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tangledinink · 2 years ago

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Chapter Thirteen of I'm Sorry, Teenage Mutant What Now? is up! The gang journeys through the Hidden City to investigate the Battle Nexus. They journey through and investigate old memories on the way. Read it on ao3 or below the cut!

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"BARON DRAXUM!"

Everyone in the room winced, including Baron Draxum, who awoke with a start, sitting stark upright and snarling in response as he swayed.

"Jeez, Recruit... Love the enthusiasm, but tone it down a bit, maybe," Lieutenant bit out, rubbing his ears, still reeling from the volume of her wake-up call. Casey flushed just the tiniest bit.

"My apologies, sensei!" She cried, immediately falling into a bow, but privately she thought to herself it worked, didn't it? Nothing else that they had tried had even begun to stir the yokai, who they had found tied up and in an unconscious heap inside his own underground lab. They had arrived expecting to help transport the Hamato children to their main hideout, certain they would be, of course, apprehended neatly by Draxum by now... but evidently this was not the case.

"What in the world happened?" The Lieutenant voiced Casey's own thoughts aloud, holding his hands out exasperatedly. "You said you were going to get the Hamatos."

"Yes, well, things were a bit more complicated than I anticipated..." Draxum hissed, gritting his teeth.

"You said you could handle them on your own! We offered to send you back-up, but you didn't want to wait! Surely four children didn't overpower you--"

"They did not overpower me," Draxum snapped, turning to snarl as he dragged himself back up to his feet. "Some damned witch placed a protection spell on them," he seethed, absolutely bristling. "I can't touch them..." He grit his teeth. "... I will simply have to account for this in the future..."

Lieutenant and Brute seemed somewhat unimpressed, Cassandra noted, glancing at them from the corners of her eyes as the two exchanged looks.

"Yes, well," Lieutenant mused, his hands on his hips. "I'm sure there will be other opportunities to kidnap children in the future. However, the Dark Armor remains our priority. Come on. We've wasted enough time here, and we have a new lead to investigate..."

"Don't worry. You'll get 'em next time," Brute tried to encourage, patting Draxum's shoulders, to which he snarled and batted his hands away, grumbling to himself as he stalked off after them, discussing as they went.

Cassandra sighed softly, rolling her shoulders back and forth a few times before she trailed after her three superiors.

Yes.... The Dark Armor was the priority.

---

The collective shriek of their group was cut off by a loud thud, immediately followed by a chorus of groans. Okay, so, travel by teleportation was... a little disorientating. The fact that most of them currently sucked at staying on their own two damn feet didn't help matters. Some more than others.

"Sorry!" Raph immediately bit out, wriggling from atop the heap, an awkward chuckle escaping him.

"Raph, my wonderful brother," Leo grit out. "You know I love you dearly. But I'm really gonna need you to stop knocking us all over like bowling pins."

"Well, look, you try walkin' around with a giant tail you ain't used to! It's not as easy as it looks!" He defended, throwing his hands up. "I'm doin' my best over here!"

"Whoa!" Mikey effectively ended their squabble with his gasp, sitting up quickly in order to give a wild gesture. "Guys, look!"

And damn. Whoa was right.

Raph was a New Yorker, so he wasn't easy to impress. He wasn't immediately awed by big, sprawling cityscapes or towering skyscrapers, but this place was... something else. It looked somewhere between an actual city and some sort of mystic ruin, residing as 'neither' and 'both' all at the same time. The buildings themselves seemed to grow from the stone landscape, curving and sliding to match the terrain. Glowing mushrooms, crystals, and occasionally the eyes of massive statues provided brightly colored lighting, leaving the various neon signs and backlit advertisements of the city seeming pale in comparison. Street vendors, kiosks, and tents lined the bustling streets, and each and every creature making up the massive crowds was something completely alien that Raph had never seen nor imagined before. Yokai, he thought to himself. That's what April said they were called.

Rather than sharp, straight lines and confident corners, this place seemed built from jagged outlines and curving bends, looping and winding around itself as if the entire city were hanging on, clinging to itself, holding hands, nestled in between the hulking forms of unmoving stone creatures that Raph was unsure how to categorize. He didn't feel confident saying that they weren't alive after the day they had had, despite their frozen forms and their dead, unseeing eyes.

"This must be the Hidden City," Mikey said, and Leo let out a low whistle as the five of them took in the view.

"Good job, little guy. Knew you could get us here," April hummed, giving the little yellow creature they had rescued a squeeze. His tail wagged wildly in reply, snuggling up in her embrace.

"Alright, now we just gotta get to the Battle Nexus from here," Leo said with a sigh, shifting his weight onto one leg, hand on his hip as he glanced over at the yellow critter. "Any idea where that is?"

The creature chirred in response, nodding excitedly and scrambling down from April's arms in order to lead the way. Leo grinned.

"Okay, I take back all my earlier doubts and hesitations. Bringing this guy with us was a great idea," Leo declared as the group set off.

Though the acquisition of weapons, all tucked or stowed away in backpacks or belt loops or pockets, had helped a bit, Raph had still been, admittedly, pretty nervous about entering the city, a pool of anxiety swirling around in his gut. Given the day they had had so far, he couldn't help but imagine a hoard of devious yokai dogpiling him and his siblings the moment they set foot into unknown territory. But, to his quiet surprise, no one spared them even a second glance, all seeming far too occupied with their own errands and lives to glance over at their ragtag group.

Somehow, this made Raph feel a bit better. For several reasons. He supposed that, at the very least, they didn't seem to be freaks here.

"Don't worry, Dad, we're on our way," Mikey chirped, and despite his current relief, Raph still couldn't quite understand how his little brother could be so cheerful. Mikey always amazed him with his emotional resilience. Wished he had some of that.

"Eugh, is he even gonna recognize us when we get there?" Leo said with a wince, wrinkling up his face a bit. "We look, uh... a little different than when he last saw us."

"I'm pretty sure he knows, Leo," Donnie remarked. "He's the one who put the bracelets on us in the first place. He knows."

Raph glanced dimly down at the little golden bracelet still encircling his wrist, the red gem now seeming a bit duller somehow, and he frowned. So this little trinket was mystic all along, huh? Now that he knew, it seemed stupidly obvious. He wondered anxiously if they still worked anymore, or if they were broken forever.

"No wonder he didn't want us to take these things off," Leo muttered, looking over his own, holding his arm up to examine it. "Jeez. I can't believe he kept this a secret from us. How did we not know?"

Mikey gave a thoughtful hum. "Do you guys remember when we were really little? Before we moved? And we used to pretend we were turtles all the time?"

"Somehow I don't think that was pretend, Mikey," Donnie said with a roll of his eyes.

"That's what I'm saying!" Mikey insisted. "But you guys do remember that, right? I just... I always thought that that was just us playing a game or something, but it must have been real! So we knew at some point!"

"And then we forgot..." Donnie mumbled, tilting his head to the side thoughtfully, already obviously doing calculations in his head.

"You guys were pretty weird when you first moved here," April remarked.

"Oh come on. How do you just forget that you're a turtle?" Leo argued, glancing over his shoulder at the others. "That seems like the kind of thing that'd stick with you."

"I dunno," Mikey shrugged. "But obviously we did!"

"You're not implyin' that Dad did somethin', are ya?" Raph questioned, narrowing his eyes, and Leo immediately huffed.

"No! Of course not!" He frowned. "It's just... I dunno. It's weird, is all. It's crazy to think about how much stuff that we just... forgot."

"Well, what do you remember?" Donnie nudged. "Like, from before the move."

"Not much," Leo admitted, scrunching up his nose. "Everything from back then is fuzzy. I don't even know where we moved from."

"I think..." Donnie hesitated a moment. "I think we moved from there."

"Where. The Hidden City?" Mikey questioned.

"No, no, back there. I mean. The sewer we were in before," Donnie pressed. "Didn't it seem... kind of familiar to you guys?"

"Well..." Raph frowned.

"Mikey! Wait!" Raph laughed, stumbling as he chased after his littlest brother. He still didn't walk with a terrible amount of grace, but he crawled like a madman, and Raph took great joy in chasing him around. Mikey did, too, giggling maniacally as he attempted to dodge the other.

Raph could feel, reaching back into the memory, that the bottoms of his feet were cold. The ground was hard beneath them, like stone. Like concrete. He remembered worrying about Mikey's knees. And, thinking back on it now, he swore he could almost hear the sound of running water in the background.

"I go’chyu!" Raph declared, grabbing Mikey, who squealed in response, wriggling against him.

Everything from back then was blurred; cobbled together like pieces of glass glued into a mosaic, appearing in his mind’s eye as a series of blotted, wrinkled images. Were they turtles or people back then? He wasn't sure. Where were they?

"I remember it was dark..." He said. "And cold a lot. The ground was stone or somethin.’"

"I remember that, too!" Mikey gasped.

"Whoa, wait!" Mikey squirmed his way out of Raph's arms again, attempting an escape, and a flare of panic flashed through him for a moment. He dove for Mikey for real this time, not playing anymore, grabbing his brother before he could get too far.

"We can't go that way, Mikey. Daddy said 's not safe yet," he explained when his brother whined in complaint, hoisting him back the way they came, his footsteps clumsy while trying to drag his brother along. "We gotta stay in these tunnels."

"And... I think I remember there being… tunnels," he continued. "Or somethin' like that. It was really big, wherever we were, but we could only go into certain places. And the rest was off-limits, ‘cause Dad said he hadn’t checked them all to make sure they were okay yet. I remember keepin' Mikey from wanderin' off."

"I remember tunnels!" Mikey exclaimed. "I remember yelling into them when we were little and listening to them echo. I remember doing it until Leo made me stop!"

"I don't remember that," Leo protested, crossing his arms.

"You did!" Mikey insisted. "You said I had to play something else because it was bothering Donnie."

"That would be in character for you," April remarked with a tiny grin.

"Sounds like sewers to me," Donnie said with a shrug.

"Maybe," Leo conceded. "But why the hell would Dad keep us in the sewers?"

"There’s probably limited options when your kids are literally part-turtle," Raph reasoned with a grumble.

"Yeah, but abandoned sewers?" Leo pressed. "Come on. Was that really the only choice? Couldn't he have just... kept us inside or something?"

"I don't think so," Donnie said, frowning a bit, shaking his head. Leo sighed.

"Why not?"

"Leo, Dad has one of these bracelets, too," Donnie said. "Remember?"

---

The rest of their journey through the Hidden City went about the same way. One of the boys would bring up some old memory, and they'd discuss for a while, before the conversation would peter out and they'd walk in silence for a bit before the cycle started all over again. April pointed out that they had all regularly chirped and clicked and made other odd noises when she had first met them, but eventually, they grew out of it (mostly.) Raph discussed his memories of watching his younger brothers when they were very little, waiting somewhere dark and quiet for their dad to get back from wherever he was going. Donnie and Leo both remembered sleeping together as toddlers, somewhere very small and curled up, like a nest of some kind, both agreeing that it didn't quite seem like a crib or a bed. Mikey mentioned how many times he got in trouble for painting or drawing on walls when they first moved into the apartment, and how much it had upset and confused him in the beginning-- was that because their dad hadn't bothered to correct the behavior when they lived in the sewers?

"When we first started swim team," Donnie mused, tilting his head back to stare up at the sky. "I remember sometimes, we would have contests with the other kids to see how long we could hold our breaths."

"I remember that," Leo agreed. "And we'd always win!"

"Yes, but..." Donnie hummed. "I think we probably could have won by a lot more if we wanted."

"What do you mean?" Raph questioned.

