” and a swarm of relieved sighs could be heard around the room. “Aside from a few broken ribs, a broken leg, and a broken arm, she held up pretty well. The team thinks that she took most impact on her arms, while trying to lessen the damage.”

“Can we see her?” Seungmin asks.

“She will be in a medically induced coma for a couple of days. However, I have to warn you. I was concerned with the damage the patient took to the head, so I decided to run some tests.”

“Tests? What kind of tests?” Felix’s voice drips with concern.

“The team ran an MRI, CAT, and an EEG scan. We wanted to ensure nothing was missed”

“I’m sorry doc, but what does that mean?” Jisung asks, not knowing what to make of what the doctor was saying.

The doctor takes all the boys in. They obviously cared deeply about you, so he knew that what he was about to say would severely affect them. “It means, that once we ran the tests, we came to find out that she received severe brain damage. We have a suspicion that she may suffer from post traumatic amnesia. We will not know for sure until she’s awake though, and through the EEG scan, it seems that she may suffer from seizures as well. She will need immersive care once she is released. I am truly sorry to inform you of this.”

At the news, Minho finally looks up from the tiled floor that he’d been inspecting. Much to his dismay, Chan meets his gaze. While Minho looks like a deer caught in headlights, Chan looks like he’s about to run him over.

Chris makes his way to the corner Minho was standing in.

“This is all your fault.” He says while Minho does his best to avoid his gaze. Chris knows that he is acting harshly, but in the midst of panic and pain, he couldn't help himself.

“I know.”

“I bet you’re happy aren’t you? You wanted her to go away, right? I hope you're happy. with what you've done” Tears well up in Chan’s eyes, imagining that there’s a possibility his best friend won’t remember him.

“Chan.” Minho begins, but Chan is quick to cut him off.

“When she wakes up, you apologize. You get on your fucking knees and apologize. When she’s out of here, you are taking care of her. You better make fucking sure to show how sorry you are.”

Minho wasn’t as concerned for your well being as the guys. However, he was concerned about the consequences. He was very aware that everyone in the room was truly angry at him. More than anything, he was aware of the guilt he felt. It felt as if he'd let everyone down, as if he was truly the monster everyone made him out to be.

“Okay.” Is the last thing Minho said to Chan.

It had been a week.

A week that everyone ignored Minho. He was kicked out of the group chat, he got the ignored every time he reached out to any of the guys, and he got the cold shoulder anytime he’d see one of the guys in person.

He felt alone. Abandoned. He was watching his friends leave him, just like he had before, and it was no one’s fault but his own. He knew he deserved it, he deserved all the hatred and animosity. He did what he was best at, he fucked everything up. It was like history was repeating itself.

Now they all sat around the waiting room once again. Instructed by the nurses, in order to prepare for the worst case scenario, they thought it'd be best for the guys to stay out of the room. Anxiety was building up for seven of them, all while Minho felt nothing but dread.

All he received was a message telling him to show up to the hospital at 5pm from Seungmin. Presumably the only one willing to make any interaction with him.

Finally, a nurse comes out, and similarly to the doctor , she gets swarmed by a hoard of boys. Much like the last time, Minho stands in his corner while staring at the floor. He hoped the Earth would open up and swallow him alive.

The nurse instructed for the guys to go in one by one. "We already explained the situation to her. We told her she'd have some visitors that would come see her. Make sure you introduce yourselves first, and explain what relationship you had with her. Don't overwhelm her with information, as she is still in a delicate state. You shouldn't cause any more stress to her situation."

With that being said, Chan doesn't even bother to inquire with the rest of the guys before stepping up towards the nurse, "I'll go first." No one dared to argue.

One by one, the guys filed into the room until Minho sat alone in the waiting area.

He was fighting his own mind, doing his best to avoid the demons that kept trying to make their way inside of his head.

That’s the only way he can cope. He’d rather not feel anything at all, rather than to be face his emotions. People call him cold, but he doesn’t want to feel hurt in the way he has hurt before. The way he's hurting now, for instance. He let himself love too much and now that he screwed everything up, he has to deal with the pain of having his best friends hate him. All because of you.

Lost in his own thoughts, he didn't realize Jeongin had joined him in the waiting area.

"Chris asked me to come get you." The youngest seemed confused by this. Probably overwhelmed by the situation, he didn't bother questioning Bang Chan's strange request. Minho didn't bother questioning it either.

Going into the room, the vibe was off. Christopher had tears in his eyes. Changbin and Seungmin both looked angry, waiting for something or someone to fix everything, nothing was coming to help them though. Jeongin, Han, and Felix all looked out of it, as if trying to take in the situation. They all knew what to expect, but seeing their best friend lack recognition of them, was a feeling none of them could have been prepared for.

You were in bed, and for the first time, you looked at Minho with curiosity. The animosity was missing from your stare. It was odd to him. Chan sniffled a bit and collected himself, "Y/N, this is Minho. He's um... a friend."

The way Chan paused in the middle of his sentence caused Minho to wince. He knew he wasn't in their best graces, but to doubt their friendship was something he was not prepared for.

He feels as if he says anything, it will be taken in the wrong way, so Minho opts to stay silent. Although he's looking everywhere but you, he feels your gaze. Inquisitive. He's probably the first person you've seen since you woke up that didn't immediately start hugging you and screaming his concerns in your face.

"He's going to be taking care of you for now." Which causes both you and Minho to stare at the eldest. Was Bang Chan out of his mind? They would kill each other, (had you recognized him).

Minho can already picture it. The second you get your memories back, you are sure to murder him. At the same time, he's painfully aware that taking care of you is the only shot he has at redemption.

"I'm going to visit you periodically, check up on you to make sure Lee Minho is taking good care of you. Alright?" Minho doesn't miss the way that his friend is gripping your hand with a little too much force. Almost as if he's scared that you'll vanish into thin air. In a way he understands. Had it been one of the guys to get hurt, he'd be just as restless, if not more. Maybe he underestimated exactly how much you meant to Bang Chan. Hell, maybe he was right with the thought that Chris wanted to get into your pants. He won't admit that out loud though.

You nod slowly at his question, everyone can just assume how confused you must be.

"Are any of you my family?" You ask, unsurely. Still not fully grasping the situation.

Hyunjin clears his throat, awkwardly trying to cleanse the air from the stiffness that your question brought to the room. "You weren't exactly close to them, your family, I mean" He responds.

"But they'll come if we call right? I mean, I should have a family right?" Your voice is now filled with anxiety. Are you really supposed to trust the 8 random boys that presented themselves as your friends?

Chris, a bit less shaken now, presumably because he realized that if anyone could calm you down, it would be him. He knows you best after all.

"Hey sweetie-"

"Don't call me that." It hurts him. You may not remember your best friend, but the hurt in his face is almost impossible to miss. He is typically good at hiding his emotions and being everyone's rock, but he felt like he was taking hit after hit.

"I'm sorry, but I'm just really confused. I think I just need some time. You seem like a really nice guy, you all do, but please just give me a couple of days. I just want to go home.” Minho can feel the stares. He feels animosity from his friends, they don't trust him, and that much is obvious. But he tells himself that he can prove them wrong. All he has to do is make sure that you don't die while you recover from your wounds. He tells himself that it shouldn't be that hard.

Chan throws on the best fake smile that he can muster. "I understand sweet- Y/N. If you need space, we can at least give you that." You nod slowly at his words, shoulders relaxing. The expectations that they all had for you felt like too much. Seeing all of their faces, one by one, look so disappointed that you didn't recognize them felt overwhelming. It made you feel guilty. The only one that wasn't visually affected by your predicament was Minho.

It felt nice.

Walking into your house, or rather getting rolled in felt awful. The place, your home, felt strange and foreign. It hurt to think about it too much. You and Minho were silent the entire ride home. While he was struggling to get you in and out of his car, he remained stoic. He hadn't forgotten that not long ago, you had his car towed for shits and giggles, and he'd always been a little too good at holding grudges.

When he leaves your apartment once again to grab the remainder of his clothes out of his car, you take it as an opportunity to look around the place. The task doesn't come easy with your broken arm and leg, yet slowly but surely, you manage to reach the few spaces you could get to without any help.

All of the pictures surrounding the place had some of the guys in the frame. Mainly the guy that introduced himself as Bang Chan. No one else is pictured aside from the guys, which made you feel more at ease with your decision to trust them.

You couldn't help but notice the lack of Minho in the pictures. Didn't they say he was also your friend? You make a mental note to ask him about it later.

Minho walks in and throws his bags by the entrance, immediately making his way towards the kitchen. He had been in his head since the second he agreed to take care of you. It's not like it was much of a choice, but he'd been stressing over how exactly he would approach the situation. He wasn't doing this for you, he was doing it so his friends could forgive him. That's what he kept repeating to himself in order to actually come through with his assistance.

You roll into the kitchen as he was making dinner. He doesn't pay you much attention, the only thing that lets you know that he noticed you in his space, is the avoidance of your chair, running around and swiveling around you.

"Do I have a phone?" You ask him, but it throws him off a bit. There was no sarcasm in your tone, it was nothing but a question, but it comes off as a odd to him. Having known you for a little over a year, not once had either of you had a civil conversation with one another.

"It broke in the accident. Chan is buying one for you, I think." Still not bringing his gaze towards your direction. You silently nod in response.

"I must be pretty close to him, for him going out of his way to buy me a phone."

"Mhm." He is still very unsure on how to approach you. He briefly thinks about kicking your chair while passing by you, but quickly shakes the thought out of his head. Chris is still going to check in on you, and he knows that if Chris finds out that Minho was treating you less than perfect, he'd have another argument with him. Minho wanted to avoid anymore conflict. Through everything, he just wants his best friends to talk to him again.

"Were we close?"

That question actually throws Minho in for a loop. Should he lie? What is he supposed to say? We hate each other? I'm the reason you lost your memories? I'm the guy who practically pushed you into the accident? "Huh?" Is the only thing he manages to say in response.

"Well, there are no pictures of you here. All of the people at the hospital are in the pictures. You're the only one that didn't throw himself into my arms and damn near burst into tears. I'm assuming that we weren't that close." There was no ill intent with your question, just pure curiosity.

"Well-" You interrupt him before he can actually come up with an explanation. "You have been avoiding me like the plague since you picked me up, and all the guys visited me every single day since I woke up." Minho asks himself if you'd always been this talkative.

"We weren't as close as you are to the other guys."

"So why are you the one to take care of me?" For the first time in a while, he finally makes eye contact with you.

"Chris wanted us to get closer." Is the best lie he can come up with.

"Why?" God, why are you asking so many questions? Minho wondered.

"I don't know. He's your bestie, you'll know when you get your memories back." Now you're taken aback.

"Do you think I ever will?"

"I hope so." He does. This whole situation feels uncanny to Minho. He doesn't remember a conversation that you guys have had, that lasted this long and hadn't escalated to screaming and it felt odd.

With that answer, you drop the conversation. He obviously didn't want to talk, and you felt as if you had pried enough for the night

For the next couple of weeks, things go as smoothly as anyone could hope. You and Minho coexist which is more than he expected. He goes to his classes and comes back to your apartment everyday. Most nights he comes back to cook dinner, then he helps you bathe, and then heads to bed. It's a stark difference in comparison to when the other guys are visiting you.

You manage to get a couple of questions in every night, but he typically doesn't show much interest in shoving your past down your throat. You don't bother to pry, mainly because you get plenty of information when the guys come by, especially because of Felix. He seems like a pretty sweet guy, but it's very easy to get overwhelmed when he shoves his phone screen in your face whenever he comes to visit.

"Wait Y/N! Look at this! You asked if we could go to the beach and obviously I am always down to hang out with you. That day we left super early and spent the whole day lounging around in the sand. You almost managed to drown me with your lack of swimming skills. It was kind of funny actually." He means well, but it almost feels like he's trying to guilt you into remembering. The guilt that you feel when all you can do is smile and say, "Woah, sounds nice." Is incomprehensible. They try to hide their disappointment, and move on to the next memory that you can't recall. You know that they're trying to help, but it doesn't make you feel any better.

That's why Minho's silence is welcomed. It's like he doesn't expect anything from you, which feels like a breath of fresh air.

Minho is slowly falling into a routine with you. Initially everything felt strange to him. Your sudden friendliness, the need to be taken care of, the lack of bite with your words, all were foreign to him. Prior to the accident, you were very independent. Almost terrified to let someone take care of you.

Even the bathing part became causal to him. Initially, he felt very awkward, almost flustering to him. He hardly knew anything about you, and now he had to see you naked. He couldn't help the blush that took over his face when he first had to help you clean up. Now, he mainly disassociates and gets it done as fast as possible.

"Did you have a crush on me?” You ask all of the sudden, causing him to choke on his dinner. Eyes wide as saucers stare you down.

"I'm sorry???"

You shrug nonchalantly. "I'm just asking."

"What would make you think of that?" He asks, still just as flustered.

"I mean, why else would Chris ask you to get close to me? Why were you always acting so weird around me? The only explanation I can think of, is that you had a crush on me and you were too shy to approach me." You explain nonchalantly, shoving more food in your mouth.

