#sometimes it’s humanities people who think everything is word games

[ifishouldvanish]

For Love (Pt. 3/5)

SHIPS | Mizrak/Olrox, Past Alucard/Olrox, ...future AluMizRox RATING | M (will probably become E next chapter... 👀) WORDS | 2,005 FIC SUMMARY | After the hard-won battle, Alucard can't help checking in on how Olrox and Mizrak are doing. When he finds them hiding in an abandoned Parisian apartment, he's furious to learn his old companion has turned the valiant warrior monk into a vampire. And yet... his heart won't let him leave. [Part 1] | [Part 2] | [Part 3] [READ ON AO3]

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Sometimes it was Alucard who came to feed him. Sometimes it was Olrox. Sometimes, both of them came, with some kind of rodent or fowl or other small game.

They had dragged a human in this morning, but Mizrak couldn't bring himself to feed on it despite all their coaxing. Despite all their insistence that he would have to make his peace with it, for he could only sustain himself on animals and the generosity of two other vampires for so long.

When Olrox fed him, he would strip and lie on the bed in offering, encouraging him to embrace the base instincts of his thirst. To let go of guilt, let go of shame. To indulge in the pleasure of it, instead of denying himself like he had all his mortal life.

Alucard's approach was to show him how to exercise restraint. To ride out the episodes of frenzy and desperate hunger so he could feed with a clear head. So he could confront this thing he'd become on a more conscious level, rather than let it take over and his feedings become blackout moments that felt somewhere between reality and dream, memory and nightmare.

The hunger pangs were becoming less intense, at least. Easier to get through, to stay in control of. Which was leaving Mizrak with the time and faculties to think.

He sat on the edge of the bed once again, still toeing the line of sunlight that cracked through the curtains. The world had become strange, with his new, heightened senses. He thought he might miss the sunlight, but his eyes now saw so well in the dark, he'd hardly given it a thought.

Instead, he wondered what his eyes looked like now. If they were the same hellfire red most of the vampires he'd seen had had, or the emerald green Olrox had. But while the lavish apartment they were in had plenty of mirrors, he couldn't see himself reflected in any of them.

He liked to think they'd be green. Perhaps, he wondered one time after Alucard had fed him, the color might be influenced by his food source. Perhaps right now, they'd be something in between Alucard's gold and Olrox's emerald.

He supposed he could ask either of them, but he was a little bit afraid of the answer.

And then there were his ears. He could hear everything.

Alucard and Olrox spoke often in the other room. Sometimes they argued, sometimes they laughed. Most of the time, they did both.

It was plain to see that they were close. When they weren't arguing over how best to get him acclimated to his new life, they reminisced about a past spent in the New World. People and places with names that sounded strange to Mizrak's ears.

He'd gleaned that at some point, some kind of demon had brought Alucard to the brink of death, and that Olrox had brought him back to life with the gift of his blood.

When Mizrak had first come to after his turning, angry and frightened and confused, Olrox had simply assured him that he’d done it for love.

But back in that quiet room at the inn in Machecoul, Olrox had also told him that he'd only ever truly loved once in the past—and that that man was dead.

It made Mizrak wonder: If Olrox had given Alucard his blood for some reason other than love, then what had it been? Selflessness? Honor? Respect? And why was Alucard here? Still, after three days? Patiently feeding another vampire’s spawn every few hours?

It could only be love, couldn't it? Because Mizrak had gleaned that too. That Alucard had been in love with Olrox. That he probably still was.

Yes. Each time Alucard restrained him through a fit of bloodlust and offered his wrist to him, it was an act of love. Love for Olrox. A desire to spare the man he still loved—a man who did not love him back—the pain of losing him.

The thought made Mizrak feel sick to his stomach with shame.

What had he done for love? Olrox had protected him time and time again, risked his position with Bàthory’s court to warn him, gotten himself branded—all for love. But what had he, Mizrak, done for love?

You're an animal, which lost its soul centuries ago.

You're a creature without honor.

Every moment I spend with you dishonors me.

Get thee behind me, Satan.

Everything he'd known about a vampire’s nature had been a lie, it seemed. Had made it so easy to look at everything Olrox did and assume it could only have been for selfish, duplicitous reasons. So easy to believe that he'd turned him out of nothing more than a refusal to let go of something he felt belonged or was owed to him. An act of possession. That he was a damned creature determined to drag his soul down to hell with him.

But it wasn’t true, was it?

All those things he'd thought he'd known had simply made it easier to pretend he hadn't felt the way he did. To put the onus on some demonic spell Olrox had cast on him, rather than the stirrings of his own heart.

When Mizrak thought back on the things he'd done—the deal with Bàthory, the harvesting of bodies for night creatures—he liked to think it was for the love of God. And God was supposed to forgive. But He had not. He'd let the flames of hell lick at his heels instead.

Olrox had forgiven him, though. Olrox had—despite all those terrible things he'd said—only ever met him with love and compassion, with patience and understanding.

Olrox had turned him for love. Of that Mizrak was certain now. But what about him? Why was he here? Why had he let Olrox turn him without a word of protest?

It had to be either because he loved him back, and was ready to accept an eternity at his side—or because he was a coward, too afraid to accept his punishment.

The more he heard the two of them talk, laugh, argue in the other room—the more he saw the pained look in Alucard’s eyes each time he fed him—the more it felt like the latter.

And didn't Olrox deserve better than that? Deserve someone who loved him in turn? Someone like—

Mizrak's ears pricked as the doorknob rattled from the other side. The door creaked open, and Olrox appeared. “…You’re awake.” He observed in a quiet voice, and there was a slight smile, too—but it faltered when Mizrak failed to say anything. “…What's the matter, darling?”

Mizrak looked down at the floor. “You say you love me,” he said.

Olrox closed the door behind him and crossed the room, sitting beside him on the bed. He cupped his cheek and looked into his eyes. “I do.”

A wave of feeling crashed over him, and Mizrak clenched his eyes shut—holding back the sob threatening to come out. They were words he'd already heard countless times before from Olrox, but this time… this was the first time he'd listened to them, let them in.

“Why?” He sniffled. “I've… called you terrible things, denied you so many times. The only reason I let you turn me is because I was too much of a—” he choked on the admission and swallowed. “Too much of a coward to face my death with honor.”

“I don't believe that,” Olrox dismissed, shaking his head. “I can see what's in your heart, Mizrak,” he said, and took his hand. “I am a coward, and you are everything that I am not.”

Mizrak let himself be pulled into his embrace, let himself be held. Let himself be rocked in his arms like a newborn, let himself be lulled into a state of safety and calm.

“…Come now,” Olrox said, giving him a final squeeze before letting go. “You should feed again.”

Mizrak nodded lifelessly, watching as Olrox began the familiar routine of removing his clothes. He would undress, lie down, and tell him to let the hunger take over. And for two days, he had. Fed upon him like an animal, telling himself he couldn't help it. That his new, vampiric instincts were to blame. But now his head was clear, and it just felt wrong. Wrong to take even more from this man that had already given him so much.

“Wait,” Mizrak said, stopping his hand where it was fingering the first of his buttons. Green eyes locked with his, brows furrowed in confusion. Swallowing thickly, Mizrak began to brush his thumb to and fro over Olrox's.

He really was beautiful, Mizrak thought, and all that feeling came flooding back. Mere days ago, he'd bent and twisted it into disgust, contempt, hatred. Anything to deny the truth. But now Mizrak knew them for what they really were. All the things Olrox had told him they were.

Longing.

Desire.

Love.

“…Let me,” Mizrak whispered, undid the first button for him.

Olrox lowered his hand and let him, watching him intently as he worked—looking not at his hands, but at his face. It made Mizrak begin to feel self-conscious, but when he dared to meet Olrox's gaze, he only saw the same tenderness as always.

He undid the next, and then another, his hand hovering in the place over Olrox’s heart. There was still some bruising there from prior feedings, and Mizrak thought of the Sacred Heart. A symbol of God’s boundless and passionate love for mankind. But the man before him wasn’t Christ. Just Olrox—this man, this vampire—with a boundless, passionate love for him.

As Mizrak reached the last of the buttons, he saw Olrox's hand resting in his lap and stared at it in hesitation—but what for? When had Olrox ever rebuffed him? Ever turned him away?

It had only ever been him, turning his back to the love Olrox so desperately wanted to give him.

Olrox kept inviting him to give into his hunger, give into his bloodthirst. Inviting him to devour and take as much as he wanted from him. But Mizrak didn't want to take or devour anymore. Didn’t want to take of him like an animal. God had still given him free will, after all, and Alucard had shown him that he could still use it. That he could feed consciously, with intent.

And now that Mizrak’s head was clear, he was seeing the man in front of him in a different light. It wasn’t predatory instinct, or temptation, no. No, love was the reason that, as he looked at Olrox’s bruised chest and serpentine eyes, he wanted to give back to him. Wanted to pray to him. Wanted to adore him and to praise him.

Slowly, Mizrak reached for Olrox's hand and laced their fingers, and by God, this feeling was everything. Such fullness and lightness, such warmth and peace. It was everything God's love was supposed to be. It would have been more than enough, had he known. Would have been worth facing an eternity of hell’s torment, had he let himself feel it before.

To think, he had almost been dragged to hell without ever knowing this feeling. But now he would have it for eternity. And Olrox had given him that.

Mizrak brought Olrox's hand to his lips and pressed a reverent kiss to his knuckles, the tears that had been welling in his eyes finally rolling down his cheeks as he clenched them shut.

“…Mizrak?”

“Forgive me,” he uttered before giving his hand another kiss. “Olrox, please forgive me—”

Olrox let out a string of placating shushing noises, wresting his hand free so he could cup Mizrak's face instead. He waited for him to open his eyes, and wiped his tears away with his thumbs.

“You're already forgiven, my love,” he said, and pressed a kiss to his forehead, and then his lips. “You'll always be forgiven.”

[tanadrin]

My most reactionary opinion is that a well-rounded education is actually a good idea, and you should in fact be forced to sit through subjects you aren’t necessarily interested in in school sometimes.

This is in substantial part nakedly self-interested: I see way too many people with an excessively one-sided education with absolutely nonsense dogshit takes on fields outside their experience, and I would prefer if there was less of that sort of thing in the future.

[teddybeartoji]

survival of the fittest.

you’ve been doing this for a long time now – mercernary work, and you’re good at it.

kill or be killed.

staring out of the window, you eye the pretty birds circling the street. they’re dancing and they’re singing, boasting about how great their lives are compared to yours. you don’t mind.

a child laughs somewhere down below. cars drive by, a motorcycle, a bike. it’s never quiet, it really never is. but the sounds get more muffled with every floor you climb, and now here on the tenth one, it’s not too bad. this is where you’re staying for the duration of the job; rented under a fake name, the apartment is a studio one. the windows are big and the ceilings are high – it’s perfect for your little spy work.

it’s all just human nature.

6’3, snow-white hair, azure blue eyes, muscular, with scars littered all over his body. the pride of the gojo clan and the first person to inherit both the limitless and the six eyes in four hundred years.

satoru gojo.

your mark.

he’s got quite the hefty price on his head, a lot of people want him gone from this world; he’s too strong, he’s too powerful – everything would be better, if he disappeared. you're just here for the paycheck though.

you’ve been observing him for five days now. with your eyes, with your ears. you’ve followed him through a shopping mall, watching him try on just about a hundred different outfits in about ten different stores. the man is well dressed, other than the outfit he likes to wear at home of course. a pyjama set – it’s white and pink with some kind of a cartoon character on the front of it. cute.

through the scope of the sniper rifle, you watch him live his life. he laughs with the servants in his fancy apartments, he makes jokes with the men that stand guard all day long. he likes to play video games and he likes to watch movies, he likes to work out, he likes to drink pink-colored milkshakes. he can’t sleep. he tosses and turns around in his bed at the early hours of the day, his eyes glued to the ceiling as if that’s going to help. sometimes, he paces around the room. sometimes, he does pushups. but none of it seems to work.

you see him yawn and you see the dark bags under his eyes.

he seems lonely.

it doesn’t matter.

(you are the same.)

he walks through his apartment with his head held up high, he waves the maids good night and they return the gesture with smiles. they seem genuine, and it’s a little hard to believe – this isn’t your first rich guy, your first pampered little boy, who doesn’t even realize what his life means. he doesn’t know what the word ‘work’ stands for, he doesn’t know what it means to survive. you’ve seen how people like him usually treat their servants, how they flinch at the smallest moves.

not with him though.

the air seems relatively light. you haven’t spotted a single tear or a frown from the people who work for him, they’re all seemingly having a blast. it’s interesting. perhaps he isn’t the prick everybody makes him seem to be, hm?

not that you care.

a ridiculously big number floats above his head and you don’t care. you need to live, too.

while he’s now alone in the apartment, you know for a fact there are two guards standing in front of the door and there are three of them down in the lobby. you can see one of them conversing with the doorman just now.

your eyes trail back up the building, the lit up windows and the blurry bodies that hide behind the curtains. he’s different; not once throughout the whole five days you’ve been here has he tried to shield himself from the world. not once has he tried to make your job any harder.

you can’t tell whether it’s arrogance or naivety. you’re leaning toward the former.

there’s a grin on his face.

hm.

what’s he up to now? a jerk-off session? that wouldn’t be new. or maybe he just remembered a witty remark he forgot to tell one of his maids. or is he’s just thinking about eating that ice cream he bought just yesterday? no, it's something else.

as a mercanary, you have to learn how to balance rational thinking and gut instinct. they’re both delicate things, they can change more than you’d ever assume and you have to accept that it’s important to listen to both. right now, your brain is telling you that this is just another night at the gojo apartment. he will watch a film and he’ll eat cereal and he’ll do some pull-ups and then he’ll try to sleep. but there’s this sinking feeling in your lower stomach.

and it only spreads as his smile widens.

he’s right there in your sights, handsome as ever, with your finger now resting on the trigger.

enough.

inhale.

but your breath hitches when he suddenly goes to grab his phone; standing in front of the window, he rests his hand on his hip while bringing the little piece of technology to his ear. it's definitely arrogance. you think of the money, you think of the life you could have. it’s just another job, it’s nothing personal. he doesn’t seem happy anyway. you’re doing him a favour.

it’s a dog-eat-dog world.

it takes almost no force at all to pull the trigger. you’re used to it.

exha—

your phone rings.

blinking into the scope, you try to stay on the middle ground between logic and instinct. he’s not the one calling. he isn’t. stop panicking. adrenaline pumps in your veins but you can’t look away. you feel eyes everywhere around you. you feel sick. he isn’t the one calli—

your phone rings again.

and you watch him raise his hand from his hip to point at his own as he stares right at you.

he’s across the street. he’s so far – you’re looking at him through a fucking scope, he cannot see yo—

ah... so, that’s how the six eyes really work, huh.

alarms blare in your mind. just pull the fucking trigger. the tiny crosshair is set on his forehead.

shoot him.

the corners of his eyes crinkle.

take the fucking shot.

he has dimples.

your hand reaches for your phone without you even realizing it.

"why are you taking so long?" he sounds giddy, he sounds fucking excited. "i'm bored out of my mind here, angel. c'mon– "

"entertain me, hm?"

[vexwerewolf]

why is it that we only have like two licenses from any mech producer that’s a good guy? For a game where like there are clear good and bad guys (even if who you play isn’t necessarily linked to that) it seems strange to me that the only loot and XP you get is… more benefits from the bad guys

I can tell you the answer, but to do so, we're gonna have to talk about a completely different TTRPG.

If you've read @makapatag's truly excellent Filipino martial arts TTRPG Gubat Banwa (and if you haven't, here it is), you may notice that every single character class description (with one notable exception) ends with one of these babies:

I am not Makapatag, and I cannot write with quite as much grace and eloquence as he can, but I will try:

If you choose to become a Lancer, ask yourself why you mock the name of peace with these weapons of war. You call yourself a saviour, but your steed was forged from the murder of a world. You stride across the sky in a colossus built in your own image, so why are you too cowardly to give it your face? Why do you believe these machines of death can preserve life?

It is important to note that the admonitions in Gubat Banwa are not just there to make you feel bad; they are there as legitimate questions. The Sword Isles have seen so much blood, death and tragedy. Wars are not glorious and killing is not a game. So, knowing all of that, why have you taken up this discipline - no matter how noble and virtuous it might claim to be - to shed more blood, to bring more death, to write more tragedy? What could possibly drive you to this? What need is so great that you must kill?

The thing with Gubat Banwa is that there are legitimate answers to these questions! There are bad people doing bad things, and some of them will not be stopped with words or kindness. Sometimes, as sorrowful as it is, killing is the correct choice to prevent greater suffering and deeper tragedy - but adding less misery and death to the world is still adding some amount of it. Even the most necessary wars will drench the ground in the blood of the innocent.

A sword is a tool meant to kill humans; while it can be used for other things, it is not well-suited to anything other than this. A mech is, in its most basic essence, just a very complicated sword: it's usually used on things larger than a person, but it's still a tool built to kill.

So why have you taken up this path? Humanity was saved from the brink of extinction and has created wondrous technologies like printers, cold fusion and mind-machine interface, and yet you use them to play soldier in a giant metal man. Why do you choose to take up this machine of death, built by the greedy and pitiless? Why do you think these machines can ever make things right?

Because sometimes, despite everything, they can.

Warhammer 40K shows an awful world full of monsters and monstrosity, and in the darkest moments of its history, Lancer's world looked just as bleak, but Lancer's world differs in one crucial way. Warhammer's world has long given up trying to be better, but Lancer's world never did. Lancer's world kept insisting a better world is possible, and it used what tools it had to make it so.

Sometimes the correct choice, no matter how bitter it may seem, is to kill someone. When you need to do this, a sword is a perfectly good choice for the job.

If you find yourself discomforted by the fact that all the people you can buy mechs from are corrupt and immoral - good! You have correctly engaged with the text. You have understood that the sort of people who would make giant walking death machines and sell them for profit are not good people. But you still have a job to do, and you need the correct tools, and those people have them.

Lancer is not a game about a perfect world - it is a game about a deeply flawed and imperfect one that does not let its imperfection stop it from trying. You have to try to make a better world, even with imperfect tools made by unpleasant people.

[envy-of-the-apple]

Keep Your Head In The Game

Yandere! Victoria Neuman x reader

(Warnings: threats of murder, non con touching/kissing, implied captivity)

Working at the Bureau had been your dream job. 

Vought had ruined so many people’s lives. It felt good to be part of something that stood against that company for those who couldn't. Despite not having powers, even you could be a hero. You'd worked under Victoria Neuman for years. You knew everything about her. 

And then Hughie Campbell ruined everything. 

You’d like to think of him as a friend. You and him had lunch together sometimes. You’d sit and smile as he went on and on about his girlfriend. He was a nice guy. You’d like to think that he and you were close. 

But Hughie broke you.  

Evidence. He’d shown you evidence of what she’d done. So much blood. So much gore. The orphanage, the files. 

“She’s one of them,” he’d whispered right before he fled into the night, “stay away from her. Quit. Please, for your sake, don’t go back to that fucking snake den.” 

And then he was gone. Just like that. 

Work in the Bureau continued as normal. Safe for the rumors of Soldier boy sightings, everything was so…fine, even without him. 

Even Neuman was unphased. 

She still smiled and laughed and told jokes as she surrounded herself with regular humans. She curled her lip when Supes were discussed. You used to love it when she brought Zoe around, but even her daughter you couldn’t even trust to be real. 

Victoria didn’t act like a Supe. 

But Hughie wasn't lying. 

Friday night. The bureau had a party going on tonight. Another Supe had been successfully put away. Those were always a sight, especially considering Gina would get shitfaced. You couldn’t go, feigning illness before you slipped out the night. You couldn’t enjoy yourself, not when you had so much to think about. 

Instead of enjoying the night with coworkers, you found comfort in the hardest liquor in your cabinet. Your one true friend. 

Not Hughie. Not anymore. Hughie left. Or maybe he was killed. Who knows. Who fucking cares. 

There’s a knock on your door. When you ignore it, it comes again louder. You groan, but you pull yourself off the couch eventually. Your neighbor again. You need to have a talk with her about disturbing you at odd hours of the night. 

“You look like you’ve seen better days.”

You can only stare. Victoria tilts her head. 

“Gonna let me in or will I have to stand out here?” 

Against your judgment, the instinct of always listening to your boss kicking in, you open the door. She elegantly steps in, surveying your home. 

She’s wearing that blue suit you’ve always complimented her on. Earlier, you would have admired her professional elegance. Now, it makes her look more inhuman. She looks even more out of place in your shabby apartment, studying your upkeep. 

“Sorry,” you say when you stop gawking, “I…I hadn’t had time to clean up.” 

“Don’t worry about it.” Victoria waves you off. “Just checking in on my favorite employee. How’re you feeling, by the way.” 

“Good.” You quickly reply. “I was just feeling a little under the weather earlier. I hope I didn't worry you." 

"Why wouldn't I be worried?" She tilts her head, grinning with straight white teeth that get increasingly eerie the longer you stare. "We're friends, aren't we?" 

Before, you wouldn't have blinked twice at her words and tone. You would have mindlessly agreed, smiled even. But things were different now. You were playing pretend with a known murderer. 

If you close your eyes, you can still remember the faces in that court before their heads exploded. You'd been behind a screen, watching it all in horror and you remembered closing your eyes and begging for Victoria to be alright, praying that it would be okay if everyone died but her. 

And now to realize she caused all that? 

"Maybe you have a fever. You're shaking." 

You were. You clasp your trembling hands together, trying to ease your nerves. 

"Yeah." Even your voice was wavering. Calm down. Calm down. "I still might not be over...whatever I came down with."

The predator clicks her tongue in sympathy, cooing as she nears her prey. You force yourself not to stiffen when she wraps a sturdy hand around your shoulders, leading you over to the couch. You sit next to her with your thigh pressed up against hers. You feel like you're about to vomit. 

"You should rest," Victoria says, "take a few days off work. I'll let everyone know." 

"Yeah," you say because this is good, it'll help you focus on what you need to do next, "definitely, thank you." 

"Oh, please, don't thank me." She laughs. "I'm glad you're not in the office because you're sick. For some reason, I thought you were avoiding me. Y'know, 'cause you were scared, I would pop your head." 

One second. Two seconds. And then you're up, scrambling off the sofa. It's instinct to run from monsters, no matter if they would take your head off your shoulders on a whim, whenever they want. It's instinct to be stupid and careless and run. 

If anything, you should be grateful this monster is her. 

She's strong, like all Supes are. Even though you know what she is, it takes you a moment to realize it's Victoria who had pinned you against the couch, keeping you underneath her. You used to win arm-wrestling competitions against her. The pressure caused your lungs to tighten, making it hard to breathe. Even has you struggled, tried to claw at her hands, tug on her pristine clothes, she didn't budge. You think the worst thing about all of this was that it didn't even look like it took much effort to keep you down. Like she was wrestling a kitten. 