"Well," Donnie explained. "I recall, or, at least, I think I do, that… that when we first started partaking in those contests, it was... it was easy. Everyone else would have already come up to breathe, but I'd feel completely fine. I'd only come up because I had won and the contest was over. But after a while, people started being weird about it," he frowned. "To be fair, people were weird about a lot of things I did. And I will admit I didn’t always catch on, but I noticed this one,” he said, laughing dryly and giving a wave of his hands. “And at the time, I just wrote it off as one of many! Just another thing that I did that made me different from my peers. But I started coming up earlier so I'd be more... normal," he confessed. "And I'd pretend like I was out of breath when I wasn't, so people would stop looking at me like that. Or, well. People stopped looking at me like that for that particular reason. And I guess eventually I just... I got so used to pretending that it just became second nature, and I didn’t even realize I was pretending anymore."

Leo nodded slowly, looking thoughtful, his arms crossed over his chest. “Yeah… Yeah, that sounds… that sounds right, actually…”

"I remember thinking the same thing!" Raph exclaimed, his eyes wide at the realization. "Except I felt bad that all the other kids kept losin' so bad! I started pretendin' 'cause I didn't want everyone else to get discouraged, and I just did it for so long...!"

"But you're the best swimmer, Dee," Leo remarked, nudging his twin slightly with a tiny smile. "So I wouldn't be surprised if you can hold your breath the longest, too. I mean, christ, you literally have webbed fingers now."

April glanced down at her brother’s hands, noting quietly to herself that it was true. If she was being totally honest with herself, it was a bit alien to look at, so she drew her eyes back away after a moment.

"That does make sense," April hummed. "And it'd explain why you guys are so good at swim meets and stuff, too."

The other three paused, and Leo frowned a bit. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I mean. If you're turtles, then... obviously you're gonna be good at swimming," she reasoned with a shrug. "It makes sense. Of course you’re gonna win!"

"Mikey doesn't swim," Donnie pointed out.

"Maybe he's a different kind of turtle who doesn't swim?"

"A terrestrial turtle..." Donnie hummed, resting his chin in his hand, brows furrowed. "Maybe a box turtle or something..."

"You think I'm a box turtle?!" Mikey gasped, his eyes lighting up.

"But obviously the rest of you would be good at swimming if you're, like, aquatic," she continued. "So I'm not surprised you all always kicked so much butt at swim meets and stuff!"

"... Yeah. I guess so," Raph said, but he seemed kind of... dejected, almost. Like he was upset. The conversation shifted shortly after, focus shifting to Mikey’s new identity as a box turtle, but April's mind lingered.

Why did she feel like she had just said something wrong?

---

“This is the Battle Nexus?!"

Raph gawked slightly, suddenly feeling a lot less confident. He could feel the various winces and mumbles around him. "It's a goddamn fortress! We're never gettin' in there!"

"Oh, come on. What were you expecting? To just walk in?" Leo scoffed. "It's not that bad!"

"Not that bad?!" Raph squawked, turning to gesture wildly to the massive walls, the towering, heavily guarded entrances, the watch towers perched on nearly every corner... Christ, was that a blimp overhead!? "Are you crazy?! There’s no way!!!"

"Well, not with that attitude," Leo said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Yeah! We're basically ninjas, Raph, we got this!" Mikey cheered, ever optimistic.

"We’re not ninjas, Mikey. And there's no way in hell we're sneakin' in there. You two are out of your mind," Raph said with a scowl.

"We don't gotta sneak!" Leo insisted, waving away the other's concerns. "Don't worry! I'll talk us in there, no problem! Leon's got this. I'm an actor, remember? I just gotta charisma our way past one of those guards."

"You wanna talk your way in?" April questioned, raising a brow. "Leo, are you sure about this?"

"Of course I'm sure! This'll be a piece of cake. C'mon-- watch and be amazed!"

They were not amazed.

"Seriously, Leo?" Raph hissed, no more than five minutes later, the group slinking back into the same alley they had started from with a few new bumps and bruises and their metaphorical (literal?) tails between their legs. "Caravaggio? The awards show host? From the Bloodsporties?"

"I thought it'd work!" Leo cried, throwing up his hands. "Everyone likes to be flattered! People love it when you bring them awards!"

"Why do you need four assistants to drop off an award?" Donnie hissed.

"It's a very important award!" Leo insisted.

"That no one's ever heard of?!"

"Yet," Leo huffed. "Okay, look, it's fine. Leon's still got this. We just gotta switch over to plan B."

"Plan B had better not be at all similar to Plan A," Raph said, crossing his arms. "Or involve any of us being strong-armed off the premises by a massive yokai guard!"

"It won't, it won't, I promise!" Leo assured, getting to his feet again. "Okay. Watch and be amazed! Again!"

Leo shook out his limbs, straightening his posture, rolling his shoulders back, and setting his feet apart. And then, for just a moment, he was completely still. His chest didn't even twitch with a single breath. All at once, he inhaled sharply--

... And nothing happened.

"Wow. Amazing," Donnie said dryly.

"Well, just, gimme a minute! You're breaking my concentration!" Leo snapped, repeating the motion-- and then again, and then a few more times, until he was basically flailing in place, repeatedly thrashing in the same spot. "Come-- ON! Work already!"

"Leo, what the hell are you doin'?" Raph sighed. Leo groaned loudly in frustration.

"I am trying to use my mystic teleportation powers! Obviously!"

"Your what?" Donnie scoffed.

"I'm sorry, you mean the weird mystic things that we've been doin' completely against our will for the past two weeks and have absolutely zero control over? That one?" Raph grit out.

"Well, I'm starting to get the hang of the pattern..." Leo muttered.

"You've gotta be kiddin' me!!!"

"Well, maybe he can really do it!" Mikey chipped in with a bit of tentative encouragement.

"So, let me get this straight," Donnie said, rubbing his temples. "You are trying to teleport all six of us inside of the Battle Nexus... using your mind. Is that correct?"

Leo scowled. He shuffled his feet at the dirt, his lower lip poked out.

"It could happen," he huffed.

"You're an idiot."

"Leo, there's no way this is ever gonna work! We barely even know anything about these powers!" Raph insisted. "What if it's dangerous?!"

"I'm getting the hang of it!" Leo repeated. "I could do it! And how would you know, anyway? You don't even have any powers yet!"

"Guys!" April yelled over the chaos, and the rest of the group paused to glance over.

Scowling, she gestured wildly to the little yellow yokai creature that had led him here.

Oh, right. The one who teleported.

There was a long beat of silence.

"Yeah, that's probably a better plan," Leo reluctantly conceded, though he was still pouting.

"Thank you," April said, scooping the yokai up, who purred and waved his tail, seemingly happy to help. "Okay, come on guys, huddle up. And try not to fall over this time!"

The whole group obeyed, scrunching up around each other and grabbing onto various hands and elbows to make sure everyone would make it to where they needed to go. But something Leo had said nagged at the edges of Raph's mind, gnawing at him even as a bright flash of cyan light overtook them, the world going out from under their feet as they teleported once again.

Why didn't he have any powers yet?

---

Donatello wasn’t exactly sure what he was expecting the inside of the Battle Nexus to look like, but it wasn’t ‘literal sports stadium.’

Though they stumbled a bit, they all managed to keep their footing this time once they teleported inside the halls of the Battle Nexus, thankfully in a quiet, unoccupied corner just outside of a stairwell. Perhaps it had been naive of him, but he hadn’t expected the inside of this place to so closely resemble the inside of a modern football arena.

“Nice job, little guy,” April whispered to the little yellow yokai, who looked just a bit more tired than he had before, Donnie noted, panting softly. “We’ll take it from here. You rest,” she instructed gently, tucking the critter into her jacket.

“Anyone have any idea where we’re going?” Leo questioned, looking around suspiciously.

“No,” Raph admitted. “But everyone stick close. And… act casual. This place has gotta be crawling with yokai!” Donnie concurred; he could hear the roars of the crowd from here. “If we don’t call any attention to ourselves, we can just blend in. Dad has be around here somewhere.”

“You got it, bossman,” Leo hummed. “Come on. I think the main stadium is over there. Let’s check that out first and see what the deal is.”

Now, Donnie may be a theater kid, but he was not exactly an actor the way Leo was, (or claimed to be, anyway,) and so ‘acting casual’ was a bit of a demand. He was very focused on trying to make his body language ‘casual,’ in keeping his muscles untensed and his expression neutral, to the extent that he was not especially paying that much attention to their surroundings as the group trailed after Leo. He followed his siblings’ lead into the main seating area of the arena, adjusting the settings of his headphones slightly as they moved to join the edges of the crowd, hoping to keep out the excited screams of the fans.

As a result, he was a bit taken aback when he did look up to take in the scene of the ring below them.

And oh. Oh my god.

This really was fucking bloodsport, huh?

“Jesus christ--”

He was vaguely aware of Raph’s hand hurriedly slapping over Mikey’s eyes before he could get a good look at the scene not just in the battle ring below, but also projected onto the massive jumbotron, and the younger immediately gave a yelp of protest.

“Hey! Raph--”

“Mikey, I know that you don’t wanna be babied and you’re gonna complain, but I really need you to just trust your big brother on this one,” Raph hissed out, his voice tight. “Don’t. Look.”

April had her hands over her mouth, and Leo bristled, mumbling a few curses. Donnie really, really didn’t want to be watching this, but he couldn’t quite take his eyes away. There was a wet, crunching noise, so loud that they could hear it even from up here in the balconies (were they mic’ed up? Sweet baby Galileo--) and the entire party winced around him as the crowds roared in delight.

“What happened?!” Mikey cried from behind Raph’s hands.

“Donnie?” April said, glancing over at him.

He swallowed hard, his stomach flipping. No, no, no. Come on. Keep it together, Vomitello. Not the time, not the place, not at all casual…!

Leo, to his credit, caught on pretty quickly, paling a bit at the realization and jumping forward to bodily whip Donnie away from the scene, beginning to herd the group away.

“Okay, well, Dad’s definitely not down there!” He bit out with a nervous laugh. “Thank fucking god… Look. Obviously, we’re up super high. Let’s find the stairs, start heading down, and see if we find anything on the way,” he said hurriedly, not slowing his pace until they were basically back out where they started, in the near-abandoned outside hallways.

“Sounds like a plan,” Raph said, finally releasing his grip on Mikey’s head. “Uh. Don…?”

“I’m good,” he squeaked out, leaning over slightly, his hands on his knees as he coughed a few times. “All good, no problem…! Just… gimme a second…!”

“Donald,” Leo said through gritted teeth, clapping his hands together decisively. “I am literally begging you not to puke right now.”

“I am doing my best, thank you!” Donnie snapped in response, squeezing his eyes shut. “Oh my god, why was it so lumpy? It looked like cottage cheese!”

“What are you doing!? Stop thinking about it!” Leo cried.

“Think about something else instead! Like… the periodic table! You love that thing,” Mikey suggested brightly. “Like, uhhh, what’s the symbol for chlorine?”

“C-L,” Donnie bit out, flapping his hands a bit and letting out a slow breath through a clenched jaw. “Come on, Mikey, that’s way too easy.”

“Okay, uhhm, what’s the atomic number for iodine?”

“Fifty-three.”

“Yeah! And what’s the atomic mass of titanium?”

“Forty-seven-point-eight-six-seven.”

“Yep! And uranium?”

“Oh, uranium, my beloved, my white whale…! Two-hundred and thirty-eight-point-zero-two-eight-nine.”

“AHHH!” Mikey imitated a buzzer. “Wrong!”

Donnie’s head snapped up. “What?!”

“Just kidding!” Mikey chirped happily. “I don’t actually know the answer. You’re probably right.”

“Oh, you evil genius,” Donnie said, shaking his head. “I’m never helping you study for science class ever again.”