"I did not have a crush on you." He says a bit too aggressively for you liking.

"Or maybe you hated me." Once again, speaking entirely way too casually.

"NO." He almost screams. Which confuses you even more.

"Damn. Make up your mind dude. Love or hate me, it would be nice to know." You chuckle a bit with your response.

He composes himself a bit before replying. "I mean, I mean, um, we just had a weird relationship."

"Relationship huh? So I'm hearing you were in love with me and I rejected you."

This was a new side of you Minho was not used to. He had never played around with you. You could hardly look at each other, and now you were implying that he had a crush on you. How is he supposed to reply without admitting that you guys loathed each others presence?

"I mean... It did hurt when you rejected me." He couldn’t just admit that he hated you, then you’d be apprehensive towards him. He knew, or he wanted to believe that you'd regain your memories one day. So he honestly wasn't sure as to why he kept on lying to you, whenever you got your old self back, you'd for sure murder him.

"I knew it!" You slammed your uninjured hand on the table, seemingly proud of your 'deduction skills', as wrong as they were.

By the time you were able to get your arm out of the cast, everything was a lot more casual between you and Minho. It seemed as if you had accepted his fake confession with grace. You dropped the subject and moved on. Minho had no idea how wrong he was.

He failed to notice how soft your voice had gotten with him, and missed the way your eyes would linger on him for a second too long after you made a joke to see how it’d affect him. He was oblivious on how you always seemingly flocked over to him when the guys were over out of instinct. He definitely didn't see that whenever Chris called you to see if he could come by, you'd deny his requests, opting to stay alone with your ex enemy.

The two of you fell into a new routine. You'd watch movies until the first one dropped, though it was typically you. He didn't think much of it. He would never ponder on the fact that he'd watch you sleep sometimes, and observed your light snores and weirdly found them comforting. He told himself that it was like watching a snake taking a nap. He never thought much about the nights that he'd allow himself to run his fingers through your hair without thinking.

The forced proximity grew your relationship so organically that before he knew it, he didn’t dread sharing a space with you. Yet, he refused to acknowledge the fact.

Eventually, there were no casts, no broken bones, and no reasons for him to stay with you. You still didn't remember anything, so that's why he reasoned that he should stay.

One day, he woke up in the middle of the night. You and Bang Chan had a sleepover, you had gotten comfortable with your best friend again, after many months of him trying to make himself back into your life, you had begun to let him. The memories he always tried to remind you of, softened your heart. He spoke in a way that seemed safe, causing you to build a strange sense of trust with the man.

"Hey, I was thinking that you should be good to stay on your own once again. I don't think that Lee Minho is doing much but getting in your way." Neither of you were aware that he was standing in the hall. Hoping to get a glass of water, but instead being met by your conversation.

"I want him to stay." Minho grips his empty cup a bit harder. Not expecting to hear those words from you.

Chris was very clearly taken aback. He had heard good things about Minho. He knew that he was acting out of guilt, but he didn't mind much. You needed someone to be there for you, and Bang Chan hoped that even if it was superficial, you could at least have all the help you needed.

"What? Why" He questions.

"Well, didn't you want us to get closer?"

"I mean, I guess but..."

"Then you got what you wanted." You say with a sly smile.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I don't know what my deal was before, but I think I'm ready to accept him." Your words make Minho look around the hallway in a panic. What the hell were you talking about?

"Accept him?"

"Yeah, I mean he's handsome, he's very mysterious, but in a good way. He feels safe, like he is just staying by my side because he wants to, not because he expects something out of me." Minho leans against the wall with worry and exhaustion. You misread everything. He didn't expect anything out of you because he expected forgiveness from his friends. How did he let it get to this point?

"Hey sweetie, I don't know if it's my place to tell you this-" With Chan's words, Minho immediately makes his way to his bedroom and loudly slams the door, making it appear as if he was barely coming out. He makes sure to make his steps as loud as possible, as he fakes the best groggy voice he can manage.

"Hey guys, what's going on?" You and Chan both freeze in place.

"Oh, me and Chris were just catching up." He nods at your response and makes his way back to the room that has became his.

Chan quickly changes the subject. How is someone supposed to tell you that the man that they all forced into your life used to be your mortal enemy? So he merely avoids it.

It is not as simple for Minho though, he can't avoid you, so he simply shuts you out in his own way. He answers your questions even less, he stops making you dinner, opts to go to his room during movie night, and overall, tries to spend less time at your place. This does not go unnoticed by you though. His new attitude makes you wonder if your lack of memory is finally getting to him. Has he gotten tired of you? Tired of waiting for the person he had been infatuated with? Those questions make their way into your head with the lack of his attention.

"Hey Minho." You begin the second he walks in through the door, stopping him from making a beeline to his room.

He stops without looking at you, dreading what your next words may be.

"How have you been?" That being the last thing he expected you to say.

"What?"

"I feel like we haven't talked too much lately. It's strange." That's strange? Minho wants to laugh. After experiencing the oddest of the past few months with you, the fact that he's distant is strange? God, if only you knew.

"What do you mean?"

"Do you think we could go do something? Maybe go skating or maybe shopping?"

"What?" If he agrees, that would be the first time the two of you went out alone. He didn't expect this situation to arise. He wanted to say no, you were the person he hated most afterall. Yet, the you now wasn't the old you. The you now, looked at him in a different way. You trusted him. Which he genuinely enjoyed, mainly because no one really trusted him as of lately. It is odd that you of all people, are making him feel better.

On the way to the park, he can't help but wonder. What if you got your memories back right then and there? Would you immediately recoil from his side? Acting as if he had burned you? You'd know that you had been lied to. You wouldn't only be mad at him, but at everyone else as well.

He briefly wonders if everything that they're doing is right. He had never asked himself that, always looking at his ultimate goal. Seungmin and Hyunjin had talked to him first, mainly to ask how you were doing. Then Felix and Jeongin had been the next to reach out, asking if you could all hang out together. Changbin, Jisung, and Chris were harder to crack though. However, they had all gotten significantly kinder toward Minho. He takes all of it as wins, but can't help but think about the way you'd react toward the past couple of months full of lies that they all fed you. Minho of all people? He remembers your murderous behavior, and can already see you breaking down, and breaking them, whenever you remembered everything.

"Do you have any dreams?" Your words break him out of his thoughts.

"What?" You know he's standoffish, so you already had a response for his questioning ready.

"I always wanted to be a singer." You say to persuade him to confide in you.

"Wait, wait. What?" He stops your walk at the unexpected statement.

"Yeah... I think I'm remembering somethings," The thought causes Minho to shudder. "I don't recall much, but I think I'm beginning to remember my parents."

"Wait what?!"

"Don't tell anyone though." You shake your hands as if to say 'no' to make it a point that he is the only person you're telling about this.

"But... do you remember anything else?"

"Huh, not really. I think my memory is working itself backwards. Sometimes I have dreams of what used to be. Sometimes I wake up remembering what I did before, but it is mainly things from way back. I'm beginning to remember why I cut everyone in my family off, and why I stopped chasing my dreams." The way you said it so calmly, lead Minho to infer that you've been remembering things for a while. It makes him feel weird to think that you're confiding in him of all people.

"Well, why did you stop chasing your dreams?" Had anyone told Minho that you two would be walking through the park together, talking so casually, he would've thought they were psychos.

"I haven't got to that part yet. What about you? Why did you stop chasing your dreams?" The question takes him aback. He can't remember telling you that part of his life.

You take his confusion into account, and continue talking, "I noticed the way you're an amazing singer. You're not really quiet when you shower." You laugh at your own statement. "I hate to be intrusive, but Chan also told me that you had unfinished business with that," Before Minho could get mad at your curiosity, you kept speaking. "I didn't let him tell me much more. I assumed that I was right, but you're free to tell me that I'm wrong right now." With that, he's at a loss for words. It was a longshot, but you were meeting the mark.

"I wasn't really made for it."

"I think that you are."

He doesn't reply to that. He takes a bit to take in your words. For a second, he forgets how you used to be. Had you always been so observant? So caring? The person that had made him feel like shit for so long felt like a stranger in comparison to how you were right now.

"You're nice." He says before he could stop himself.

"That must be why you were so in love with me." So confident. That was also new for you.

"I wouldn't go that far." He chuckled to himself. He finds it odd that you were so funny. He's seen bits and pieces of you for a while, but never directed towards him in that way. He feels a confidence coming from you that he had always failed to see before.

Although you don't reply to him, he feels as if he couldn't leave his statement unended. "You're maybe kinda sorta cute. I guess." Which brings a laugh out of you.

"Ha, good way of hiding your never ending love for me." If only you knew.

He is not sure why, but your statement makes him smile.

"Hey Minho,” your next words would make his mood flip in an instant, “you make me feel safe." Your words bring bile to his mouth. He feels like a faker. He feels like he’s betraying you, not the old you, but this new version that he strangely liked. It’s all so confusing to him. He's supposed to hate you.

"You make me feel okay." That's the best thing he can muster before wrapping his arm around you. It felt like the right thing to do but the wrong universe to do it at.

He hoped that your memory would never come back.

A/N: i'll try to wrap this up by this weekend. thank you so much to those who have given me encouraging words :)

TAGLIST: @stanstraykidsskz @weareapackofstrays @linos-kitten @cassidymb121

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fangirlfrom-hell · 1 year ago

Text

Several Missed Calls and a Sprained Ankle || Jay Halstead x Halstead Sister one shot

*re-posting this because I'm stupid and accidentaly delated my blog 🫠

Also appearing Will and Connor Rhodes because I miss him.

I'm not a doctor, medical topics are vague.

Friendly reminder that Becca is Halstead sister.

☆

The Intelligence squad had just came back to the bullpen with a suspect in custody when Sergeant Platt came inside to interrupt whatever they were having.

-"Hey, Halstead! I've been receiving calls from your sister's school all day. They said they called your father, but didn't answer, so she asked them to look for you, but your phone was off".

-"I was in a UC run, I always turn the personal off...". He tried to explain himself with guilt.

-"That's what I tried to explain to them. Apparently she's injured and needs to be picked up as soon as possible".

-"Wh-what happened?" He hadn't even finished taking off his jacket and now he was hastily putting it back on.

-"They didn't elaborate on the matter, but they've been calling like crazy every half hour. I even volunteered to go and bring her here, but they did say it would be impossible if I'm not in the list". She pulled a face with that last statement. -"Can you believe that?"

Everybody settled in at the bullpen, all detectives listening to the conversation.

-"Boss..." Jay looked at Voight.

-"Sure, go. What are you waiting for?". He ordered with his arms crossed. -"We can take care of this".

Jay nodded his head as saying "thank you" and walked himself down to the parking lot trying to look chill, although on the inside he was really unsettled for whatever had happened to his little sister. He couldn't avoid being the overprotective big brother, it ran through his veins.

-"Hey, Detective. Make sure you put my name in that freakin' list!". Platt yelled before he crossed the door. -"I don't want to feel so humiliated again". She said in her usual exaggerated way. Then she muttered to herself: I'm a CPD Sergeant, who dares to say 'no' to me like that?

The long road to Becca's school in Canaryville wasn't helpful to ease Jay's mind. He was also feeling abashed for not being able to answer the call on time, although he was not responsible for attending those emergencies, therefore he was not aware of them. And where the hell was his father? Why didn't he answer those calls from school? He cursed him. This wasn't the first time something like this happened.

-"I'm here to pick my sister, Becca Halstead".

-"Oh, sure. We've been calling you for hours. Literally hours". The secretary gave him a judging look, which Jay tried to ignore. -"She's upstairs, the nurse is accompanying her. I'll notify her you're here. Follow me".

Jay followed the woman through the halls of the school until they went outside to the back yard. From the second floor of the building in front of them, he recognized Becca's ginger blonde hair. She was leaning on someone else to walk, looked like she couldn't do it by herself and there was some pain in her tiny face.

-"What happened?" Jay asked without taking his eyes off her.

-"She sprained her foot on the stairs, she didn't roll or hit her head, so there was no need to call an ambulance. It was an accident, some kids were playing around and pushed her unintentionally. We already took action on the matter, don't worry about that".

He walked upstairs to help his sister. As soon as he was able to entirely see her, he noticed how her foot was in the air, shoe untied.

-"Jay!" Becca said with relief.

-"It's all right". The secretary told the nurse. -"Her brother will handle it from here".

-"Is it your ankle? You can't put your foot down at all?"

-"No, it really hurts". Becca moved her head from one side to another.

-"It's a little bit swollen". The nurse talked. -"I applied ointment and ice for the pain, but I can't really do anything else in here. I think it's just a sprain, but she should be checked at the hospital".

-"Yes, I'll take her straight to The Med. Thank you!"

Jay took his badge and gun from his hips and placed them somewhere else in his jeans.

-"Sorry". He said, feeling the alarmed gaze of the two women. Then, he took the girl's backpack and put it on his shoulder. -"All right, Becs. Come here".