"Easy, easy." She hushes, tone soft and condescending. "C'mon, we're both adults, aren't we? Let's be civil here." 

Civil. Like she had any right to use that word after what she's done for months, perhaps all her life. Your heart is a hummingbird frazzled with fear, but you can feel that twinge of anger and resentment even then. Something else too: betrayal. 

"Why?" You asked, your voice failing. "Why, Vicky?" 

For the first time tonight, her mask cracks. Her eyes flicker, looking at your defeated body before coming back up to your face. She looks remorseful, but not guilty. 

"I didn't....I didn't want you to find out this way." She admits, slightly easing off you, enough to ease the force in your lungs. "Or maybe ever, actually. Fucking Cambell, leaving a mess, and then running off. What else can you expect from that guy, right?" 

You just stare. Victoria sighs. 

“Of all people, I thought you would understand.” Her voice wavers. “I thought you’d get it, somehow.” 

You look at her, and you feel like you’re staring at that girl from Red River. Scared and Trembling Nadia, who just wanted love, someone to lean on. Someone who wasn't scared of her. 

Then it flickers, and then Victoria's back. 

"You murdered a whole room." You finally say. "How could you possibly ask me to understand that?" 

She glowers, her frown deepens, and then she's sitting up, getting off you. You learn your lesson from last time, but you still huddle in the corner of the sofa, watching her. 

"Right, because I'm supposed to believe you feel bad for them." Victoria rolls her eyes. "Half of those guys vacationed on Epstein's island before the brand change, and you were there when those deep fakes came out. Remember Congressmen Davis? He kept staring at your ass on the House Floor, so I'm not sure why you're acting like they're suddenly men of valor." 

"Yes, yes, yes, they were terrible people." You press your hand to your forehead. "But you-we-we can't kill people. We-we're supposed to do things the right way and I just-" You choke on your words. 

"Hughie got to you," she notes, "I knew I shouldn't have paired you up with each other." 

"You lied to me." You murmur. There's no anger anymore, just heartbreak. "You lied to everyone. I thought we were fighting against Vought, but we've been in their pocket this whole time." 

"We're still fighting-" 

"You're Stan Edgar's daughter. We're in their pocket."

You press your hands to your face, squeezing. All the while you can feel Victoria watching. You ignore her. There's no point in talking to her, not anymore. You might not have known Victoria, but you know the Supe that committed a massacre. Her cover was blown. You were a leaking faucet she needed to turn off. 

"What now?" You ask, drawing up to look at her. "Are you going to kill me?" 

Her mouth twitches. Her eyes flicker with realization. A soft coo comes from her lips, utterly condescending. Suddenly, her posture changes: less intimidating, more welcoming. 

"Oh, sweetie, is that why you're so upset?" She shifts until you're trapped in her arms. You don't bother fighting. Your bravery has run out. Tears are already dripping down your cheeks. "You thought I was gonna...." There's a laugh spilling off her lips. You squeeze your eyes shut when she hugs you tighter. 

"I'm not gonna hurt you," Victoria says, a smile in her voice. "Not to you. Never to you." 

Her hands are so warm as she cradles your face, forcing you to look at her. It's a gentle type of cruelty, forcing you to face your fears while the monster gives you a beautiful smile. 

"I cherish you too much to do that." 

You must look so lost. She laughs even more at that. 

"Seriously? It wasn't obvious? C'mon, Zoe is crazy about you, she never shuts up. And I...I think it's better if I just..." 

Her lips are soft. Gentle. You don't kiss back. You can't. You're frozen in ice. 

"I won't hurt you." Then, her tone tightens just the tiniest bit. "You're friends and family, on the other hand..."

When she pulls away, she's the most relaxed you've ever seen her. You wish you could say the same. While her smile grows larger, so does the gaping hole in your stomach. 

You close your eyes, slumping in defeat.

"What do you want?" You plead. 

You can feel her lips press on your cheek. Victory.

When you walk through the door, Zoe looks elated. 

She calls your name with a delighted giggle, reaching out to hug you. You wish you could return her enthusiasm, but you can barely pat her head. 

"What're you doing here?" She asks when she's done hugging you, looking up at you with pretty eyes. Her eyes are much like her mother's; they just haven't lost their innocence yet. 

Neuman steps in, a strong hand on your shoulder. That same gentle smile that holds the comfort a mother has for her daughter. 

"Gas leak, right?" She turns to look at you. "Real nasty. So, I offered our home for a little while." 

Zoe nods. She's the only thing so far that's remained stagnant. Maybe that's why you're more than eager to listen to what she did at school that day. She rambles on and on, and there's nothing left to say anymore. Until Victoria sends her daughter to bed. 

"It's probably best to keep the real reason hush-hush," she tells you later, shutting the master bedroom. 

You're seated pliantly on the bed, watching her shrug off her cardigan. The mattress sinks underneath your weight. Silk covers. It's too big for just one person. 

You're not a captive, she explained in the back of her fancy black car. You could roam around, meet up with friends, call people, do whatever your heart desired. It would just be under her eyes from now on. 

"A safeguard." She charitably explained, perfectly manicured fingernails drumming on her thigh. "Just so you don't do something we both might regret." 

You don't know if she'd been telling the truth when she insisted your head was off-limits, but you knew she had your family's names and addresses. So you sat pliantly in that car, pliantly listened to Zoe, and pliantly followed Victoria into her bedroom. 

On paper, you weren't a captive. But you and Victoria both knew better. 

"Is Zoe also...?" You trail off, averting your eyes when she unbuttons her blouse. You can hear her clothes drop to the floor as she unabashedly rifles through her drawer. 

"No," Victoria answers. And then your heart drops when she adds. "Not yet." 

You shudder, but she's already sitting next to you. She coaxes you to look at her with a hand on your cheek. Even dressed down, she's gorgeous. Unblemished skin was barely covered by a silk gown. 

You think she looks just as upset as you. Maybe even more. She pets your cheek thoughtlessly. 

"When I brought you to my bed for the first time, I thought things would be different, somehow." She laughs. It sounds bitter. 

"I never wanted this. Not for us," Victoria says, "but-but there's nothing else I can do. It...." 

A tear drips down your face. She's pushing it away. 

'You'll be okay." A kiss to your temple. "I know you will." Lips at your cheek. 

When she finally gives into her inhibitions and kisses you, you know she was lying about it all. 

[enderlovez]

On Thin Ice

Spencer Reid x Chubby Reader WORD COUNT: 1300+

Summary: After a particularly grueling case, the weight of your insecurities catches up with you. Despite years of toughening yourself against judgment, an unexpected moment of self-doubt has you questioning everything—until Spencer reminds you of your worth.

Content Warning: body image issues, insecurity and self doubt, emotional vulnerability, mentions of childhood bullying, Spencer is a sweetheart, metaphors about falling through ice

────── ꒰ঌ·✦·໒꒱ ──────

You've always been the fat kid.

The one picked last for teams in gym class. The one who endured sidelong glances at lunch when you grabbed a second slice of pizza, even though everyone else was already on their third. The one people were dared to ask out during games of truth or dare.

The one whose confidence had to be built like a fortress over the years of relentless judgement, brick by painstaking brick. You'd grown used to the torment over the years—or so you thought.

The things you've seen in this job are enough to shatter most people—dead bodies and grieving familiar and the kind of darkness that crawls under your skin and refuses to leave.

You've stood on the edge of danger more times than you care to count, facing down killers without so much as flinching, literally been stabbed and shot. None of it breaks you. But tonight, staring at your reflection in the BAU bathroom mirror, you feel like you're crumbling.

Your blouse, which you'd liked when you put it on this morning, now feels all wrong. The fabric stretches across your chest and stomach in ways that make your skin crawl.

It fits—technically—but your brain won't let you believe it. The logical part of you knows it's fine—it fits and it looks good, no one cares. But the voice in your head, the one you've spent years trying to quiet, whispers, Isn't it a little snug?

You press your palms flat against the sink, trying to steady your breathing. Why does this matter? you ask yourself. Why do I care?

You see the worst humanity has to offer every day. You quite literally deal with life and death and unimaginable grief. Your body—how it looks, how it fits into societal expectations—should be the least of your concerns.

And yet, here you are.

Maybe part of the reason everything feels to terrible tonight is because of him—Spencer. He's been talking to you heaps more lately, and though it really should make you feel better, it only deepens whatever this insecure feeling inside you is.

The way he moves, the way he talks, the way his beautiful mind works—everything about him fascinates you, and you've been harboring this ridiculous, all-consuming crush for months.

But no matter how much you try to push it down, it always creeps back in, and with it comes the certainty that you're not his type. How could you be? He's brilliant and kind and effortlessly charming in his own unique way, and you're... you. Soft in all the undesirable places, sometimes a little too loud for even yourself.

It's not that you don't think you're worth something, but when you're next to him, it's hard not to feel like you fade into the background. And you've been next to him a lot more than usual.

The mirror reflects your frown back at you, the tightness in your chest growing until it feels like you might snap. You splash cold water on your face, hoping the shock will pull you out of your spiral.

It doesn't, but you can pretend it does.

The bullpen is quiet when you step back into it, the hum of computers and the rustle of papers the only sounds. Most of the team has gone home for the night, except for Spencer.

You find him in the kitchenette, his tall frame bent awkwardly as he wrestles with the ancient coffee maker.

He glances up as you walk in, his expression softening when he sees you. "Couldn't sleep?"

Right—you were going to nap somewhere before getting back to work before you detoured to the bathroom.

You shrug, leaning against the counter. "Something like that."

Spencer nods, his focus shifting back to the coffee pot. "I think this machine predates the invention of modern technology," he mutters, earning a faint smile from you. He pours two mugs of coffee and hands one to you, his finger brushing your briefly.

"Thanks," you say, your voice quieter than you intended.

For a while, the two of you drink in silence, no words shared. None are needed. It's comforting, standing next to him in the soft glow of the kitchenette light. For a moment, you almost almost feel normal in your own skin. Like everyone else.

Except Spencer has always been too perceptive (especially when it comes to you, but you don't need to know that), and you can feel his gaze periodically flicking toward you, studying your face.

"You know," he says eventually, "it's okay to feel overwhelmed. You don't have to hold it together all the time, not when you're... in this particular profession."

The comment catches you off guard, and you look at him sharply. His expression is calm, his tone heartbreakingly gentle, but the words hit a nerve. You force a laugh, trying to deflect. "I'm fine, Spencer. Just tired is all."

He doesn't buy it. Of course, he doesn't. This is Spencer Reid, profiler extraordinaire, the man who can read you like an open book even when you think you're being subtle.

"Are you?" he asks, tilting his head slightly. His voice is soft, but there's an unfamiliar firmness to it that makes you pause.

You want to brush him off, to keep the walls you've built around yourself firmly in place. But the words slip out before you can stop them—apparently your subconscious is desperate to get it out.

"I don't know," you admit, your voice barely above a whisper. "It's just that sometimes I feel like... I don't know, like I don't belong here. Like I'm walking on thin ice, and any second it's going to crack, and I'm going to fall through."

Spencer's brows knit together, and he sets his mug down on the counter. "Why would you feel like that?"

You hesitate, the familiar shame and embarrassment bubbling up in your chest. "Because I've always been the... the fat one, okay? The one people look at and judge before they even know my name. I should be used to it by now. I am used to it, but sometimes..."

You trail off, swallowing hard.

"Sometimes it just gets to me, and I hate that it does, because it's so stupid. There are so many bigger things to worry about than how I look. People are actually dying out there, and I'm sitting here worried about my stupid blouse being too tight..."

Spencer step closer, his expression unreadable. For a moment, you wonder if you've said too much, if he thinks you're being ridiculous. But then he speaks, and his voice is steady, full of quiet conviction.

"It's not stupid. What you're feeling is valid," he says. "And you're not 'the fat one.' You're you—intelligent and compassionate and one of the strongest people I've ever met. The way you connect with people and make them feel seen, even in the darkest moments of their life—that's not something everyone can do. That's you."

The words hit you like a wave, the sincerity in his tone making your throat tighten. You look down at your coffee, unable to meet his eyes.

"You don't have to say that just to make me feel better," you mumble.

"I'm not just saying it to make you feel better," he replies. "I mean it."

He hesitates for a moment before reaching out, his hand hovering near yours. When you don't pull away—you don't think you could ever make yourself pull away from Spencer—he rests it gently on top of yours. The warmth of his touch is grounding, and for the first time all night, you feel like you can breathe again.

"Thin ice can hold more weight than you think," he says quietly. "And even if it does crack, you won't fall. I'll make sure of it."

Tears prick at the corners of your eyes, and you think them away quickly. "Thank you, Spencer," you say, your voice thick with emotion.

"Anytime." He smiles, the kind of smile that feels like sunlight breaking through the clouds. "And for the record, I think you're beautiful."

Your heart does a little flip, your face warming. Maybe one day you can tell him how you feel, how desperately in love you are with him.

Baby steps.

[awoogayanderes]

BSD MEN WITH THEIR TOXIC TRAITS

➪ characters : osamu dazai, chuuya nakahara, ryūnosuke akutagawa, fyodor dostoevsky, sigma, saigiku jouno

➪ other notes : i love writing silly angst with silly characters from my favorite silly anime / manga <3 non-edited

osamu dazai :

running away at any conflict with you

- whilst dazai has a lot of toxic traits and red flags, this issue is the biggest one by far

- running away is all dazai has left when it comes to arguing with you

- you’re someone he can’t lose, so instead he pushes everything under the rug, expecting it to go away

- you don’t dare mention his habit, but this fighting and forgetting habit has your hands tied together, not knowing what to do

- one minute you’re at each other’s throats, the next minute he’s gone, with uncomfortable silence choking you

- when you wake up, he’s hugging you tightly in the middle of his sleep as if your previous night’s encounter never existed

- he brings small bouquets of flowers to you when he comes back, wilting away once you get up and put them in a vase

- it’s almost a routine at this point, you fight, he leaves, you go to sleep angry, he comes back with flowers and lies next to you

- a relationship is staying with each other when things get difficult at times, but what happens when they leave you and come back into your arms with no other words said ?

chuuya nakahara :

over possessiveness and accusing of cheating

- this all roots from his previous betrayals where he thinks he’s found a family, only for it to be gone in a split second

- he’s a darling partner except that he can’t seem to trust you as much as he tries to

- ‘it’s just for precaution’ he says when he sends his men to be with you when you go out, it makes you feel weird having someone by you at all times

- if he ever gets the feeling that you’re being too friendly with a random waiter it always ends up with him accusing you of cheating on him

- you beg him to believe you when you say that you aren’t like the people he had in his life before, that you wouldn’t leave him

- he wants to trust you but when someone gets too close to you, it’s almost like a primal instinct to get you away from them

- he spoils you to no end but nothing materialistic compares to being alone without someone breathing down your neck

- it’s overwhelming not having time to yourself, always being surrounded by someone because they’re afraid to lose you

- you love him like a human so why does he love you like a trophy in fear of betrayal ?

ryūnosuke akutagawa :

lashing out at you for caring

- what else were you expecting when you started dating someone with so much trauma that he can only express with anger

- he doesn’t mean to lash out at you for no reason, he wants to make it work but instead of improving, his attitude continues to grow

- he doesn’t like you “nagging” at him to take better care of himself

- you know that there’s a big brick wall that stops you from reaching his heart but at what point is too much, too much

- when you nod at him after he screams at you, it almost angers him more because he thinks you aren’t listening even though you are, not wanting to argue back and cause more chaos

- there’s times where he makes up for his behavior, sometimes he picks a random flower from grass and gives it to you

- he doesn’t know why he gets so angry that you care for his wellbeing, isn’t that what couples normally do for each other

- it’s saddening seeing the own man you let into your life berate you for no reason

- it’s so hard to love someone who just seems to loathe you so much even with his small actions of caring

fyodor dostoyevsky :

seeing himself as your superior and seeing you as a pawn in his own game

- another man with a shitload of red flags and toxic traits, this one rising above them all

- he cares about you, he does ! but not in the way you’d like, he cares about you like how humans care about their pets

- sure he’d give you the world if he could, but he’d also give you up for his ideal world if it ever came down to that

- a relationship is a balance where each partner sees the other one as an equal, yeah not with fyodor it’s not

- you’ve proven your worth to him so many times for him to see you as the same as his level, instead it just makes you seem as a pawn under his control

- despite this, there are times where it almost seems that he cares about you like a person should, when you’re hanging onto his arm walking in a park humming quietly

- he indulges in your needs every so often, not before bringing you right back down to your place beneath him

- not even death would allow you to escape this cycle of rising and being kicked down

- why does he expect you to see him as the righteous hand of god when he sees you as a mere pawn ready to be sacrificed

sigma :

unintentionally guilt tripping you every time you get frustrated at him

- he’s been used so many times, his naivety is something he hates to the core, all he wants is someone to settle down with, a family

- he’s another sweetheart partner when you can push past the teary eyes and begging for you to not be mad at him and to not leave him

- his biggest fear is losing you, someone who doesn’t use him, he’d rather abandon his casino than end his relationship with you

- whilst he doesn’t realize, you notice his wording when he begs you to stay, often saying that he’s nothing without you, that he’d rather die than be without you

- maybe it’s heartwarming for the first few times but once it becomes a cycle you start to truly wonder if he’d actually go crazy without you or if it was all bluff

- even then, you can’t deny him when he guilts you into staying, he doesn’t know any better

- if you ever mention this to him, he’ll burst into tears, thinking you were breaking up with him, it takes hours trying to convince that you were here to stay

- it’s a repeating cycle he doesn’t notice and you can’t break for the sake of both of you

- love is a powerful thing, powerful enough to guilt you into staying with a man who loves you a bit too much

saigiku jouno :

putting his work above you at all costs

- he swore to protect those that need him, he’s not going to break that just for you

- you knew what you were getting into when you started dating the hunting dog, yet sadness can’t help but fill you when he misses important events with you

- after all you’ve been through with him, and not a single happy birthday text, not a single note for your anniversary, nothing

- he knows when you’re upset with him even if he can’t see your face, he can feel you rejecting his touch, and that’s when he reminds you of what he swore and what you agreed to

- it doesn’t help when he has his snarky attitude and almost mocking voice explaining to you why he can’t just walk out of a meeting

- despite this, he does love you, otherwise he wouldn’t waste his time on you, he loves that you still stick with him no matter what

- you really don’t ask for much, you understand his work and what he has to do, but he still thinks you make a big deal out of nothing

- as hypocritical as it sounds, he always expects you to be there for him even if he’s not

- you knew you were never going to be his first priority but it hurts so much more when he makes sure you know

[elkian]

More about GGG's finale and core plot (that is, BIG SPOILERS BELOW)

One recurring trend is loneliness. King's actions help connect people, and our protagonist continues in her footsteps, but the loneliness of the characters who play antagonists is especially notable.

The God Awards (which I've mentioned before, the whimsy of them made me totally blip over the red flags and implications) mention Inspekta doing everything for them. What would they be without him, Capochin asks?

"Lonely!"

Inspekta gathered the lonely hearts together. Gave them purpose. Gave them a charismatic leader to follow.

Saul is one of the most antagonistic non-Bizzy humans, and a recurring refrain in Milldread is how lonely everyone is. How gatherings are now somehow either discouraged or outright illegal (hmm, wonder whose idea that was). In fact, most of the Milldread citizens only have good or at least compassionate things to say about him.

(Sometimes I feel like the antagonists are shown a little much compassion given the way this plot goes, but it is also important to remember that deprogramming cultists etc. is based around showing compassion and reminding them that the world is not innately hostile to them. And there's only so much a single game can say in the span of a few hours, so, like, I get it.)

In fact, you have to insult Saul twice to progress in Milldread. How do you do this?

One, you get a dog to make a dog noise, and Saul loses it and comes over to harass the dog (and fail).

Two, after this point, he'll say that he "hates that shaggy little man". This is the line you need to give Budd to progress. When he asks for an insult levied at Saul, you can travel the town... and find that everyone has good things to say about him. He's misled, he's actually very sweet, his friends miss him.

It's very telling that the only way to effectively insult Saul to Budd is to use his own words to do it. Even writing this, I realize that this also implies a bit of a persecution complex with Saul - the people around him don't hate him, or even think he's particularly incompetent. They're worried about him. They understand that he's stressed. He was lead astray by a bad element but he snaps out of it (with help) in time to rejoin his community.

And speaking of throwing words back in faces...

Capochin shows a pretty regular skill for recognizing voices when you fling words at him - it's funny, because a lot of people in this game don't, so he's an outlier and that's amusing. In the battle against him, it means you have to work around him - you can't use his own words against him directly.

Instead, you put words in "Inspekta"'s mouth and bring that to Capo.

He shows an awareness, to a level, that this isn't really Inspekta talking. But this realization is a long time coming, and he can't repress it anymore. He can't deny reality when it's thrown in his face, when he's all alone, when nobody wants to work with him anymore. When even his god is only using him, spending more time with the Godpoke, leading him astray.

The Bizzyboys (and Hector; Yugo Limbo said that all of them come from Drain, hence them looking alike(?) ) evoke a very specific type of person, to me: the incel. Or at least, something adjacent. They're all referred to as "he" as Bizzys (I'm of a mind that Bizzyboys are all he/him while Bizzy, as, like, an honorary gender, mostly because it's just a silly idea; though in retrospect it also meshes with the enforced similarity situation). They're all lonely. They've banded together under a mutual purpose, but they don't really support each other.

And when they start to, between Hobbyhoo and BuzzHuzz? When they begin to collaborate, talk about taking a break from all this fash shit "investigating"?

Capochin shuts them down. Hard.

And Patty says he's scared of Capochin, but the other Bizzies say he would never hurt any of them. But when Capochin blows his top, all of them get really timid.

Capochin not getting involved in the violence until there's literally no one else to hide behind is so cliche that it almost just seems like a joke, until I took in the rest of the story.

Playing this game makes me think a lot of Fallout: New Vegas, a game where you can also destroy fascism and avert a cataclysm as a vaquero-themed courier.

One thing that becomes achingly clear in FNV is how the Legion is a cult of personality: it's not just the Legion, it's Caesar's Legion. Legate Lanius is terrifying, yes, but nobody talks about him as a leader so much as a warrior. Once Caesar dies, it seems obvious to me that the entire thing is going to crumple like a house of cards. Caesar didn't leave any backup plans, any true heirs, because the whole thing was his vanity project. There's no point to the Legion without Caesar, and he never once considered that there should be.

Inspekta and the Bizzyboys work very similarly. The whimsy and goofiness of the setting, which we also see in Smile For Me, lead me to miss some major red flags (I am also just. very dense.), which is a known problem in real fascism - the use of cutesy facades to cast absurdity on any claims of propaganda.