“Pshhhh, yeah you will. Plus you feel better now, don’t you?” Mikey pressed, grinning wide.

“Yes, okay, fine. I owe you one,” Donnie sighed deeply, offering just the smallest of smiles and rubbing the other’s head as though tousling hair, (not that he had any anymore. Ugh, don’t think about that, either,) eliciting a giggle from the other. At least the nausea had backed off now. “Okay. Come on. Leo’s right, shockingly enough. Let’s head downstairs and see if we can find anything.”

“Oh thank god,” Leo whispered, yanking the door to the stairwell open and gesturing to his siblings. “Okay, c’mon, let’s go! Vamanos!”

The trip down through the Battle Nexus was long and boring, but admittedly, calming. Donnie had always been a fan of repetitive actions, and so far, every new floor they investigated they found much of the same, not uncovering much save for more seating for screaming, cheering yokai along with the occasional food court or souvenir stand. Any guards they found they made sure to steer clear of, slowly working their way down through the stadium.

“This is going nowhere,” Raph hissed softly, leaning into Leo as they did a lap through yet another floor of stadium seating. Quite frankly, Donnie was beginning to wonder if all these floors were exactly the same. “Where the heck do you think they’re keepin’ Dad?”

“I don’t know! How would I know?” Leo questioned, bristling a bit.

“This was your plan!”

“Yeah, ‘cause no one else had a plan!” He bit back, scowling. “Look, we’ve just gotta… uh… we’ve gotta…” He looked around for a moment, floundering for just a second before he lit up, pointing.

“We’ve just gotta follow one of those guys!”

Everyone glanced over, and April frowned a bit.

“Follow one of the guards?”

“Yeah!” Leo nodded excitedly. “Look, if anyone’s gonna know how to get into the secret, spooky parts of the Nexus, it’ll be an employee! There’s no way Dad’s just in the stands somewhere or in any of the other public bits of this place. And we’re just walking in circles.” He said with a roll of his wrist. “But I bet if we tail one of those dudes, they’ll lead us straight to him! We just gotta be sneaky.”

“He does have a pretty good point,” Mikey reasoned.

“I dunno. It seems kinda dangerous,” April said, raising a brow.

“Yeah, but we don’t have any other ideas…” Raph said, crossing his arms over his chest.

The three of them glanced over at Donnie, and he sighed, tilting his head back and forth for a moment to do some rapid calculations.

“I do agree that the risk associated with this plan of action is… significant,” he said, frowning a bit. “Butttttt… just wandering around aimlessly isn’t going to get us anywhere. Following someone has a much higher probability of success.”

“That sounds good enough to me!” Raph said, giving a nod. “Alright. Let’s do this then. Everyone’s just gotta be ninja-level sneaky. Got it?”

“Got it,” the group agreed, giving a nod.

Would this go horribly wrong? Only one way to find out.

Finding their target was easy enough. This place was crawling with guards, quite frankly, they just had to pick one. After rejecting the first few targets, as they were all rather beefy, they settled on a slightly smaller, less-deadly-looking Nexus employee to follow.

“Okay,” Leo said. “We’ve just gotta tail him for a while and see where he goes. Everyone stick close, and be quiet.”

“Obviously! You don’t have to tell us to be quiet!” Donnie hissed back.

“Both of you shut up!” Raph whispered. “Look, come on, pay attention! He’s on the move. Mad Dogz, roll out! We can’t lose this guy.”

Donnie huffed and grumbled a bit, resisting the urge to hipcheck Leo as the group began picking their way through the halls, taking care to stick to the shadows. At first, Donnie thought that this was just another waste of their time, and they would end up doing even more laps around the stadium. He dared to get his hopes up, however, when the fox-like yokai paused in front of an unassuming wall. It looked about the same as any other portion of wall in this place, but once the Yokai placed his hand (paw?) to it, it lit up white, and suddenly, there was a door that wasn’t there before.

“Whoa! Lookit that!” Mikey gasped.

“We’re all already looking at it, Mikey, be quiet,” Donnie hissed.

“What’d Raph say!? Shut it! And come on! Quick and quiet, before the door closes!” Raph whispered with a hurried wave of his arm, and the five took off, closing the gap between themselves and the guard in order to slip inside the secret panel, quiet as ninjas-- just like Dad taught them. Even April was surprisingly quiet, and Donnie was privately impressed. It took them years of lessons with their dad (and ill-advised shenanigans that they wished not to face consequences for,) to get this good at sneaking.

All five of them made it in, and the guard was already halfway down the hall by the time they joined them, seemingly none the wiser. Donnie didn’t make a sound, but silently, he fucking whooped and cheered. Yes!!! He had been really fifty-fifty on whether or not this was going to work out.

At the end of the hall, the fox guard clicked a button on the wall, and about five seconds later, the wall opened up like an elevator.

The elevator had about eight other yokai inside. These yokai did not have their backs on them.

“HEY!” One of them immediately shouted, pointing at their group, as they had not yet managed to find a proper hiding space in the long, but sparse hallway. Every single other yokai snapped around to look at them. “What’re you doing in here!? This is employees only!”

Fuck.

“Uhhh…” A pained smile spread on Leo’s face. “We’re looking for the bathroom?”

“Sure,” the fox scoffed, turning to face them properly now, beginning to make his way back down the short hall to meet them. “Alright, lemme see your tickets. I’ll escort you back to your seats.”

“Our tickets? Uhhh… Sure…” Raph spluttered for a moment, laughing nervously. “Let’s see, uh, where did we put--”

April yanked her club from her backpack and promptly slammed it into the yokai’s head with a loud thunk.

“APRIL!” Raph screamed, jumping in surprise. “What the hell!?”

“Well, there’s nowhere to run!” She shouted in response, and, ah, welp, there she went. Full charge ahead, then? “Come on, we gotta get into that elevator!”

Donnie sighed deeply. Well, he had predicted fifty-fifty.

He set his jaw, rolling his shoulders a few times before whipping his bo staff from his back. “Alright, well. Here we go.”

“COWABUNGA!” Raph shouted as he charged forward, and Donnie resisted the urge to roll his eyes. They were gonna have to work on battle formations and plans later.

But he was prepared this time. He wasn’t gonna freeze up and back down.

Yes, this was a fight. An actual, for real fight, which he had never been in before! But he hadn’t trained for nothing.

He got this. They’d be fine. They got this.

Leo laughed, sliding forward with quick, practiced ease, his odachi flashing forward to smack the blunt of the blade against the ankles of the nearest yokai and send them tumbling to the ground while he darted past them. April was right on his tail, beaning anyone who got too close and following her younger brother’s lead. “Come on, guys, keep up!”

“Right behind yah!” Mikey cheered, both him and Raph rushing forward at a matching pace. Despite the size difference, the two easily kept up with one another. Where Raph elbowed his opponents out of the way, clearing himself a path by bodily throwing their enemies to the side, Mikey darted and danced his way around them, a zig-zagged ballet to Raph’s straight, unyielding path. He whooped loudly as he went, always just out of reach with each step.

“Hot Soup!” Donnie noted their eldest brother howled out another battle cry (wasn’t that copyrighted?) Mikey’s kusari-fundo whipped about to fling him forward, tackling the largest of the guards to the ground and sending them both tumbling down the hall.

Like… Both of them tumbling.

Also, Mikey was in the mix too, still attached by the chains of his kusari-fundo.

Well, at least it was still forward momentum!

Donnie inhaled deeply, his muscles coiling.

Couldn’t get left behind.

He darted down the hallway, jumping over and dodging around anyone already on the ground. At one point, a hand flashed out, grabbing at his ankle, and Donnie bit out a series of curses. He wrenched himself out of their grip, stumbling slightly, and nearly ran straight into one of the other (quite large) yokai in the hallway. A rapid equation darted through his head, however, and he just barely managed to correct his footing at the last second, turning sharply on his heel to transfer the momentum into his staff. The weapon curled around to slam into the guard with a heavy, satisfying thawk, sending them sprawling to the ground, and the entire hallway shuddered at the impact.

Well, that was a close one. He hopped over their fallen form and surged ahead, reaching down to grab Mikey’s hand as he went, dragging both him and Raph to their feet behind him, “Come on!”

The two found their footing quickly with the assist, falling back into a sprint-- smacking and dodging enemies as they went with about a seventy-five-percent success rate. Jesus, had this hallway always been this long? It felt like it was taking a stupid amount of time to get to the other end of it! Out of the very corners of his eyes, Donnie just barely spotted one of the larger guards rising back up to their feet, lunging at him from behind-- only for a neon green club to come whipping out of nowhere at the very last second, colliding with the side of his assailant’s head and throwing him right back to the ground.

“Hey! Only I get to hit my little brothers!” April shrieked, her face set in a furious scowl. The guard, a huge, stocky, lion-like creature snarled in reply, lashing out with his legs to send her sprawling to the floor with a yelp.

“Oh, you did not just do that to our friend!” Mikey snapped, flashing forward to stand protectively in front of their sister, his kusari-fundo whizzing around them, filling the air with a barely-there whine. “Back off!”

He lashed out with the weapon, his arm whipping forward with the movement-- only to blink in surprise when physics failed to behave as expected. Which, uh, was pretty unusual for physics. Physics were typically pretty reliable. But the weight at the end of his weapon spun wildly in place, suspended in air for several long seconds, before it promptly lit up in a blazing flame.

“Ooh!” Mikey shrieked in delight. “Magic weapon! Guys, loo-- ACK!”

And there they were, Donnie thought dimly to himself.

The uncontrolled variables.

Donnie gasped, immediately ducking down and covering his head as his brother flew about the room like a deranged bird, still hanging onto his (seemingly demonic) mystic weapon. He all but pinballed off the walls, screaming the whole time. The lion just barely managed to leap out of the way before Mikey crashed into the wall, flopping down with a small squeak on impact, luckily seeming shaken but not injured.

“WHOA! Mikey! That was awesome!” Raph gaped, his eyes widening. “Dude, how did you do that?!”

“I dunno!” Mikey said, stumbling to his feet and kind of wavering a bit with dizziness. “I was just swinging my weapon around and it just-- did it!”

“Let me try!” Raph said, shaking his tonfas about like they were goddamn maracas. “Come on, magic weapon, magic weapon, magic weapon-- OOH!” He yelped in surprise as one of the remaining guards crashed into him, snarling as they all but whipped him from his feet. But Raph held his ground. “Okay, alright-- magic weapon tests later! Fight now!”

“Can’t wait to see what mine does!” Leo laughed as he leaped over the group, diving towards an oncoming yokai. He swung his blade forward, slicing through the air with a loud crackle of near-electric energy--

A bright blue circle of mystic energy promptly opened up beneath Leo, and he yelped in surprise as he went plunging downward.

And downward.

“Hm,” Donnie remarked. “I guess he can teleport.”

“GET! ME! OFF! THIS! RIDE!” Leo howled, flailing as he plummeted endlessly through the two parallel portals he had sliced through reality, one below his feet and the other up above his head, only picking up the pace the longer he fell.

Donnie sighed loudly. He was sure someone else would get him. Eventually. In the meantime, someone was gonna have to take care of the remaining yokai guards. Luckily, this one was suitably distracted by his twin brother’s infinite falling.

“And that’s why I like fighting the old-fashioned way,” Donnie hummed, slipping past the yokai’s side and into his blind spot, watching their eyes widen in surprise as he jabbed sharply at them with his bo staff. They were just barely able to dodge out of the way of Donnie’s attacks. “Though the portal does make for some quality entertainment, I must admit--”

They jumped out of Donnie’s range, swiping forward with a clawed arm, and Donnie’s body immediately, instinctively moved in response, his bo staff flashing upward to block the move and force them off-kilter. He hardly even had to think. His body already knew what to do when he needed it.