Jay hugged Becca and lifted her to carry her down the stairs. It was very easy for him, light weight, the girl was smaller than an average 10 years old. She placed her arms around her brother's shoulder.

-"Take care, Beckie". The nurse waved goodbye as she was taken by the detective.

-"This is so embarrassing". She said looking around to check if somebody was watching them, but the yard was empty, everyone was inside of the classrooms. Jay couldn't resist to laugh a bit. It was a cute funny scene: a big, tall, muscular man with a girly purple backpack hanging from his shoulder and a girl with an embarrassed face in his arms.

He didn't put her down until they were back to the office, where he had to sign some papers before leaving.

-"Is that all?" Jay asked.

-"Yes, you can take her now".

-"Oh! Before I forget". He said turning around one more time to the reception. -"I want to add another person to the list of people who can pick her up".

-"Sure. She does need that". She didn't miss the chance to look at him with a judgy face. -"What's the name of the one?".

-"Trudy Platt". He smirked. Becca just gave him a look.

At the truck, Jay placed her in the co-pilot seat and then opened the back door to put the backpack away.

-"What do you carry in this? Rocks?" He freed his shoulder from the weight.

Becca wasn't a talkative girl, but still she was unusually quiet during the road to the hospital. She only broke the silence to groan in pain, that's when he noticed her teary eyes.

-"Does it hurt?" Jay asked, knowing the answer.

-"Yes. I think it's getting worse".

-"We're almost there, just hang up a little bit".

He wanted to ask Becca about how she had fallen, since his detective instincts knew that it was due to something more than an accident. He opened his mouth to say something he had been holding up, but an incoming call interrupted his intentions.

-"It says Hailey Upton". Becca announced, grabbing his phone.

-"Gotta answer that". He sighed. -"Would you put it in the speaker for me, please?".

Both siblings knew each other quite well. Becca knew how Jay noticed something strange was going on, but she didn't want to be interrogated. And Jay knew how Becca was aware of that and was reluctant to speak.

-"Soooooo...Is Sergeant Platt coming to pick me now if I get sick?" She changed the conversation as soon as the call ended.

-"Is that a problem?" Jay laughed out loud.

-"Well, it's kinda scary".

-"She told me to put her name in the list, I don't know if it was true, though. The thing is that today I was on the streets working a case when all this happened. I didn't have my phone with me, that's why I didn't answer".

-"I imagined that. That's why I told them to call directly to the 21st".

-"Which was very clever of you. I'm sorry I wasn't there earlier, I should have".

-"You don't have to be sorry, I'm not blaming you for anything. You are not even supposed to be responsible for me, anyway".

She had this sort of way to make claims to his father and mother without even realizing it. That last statement made the rest of the road extremely quiet.

The moment Becca crossed the entrance door sitting in a wheelchair, she realized she had never been at The Med as a patient before. Maggie was pushing her to the ER where Will was waiting for his siblings. Due to the type of injury, Dr. Rhodes was assigned to Becca's case.

-"This is too swollen". Connor said while checking her foot. -"On a scale from 1 to 10, how much does it hurt?"

-"Uh, I don't know. Maybe 5?"

Both of her big brothers stared at her teary eyes and her sick gesture, not believing her answer. She was trying so hard not to cry.

-"6?"

-"Are you sure?" The doctor gave her a warm smile. -"I was expecting you to say 10 or maybe even beyond 10".

Becca remained silent, pressing her lips.

-"Ok. We'll do an X-Ray just to make sure it isn't more than a sprain. Meanwhile, the nurse will administer you some pain killers".

He went out of the room to order the studios and made a sign for the siblings to follow him outside, leaving their sister alone with the technicians for a few minutes.

-"What do you think?" Dr. Halstead asked.

-"I don't think she just simply twisted her ankle. For the damage, it must have been a harder impact".

-"Is it bad?" Jay asked with concern.

-"Can't tell until I see the X-Ray. What worries me the most right now is how hard she's trying to take the pain".

-"Yeah, that's something she does". Jay sighed. -"Not only with physical pain".

When the three men entered back to the room, Becca was silently crying, wiping her tears away. Jay was the one that approached to hold her. Her bruised and swollen ankle was a standout in the room.

-"Becca, you have what we call a severe grade 2 sprain and I'm pretty sure it hurts more than a lot right now. Why don't you say anything? You can complain about the pain, that's what hospitals are for".

-"I don't want to be a bother". The girl answered quietly, tears still dropping from her eyes.

-"What are you talking about?" Will walked to be close to the bed.

-"Becca...". Jay sat next to her and bent to be face to face. -"You are not a bother and you will never be".

-"It's just...I'm scared you'll stop answering the phone calls too".

In that moment, everything fell into place and Jay's heart dropped. The conversation suddenly closed to just the two of them, although everyone could hear their words.

-"Bec...I will never stop caring for you. I won't lie, sometimes it gets hard with my work, but I will do what is necessary so that something like today does not happen again. I promise".

-"But you shouldn't, like, you shouldn't be the one in charge of me. I'm a burden".

-"I know what you mean, and I know how you feel about dad, but believe me when I tell you how much it makes me happy to be here for you. I'm your big brother, it actually is my job to protect you. I love you, silly. I would never forgive myself if something happens to you. I wouldn't forgive myself if you didn't have the confidence to call me either".

With all being said and those emotions off her chest, her crying increased in tears and sound.

-"It's a 20. The pain is a 20" She managed to say in what seemed to be overacted, although it was only the natural response to having endured so much physical and emotional pain in such a short time.

-"Let's apply more pain killers". Connor talked to the nurses. -"And let's finish this up". He smiled at the little girl.

Jay found her reaction a little bit cute and couldn't resist smiling a bit when she jumped into her arms.

-"You will have to use the walking boot for at least 4 weeks". Dr. Rhodes informed when he finished. -"That if everything goes well".

-"What about dance lessons?"

-I'm sorry, Becs". -Dr. Halstead got into the conversation. -"That's going to be impossible. You need to give it a rest".

-"Not to mention the pain that would cause you".

-"Is she going to be able to be back when her ankle heals?"

-"If she listens to my recommendations in the letter, I don't see why not". Connor then turned to Becca: "I know this thing is very uncomfortable, but is necessary. You might start feeling as if you don't need it before the set time, but it is important that you do not take it off until I say so. If you trust me and you do this, You'll be fine and back to dancing soon".

Becca nodded sadly.

-"I understand this is very important to you, Becca. I can arrange to see you each week instead of two weeks to check how it is going".

-"Thank you, Connor''. His colleague said.

Becca yawned more than once on their way back to the Bullpen. She was discharged from the hospital, so she couldn't stay there and there wasn't any other place Jay could leave her. She was tired, her stressed body only wanting to rest.

-"Look at that!" Platt exclaimed when she spotted both Halsteads crossing the front door. -"It is my favorite Halstead!"

-"I'm glad to hear she's your favorite, because you are in the list now, Serge".

The Desk Sergeant smirked at the news.

-"I take this honor responsible".

-'All right, girl". Jay said, bending in front of the stairs. -"Let's do this again".

Becca hopped into her brother's back and he carried her upstairs, where all the squad greeted her with enthusiasm and good wishes. She sat in the coffee room waiting for him.

-"The punk confessed. We have enough evidence. It was an easy case, we're done for now". Voight informed Detective Halstead.

-"I'm sorry I wasn't here for interrogation, Serge. There was no one to take care of her...".

-"There's nothing to be sorry about''. Hank waved his hand from one side to another. -"Besides, you did your job, a good job capturing him. Now, you all are dismissed. You should take your sister to rest".

Detectives were able to go back home relatively early that day. The bullpen was empty when Jay went out of Hank Voight's office. There was only a blonde woman sitting at the desk in front of him.

-"Why are you still here?"

-"Your sister fell asleep on the couch. It didn't feel good to leave her alone in her condition". Hailey answered.

-"Thank you for that". He said honestly.

-"The same thing happened to me when I was a little bit older than her. I know it hurts like hell".

-"Yeah, she had a bad time. She's tired and drugged in pain killers, I should take her home".

-"Tell me if you need help with anything, I'm here. For real, partner". Detective Upton took her coat and walked herself downstairs.

-"Thanks again, Hails".

-"No problem".

It took him a while to stop staring at the stairs before going into the coffee room. There she was deeply asleep, it looked like she was melting.

-"Becca". He softly called her. -"Becca, it's time to go". But there was no answer, not even when he shaked her.

-"Well, third time's the charm. What could go wrong?" He muttered to himself and took Becca in his arms, this time as if she was a baby.

#Jay Halstead #Jay Halstead x sister #Jay Halstead x Halstead sister #one chicago #chicago pd #chicago pd fanfic #once chicago fanfic #trudy platt #haileyr upton #hank voight #Jay Halstead imagine

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aishangotome · 4 months ago

Text

Ellis Twilight: Chapter 4 Premium Story

Chapter 4

♡———♡

Ellis: How happy are you right now?

To the question thrown from the twilight light––I answered with a big smile.

Kate: I'm so happy that I could die right now!

Ellis: ...I see.

Ellis: Then, shall I end it for you?

(Eh...? )

Suddenly, a ripple of coldness spread through my dreamy heart, as if a drop of darkness had fallen on it.

(My life...? ...You're joking, right?)

I couldn't tell from his tone whether he was joking or serious, so I stared at Ellis' expression.

But his face was obscured by the bright sunset, and the discomfort I felt on the night we met came back to me.

It was as if the person who had just been laughing next to me and the person in front of me were two different people - a strange feeling of unease.

Kate: Ellis...?

At that moment, the sun completely sank behind the building, and the light disappeared -

Ellis: Hmm?

Ellis and I were swallowed up in the same shadow.

And then, I could finally see his expression.

Ellis: ...Ms. Kate? Is something wrong?

(Oh...it's the usual Ellis.)

Ellis was wearing the smile I knew.

Kate: Hehe...Please don't suddenly tell such jokes, I was surprised.

Kate: I'm so happy right now that I could die...

Kate: But tomorrow might be even happier, so not yet.

Ellis: ...I see.

Kate: I have to go back to the castle and report on my first mission.

Kate: And I have to thank Ellis for making me so happy.

Ellis: Me?

Kate: Please tell me what you like too. Then I can make you happy tomorrow.

Ellis: .................

Ellis's eyes widened in surprise for a moment, then he smiled softly.

Ellis: ...Yeah, thanks.

Ellis: But Kate, you're back to using formal language.

Kate: Huh? ...Oh, you're right.

(He looked like a different person earlier... Did I get tense?)

(I must have been deceived by the twilight.)

Kate: Um...will you tell me what you like, Ellis?

Ellis: Finding good restaurants... I guess.

Ellis: If I know a lot of restaurants, I can introduce them to a lot of people and make them happy.

This was the same answer as the Ellis I've gotten to know over the past two days.

(It's like him, but...)

Kate: What can you do to make yourself happy, regardless of other people's happiness?

Ellis: –Nothing.

(Huh...?)

He didn't even take a moment to think or worry about it.

Ellis: What I want to do is to be there for someone.

Kate: I see...

I nodded, confused but convinced by his firm statement.

His answer made sense, considering his actions.

(But...to have nothing you want to do just for yourself, for no one else...)

Maybe something happened that made him want to be there for someone so badly.

(If I stay with him, maybe he'll tell me someday.)

(I'd be happy if that day comes.)

Anyway...what I want to do now is to thank Ellis for taking me to the play I wanted to see.

Kate: So, what kind of food do you like?

Ellis: I eat anything...but I especially like toast with lots of butter and cranberry jam.

Kate: Hehe, I like that too. I'll make a note of it.

Ellis: Oh, and I also like the baguette from the restaurant you recommended, Kate.

(Ellis likes toast with lots of butter. Cranberry jam.)

(And the baguette from the restaurant I recommended... wait, huh?)

Kate: Ellis... are you making it easy for me to thank you?

Ellis: No, I'm not... It's all true.

Ellis: I was happy when you said you wanted to make me happy earlier.

Ellis smiled as if to reassure me.

The last light of the day was absorbed into the horizon, and the streetlights emerged from the twilight.

The remnants of the deceptive twilight light were completely swallowed by the darkness.

(It got dark all of a sudden, didn't it?)

The approaching darkness made me anxious, and I quickened my pace a little.

Ellis: .....

Suddenly, slender, supple fingertips touched my hand.

Kate: Ellis...?

Ellis: We're lovers who have proven our love, so why don't we hold hands on the way home?

Kate: Lovers?

(Does that mean...)

Kate: ...That's the setting for Bill's show, right?

Ellis: Is that so?

His fingertips intertwined with mine, enveloping them as if to protect them from the darkness.

Ellis: Tell me if you don't like it... If you don't mind, I'd like to keep holding your hand.

Kate: ...Why?

Ellis: So you won't be anxious, Kate.

Ellis's grip on my hand was gentle, as if to soothe me.

Just like when he reassured me when I was flustered during the show earlier.

Ellis: ...Is that no good?

Kate: Um...

I couldn't help but be happy with the kindness he offered just for me.

(I can't say I hate this.)

Kate: It's not bad...