Anyways. My point is that the Bizzyboys seem at first to be a group, but are really more underlings in a cult of personality. Everything falls apart when faith in the system - in Capochin, in Inspekta - is lost. And Capochin is the Joshua Graham to Inspekta's Caesar; both of them culpable, both of them seeming in charge, with Capochin primed to take the fall as soon as things go wrong. But he volunteered for that! He wanted to be Inspekta's #1! The right-hand chump! The prime goon! He's getting everything he ever worked for, so don't question the system, Capo, because that's the same as doubting Inspekta. And doubting Inspekta means you're not a good Bizzyboy. Means you're ungrateful. Means that maybe what you have should go to someone who'll appreciate it.

They literally have their names stripped away - and I think the constant belittling and name-withholding of Patty, who genuinely displays real competence and intelligence at points if you pay attention, is a deliberate ploy. You don't want to be like P. You don't want to be a failure. Look at you, earning your letters! You almost have a full name! Not like that loser at the bottom of the barrel. You're a real winner, here.

And you, P? You need to try harder. Look how Alexei has his whole name back for doing hardly anything! How can you fail to get even a single letter back, compared to him? When Patty asks for his name back in Milldread, Capochin mentions solving mysteries - mysteries of "what does Capochin want for lunch", etc. It's silly, but it's also sinister. It's the most overtly self-centered bit of Bizzy lore we get for maybe the whole game. Capochin outright says he comes first and we laugh because of the delivery.

(The videos are fantastic, because they really set up the reveal in a lot of both subtle and unsubtle ways. Even the very first video, where Capochin insults Patty for asking a scripted question, before moving into the answer, is foreshadowing for the constant emotional abuse all of the Bizzys and Patty in particular are subjected to. There's probably much more I'm forgetting.)

Under the whimsy and humor of the game is a very real statement about cults and fascism and the kinds of people they recruit, and how they do it. They amplify the concerns of the disenfranchised and alone, people who have difficulty connecting with a community. They give those people somewhere to belong, ideals to uphold, and targets to gang up on.

Anyways. Good game.

[himasgod]

Diluc x Reader

Where Diluc returns to Mondstadt after three years to see you, but he is not the same

(Enjoy! It didn't turn out the way I wanted, but I hope you like it anyway! 0.6k words)

The Dawn Winery had a mysterious air that night, the wind carried with it the scent of ripe grapes, and the shadows of the vineyards seemed to intertwine in a game with the stars. The light of the mansion spilled over the ground, and there, on the porch, was he: Diluc Ragnvindr, the young Master of the Dawn Winery.

He had returned to Mondstadt after three years. He had grown up, but there was something in his eyes that spoke of a loss much deeper than that of a father. It was as if darkness itself had been caught in his gaze. That was why, every time you appeared to see him, you felt like there was an invisible barrier, one that no matter how close you got, he would not let you cross.

You were everything to him, his partner, the person he left promising to return and make you happy for the rest of your days. However, when he returned, everything was different. He did not stop loving you, you did not stop loving him, but there was a dark change in him. You gathered together every night to mostly sit in a silence that was criminally painful.

Tonight, however, it seemed different. Maybe it was the warm glow of the lamps, or maybe it was that you were too close for him to notice you, lost in his mind, before you spoke.

“You don’t need to carry everything alone, Diluc. Everyone here knows how much you do for Mondstadt, even if you never admit it.”

Hearing your voice, he turned and looked down, as if he was thinking of the best response, but he just gave a half smile—one that barely reached his eyes.

“Not everyone needs to know who protects them.” His voice was low, as if even his words wanted to hide in the darkness. “And I don’t need to be thanked.”

You knew the loss of his father had changed him, but Diluc was someone who was weighed down by sacrifices. He would never say it, but you saw it in the way he refused wine, in how he preferred to spend his nights patrolling, leaving the smell of burning behind him at every secret victory.

“I know you care what people think,” you said, searching his eyes. “Unfortunately, they only can see in you the Master of the Dawn Winery. But there is also someone who see someone beyond that, someone who carries with him every battle and every loss. And that is me, in case you forgot.”

For a moment, Diluc dropped that implacable knight facade. The shadows seemed to be lighter around him when he looked back at you, and for an instant, you saw the passionate young man he once was, before the scars of his past hardened him.

“Sometimes being the hero Mondstadt needs doesn’t mean being the one he wants to,” he murmured, as if that confession weighed on him. But still in his words there was an unwavering resolve.

“And sometimes being the hero also means remembering that you are not alone,” you replied, reaching out a hand to him. He hesitated, and there was conflict in his gaze, as if he wanted to reach for your hand and at the same time pull away, afraid that the weight of his world would crush you.

Finally, with a resigned sigh, his fingers found yours. For the first time since those three years. Maybe, in that small gesture, he had allowed a spark of hope and humanity to remain in his life, if only for that night.

It wasn't a surrender, but perhaps it was a reminder: that even darkness needs the light of dawn. And you were his dawn.

Here is my masterlist, in case you are interested in any more of my work or want to send me a request <3

[erenjaegerwifee]

Summer In Pandora 🌸 Day 2 - One Bed 

Paring: Lo’ak x Fem!Omatikaya!Reader

Warnings: MDNI 18+, smut, explicit language, p in v, orals (f receiving), jealous Lo’ak, friends to lovers, mentions of courting, passionate sex, Lo’ak feeling guilty and in love, sensitive Lo’ak, body worshipping, sweet aftercare

Word Count: 3.5k

Index: ma kalin - my sweet, sevin - pretty.

Disclaimer: All my characters are aged-up! If that makes you uncomfortable do yourself a favor and scroll, don’t bother reading or interacting with my account, thank you!

main m.list | event m.list

You decided to have a sleepover with your best friend and everything was going fine. You played board games and got into little arguments about how much rent you owe Lo’ak while playing monopoly. You played pranks on his brother while he was chilling out in his room.  

Everything was seemingly normal for a sleepover. Your parents never seemed to care that much when you and Lo’ak would spend time together. They knew well Lo’ak was your closet friend and you liked being around him so sleepovers were not an uncommon thing. You both were never without the other growing up so nothing would change now. 

Even though you have both grown into adults, both exceptional hunters and both single, it was never really an issue to be around each other. It’s not that you haven’t noticed the way Lo’ak would glance at your chest sometimes staring a bit too long. Or the way you would admire his chiseled abs when he would pull back his bow to shoot his prey when you were hunting. No, you were well aware of how hot he was and vise verse, but you never though it would be an issue. 

That was until tonight when you crawled into bed with him after a long day and then some of your playing around letting your limbs stretch out into the comfortable blankets. Lo’ak jumped onto the bed bouncing you up slightly as he looked down at you, “Awe are you tired already eveng(girl)?” he teased you as he seemed to not be tired at all. 

“You’re all talk bitch, when your head hits the pillow, you are gonna be out like a light, it happens every time.”  you look up at him smiling at the thought. “Whatever...” Lo’ak replies while he lays down next to you, “Wanna watch some TV?” he asked you. 

A couple years back, he had a TV installed in his room with movies downloaded on it for this reason specifically. Lo’ak never liked watching T.V alone, he always wanted someone to be with him usually opting between his brother and you, “Aren’t you tired?” you say with a yawn. 

“No but I take it you are, are you getting old? You never go to bed this early” his comment made you laugh. “Oh Lo’ak, I’m just an adult, it sucks but at least I get to have sex so” you shrug watching the TV as he flips through the selections. Lo’ak pauses immediately he felt like his brain lagged, “Sex? You are having sex? With who? Why didn’t you tell me?” he started off and turned his body to you. 

The TV now long forgot, the remote sits beside him as his attention is directed at you. The faith glow of light makes him look beautiful, his freckles shine in the dark but at the same time they don’t. You find yourself tracing the pattern on his face, something that was unique to the na’vi, no one is alike in this way. But Lo’ak was even more special with his extra fingers and toes. Some people may think he is dangerous because of his human feather but you like it a lot. Lo’ak has done nothing but protect you in all the time you have known him, not one day since you knew this man have you felt unsafe. Even though he can be quite reckless, he never has and never will put you in a position to get hurt, and it is not just something you know, it is something he has told you. 

“With no one specific, and I don’t know, I didn’t know how you would take it. You never told me when you had sex, if you did, I still don’t know” you answer him. You lay in your back and turned your head to the side on his pillow looking at him. Lo’ak’s entire body faces you and his head is propped up on his wrist and he watches you, “Ok fine is that what it’ll take? I had sex with, you remember Nila? She was my first time, then a couple more chicks after from the Metakayina clan.” his words upset your stomach but you ignore the feeling.  

“Well when you and your family when to the metakayina, I was lonely and it just happened, after that it never happened again” the sully family had only been with the metakayina clan for about a month. After they were attacked there Jake realized it made no sense, they run away from home is the sky people will find them where ever they go, he didn’t want to put people who do not know war in danger. So at least they decided if they stayed in the forest the Omatikayan are strong. They can fight for their own.  

“Your moving so sudden Lo’ak I was very sad watching my best friend leave with the rest of your family that I love every much.” you try to explain but he stopped you, “with who? Who did you lose it too ma kalin? His voice was soft, almost a whisper and his gaze doesn’t falter, “Adrik, we went to a party and met up there and I was feeling a bit awkward and he stayed with me so I wouldn’t feel uncomfortable. The next few days he’d spend more time with me and he was sweet, but when he requested to court me, I declined, it was the day before you came back home.” 

Lo’ak didn’t say anything, he just took in your words. Yours eyes started to flutter as you drifted away to sleep waiting for his response. Lo’ak watches you drift off to sleep right in front of him but his brain didn’t even process it. He admired your features but he wasn’t thinking about that, no. 

Lo’ak was thinking about how you fucked someone else, his entire life he stayed by your side and the moment he leaves you fall into bed with another man. He doesn’t blame you though, it natural you were alone and someone took advantage of your kind and submissive nature. It was his fault, he should have never left you. Maybe then you would have fallen into bed with him. 

Lo’ak didn’t mean to sleep with those other girls, after Nila he realized how much he really wanted that to be you and he regretted it ever since. When he left for the metkayina he wanted to take you, but he didn’t want to put you in unnecessary danger, no matter how much you cried for him to take you. That was the first time in his adult life he actually cried, it was because he left you.  

Now here you are sleeping comfortably in his bed, looking gorgeous as ever after you told him he made you lonely, “baby no I’m sorry...” Lo’ak whispered, scooting his body closer to yours. You had already fallen into deep sleep but it didn’t stop him from waking you. His large palm rested over the blanket on your hip shaking you slightly while calling your name.  

Lo’ak’s head came down to your neck, he rested his head on the pillow behind yourself and pushing his head into your skin meeting it with his lips. He kissed and whispered into your skin, “wake up kalin please” his voice was strained, desperate, “have to tell you something.” when your stir your body and open your sandy eyes you don’t see Lo’ak, you feel him. 

His body was pressed up against yours even though he’s bigger than you, his feet almost hang off the bed as he finds solace in the feeling your skin, you listen to him sweetly ask you to wake up so he can talk to you, you feel his hands squeeze your hip but they don’t really move from the spot, only to shake you. You feel his breath kiss your neck, the coolness that settles every time he inhales and the heat you feel when he exhales.  

“Lo’ak” you whisper and his head whips up to look at you, his body shuffles up so your lay face to face but he didn’t pull back to give you space, he stayed pressed up against you, “I’m so sorry I left you kalin, I should have fought harder for you to come with us, I am sorry” his apology catches you by surprise. “Lo’ak you do not need to apologize for that it is okay you are back-” 

“No but it is not okay, it’s my fault you slept with him, your first time shouldn’t have been because you felt alone, because I left you alone, I’m sorry, I’m sorry” Lo’ak cut you off desperately trying to win your forgiveness, every pause in his sentence he kissed you on your cheeks, both sides got equal love he even kissed the corners of your lips at one point, it was like he wasn’t thinking straight.  

“I shouldn’t have slept with those girls, I’m sorry they weren’t you, when I left, I searched in every girl for even a little sliver of you but no one was the real thing, I’m sorry you had to find comfort in someone else I promise I’ll never leave you again.” you take in his words, not fully processing but you tried to find a way to understand.  

“Lo’ak want are you trying to say?” your voice comes out a bit mean but you don’t think anything off it. He does though, he pulls his lips away from your face to look at you, his ears are pinned down as he looks into your green eyes due to the dark room. Even though his are almost the same shade, Lo’ak thinks yours are so much more beautiful. The slight difference in your eyes makes it all the more beautiful in his opinion, he has never seen this color on anything in his life, no plant, flower or vine has ever come close to how beautiful the shade of green your eyes are.  

You seem to finally process how mean you sounded and brought your hands up quickly too his face, his hands were still situated around your waist, and the rest of his body was still pressed up against yours except for his face and chest, “wait, I didn’t mean it like that, you just- you woke me up apologizing for something I have never blamed you for, I want to know the reason is all” you pull him closer and rest your forehead to his. 

Lo’ak sighs into your touch, your voice is so soothing to him, he could listen to you talk all day. He closes his eyes and takes in your words letting them resonate with him, you don’t blame him, he shouldn’t blame himself. Lo’ak raises his head from yours and looks you in the eyes, “I- I love you; I was waiting for the right time to tell you but I don’t think any time could be better than this, holding you close to me, in bed, this is all I want for the rest of my life I love you” his words are nervous but you couldn’t have been happier hearing them.  

“Oh Lo’ak, I love you too-” he doesn’t wait for you to finish your sentence, just pulling you close, kissing you on the lips. The action surprises you but you don’t push him away only melting into the feeling of his soft lips. You only break the kiss to get some air and again he tried to kiss you almost immediately. It makes you giggle how sweet he looks wanting to kiss you so bad, cute blush on his face as he looks at you, “Patience Lo you will get whatever you want, but first I wanna know what brought this on” you tease him. 

Your hands run down his neck to his chest and back up, you watch him close his eyes feeling your touch and it makes you giddy, you’ve never seen Lo’ak look so fragile before, it is quite loving to see him relax with you into such a state, “I made a mistake, you shouldn’t have slept with him, I wanted to be the one to do that. I know it sounds selfish and you had every right to do what you did but I can’t help but feel like if I was still here, it would have been me”  

His words make you melt, “It is not your fault. Do not blame yourself you can still make me yours; it was only one time and if I’m being honest the only way I got through it was thinking about how much I wanted it to be you...” you voice is soft, shy as you confess to him, you lean towards him and press a soft kiss on his nose. 

“Let me make it up to you” his words are almost slurred and his blush deepen from the kiss. Before you could protest Lo’ak slide his was between your thighs flipping your loincloth up exposing you to him. You try to close your legs but his big body stopped your movements, “Please, I promise I’ll make you feel good, please let me get a little taste”  

His words make your cunt gush, you hoped he wouldn’t notice to way you got wet so easily but it didn’t matter much when you gave into him nodding your head for him to touch you. “Want to hear you say it kalin, tell me you want me down here”  

This man is down bad for you and you both know it, the thought makes you clench around nothing, “Want you Lo, make me feel good” your voice comes out as a softly but he hears it, not wanting to wasting anymore time he licked a stride up your slit sucking on your clit, you weren’t expecting it to feel so good when you agreed but damn he is amazing, you don’t want to think about where he learned to do this so well but it benefits you entirely. You whimper and feeling his tongue glide along your wet folds and flicker at your clit, it doesn’t take long before he throws you into your orgasm making you gush in his mouth. Lo’ak is reeling between your thighs as he shoves his head in deeps almost disappearing from your view when you clench on his tongue repeatedly, he doesn’t waste a drop. 

When he licks you clean, he raises his head panting, his lower face is messed up with your essence making you turn your head from him shying away. Lo’ak chuckles as he watches you blush and bite on your middle finger glancing at him. He kisses and sucks his way up your body leaving marks on your thighs, hips, abdomen until he makes it to your covered chest.  

“Can I take it off please?” his voice is so sweet but you let him do it anyways. He wastes no time getting you naked after he got your verbal confirmation. Lo’ak takes a minute to admire your bare body before him, his hands run up and down your slim, sexy waist thinking about how soft your skin is, how amazing you look in the dimly lit room, he sees everything so clearly as if the sun was shining down on you. Thats a thought, imagine having you sprawled out naked in the forest taking his cock, he can’t wait for all the fun that comes with being in love with you.  

He snaps out of his thoughts when your hand reaches down to palm him in his loincloth noticing the obvious bulge. Lo’ak groans when his feels your hand squeeze him, “wanna make you feel good too Lo” you bite your lip looking at his strong figure above you, your voice was soft but not a whisper you wanted him to hear how much you wanted to please him and he certainly did.  

“Fuck baby, you’re just perfect aren’t you, wanna suck on my cock for me to feel good...Eywa you really are fucking perfect aren’t you.” he doesn’t move your hand from his covered cock but brings a hand to stroke your hair sweetly. This man just had a way of making you feel submissive for him, his hand runs through the strands of your hair petting the top of your head occasionally. You looked up at him with such lust, you want him so bad, “yea Lo, wanna be good for you” you say sweetly looking right at him. 

Your words make his cock jump under your touch which in turn make you giggle while you look at him, neither of you have broken eye contact yet when he bends his body over yours brining his lips down to kiss you sweetly on the mouth. Lo’ak makes you swoon in that kiss, when he pulls away you raise your head chasing his lips. 

“Kalin, as much as I wanna feel this sweet mouth on my cock, tonight is about you. Tonight, I want you to have everything you deserve” his voice is calm, soft but steady, you know he means what he is saying to you. Lo’ak removes his hands from you and unties his loincloth letting his harden cock bounce freely in the air. The exposure makes his hiss and he strokes it slowly.  

You watch him pump his cock in his hand, he is huge, a little on the thin side but his cock was still thick and the length...he was so long you think he could possibly touch the inside of your belly button. He lines up his cock with your slit pushing in slowly, his gaze shifts from your tight hole taking him in and your screwed up face. He feels the way your small cunt stretches to accommodate him and he drops his head on your collarbone when he bottoms out, “Fuck kalin, did you- are you sure you’re not a virgin? You are so fucking tight” he mumbles into your skin. 

“You-you’re so big Lo-” your voice stutters and he’s not even moving yet, you definitely boast his ego but you sound so good talking to him like that, he almost cums in the stop. He knows what you are trying to say, he understands but he wants to hear you say it, “Hmm, you think so sevin?” he raises his head to look at you watching you bite your lip and nod your head. 

Lo’ak pulls back giving and experimental thrust and when you moan, he swears he hears paradise. Lo’ak takes it as a sign to set a nice pace for it, it’s not too fast but enough to make you mewl out for him. Your arms come to wrap around his neck pulling his down to meet your lips. Lo’ak doesn’t want to muffle your sounds he wants to hear everything, but he just can’t resist his sweet girls asking for a kiss.  

When his lips touch yours your body stutters, you clench on him unintentionally making him moan into your mouth. Lo’ak quickens his speed feeling the way your lips no longer kiss him, your sounds travel from your mouth to his, lips touching sweetly as you tell him how good you feel. “Yea? Feels good? You feel so fucking good too baby, clenching on my cock like that, you’re gonna make me cum”  

His words send a jolt of electricity through your body, his lips travel down to your neck sucking on the sweet spot that makes your legs weak. You whimper loudly into the air when you feel your orgasm creeping up on you. “Lo- Lo’ak wanna cum!” your voice is pitched another octave when you speak to him, “Cum baby, wanna feel you cum in my cock, doing so fucking good for me, such a good girl, cum for me” Lo’ak groans when you gush on his cock clamping down in him tightly.  

He follows right behind you pulling out and aiming to cum on your stomach, but his cum shoots out landing of your naked tits. The cool air makes your shiver as you come down from your high. You watch him pant above you as if he’s so worn out now, he drops beside you on the bed reaching for his discarded loincloth to clean up your body. Not that he would be needing it now.  

Lo’ak sits up dipping the cloth into some warm water then swiping it on your cunt, the feeling making you flinch but welcome the feeling when he pulls away and you’re clean again. You never thought he’d be one for such aftercare but here he was surprising you again.  

You yawn cutely catching his attention and he crawls into bed next to you tossing the cloth aside. He pulls you close your back against his chest and he kiss your shoulder and neck whispering how good you did for him, how amazing you felt, and sweet compliments that would make you blush if you weren’t so tired. You drift off to bed in his strong arms listening to him tell you how much he loves you, you really couldn’t have felt more loved than you do in this moment.   

🌸 I hope you enjoyed reading! I had tons of fun on this one! Please don’t repost, translate or copy my work onto any other platform

🌸Reblogs, comments and likes are always appreciated

Taglist:

@rivatar @strongheartneteyam @xylianasblog @inlovewithpandora @delusionalwh6re @neteyamsoare @nilahsstuff @m1tsu-ki @kylimarz @quicktosimp

[alexrosa13]

To Belong

Luke x female!reader x Kieran//twins x reader ★ platonic!Sylus x reader ★ platonic!mc x reader ★ Sylus x mc

Genre: fluff/angsty

Warnings: 19k words, reader and mc are two different people!, 3rd person perspective!, spoilers to twins lore! (reading World Underneath: Mischief is highly recommended before reading this fic), small hints/spoilers to Sylus myth, mention of human experiments, mention of character trauma, mention of sa, protective dad Sylus, twins crushing on reader hard

Note: timeline of this fic happens between 2042 (reader&twins 12★Sylus 22) and 2048 (current timeline of the game★reader&twins 18★Sylus 28) and I hope it will be clear enough while reading.

for masterlist and request info head to the navigation →

half-edited by @asiakim03, rest proofread by me; special dedication for @pozuki for making me post it after it's been sitting in my drafts for 2 months

~★~

Sometimes teen love is floating, sometimes you may find your soulmate; but what if you got two?

2044, Middle of Winter.

The chances of a power outage in the middle of the night in one of the main areas of the EVER building are slim, but not impossible. Amid the chaos, with everyone panicking and scrambling to find the cause of the issue, no one notices that one of the computers has been accessed. Test records from years ago have been opened, and crucial information is being systematically deleted. In a matter of seconds, there will be no valuable data left.

????? Control EVOL Test Record

Subject ID

668

Subject Name

- - - - -

Age

??

Experimental Side Effect(s) Log

no information available

Evaluation Results

no information available

Several electronic devices had shut off on their own but a few minutes later, the power in the building was suddenly restored. Night-shift workers gradually returned to the office responsible for managing the experiment database. Everyone have taken themselves onto their assigned seats and began checking for any missing files.

The hours have passed and everything seemed fine yet, no one had ought to check the old files that had been forgotten over time. Everything have appeared intact and by the next day, the incident dismissed as an accident and have been quickly forgotten.