It’s just like a tournament. No different from a tournament. You’ve won thousands of fights. This is exactly the same thing. Just keep your head, do the math-- You’re good at this, remember?

Bouncing off the yokai’s arm, Donnie’s staff whipped back around to ricochet into the side of their head, earning him a frustrated and perhaps pained snarl in response. See? Donnie grinned, just for a second, ducking easily out of the way of the guard’s counterattack and leaping to the side, finding himself the space once more to adjust his stance and run rapid calculations. Numbers danced in front of his eyes, and he quickly zeroed in on the equation with the best probability of success, building his plan of action around that.

The yokai snarled, leaping after him-- exactly as he expected. Donnie’s entire body instantly snapped downward and out of their path in response, ducking away from their attack. At the same time, they pitched themselves to the left, whipping their bo staff around as they went to find their mark. The guard made a short, strangled noise of surprise as the weapon collided with their throat, sending them reeling in the opposite direction. They were almost immediately on their knees, choking and spluttering as Donnie darted away, just the tiniest bit breathless as he went.

“Just like I planned it--!” He had laughed, quietly delighted that it had, in fact, gone the way he planned it, and why had he been worried? He could do this, he knew how to do this!-- when his youngest sibling went flying into his side with a yelp.

The pair of them tumbled across the hallway before slamming into the wall, bringing their unexpected trip to a sudden and grinding halt. Donnie groaned softly, wincing as he slowly forced himself back up, stars all but dancing in front of his eyes, Mikey flopped over beside him and seeming just as dazed. Ow. Okay. That hadn’t been in his calculations.

He just barely caught sight of the lion yokai diving for them, catching on about half a second before the attack landed.

He didn’t run any numbers this time. He didn’t have the chance.

His muscles moved quicker than even his brain could, throwing himself bodily over top of his baby brother to shield him from the coming impact.

[ next ]

#sorrywhatnowau #sorrywhatnowau fic #rottmnt #tmnt #rise of the tmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt au #rottmnt fanfic #rottmnt fanfiction #tmnt fanfiction #rottmnt human au #tmnt human au #fanfic #fidgetwing #fighting and potential injury #my beta reader has already informed me ill be hearing from their lawyer so don't worry abt it #also i make my best (and by that i mean dumbest) jokes in this chapter

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tinyfishtits · 8 months ago

Note

Ooh, an opportunity for more Micah-fic! Might I request a bit of TLC for our favorite roguish rat? (Maybe he's been roughed up a bit, or is feeling a little under the weather but doesn't want to let anyone know.)

Love your work!

YES OF COURSE you can request my literal favorite genre of Micah fic Zana, you beautiful human you.

I got a little carried away with this one, I hope you like it !! I loved writing it 🥹❣️

TW: Graphic depictions of blood/gore/wound mending

I pushed the stew around my bowl as Mary Beth went on about the new book she was reading, though I heard none of it. Micah had been gone from camp for four days and nobody could even tell me why he’d left in the first place. Some bullshit lead on a job he thought he could tackle on his own no doubt, the cocky bastard. Nobody even noticed he was gone until I brought it up.

“That explains why it's been so damn pleasant around here lately.” Arthur had said when I asked him about it. I knew what they all thought of him, hell my opinion wasn’t much different… Maybe I'd deluded myself into thinking we’d become friends over the past few months, that him talking to me was anything more than just tolerating my company.

I’d be lying though, if I said I didn’t care. We’d come to spend most nights together since his return from Strawberry, tipsy and tired by the fire. I looked forward to it. Micah often talked about his father, of his adolescence spent robbing and killing out west. He was an entertaining storyteller to say the least, emphasizing every word with big, grandiose hand movements and even getting up to act certain things out.

Occasionally I’d talk about my life before the gang as well. Though my stories weren’t nearly as colorful, he always listened. Indulging me with questions about my family, the hobbies I once had that there was no longer time or resources for. He’d folded over with laughter when I told him I used to love needlepoint. Saying, “By the looks of your mending, sweetheart, I’d wager that was time wasted!”

The last time I saw him we had barely talked at all. I’d been uncharacteristically exhausted after spending the day helping Pearson when Sadie refused to. And ended up drifting off against the log he sat upon, cleaning his gun. Though I’d woken sometime later to him having moved to the ground beside me, my head on his shoulder as he carved aimlessly at a scrap of wood. When I woke again in the morning, he was gone.

“Isn’t that just so romantic?” Mary Beth crooned, her attention on me.

“Sorry, what?” I asked, pushing my stew away. My stomach was too knotted up to eat, I knew I was probably being stupid and irrational, if Micah were here to see how I was acting he would say as much. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.

Mary Beth looked me over more closely, “Are you alright? You look…”

“Fine. I- I’m fine, Mary Beth. I’m gonna go on a walk, don’t wait up okay?” I said, rising from the table.

“Oh, Okay!” She called out to me as I walked toward the path out of camp. It was probably a stupid idea. No, it definitely was. Walking around at sunset, alone, without a single weapon on me… I just needed to move, to feel like I was doing something other than waiting. A pathetic part of me hoped I would find him out here somehow, just stumble upon him trotting back toward camp completely fine.

I walked along the cliff edge toward Caliban’s Seat, making it halfway before dusk was upon me. Reluctantly, I turned back for camp, not at all looking forward to the restless night that awaited me there. That was when I spotted him.

“Baylock?” I called out to the black horse who was galloping up the hillside, his saddle empty. My stomach dropped at the sight. Even in the darkness, I knew it was him. He whinnied and reared up on his back legs as I neared. “Shh boy, you’re okay.” I hushed, holding a hand out to the wild eyed horse. He huffed and snorted at my hand, but let me approach. Giving him some comforting pats I looked around for any sign of him being robbed, a struggle, blood, anything to give a reason as to why he was alone. But there was nothing. He had just… run off.

“Where’s Micah?” I whispered to the horse. He had to be close, surely. With Baylock calmed, at least enough to mount, I jumped on the saddle and led him back down the hill where he’d come.

The full moon rising in the sky aided in my search, illuminating the surrounding forest enough that I wasn’t completely blind. Though Baylock did most of the navigating for me. He brought me through the section of forest that had been badly burned in an old brush fire, the ground still black, no life having braved the area just yet. I’d noticed it on our journey in from Colter. He was taking me to the base of Caliban’s Seat.

“Micah?” I called out to the darkness. Baylock whinnied in response, stomping his feet as we came to the tree line. He refused to go any further. “Micah?” I called again, and this time I got a faint groan in response. Jumping from the saddle I ran toward the sound some fifty yards ahead in the clearing.

“ FUCK!” I yelled, jumping back and falling on my ass, the bright yellow eyes of a cougar staring back at me through the tall grass. It took a moment to catch my breath and realize the beast was dead. Though its eyes still shone ominously in the darkness.

“What the hell are you doing out here?” Micah moaned. I jumped again, not having noticed him so close. He sat on the ground beside me, his back against a tree. He seemed… fine.

“What… Happened?” I finally managed to say.

“It got me. I got it.” He said simply, gesturing to the cougar with a lazy wave of the revolver still clutched in his hand.

Getting up from the dirt I crawled the few feet over to where he sat, my hands hovering over him hesitantly as I tried to pinpoint where exactly it had got him. Sensing the silent question he turned his back to me with a pained groan. I gasped.

His shirt was hanging on by threads. Three deep claw marks had torn through it from the shoulder all the way down to the hem of his pants. Blood oozed from the slashes, tar black in the darkness.

“ Shit.” I whispered, “You need a doctor. We need to get you back to camp!”

“No” He groaned.

“But… Micah you can't see it, its-”

“ No.” He said firmly, leaning back against the tree with a wince. “I’ve got supplies in the saddlebags, enough to make camp here and patch up.”

I just stared at him, speechless at his nonchalance toward the whole thing. Fully expecting me to just go along with his plan, he started unbuttoning his shirt.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“ You are going to stitch me up, sweetheart.”

“No…” Sickness twisted in my stomach at the prospect, “ No! Micah… I- I can’t.”

The bastard didn’t listen. He just kept working to undo his shirt as I sat there completely frozen at his side. Leaning heavily on the tree for stability, he rose to his feet and whistled for Baylock. The horse came obediently to him, nuzzling his nose into Micah’s neck with a huff.

“Hey boy…” Micah whispered to him, stretching with a groan to pull a peach from the saddle bag, “Sorry about that…” Lovingly stroking the horse's nose, Micah sighed, resting his forehead against the animal. I’d never seen Baylock calmer in my life.

Rifling through the saddlebags I found some half drunken tonics, a bottle of whiskey and a crude wound dressing kit with - much to my horror - a needle and thread. I knew it had to be done… If not sewn up by me tonight, the cuts would almost certainly fester into something much worse by morning. My many failed attempts at cross stitching and cloth mending flashed behind my eyes, the nausea growing as I pictured my messy, uneven stitches threading through skin.

I took a swig of the whiskey before handing it over to Micah, who raised a brow at me. “You’re gonna need it…” I said, my voice shakily betraying the anxiety coursing through me. He chugged a good quarter of the bottle before chucking it aside.

“And this.” I held out a tonic for him, hoping if all else failed, it might keep infection at bay at the very least. He chugged that too, his eyelids heavy when he met my gaze again. “Just sit down, I’ll start a fire… Are you hungry?” I about gagged just saying the word. The thought of eating churning my stomach even more.

I don't know if it was my own reaction or if he too was an anxious wreck at the prospect of me stitching him up, but he mercifully declined the offer of food. I made quick work of a fire, setting our camp up a ways away from the wild cat corpse that was already starting to attract flies.

Micah sat beside the fire, his shirt now fully discarded. The image of him lit by the warm, flickering firelight sent a strange sense of calm through me, as if this was just any other night. A sparkling sheen of sweat already coated his torso. He glanced sidelong at me and I averted my gaze... hoping my lingering stare could be attributed to his wound and not his half naked form. Blush burning at my cheeks I asked, "How did it happen?"

"Wrong place..." He grunted, running a hand through his hair. "Wrong time."

Whiskey in hand, I kneeled at his back. "I didn't think cougars even came this far east..." I said, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder I guided him to turn so his back was to the fire, he did so with another pained groan that made my heart ache. It was about to get so much worse, I was about to make it so much worse.

"They don't." He grumbled, snatching the whiskey from my hand for one last sip before returning it to my grasp.

“This is gonna hurt…” I warned. He and I both took a deep breath and when he exhaled I poured the alcohol over his wound. His breathing halted as he held back a cry of pain, only deep growling groans escaping him as his breath came back in stuttering bursts before calming once more.

“Sorry…” I whispered, finally exhaling my own breath.

“Don’t start that…” He said, a bit breathless. Reaching a hand back to me he squeezed my knee in a small but comforting gesture. “I don't need you apologizing every time you stick me with a needle neither, doll.”

Grabbing the whiskey bottle, he took another generous chug. “Okay… Do it.” He sighed.

Opening the little tin of needle and thread… I hesitated. The needle was so small. Stitching up the wounds would take an hour, probably more. Dousing my hands with alcohol I reached out to touch the edge of one of the slashes, testing the sensitivity. He inhaled sharply at the gentle touch. Seemingly sensing his pain, Baylock huffed and lowered himself to the ground beside us, his large black head resting on Micahs lap.

“Micah…” I whispered. I didn’t know if I could stomach the pain I would be putting him through. He didn’t say anything, but squeezed my knee once more. Gently moving his long hair over his shoulder and out of the way, I brought the needle to the largest slash and with a deep breath, inserted it into the skin.