Ellis: Hmm, good.

The warmth of our clasped hands was comforting, and my heart was beating fast.

The sweet sound of it completely erased the uneasiness I felt in the twilight and the fear of walking in the darkness.

Ellis: I thought so earlier today, but your hands are small, Kate.

Kate: Really? Your hands are just big, Ellis.

Ellis: I see, it's me who's big.

The silly conversation was somehow funny, and laughter naturally spilled out.

(...It's strange.)

(Being with Ellis makes my heart race, but it also makes me feel relieved.)

Kate: I wish I had asked you sooner what you liked, Ellis.

Ellis: Why?

Kate: If I could have gone shopping while the stores were still open, I could have thanked you first thing tomorrow morning.

Ellis: ...I like holding hands with you, Kate.

Kate: Huh...?

Ellis: Maybe this is enough thanks.

He squeezed my hand tighter, and my heart beat a little faster again.

Kate: For the theater tickets...it's not enough at all...

Ellis: Is that so? I don't think so.

Ellis: ...You don't have to rush.

Ellis: We still have plenty of time until the promised month.

Ellis: I'll...do my best to make you even happier.

Sweet, sweet whispers like jam, and the warmth of our palms pressed together.

My head filled with such things as I walked down the night road.

Leaving behind the memories of twilight.

Chapter 5

If you’d like to support my translations, feel free to buy me a coffee here! :)

#ikemen series #cybird #cybird otome #cybird ikemen #ikemen villains #ikevil translations #ellis twilight #ellis twilight translations #ellis twilight main story translation #ellis twilight main route translation #ellis twilight premium story

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thejessyami · 9 months ago

Text

Voice (Maliksi x Anon/YN) PART 2

Disclaimer:

Characters: Maliksi, Makisig, Lakan and Mang Kano all belongs to @ask-emilz-de-philz.

Anon on the other hand is you! <3 so enjoy!

PART 1 : Voice (Part 1) PART 3: Voice (Part 3)

PS: I accidentally posted the draft version of this one last night because my nephew is so naughty >_>.

Maliksi leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, watching intently as Mang Kano attended to the unconscious girl lying on the bed. It had been four days since she was brought there, and she remained in a coma. Mang Kano carefully checked her IV line before skillfully inserting medication into it. Maliksi was intrigued by how this albularyo was so adept with modern medical techniques. Overcome with curiosity, he finally asked,” how did you manage to become a doctor and yet continue as an albularyo? Don't those two professions contradict each other?”

Mang Kano, momentarily taken aback by Maliksi’s question, paused and looked at him, a hint of perplexity in his gaze. "Why? Can't an albularyo become a full pledge doctor?" was his response "And what’s with the sudden interest?” he continued to probe further. Maliksi just shrugs his shoulders in response, the wheels in his mind still turning “Just curious” he admitted “Albularyos usually use nature and rituals to heal people. But you're using modern medicine to treat this girl.“

Mang Kano chuckled at his statement, as if this question had crossed his mind before or perhaps, he encountered the same questions before. “You see, Maliksi” Mang Kano began, his tone carrying a mix of warmth and wisdom. "Healing is not just about the methods we use; it's about the intention behind them.” He looked back at the girl as if a nostalgic feeling emerged from him as he continued “Whether it's through herbs, rituals, or modern medicine, the goal is always to heal. I've learned that to truly help someone, you must be willing to use all knowledge available to you.”

He glanced at Maliksi, a gentle smile gracing his face, and in response, Maliksi met his gaze, understanding passing between them without a word. Suddenly, a knock on the door shattered the silence, and a woman's voice called out, "Dr. James, your appointment is here." The door creaked open, revealing a young woman in scrubs clutching a file to her chest.

As she approached Dr. James, her eyes couldn't help but stray to Maliksi, and a blush colored her cheeks. Quickly averting her gaze, she hurried to Dr. James's side and handed him the file. "H-here's the p-patient's records," she stammered, clearly flustered by Maliksi's presence. Mang Kano, clearly understanding his staff's behavior, reached for the file and motioned for her to leave. "Alright, I'll come with you in a moment," he replied. The woman hastily exited the room making one last glance at Maliksi before leaving the two alone.

Mang Kano sighed in resignation and said, "Please do not seduce my staff. I'm already short-handed, and I can't afford to lose more."

"I didn't even do anything!" Maliksi defended, clearly irritated by the misunderstanding. “And It’s not my fault I’m oozing with attractiveness” He continued with a hint of sarcasm. Mang Kano cringed at his statement, rubbed his temples, and sighed in exasperation. “Just stay away from my staff!” With a weary expression, he walked to the door, giving Maliksi one last stern look. "And make sure they won’t know you're a Tamawo, the last thing I want is people sending rumors about my clinic about having a monster in my place" he cautioned before closing the door behind him.

“As if I have a choice!” Maliski sighed in exasperation. He had made himself look human and concealed his Tamawo features so that he could blend in with the others while he remained here to care for the girl. Maliksi was alone again with the unconscious girl in the room. He felt relieved to have some peace and quiet. The only sound was the beeping of the health monitor. Taking a closer look at the girl's face, he realized it was the first time he had really noticed her appearance. Before, he had mostly just stayed in the room, playing games and sleeping on the bed that he took from the other room without permission, only waking up when the albularyo came to check on her.

"You're quite beautiful, aren't you" he remarked softly, admiring her serene expression as she slept. Though he knew he had only helped her for his own benefit. Despite his selfish intentions, he couldn't deny the allure of her beauty. As he gazed at her, a pang of guilt flickered within him, which is unusual because having this kind of emotion for a human only applies to his kind brother. Time seemed to move slow as his repeated activities bore him, He pulled a nearby chair closer to the girl's bed, settling into it with a sigh.

Leaning back, he crosses his arms and shuts his eyes, racking his brain for a way to shake off his boredom. Suddenly, an idea sparks, brightening his expression. “Hey, want to know a story?” Maliksi asked the unconscious girl, he chuckled at his stupidity scolding himself ‘of course she won’t respond, stupid!’, shaking his head at his own foolishness.

But the idea of talking with this unconscious girl wasn’t a bad idea, He liked it actually, it’s like a one- sided conversation, a chance for him to speak his mind without the pressure of a response. So, despite the lack of interaction from her side, Maliksi found solace in sharing his thoughts with the silent figure before him.

"Well here it goes” he started off as he rested his chin on her bed as he recalls one of the mischiefs he did, “There was this one time that my Kuya promised one of his girls on a picnic, I saw how excited she was being able to go out with him. When that day came, she then proceeds to the kitchen with a giddy smile on her face and makes some sandwiches. I secretly followed her making sure I was unnoticed, when she was finished, she went out and got ready for their planned picnic, I made sure she was totally gone then I went ahead and ate all of it.”

He smiled mischievously at the memory “I handed it to her, her sandwiches were really yummy." He paused as he licked his lips as if savoring the taste again, "and when she came back, she was livid and started shouting at me. My kuya came as he heard the commotion. Before she could even explain what happened, I immediately clung to my kuya and told him I was very hungry and ate whatever food is in the kitchen”

Maliksi's eyes sparkled with the vivid recollection, a playful smirk playing on his lips as he remembered the chaos he had instigated. "You should've seen the look on her face," he continued, his voice barely containing his amusement. "She was so mad, steam could've come out of her ears. And there I was, the picture of innocence, hugging my Kuya, telling him how hungry I was."

He chuckled, shaking his head at his own audacity. "My Kuya, he's always had a soft spot for me, you know? So, he looks at me, then at her, and he's trying to piece together what happened. And I'm there, making my best impression of a starving little brother, which wasn't far from the truth, except for the part where I intentionally ate the sandwiches meant for their picnic."

Maliksi's expression softened, a hint of admiration in his gaze as he thought about his brother's peacemaking skills. "He managed to calm her down, promised her an even better date to make up for it. And me? I got off with a warning and a 'next time, ask before you eat anything meant for special occasions'” Sighing, Maliksi leaned closer to the girl, as if sharing a secret. "But here's the thing—I felt bad afterwards. Not immediately, but it hit me later. Of course I won’t tell them that!”

Time seemed to pass by as he told more stories of his past adventures, after what seemed like hours of talking, Maliksi got tired and stood up, stretching his limbs. "Well, thanks for listening, even if you didn't have much choice in the matter. It's been... therapeutic, in a way." He glanced at her one more time, a gentle expression on his face. “When you wake up, maybe you can tell me your stories, I promise I’ll listen.”

With that, Maliksi turned off the light, leaving the room bathed in the soft glow of the moonlight. Outside, the world was quiet and peaceful, Maliksi felt lighter, as if the act of sharing his story with someone, even someone who couldn't respond, had lifted a weight off his shoulders.

How many days have passed? Maliksi wondered as he stared out the window, the sun high in the sky, the corridors noisy with the comings and goings of people. A few days prior, Mang Kano had allowed him to return home whenever he wished, reassured that the girl was no longer in any danger. Maliksi was overjoyed and embraced the opportunity. Upon arriving home, he indulged in all the activities he had missed, as if he were finally free from the burden of caring for the comatose girl.

After not going to the clinic for four days, he felt kind of empty, like he was missing something. He tried to have fun, but it wasn't as good. So, he thought about it a lot and decided to go back to Mang Kano’s clinic.

There, he found himself standing beside the girl's bed, just staring at her as if it was routine. He inhaled deeply then said "Hey there, sleepyhead. How are you feeling today? “ he then grabs a nearby chair and started telling her stories like the usual. Days turned into weeks, and Maliksi kept coming back to the clinic to share tales with her.

As Maliksi's boredom set in again, he went over to the girl's bed and closed his eyes as he tried to look for a memory he could share with her. Maliksi wasn't a very talkative person, but he enjoyed talking to the girl in front of him. It was always the highlight of his day. As he chatted away, he didn't notice Mang Kano enter the room. The man stood by the door, watching Maliksi happily tell her about what had happened the other day, with the look of excitement in his face.

"And then, I saw that lady again yesterday. I thought my big brother had sent her away for good two years ago. But guess what? She was back at the mansion, hanging out with my brother's other girlfriends." He paused, putting his finger on his chin as if thinking hard. "It's not like I dislike her or anything. She's actually pretty decent. As I observed, She wasn't as needy as his other girls, she knows her boundaries and always making sure that she don't annoy me, not like the others who always pick a fight with me."

Leaning on the edge of the girl's bed, Maliksi rested his head on his hands "As long as she doesn't bother me too much, I guess I'm okay with her being around the mansion," he stated with a slight shrug. The room went silent again, he stared blankly at the health monitor watching the numbers go up and down.

Unconsciously he picked up her hand and placed it on his cheeks, his gaze now fixated at the sleeping girl in front of him “When will you wake up?” he whispered softly, his voice filled with longing and hope.

Mang Kano, who had remained quietly in the room, observed Maliksi with a mix of concern and empathy. He felt compassion for the young man expressing such raw emotion. It had been over a month since that fateful day, and there was still no sign of the girl waking up. Mang Kano sighed and was about to go over to Maliksi when the Tamawo suddenly jumped out of his chair, looking at the girl's hand in shock.

"What's the matter?" Mang Kano asked in shock. Maliksi, unaware of Mang Kano’s arrival, looked at him in bewilderment. "H-her hand... I felt her hand move!" he exclaimed. Mang Kano immediately approached the bed, pulling his penlight out of his pocket. Maliksi shifted to give him space as Mang Kano began checking the girl for any specific responses.

"Is she going to wake up soon?" Maliksi couldn’t help but ask anxiously. After Mang Kano finished examining the girl, he looked at Maliksi with a smile spreading across his face. "Yes! it looks like she’s on her way back to us” He confirmed. Maliksi smiled in relief upon hearing Mang Kano’s response.

You were unconscious, and felt like you were in a dark, silent void. You couldn't feel anything, and time seemed to stretch on forever. All you could remember was being attacked by a creature, fighting desperately to get away from it until it slashed your throat. That was the last thing you remembered before you blacked out. You wondered how many hours—or even days—had passed since then. “Am I still alive?” you asked yourself.

But then, you started to feel a little bit of awareness. It was like a faint echo of life from the outside world. “Hey, want to hear a story?” Suddenly a soft voice said as it's sound washed over you like a warm embrace. The voice told you stories of it's mischievousness. This voice was very familiar, but you can’t seem to remember who.

Though you cannot move or speak, you were captivated by his stories, listening intently, lost in the cadence of their voice. You wondered who this person beside you, sharing their stories with such warmth, though your body remained still and silent, your mind was alive with curiosity. You longed to reach out, to connect with the person beside you and to know this person's identity. But for now, all you could do was listen to their soothing voice as it tells you, their adventures.

Every day you kept on waiting for that voice, anticipating what story it would tell that day. Until one day the stories had stopped. You never heard from it again. the sense of abandonment overwhelmed you, You didn’t know what to do. You felt lost and alone. ‘Did it get tired of telling me stories?’ You thought to yourself.