After all, why would someone make the commotion happen just to leave everything in it's place? It seems that no person working there will ever know the truth about the erased data. To be fair: who would have though that someone hacked the building data just to erase some not important piece of old experiment notes, perhaps containing information regarding someone who's presumably dead? And who would even think that the person behind it would be some big shot from N108 Zone? Exactly, no one.

And to be honest, it's better for them to not know.

~★~★~★~

2042, Late Autumn.

N109 Zone was in chaos that day. Buildings on fire, people bleeding and dying, while the ones who were still in good enough shape was able to fortunately run away from the mess. There were sounds of shooting and fighting everywhere you go. Yet, no one even remembers what started this blood-lust show.

A person was seen calmly standing with their hands in the pockets of their elegant pants. A man looking so out of place in the middle of such chaos, but at the same time fitting there perfectly like the most important detail on a masterpiece.

There's at least a dozen dead bodies laying before him as the look he throws at them a look of disgust. Suddenly, his eyes turned to look at the half-collapsed wall, noticing a kid hiding there who's looking at the man with eyes full of curiosity yet not even a hint of fear. Probably a stray with no family.

They continue to look at each other, the man then cocks an eyebrow and his face show the slightest tinge of shock. Why can't he see that kid's desire? Why does his evol not work on them? For a moment, he sees their eyes glowing up a bit, it's an evolver too. But no person with or without an evol would be able to hide their desires before him.

He let out a an amused chuckle, his curiosity rising. What kind of power do they posses? Either way, it wasn't a question he needed an answer for. That kid probably won't even survive long in this area. Without a word, he turned around and walked away from the mess he had left in his enemies' base, not giving a single thought about the unusual child he met.

However, something clinged onto him after he took a couple of steps and that made him stop in his tracks. He looked down again meeting the eyes of that kid.

"What do you want?" his voice, rough and cold was just like his stares but he didn't get an answer. The seemingly clueless child staring at him in silence. Their expression emotionless, no fear, no sadness, no anger.

What was wrong with them? No child should be able to hide their emotions this well. Of course, they weren't 5 years old or so but still, they couldn't be older than 13. Two questions appeared in the back if his mind: what happened to this runt and what was he supposed to do with it?

He had no answer to any of them.

"What? Am I supposed to just take you with me now?" he asked in a sarcastic voice yet still didn't get an answer. He tried to move away from their little hug— for their hands were not even able to wrap themselves fully around his waist— and succeeded. Giving them one last glance over his shoulder before proceeding to walk away, leaving dead bodies behind him to rot or get caught in flames, he couldn't care less.

Who would have thought that today would be the day a new shadow started following him?

~★~★~★~

2046, Middle of Winter.

"Boss, that Sherman guy is suspicious. We'll keep an eye on him for you!" says Luke, kneeling with his twin before Sylus.

"We know his address, his usual spots, and his contacts. We can report to you every two weeks," Kieran added after his brother.

The 'Boss' seems to think about it for a minute, his expression unreadable. Finally he spoke to.. who exactly?

"What do you think, little one? Should I agree?" He tilted his head toward something behind him, and both boys glanced in that direction, noticing a silhouette a few meters away, leaning against a tree with a hood pulled low over their head.

The twins looked at each other, dumbfounded— both thinking: 'Who is that?' before looking back at the mysterious person, meeting their eyes. The rest of their face hidden behind a medical black mask. For whatever reason, they couldn't look away as if hypnotized.

After a couple of seconds, that person finally looked away. Their gaze turning to Sylus, nodding once in his direction before straightening their posture and walking away with no rush.

"I'll see you in two weeks," these words constitute the only command they receive.

"Understood, boss." when they finally stood up, they realize Sylus has already vanished.

They looked at each other sharing a grin at the fact that their 'plan' succeeded. Their happiness however was cut short by someone's soft chuckling coming from behind them. They turned around fast and noticed a girl around their age, sitting at a nearby tree.

"Congratulations on your new job, boys," she smiled at them, her hands grabbing a branch above her head, her body leaning forward towards their direction.

"And, you are?" Luke took a step forward, looking at her with a sly smirk on his face.

"It’s you," Luke turned to his brother, confused. But a moment later, he heard his twin’s voice in his head: ‘Look at her eyes.’ He did—and then he understood.

The mysterious girl started giggling to herself quietly but eventually, she couldn't help it and began laughing so hard that the branch she was sitting on started to shake.

"You should have seen your faces!" she said after calming herself down a little, smile still visible on her lips.

'Pretty...' The twins voiced in their minds, both looked at each other in shock. How did they think about THAT at the same time.

"I hope you'll do a good job so I'll be able to see you two again, " she jumped off the tree, landing gracefully on the grass and taking a couple of steps towards the twins. "It would be such a shame for such cute faces to end up dead on the ground, don't you think?" She smiled at them, a little more genuine and soft this time.

Luke and Kieran still couldn't comprehend the situation they found themselves in right now, but before any more words could leave their mouth, the girl already started moving forward. She walked straight through the gap between their bodies, her shoulders touching theirs for a split second and just like this, she left them behind.

The twins looked at each other, not being able to gather their thoughts at the moment. Both of them had a million questions flowing through their minds; 'Who is she?', 'Does she work for Sylus?', 'Why couldn't they look away from her eyes earlier?' suddenly, their eyes widen over something else that just registered in their heads.

"DID SHE JUST CALL US CUTE?"

~★~★~★~

2047, Early Spring.

The twins had been working as Sylus' spies for some time now, reporting back to him every two weeks as agreed. In the meantime, they also began spending more time at his base, occasionally even staying overnight in the many available guest rooms.

However, the mysterious girl they had met when they first asked Sylus to let them work for him hadn’t appeared anywhere near their line of sight since that day. They tried to ask Sylus about her but he brushed them off every single time.

Today was another failed attempt to pry.

"No," was the only thing leaving Sylus' mouth at the mention of 'the person they saw that day' and this time, they didn't even manage to finish their sentence before his refusal.

"Oh c'mon Boss, we need to know!"

"Why can't you just tell us? Is her existence top Onychinus type of secret or something?"

"If that's the case, then we have the right to know since we're official Onychinus members now!" All sorts of reasoning started flowing out of the twins' mouths, they stopped only after noticing the glare Sylus threw their way.

"If she wanted you two to know who she is, she would have already told you herself," after that, their Boss-man went to his office, making it clear that he is not in the mood to listen to teenagers rambling for even a minute longer. Luke and Kieran shared a look and even through their masks, they could still read the other's disappointed expression.

They sat on the couch, defeated, their limbs sprawled across the cushions and their heads resting against the backrest. Both stared at the ceiling, trying to come up with a new plan to meet the girl again. They weren't ones to give up easily, but after trying for so long, they were running out of ideas.

After a couple minutes of brainstorming, they both let out sounds of defeat. They had tried everything, yet still, nothing worked. Was she enjoying their suffering from the shadows?

"I'm so tired of his, man. We did everything! How are we supposed to meet someone who literally doesn't show any signs of existence other than that one time?!" Luke shoot up from his seat, accidentally spilling a glass of water which for whatever reason found itself at the edge of the table. "Oh, c'mon!" He picked up the glass, which was thankfully still intact and had put it back a little further away this time.

"Eh, I'll go get some napkins," Kieran stood up, stretching his limbs a bit and turned towards the kitchen area. Before he could take a step forward, his twin's hand abruptly grabbed his clothing and made him sit back down "What?"

"Look here!" He did as instructed, shifting his gaze to the spot on the table where water had spilled. Lying next to it was a sheet of paper with writing on it, the ink growing blurrier as the water spread.

They leaned over to read the note before it ends up completely unreadable.

Did you know that the best dreams happen in the room with the clear view at the night sky?

→ right wing of the mansion, second floor, right corridor, last door

see you in a dream ☆

They looked at the item lying next to the paper: a necklace with a small orb as its pendant. It resembled the night sky, with a moon and stars shining inside, the entire scene shifting slowly and unhurriedly, revealing different angles of the image. Luke reached out to touch it, but as his hand neared, the inside of the orb began to change.

He moved his hand away, startled. The brothers shared a look of curiosity before once again looking at the necklace. Its image now showing warm sunrise with clouds floating around it.

~★~

"Did you somehow influence it?" Kieran leaned a little closer for a better look.

"I didn't even touched it!" Luke jumped up at the questioning, raising his hands to show his innocence.

Younger of the twins slowly reached out his hand just like Luke before him, both boys looking in its direction with anticipation. However unlike his brother, Kieran didn't hesitate and took the orb into his hand. Both boys watched it change from the sunrise to sunset. All the brightness went missing, leaving a dark sky with the sun hiding behind the clouds.

Both of them stared at the orb for a while longer, image of the sky flowing inside the glassy object. Finally Luke spoke up.

"Do you remember where is this dreamy-room?"

"Was it the left or right corridor?" Kieran's hushed voice could be heard on top of the staircase leading to the second floor in the right wing of Sylus' mansion.

"Right one. To be honest how is he not getting lost in all of those corridors? I swear that this place is a maze made to trap victims inside." twins started walking through another never-ending corridor, but luckily this time there were no random small passages on the way.

Finally they reached the end of their very tiring journey (they were sneaking around the mansion for half an hour now, trying to avoid their Boss... He probably saw them anyways). They looked at each other, a little unsure now if they got to the right door.

Well now or never. Both of them reached for the handle, moving it together.

Doors opened quietly and before their eyes appeared a huge room with a window taking the whole wall on the opposite side to the door. The furniture all in black. The ceiling in this room seemed higher that ones in the other rooms they had seen. Behind the window was a view of the night, red sky of the N109 zone it's moon right in the middle, making the room seem almost magical and mysterious in a way.

They closed the door taking in their surroundings. Shelves fit perfectly with the walls, inside them books and random items in various colors going from crystals, to skulls, to candles (some burning, some not), jewelry and a lot more. In the middle of the room, literally in the floor, it's place found a huge mattress adored with various pillows and blankets.

In the end their eyes reached the table placed in the space between the window and a mattress. They cautiously moved towards it, still taking in the details of the room. They approached it from two sides and their eyes found themself looking at the thing right in the middle of it. It looked like a little tower made out of glass with a round spot engraved right on top of it as if something should be put there.

"What is that?"

"I have no idea."

They started thinking about what to do in this situation, and finally Kieran thought about something. He reached towards his neck and pulled the necklace from underneath his clothes taking it off through his head, being careful while getting it over his mask.

"Do you think we're supposed to put it here?" he hanged the necklace on his hand, the orb levitating right above the glass thingy.

"I mean she left it for us for some reason yeah? Might as well try it, what can go wrong?" both boys shrugged, not caring about the possibilities of the bad outcome much (as always).

Kieran slowly lowered the necklace, the orb fitting inside the glass structure like a glove. Suddenly the candles started burning brighter than when they first walked in, flames dancing in every direction and even some of the not lit ones came to life.

Twins looked around themself for some time, trying to understand what was going on, until something looking like a white string started coming from the little orb, making a perfect circle around the two and the table. Little dots started showing themselves on the thin line, some bigger, some smaller, some light, some dark, it wasn't long before the whole string was full of it and then another one started creating itself.

They locked eyes, thinking about the sight before then, not moving. Suddenly they heard a voice coming from above them and looking up they saw their mysterious girl sitting on the swing connected to the ceiling, swaying slowly a couple of meters above the huge mattress. They could swear it wasn't there when they walked in!

"It's my Dream Seal." she looked at them with a soft smile, the swing started slowly lowering itself.

"Your dream what?" the twins asked at the same time, looking mesmerized at the girl dressed in the prettiest flowing dress they ever saw.

Finally the swing lowered itself enough for her to put her legs on the mattress, standing up on it she made her way towards the table, which took her maybe five steps. The string made by the orb broke for her to get through and patched itself up right after, adding her into the circle.

"My Dream Seal. I put and lock my dreams inside of it. You could say that it's like a diary." she explained to them, slight smile still noticeable on her face, her eyes focusing on the orb glowing in the middle of the table. She reached out her hand, making a slow and graceful movement as if petting the orb without actually touching it.

Instantly it reacted to her presence, glowing a bit brighter especially in the places right below her hand.

She moved the same hand to create a circle in the air with her palm, making another string appear in the place of her previous movement. Another dot, a little bigger from the rest floated around them, showed itself right before her and started to go move around like the rest.

She put her hand under the line and when the little orb came right above it the room began changing it's appearance.

Twins started looking around curious about what exactly is happening. Finally their eyes saw what looked to be a grassland full of various flowers all around them, not seeing anything else in the distance but clear sky and flowers. They looked at each other, their eyes widening at the realization that their masks are off.

Their clothes changed from their usual black and red uniforms to simple white shirts, pants and shoes. They looked around trying to notice the girl that was next to them seconds ago, but there were no other silhouette in sight... Until their turned their heads once more....

Their faces were betraying the shock they felt at the scene playing right before them. Two of them, smiling and laughing, Luke sitting on the grass, pulled up on his hands and Kieran lying down on his back. What shocked them was the fact that their mysterious girl was lying there with them. Her head resting on Luke's thigh and her legs thrown around Kieran's belly.

One of Luke's hands playing with her hair while Kieran caressed her legs softly. The girl herself was just lying there, her eyes closed but a light smile still visible, looking perfectly content with the closeness of the twins.

None of them dared to move or look away, their minds silent, trying to save the moment into their memory. They looked at the images of themselves seeing their true smiles, feeling the real happiness, without the pain of their past following them and breaking the innocent moment.

Slowly but surely, the light from the dream started fading, their calm silhouettes leaving together with it. They never craved the sunlight more than at this very moment. The darkness of the room and the slight light coming from the red moon of the N109 Zone brings them back into reality. Their masks back on, the moment of vulnerability left behind together with the strings, of what they imagine are dreams, coming back to the orb they came from.

Their minds still couldn't wrap themself completely around what they just saw. They looked at each other, communicating without words and then turned their heads towards the mattress a couple steps away from them, the girl sitting on it crosslegged, with her back towards them and a book in her hands. Both brothers stood there, stuck in one place, their heartbeats matching in their fast rhythm.

Both with only one question in mind: what was that?

"You know, even with your masks I can still tell who is who." her voice finally broke the silence, she sounded unfazed by what just took place, unlike the twins.

"Oh really? Do you even know our names missy?" Luke being the first to come back to his usual demeanor, crossing his arms and tilting his head to the side (which must have looked adorable with his mask btw) sending the girl a 'challenging' look, she glanced at him over her shoulder and giggled a bit.

"Really Luke. How dare you doubt me?" she put her hand on her chest, exactly where her heart is, and sent him a 'hurt' look, obviously for show.

"Well would you look at that! You do know our names!" the older of the twins proclaimed, clasping his hands together and taking a step forward "Maybe it's about the time when we learn yours Miss..?" he sent her a pleading look, even though she couldn't see it, she could imagine it all the same.

"What do you think, Kieran? Is knowing my name actually so important for you?" she looked at the second brother who was unusually silent.

"It's- Well we both are dying to get to know it since our very first meeting, so if you would be kind enough to share it, we would be very, and by very I mean VERY, entirely grateful to you." finally it seemed that he came back to his normal self. Taking two steps forward he stood right next to his brother, both looking expectantly at the girl like little kids waiting for their promised treat.

"Hah so I've never left your minds since that night? It's been months babes. Did I turn your whole worlds over without even trying? Damn am I that hot?" the nickname she gave them and her loud laugh made their hearts stop and start beating all over again. She turned to face them, her legs still crossed and her upper-half supported by her outstretched arms. The book that she was previously occupied with ended up lying forgotten next to her. "It's Y/n."

They whispered her name at the same time, finally reaching the goal they were going after all this time. There was a moment of awkward silence with them not knowing what to say or ask and with her just staring at them, as if enjoying their stress. How dare she! But after some time she was still the first one to break the silence and stop their suffering.

"Do you have any other questions or is that it for today? You know... Boss will probably look for you soon, since it's his time of the day." she whispered the last part like a secret, sending them a wink.

Twins looked at each other finally knowing exactly what question they wanted to ask.

"What was that thing..."

"That we saw after you did something to that... Floating thing?" their voices betrayed their curiosity and nerves. They needed to know.

"It was a dream." she sounded so casual about it. How could this not move her at all?!

"A..."

"Dream..." twins still not completely understanding what was going on. They started a quick conversation in their heads.

'But if that was a dream...'

'And dreams are supposed to belong to someone, right?'

'Did you dream about that?!'

'Dude no! Not me!'

'But it wasn't me either!'

'Well if it wasn't mine nor your dream, then...'

They turned their heads at the lightning speed to look at each other, shock on their faces hidden behind the masks.

'IT WAS HERS?!'

"Did you come to the right conclusion yet? Because judging from your reactions, you did." they turned to look at the girl once more, still dumbfounded.

"You dreamed of us?" Kieran was the one of the duo speaking first this time.

"Not only us, but us in THAT situation?" Luke added, his voice a little raised and hurried to let the words out. Both of them stared at the girl before them, who still held her composure very well despite the situation she was in. How was she this calm when they were literally freaking out?!

"I do not have control over my dreams." she finally stood up from the mattress, taking some steps until her feet were on a steady ground right before them. Then she did something unexpected, she took one of Kieran's hands into hers, doing the same with Luke and held their palms closer to herself, closing her eyes, and breathing out heavily. Their linked hands started glowing slightly, both boys stared at them, not knowing what to do, but also somehow... Enjoying her closeness. Not opening her eyes she started talking to them, while still holding their hands in hers.

"Dreams are a fascinating phenomena. We forget most of them right after waking up, with some staying in our memory forever. We can dream about anything: from the past to present, to future, to things reminding us of our demons but also the memories of the things we hold dear to our hearts." finally opening her eyes her gaze jumping between both of them until finally finding it's place on their linked hands "I... Don't know myself why I dreamed of you in that situation, so I am afraid that I do not have the answers you seek right now. Something in my head never lets me forget you, ever since that meeting." she let go of their hands, lowering her own ones down, linking them together. Luke and Kieran just stood there, letting their own hands come back to their place next to their hips.

None of them dared to move, afraid to break the moment. They could still feel the lingering warm on their palms from her hands holding them.

Her eyes finally looked up at them, glowing. They both watched her closely, not knowing what she was doing with her 'magic' right before the moment, but none of them cared about it, something in them saying to trust her.

"You know... I never met anyone like you. I was watching you over the last couple of months on your little missions. You're like one person. The very same appearance. The masks and the faces before the incident matching perfectly. But somehow I see you as two different personas. The very same but different." the glow in her eyes slowly fading, but her warm smile coming back to make up for it "I can't wait to play more of 'guess the difference'."

She poked their masks with a small laugh. Waking them up from their trance.

"I believe that you have to go, today Sylus has an important meeting, you know." she walked past them to the table, taking the orb still resting on it, putting it over her head.

"Oh c'mon, sitting here with you is so much more interesting than some boring meeting." Luke proclaimed with a sigh of annoyance in his voice. Did they have to go?

"I believe that there will be a rather... Explosive moment, so you won't get too bored there." she let out a laugh, turning towards them and leaning on the table behind her "Besides I have something to do in the meantime, so even tho I would love to stay here and entertain you two cuties, I can't." she send them apologizing look.

"But you won't disappear like before, right?" Kieran's voice followed her statement. He was thankful for Luke's idea with the masks now more than ever, it saved him from reviling the blush on his cheeks at the nicknames the girl was giving them.

"Not this time, promise. At least not for this long." she shrugged.

"You better keep this promise or we'll find you ourselves" Luke pointed finger in her direction trying to look the most threatening he could, but it only made the girl laugh more.

"Oh I'm so scared~" she let out in a mocking tone, raising her hands as it to show 'im innocent officer'.

"Yeah, you better be!" the older of the twins continued his 'intimidating' act. Making Kieran scoff a bit at his behavior.

"Okay, okay, I promise you'll see me soon. But now I really have to go and I advise you to do the same." she stood up straight, her dress instantly fixing itself to look perfect "See you~" her voice sang right when she was passing by them, heading to the door.

Both boys let out their goodbyes and soon they heard the click of the door closing and their 'not-so-mysterious-anymore' girl walking out, leaving them alone with a thousand thoughts.

They stared at the door in silence for a moment longer before they spoke at the same time again.

"I think I'm in love."

"You too?!"

They instantly looked at each other shocked, but at the same time not really. They were so similar in so many aspects, but honestly they never thought of girls and crushes ever before, focusing on surviving and having their fun, but she seemed like she could bring even more fun to the group.

"Sooo... What do we do?" Luke asked, more relaxed now than before with the girl in the room, as he tried his best not to screw up anything in front of her. Obviously they will never argue because of the girl, but they had to sort it out somehow.

"I mean... She seemed pretty positive about both of us, right?" Kieran shrugged, based on the girl's dream they saw earlier the solution to this little 'problem' of theirs was rather obvious, no?

"So... What you are suggesting is... That we could both date her?" Luke looked deep in thought and for a moment Kieran even looked at him like at the biggest dumbass in the world.

"Yes. That is exactly what I suggest we do." he blinked his eyes, stating the obvious.

"But how will that work?" Luke continued to question.

"I have no idea, but hey, we'll manage, we always do. Also honestly I never thought about it but having one girlfriend with our... Situation is actually rather obvious choice, no?" at this sentence his older brother just nodded his head, silently agreeing. but then something else caught his eye.

"Wait. Where is that swing?!"

~★~★~★~

2047, Middle of Spring.

Weeks passed by with twins getting to know their mysterious girl. Even after getting to know her a little better she still seems to live 24/7 in their heads, somehow they are even more curious about her now than before knowing her.

They became friends fast after their second meeting, with her becoming their partner in crime when it came to pranks, but even though they became really close and spent hours to no end together, they still didn't know much about her. They were dying to know why and since when was she working for Sylus, but she always laughs at their questions saying that it's not important for them to know.

A couple of days ago they came out with a plan to spy on the two to try and gain information to satisfy their curiosity. However it was easier said than done. To be honest they saw those two together in the same room maybe two to three times? Just what kind of relationship did they have?! They needed to know.

They waited for days to finally put their plan into the reality, they waited for a perfect moment, observing those two like professional stalkers. The fact that both of their targets noticed their weird behavior was not really helpful, but none of them really paid them any mind, so who cares?

Eventually they got the perfect opportunity to 'strike'. They were going down the stairs, planning to go and chill in the mansion's main area while also waiting for their (ekhem ekhem crush) favorite girl to come see them, like she usually does. When they were on their way they suddenly heard voices, coming from the corridor leading to Sylus's office.

Looking at each other they instantly became quiet, moving a little closer to the wall. The voices were a little far away, since the corridor was pretty long, but luckily they weren't being exactly quiet.

"... what do you want to do about it? That guy is a scumbag and we both know it. I don't care about your business, if you won't take care of him: I will." they heard the voice of Y/n sounding harsh and annoyed, not leaving the ground to argue, something they never heard from her before.