He didn’t flinch or cry out in pain, only tightening his grip on my knee as I drove the needle through the fatty skin visible in the crevice of the wound. In, through, in and out again. Were the only thoughts in my head as I concentrated, tying each suture closed with several knots before moving on to the next.

Once I got into the rhythm of it my anxiety eased, the nausea in my stomach subsiding along with it. The gore of his back becoming just another piece of ripped fabric that needed mending. It helped that Micah stayed impressively still during the whole process, only occasionally wincing when my needle drifted too deep into the wound.

When I finished the first of three slashes I turned to look him over. His face had gone pale and his eyes clamped shut. He never did release his grip on my leg.

“Two more cuts to go…” I said, mostly to myself but Micah’s head perked up, a small groan escaping his lips. I had no idea how much time had passed from when I’d started stitching, but the moon was high overhead by the time I finished. It must have been at least two in the morning.

Knotting off the last stitch I sat back, looking over my work. It wasn’t pretty by any means, the slashes red and jagged. But it was done.

“Well, you’ll have an impressive scar at least.” I said, pouring the last of the whiskey over my work for good measure. He didn’t even flinch this time, his back probably so numb with pain already from the hours of tedious work it barely registered anymore.

“Micah?” I whispered, his hand tightened on my knee in response but he made no sound. Leaning into his shoulder, I pressed a gentle kiss to the unmarred skin there. A low moan escaped him.

“What was that for?” He mumbled.

“A kiss to make it better…” I whispered against his skin, peppering two more kisses up his shoulder, one for each wound. “Mmm…” He hummed, his hand slowly snaking up my thigh. The contact shot electricity into my core, the pit of my stomach churning with a kind of anxious anticipation. I took his wandering hand in mine and kissed that too.

“Are you hungry?” I asked in an attempt to change the subject. Leaning in to meet his gaze, his pupils were blown wide, his eyes almost completely black as he looked at me. A smile spread over his lips.

“That a trick question?” He slurred, wrapping an arm around my waist. He practically fell into me, his hot, whiskey tinged breath on my neck as he pulled me in closer.

“You're drunk.” I said matter-of-factly, but made no effort to push him away. I didn’t want him drunkenly falling back on his fresh stitches, but mostly I just… didn’t want him to let go.

“Mmhmm...” He hummed, “And hungry.” his lips just barely grazed my skin as he spoke.

His flirty retort was an empty threat. Slowly, his body relaxed into mine, going heavier and heavier until he was completely slack in my arms. With a sigh, I sat back, carefully resting against Baylock who had stayed loyally by Micah’s side through the entire ordeal.

Micah’s face nuzzled sleepily into the crook of my neck, his arms wrapped around my waist as snuggled into me like I was his own personal pillow. He was completely splayed out on top of me, effectively pinning me in place between him and the horse. Unable and unwilling to move, I just held him against me, a hand softly stroking at his hair while the other traced lazily at the unwounded skin of his bare back.

He let out a long, content sigh and mumbled something into my neck.

“What?” I whispered. He turned his head away from my skin just enough to speak more clearly.

“I’m glad it was you.” He said, his strong hands pressing into my back as he spoke, as if he was making sure I was real, that I was there with him. “That you were the one… that you found me.” His voice trailed off sleepily.

Something about his admission brought a wetness to my eyes that threatened to break through my resolve. I hadn’t truly allowed myself to absorb the scene I’d stumbled upon tonight. How much worse it could have been… Holding him closer I breathed, “ Me too…” my voice barely even a whisper.

Exhaustion soon came to consume us both. With a final soft kiss to his temple, all three of us drifted off to sleep under the stars.

If you liked this, check out my other Micah works!

★ My Masterlist ★

#sigh #I just want to hug him #you just know he would have been furious if “death by cat” was the way he went out too #micah bell fic #red dead redemption 2 #micah bell x reader #fish reqs

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trinityobsessesovatings · 1 month ago

Note

do you have a ranking of your favourite arcane characters?

this might come as a little bit of a shocker…

MOST

Caitlyn

Jayce

Mel

Sevika

Ekko

Jinx

Ambessa

Viktor

LEAST

caitlyn is my absolute FAVORITE character!! idk what it is about her but i want to have her children! i would definitely be her little housewife fr! she has me acting in ways… IM CONCERNED ABOUT. i would definitely be in her corner like “babe stop this isn’t you! look at me baby this isn’t you! don’t let jinx get you there.” …yeah it’s bad.

vi is a VERY CLOSE second. i absolutely ADORED her character. she lowkey reminds me of myself fr, willing to do anything and everything for the ones she loves. i have an older brother who has autism and would DIE for that mf fr! i really loved how even though she was frustrated with jinx… she never really gave up on her… in my eyes at least.

…now… jayce i’m not gonna lie.. he’s position on this list is a SHOCK to me. i was a jayce HATER all throughout the show! mainly because i was jealous with the way he got the baddest bitch in the show mel.. YES IM A HATER! but chileee… when he popped back up with beard… SUMN WAS PURRING 🤪 i’m a slut for mean with beards.

mel, mel, mel… when she first popped up on my screen I was deadass stunned with how stunning that woman was! then when she first started getting with jayce i was like: 🤨😕. i couldn’t believe it. i was also definitely one of those people who shipped her with sevika even though those two NEVER interacted. but yeah her aura was so strong she had me hating jayce. WHEN SHE UNLOCKED HER POWERS OH MY GOD I WAS SCREAMING AND JUMPING FOR JOY! baddest bitch. 😌

sevika was definitely someone else who caught my attention when the show first started! i thought she was THE COLDEST mf they introduced! even when she betrayed vander i was upset a bit, but also at the same time… i supported it??? because she just wants the best for her people! i was literally so pissed she kept getting that vegeta treatment tho… LIKE COME ON!

NOW the only reason ekko is so low on this list is because… most of the people above him they got EXTRA POINTS because i’m attracted to them! ekko is honestly so adorable and just the goat fr! that’s my son fr! little man when he was so small 🥹 MY SON!!! i was having heart palpitations when him, hiemerdinger, and jayce where glitching out during the wild runes scene! MY BOY JUST WANTED TO KNOW WHAT WAS WRONG WITH HIS TREE!

the reason jinx is where she is on this list is literally the same as ekko’s! jinx and ekko idk how they are so that’s an immediate “you’re my child and if anything happens to you, i’ll kill everyone.” jinx was also one of them characters that deadass HAD ME DYING! the scene with enforcer not believing she’s jinx, when silco was calling for her but she was too busy jamming, when she jumped sevika and tied her up, asking her sister if her caitlyn fucked before she killed them, almost crashing out when viktor called her powder… THE LIST GOES ON! she an icon, a legend, and she is the moment! 😌

ambessa she had me in the first half, like when she was first introduced! i’m pretty sure if she didn’t end up being an opp… she would definitely be higher on the list! the only thing ambessa got going for her rn is she’s hot! I JUST HATE WAR STARTING/LOVING ASS BITCHES!! like for why! DO THAT SHIT ON YOUR OWN TERF DON’T BRING THAT MESS OVA HEA! also she slapped mel so that DEF docked some fucking points!

now this might be an unpopular opinion… i might get hate for it… i thought viktor was the most boring character on the show highkey fr! IM SORRY IM SORRY! like he had his moments that man is a sassy king… but other than that I didn’t really rock with viktor as a character or as potential boo thing. when it comes to science people… it’s hit or miss for me fr. also… that mf ran a cult 🙅🏾‍♀️ NO THANKS

HONORABLE FAVS

vander

isha

babette

shoola

lest

claggor

cassandra

HONORABLE LEAST FAVS

SILCO

that rat looking mf

MADDIE

mylo

that guy who was in sevika’s gang who was also licking something or someone

#trinity💭tings #trinityyaps 💬#arcane #arcane vi #vi arcane #arcane caitlyn #caitlyn kiramman #arcane jayce #jayce talis #arcane mel #mel medarda #arcane ambessa #ambessa medarda #arcane ekko #arcane jinx #arcane viktor #arcane sevika #sevika arcane

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ruvviks · 4 months ago

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it's been a hot sec since i've talked about cyberpunk and i was initially working on a fic that would tell the story of this whole thing, but i've abandoned it many months ago and cannot say when i'll be picking it up again SO! i've decided to instead make this timeline. sorry in advance for how much information is in this thing the cyberpunk extended blorboverse essentially refers to the story parallel to the in-game events of cyberpunk 2077 that @mojaves and i came up with. we don't really have a better name for it but at this point the term has been used so many times that i feel like everyone here knows what it is by now, but at the same time we've never really explained the full scope of what the story is by now (it's a lot sorry). so in an attempt to get you guys a little bit more up to date with it all, here's a semi coherent timeline that describes the core events of the story and every branching story that came out of it! for additional background information, you can check out the following posts (timeline 1 / timeline 2 / timeline 3) to catch up with the continuation of the in-game storyline that's referenced in this timeline, but it's mostly irrelevant to everything here save for a couple of referenced events that cross over between the stories. it all ties together very intricately sorry about that. don't worry too much about it i've included my taglist down below to make sure people who are interested won't miss this post, but feel free to skip over this if it's not your thing! won't be doing a lot of this kind of stuff in the future but i'm trying to get back to the cyberpunk roots so this is kind of like, a good starting point and reference point for later posts!

The story starts in early 2077 and is centered around Sebastian Vidal, gang leader of the Cobras and previous test subject of Arasaka Special Programs (the linked page is a lot of information but gives the most coherent overview of what the branch actually is). The current director of the SERPENT projects, Andrew Colton, and Dr. Alana Cartier, both want him dead, to tie up their last loose end before the rest of Arasaka can find out and shut down Special Programs once and for all.

Over the past months they’ve been hiring various assassins in secret, to try and get Seb killed; however, these assassins keep failing, and their latest attempt lies in the hands of Cassidy Shaffer, an ex-corpo turned assassin with a strong moral code and plenty of experience to his name. With little to work with, as his mysterious client doesn’t give out much information, Cassidy starts with what he thinks is gonna be a quick and easy job– but he ends up hunting after Seb for essentially a year.

During this year, the two men have a series of wild encounters that get more and more insane the longer it goes on; it includes, but is unfortunately not limited to, Cassidy biting off a chunk of Seb’s ear, the two of them running over the highway, the two of them getting handcuffed together and chased by the NCPD then hit by a car right in front of the hospital, and Seb sensually licking blood off Cassidy’s face after having stabbed him when Cassidy wanted to strike at a concert Seb is visiting.

All of it comes to a sudden stop when Cassidy learns his client has been lying to him the whole time, and since he does not appreciate lying clients he ends up jumping sides and teams up with the Cobras to do some cleanup duty in Arasaka Special Programs. He and Seb work together to go after a list of targets to get the still ongoing projects mostly to a halt, while remaining in the shadows themselves as to not draw too much attention their way; and during this collaboration they meet several people from their past, bringing back both good and bad memories.

One of these people is Hanan Chisaka, the Head of Security at Special Programs. She ends up becoming the next test subject of Project Cobra after the last successful subjects, Xavier and Gabriel Mason, end up escaping in the midst of the chaos of Hanako Arasaka’s capture in mid-2077. Once Seb’s best friend and Cassidy’s mentor, she’s now forced to hunt the both of them down; but in their final confrontation she snaps out of the controlled mode Arasaka keeps her in and runs away with them, effectively leaving Special Programs without any test subjects. Another one of these people is Reid Bennett, Cassidy’s ex and ex-coworker back at MaxTac. He still works for the corporation and has been on an ongoing investigation into Arasaka Special Programs; seeing Cassidy alive and well, working together with Seb no less, piques his interest and he continues to look further into the case, which will cause him to make a very big mistake later on in the timeline.