The silence of the room was unbearable, your mind is conscious, but your body is not, you feel frustrated, and you just wanted to wake up. You silently prayed that that person would come back. As if God answered your prayers, you heard that voice again, The one you have been praying for, “Hey there sleepyhead. How are you feeling today?” The voice was warm and comforting, sending a jolt of recognition through your still form.

‘You’re back!’ you wanted to say but your body remained unresponsive. you felt relieved at hearing this voice again as it tells you more of it's stories. Even though you couldn't move or speak, the connection you felt with this person grew stronger with each passing moment.

Days flew by again, Maliksi stared at the girl waiting for her to wake up, every time he tells her something she moves her finger in response. He doesn’t know when it started but with each passing day, the more he stayed by her side, the more attached he was to her. Anticipating the day she opens her eyes.

And then one day, it happened. She started fluttering her eyelids, as she slowly opened her eyes, a hazy confusion danced behind them, as if the world was coming back into focus. Maliksi, overwhelmed by a mix of relief and joy couldn’t help but smile.

“Hey, you’re awake,” he exclaimed his voice a mix of excitement and disbelief. “Wait here, I’ll bring the albular—I mean the doctor!” As he tried to let go of her hand, he felt her squeezing it, as if stopping him from going away. He looked back at her and chuckled. “I’ll be right back” He re-assured as he slowly removed her hand from him.

Maliksi quickly left the room, searching for Mang Kano. As he neared the other room, he overheard a conversation. "We can't keep hiding her," he heard a voice say, recognizing it immediately as his brother Makisig's. "He found out where she is," Makisig added. A sense of dread began to fill Maliksi, making him worry about who they were discussing. Driven by his curiosity, Maliksi entered the room, surprising the two men. "Who are you talking about?" he demanded. The men exchanged a look of silent agreement before Makisig dismissively responded, "It's nothing."

Trying to shift the focus, Makisig asked, "What brings you here?" Maliksi, although curious about their conversation, remembered he had more pressing news to share. "The girl has woken up!" he announced, the earlier tension melting away with his excitement. "Mang Kano, come and see her right away!"

Mang Kano's eyes lit up with a mix of surprise and urgency at Maliksi's announcement. Without wasting another moment, he rose from his seat, grabbing everything he needed then followed the young Tamawo towards the girls room.

As they hurried through the corridors, Maliksi began to feel hopeful. The mystery of the conversation he had overheard still bothered him, but his top priority was the well-being of the girl who had miraculously opened her eyes after being in a comatose state.

Slowly, you began to regain consciousness. You opened your eyes and tried to focus, but everything was blurry. As your vision slowly adjusted, you could make out the figure of a person hovering over you.

"Hey! You're awake!" the person exclaimed, his voice filled with excitement. He took your hand in his and squeezed it tightly. "Just wait here, I'll get the doctor", he continued, releasing your hand and starting to get up.

Unconsciously you tightened your grip on his hand, not wanting him to leave. You stared up at him with your eyes still blurry from just waking up. He looked back at you in surprise, but then chuckled at your unexpected behavior.

"I'll be right back", he reassured you, gently prying your fingers from his. You reluctantly let go of him and watched as he ran off through the door.

Lying there, your gaze fixed on the ceiling, a wave of confusion and disorientation swept over you. ‘Where am I?’ This question echoed in your mind as you tried to make sense of your surroundings. An uncomfortable sensation in your neck stopped you from moving too much. Carefully, you reached up to touch the source of discomfort and found bandages there.

‘I remember now... I was attacked,’ you realized silently. The vivid memory of the assault flooded back, the brutality of the incident overwhelming you, causing tears to gather in your eyes. Overcome by a surge of emotions, you found yourself unable to hold back a cry.

As tears streamed down your face, you were crying but there was no sound accompanying it, the room was still quiet ‘My voice... it's gone’. You tried to speak, to call for someone, anyone, but no sound came out. The silence around you felt like it was closing in on you, 'suffocating.' You felt more and more scared and confused.

As the door swung open, your eyes instinctively darted towards it. Three figures stepped into the room: the first, clad in a lab coat, evidently the doctor; the second, the person who had been by your side earlier; and the third, a man of remarkable height, the tallest you've ever seen. Their expressions shifted to shock as they took in the sight of your tear-streaked face. Without hesitation, the one who had kept you company earlier rushed to your side, a look of deep concern etched on his face.

"Hey, what's wrong?" The familiar voice, filled with genuine concern, broke the silence in the room. You looked up at the person, their eyes reflecting a mixture of worry and compassion. You opened your mouth to speak, but no sound accompanied them. ‘I’ you desperately mouthed trying hard to make a sound, but it was futile, you can’t help but cry again at your helplessness.

The doctor came by your side as he tried to assess the situation. He seemed to sense your struggle and gently placed his hand on the young man's shoulder, “It seems she had lost her voice” the doctor said. The young man turned to him with a concerned look, his brows furrowing in worry. "Is there a way to help her get it back?" he asked, his voice laced with urgency.

The doctor fell silent as if trying to find the right words. "I can't say it will come back, but.." he paused "we'll need to conduct some tests and perhaps consult with a specialist. Losing one's voice can be a temporary effect, especially after a traumatic event. It's too early to say for sure, but with proper care and treatment, there's hope," he explained, his words aiming to instill a sense of optimism in the room.

“Hi, my name is Dr. James, And I am the one who attended to your injury” He said as he looked at you directly, “I know this is all confusing to you right now, but I assure you I will do everything in my power to help you.” He continued with a kind and gentle voice. He then looked back at the young man and said, “Help her sit up” The young man eagerly nodded and helped you gently sit up from your bed. “Can you also fetch me the chair” the young man nodded and urgently went to the other side to fetch the chair and positioned it near Dr James.

Unknowingly behind them, Makisig who was still standing silently near the door watched in bewilderment as he witnessed his little brother following Mang Kano’s command. This was the first time he saw his brother being bossed around by a human without any resistance. He had the urge to laugh but had to stop himself so as to not break the moment in the room.

“It's just a formality” Dr. James said, flipping a page on his clipboard and handing it to you along with a pen. “Since you can't speak right now, could you please write your name down for me? That way I can address you properly.” You nodded weakly and reached for the pen and paper. your hands were shaking, and it took you a few tries to write your name legibly. “Y/N” Dr. James said out loud. “What a beautiful name” He added with a gentle smile on his face.

“I’ll be asking some questions,” Dr. James pointed at the clipboard you are holding and gestured “You just write your answer, a brief word would suffice, you could also choose not to answer, will that be ok?” He said asking for permission. In response to his question, you wrote the word ‘Yes’

Dr. James smiled and began asking some questions. "Well done. Now, do you feel any discomfort with your body right now?" You pointed at the word "Yes" that you had written earlier. Dr. James acknowledged your response and followed up, "Could you try and point where?" Slowly lifting your hand, you indicated your bandaged neck. "Does it hurt a lot?" He continued asking, you wrote "A little".

The questioning continued for a while, with Dr. James periodically examining your body for any signs of discomfort. "Your body is still recovering, and since you were in a coma for a while, you may experience discomfort in different parts of your body," he explained. "You need rest and a bit of walking or exercise to aid in your recovery."

Dr. James hesitated, as if uneasy about asking the next question. "I know this might be hard to recall, but..." he paused as he looked at the young man then back at you, "do you remember what happened before you passed out?" Your body tensed at the question; memories of encountering the terrifying creature and the trauma it inflicted flooded your mind.

Tears welled up in your eyes once more, rolling down your cheeks uncontrollably. With a heavy heart, you pressed both palms against your face as silent sobs racked your body. Frustration built up inside you as you cried without making a sound, the weight of your emotions overwhelming your voiceless cries.

Dr. James did not probe any further, as he already knows your answer from your reaction. All he could do is press his hand on your shoulder as he waits for you to finish crying.

Maliksi, who had been silently observing the conversation, clenched his fist unknowingly. It was as if he felt sympathy for the girl, a feeling he hadn't experienced in quite some time. Looking at the window he silently voiced in his head ‘I’ll kill that jerk!’.

“You should get some rest first,” Dr. James said, breaking the silence in the room. Gently, he helped you lie back in your bed. As you were being assisted, you couldn't help but notice the young man at the edge of the bed. As your eyesight was still blurry earlier, this is the first time you saw him clearly.

His pale complexion and silver hair caught your attention, and his expression remained stoic as he gazed out of the window. Even though you could only see his side profile, you couldn't deny his handsomeness.

Dr. James caught sight of you looking at the young man. "Ah, this is..." he gestured but stopped, appearing hesitant. As if returning to reality, the young man then looked in your direction. "He’s the one... who brought you here," Dr. James continued, appearing uncomfortable with the introduction.

You stared at the young man, feeling a sense of familiarity wash over you. The young man waved his hand in front of you and said, “Hey there, my name’s Maliksi.” ‘Maliksi,’ he stopped as he saw you open your mouth and mouthed his name along with him. “D-did you just!” Maliksi stuttered as he looked at you in shock, as if you already knew who he was.

You were equally stunned by your own reaction; in that moment, your dimly recalled memories surged forward in rapid succession: the time you were attacked, the sight of the him perched atop the tree and the instance when the creature was forcefully repelled from you. You remembered the way the creature hissed Maliksi’s name before you lost consciousness.

You grabbed the clipboard and pen again and slowly wrote something: ‘On top of the tree’. Shyly, you showed them the written words. Both Maliksi and Dr. James looked at the writing. Maliksi smiled as he read the words. "So you remember me!" he exclaimed excitedly.

Dr. James looked back and forth between you and Maliksi, observing the interaction with curiosity. “If you remember him then that means you also know that he’s a Tamawo” Dr James asked. The girl looked at him in curiosity then wrote “Tamawo?”

The doctor and Maliksi exchanged a glance as they read what you wrote, then awkwardly looked away. Dr. James rubbed his temples, realizing he had made a mistake. He sighed heavily, seemingly reluctant to explain. "It's like this," he began, scratching his cheek as if searching for the right words. "The creature that attacked you... was a Tamawo."

Makisig sensed the presence of another creature lurking nearby. With caution, he slipped out of the room, ensuring that the people inside remained unaware of his departure. As he stepped foot outside, he said “Come out, I know you’re here”. A figure emerged from the shadows, striding proudly with a malicious grin on his face. His silver hair flowing with the wind.

“My, my if it isn’t the hybrid” the man said maliciously. Makisig remained silent, unfaced by his remark. “I warn you Lakan, stay away from them” Makisig warned. Lakan chuckled, amused by his warning. “You can’t stop me; I will take that woman and this time I’ll make sure to rip her apart.” Lakan then grinned widely “And I’ll make sure to get back at your pest of a brother for what he had done”

Makisig's face turned dark, his eyes piercing through Lakan as he thought of ways of tearing him apart. “If you touch my brother, I promise you I won’t be merciful”. Lakan laughed again, he looked at Makisig staring at him with the same killing intent. “I look forward to that.” and with that he turned and walked away.

Makisig watched him go, when he was gone, he sighed releasing the tension from his body. Time is of the essence now; He must come up with a plan to make sure that his brother and the girl were unharmed. He looked up at the window on the second floor, his mind racing as he contemplated his next move. “I better act fast”.

Author's note:

-Malapit na tayo sa exciting part! CHAR!

-I remember @ask-emilz-de-philz posted Mang Kano's real name and to my surprise it's the same name as my brother. XDDD the irony was he's also in the medical field XDDD Ehem!.

-Maliksi being bossed around by a human was rare VERY RARE! UwU. Forgive me HC for making that part, I just had to do it //Smirks

-Next Chapter will be the last part.

#makisigthetamawo #philmytcrea #planet puto #rp makisig #rp tamawo #maliksithetamawo #rp maliksi #rp mangkano #rp lakan

17 notes · View notes

talkingpointsusa · 4 months ago

Text

Trump Ally Laura Loomer spins baseless conspiracy theories about Tim Walz having ties to ISIS

Laura Loomer is a person who sucks. She's essentially a self-described "proud Islamophobe" and white nationalist whose whole schtick is calling everybody she doesn't like ISIS. She believes that the Democrats can control the weather and has a bizarre obsession with Kamala Harris’ race.

Despite the fact that this person is clearly extremely fringe and has a belief system not that far out of step with the Neo-Nazi movement, she also has a scary amount of influence on the right having scored interviews with prominent GOP politicians and celebrities like Kari Lake, J,D. Vance, and Nancy Mace. As a result I think it is worth talking about who Loomer is, what she’s all about, and how pretty much everything she says is bullshit. Unfortunately for my sanity, that process involves me watching Laura Loomer. Oh well, lets see what deranged thing she's lying about this time.

TW: Loomer's whole "thing" is basically being an Islamophobe and that carries on in this episode. If you're not comfortable with that, I don't blame you, I'm not either which is why I'm debunking and countering this bullshit while also showing how close it truly is to the modern Republican Party.

21:25, Laura Loomer: "Good evening and welcome to episode 65 of Loomer Unleashed, I'm your host Laura Loomer. If you had any doubts that a Kamala Harris presidency would be anything but a total disaster for the United States of America than the past few days ought to set you free. Yesterday, stock markets all around the world posted one of their worst days ever as investors fear that America is headed for a recession."