"Sweetie I won't let you get yourself straight into their trap. You are not going there and that's the end of it." Sylus answered in his usual tone, clearly not impressed by the girl's intimidating speech.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" twins literally jumped up a bit at the scream, they never heard her raise her voice before "That motherfucker uses girls my age for his fucking business! I can tolerate many things Sylus. Fuck that! I literally killed people myself before, but he destroys them more and more everyday! If you will just sit on your ass and wait for him to finish his business with you, I'll deal with that bastard myself and never come back here again." twins looked at each other, clearly fearing that Sylus will just let her go and never come back.

"Y/n I promise you that bastard will get what he deserves, and I'll make him go through worse hell than you can even imagine. All I ask of you is to just give me a little more time." how was he still so calm?!

"... How much time do you need?" now sounding more calm than before, but still clearly mad, judging from the way her tone sounded cold and resentful.

"3 days."

"Alright, and not a second longer." her voice was quiet enough for the boys to have a problem with hearing it.

"Have I ever given you a reason to doubt me, sweetie?" Boss's voice still intact like always, not even a hint of anger at the girl's outburst from a moment ago. Who was she to him?! How could she talk to him like that and not face any consequences?!

"No. And I never will doubt you. But you know why it's so important to me." her voice gets more quiet with each word.

After that they didn't hear any more words from the two people behind the wall.

'What is happening?'

'I don't know! Maybe we should peek?'

They were considering the idea for some seconds, before finally giving in to their curiosity once more. The sight before their eyes got them dumbfounded.

They saw Sylus holding the girl in his arms and looking at her concerned. She seemed to be in a bad shape, holding onto him weakly while visibly going limp in his hug. Both of the twins stared at the scene, not even caring anymore about getting to the truth about the relationship between the two, they were afraid for the girl they grew affectionate towards, she never looked this weak and vulnerable when spending time with them, what happened to her?

"... Dad..." they heard her pained whisper and saw her going completely limp in Sylus arms. Their Boss's face immediately changed into an even deeper concern.

Suddenly they saw Sylus's eyes glance towards them. They stood there numb, not even having the strength to try and hide or pretend like they were just passing by after the events that just took, and were still taking, place.

Their Boss didn't even pay them any mind, much more worried about the girl than those two seeing anything. He snooped her into his arms, princess carrying her into his office, and closing the door behind him with his evol.

Twins still stood in one place, worried sick and clueless as to what was currently happening to their favorite girl.

"Boss looked worried as much as we are, do you think it's something serious?" Luke's voice first to break the silence.

"I don't know, I wish we could just go into that office, but he'll probably have our heads for this." Kieran sat down on the floor, his back leaning onto the wall.

Luke followed his brother, sliding down the wall, looking deafened.

No more words exchanged between the two. Both their minds occupied by the person currently impossible to reach. Going into that office would be a suicidal, but staying outside of it was killing them too.

Were they actually that attached to her already..?

~★~

Hours passed, twins stayed close to their Boss's office, waiting for either the man or the girl to walk out, so that they could ask if she's okay. Eventually they settled on the couch in one of the living rooms, one which was the closest to the office, leaving the door open to make sure that they won't miss any sound coming from the corridor.

Eventually they waited for about 10 hours already, not planning to move until they will hear the news about their soulmate's (as they started calling her not that long ago, after pulling a success prank on Sylus together) well-being. Eventually they fell asleep on the couch out of exhaustion and stress.

Meanwhile inside of the Sylus's office someone finally woke up.

"Finally back to the world of living, sweetie?" Sylus looked up from the papers sprayed on his desk to look at the girl moving on his couch.

"How long was I out?" sitting up, her hands went towards her head, her eyes closed.

"Couple of hours, there's water on the table before you." his eyes came back to the papers.

The girl slowly reached her hand towards the glass with water, luckily Sylus didn't fill it up to the top or else she would spill it because of her hand shaking. She put the glass to her mouth, drinking without any rush.

"I told you many times not to use your evol like this." standing up from behind his desk he made his way towards the teenager "You know that glitching in between the worlds can be extremely dangerous for you, yet you still took the risk for no valid reason."

"I can't just sit back and watch him hurt them, I had to do something, you're taking too long." her eyes shoot up towards the man, sending him sharp glare.

"I have my reasons for stalling. Why can't you just trust me with this?"

"Because I see myself in those girls!" her raised voice shocked even him this time "Every time I see his nasty dreams I'm reminded about those assholes who made me watch myself in that situation. He will hurt them Sylus, every day of you waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike is another little girl's childhood taken away!" her voice breaking, shacking of her body and tears in her eyes made Sylus feel too many things that he would have wish not to acknowledge.

He never wanted to get attached to that girl, he was fine on his own, but every day with her following him around like a shadow made him so used to her presence that he couldn't imagine something or someone taking her away from him right now. He hated himself for having a weak spot.

"Sweetie I promise you that no harm will come to those girls, I have Mephisto watching them all the time, they are scared yes, but no one touches them I promise. They will be safe in 3 days, give me that much time, please." he crouched down next to her, holding one of her hands in his and making her look at him, the eye contact being able to keep her grounded. He knew that she could lose her grip on the reality if he didn't act the right way.

The memories started flowing back to him at once. The trauma this girl had to go through making him want to kill anyone who dared to even think about harming her. Taking a child to become an experiment is a cruelty that even he, being the 'worst' person in the N109 Zone, wouldn't dare to commit.

He remembered that one night from two years ago. He was walking towards the room in his mansion that he was sure had the book he needed for his research. It was the room hidden deep inside of the right wing, when he finally got to it and opened the door he saw that young girl sitting on the floor with her legs under her, the room was cold and she didn't wear enough clothes to feel warm, but she didn't seem effected by the cold, she was just sitting there and looking at the moon behind the window.

"What are you doing here?" she didn't even react to his voice, didn't look at him, didn't let out any sound like she did most of the time, signaling to him that she listened.

He slowly walked towards her, crouched down beside her, looking at her and then at the sky of the N109 Zone.

They spent a couple of minutes in complete silence, staring as the clouds move slowly with time.

"Why do people need to know and understand everything?" her quiet voice brought his attention to her again, his head turning towards her direction, her eyes already focused on him.

"Because they are afraid of the unknown." his tone was soft, he warmed up to the girl over the time he spent with her, even if he didn't want to admit it.

The girl just recently turned 14. He got some informations about her from the database of EVER studies and the rest he knew just by simply asking her, she was surprisingly truthful all the time, not hiding anything from him.

"Can I show you something?" her eyes still locked on his, their eye contact making him feel like he talked to his equal and not just some teenage girl that he randomly stumbled across.

"Of course." was his only response. Her hands made their way towards his face, slowly covering his eyes. He didn't protest, she didn't have any reason to hurt him, and it's not like she would succeed in it anyways.

The darkness he saw with his eyes covered suddenly started changing into shapes and colors. He saw a little girl together with her at least three people, much bigger than her, adults, in white coats. One was holding her down, making her sit down on the chair, while the other two stood before her with their notepads, talking to her, but their voices came out like a combination of random syllables.

Their faces were all blurry, he couldn't recognize any face other than the one of the little girl. Her eyes were full of fear, shining from the tears she was clearly holding back. No words left her, she didn't try to scream or fight the person holding her, she just silently sat there.

Suddenly he saw one of the people with notepads taking something out of their pocket, a syringe, and walking with it towards the little girl. Her eyes locked on the white wall before her, her gaze looking absent, like mentally she wasn't there.

Right after they injected whatever it was into her arm her head fell down, strength leaving her body, her eyes clenching shut and one single tear falling down her cheek before the image got completely blurred and the room changed. What he saw next made his blood boil.

The same little girl standing there, before a man with literally no face and another version of herself, she was watching as the man spoke to her other version and started touching her arms.

Not wanting to know what happened next Sylus took the hands of the girl away from his eyes and took a moment to let his gaze come back to reality. His eyes turned to the teenager, a silent question in his gaze.

"They made me watch someone's dreams. I don't know how, but whatever they injected into me activated my evol, fighting it was painful." he swallowed his split in a try to control his anger, his jaw clenching "I tried to stop him, but when I touched him I felt pain like nothing I've ever felt. I shut my eyes close while laying on the floor but had to hear all the things he spoke to my other version. After it was all done and I woke up I heard someone speak about the 'emotional reactions influencing the power of the evol' but then I blacked out again. It was the day that I knew I had to run away, before they would get to test that in a reality." her eyes were glossy and a single tear ran down just like in the memory he saw a moment ago.

His thumb went up to her face to wipe it off, she let him without as much as a flinch. No more words were exchanged between them. He moved to sit down fully on the floor and her head instantly fell to his shoulder. They sat there for a while, being the comfort the other needed in this cruel world. He heard her breathing slowing down, probably falling asleep, he let her.

"I promise that no one else will hurt you."

"Promise me." her quiet voice brought him back to reality. Looking at her now he didn't see the fearless and mischievous teenager she became. He saw that little girl from the past, crying herself to sleep in a lonely room, holding herself to feel any kind of warm.

She didn't need to say anything else, he already understood.

"I promise." that no one will touch them.

A lonely tear fell from her eye with a blink, making it's way down her face like a raindrop falling on the window during a storm. His memory came back for a second before leaving again. He reached out, his palm gently taking a hold of her face, his thumb catching the single proof of her sadness. For a moment her eyes closed, enjoying the warmth of another human being after knowing only coldness her entire life.

Suddenly the sound of a pained cry left her and before Sylus could react she threw her arms around him and her mouth let out a song of cries and pain she was hiding inside for too long.

He gently reciprocated her hug, one of his hands taking it's place on her head, slowly stroking it in a calming motion, letting her drown her sorrows into his shoulder, hiding her from the brutality of the world.

He wished that he found her sooner and gave her the life she deserved to have from the start, without anyone taking away her innocence. She became his guiding star, always being there to remind him that life is not just an endless cycle of pain and evil. He didn't know why she followed him that day, but he was thankful for it nonetheless.

The next couple of minutes were spent with him shielding her from reality. They didn't know exactly how much time had passed, maybe ten minutes, maybe half an hour, maybe more. It didn't matter.

In his fatherly-like embrace she finally found the safety she was looking for her entire life. She was forced to fight for herself for so long, stealing and sleeping in abandoned buildings was her every day life ever since she run away from the place of her torture. That was, until she met him, her visions encouraging her to take the risk and trust him, and she did. She didn't regret it even for once ever since.

"I'm sorry..." her voice, quiet and weak, reached his ears. Her cries calmed down a while ago, but they still didn't let go of each other.

"You have no reason to apologize for feeling." his tone calm, with foreign gentleness to it. She was his little girl, the very one that he swore to protect. She was his remainder that he wasn't an emotionless monster, she made him feel human.

After a couple more minutes they finally pulled themselves away, her face red from crying, his expression still showing concern. The reason behind her outburst of emotions forgotten behind, her trust in his words enough to calm her down.

Sylus finally stood up from the floor and sat down next to her on the couch. Her head falling onto his shoulder, her head trying to organize her thoughts and leave the depressive episodes behind. His voice interrupts her tornado of thoughts.

"You've grown close to them." she let out a sound of curiosity, her head turning to look at him, but his eyes were focused on something before him "The twins." there was a moment of silence after that statement, her head coming back to rest on his shoulder once again and her eyes focusing on the painting on the wall before her.

"I did." left her mouth, he didn't react in any way, but she knew he heard her. There was no point in avoiding the truth, he already knew about it, he just wanted to hear her say it.

"It's foolish." she let out a quiet humorless laugh, she knew.

"So was following you like a stray cat on the street looking for a shelter, but look at us now." she smiled, her gaze returning to his side-profile. A sound like a second long laugh left his mouth, she had a point.

"I hope that you know what you're doing." they smiled at each other and laughed "But still if they will hurt you in any way, I will make them pay." the sudden serious expression on him took her aback.

"Oh you are really like my father!" she laughed again and hit him playfully in the shoulder, he simply smiled at her once again, his eyes hiding the warm inside reserved only for the person before him. He would let the world burn for this girl.

~★~

Half an hour later from the depths of Sylus' office finally walked out the center of twins worries. However Luke and Kieran didn't even flinch at the sound of someone's footsteps, deep in their dreams.

The girl appeared in the doorway, with a playful smile on her lips when she saw them. For a moment she thought about pulling up a prank on them, but decided against it. They were probably waiting for her, she knew that they saw her fainting earlier, they were probably worried as hell, so today they earned their free pass for a peaceful sleep.

A spark showed itself in her eyes. They were dreaming, she could feel it. People who were close to her got them more often than a regular person, side effect of her evol.

She got lost in her head for a minute. Was it safe for her to use her evol when a couple of hours ago it had a malfunction? Well if she'll do it correctly then probably it will be fine.

Slowly, making sure to stay as quiet as a cat, she made her way towards the couch occupied by the duo. Standing one step before them she took a good look at them.

Luke slept on his stomach with one of his hands dangling from the couch almost touching the carpet, while the other one found it's place under his head, they still had their masks on, but they got a little misplaced, showing more skin that they are supposed to, his feet placed up on the armrest of the couch.

Then there was Kieran, who fell asleep asleep on his back with his legs thrown over the armrest from the other side of the couch. One of his hands sneaked it's way to the backrest (was it even comfortable?) while the second was lying on his tummy. The hood slipped from his head, showing off his dark raven hair.

Their heads were lying close to each other, leaving some space in between them.

She let out a quiet giggle, they were adorable. Slowly, as to not disturb them, she sat down in the free space and gently touched both of their foreheads, her eyes lighting up, full on glowing this time, when her evol started to work.

Before her eyes flooded the picture of their dream. One dream for both of them? Were they connected to each other that much?

The picture becomes much more clear with every second until she is finally able to see and hear them perfectly well.

They sat on the rooftop, instead of their usual uniforms they wore all black clothes. Their dark middle length hair perfectly visible even in the darkness of the night.

"Do you think we'll make it?" she heard Kieran's voice. It didn't carry the mischievous hint to it which made her concerned about the specifics of that dream.

"Who cares? What matters is that we are finally free and playing by our rules." Luke's voice, even tho playful, still sounded more serious than normal "If we go down, then at least we'll do it together."

"I guess you're right." the younger of the twins let out a breath and looked up to the sky.

In the meantime, the person spying on their dream started to fall asleep herself. She didn't even notice how the dream started to feel more real with every second, it all came to her so naturally, as if she was meant to be there.

She started to feel the cold wind on her face, it started to play with her hair and the fabric of her clothes. She looked at the twins, who stayed clueless to her presence in their dream. Did they even know it was a dream? She couldn't tell.

However in the real world the twins sleeping forms feeling the closeness of her body started to slowly move towards her. Kieran's head found it's place on the girl's tights treating it like the softest of all pillows, while his brother's hand that wasn't busy under his head hugged the girl's legs.

The girl herself, now joining them in their nap, rested her hands on Kieran's chest and Luke's head, the closeness coming to them naturally.

Her silhouette in the dream started getting closer to the boys, who were still sitting on the edge of the rooftop with their backs facing her.

"You will make it." her soft voice breaking through the sounds of the wind in their ears, both sets of eye glancing towards her, shocked but somehow not at all surprised that she's there "I'll help you." she crouched down to be on their eye level and looked at both of their faces taking in the details.

Kieran lacked his scars, his face being a perfect mirror to Luke's, but she could still tell who was who. Older of the twins had this mischievous sparkle in his eyes all the time, while his twin's eyes looked softer and less playful, but still could match his brother's mischievousness most of the time.

They looked at her as if they were bewitched. It seemed that the memories from the precious events in the awakened world flooded back to their minds.

"You're okay!" both of them screamed, their eyes wide open in shock, they moved fast, not even registering the moment when they pulled her into a bone-crushing hug.

The girl just laughed at their antics and threw her hands around them, accepting the affection.

"Someone was worried about me?" she whispered right under their ears. Her head resting on Luke's shoulder, but turned Kieran's way, her nose touching his neck.

None of them answered, they just hugged her tighter. Her legs resting on Kieran's now, her body leaning on Luke's.

They finally found their peace. Their embraces stayed unbroken for the rest of the dream.

Meanwhile...

Sylus finally left his office, in between the incident earlier and his work he didn't have time to eat anything, and now, finally deciding to make his way to the kitchen, he noticed an open door.

Well that was unusual, all the doors always stay closed. It was a sort of unspoken rule in his mansion at this point.

He peeked inside with the intention of closing it, but the sight inside of the room made him stop in his tracks.

His precious little girl was sleeping on the couch with the twins cuddled up to her.

His breathing stopped for a second, anger in his eyes perfectly visible.

Yes, he knew that they were close. Yes, he noticed how they tried to get physically close to her at any chance given. And yes - he knew that she had grown rather... Fond of them.

But still he couldn't say that he was pleased at the fact that they seem even closer now than the last time he saw them together.

To be honest he didn't even consider the idea of her growing up and... Getting a... Boyfriend? Especially somehow getting two?!

He needed a glass of whiskey. Preferably a whole bottle.

His hand found it's way to his forehead, his eyes clenching shut, he shouldn't care as much as he did. Shaking his head he finally got a hold of the door handle, glancing at them for the last time before finally closing the door.

~★~★~★~

2047, Middle of Summer.

Over those last months not much has happened, N109 Zone still rotten with crime, however the mysterious leader of Onychinus didn't show himself for some time now, rumors were spreading like diseases, but which one was right? No one knew. People used his absence to their advantages in various ways, almost forgetting about his existence.

Still, some people lucky (or not) to be working close to him were having the laugh of their lifes watching those rats try to reach the top. They let them have their moments of power, knowing that when the time comes, they will take it all back

In the quietness of Sylus's mansion three teenagers found themselves hidden from the rest of the world and having taken a break from their work, decided to have some movie night.

The coffee table in one of the living rooms with the biggest TV screen was full of snacks including popcorn, cookies, gummy bears, various drinks and some other things (basically anything they could find in the kitchen). Blankets and pillows were waiting for them to get comfy, some splashed around the floor too. While the twins were getting the last of the snacks (coming back with some chips and sodas while also carrying bags of sweets in their mouths) their favorite girl was picking up a cartoon to watch.

Twins didn't wear their uniforms, masks lying forgotten in what was now known as their official room. After those couple of months working for Sylus about two weeks ago he finally decided that it's easier to just have them there all the time (totally not because **someone** was pleading him to let them live there), together with the new place to live they also got some money to go and buy themselves stuff like new clothes.

Let's also add that the girl herself took them shopping, not trusting their fashion skills... But at least they got some fun-bonding time outside of the N109 Zone.

All three of them were wearing sweatpants and some random t-shirts, putting the last of the snacks into the free bowls, the twins sat down on the couch on each side of the girl. Taking blankets and pillows to put them where they seem fit. Kieran finally looked at the screen noticing the title of the movie Y/n choose.

"How To Train Your Dragon?" he read out loud, getting the attention of his brother.

"Never watched it."

Girl's eyes widen. She looked at the twins in pure shock.

"HOW?!" both boys looked at her and just stared at her not knowing what was so shocking "That movie is a classic!" she added, her expression still looking as if they have just told her that they are of royal blood or something.

"To be honest we never really had a TV growing up, the first time we watched something was like two months ago." Kieran explained, reaching for a bowl of popcorn to put it on his lap. The girl stayed quiet for a minute before her expression changed into one of understanding.

Not saying anything else she reached out to grab her favorite snack and finally started the movie.

All three sets of eyes focused on the screen, sometimes their attention leaving the TV to grab a snack or drink. The first movie went smoothly, with some random conversations here and there of course.

"That guy is a loser." Luke said with a mouth full of popcorn.

"Shut up!" Y/n thrown some popcorn at him which he didn't have time to dodge, but he managed to catch one in his mouth and shot up from his seat to high-five Kieran "Kids." the girl rolled her eyes, her eyes going to focus on the screen again.

Luke slowly slid from the couch onto the carpet below them, continuing to watch from there.

"I like those twins." Kieran said, his eyes not moving from the screen, the rest of the party just let out sounds of agreement.

"I swear that I can feel the awkwardness between him and the dragon from the screen."

"Real." Y/n and Kieran looked at each other, it was the first time they said something at the same time.

Unbothered Luke reached out for his glass to refill it with some soda.

"Wait, I'll get some ice." standing up, Y/n took two glasses and head to the shelves, boys eyes followed her instantly not saying a word.

She opened a cabinet and inside of it... Was a little freezer? What was it doing there?!

Twins stared in awe, the girl as if sensing their stares laughed a bit and without turning her head back to look at them answered their silent question:

"I like to have ice-cream nearby when watching sad movies, okay?" Luke and Kieran looked at each other and smiled for no reason, no words left them and their attention came back to the movie.

Soon enough she came back to them, giving one glass to Luke and keeping the other to herself.

"You forgot about someone?" Luke said grinning.

"I noticed that Kieran never gets ice for himself. Am I wrong?" she started pouring her drink unbothered, twins looked at each other as if communicating with their eyes, they were shocked.

Eventually they just silently returned to watching the movie

"Aww he's in love." Kieran's tone carried some kind of sarcasm to it.

"Imagine hitting on a girl with a dragon." his brother added with a laugh.

In a split of second both of them let out a sound of pain, she hit their heads.

"What was that for?" Luke asked, his head turning to send a glare at the girl.

The girl just rolled her eyes and shrugged.

"WHY CAN'T THEY LISTEN TO HIM?!" boys threw their hands up in anger, screaming at the movie.

"Cause some people are really dumb and close-minded." she said, with no emotion to her voice, Kieran joined his brother on the carpet, his back resting on the girl's legs, he reached for something on the table, his hair falling onto his eyes.

Before he had the chance to get them off he felt hands from behind gently gathering his hair and putting them in a small ponytail on the base of his neck. After it was done he felt a soft pat on his head. He peeked over his shoulder, the girl sent him a smile which he returned.

"Oh okay. Am I disturbing you two maybe? Should I leave you to your moment?" Luke's annoyed voice made them break their eye contact and look at him. His expression not hiding his irritation.

"What? You jealous?" left Kieran's mouth, which earned him a punch on the chest from his brother, making him fall completely on the floor, Luke followed him down starting a fight, which was obviously for fun.

The girl laughed at their antics. It's been going on for about a minute now, her laughter got louder while the boys continued their play-fight for her entertainment.

Suddenly when Kieran tried to overthrow Luke from himself his action pulled a blanket from the couch, making the girl fall with a panicked squeak.

Both boys instantly tried to catch her, which let them all to fall on the floor, her body landing on top of theirs, twins froze for a moment, everything went silent. They were ready to start apologizing when suddenly they heard her laughter and felt her shake.

A moment later Luke joined her with a giggle of his own, and soon enough Kieran couldn't help himself and did the same thing. All three of them were lying on the floor unable to control their breathing because of the laughter.