By September 2078, Seb and Cassidy have successfully taken down all their planned targets and retreat back into the shadows, leaving Special Programs with many losses and no test subjects. With the APEX program discontinued a month earlier (incident discussed in this fic, which is a continuation of the in-game events), and Hanako Arasaka recovered and ready to take the corporation back from the hands of her corrupt brother, Special Programs ends up having to retreat for the time being, and cook up a new plan in the background.

Special Programs by this point is run by Andrew Colton, Alana Cartier, and Kaida Akiyama, three players who have been in the game for a long time already in the SERPENT projects’ runtime. Colton and Cartier are married– Cartier used to be married to Seb and cheated on him for a good amount of time when he was still at Arasaka– but their marriage is starting to fall apart. Akiyama has had to watch over Special Ops agent Ambrose Hawthorne for a while during his chase after the Mason twins, which ended up with the twins dead and Hawthorne going into early retirement (Arasaka doesn’t know the twins faked their death and Ambrose is now dating one of them lol), and xe is now determined to help Colton and Cartier get Seb back into Arasaka so the projects can continue.

Cassidy’s initial plan was to leave as soon as the collaboration would come to an end, but he has found his place with the Cobras and instead ends up officially joining them.The next chapter in the story is a more laid-back and easygoing chapter, in which Cassidy learns to be part of real life again, and in which Seb learns to let people get close to him again after spending years trying to convince himself he doesn’t need any help. Over the course of a little over a year (all the way to November 2079), the two grow even closer than they had already done, going on gigs together and, you guessed it, slowly but surely falling in love until they inevitably end up together at the end of it.

Not long after the two get together, Reid returns into Cassidy’s life. He wants to try and be friends again and Cassidy gives him a second chance, though this soon enough turns out to have been a mistake, with Reid trying to create distance between Seb and Cassidy and then going as far as trying to sell Cassidy to Kang Tao (one of the few corporations that have been hunting Cassidy down for a while now) in exchange for his own freedom from MaxTac (where he would have otherwise been stuck at for probably the rest of his life). Naturally, Reid can’t watch Cassidy get tortured for long and leaks his location to the Cobras, who find and free Cassidy and take Reid into captivity instead– he does not get killed, but instead has to sit out some time at a safehouse somewhere in solitude, where he gets to decide what kind of person he wants to be in the future.

This brings us to Elysium; a gorgeous spaceship which was supposed to be a relatively cheap escape from reality for everyone who wanted a refreshing break from Earth, but through Arasaka sponsorship has become just another cash-grab project to compete with the Crystal Palace– and considering the megacorporation has its greasy hands all over it, the secret labs in the spaceship are used for a series of very unethical experiments. Naturally so, it would be the perfect place for Colton to continue his SERPENT projects without the risk of Hanako Arasaka finding out and shutting the place down. He sends forces up to Elysium (obviously after his other attempts at relocating the project to space have failed tremendously, having lost contact with every single crew in the smaller Arasaka stations in orbit around the planet), but since he’s not there himself his cousin (one of the CEOs of Elysium), Maxwell Crane, unbeknownst to Colton, takes control of the SERPENT projects in space instead. From the earlier linked Special Programs page: “Project Eryx used the technology of previous projects, but took a completely new approach in the hosts it used; rather than focusing on the human psyche it attempted to create a new type of cyborg which would lack the humanity that caused previous projects to fail. The Cobra chips were no longer used and the software was instead installed directly onto the host’s mainframe. The flexibility of the new hosts– more robot than human, and in some cases the entire human aspect was lacking altogether– allowed for experimentation with highly advanced cybernetic enhancements and military grade tech and upgrades, turning the test subjects– dubbed ‘prototypes’– into dangerous, unstoppable killing machines.”

Things settle down for Seb and Cassidy, but this moment of peace does not last long. In January 2081 the two find themselves traveling to the spaceship Elysium, to investigate a curious situation in the laboratories– they’ve been hired by Arasaka without their knowledge and it’s a setup to get Cassidy killed and Seb back in Cartier’s control.

While in space, they learn that the secret labs have suffered an outbreak of the above mentioned prototypes. They quickly connect the dots and realize Special Programs is back in the game, and they work together with security guards Aubrey Valentine and Leon dello Russo to try and fix the situation before it gets out of hand. Obviously this fails tremendously and Elysium ends up on a complete lockdown after a ship-wide outbreak, which is eventually contained in late March of that year, with CEO Maxwell Crane dead, leaving only his wife Kinsley Osborn behind.

Elysium continues to exist and is rebuilt after the crisis, and Kinsley Osborn can now finally turn it into the retreat it was always meant to be. Previously, most Elysium employees were to be stuck in space for the rest of their lives; however, with Arasaka out of the picture they are free to leave as they please, which results in a gigantic cut in total employee count in the months that follow.

Seb and Cassidy return to Night City and take Aubrey and Leon with them. Aubrey reunites with his sisters; Becca, James, and Rikki, and soon after his return to the city he opens an LGBTQ+ nightclub called Bodytalk with them, found Downtown, City Center, in June 2081. Not only is it a fun place to hang out at, it’s also his main hub as a fixer, and he starts a collaboration with the Cobras to get business going between the gang and the club; and soon enough it grows into a large and powerful network of connections, which is the foundation on which the rest of the stories are built.

After this point in time, many many more things happen but it would take me another hour or ten to go into full detail of all of that, so instead here’s a quick rundown of some of the other things that Bodytalk gets involved in:

Reid Bennett is handed over to Aubrey and he starts working at the club, and he becomes a very valued employee as well as a good friend to many now that he’s no longer fucking insane

Kaida Akiyama returns from Elysium and shows up to Hanan’s doorstep, to ask for her help with getting out of Arasaka for good; much later on, xe starts working for Bodytalk as well, in an attempt to put xyr past behind xem and become a better person

Urban Dynamite starts performing at the club regularly, and it becomes their home base

Luna Serratos, Cassidy’s ripperdoc friend from all the way back to killing era, gets involved in the Harbinger case from Maelstrom (one of the gang’s most feared members); turns out the Harbinger is in fact Reuben de la Rosa, a by then 22-year-old kid who has ended up in Luna’s care with his friend Noah Telavera after the two got caught up in an explosion. She requests the Cobras’ help with getting Maelstrom to let Reuben go

Officer Michele Diaz from Militech (who used to be Cassidy’s boss) is demoted following the lawsuits after the Elysium incident, and her investigation into the incident in hopes to get her job back leads her to Bodytalk; she begins threatening them and sends the whole club and their allies into uncertain times

Many people get married. There’s so many fucking guys here we went a little insane with the numbers but there’s several weddings and there’s a whole polycule going on too feel free to send asks about this if you’re interested

Cobra Cybernetics releases a new line of cyberware, which is incredibly buggy and dangerous to the public; it’s brought to the club’s attention and it makes them realize that Luiza Vidal (Seb’s sister), who not that long ago asked them to kill her husband (William Colton (Andrew’s brother), CEO of Cobra Cybernetics), has gone missing; they now need to get involved without getting the news out that they actually didn’t kill William and that he is still alive somewhere, while also balancing out dynamics between Biotechnica (angry at Cobra Cybernetics for stealing their designs) and Arasaka (the actual reason why Cobra Cybernetics’ designs look like Biotechnica’s designs, because William stole designs from Special Programs after halting their partnership after the Elysium incident, but these designs had been stolen by Arthur Jenkins from Biotechnica even BEFORE that to be able to hijack the European Space Council’s cybernetics following the Frankfurt incident. Are you still with me)

Vitali Dobrynin (fixer and main character from the in-game events storyline and the continuation of it; Vincent “V” Mayer’s boyfriend) ends up visiting Bodytalk after meeting Aubrey at a Fixer Council meeting, which happens in late 2083; this essentially ties the two main storylines together, which means that yes, a lot of the characters from the two separate storylines end up meeting :]

Officer Ulysses Dimakos (used to work with Reid at MaxTac) is sent to investigate Bodytalk following the Cobra Cybernetics scandal, and ends up teaming up with the club to get MaxTac on a dead trail in exchange for his freedom of the corporation

On top of the Bodytalk / Cobras centered storyline, there’s a couple of side stories that are still connected to the whole thing but are more of a standalone thing with only a few touching points to the rest of it all:

This obviously takes place a lot earlier because it’s already mentioned above, but Special Ops agent Ambrose Hawthorne is tasked with chasing after the escaped Mason twins; naturally he lets them go and ends up going into retirement, and Xavier Mason later on ends up becoming Bodytalk’s part-time repair guy on account of knowing Kaida

Gabriel Mason ends up in a car crash with retired security specialist Ames Ortega, who was also in Elysium during the incidents there, and the two end up babysitting Ambrose and Xavier’s kids together while those two are helping Hanan with getting Kaida out of Arasaka (Are you still with me. Blink if you can hear me)

Mercenary Frankie Sayyad gets a promotion from his fixer, Vulture (real name Diana Crane, Maxwell Crane’s older sister and cousin of the Coltons), and becomes one of her Bloodhounds; he works together with Evelyn Harris, Nimue Nkuna, and Beckett Rydel, the latter being one of the very first test subjects of Arasaka Special Programs, and the four accidentally get themselves mixed into a mystery concerning their secretive fixer

Caleb Harris, ex-security at Biotechnica, ends up back at Club Bodytalk not long after the conclusion of the Cobra Cybernetics scandal, and starts working for Aubrey; he is partnered up with Ramiel Al-Masri, a mercenary who has been working for Vitali Dobrynin for a while and has recently joined Aubrey’s mercenary roster too, and together they dive into a series of gigs neither of them had expected

Journalist Bodhi Shankar has finally found more evidence and information surrounding the mysterious cult gang Umbra and its so-called Prophet, Thiago Salazar; however, his antics have led to him accidentally becoming part of the gang himself, and he has to figure out a way to get Thiago to stop listening to the supposed deity that the gang worships known as Scintilla, before she makes him do things that will get many people killed

taglist (opt in/out)

@velocitic, @deadrlngers, @euryalex, @ordinarymaine, @gurathins;

@mojaves, @shellibisshe, @dickytwister, @mnwlk, @rindemption;

@ncytiri, @calenhads, @noirapocalypto, @florbelles, @radioactiveshitstorm;

@strafethesesinners, @fashionablyfyrdraaca, @aemondtargeryen, @radioactive-synth, @katsigian;

@estevnys, @elgaravel, @aezyrraeshh, @carlosoliveiraa

#nuclearwriting #timeline tag #this is really lengthy so again if you don't wanna go through all that i can respect that WBHSNGJFDHGDFJG just wanted to like #show that no i am NOT dead i have in fact been yelling about my ocs basically every single day since the last piece of writing i posted #but it's all in intricate rituals between me and my bf that as you can see results into. so much information. that's only barely coherent #i could go into entirely more detail is the thing. i could very easily go into entirely more detail because you see #we have encounters written out for killing era. all encounters. they're all there #we have separate timelines for the bigger events like the elysium arc and the maelstrom arc and the militech arc #the whole thing with cobra cybernetics is a buildup that dates back all the way to fucking 2072 and then happens in 2083/84 #the colton/crane family dynamics are a whole bookwork of information on its own #then there's the whole polycule that's gotten. a little out of hand i'll admit but it's COHERENT i made a VISUAL for it #there's years worth of history between SO many of these characters that can all be analyzed and picked apart personally #there's the whole side stories going on with ambrose and the mason twins and the bloodhounds and umbra #the whole elysium incident on its own is a horror freakshow that would do numbers on here. i'm telling you #BASICALLY WHAT I'M TRYING TO SAY IS. IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT LITERALLY ANYTHING #PLEASE COME INTO MY INBOX OR IN ANDY'S INBOX WE LOVE TALKING ABOUT THIS STUFF #THERE'S SO MUCH TO TALK ABOUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE HAVE AN INSANE AMOUNT OF OCS FOR IT AND WE'RE STILL MAKING MORE #ELYSIUM HAS A WHOLE CREW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE MADE UP A WHOLE CREW FOR ITTBHGFJNBHGJKSDGDSNGJDSG #I'M NORMAL

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zeroskiis · 13 days ago

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What type of demons are Kong/Natasha/Deniz and others are in your au?