On Monday the stock market plummeted after the release of a weaker than expected jobs report coupled with the Federal Reserves decision last week not to lower interest rates, a decision that has been panned by multiple economists who are now suggesting that the Fed make an emergency rate-cut. The current chair of the Federal Reserve is a man by the name of Jerome Powell who was appointed by the Trump Administration. So, while Trump and his sycophants want you to believe that the chaos on Monday was a Kamala crash it was more of a Donald drop.

This crash had nothing to do with Kamala Harris but that didn't stop key figures on the right like Donald Trump, Charlie Kirk, and now Laura Loomer from blaming the crash on the vice-president. In Loomer's case this is particularly embarrassing since she posted this episode on August 6th...the day that the stock market rebounded and investors started to regain some of their losses. Oops, bad timing there.

22:12, Laura Loomer: "Lets make one thing perfectly clear, even though Joe Biden is currently 'the president' (her quotes not mine) we all know that he has not really been in control of the government and the decision making if that couldn't be more obvious to all of you."

No proof, just vibes. Isn't it interesting how far-right media never offers up any concrete evidence outside of "Well, I saw this thing through my distorted worldview and here's the vibe I got!"

But she did put forward that absolutely ridiculous statement with a purpose. Here's where she's going with that line of thinking - this is really dumb and gets contradicted by her multiple times over the course of this episode.

22:30, Laura Loomer: "That means that for the past few years Kamala Harris has already been, in a large part, running our nation. That means that all of the problems over the past four years can be hung around her neck."

I love how they basically have to make fan-fiction up because they don't really have anything on Harris and Walz and got blindsided by Harris deciding to run in the first place. It's been absolutely hilarious to watch.

"Wait guys! Ignore everything that I've been saying for the past four years, Kamala Harris was actually the president this whole time which means all that stuff we made up about Biden actually applies to her! Yeah...that's it."

23:38, Laura Loomer: "Even though the market had been doing quite well prior and has now recovered slightly, just a little, well Monday's disaster is a sign of volatility. And what exactly does this volatility indicate? It indicates uncertainty, massive uncertainty, a lack of confidence, and underlying problems."

Interesting way to try and reconcile that. "Oh yeah, the stock market was doing really well before Monday and has recovered now but uh....the Democrats are still responsible for this." It's almost like there's something that caused such a sudden reaction on the market that Laura isn't telling her audience.

In case you're wondering, she never brings up the Fed or the jobs report in this episode because why would she? It goes against her bizarre narrative that Kamala Harris, who isn't even the president yet, was somehow responsible for a global stock market downturn.

25:12, Laura Loomer: "If this is how Harris's economy has been while she's VP imagine how much worse its going to be when she has full control of the reigns as president, god forbid."

Wait, isn't Harris already the president? You know, back during that long since passed wistful period of three minutes ago when Biden had dementia and Kamala was secretly running the country.

There's a certain level of turning your brain off required to uncritically consume shows like Charlie Kirk and Laura Loomer. If you pay attention to them you'll start to notice that these guys contradict themselves constantly. They have a spread of talking points and they just say shit for two hours without actually thinking about what they're saying beyond "This thing can piss off my audience at this exact moment". If you don't notice these direct contradiction when watching this kind of media, you aren't paying attention.

25:50, Laura Loomer: "The same is true of the immigration crisis which has been at all time lows when President Trump left office partly as a result of COVID."

During the pandemic, undocumented immigrants crossing the border dropped significantly because, well there was a pandemic. However, in the last four months of the Trump presidency encounters at the Southern Border were 14.7% higher than the first month he was in office. This pandemic number was also not an all time low, that would be in April 2017 shortly after Trump took office and before another large spike.

The notion that the Biden-Administration has some sort of "shadowy open border policy" is a total myth that's deeply rooted in white nationalism, as we'll see later on in this post when Loomer starts peddling white nationalism. As a matter of fact, the Biden Administration has increased spending on the border from Donald Trump's $20.9 billion to $23.5 billion. Unfortunately, this also means that many of the human rights abuses at the border that were carried out in the Trump years also carried on during the Biden years which is policy that I obviously don't support.

When people like Laura Loomer talk about "the open boarder" they are essentially admitting that they don't want anybody coming in whether illegally or legally. That is because these people want a white nation, something which Loomer has literally admitted out loud in the past. It's a very thinly disguised dog whistle that you see on every spectrum of the right-wing media ecosystem, from more fringe outlets like Laura Loomer and Infowars all the way to more "mainstream" ones like Daily Wire and FOX News.

26:19, Laura Loomer: "Once here, the Biden/Harris Administration has resorting to simply letting these invaders go free or worse, they have been shipping them to small towns across the country."

Fear-mongering against "the other" is a hallmark of fascist propaganda and it's no exception here. This is all just great replacement theory shit that has nothing backing it up. Notice how nobody ever shows a picture or video of these Biden Harris vehicles shipping migrants to small towns.

This isn't just about migrants at the Southern Border, it's about legal immigration too. The Laura Loomers of the world don't want any immigration unless the people immigrating are white and even then only white heterosexual Christians. Don't believe me? Here's Loomer going on a bigoted tirade against Somali immigrants in Minnesota.

26:30, Laura Loomer: "In fact, Minnesota the state where Kamala's VP pick Tim Walz is governor is a perfect example of how this invader resettlement has gone terribly wrong. A lot of people refer to Minnesota as Little Mogadishu, a little spin-off off of Somalia because of the massive population of Somali Muslims who refuse to assimilate in Minnesota."

What she's essentially saying is that Islamic communities that consist of Somali-American's who are here legally, some even second generation immigrants as the Somali immigration into Minnesota began during the beginning of the Somali Civil War in the 1990's that led to thousands of refugees leaving Somalia and immigrating to the United States, are still invaders. This is because in Loomer's eyes anybody who isn't white is inherently an "invader". It's naked racism in its purest form.

You would think that this kind of rhetoric is fringe on the right but one of the reasons that I'm covering Loomer here is that it really isn't. Touch this up a little, put a bit of a mask on it, and it could easily be the opening monologue on something like The Matt Walsh Show or The Charlie Kirk Show.

And you know what? Mainstream Republicans have embraced Loomer despite this clear white-nationalist rhetoric. Before he was vice-president, J.D. Vance appeared on Loomers show to raise campaign funds. Loomer was a white nationalist and extremist back then too, nothings changed. Donald Trump himself has also embraced Loomer, referring to her as "great Laura Loomer" in a speech and Loomer has rode with Trump aboard his private jet in the past. Donald Trump Jr has also floated Loomer for a spot in the Trump administration if Trump gets elected for a second term. So, when I show you this next quote about Somali Muslims let it be known that this is what the Trump Administration explicitly endorses through their continued association and praise of Loomer.

26:55, Laura Loomer: "There, these people leech off the system, they breed like rabbits, they disrupt the natural communities and they commit violent crimes without contributing anything of value to our society."

I hope J.D. Vance and Donald Trump are proud of what they're endorsing when they associate with this woman. Don't get it twisted, this talk of breeding wouldn't be out of place in a Neo-Nazi pamphlet and it's being peddled by a key ally of the current person that the GOP is running for president. This is not fringe anymore, it's what the GOP explicitly endorses and that should be scary as fuck to you!

If you are a more moderate Trump supporter, you know someone who maybe catches FOX News from time to time and is concerned about the economy and whatnot, first of all welcome to the blog! I actively welcome you to read my back catalogue and see how the stuff you've been consuming is total bunk consisting of half-baked lies. But second of all, your candidate endorses this! Take a look at this stuff, compare it to what Nazi's say on a regular basis, look at your candidate embracing this person, and ask yourself; is this the kind of thing that I support?

27:47, Laura Loomer: "Governor Walz has been in office since 2019. While BLM ran rampant in his state burning entire sections of Minneapolis to the ground following the overdose death of career criminal thug George Floyd, Walz didn't just sit idly by, he actively encouraged it."

As we saw when mainstream right-wing commentators like Matt Walsh and Tucker Carlson, more proof that these guys are all peddling the same rhetoric by the way, pushed this exact same lie about George Floyd, it's complete bullshit.

The autopsy report released by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner, while it did show that Floyd hand fentanyl in his system, ruled that Floyd died from “cardiopulmonary arrest from law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression."

We literally saw Floyd get murdered on camera and there are mountains of testimonies from the Chauvin trial showing that it was absolutely Chauvin's fault that Floyd was killed. Not that it matters when you're a racist who's overly concerned with breeding that's also actively using racist dog-whistles like calling a black man a "thug".

29:04, Laura Loomer: "This guy is clearly a loony left-wing radical dressed up as an old white grandpa. He wants you to think that he's your typical old-white grandpa and he's very dangerous. He's basically a less senile and more radical Joe Biden."

While it is definitely important to point out how extreme Loomer is, it's also important to point out that she's also a complete dumbass.

Ah yes, famous left-wing radical *checks notes* Joe Biden. We've lived through four years of the Democrats and none of the stuff that Loomer said would happen happened. She's just somebody who's good at drumming up fear and rage in racists without providing actual evidence.

29:47, Laura Loomer: "He certainly isn't going to be driving anybody to go vote. Really, lets just think about this for a second. What young voter or minority is looking at Tim Walz, an old white man, and is saying 'yes, that's our guy. I'm in. He's going to represent me.'"

The polls say that voters like Tim Walz more the J.D. Vance but I guess if you want to live in fantasyland go right ahead.

30:16, Laura Loomer: "And so, as the election approaches President Trump needs to be asking himself 'How would a Kamala Harris presidency be any different from the past four years?' She's been running the White House already."

Kamala Harris: She's more extreme than Biden and will turn America into a communist hellhole....also she's been running the White House already and if she wins it'll just be more of the same. None of this makes any sense, even internally.

Laura does an ad that's basically her playing clips of Alex Jones praising her and some clips of her dumb attention starved PR stunt bullshit like running around in a stereotypical "Mexican" outfit to protest immigration. You know, for someone who is pretending to be a journalist that has this breaking proof that the Democrats have ties to ISIS, Laura is really just stretching to waste time here. She comes back, talks more about the stock market, and contradicts herself again.

33:52, Laura Loomer: "We can look at some of these posts, him calling this crash yesterday the Kamala crash and that's what exactly everybody needs to be referring to it as because this is exactly what we're going to see if Kamala Harris gets into the White House for another four years and she is just as much involved with our policies in this country as he is."

Is Kamala the president right now or isn't she? Make up your mind Laura!

The thing with Laura Loomer's show is that half of it is just the "Riffing About Trump's Truth Social Posts and Twitter Show". She continues down this route of riffing on Trump's Truth Social posts and I decided to open up the stopwatch app on my phone and time it.

Laura's Truth Social commentary clocks in at around a minute and fifty five seconds give or take the few seconds it took me to open up her Rumble page after I hit go on the stopwatch. It's just two whole minutes of reading tweets and "The Kamala crash, Trump called it the Kamala crash!" with absolutely no substance to it.

So, she goes on to talk about the guy from Pakistan who got arrested for plotting to assassinate key government officials and honestly covering this wasn't a smart move on her part at all. I'll explain why in a minute but lets hear her out.

40:46, Laura Loomer: "And just today actually, we saw how grave the national security issue is when the DOJ announced that a Pakistani national has been arrested and charged for plotting to assassinate president Trump."

This story is about a Pakistani man named Asif Merchant with alleged ties to Iran who was arrested last month for plotting to carry out the assassinations of key government figures including potentially Donald Trump. Court documents actually did not specify who this guy was planning to assassinate however a threat on Trump's life from Iran due to the killing of Qassem Soleimani in 2020 led to many people speculating that the person that this guy had in mind was Trump.

First of all, we just don't know a lot about this story. While it is likely that Merchant might have had Trump on his list and many sources have backed that claim up, those same sources are saying that this guy had targets from both sides of the political aisle in mind. There's a lot of unknown here and its all very messy meaning that it's Loomers responsibility as somebody calling herself a journalist to be really careful about what she says while covering this. In that respect she absolutely failed.

Second of all, the fact that Merchant was arrested and charged blows everything that Loomer was saying earlier out of the water. I thought that the Biden Administration was just letting criminals run rampant and not charging anybody. Guess that's no longer something that's happening. I also thought that the Democrats wanted to kill Trump. Dumbasses like Laura Loomer have been speculating that the Democrats intentionally let the Trump shooting in Butler PA happen for weeks. But I guess the evil Biden DOJ that I've been hearing about for months now just arrested and convicted this guy that may have been planning to assassinate Trump, thus foiling their evil plot, for....reasons I guess.

Laura Loomer absolutely should not have covered this story. I get that it's low-hanging fruit in MAGA-world right now but its very existence messes up this narrative that MAGA media has been pushing for what feels like centuries now about Biden just letting people run rampant and the Democrats allowing the Trump assassination attempt to happen.