It took them solid five minutes to calm down, but instead of going back to sit on the couch they stayed on the carpet.

"Come here." she instructed Luke who wordlessly, but with a happy grin, followed her command, seating himself before her and taking some snacks from the table.

Her hands went to his hair, scooping them up in her hand and tying them up in the matching ponytail to Kieran's, using her extra hair tie. Right after she was done she moved towards the younger of brothers, gesturing him to turn around which he did, letting her fix his hairstyle who got messy after the play fight with his brother.

The next hour went peacefully, they started the second movie from the series. Twins kept asking questions and commenting on the plot and characters, not keeping their opinions to themselves and making Y/n laugh at their behavior.

During the watching all three of them snuggled up together, sitting shoulder to shoulder under a huge fluffy blanket.

When the third movie started playing the atmosphere in the room changed a bit. The boys seemed somehow more relaxed, Kieran's head fell to Y/n shoulder while Luke started to play with her hand, moving her fingers for his own fun.

"OMG HE'S IN LOVE!" Luke screamed, squeezing the girl's hand in both of his.

"Oh she's got the attitude." Kieran added after seeing the white dragon shoot flames at them.

"Don't they all..." the girl looked at the older of the twins with a silent dare in her eyes "I'll shut up!" breaking the intense eye contact to focus back on the movie he couldn't catch the playful hint in the girl's eyes that showed itself right after his words.

She sent a knowing look to Kieran, who simply smirked at her. Her free hand reached for his and a smile graced her lips, her forehead meeting his for a moment with a short giggle leaving her.

"Never thought I would be jealous of my own twin brother." they heard a huff from behind them but instead of turning their heads they just laughed and the girl threw her hands around Kieran to mess with his brother even more "Okay, now you're doing it on purpose!" was the only thing they heard before a set of hands caught her waist and pulled her towards the other boy.

Her back resting against him, still shaking with laughter, she couldn't see the 'intimidating' stare Luke sent to his brother, which only affected in Kieran's louder laughter.

Soon enough they calmed down, going back to watching the movie. Luke held her in his arms and didn't let go so she just got comfy against him, not caring one bit, Kieran also didn't look like it bothered him.

"That guy is such a loser, will he actually pull her?" escaped Luke's mouth after seeing Toothless little dance to impress his crush. He felt popcorn getting forced into his mouth to shut him up, which he accepted without a fuss.

"He's doing his best, if a guy would try so hard to impress me I would be delighted." was the answer he got in response.

"So you want a loser for a boyfriend? Your 'dad' would eat him alive." Kieran grinned and turned to look at her.

"Oh please my 'dad' wouldn't dare to hurt someone just because they like me." she said, but after a second added a quiet "I think..." and her gaze turned out to be a little uncertain.

"Well, one thing I know for sure: getting onto the Boss' black list to date you is worth it." she heard Luke whisper into her ear, hugging her a little tighter. She let out a quiet laugh but nothing else escaped her mouth.

About twenty minutes later the girl left the embrace to stretch her back and take something to drink from the table.

Silence followed, the most heartbreaking moment of the movie started playing soon after, the twins watched in anticipation, but right when they saw dragons leaving for their Hidden World they suddenly heard a quiet sob.

Both of them turned towards the girl, who tried to keep tears from falling.

"What?! It's sad okay..." she said with a snark, wiping her eyes with her palms. Boys smiled slightly at her cuteness.

"Aww it's okay, you can cry as much as you want here." Kieran said, putting his hand on her shoulder, tugging her towards his body. Instantly she melted into him, hiding her face in his neck.

"You saw countless people die on the job. But some... Movie for little kids is the cause of your tears? Luke snarked a comment, not meaning to be rude in the slightness, but still earned himself a middle finger from the girl who had yet to pull herself away from his brother. With a quiet laugh his gaze turned back to the TV.

Second layer the girl peeked at Kieran's face, not leaving his embrace yet. His eyes turned to look at her, their eye contact felt weird. Not the bad kind but, for some reason, they seemed unable to pull away from each other. For a moment he thought that she activated her evol, but the shining in her eyes was simply from the tears hiding in them just a moment ago.

She examined his face, the scars left by Sylus perfectly visible. She touched his cheek, her thumb softly caressing his face, his scar. None of them thought about what they were doing, they didn't even seem to notice the fact that their faces were brought closer to each other.

That was, until their lips touched. No moving, no breathing, their hearts beating so fast that they could feel it in their heads. Their eyes closed, the gentle kiss lasted for a while, with no rush, eventually they pulled their lips away from each other, but their foreheads touched instead. Her palm didn't leave his face, staying there while both of them tried to calm their breathing and hearts down.

Suddenly she felt a gentle touch on the back of her head, her eyes opened and turned towards Luke, who looked at her with a playful spark hidden in his gaze.

"Is it mine turn now?" his whisper touched her ear like the most precious secret, his movement didn't hesitate, he turned her head gently towards him and made their lips touch. Her palm still lingered on Kieran's face who now looked at them, studying their actions.

Luke's kiss was more intense than the one of his twin, his lips moving slowly but eager against her, making her lose her breath again. The burning feelings inside of him finally coming to life. He broke the kiss after some time, pulling away while still keeping his hand on her head.

She felt Kieran's head come to rest against the side of her own. Her eyes gazed at Luke, who looked like he just won his life.

She felt safe, seen and heard.

A thought lingered in her mind:

Is this what love feels like?

She sent the older of the twins a slight smile of her own, nuzzling against Kieran once again, while also pulling Luke towards herself. He obeyed without a protest, his head falling onto her shoulder.

Meanwhile in the background the movie was coming to an end, a wedding and the reunion of two new families was not enough to keep them away from their own moment.

Everything seemed to fall into it's rightful place.

~★~★~★~

2048, Early Autumn.

A year went by... To say that Sylus was not really happy about the blossoming relationship between his little girl and his employees would be an understanding.

For a couple of first months he gave the twins more time-consuming tasks just because he saw them getting too close to her. He wasn't blind, he knew that they cared for each other and his precious daughter-like person was happy with them.

But in his eyes: no one would ever be enough for her.

When he saw them kissing her cheeks while making food in the kitchen he made them leave the base for two weeks under the pretext that they needed to keep a close eye on one of his business partners.

And to be honest they learned nothing from this 'lesson', still acting clingy whenever she was near, competing for her attention all the time.

Sylus was so over it, but he couldn't do anything, since his little girl wouldn't forgive him if something bad would happen to them by his own doing.

So he just suffered in silence, sending death stares to them any time they dared to stand too close to her for his liking.

Today they finally got the intel about the Aether Protocore, mission was set, the woman in possession of it will soon show herself, he was sure of it.

Meanwhile twins already left the mansion, they needed to get to the area faster and wait for a signal to act.

While him and Y/n still waited in the mansion, currently sitting in the dining room, a red orb found it's place in Sylus's palm, his hands playing with it like with a coin.

Inside of it bloomed red flower, stained with blood, yellow sky around it sent warm light in it's direction, but instead of basking in it, the flower looked sad, depressed and caged.

The glass orb around it appeared broken, as if someone stabbed something sharp into it. Countless small cracks showing themselves around the pierced place. It's a surprise that the glass didn't shattered completely.

"Get ready, we are leaving soon." hiding the object in his pocket, he stood up, not waiting for the girl to follow him, he knew that she would be exactly where he needed her anyways.

~★~

Watching someone get killed by Sylus' power was interesting every time. They always looked so pathetic and weak in the claws of his evol.

But this time instead of focusing on the poor guy hanging in the air she studied the woman kneeling on the ground. She kept a safe distance, not even able to hear what the twins were saying, but she could imagine their comments already.

Sylus arrived, Mephisto who until now was seated on the teenage girl shoulder cawed and flew to his owner.

Twins kneeled before Sylus who appeared before them now, keeping up their acts.

"Take out the vermin that're still running amok." the girl slowly walked out from her hiding spot, getting a little closer to the spectacle. The woman who found herself in their presence looked up at her confused, but didn't comment about anything.

She stopped a couple meters behind the twins.

"Yes, sir!" she heard them say and watched them stand up to head in her direction.

Without any hesitation she turned around and started walking away, her boys following behind, leaving Sylus with his new prey behind.

"Finally some fun for us!" Luke spoke with excitement, catching up to her and throwing his arm around her shoulder.

"Let's hope that the rats will at least try to fight back or run. I missed that thrill." Kieran said with a hint of mockery in his voice. The girl just smiled at their attics, she couldn't wait to see them in action once more.

~★~

"She won't be sleeping forever, right? She's been unconscious for one day. We need to wake her up." was the first thing the woman heard after waking up.

"Easy, just open up the back of her head. Drill a hole in her neck and..." her eyes darted open, her vision fozy.

"You two-" she sat up.

"You're seeing things. I'm the only one here. There is no 'two'".

"Then who's that?"

"My soul can leave... my body..." the man before her clearly tried to scare her.

"Stop it. She went through a lot, leave your jokes for later." her eyes turned to the other side of the room, a silhouette of a girl playing with a knife perfectly visible "Sorry for those kids." women caught eye contact.

The eyes of that girl were mesmerizing. Something deep hidden inside of them, for whatever reason, the woman at the mercy of the strangers felt safe now, she didn't know why, but there was a feeling inside of her screaming to trust her.

"Are you stunned? Shocked? Boooring." the voice of the man standing in the shadow of the room got her attention, her head snapping to look at him.

"Ahem... Hi, MC. Before you left Boss's parlor..." so they knew her name... "Well, we already met. Four days ago to be exact." four days... She was unconscious for that long?

"We didn't just save you from that ungrateful traitor. We also brought you back to Onychinus's base." the guy further away added.

"...So you want me to thank you." she looked clearly giving up that she was thinking about something. The memories of previous days coming back to her.

"We will give you some more time to come back to your... Right state of mind. Come find us when you'll feel ready to." the girl said, putting the knife to it's destinated place on her thigh and leaving, the boys following short behind, waving at the woman.

However she wasn't sure if she'll even feel ready to face the reality, but she didn't have much choice.

~★~

"We know what you're thinking." she looked at Luke (who's name she got to know some time ago, together with the name of his brother, but she still didn't know who was the girl that she met, she didn't see her since their last encounter) "But after being hunted down in The Nest, do you know how many people are out there looking for you?" he sounded so sure of the fact that they've done her a favour.

"And if you escape, you'll only get lost in the chaos of this no-man's land." added Kieran.

"Wanderers will eat you up. They also won't leave behind any crumps. So..." she could tell who was the more dramatic twin.

"Stay here with our boss!" they said together, looking at her with expectations clearly visible without their masks on.

"Throw away all morality and compassion, and this place will be a paradise!" she kept quiet at the Kieran's comment, knowing very well that N109 Zone is not a place for her.

"By the way, who's older? You two are basically identical twins." she decided to change the topic of their conversation.

"Take a guess." Luke said, clearly curious about something.

"Could you come closer so I can get a better look?" she tried to act genue. He fell for the bait, coming closer, she pulled a laser pointer and held it against his neck.

"Hey..! What are you doing?" his eyes widening in shock.

"Have you heard of the XT-7, the Hunters Association's latest weapon?" confused but happy about the fact that they didn't search her body, she decided to use it to her advantage "It's high-powered laser that can penetrate your skin and vaporise your blood. The good news is that it's quick and painless. The bad news is that you'll be losing a lot of blood from your neck. Are you squeamish?" Luke remained unmoving at her explanation.

Kieran fell silent for a moment, before pressing the door handle and moving aside. To her surprise, the door opened just like that.

"Why are you staring at me? Did I say you weren't allowed to leave?" he said with an obvious sarcasm to his voice.

She didn't answer. Standing up she kept the 'weapon' to Luke's neck, gesturing with her head to go with her out of this room.

When passing the door she looked at Kieran who didn't really seem bothered. He followed behind them to the corridor.

"Okay, just go straight down the hall and you'll see the exit." she let go of Luke, he rubbed his neck and headed over to his brother's side.

"Do you want it? Here." the woman said, noticing his curious eyes following the object. He reached out for it, surprised.

"Really? That's very nice of you to just give away a hunter's secret weapon." he said with excitement.

"It's a laser pointer." she stated casually, her eyes giving up the fun she had from this situation.

"You..." she smiled playfully at him noticing his slight anger at the fact he got played with.

"Did I ever say that it was the XT-7?" she turned around, leaving the boys behind with every taken step.

She heard them whisper behind her, but ignored them completely, she kept going forward.

She took in her surroundings, the dark corridor she was in not saying much about where she was. But she noticed that this place seemed rather abandoned.

She saw a black bird before her, sitting on a marble pillar. A crow? It's eyes looking like made out of rubies.

The bird turned his neck into the woman's direction. It was alive?! Suddenly he flew towards her, missing her head he landed on something... Or rather someone behind her.

Turning around she saw the mysterious girl she saw only two times here.

"It's you." MC's voice quiet. She looked as the girl lovingly stroked the crow's sharp feathers, it's head trying to snuggle up to her palm.

"Sorry for startling you. It was not my intention, I was merely passing by." her eyes left the crow to look at the woman before her "Are you leaving?"

"I... Kinda..." she tried to take the details of the girl before her, also trying to catch where she hid her weapons.

"Kinda?" her giggle broke her from the thoughts "So you don't know yourself what to do? I thought that you would have it all planned out by now." it was clear that she was relaxed, as if knowing that the woman won't try to harm her in any way.

"I'm still figuring out everything..." she hated the fact that her voice gave away her uncertainty.

"Take your time, there's no rush." the girl said calmly, her eyes coming back to the pet on her shoulder who now snuggled up to her neck "Oh also... Thanks for what you did with Luke, I heard the commotion from the other room and overhead a little of it, sometimes it's good to put them into their place." she laughed, the woman couldn't help but crack a smile.

"My pleasure." MC said, for whatever reason more relaxed now. She didn't know that girl at all, she made up her mind about the twins and their Boss, but her? It was a completely different story for some unknown, even to her, reason "Do you... work with them?"

"Work with them? Hm... I guess you could say that." their eyes meet for the last time, before the girl gestured for the crow to fly away, it disappeared behind a narrow gap in the opened door next to them. The girl turned around, going in the direction where MC left the twins.

"Hey! Wait up!" she screamed after her, but got no response, she planned to run after her but the melodious classical music from behind the door caught her attention, and before her eyes came back to the place where she saw the girl going, there was no one left in the corridor but herself.

~★~

Whispers and quiet laughter that the twins shared when entering the kitchen brought the attention of the girl drawing something in her sketchbook while sitting on the countertop from the other side of the room, boys not noticing her started their hunt for snacks, taking off their masks and still laughing about something.

"What are you two up to this time?" both of them jumped at the voice of their girlfriend. The shock in their eyes stayed there for a couple of seconds before they get themself together.

"Us?" Luke leaned against the countertop on his elbow.

"Up to something?" Kieran looked at her from behind his brother with a slight smirk.

"Nooo."

"Never."

"Baby you hurt us." the older of the twins theatrically put a hand over his heart and took a 'pained' expression.

"With those accusations." Kieran put his hand on his brother's shoulder as if to comfort him after such harsh words were thrown their way.

The girl looked at them, lifting her eyebrows and sending them the 'really?' disappointed glare.

"Are you gonna tell me? Or should I go and find out myself." her sketch long forgotten now as she left it on the counter while standing up from her previous sitting place and walking a couple steps towards her lover boys.

"Well if you really want to know..." Kieran went around his brother, closer to the girl while leaning down a little bit to stand on her eye level.

"We decided to make a good deed today." Luke said, the eyes of the girl sneaked a peek at him and came back to gaze into the eyes of the man standing right before her.

"And help Miss Hunter to fulfill her mission." the mischievous spark in Kieran's eyes wasn't missed by the attention of the girl looking at him like she could read his mind and feelings.

Her lips turned into a playful smile and a second later the sound of her laugh reached the ears of the men in the room with her, making both of them smile at her attics.

"You two are evil. Playing tricks on the poor girl." she said with no real disappointment behind her words. She knew that nothing would happen to that woman, Sylus wouldn't hurt her in any way. "Now, who wants some cookies." her arms went around Kieran's neck, giving him a kiss on the cheek, her eyes turning to his brother right behind him.

"Us!" both of them screamed with excitement. Luke ran up to them, stealing the girl from his twin's arms and holding her up started spinning with her in his arms.

The dark furniture of the kitchen didn't exactly match the child-like joy and laughter inside of the room, but it didn't make the moment any less cheerful and happy.

Wherever this trio found themselves in always felt cozy and full of joy. The demons of the past getting forgotten and instead the new found memories getting their place inside of their hearts, making their lives a little more bearable with each and every new one.

~★~

Staring at the brooch in her palms she froze for a minute. Finally, after so many fails that hurt her ego she was able to get it, it didn't matter that the only reason why it worked out was for the fact that Sylus decided to play her little game.

She was already sitting in the red dress, her hair wasn't put up yet, and some parts of her outfit like jewelry and gloves had yet to find themself on her. With a short exhale she put the brooch down onto the table before her.

Her eyes shut closed and her palms started massaging her scalp. Million thoughts were running through her mind. What if something were to go wrong? Is Sylus a danger to her? Will he leave her on her own if something goes not according to plan? Is there even a plan? Will he-

"You know, your thoughts are so loud for someone who came here with a strict goal in mind. Having second thoughts?" a female voice broke her out of her mind, in the mirror before her she met the eyes of the young girl whose name she still didn't know "You know - it's never too late to back out." the slight smirk adoring her face didn't miss the hunter's gaze.

"I won't back out. This all is just... A lot." her eyes fell from the girl back to her own reflection, picking up a brush she started taking care of her hair. However with the nerves from a couple of last days finally getting to her after staying closed inside of her for too long, even the simplest task seems too hard to focus on right now.

While trying and failing to catch her hair together once more she suddenly felt gentle hands caressing them and bringing them together. Looking up she saw the girl now standing right behind her. Did she fail to hear the footsteps coming closer to her?

"The auction will start soon, you won't get ready in time with your shaky hands." pulling MC' hair up, forming a ponytail she reached out her hand "A brush please." without any complaints MC put the item into her open palm, and a second later the girl came back to her task.

"Can I ask for your name?" the teenager made a sound, as if enjoying the knowledge that the information about her still wasn't known to the woman.

"Twins didn't expose it to you yet? Hah, so they can keep information to themselves if they want to." their eyes meet for a split second in the mirror before breaking the eye contact again.

"No, when I asked about you all that I got in response was them calling you their 'dreamy girl'." at this sentence the girl behind her laughed.

"It does sound like them, yeah." her expression turned into something soft, as if thinking about something that made her happy "My name is Y/n." once again she raised her gaze to look into the eyes of the woman. She put her hands onto her shoulder, the hairstyle she was working on was finally done.

MC tested her name on her mouth in a quiet whisper.

"What are we thinking." the younger girl took a hand mirror from the table, making it reflect the hairstyle from behind so that the woman could see it in the mirror. It was a simple but elegant bun with a couple strands of her hair lying free around the area of her face, making a makeshift bangs.

"It looks great, thank you." she sent a soft smile towards the girl which she reciprocated. She saw her reaching for something on the table again.

"Let me help you put it on." holding a necklace in her hands she got ready to clasp it around MC's neck.

The next couple of minutes were spent with shared laughter in between them and some small talk. The girl made sure not to share many things about herself, Sylus or the twins but somehow still found topics to talk about, like sharing some little facts about the people who will attend the same auction as her.

For the first time in the last couple of days, the hunter finally found herself relaxing, and her mind wasn't full of second thoughts and doubts.

~★~

Sylus calmly guides MC across the dance floor, swaying to the song's rhythm.

Blocking the prying shadows around them he tried to make the woman focus on him, but for a quick moment her eyes caught a glimpse of someone who brought her attention to themselves.

Continuing their dance she tried to look at the mysterious stranger behind Sylus's shoulder.

It was a woman, in a black perfectly fitting dress, corset tied tight on her body, with a lot of chains adoring her, from her neck down to her corset and gloves, working as her jewellery.

What made MC, and probably every person here, wonder, was the black veil which hid her hair and face from the curious eyes of the outlookers.

Her stance was elegant, not moving an inch from her spot she resembled a statue, meant to be adored from afar.

Suddenly Sylus spun her around, making her lose sight of her target, she looked at him with annoyance, not expecting any explanation, but a short chuckle left the man, before words started flowing from his mouth.

"So, kitten finally noticed another crow in the room with us? Took you long enough." her eyes widened at the realization, but Sylus didn't leave her any room for questions, and continued their dance, making her focus not to stumble on her feet.

~★~

The explosion left people panicking, the whole hall reduced to a rubble.

Wanderers appeared from left and right, but before MC had a chance to shoot, someone else already took care of them.

Looking around she noticed the figure in the black dress, which fabric now appeared shorter and more comfortable to move around in.

Young girl calmly moved towards them, her steps more graceful than her usual movements. The clicking of her high shoes echoes from the ground, following her steps, MC took a note in her mind to ask her for a walking session later on, it may come useful.

"Leave, you did your part, go to your lover boys sweetie." Sylus' commanding voice spoke, the hint of displeasure obvious at the words 'lover boys'.

The moment of realization struck MC like lightning - that's who they were! She dated the twins! It all made sense now, how could she not notice before?

The girl only let out a quiet laugh, and reached out her hand towards MC.

Opening up her palm she showed her the gun she was holding, uncertain but without much choice the woman picked it up.

"Good luck." with those words Y/n walked around them, heading towards the exit of the hall.

"She looks stunning." a whisper full of fascination left MC, followed by a sound of approval from Sylus' mouth.

Without more comments about the girl, their thoughts came back to the present time and the mission at their hands.

~★~

In the meantime...

"That explosion was mid at best." Luke's voice gave away his disappointment.

"Could be better, but Boss was probably worried about Miss Hunter getting scared or hurt." Kieran kicked the stone under his legs, bored, they were waiting for their girlfriend to come to them for an hour now.

"Where is sheee, I didn't see her all day!" Luke lay down on the stairs leading to the entrance of the abandoned building which localisation was about five to ten minutes away from the auction place.

Putting a hand on top of his heart he tried his best to appear as if dying.

"Hey, I didn't see her either, you're not the only one in emotional pain right now." Kieran scoffed at his brother's attics, crossing his arms.

Suddenly he felt a cold rush of air hitting his back. Before he had a chance to turn around someone's arms came to embrace him around the torso.

"Okay, not fair! I'm dying from longing here, and you decide to give attention to my brother first? The double betrayal!" not giving a single damn about his brother's screams in the background Kieran turned around and hugged the girl back, conscious about his mask.

He picked her up, making her feet linger a little above the ground, which succeeded in making her giggle.

"Okay but damn girl, that outfit? How could you not show it to us before going out!" hearing his brother point out her clothing choice, Kieran put her back down and his gaze explored her whole body before he straightened up.