Omg sorry for not answering earlier! I'm sick with a fever and a really bad headache and I'm not sure if ya'll can make out what I'm gonna be trying to explain here, but I'll try my best!

So! Kong for starters is a shapeshifting demon! I've mentioned this before also but asking is alright! :3 He can shapeshift into any living being, be it a human, animal or other, as long as there is some sort of life sustaining organs, so objects aren't really possible. Also an transformation is more likely to fail if highly emotional or distressed, when rational thinking is hard, and when one is out of energy and exhausted.

I'd like to think that Natasha is also a shapeshifting demon, and that's the reason she has managed to avoid being caught for so long.

Deniz isn't really a demon. He's just cursed. Though if the curse goes far enough he would be a wild demon. One that has the basic understanding level of an animal and no special power beyond physical form. One that only hunts and works off instincts, basically losing all humanity, becoming just a reflection of what he used to be. That is why it is a curse.

The blue eyed one, (still don't know what name to use so I'll just call him blue or bluey) the power is a bit hard for me to explain but I'll try my best! (Yes I need the pictures to even try to do this-)

So his power is like this thing where he can twist a humans flesh into an image of what he wants through touch. (Does that make sense?) He generally thinks that humans are toys to be played with, or food. You could say he was "blessed" with a dangerous power. I don't really know what to call this type of a demon, but I wanted his power to be this.

He could twist one into being a servant, a mindless puppet. The one that has been turned is fully conscious inside and most likely in a lot of pain, but their mind is no longer controlled by them. It is controlled, by him.

Other options include becoming just a mere pile of flesh with no purpose. (I feel like that sometimes. Anyways-) Or his next art project!

Or you could become decor or furniture. A very fleshy and wailing piece of one that nobody probably wouldn't be comfortable having around, but decor/furniture nonethless!

If you're lucky he just eats you and saves you the pain of being trapped in a vessel of a body that you no longer control. :3

I'll write more later of others like Michi and the rest of his gang and stuff because I feel like I've been rambling way too long and I need to get a grip on reality. I hope this satisfies you and answered your questions atleast a tiny bit 🙏

#dwk animated series #dwk church au #die wilden kerle animated series #dwk #die wilden kerle

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angstflavoured · 7 months ago

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You have any fic recommendations? Any fandom really lol. You have good takes and interpretation so I feel like you’d have some fire recs

AWH WELL THANK YOU !! I dont actually know how great the ones I read are gonna be since usually the fandoms Im in are scarce on content 💀 but ill go ahead and list a bunch of the ones I really like. I definitely spend way too much of my time reading one shots. REALLY wanna get back into longer fics, but its hard to find ones I care enough to sit down and dedicate time to these days 💔

Smiling Friends

bittersuite, charlie/pim: AND THERE WAS ONLY ONE BED !!!!! THIS FIC CHANGED MY LIFE FOREVER !!!!! It is hurt/no comfort, but its soooo good it hurts so good and also there is supposed to be more eventually so i'd get on this one first bc when the second one drops its gonna be a day in history

Dimples, charlie/pim: I just read this last night and was so pleasantly surprised ☹️ Its so damn cute and I love how it delves more into both of their characters.

Portal 2

interface, chell/wheatley: HANDS down, best portal 2 one shot out there. the way the characterize chell is fucking insane, altered my brain chemistry forever. also wheatley is so hehehheheheh

You Do It, adventure/fact: I have a very love/hate relationship with this author..... Im not the BIGGEST fan of how they characterize them, esp Fact, but its definitely the most decent factventure content out there. I so like this one quite a bit, though their ideas are definitely better in theory than completely in practice. That's how I feel abt a lot of their works, but this person unironically holds the title for like 90% of the factventure content. If you just want some quick cute smut of them, i'd say you should check out their acc, cus I get the factventure fandom is starving LMAOO

I've got the fuse if you've got the light, adventure core/reader: ....erm, very self indulgent for me hehe!!! i was so fucking excited when this dropped

Half-Life/HLVRAI

Autonomous Sweet Mesa Response, benrey/gordon: THIS FIC IS SOOO FUCKING FIREEEEE !!! OH MY GOD, I can't even count the times I've read this one. their dialogue is as good as it comes next to canon. If you like this one, this is the first in a huge series and litearlly all of them are just as good as the first. such a good sit down and binge author. They also have a shit ton of other good hlvrai stuff on their page and they make fire art

If You Asked Me To, benrey/gordon: the way they wrote the sex scene in this changed my brain forever, it was so fucking awesome.... frenrey dynamic makes me WILD

Whispers and Moans, barney/gordon: this whole author has a lot of super cute freehoun :'[ this one deals with them before the resonance cascade AND after and shows how things changed between them and its so precious grrraah

Promise, barney/gordon: again, deals with the timeskip stuff which just always makes my heart hurt... also shower sex smiles

It’s Only Natural, barney/gordon: I DIDNT REALIZE THIS FIC JUST GOT FINISHED THIS YEAR OH MY GODDDD I WAS OBSESSED WITH THIS need to reread this immediately

Team Fortress 2

He's a Rebel, sniper/spy: SUPER fucking cheesy and corny but oh my god its like one of my fav fics ever..... it's just so much fun, like stereotypical fanfic and that's always a good time to me. biker gang member/school teacher au are you fucking kidding me i'll vomit

It IS the Size That Matters, sniper/spy: erm.... BLOWJOBS!! always find myself coming back to this one sorry i really like it hehe

Secure, demo/solider: Not a lot of fics of these guys, which really sucks!! super underrated ship. I liked this one a lot tho, its pretty cute and a little emotional

Something to Rely On, sniper/spy: casual sex but really sniper is in love will forever be my favourite thing ever, it never gets old istg

The Silent Game, sniper/spy: can you tell I really like sniperspy, MORE BLOWJOBS!!!

Disco Elysium

The Collision in Cardiozone HQ, harry/kim: holy. fucking. shit. actually life changing i am not joking. so fucking heartbreaking, it left me hollowed out for like a WEEK after the ending. A longer one for sure, but SO worth it like oh my god

The Catacomb Killer, harry/kim: I don't think I ever fully finished this one, but I remember REALLY liking the whole case the fic was set around. there was so much thought put into it, it was genuinely interesting like a murder mystery show

Retour à nouveau, harry/kim: I did really like the whole plot and buildup in this one, but from what I remember, them getting together was super anticlimatic :P i recall being disappointed, but the whole actual case and their interactions during the fic are super cute

Mortal Kombat 1

the game of idiocy, johnny/kenshi: BY THE SAME AUTHOR AS BITTERSUITE!! this one is sooo fucking cute, the way they write them interacting is so much fun. a little troupey and on the cheesier side, but cmon who doesn't love that

Undertale

Flowey is Not a Good Life Coach: no ships but delves a lot into flowey and papyrus relationship and there's so much good sans development too. SUPER GENERIC, it IS one of the most liked fics, but I remember reading it back when I was a teenager and it blew my fucking mind. ghhghggh i love the way they write the brothers interacting so much

The Party Incident and Other Embarrassing Anecdotes, sans/reader: uhmm.... soo sorry, this fic will forever hold a special little place in my heart. I'm sure if I read it now it would be SO corny cus oh my god it was fucking 2016 like are you kidding, but I'm just a fucking sucker for fake dating. there like 5000000 troupes in this one and theyre all so cute and its just a fun and silly time. it subconsciously inspires so much of my writing in fics. will probably forever be unfinished before they get together though HAHAH so definitely do not read if you're looking for a solid ending. its just about the journey i swear

#fic rec #fanfic rec #smiling friends #portal 2 #hlvrai #half life #mortal kombat 1 #mk 1 #half life 2 #disco elysium #team fortress 2 #tf2 #fanfic #long post #list #fyp

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convenientalias · 2 months ago

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Ranking Every Park Sung-woong Movie I've Watched

This year, deep in a Park Sung-woong obsession haze, I set out to watch a bunch of Park Sung-woong movies, wondering if I could rank all the movies he was ever in. I did not end up watching all his movies. I did, however, watch 15. So today I am finally going to rank the 15 I did watch so that people will know what movies of his are worth watching and which are less so, and you will not have to strike out blindly like I did.

(Notable absence: I haven't watched The Dude In Me, I'm sorry. Yes, he did win an award for it, and I mean to watch it someday. I just haven't gotten around to it yet and I didn't want to procrastinate this post any longer when I have no idea when I will.

If there are other great PSW movies I've missed, feel free to recommend them!)

So.

Starting with the worst.

15. The Closet (2020)

This is the worst movie I watched this summer for Park Sung-woong purposes. It's a bad movie in and of itself; it's a not very thrilling thriller, and the main characters aren't likeable or interesting. However, PSW's role in it is worse. He's in about three scenes and in one of them he's killed like two seconds in. Also his worst death scene I've seen.

However, he was pretty creepy in a flashback, featuring that classic menacing PSW smile. So I'll give him that.

14. A Man of Reason (2023)

I wanted to rank this movie lowest purely because of the haircut, but I had to be just. It IS a bad haircut, to be clear. And it's not impossible to make Park Sung-woong look good in long hair (see: A Friend In Need). I guess they wanted to change up his typical cold, clean cut gangster look typified in A New World, but if this is where you were going with it...

Anyway, maybe I could forgive the haircut if PSW's role was actually good in this movie, but instead he's given a few ominous scenes as a gang leader and then one of his underlings basically takes over the plot and he only appears once ever again for the rest of the movie. He Does Not Matter. This is a movie for fans of Jung Woo-sung or Kim Nam-gil; they're both pretty good in it. It is not a movie for a fan of Park Sung-woong.

13. Office (2015)

I'm gonna be real with you: I love this movie! And that's saying something bc it's a slasher and I don't really like slashers. Its real strength is its female protagonist, played by Go Ah-sung. Her workplace problems are relatable and tense, and her involvement in the (somewhat supernatural) killings at the office slowly builds in a very satisfying manner. As a thriller, absolutely recommend.

As a Park Sung-woong movie, though, eh. PSW's character is a cop. He's there to investigate crimes and provide an outsider perspective, but while he's billed as a main character, he doesn't really matter much to the plot. And PSW plays him very straight, little of his signature style coming through. I don't dislike the character but I think pretty much any middle aged man could have acted it equally well. However, good for PSW playing a leading non-villainous role in 2015--at that point he was definitely still fighting the villain typecast (by now, he still does play villains of course but he also has a fair share of protagonist roles under his belt; at this point in his career, less so, at least in cinema).

12. The Tooth and the Nail (2017)

Primarily, Park Sung-woong's role in this movie is as a framing device: he's a prosecuting attorney presenting a complicated case of murder and revenge. He is not at all the main character, but you do still root for him, and he has a lot of smarmy charm. And he's a bit of a deuteragonist in his own way: while the main character fights a battle of revenge in the main plot, PSW drives the action in the courtroom and keeps things from getting boring in parts of the plot that could otherwise come across as drily procedural.

11. The Wild (2023)

Park Sung-woong is actually the lead in this movie. It's just not a good movie.

He's a washed up boxer, previously involved in a gang and now trying to disentangle himself. (But honestly, not trying that hard.) He becomes interested in a woman, a sex worker at a club run by the gang, and tries to protect her. Meanwhile all the gang allegiances become a hot mess.