So, Loomer finds out that Merchant contacted a confidential informant for the FBI and of course gets the story completely wrong. What actually happened was that Merchant landed in the states and contacted a person who he felt would help him carry out his plans. After Merchant contacted this guy, his contact immediately called law enforcement and became a confidential informant for the FBI that helped the authorities eventually bring Merchant in.

The way that Loomer seems to interpret this part of the story is "Oh, the FBI contacted Merchant and was giving him his marching orders" which doesn't even make any sense with the facts that Loomer presented! If the FBI wanted this guy to kill Trump and was giving him his marching orders, why would they then arrest and charge this guy for doing what they wanted him to do in the first place? It makes absolutely zero sense whatsoever.

42:15, Laura Loomer: "Ok, so the FBI was in touch with Iranian hitmen to kill President Trump. Don't tell me for one second to that this attack that we saw in Butler Pennsylvania, probably, what are they going to say? 'Oh, this was just a mentally disturbed kid'. When's it gonna come out that he was also talking to confidential informants in the FBI."

This is just complete nonsense that is completely devoid from reality. This is somebody who calls themself an "investigative journalist" messing up basic details about this big news story to push a political agenda. It's embarrassing behavior and anybody calling themself a "journalist" who acts like this should be absolutely ashamed of themselves.

42:38, Laura Loomer: "So, you see how dangerous our intelligence agencies are because they intentionally lead people to these positions. They allow this guy to travel to New York where he was planning on killing president Trump and we just saw that somebody got very close. We know that this Thomas Matthew Crooks individual, they're not saying that there's ties between this guy and Thomas Matthew Crooks but Thomas Matthew Crooks had overseas encrypted bank accounts."

They also arrested him after getting the appropriate evidence needed to convict. This conspiracy theory makes zero sense in the real world.

Thomas Matthew Crooks didn't have overseas bank accounts. That claim was spread by an Instagram post made after the assassination attempt and nobody provided evidence to back this claim up. The FBI has came out and stated that Crooks didn't have overseas bank accounts and until somebody provides actual evidence proving them wrong I'm inclined to believe them.

As any regular listener of Knowledge Fight (hello, fellow wonks) will tell you, guys like Laura Loomer and Alex Jones mainly get their "news" from shitheads on Twitter and Instagram without actually looking into it and this is an excellent example of that.

I figured this out in five seconds and I'm just some university student with a blog. I don't run a massive produced show and hobnob with key government figures, I'm just a guy with a laptop sitting at a desk in my home debunking bullshit. Yeah, I'm majoring in journalism but you don't just magically gain the ability to verify stuff the day you step into a journalism lecture, Google is a thing that exists and it's a really easy tool for journalists to use! The minute that people like Laura Loomer start calling themselves "journalists" becomes the minute that they become responsible to vet the stuff they're saying and whether or not it's accurate. Loomer has failed her audience and on a broader level her basic duties as a journalist.

So, Laura decides that Tim Walz has ties to ISIS because at this point we're openly playing make em' ups. What's her proof of this absolutely damning claim?

45:16, Laura Loomer: "So, Tim Walz of course is the governor of Minnesota and that's who Kamala Harris decided to pick today as her vice-presidential pick. He is openly tied to Ilhan Omar, Keith Ellison, a lot of these very dangerous radical Muslim politicians."

Surprise surprise, it's just more disgusting bigotry. Naturally, Loomer sees two Islamic progressive politicians and thinks "They must be tied to ISIS" without having any evidence tying them to ISIS. There used to be a word for that, I remember that it started with an R and ended with ACISM. Not that this critique matters much when it comes to Laura who doesn't try to deny her racism but it's still absolutely worth pointing out just so that it's on the record.

45:32, Laura Loomer: "But probably the most radical situation of all is the fact that Tim Walz advocated for an ISIS affiliated Islamic centre called the Dar-Al Farooq Islamic Centre which I have personally visited by the way in Minnesota."

There is absolutely no proof that the Dar-Al Farooq Centre is tied to ISIS and what Loomer is doing here is disgusting for a bunch of reasons.

The thing that got the ball rolling about this mosque being "ISIS affiliated" is an incident in 2016 where three youths who attended this mosque tried to flee the country and join ISIS. While this was obviously an extremely bad thing and it's a good thing that these kids got caught, there's no proof that mosque leadership knew about this nor is there proof that anybody else at the mosque knew about what these kids were planning. However, that didn't stop far-right media from starting a targeted smear campaign against this mosque. Congregants reported far-right social media figures showing up to the mosque and filming their children.

This eventually reached its apex when in 2017 three white males traveled eight hours from their home state in Illinois in order to plant a pipe bomb inside the Dar-Al Farooq Centre, thankfully nobody was hurt in the attack. According to the bomber his motive was to scare Muslim's into leaving the US and that he heard that Dar-Al Farooq was "training ISIS members". Now, look at the fact that Laura Loomer is pushing the exact same kind of rhetoric that nearly got innocent people killed....yeah. I cannot stress this enough, fuck! this! shit!

There's absolutely zero reason for Loomer to not know that far-right disinformation like her show played a huge part in children being harassed and actual terrorism and yet here she is spreading this crap about this mosque anyway despite everything that it's caused. It's easy to laugh at how dumb these people are and how they have no idea what they're talking about but I cannot stress this enough, this shit has the potential to get people killed.

On that happy note, Laura starts interviewing a man named John Guandolo and I really don't care. For those who don't know, John Guandolo is a former FBI Agent who runs the SPLC registered extremist group "Understanding The Threat". Guandolo left the FBI in 2008 while he was being investigated by the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility over having an affair with a confidential source and soliciting $75,000 dollars for an "anti-terrorism group" that he was working on creating at the time. Real cool and trustworthy guy. John's "coolness" only continued after he left the FBI and formed Understanding the Threat which basically runs bizarre "counterterrorism training" sessions for law enforcement officials and civilians alike that are basically just seminars devoted to islamophobic conspiracy theories. Guandolo also has a long track record of assaulting people and then promptly getting has ass sued. In 2023, Understanding the Threat shut down in part because John kept doing dumb shit that got his ass sued (although the exact details of why they shut down are kind of murky at best).

Essentially, he's one of these ex-military/FBI "counterterrorism" grifters that were a dime a dozen after 9/11, he's cut from the same cloth as guys like Jack Idema. I don't have enough time to go into all the specific nuances of how much of a loser John Guandolo is but suffice it to say this guy really fucking sucks. We're not going to look at too much of his interview because it's just boring and dumb islamophobic conspiracy theories but there is some stuff in there that we should talk about.

50:03, Laura Loomer: "I was just explaining prior to you coming on that we spent a lot of time together in Minnesota doing counter-terrorism and also investigating on the ground with other counter-Jihad experts. People like Ilhan Omar, Keith Ellison and their radical networks which includes Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and also ISIS."

"And by on the ground doing counterterrorism I mean us running around doing dumb stuff on the internet."

Neither of these guys have presented evidence to back up what they're saying outside of "we don't like Muslims". I couldn't find what kind of "counter-terrorism" these guys were up to in 2018 but given Loomers past track record I'm sure it was just running around being a public nuisance and acting like an absolute drain on society in front of mosques.

50:43, Laura Loomer: "Obviously it's all factual and you can confirm it."

This show is just Islamophobic LARPing at this point.

51:32, John Guandolo: "Number one, Dar-Al Farooq is an -- and it's not a secret. That's a jihadi mosque. The leadership of the mosque, those are jihadi's running it. And you mentioned something a moment ago that I think is important to put a real fine point on for your audience, Shayk Idris at Dar Al-Farooq is the chairman of the Islamic University of Minnesota, the first of its kind in America, and its built to teach sharia to a wide variety of folks but its really to train people that are looking to be scholars and the way it fits into the broader Jihadi movement in the United States is the Brotherhood is very interested in raising up Jihadi's here that are American's so they needed to build the Islamic university here and they chose Minnesota."

The Islamic University of Minnesota is basically the Muslim equivalent of a bible college. They aren't "training Jihadi's" and if they were the FBI would be all over them in eleven seconds. This is just conspiracy theory nonsense from two people who have built their careers around pushing islamophobia and like I said before, this shits dangerous and could very easily lead to violence in the real world.

53:14, John Guandolo: "That entire culture there is in bed with and I mean protecting and defending the Jihadi's in the Twin Cities and it's why when my team came through prior to the 2016 election and I wrote that article, it was entitled 'In This War: The Twin Cities and Minnesota' and I still believe today more than I did then it will take literal military intervention to liberate Minneapolis/St Paul."

Not much to say other than this guys calling for the military to come in and kill civilians because they're immigrants. I hate these two so much. By the way, as stated previously in my last post on the Walz nomination, crime has been down in Minneapolis recently.

The entire interview is like this so we don't have to spend a lot of time on it. Just two bigots lying to each other and potentially inciting violence. We have one last quote, here's Loomer saying that the Democrats want to form an "Islamic Caliphate". Never heard that one before except for when Obama was elected, or during Hillary's campaign, or....

01:39:36, Laura Loomer: "We are literally in the middle of an Islamo-fascist communist takeover of the Western world and the United States of America. Make no mistake, you see these videos right now in the United Kingdom where people are setting fire to cars, they're raping women, they're stabbing people, they're attacking white people in the streets. We're gonna have Muslim gains like that here in the United States of America. We already do, in cities like Dearborn, Michigan and Minneapolis, Minnesota and New York City. We've seen these pro-Hamas riots where we have these people waving Hamas and Hezbollah flags. So I'll tell you right now, if Kamala Harris gets elected as president of the United States, we are, we are going to have an Islamic caliphate in this country."

She said about the UK during a period where the UK is dealing with extremist anti-immigrant rioters setting fire to buildings but that's honestly a topic for its own post. This is just a bizarre slew of Islamophobic talking points that make zero sense, a fitting way to end a post full of Islamophobic talking points that make zero sense.

Conclusion:

That was a particularly gross thing to watch. The thing that freaks me out about Laura Loomer is the fact that this woman has influence. In a reasonable society folks like Laura Loomer and John Guandolo would be guys yelling on street corners with little to no influence but instead here they are spreading hate to a massive audience full of people that unquestionably believe it. The only thing you can really do is call it what it is: hateful bullshit.

Quite frankly, there's very little separating stuff like this and some of the more "mainstream" organizations on the right like The Daily Wire. Just ask Matt Walsh who's very concerned about the white birth-rate or Michael Knowles who believes in the Great Replacement Theory. The difference between them and Laura Loomer is that Loomer doesn't really try to hide her naked bigotry whereas FOX and the Daily Wire try to couch it in double speak and dog-whistles.

On the bright side, it says a lot about Tim Walz' record that they have so little to go with that they have to just up and make shit up about him. While there's very little you can do to win over extremists, Walz' record can do a lot to win over moderates and watching people like Laura Loomer flail around trying to find new ways to smear him gives me some hope for the election.

Original Video:

“EP65: SUMMER of JIHAD: Kamala’s vp Pick EXPOSED for ISIS Ties!” Rumble, 6 Aug. 2024

Sources Cited:

Dorn, Sara. ““Kamala Crash”: Trump Tries to Pin Stock Market Downturn on Harris.” Forbes, 6 Aug. 2024.

Picciotto, Rebecca. “Trump Quiet on Markets after Stock Rebound Robs Him of “Kamala Crash” Attack Line.” CNBC, CNBC, 6 Aug. 2024.

Farley, Robert. “Trump’s Misleading Chart on Illegal Immigration.” FactCheck.org, 4 Apr. 2024

Miller, Todd. “Biden’s Supposed “Open-Border Policy” Does Not Exist.” Www.thenation.com, 22 Nov. 2023

Smith, Allan, et al. “Trump’s Embrace of Far-Right Activist Laura Loomer Worries His Allies.” Nbcnews.com, NBC News, 14 Jan. 2024.

Hananoki, Eric. “Laura Loomer Helped JD Vance Raise Funds While He Appeared on Her Show.” Media Matters for America, 29 July 2024.

TUCKER, ERIC. “Pakistani Man with Ties to Iran Charged in Plot to Carry out Political Assassinations.” AP News, AP News, 6 Aug. 2024.

Thrush, Glenn. “Justice Dept. Charges Pakistani Man in Alleged Plot to Kill U.S. Leaders.” The New York Times, 6 Aug. 2024.

“Understanding the Threat.” Southern Poverty Law Center

Montemayor, Stephen, and Stephen Montemayor. “3 Illinois Men Charged in Bloomington Mosque Bombing.” Startribune.com, 14 Mar. 2018.

Riham Feshir. “Twin Cities Mosque on Edge after Opponents Start Pointing the Cameras at Children.” MPR News, MPR News, 4 Oct. 2019.

#right wing bullshit #conservative bullshit #fact checking #journalism #bad takes #conservatives #disinformation #politics #debunking #laura loomer #2024 presidential election #kamala harris #tim walz #election 2024 #fuck racism #fuck white supremacy #islamphobia #john guandolo

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ecoamerica · 29 days ago

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randomatthingy · 11 months ago

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Fr. Burroghs

I am very much a fan of "Fr. Burroughs was an early attempt at a Mass Ritual" theory, so I went through each Entity to find connections:

Eye: Fr. Singh knew all of Fr. Burroughs's sins when he was in the confessional, and Burroughs describes the rose window looking like an eye.