"Damn how did we pull you?" his head dipped to the side, making him look like a bird observing it's prey.

"We somehow got the daughter of the most dangerous multimillionaire in the N109 Zone to ourselves, if not for the fact that our identities are supposed to stay secret, I would go to the rooftop of the highest building around here and scream it for everyone to hear." Luke finally stood up and walked closer to them.

"Getting onto the Boss's black list because of dating you was so worth it." Kieran high fived his brother, making the girl shake her head in disbelief.

"Can we go now? I want to have a photo session in the forest with that fit." she made a little spin to show off her dress.

"Oh so today we're playing photographers?" Kieran pointed out, trying not to let his excitement show.

"Got it Missy."

"You'll get the best photos you could dream of, princess." twins bowed their upper body jokingly, making the girl raise her chin high and take the most graceful pose she could think of.

"We wouldn't dare to disappoint you, your majesty." the girl finally broke the character of a serious rich woman and let out a laugh, at which both of the brothers grinned to themselves.

"Let's go, I want to make it home before the morning arrives." twins straighten up from their previous position and watch her walk away in the other direction they came from.

"Do you think that she will wear something similar at our wedding?" Luke heard his brother's voice in his head.

"Ple-ase; her wedding dress is gonna be so much more eye catching and gorgeous than this one." at this statement Kieran nodded his head in agreement.

"Our little fashion Queen." they looked at her bewitched, not even noticing the distance growing with every step she took.

"Are you coming or not? Someone needs to carry me once we get to the grass part. There's no way I'll ruin those sweet shoes." she broke them from their thoughts, and without turning back continued on her way.

Both of them gasped and exchanged glances, before breaking out into a run and trying to over scream the other one.

"It's gonna be me!"

~★~★~★~

2048, Late Autumn.

MC spends most of her time in Linkon but more often than not she finds herself in the luxurious mansion in the N109 Zone.

And more often than not; she isn't even going there to meet the white haired man who lives rent free in her mind (for various reasons) but to meet the three teenagers that she grow fond of.

Today she found herself in that mansion again, her and the troublemaker trio decided to make cookies, play kitty cards, and play Just Dance until midnight. Sylus was nowhere in sight, when asked about him, the 'kids' said that he won't be back until the next day, away for some business, not specifying anything more.

In the middle of the night they finally decided to end their activities and leave for their rooms, MC headed to one of the guest rooms that she stayed before, with a pajama borrowed from the younger girl.

Everything seemed peaceful, she was able to fall asleep fast, but the sleep itself wasn't as calm as her surroundings.

That vision again. Her staring at her own bloody palms, not being able to focus on anything else. Her hands felt as if not belonging to her, foreign and unfamiliar, the ringing in her ears made everything twice as dizzy and scary, her own heart beating so loud as if trying to break free, yearning for something outside of her own soul and body.

The tears leaving their eyes, meeting the red essence below her. Every breath she took felt like pain. She tried to raise her head, tried to see what was happening, what she had done, but the picture before her was blurry, something red and black blinked before her and then it was over.

Waking up with a heavy breath and all sweaty she shot up from her laying position, raised her hands and stared at them, they were shaking, her whole body was shaking, like in daze she continued to stare at them, trying to see any traces from the mortifying sight she saw in that dream.

It took her about ten minutes to pull herself together and stop shaking 'it was only a nightmare...' she thought, with her hands placed on her head she closed her eyes, gripping her hair tightly to make sure that this reality wasn't her mind's imagination.

Her eyes shoot open, taking in her surroundings, the dark room lit only by the red moon peeking through the window's curtains. Her throat felt more dried than ever, she let out a series of coughs but it only worsened it's condition.

For a moment her eyes fixed on the moon outside, and then with a sight she placed her feet on the cold floor, picking herself up from the bed, and making her way out of the suffocating room.

With slow and quiet steps she walked down the hallway, trying not to bump into things along the way, but when it happened she didn't even acknowledge the moment of pain.

Not even noticing when, she found herself in the kitchen, stopping in her tracks she harshly put her hands on the counter, trying to steady her breathing and not faint from the overwhelming she felt.

Her ears didn't pick up a sound, but her eyes gazed at the glass of water quietly placed before her. Slowly she moved her head to the side, through the darkness she was able to make out a silhouette of a woman.

Seemingly unbother by the state she just saw the hunter, young girl continued moving the pencil in her hand unrushed and steady. MC tried to look at the paper before her, but wasn't able to see any details of the sketch. Understanding that the girl wasn't going to speak or question anything the woman gaze returned to the glass before her.

Unsure, she picked it up, her grip weak even with two hands in use. Trying her best not to drop the glass she put it to her lips, the drinking proved to be a hard task at first, but slowly instead of the uncomfortable tightness in her throat she felt relief.

She didn't know whether the time was moving at the slow peace or rushing, both of them, her standing and the girl sitting at the high stool, stayed there in silence, the presence of the younger girl proving to be a much needed comfort right now.

"You know, dreams are a strange concept. Some are weird, some are scary, some are memories, some are sights sent to us by our own mind." hearing the soft voice of the teenager MC turned her head towards her, noticing her still focused on the drawing, but the strokes of the pencil now seemed more forceful and not gentle at all, as if trying to mess up her previous work "And then - there are the ones that leave us in a state when we don't know what's going on. It's... a weird feeling. Like you are lost there, with no way out, and then - when you wake up, you feel like this dream is *the reality*."

The girl's eyes finally left the sketch, meeting the curious eyes of the hunter. She saw a silent question there, silent pleading for explanation and answers. Ones that she couldn't get from her.

"But in the end, it's all in your head. You make your own truth there, you are the queen who rules there." her voice grew quieter with every word leaving her mouth. Her eyes shining like a fainting star in the sky. So beautiful and so fragile.

"It's hunting me. Why can't it go away." a whisper left the woman, her eyes closing, the cold empty glass brought to her forehead, as if trying to command herself to get a grip on herself.

"Maybe you still didn't understand what you're supposed to, from that vision. Maybe the answers you seek are hidden there." a hand touched MC's arm gently, calming her down together with the soothing voice "Go to sleep in the Sylus' room, he won't be mad, I promise that no more bad dreams will come to you tonight." after that she heard the chair moving and heard footsteps slowly heading towards the door.

"You don't just work for him, right?" the sound of movement stopped, for a moment she thought that the girl left, but finally she heard the voice from far behind her.

"No." a short answer. Not telling much about the situation between the two.

"Why?" the question leaving her mouth was so quiet that she didn't expect the girl to hear it. Yet, again after a moment of silence her voice broke through.

"He took me in. When I had nothing." the sadness in her voice was obvious, even without turning around the hunter could imagine the pained expression on her face "Without asking for anything in return he saved me, gracing me with everything I could only dream of having. You might see him as a cruel, ruthless man." her voice close to breaking "But he's not heartless. No matter how much of a monster he claims to be - he will never be one in my eyes. And I hope that with time, you'll acknowledge that too." with that she left, leaving more questions behind, but also comfort and hope.

She didn't want to acknowledge the fact that the Boss of Onychinus could be anything but cruel and horrible man, led only by his desire to rule and use people like pawns, making his way to the top through the corpses and blood. With a groan she opened her eyes, planning to go back to sleep.

Turning around something caught her attention. On the countertop lying was the sketchbook of the teenager, opened on the drawing she was working on a moment ago. Not able to resist her curiosity she took a peak inside.

What she saw made her pause with confusion.

A human heart with a gem stuck in it, around it - lines, looking like veins scattered everywhere. She noticed a note above it in the language she couldn't understand.

𝕾𝖎𝖆 𝕲𝖗𝖆'𝕶𝖚𝖑

For unknown reason her heartbeat speed increased, but not because of panic. She felt like something in her was missing, some piece of her gone. Her gaze fell to the bottom of the page.

𝕾𝖎𝖆 𝕯𝖗𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖍𝖚𝖒

Her eyes scanned every detail of the sketch, her heart throbbed inside of her, louder and louder.

She slammed the sketchbook closed. Her heart slowly calmed itself down. Leaving the cursed thing on the counter she left in a hurry, not wanting any more questions to linger in her mind.

That night she let herself find comfort under the sheets of the red eyed man's bed. Sleep came easy and no nightmare bothered her for the rest of her slumber.

She couldn't notice the glow of the orb sitting on the shelf, the red and gold strings running around inside of it, linking and breaking their bond every couple of seconds. Nor could she hear the pained voices whispering from inside of it.

𝓜𝔂 𝓗𝓮𝓪𝓻𝓽

𝓜𝔂 𝓓𝓻𝓪𝓰𝓸𝓷

~★~

If anyone would say that the dangerous leader of Onychinus and a Linkon City hunter would act like an old married couple running after their children in the huge mansion belonging to the man, people would probably laugh at the audacity of that person to spread lies.

But it was currently happening...

"Luke leave Mephisto!" Sylus's commanding voice didn't scare his subordinate like most of the time, currently having too much fun to think about the consequences.

"Kieran catch!" he threw the mechanical bird towards his brother, Mephi stretched his wings to lend in his hands, playing with them.

"This bird probably costs more than all of our lives combinated! Give it back!" MC screamed while running towards the younger of the twins.

"Sorry Miss Hunter! We need him more now." Kieran shot up in the direction of the stairs, but half way there he was stopped by the mist wrapping around his body "Oh c'mon, not fair man!" now he was flying in the air, the crow still in his palm letting out a loud caw.

"Give the bird back." Sylus came into the Kieran's line of vision, but the twins weren't ready to give up just yet.

"Dreamy! Our hopes are in you!" with one hand he threw the bird to his side, towards the girl who had a lot of fun watching the little game of tag.

"Why me?!" she screamed, but caught the crow anyways, bringing him close to her chest, as if in a hug. All eyes in the room watched her, not moving, the room growing so quiet that the ticking of the clock on the wall could be heard.

A couple of the next seconds were spent staring at each other, awaiting the next move.

Suddenly the girl rushed to her left, in the direction of the corridor door.

"No!" MC shouted, running after her, while Sylus left Kieran to drop on the floor and calmly walked in the direction where the two women disappeared.

Luke rushed to his brother, helping him up with a laugh.

"Do you think she'll get it?"

"Of course. She runs fast, and Boss would never hurt his 'little girl'. It's all between her and Miss Hunter now." Kieran answered his brother with a groan, massaging his back that got hurt when he fell down.

Luke pulled his brother by his elbow, going in the direction of the corridor, which succeeded in more sounds of pain and complaints from his brother's mouth.

They walked for what seemed like eternity, until finally hearing the voices coming from one of the rooms. Both of them rushed there, as a result getting stuck in the door frame together for a second.

"I won!" the laugh that they both grew to love caught their attention, after which they heard a disappointed sound coming from the other woman in the room, and Sylus's short chuckle.

"You did it babe!" Luke ran to the girl, catching her in his arms, the crow still in her hold let out a caw, clearly annoyed at the boy's behavior, just like his owner who watched the show from the distance.

"We knew you'll get it!" from behind her came Kieran, both of them picking her up in a victory celebration, putting her onto their shoulder. The crow flew up to her shoulder, sitting there calmly.

Their joy was however short lived, because soon after their affection display a red mist caught the girl, gently bringing her back on the floor, while also pushing the twins away from her.

Mephi flew towards his owner now, whose expression didn't show the annoyance he felt inside. The teenage girl looked at him, raising her eyebrows at which he only shrugged acting like he didn't do anything.

"Okay you won, what is your wish then." MC's voice caught the attention of everyone, remembering what this game was about all along.

"I want... A self-care evening with face masks, various of not very healthy snacks, watching movies about sad love stories with a happy ending and online shopping with Sylus's card." the girl jumped up a bit and clapped her hands.

"... Okay I have no objections." the woman raised her hands in surrender and slowly walked up to the girl catching her hands and starting to jump with her in excitement.

"I call dibs on the dino mask!" Luke raised his hand high up, getting himself up from the floor he previously landed on, and ran out of the room, probably to get the stuff ready.

"Hey, no fair! You had that one last time asshole!" Kieran ran after him.

Sylus let out a sigh, his palm on his forehead in disbelief.

"Shopping!" the girls called in sync, before rushing in the direction of the door to catch up to the twins.

"What did I get myself into..." Mephisto cawed as if to mock the man "I know, I know, you don't have to remind me." white haired man turned his head towards the bird sending him a glare, and made his way towards the direction where he knew the chaos started to grow.

The evening went by fast, talks about any and everything, giggles, face masks and other beauty care products (even Mephisto wasn't spared, and sat there stuck with a small sheet mask made by twins), a lot of funny selfies, crying at the sad moments in the movies, at which twins hugged each other, girls each other, and Sylus and Mephisto only sent each other looks asking for help.

Eventually after a couple hours they finally began to feel exhausted. Slowly falling asleep one by one, leaving only Sylus awake.

He didn't really pay attention to them, focusing on the cheap movie on the screen, waiting for it to be over, when suddenly he felt a light weight on his arm, looking down on the place beside him he noticed MC asleep with her head dropping on his shoulder, her body so familiar and so strange beside him. The warm-cozy feeling inside of his chest was accompanied by the loud beating of his heart, his gaze softened and a soft smile graced his lips, an unusual sight.

Then he raised his eyes and looked at the other end of the huge couch, occupied by the three troublemakers. For a moment a grimace showed itself on his face, not really pleased with the sight, but the more he looked the more it disappeared.

His precious little girl was lying between the two boys, curled up with her legs close to her body. Her arms were thrown over Luke's shoulders and neck, her body leaning his way, with his head resting on top of hers, while Kieran hugged her body from behind, his arms around her waist, and his head snuggled to her shoulder.

Okay maybe... They weren't that bad. They took care of her, made her laugh, and protected her. Okay, yeah, no. No one was good enough for her. But at least they tried, and actually acted like they... Loved her.

He let out a quiet sigh, not wanting to overthink that. For as long as she's happy...

With that thought he let himself close his eyes, waiting for the sleep to take him. Unknown to any of them, Mephisto's eyes lighten up, taking a photo. The five of them in the most vulnerable state known to exist. Like a family enjoying their time together. Mephi flew up to rest on the couch backrest joining them in the moment.

Somehow all of the hearts in this room found the person they were looking for, and they weren't planning to let go of them, not now, not ever.

[stupidphototricks]

Death as Bill Door, getting a life.

"Are you decent, Bill Door?" said Miss Flitworth's voice in the darkness. Bill Door analyzed the sentence for meaning within context. YES? he ventured. -- Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

Bill Door was no good at reading faces. It was a skill he'd never needed. He stared at Miss Flitworth's frozen, worried, pleading smile like a baboon looking for meaning in the Rosetta Stone. -- Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

Was that what it was really like to be alive? The feeling of darkness dragging you forward? How could they live with it? And yet they did, and even seemed to find enjoyment in it, when surely the only sensible course would be to despair. Amazing. To feel you were a tiny living thing, sandwiched between two cliffs of darkness. How could they stand to be alive? -- Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

The child stared distantly at the landscape for a while and then said, "I've got new socks." YES? "You can look, if you like." A grubby foot was extended for inspection. WELL, WELL. FANCY THAT. NEW SOCKS. "My mum knitted them out of sheep." MY WORD. The horizon was given another inspection. "D'you know," she said, "d'you know... it's Friday." YES. "I found a spoon." Bill Door found that he was waiting expectantly. He was not familiar with people who had an attention span of less than three seconds. -- Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

Death knew that to tinker with the fate of one individual could destroy the whole world. He knew this. The knowledge was built into him. To Bill Door, he realized, it was so much horse elbows. -- Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

SOMETIMES PEOPLE CHALLENGE ME TO A GAME. FOR THEIR LIVES, YOU KNOW. "Do they ever win?" NO. LAST YEAR SOMEONE GOT THREE STREETS AND ALL THE UTILITIES. "What? What sort of game is that?" I DON"T RECALL. "EXCLUSION POSSESSION," I THINK. I WAS THE BOOT. -- Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

Bill Door felt very old. In fact he was very old. But he'd never felt it as much as this. -- Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

"What the hell have you been doing, Mr. So-Called Bill Door?" I AM TIRED AND IT WON'T STOP. Bill Door clutched at his skull. ALSO SPIGOT GAVE ME A HUMOROUS APPLE JUICE FERMENTED DRINK BECAUSE OF THE HEAT AND NOW I FEEL ILL. "I ain't surprised. He makes it up in the woods. Apples isn't the half of it." I HAVE NEVER FELT ILL BEFORE. OR TIRED. "It's all part of being alive." HOW DO HUMANS STAND IT? "Well, fermented apple juice can help." -- Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

JUST BECAUSE SOMETHING IS A METAPHOR DOESN'T MEAN IT CAN'T BE REAL. -- Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

I'VE NEVER BEEN VERY SURE ABOUT WHAT IS RIGHT, said Bill Door. I AM NOT SURE THERE IS SUCH A THING AS RIGHT. OR WRONG. JUST PLACES TO STAND. -- Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

IF PEOPLE KNEW WHEN THEY WERE GOING TO DIE, I THINK THEY PROBABLY WOULDN'T LIVE AT ALL. "Oh, very gnomic. And what do you know about it, Bill Door?" EVERYTHING. -- Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

"Have you got any last words?" YES. I DON'T WANT TO GO. "Well. Succinct, anyway." -- Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

(Now I'm honestly wondering if Russell T. Davies read Terry Pratchett??)

[a-twistedheartslonging]

sometimes people will pay mc to clean/cook for them. all are using it as an excuse to get a scent on you

epel appreciates home cooked meals, don't bother paying for ingredients, just use ones from his farm. he'll keep you company prefect

jade and floyd (who has taken to calling you his Cleaner Shrimpy) jade thinks it's cute to see you cook, he would love to see you swap recipes, learn your taste, do add extra mushrooms to his food please. floyd enjoys following you around while you clean and trying to mess things up so you can't leave. he always make jokes about lockin' you in. what do you meeeeaaannnn you have other clients? maybe he should bite you so they learn to stay away :) maybe he should lock you up right here :)

azul? come work for the mostro lounge! clean up the mess after work, only work for him, he'll pay you double just don't go spend time with others. why don't you start with his office and finish up after people leave. is what he would say if he lost all words the moment he gets to close to you.

jack is just helping a friend >:( don't get the wrong idea just hang out in the room when you're done, he does enjoy your cooking, he knows you'll make a great little mate and a great parent too, he does always compliment the chef.

riddle and vil will critique you but ultimately try to get you to stay

malleus follows you around while you clean all of diasomnia. he pays extra just to not clean savanna claw

sebek yells how you should be grateful to work for malleus, silver ears every meal with a smile and always compliments you and how he can tell you worked hard on it, lilia tries to have a cook off with you. you didn't have the heart to roast his cooking.

leona is used to the women hunting, cooking is almost like that, he'll pay you double is you drop the dragon, he'll say come over to clean but you're just a body pillow lol

ruggie uses those big old puppy dog eyes to get to give him a home cooked meal for free ninety nine.

by the end of it rook just pays to watch you go about your business in his space. it's creepy. but he always does write a 20 page thank you letter complimenting your skills, unless he decides to keep you in his nest ofc

trey wants to swap recipes remarking something about "well fed children", deuce is enamored with your cooking and raves about you to his mom, ace pretends not to care but will just throw his laundry at you for you to do, he tried to pay you in a hoodie of his but you refused to accept. carter says he'll make a post promoting your innovative idea but is trying to keep it to himself, he doesn't want some other stinky guy on you >:(

idia is to shy to ask but ortho has needed this for a while

jamil is thrilled when you too can cook together and try each others food, and you give him a break from cleaning after parties? kalon thinks it's a sign you love him that you offered (and his parents are thrilled to have a human work for him) and jamil gets to hang out with the cute little human and take a break? god send

eventually whoever gets the most from you is OBVIOUSLY a status symbol and will be shown off.

anyway sorry if you didn't like this

Oh, I love this, I talked before about Yuu getting a little cleaning and cooking side business going since a lot of guys suck at taking care of themselves, especially the well-off ones that prob had a maid take care of everything.

Jamil and Ruggie both need breaks/some help. Leona and Kalim are working these poor boys to the bone. Ruggie is def hounding you for leftovers.

I can imagine Idia is kind of embarrassed and might clean up or hide a few things before you come over, doesn't want you thinking he's gross. I'm picturing him in his web looking flustered as he pretends to act all focused on the game his playing on his tablet but he's actually just watching you clean and fueling his house waifu/husbando fantasies.

I would def run a hoodie tax for doing laundry.

Rook is another that would hide the things he doesn't want you to see before you come over to clean, not that there's much for you to do. He's very neat and organized but always looks for an excuse to get you into his nest. Probably offers you extra to scent a few things for him.

Cleaning for Leona...you know those cats that lie on the bed when you're trying to change the sheets and nap on the fresh from the drier clothes? He diffidently does that. He totally keeps trying to get you to only work for him and lays on you so you can't leave, threatening to charge him overtime doesn't deter him in the slightest. He also sticks close when you're cooking, the man loves food and wants to be fed by hand by you.

Oh man, Mal, Silver, and Sebek are so grateful when you take care of the cooking. Seb refuses to admit it though. You really need to keep an eye on everything, or else Lilia will sneak something into what you're making.

With the trouble that Ace and Deuce cause you're probably called to their dorm often to clean up some mess they made.

You would definitely get a lot of extra work from the octo trio, if it's not their rooms you're taking care of then it's help with the lounge. The eels are big-time fans of your cooking, but neither will leave you alone when you are trying to clean, and it makes the jobs take a lot longer. Not too bad if you're charging by the hour at least.

[brujahinaskirt]

I will never shut up about how Kingdom Come: Deliverance is the most tenderly written game served to the most loutish horde of jackasses. I think it is possibly one of the greatest pieces of popular fiction made about feudalism in recent history, even if it's not always the most historically accurate.

And that's because the whole damn thing is about the profound, authority-enforced inhumanity that self-propels feudal order... but this time, it's written from the perspective of, for lack of better word, "humanity undermines, and humanity wins."

Love wins, if you want to be cheeky.

This was originally meant to be a reply to @feelinungry's excellent post on the subject, but it outgrew itself and got super bloated, so I'm plopping it in its own post to not be obnoxious...

KINGDOM COME: DELIVERANCE MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW

And the reason all this about humanity and love is so important to the core of the story, to the very backbone of the narrative (even beyond the plot), is that it exists in opposition and to the impairment of the feudal system. Kingdom Come: Deliverance means to teach us, by way of deeply dramatic plots following individuals, how feudalism works and why it worked the way it did. And why and how that system fails.

The vehicle by which the game does this is by showing us, over and over, how the stratification of feudal class is eroded and sometimes outright dissolved (either in general, as with Henry and Hans, or when it matters most, as with Radzig and Henry) by plain and simple love.