Web: Hill Top Road is probably the most Web location in the world, and the statement does have a lot of ties to loss of free will

Corruption: Fr. Burroughs mentioned meeting a frail, jaundiced figure, and the stole he wore was yellow, which isn't a liturgical color in the church, but in the church, it does have ties to (among other things we'll learn when we get to The Spiral) disease and plague.

Lonely: At first I couldn't find anything that screamed Lonely to me, but then I remembered what was probably one of the scariest parts of the episode from me as a Catholic, Fr. Burrows not being able to speak God's name or pray. As Catholics, we believe that our relationship with God is one of the most important. God Himself IS the most relationship to ever relationship, so for someone like a priest, losing this relationship would be devastating.

Slaughter: I can't find anything substantial for The Slaughter, but the tolling of bells reminds me of the phrase "For Whom The Bell Tolls," which is part of a longer phrase "We are for whom the bell tolls" which is sometimes used in the military.

Stranger: Breekon and Hope make a delivery to Fr. Burroughs and the congregation is uncanny

End: I can't find anything relating to The End, except that graveyards tend to be on church grounds and the events happen to a priest but that is the biggest stretch in the history of stretches. However, while the punishment for sinners is agreed on being sent to Hell, in the Middle Ages, another popular belief was that sinners don't pass on, their spirits just stay on earth forever. If my theory about The End also being tied to fears of immortality is true, then that could be a tie.

Hunt: I couldn't find anything

Desolation: For one: Fr. Burroughs's encounter with the supernatural heat at Hill Top Road, as well as his mentioning how there were way too many candles at the service.

Vast: I couldn't find anything

Flesh: The cannibalism could be a mark, but seeing as there isn't much of a description of how fleshy or gross it is, so I don't know if this is a mark or not

Dark: I couldn't find anything

Spiral: The Spiral runs rampant through this statement, from Fr. Burroughs's loss of sense of reality, to how the altar boy was described a lot like Micheal, but there is one that I'd like to mention. The Stole that Fr. Burroughs was wearing is yellow, which I mentioned isn't a Liturgical color, but there are ties with yellow in the church has heavy ties to deceit, lies, and manipulation, mainly due to in the Middle Ages Judas (the Apostle that betrayed Jesus) wore a lot of yellow.

Buried: Again, I couldn't find anything relating to The Buried unless you really stretch Fr. Burroughs meeting Breekon and Hope and their ties to The Coffin as a mark.

Extinction: I couldn't find anything, but this just might be due to how The Extinction hadn't fully emerged.

So we have 11 out of 14/15, which is a good score. Even if this wasn't intentional, it does intrigue me, and I still love these episodes as a Catholic and a horror enthusiast.

#the magnus protocol #tma spoilers #tma entities #tma flesh #tmp #tmp spoilers

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ruki--mukami · 2 years ago

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"Happy birthday... Ruki... We've made you... a cake and... gotten you all gifts... I got you those new... books you were wanting the... last time we went to... the bookstore together... And you couldn't decide which... books you wanted..."

"So... Here you go..."

"Oh, books are boring~! I got you some new chokers! The one you got on makes you look like someone just cut up a piece of yarn and you decided to wear it, Ruki! It's not fashionable! So I got you some new ones that actually look good! And we made your favorite cake!"

"And no, I didn't burn it this time!"

"I didn't put salt in the cake this time instead of sugar either... How am I s'pposed to know they're two different things? They look the same."

"I made ya somethin'. It's one of the wooden talismans I talked 'bout. Ya know the ones I made all the time on the streets as a kid for good luck? Well... I made one for ya. Ya need it after all the bad luck ya've had. So... Here."

"All of you truly went out of your way for the sake of my birthday. It's wonderful, I will admit, but why? You have my thanks, but going to such great lengths to appease me amidst the endless, immortal cycle that we'll continue to live as Vampires really isn't necessary. Especially when I'm content just being with the three of you, living as peacefully as we can. Still though," he began, voice slightly tinged with appreciation towards his family, "I appreciate it."

First, he started with Azusa's thoughtful gift from an encounter that the eldest nearly forgot about until the book he sought after emerged from the gift wrap like a pleasant stroke of fate, written by one of his favorite authors over recent years.

"Even I have difficulty deciding which novel I should ultimately add to my vast collection, but I'm surprised you remembered that trivial dilemma of mine. Thank you, Azusa. It's because of you that I know exactly how I shall spend my free time in the upcoming days," a subtle smile crept upon his lips before he heard the idol's impertinent remark, and suddenly he soured again. "Books are anything but boring. Perhaps if you weren't easily overwhelmed after a mere paragraph, Kou, then you'd see the joys of reading—but I digress."

After the snide retort, the smirk crawled onto his visage again as Ruki took the rather stylish chokers Kou selected for him. While it fell outside his comfort zone by a hair, the eldest couldn't deny that their intricate designs still complemented his current attire nonetheless. With agile hands, he swiftly removed the signature webbed choker he always wore and replaced it with one of the new accessories to try on.

"Hmm, not bad. How does it look? Is it better than my 'cut up piece of yarn'? What a rich statement coming from the one who always compares our prey to feline mammals," he scoffed. "In all seriousness, I don't mind how these chokers appear in the slightest. I'll spare you the fashion debate for later. You have my gratitude as well, Kou."

Last but certainly not least, the fresh aroma of the cake—correctly baked this year—filled the manor. The dark chocolate and coffee notes immediately caught his attention, earning the hint of a satisfied grin.

"Yuma, for future reference, you can easily tell the difference between the two by tasting them beforehand. In case you get confused again: Salt is the salty-tasting one. And I believe you have become more than acquainted with the taste of sugar from those cubes you own."

Sarcasm dissipating, Ruki finally reached for the nearest fork and ate a moderate mouthful of the cake they dedicated their time to baking for him on his special day. The exquisite flavor stimulated his taste buds in comparison to previous celebrations, genuinely impressing him with their evident improvement as each layer of cake melted in his mouth.

"This is much more edible than I first anticipated," he joked. "Kidding. In truth, you've shown how even us Vampires are capable of honing our skills, even if it is a culinary endeavor. I'm more than pleased."

Turning his attention to the tallest of the family, the talisman Yuma carefully crafted undoubtedly rekindled memories of the past once Ruki laid his sight on it. The words to follow stung as he recalled the suffering from the orphanage, the descent of his human family, and the famished days wandering as a child. Hesitance exuded in each step before he finally accepted the gift, protectively curling his long, slender fingers around its fine wooden texture.

"How considerate of you, Yuma. We've all had our unfortunate circumstances as children, but even so, can you truly call it 'bad luck' if it brought all of us together like this? I'll treasure the talisman always, but just know that the memories we share today eclipse those we would prefer not to dwell on. Although I would never expect any extravagant plans or celebrations for my birthday, I'm elated that I could spend these precious moments with you in light of a new dawn. The kindness you have shown me will never go unnoticed."

#diabolik lovers #ruki mukami #mukami ruki #ask #rp #diabolik lovers rp #birthday event 2023 #diabolik-boys #azusa mukami #kou mukami #yuma mukami #(( idk why ruki was extra snarky in this one but i think he was still somewhat wholesome in the end AHAHHAHAHA ))

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syngrafaes09 · 2 years ago

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Strange Nights | Vampire! Dr Strange x Y/n

Logline: After Y/N gets imprinted by a vampire Dr Strange, living under a fictive identity, they must unravel the cause behind her constant misadventures before their hopes are crushed forever.

Masterlist

Chapter 18 : Kamar Taj

"Try your blood," Loki said, disdainfully, more disappointed as the witches had fallen short of the standard they were expected. The silver locket, irrevocably sealed against all the opening spells, lay pensively on the oak table.

There was a flash of green, and then a silver dagger in Y/N's palm. With a shaky breath, she pierced her skin, letting dark scarlet drops taint the turquoise surface of the rock. A shimmering golden light outlined the edges of the silver metal, cracking the locket open, that held a ring wedged tightly around the portrait of her father.

Wanda's glowing fingers hovered over the cut, sealing it close. It was then Y/N noticed her crumpled nose. The mysterious locket that had been anything but an ordinary souvenir for so many years after her mother's death had held up from being careful about spilling her blood.

"Vetus te'revis," Stephen murmured, his finger tracing the outline of Jane's portrait where once had lay another ring. "What does that mean?" she asked him, watching as a flicker of excitement crossed his tired, sleepy face.

"It's a dark ritual to walk through a dead person's memories. The things we use in our daily life, objects that possess our sentimental value carry a part of ourselves with them. They even hold secrets that we haven't shared with the world. The burnt objects in your room had been used in the ritual. And we can't ever know what they wanted from Jean," Wanda explained.

"Anna wanted to know about her." Stephen's statement made no sense to her, and probably the rest of them. From trying to find a reliable fact from intangible memories which had nothing common other than being strangled, to guess it must be the locket that the attacker must have wanted and trying to break it open had exhausted her to a point where she would be happy if someone dragged her to the bed. Sorcery didn't seem as much interesting as she had fantasised. A bit of concentration and mind penetration from Wanda had taken its toll on her. She couldn't make any sense of where Anna came from in all of this. "Anna?"

"She is involved in this with many others." The wild attacks weren't wild after all. The hybrid creatures and attacks had been deliberately staged to keep them occupied. "Nothing is making sense. Don't you all be Sherlock Holmes," Y/N wearily chastised.

"She had planned to do it on Halloween Night. Mathew and I were occupied with victims, but Jean had placed old but a bit strong protective spells. She managed to break them sometime later but I was already there by then, she didn't have the ring, you had it but were with me. The next day she got it from you, coincidentally Wanda and I happened to cross by the accidental site and she didn't have enough time to either plant proper memories on you or break the new protection spells. Worried that you might recover the memory, she tried to blend into your life and get the proper opportunity to do what she wanted."

"I wish they had just told me the truth," her voice a whisper over the howling winds that ravaged the ruined city. The place had been so close to the nuclear attack, she could hardly believe any old building would have survived it.

"Sometimes our elders try to protect us, not knowing what they are protecting us from." Through the ivied fog, he could make out the remodelled building of Kamar Taj, thinking back to the way he had journeyed here in search of hope. And it didn't take too long for a familiar face to emerge from behind the towering stone walls. He looked disbelievingly more at him than his accomplice.

"Sensed you coming," Wong said after they closed in.

"Of course you did."

She peered nervously around as she followed the men. They had been talking about the west wing; some supposed sorcerers and the reason behind their arrival. She could hear a few voices from across the courtyard, except which the castle, sanctum she corrected, seemed to be empty. The names, she focused, sounded oddly familiar. She had overheard her parents using the title Master frequently when they were strenuously searching for a man few months before her mother died. She hadn't taken it seriously until after her death. But every time she asked Charles about it, he would either avert the conversation or avoid Y/N like a plague.

Her heart gave a jolt when they reached the west wing. It was a miniature version of the courtyard and its building except it was more dark, cold, and absolutely desolated. Warned that magic was going to extract a heavy physical price from her, she had hoped her mental strength didn't diminish and also hoped for some better place for training when Stephen had told her that his manor was not the perfect place to practice.

"Y/N", she sighed with defeat at the sound of his voice. Whatever was going to happen, however, it was happening, acceptance seemed the only way out. She weakly nodded at Stephen's instructions and resigned herself to the indicated room on the second floor.

"Stephen," Wong said tensely, "why are you protecting her from other sorcerers?"

"She doesn't seem to recognise her own powers. Hell, I don't understand much of it either!" He seemed suddenly, disconcertingly vulnerable. "Some of them are after her, neither of us knows why. I can't let any - "

"She isn't...," he didn't need to complete the question. The apparent tension in his body was enough of an answer. He wasn't surprised much to find Stephen in this odd situation. With his bag of luck, he always managed to get himself in dicey situations.

"The first time I met her, I had go far away from her. I didn't want her involved with me in any way. But as I watched her, a part of me craved for something normal- I wanted to be with someone who didn't remind me of those years. But all that happened is I got sucked into this chaos once again."

"There is a saying - one often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it. You won't able to ever give up this," Wong gestured around, "one way or the other you'll find yourself here." He sighed and kept staring at the mountains lining the horizon with jagged peaks.

"The Council doesn't know about her," Stephen said after some time. Wong mulled over it for a few minutes. "You are giving them another reason to detest you. You won't stay invincible forever-"

"I never wanted to be ever. Everything I'm doing is for her safety. Jean hadn't informed of her presence to anyone, I can't dare to do it unless I know why."

"Nobody here will question you but if Mordo - you know what will happen then." He nodded. He knew very well - two witches with Chaos magic at his side will be enough to get all the sorcerers against him and they won't stop even if they destroy everything in the process. "I know very well that you won't stop unless you finish what you have started, what you believe is for the best. But a friendly piece of advice, don't get attached to her. In the end, you'll always lose her," he said softly, slowly waking away from him.

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