Feudalism, like most class-stratified systems, relies upon 1. dehumanization of those beneath one's appointed status; 2. fealty (mock-love) to those above one's status, their title-appointer class; and 3. the maintenance of a deep separation between these artificially bestowed statuses, as enforced by church (as in word of clergy, not word of god) & state (legal rules and law). Those words and laws existed to propel the system by divide-and-maintain (of the workforce populace, placing it firmly below the next class in line, etc.) in the service of unify-and-profit (for the ruling class).

Sigismund & his invading army are wholly separated and adherent to the feudal theory, even if they have flouted codes of warfare & inheritance; they are presented to us as the main dehumanizing force of the story world, a wave of Order that indiscriminately burns opposition flat rather than an individual leading a royal coup, a cyclical destruction that paves the way for the next flavor of rule to continue the feudal system ad infinitum. They're thoroughly separated from the story even when they are burning down a village in front of our eyes and generally move as one, with Markvart occasionally stepping out of that mass of Feudalism and its antihuman nature to give it a face. They're more a force of nature than an individual as far as the narrative goes.

And we are meant to understand that in sharp contrast to the "close" story, the cast we get to know and watch as they attempt to answer this force of nature. And the second we see these characters get close enough to each other, by raw proximity, to poke a pin into the wineskin of feudal order as dictated to them by authority, it bleeds--everywhere. Not in the sense of ruination but in the sense that a tiny wedge of empathy cracks open the dam and leads, yep, to rehumanization--and love, the most human driving force there is.

And that changes everything, for everyone. Not just internally, as with a character's personal development arc (i.e., Hans learning why his duties, which he resented and viewed as an impingement on his freedom when dictated to him by authority, are incredibly important for real people who experience pain) but externally as well (as @feelinungry so elegantly points out in the original post).

Over and over, at every stage of the story, it's the rehumanization of and by these decision-makers (at a family level, at a community level, at a regional level, at a national level) that cracks the feudal cycle, even if in very small ways. Hans really brings this back home in a petri dish in late game, after the siege, when he complains to Henry about the noble's code (letting Istvan go) potentially leading to pain and disaster for the common people Istvan's machinations are likely to harm in the future. He chafes--and we chafe, and so does Radzig, and so does Divish--against feudal stratification because he has learned a general empathy through loving an individual, and that has in turn reshaped the way he sees the world.

And that's exactly why and when feudalism begins to fail, and why it thrashed itself the way it did, from the enforcement of sexual mores (though this wasn't exactly like it is in movies) and gender law to terror upon its own populations.

And it's the crucial understanding I think we begin to forget after being exposed to so much Hollywoodification of history, where the oppression always exists for cruelty's sake alone rather than in active and deliberate service to a political construct.

And I think it's why we've "lost the plot" so horribly when it comes to understanding that people in history were still people, not monolithic one-mind entities (as the feudal system demanded they be). And why we somehow forgot that such people fall in love, in all kinds of love, in a way that has never given a damn about authority. And that this in turn undermines supposedly supreme authority, even divine authority, and will always continue to do so, as long as people are people.

This is what it always comes back to. Always. From Henry's parents and their mysterious bond with Radzig informing the protagonist's journey from "the past"--to Henry & Hans falling into stupidly fierce soulmatehood with each other in the present--from Istvan & Erik's destructive fuck-the-world romantic love on the "enemy" side--to Divish's humbling, humanizing realization that he loves Stephanie in some way, he really does, despite the chasm of age/gender enforced upon them by their adherence to feudal order that doomed their romantic love to failure.

People will always love each other, even when the world orders them not to, even when faced with death and worse. People will always, given proximity and shared experiences, learn to see each other as human again. KCD reminds us of that. It's why the "slow" storyline exists and why it works.

And that is why this game is so fucking fantastic, and why the genpop fandom has utterly failed it.

[taniahylian]

Tristes tropiques: The worst chapter in Reverse 1999

Alright, so I’ve wanted to talk about ch8 of the main story since I’ve finished it because it’s, imo, the worst drop in writing quality we’ve seen in the game so far. It has a lot of inconsistencies, things that aren’t explained or happen off-screen, and the emotional segments are rushed/not impactful enough, and about characters we’ve barely seen (excluding Anjo Nala, who is the best part of the chapter imo). Now, as you can see, this will be quite a negative take, so if you liked this chapter, please don’t let me ruin your fun lol. Also, it’ll have spoilers, so be warned.

Part 1: The representation.

Alright, had to get this out of the way first because it’s what everyone is talking about. The representation.

Is the representation bad? Yes. Really, really bad if we compare it with literally all other stories in the game. To put things in perspective, imagine if in the Notes of Shuori event nothing changed but they clamed this was Japan instead of China, yet characters still spoke in Chinese, had Chinese names, and many of the references were Chinese. That would have been outrageous, wouldn’t it? Well, that’s basically what happened here but with Brazil and other Latin American countries.

What they tried to do, basically, was dump all of Latin America (you, know a region that’s bigger and more diverse than Europe) into one singular “culture” and put this in fictional Sao Paulo. Why do I say that? Because many of the words they use for different things are in Spanish, and many characters speak in Spanish, have Spanish-sounding names, and reference things from other countries in Latin America. Also, one of the npcs, whose name I don’t care to remember, is literally a walking Mexican stereotype. To me what this says is that they didn’t do any research at all about Brazil (for those of you who don’t know, they speak Portuguese and are also far enough away from Mexico that these two cultures aren’t really comparable); enough that they couldn’t get even the language right, or even the geography or the Sao Paulo landscape, judging by what I’ve seen being said by Brazilian players.

Remember when they accurately portrayed the Secession building in Vienna? Or Jantar Mantar in Mor Pank? Or how they usually have characters speak small phrases in their native language, which is appropriate to the region and their character? Well, Bluepoch doesn’t, apparently.

Then there’s the whole “life here is hell, this is hopeless and everything here sucks” aspect of their portrayal of Sao Paulo (and their infamous tweet). This feels especially disrespectful when the story so far has always had quite a good amount of nuance. Vienna for example, having the contrast of being the “city of freedom”, yet having such a strict oppression of arcanists. Or San Francisco, having such a huge poverty and gang problem, yet still portraying the people living in these conditions as actual humans with hopes and dreams that they sometimes were able to accomplish.

And finally, to wrap up this representation thing… it feels disrespectful that the only Brazilian character we get is Mr. Duncan. Mainly because it seems he’s not really Mr. Duncan, but actually Mr. Karson. You know, an English man. I think they should’ve made Lopera Brazilian because so far having her be from Colombia adds nothing to the story, and if she was from Sao Paulo it’d make a lot more sense for her to be Vertin’s guide/translator in the city.

Okay, so that’s what we get from the representation in this chapter, which is pretty bad (haven’t read Anjo’s character story, which I’ve heard is better in this aspect, but that’s not actually part of ch8, so I excluded it). However, honestly I wouldn’t mind that much if the story had at least been good. So… let’s talk about that next, shall we?

Part 2: The story.

The good.

Okay, first let’s get the good things out of the way, because I don’t want to sit here and pretend that everything about this chapter was bad; that would be unfair and disingenuous.

I liked Lopera and Molly. They were interesting characters and have a lot of potential for the future of the story, which I really hope they deliver in future chapters.

I liked White Rum; she’s a funny character, and the concept of an Awakened pirate ship that has the skeletal hand of her former captain (Anne Bonnie, my favorite pirate of all time) is quite an interesting and unique idea, and I wish we got more characters like this. Also, I need to see her interact with Regulus lol.

I absolutely adored Anjo Nala. She’s the highlight of the story for me; an interesting, complex, and adorable character with a lot of potential for stories to tell, both about her past and her future. I really became attached to her over the course of this story, and I think they did a good job making you care for her… in this specific chapter. Don’t look back at versions 2.0 and 2.1 if you don’t want to get your fun ruined, because consistency is something they didn’t care about at all while writing this patch. And that brings us to…

The bad.

Buckle up my friends because what’s bad about this chapter is really, really, REALLY bad. Consistency is something they don’t believe in anymore, retcons are on the market, and setting up characters/settings/relationships is a thing of the past.

Does it sound like I’m being too harsh? Maybe, but it’s deserved, so idc.

Let’s start from the least bad, shall we? Anjo Nala’s hunger. In 2.0 and 2.1, as well as the first of Anjo’s monologues (the things you unlock after getting traces of a specific character), it’s implied that she can’t eat human food. Not that she doesn’t find it satisfactory, or that she doesn’t like it. It’s heavily implied she literally can’t eat it.

But then she steals some bread and Vertin gives her chocolate, and she eats both, so… what’s up with that? Also, they never really explain what her hunger is for. Was it really just normal human food? Or something else? In her trailer (which btw I wouldn’t consider it part of the main story because it’s a freaking trailer, but whatever) she “feeds on someone’s love” by using her tail. Okay, but then that person turns into a “walking corpse”. Does she have to do that every time she’s hungry? What happens if she doesn’t? Is human food substitute enough? The game never answers these questions, which is a mistake because this whole thing is a central part of Anjo’s character, as well as her turning from her bloodthirsty self to the Anjo we meet in this chapter.

And this brings us to my second issue… the inconsistency of Anjo’s character with the two events we had before this patch. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying anything she ever did was her fault since she was simply a slave following orders, and one thing that is consistent about her character is that she doesn’t like when people do give her orders. However, what really annoys me is how in 2.0 she was very bloodthirsty. Sure, she didn’t know J and his gang, and she had done these types of jobs before, but imo it would’ve been more consistent with the other patches if she was indifferent about killing them, rather than excited. 2.1 was slightly more consistent with ch8 when it comes to Anjo’s character, but it’s kind of implied it was all an act, and her “real” personality was that of 2.0.

Now, I’ve seen some ppl explain this as “well, in a wilderness interaction she says she acts however her master prefers her to”. Okay, but why put such important information in a freaking wilderness interaction and not in the main story??? You can’t even see those unless you have the character, and seeing as Anjo is limited, not everyone will have her. This is a fact.

Another problem I have with Anjo (this is the last, I promise) is that we’re not introduced to her again in ch8, which surely is a decision. Why? Because 2.0 and 2.1 aren’t part of the main story; they’re side events, which are time-limited and, at the moment, not available in-game. This is a problem because anyone who didn’t play those events for one reason or another will be very confused by Anjo Nala and how Vertin reacts to her. It would’ve been better if we were introduced to her from the pov of Lopera, for example, when she raided the Manus base and captured her. And then we could have Vertin run into her on the ship and explain to Sotheby (with a little more detail than what we got) that she actually met her before.

I’m just saying, this isn’t the first time we got a character in a main chapter that had been previously introduced only in an event (Marta/Bessmert), but in that case, if you missed the event, you could still fully enjoy the main chapter, because you wouldn’t even know that you were missing information. That’s not the case here.

And speaking of Urd… okay, let’s talk about how little sense it makes for the Foundation to want to find her in this chapter. In ch5 Vertin and her team found a suspicious radio that talked about a travel note about Aperion written by someone named “Urd”. In this case it makes sense for them to want to investigate, since the base Ms. Radio was in had things that belonged to the Manus, and they found some Manus followers there as well. Even after ch5 and everything that happened, it still makes sense for Vertin to want to keep looking for Urd because now she has the suspicion, based on what 6 said, that Urd is her mother.

However, although it makes sense for Vertin to want to find Urd, it doesn’t make sense for the freaking Foundation to want to find some random UTTU editor. Because that’s really all Urd is, isn’t she? She’s not the head of UTTU (that’d be Pandora), and the fact that she can traverse the storm, which is the only reason we’re given in ch8, is shared among all UTTU editors, as we learn from Barbara.

But even if we assume the Foundation wants to know how UTTU keeps its editors safe… first of all, why? We already have the equilibrium umbrellas, don’t we? We spent a whole chapter seeing their creation, and even saw ppl die for this cause. Why would they need yet another method for surviving the storm? If they instead suspected UTTU to be involved with the Manus somehow, and that’s how they’re traversing the storm, then at least give us that!

Furthermore, the Foundation already knew where she was! They were the ones who gave her the white marble chair with a button! If they just wanted to speak with her, surely a simply call would’ve sufficed? Why send Vertin?

And that’s another thing! Constantine knows Vertin’s mom, and I'm sure she’s not the only one in the Foundation who does, yet the Foundation tried to cover it up and tell Vertin that she doesn’t have a mother. Clearly they have some motivation for keeping it hidden, right? Then… why send Vertin specifically to search for Urd? Why not send some other random investigator, preferentially one with experience finding ppl? Why Vertin???

If Vertin had gone out of her own will, like in ch5, I’d have no problem with this, but no; the Foundation sent her this time. And I just can’t bring myself to understand why.

Maybe if Urd isn’t Vertin’s mom, that would explain this, but for now this makes no sense at all.

Next I want to talk about Lopera and Molly’s relationship. I said before that I truly liked their characters and their relationship, which is true, but… I wish it had been better stablished. Why? Because we had only had one, one single scene, of them together and the suddenly there was a grand betrayal and we’re supposed to feel bad for Lopera? Lmao.

If I felt slightly bad for Lopera it was because of the voice acting, the music and the art. I can assure you, not one single ounce of those feelings came from the actual story being told. It’s even worse when it comes to Igor because he barely exchanged words with Lopera, and all we know from their relationship comes from Lopera telling us “he’s better than my biological father”. And let’s not talk about Ptoleme. He literally only appeared to be a jerk for like five minutes and neither Molly nor Lopera seem to care much about him. How are we supposed to care about that entire family? They really don’t feel like a family at all (except for Lopera and Molly, but even then, it’s the bare minimum this chapter could do with this concept).

It would’ve been so much better if we had this whole chapter to stablish Lopera’s relationship with her adoptive family, with Zeno, the veterans and the Sao Paulo community, and then in the next chapter we could have the big betrayal be more impactful. But here? We barely spent any time with these characters!

And then we have the actual betrayal scene, which is… nonsensical. At best.

What happened in it? Molly arrived at the Colonel’s manor with her squad of Zeno soldiers and attacked the few Apostles Brotherhood ppl that remained, then says she’s glad that Lopera was able to rescue Dr. Dores and that they should all go back to the base. None of this is suspicious, imo, because Vertin had already told Lopera that she was going to call Zeno for reinforcements, specifically to assist with the rescue of Dr. Dores. It’s true that Molly hesitates a little when Lopera asks “what about the timekeeper?”, and that she dismisses Lopera’s concerns about evacuating Sao Paulo, but imo this shouldn’t be enough for Lopera to be so suspicious of her freaking sister. Also, why ask “who’s waiting for you in Tierra del Fuego”? Why would Lopera every think this was anything other than a mission from Zeno???

Sure, they didn’t tell her about it, but also she’s been gone from the base for a couple of days and she knows there’s been traitors and rebels. A lot could’ve changed in that time. Even if she didn’t want to leave because she got attached to Sao Paulo, I think it’s weird that she immediately was so confrontational about it, especially with her sister, who famously just follows their father’s orders without questions.

This could’ve worked if Lopera was already suspicious of her family beforehand, or maybe even of Zeno’s higher ups, or if Molly and her squad had just waltzed in without attacking the Manus or being attacked by them. But that’s not what happened. Also, if she really was suspicious, why not go back to the base and question Igor about this whole thing like Molly suggested? I don’t see why she immediately would think base=bad when her whole family and the army she’s part of is currently at the base.

Like, I get she already had trauma because of her biological father being a jerk, but that situation doesn’t seem to have anything to do with this one imo. All in all, what I’m saying is that the bad writing of this scene lessens the emotional impact.

And it’s not the only emotional scene that’s affected by the blatant bad writing in this chapter. No, that “honor” goes to the scene the trailer for this patch opens with; Anjo being ordered to kill Vertin by Ptoleme.

Okay, so as a refresher, Igor requests that his son, Ptoleme, is sent to the base because “he can only trust in his children because they always obey him”. Okay, so then what does Ptoleme do when ordered to bring back Kimberly, preferentially without a fuss? Of course, cause the biggest scene imaginable, which leads to Kimberly being freed.

Now, I wouldn’t be so harsh on him if his actions were reasonable but due to circumstances led to an unfavorable outcome for him, but that’s not what happened. Okay, he ordered Anjo to kill Vertin. Whatever, he’s a sadistic asshole, but this at least kinda makes sense. What makes no sense whatsoever is that he not only gave Vertin a gun because “he won’t shoot an unarmed civilian” (why does he care? Also ultimately he orders Anjo to kill her, so he wouldn’t have shot an unarmed civilian anyways), but also that he kept trying to make Vertin shoot Anjo.

Why? Just why? There was no reason for him to want Vertin to kill Anjo. None at all. And if what he wanted was to convince Anjo to kill Vertin… he can’t play both the “I’ll free you if you kill her” and the “Vertin, kill her, she’s a monster” cards at the same time. It makes him look like a pathetic moron with no sense of reality whatsoever, and in retrospective makes Igor look like a bigger idiot who doesn’t know his children at all. I think the reason they did this is because they wanted to replicate the infamous orange scene from ch2, but without all the logic, lore and emotional impact behind it, just hoping players would feel emotions by association.

And finally, we come to my biggest complain about this chapter: the retcon about how the storm works. Because yes, it is a retcon. Why do I say that? Mainly based on ch6.

In ch6 we learn that Heinrich, in 1912, left Vienna to study at Berlin. There, he met the Manus and joined them, surviving that storm, and subsequent ones, until time returned to 1913 and he went back to Vienna, reuniting with his old friends and telling them about the storm.

Now, how is this relevant? Well, from Heinrich’s story we learned two things; 1) you can indeed see again someone who was once reversed by the storm, but only if time ever goes back to that era, and 2) The fact that his friends recognized him and he recognized his friends, and his friends’ existence was consistent even though the storm had once reversed them. You see where I’m going with this, don’t you?

At the end of ch8, Vertin says “the storm doesn’t kill ppl, at least not physically”. Okay Vertin, did you have a lobotomy between chapters? The storm has never killed ppl; it’s just the end of an era, remember? It reverses time! It’s in the freaking name! The scariest part about the storm isn’t the storm itself, but the storm syndrome, which is when most casualties seem to happen. Sure, the storm sucked for Vertin because she kept traversing eras and losing the friends she made in them, but those friends remained anchored in their own time (perhaps with the exception of ppl who had already crossed the storm at least once, like The Ring and Isabella, but I digress).

My point is, that I really don’t like where this retcon is headed, but I do hope they somehow fix it in the future, either by making it clear that not everyone who gets reversed is reincarnated and there’s very strict conditions that should be met (like having knowledge about the storm, for example), or this hypothesis is wrong and the storm isn’t actually making ppl reincarnate.

One reason I especially don’t like this new reincarnation thing is that… Mr. Duncan isn’t Mr. Karson. Let’s not lie to ourselves. He looks nothing like Mr. Karson (and I wish the game would stop gaslighting me), doesn’t act like Mr. Karson, doesn’t speak like Mr. Karson, and doesn’t even have the same nationality as him! The only things that are similar about them is that they’re both old war veterans who once had a dog and now have a soft spot for young ladies. And if this is the approach they’ll use to bring back characters in the future… thanks, but I’d rather they stayed reversed.

Think about it! Will they next say that Anjo is Schneider? They look similar enough (more similar than Duncan and Karson, that’s for sure!), both were antagonists that joined the manus for reasons beyond their control, both had a fight with Vertin in which they almost got killed, and both have a snake bracelet on their left arm. Surely that’s enough to say they’re one and the same, according to this logic!

My point is that using such simple similarities, they can literally invent any new character they want and then say “this is actually this other character, who was once reversed by the storm”, regardless of if they’re actually similar at all, and I don’t think that people who wanted them to bring back Schneider or Marian, or Mr. Karson, or 888, or literally anyone, wanted them to be brought back like this.

But that’s enough of me ranting lol. What do you think? Did you like this chapter? What are your main complains about it?

To be clear I’m not saying we should stop playing the game or anything like that; from what I’ve heard the next event is actually good, and I have faith Bluepoch will listen to the players and make sure ch9 is better than whatever ch8 was, but it’s precisely this why it is important for us, as players, to speak out when we don’t like something so that Bluepoch knows they can’t get away with such blatant drops in quality.

Now, if you somehow made it to the end, thanks for reading!

[elianzis]

Do you have any tips for beginner artists dealing with art block?

ah, good old art blocks...

In general, you probably need to understand what it was that drove you into this state.

Lack of inspiration, dissatisfaction with the results, exhaustion, etc.

Inspiration is unlikely to come on its own, you have to look for it. Pinterest, movies, games (someone recommended dnd and I think it can really help), music.

Sometimes it's possible that you're just exhausted and only a break from drawing and a change of activity will help you, this also applies to finding inspiration. You don't know if playing a game will give you :D (doesn't always work with burnout) If you're comparing yourself to other artists, you need to take it a little easier on yourself. Don't say to yourself “he's so great, I'll never be able to do that”, you can just analyze how the person achieved such a result, what he did and what you did. Plus we often have a tendency to compare ourselves to artists whose skills are MULTIPLE times superior to us. I know its hard, i still doing such mistake when i look at my friend's artworks.

OKAY, SORRY, SO, TIME FOR SOME TIPS i will write in text, but also will attach videos with it ( some of them in russian, but auto generated subtitles are good enough)

1. Don't draw a picture, but put it into words.

There is a few different approaches to that. The first is when you create a blank canvas or taking blank sheet of paper and just cloud draw the location of different elements and label them. Smth like that.

Another approach is my friend told me its when you collecting key words for artwork that you wanna draw. For this one like: dragon, two people hiding, caves, adventure, fantasy, gold, dim light. (at least this is how i understood that)

2. Try new things and practice in other directions

Sometimes you just getting tired from everything you drawing. So its good to try new things. For example im getting tired from my usual art, and its good when you trying smth new, like, landscapes, more realistic portrait/animated style, re-draw some screenshots from movies. Yeah, practicing and studies can help too, because you don't need to create smth, you just learning

3. Create smth from chaos (?)

Its more about traditional art, but i believe you can do it in digital too. We used to do this in college when we would paint on glass with watercolors and then put a sheet against that glass getting a chaotic print. After the sheet dried, we would take a liner and try to see some kind of image in the chaos and draw. Sometimes its funny of some sorts. this is not much, but i hope it will help you

Also a few words.

Its okay when art is bad. We are humans after all, and this is important to remember because -> Don't forget you need to rest. Don't forget to eat, drink (GO AND DRINK ON GLASS OF WATER RIGHT NOW) and sleep. (Take this advice srsly from someone who suffers from this). Take days off, you've worked hard for two days, it's time to take a day to rest.

I will attach some videos about art block in general and with some tips how to fight it below the cut for you, its have some more info that i haven include from them, because the post might be bigger... here it is ->

ARTBLOCK // Creative Crisis // 4 ways to beat non-painting

Motivation, artblock, burnout: how to keep creating

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ARTBLOCK