There are some good fight scenes in this, and there's a LOT of Park Sung-woong to watch. But his character feels a bit wobbly--like, I never totally got what was driving him. Sometimes it would seem to be one thing, sometimes another. Too much weight is put on the romance, which has no chemistry to back it up, and not a lot of logical build up either. Sometimes you feel PSW falling back into his typical gangster style, which for this character doesn't make sense; he's not meant to be deeply entrenched or classy the way most PSW gangsters are.

So I don't love this PSW character. But I did enjoy the movie as an easy watch; it's mostly afterwards that I got frustrated by its flaws and all the missed potential.

10. Tabloid Truth (2014)

Here we have the first of the good PSW villains on this list ;) The majority of this movie follows an idol's manager (played by Kim Kang-woo) looking into who spread poisonous rumors about her through the tabloids before her death. Technically the main antagonist of the movie is a shady politician who masterminded everything. HOWEVER. NO ONE CARES ABOUT THAT GUY. because Park Sung-woong is playing his right hand man, a hitter who threatens, tortures, and kills as needed to keep people quiet and in line for his boss.

Kim Kang-woo and Park Sung-woong have incredible whump chemistry in this movie. Every scene they're in together is tense and menacing. There's finger breaking. There's strangling. It's not too graphic, actually, but PSW definitely comes across as a threat and adds tension to the movie that it otherwise kinda lacks. Some sexy menace. You know.

This movie could rank higher if Park Sung-woong had more screentime. As it is, he dominates through a handful of scenes--I enjoyed watching the movie primarily for him but it's not too high up there on my list of PSW villains.

9. A Friend In Need (2010)

This movie is about a businessman who, in the middle of a midlife crisis, runs into an "old friend" who always used to come save him when he was in trouble when they were kids. Suddenly, the businessman's enemies start turning up dead...

Park Sung-woong, if you hadn't guessed, is the "old friend" (and if you know psychological thrillers, you may guess where that's headed). He is a spooky spooky guy. He's cheerful and friendly, but also commanding and soooo creepy. Also, he has medium-long hair and looks great in it, proving that A Man of Reason HAD NO EXCUSE but I won't go into that right now.

Once again, if PSW had more actual screentime in this movie, it could easily be higher on the list.

8. Ok! Madam (2020)

In this movie, Park Sung-woong plays the husband of a spy (who turns out to be a spy himself). The two are on a train that gets hijacked and have to take down a bunch of enemy agents. It's good action comedy fun.

I do tend to prefer a thriller/ominous PSW to a comedic PSW. However, I also think he can be funnier than this. I always enjoy PSW most in a comedy when he's a little bit understated, maybe even deadpan. This movie is more slapstick and over the top, which I don't think is his strength. However, if you've ever wanted to see PSW play a wife guy, get into fights, and get tied up, it really is a lot of fun.

7. The Deal (2015)

This is the only simple serial killer Park Sung-woong I know of, and he enjoys it. I've seen reviews that say PSW smiled too much in this movie, but I disagree. He has the perfect serial killer smile and he should show it off. He could have smiled the whole movie and that would have been okay with me.

But if you need more than Park Sung-woong smiling in a movie, how about Park Sung-woong Killing People, or Park Sung-woong getting into a fight totally naked in the showers in prison? (I personally think the problem with taking him seriously as a villain in this movie is not the smile but the amount of fanservice.)

6. Live Stream (2023)

After watching The Deal and mostly coming away thirsty, I thought Park Sung-woong couldn't genuinely creep me out anymore. Then I watched Live Stream :(.

Live Stream explores the dark web, focusing on hidden cameras and sexual assault. While there is no actual sexual assault in this movie in the end, it is not a comfortable watch. Park Sung-woong plays a man running a live stream of a sexual assault (which ultimately does not take place, but the movie skates close). It's a movie with a dirty, creepy, tense tone--definitely not for everyone. (If you're interested in watching but want some spoilers to know what to expect, feel free to message me).

Apart from how sheerly creepy Park Sung-woong is in this movie, I have to say it does a good job of maintaining tension with a limited scope. Primarily the movie focuses on just two men, each sitting at a computer screen. And yet, you have to watch it with the sense of watching a train crash; it's not easy to look away. And that speaks to good writing and cinematography, but most of all the acting of both Park Sung-woong and his co-star Park Sun-ho.

I don't think this movie is a fun watch. But it is very well acted.

5. Bear Man (2023)

This movie is so fuckign wholesome and funny. Park Sung-woong plays a dual role of twin bears that have turned into humans, one adopted by friendly scientists and one adopted by a mafia boss who turns him into a human weapon. There's not a ton of plot; it's mostly just a movie of watching Park Sung-woong act kind of like a bear, and that's enough.

Park Sung-woong's characters are both so cute in this movie. The main bear is cheerful and friendly, kind of dumb but gifted with bear strength and super senses. He loves his family and his friends and his neighbors and really just wants to help people out. Meanwhile, the gangster bear has been trained to fight and obey his boss without question, but he obviously just wants love and warmth which he's lacked his whole life. I want to give them the world <3

Remember how I said I preferred more understated comedy for Park Sung-woong? This is more what I meant. It's not actually that understated--there's plenty of physical comedy in PSW catching fish with his hands and teeth, or collapsing into hibernation whenever it's cold. But PSW's characters are fairly grounded; they might be unusual people, and not the smartest, but they act pretty down to earth and even quiet a lot of the time, and PSW doesn't have to over-act to sell the humor of a scene.

It's simply a fun movie.

Okay, ever movie after this point is literally trying to kill me in the effort of ranking them. They're simply excellent movies and Park Sung-woong is killing it.

I've reordered it fifty times. So this ranking is how I feel about them right now, but I can't say it's really that definitive.

They're definitely all worth a watch!

4. New World (2013)

This is it. The role that made Park Sung-woong type cast as a classy gangster forever. I wondered before watching it if it could really be that good. The movie in general is slightly better than average gangster fare. Park Sung-woong in this movie? He is that good.

We're talking sinister smiles, shit talking, palling around with the henchmen, threatening to kill a doctor bc your boss is dead, menacing your rivals even from behind bars, dying serenely with a smile on your face style classy gangster. This is some Good Stuff. He isn't even the main character of this movie. He isn't even in the TOP THREE main characters of this movie. And yet, and yet, and yet.

Personally I wished he was in every scene of the movie and also that he won his gang war but you can't always get what you want, especially in Korean gangster movies. Anyway if you've ever wondered, "Is Park Sung-woong in New World really THAT iconic?", yes. Yes he is.

3. For the Emperor (2014)

For the Emperor is like if someone watched New World and they were like, hey, we love that PSW guy playing a classy mafia boss. What if we took that guy and he was still a gang boss but now he's actually got a secret heart of gold and then we gave him a subordinate to have a complicated, possessive, homoerotic relationship with? And there were lots of knife fights and he got whumped and had to be saved like a damsel in distress?

Obviously this is very much up my alley!

I think as a movie, New World may possibly be better. However, in terms of pure dysfunctional slashiness, For the Emperor takes the cake. It also has way more Park Sung-woong in it, as PSW is one of two main characters.

2. Method (2017)

Some of you may have hoped Method would win the ranking purely for being gay. Some of you may not have known Park Sung-woong was ever in a gay movie. Anyway: Yes! Yes, this is the one and only Park Sung-woong BL and I do love it. Yes, I love it partly for the slashiness and gay kisses etc. But there's so much more to Method than just the fact that it's gay. It's also a psychological thriller, and I love the tension and suspense of the second half of the movie just as much as the mellow, gradually building romance of the first.

And I love Park Sung-woong's character. Don't get me wrong: As a person, he's scum. He's cheating on his wife, and pursuing a significantly younger man with no intention of commitment, a younger man who's kind of his mentee and looks up to him as something of an authority figure. But. It is very hot of him to do that. And he's got his own complexities. He's committed to his art to such an extent that he loses himself in it; he's committed to his art to such an extent that it's going to ruin his life.

Also it's just very satisfying to watch him GET WRECKED oh my god. I've watched this movie... maybe 3 times now? 4? and I know I will be watching it again. It's just such a fuckign ride. You gotta.

1. Daemuga: Sorrow and Joy (2022)

And here we have it, folks: My favorite Park Sung-woong movie is Daemuga.

I don't think a lot of people will agree with me on this choice, if only because I don't think a lot of people have WATCHED Daemuga. It's a movie about three shamans who get entangled with an ambitious gangster. Park Sung-woong for once is not playing the gangster. He's a middle aged shaman whose shamanic abilities have failed him, who has become a drunk and starts the movie in prison. Throughout the movie, he has to regain his spiritual powers and find himself again, struggling to return to the person he once was, a successful and well-known shaman. He also is trying to protect a younger woman from the gangster, who wants something from her she's not able to give.

Daemuga is a FUN movie. It is a thriller too, and has some tense scenes, some action scenes--but mostly, we're watching characters explain who they are and watching them interact and grow. I love the swagger of Park Sung-woong's character. He's a has-been, but at least he HAS been, while he's dealing with two shamans who are new to the world of shamanism and lack experience if not talent. He's sometimes pitiful (and intimidated by the gangster villain) and sometimes full of bravado. Even when cowed, he hangs tight to a core of inner strength, the will to protect and to become someone stronger than he currently is. Also in one scene he wears full face paint. I just simply love him. What more can I say?

If you disagree with this ranking, I'd be curious to hear yours! Also, this summer I combined my movie watching quest with an attempt to write fanfic for as many of these movies as I could. so if you'd be interested in that, here's a link to that series.

I love Park Sung-woong movies <3

#park sung woong #korean movies #kdramas

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runningupthatvecna · 2 years ago

Text

the law of seat partners | part 3

masterlist

a/n: ok this chapter is honestly a wild ride from start to finish, really had to look into google maps to get the geographics right here, sorry if it's a bit inaccurate, the dimensions in the us are a bit difficult to grasp for my european brain lol. same goes for the bus interior and the structure of road houses. also this is gonna be super self-indulgent since i keep picturing eddie as someone with this wholesome, kind and super soft stray dog side of personality that you only get to see once you break through his shell and i'm basically just romanticising the shit out of him in this entire story. also i apologize if the whole part is a bit random, it's just that i didn't plan for this thing to even have more than one part lol. anyway, thanks for reading and please leave me comments and reblogs if you're enjoying this little series! there will be a part 4.

summary: you're still on that damn bus with eddie. he plays you some of his favourite songs and they turn out to sound really familiar. when you do finally arrive at the camp, you find yourself spending even more time with your favourite metalhead and he makes it just a bit more clear that he might really like you back. and yeah, everyone around you already seems to know.

cw/tw: first off i want to clarify that eddie and reader both are at least twenty! slow burn, mutual pining, friends to lovers overall, (brief) allusions to +18 adult content (minors go away!), sexual tension, lots of physical touch, reader being self-conscious, angst, not feeling good enough briefly, a bit of self-sabotage if you squint, a few more pet names, bestfriend!Steve being reader's rock once again, reassurance, eddie not committing a crime, no mention of y/n, no mentions of reader's physical attributes except hair.

-----

Lunch break acted as a reminder that the rest of your friends were also still there.

That's how lost you were getting with Eddie Munson and your legs in his lap.

The gang was once again standing in a kind of circle shaped form outside on the parking lot next to the bus. You had passed Chicago already a while ago and the blue sky hadn't exactly followed you to Wisconsin, but thankfully it wasn't raining either.

Without even thinking about it you had taken the position between Eddie and Steve.

Jonathan and Nancy were standing opposite of you, the former holding his beloved pentax in his hands, it dangling from his shoulder on a strap being the guy's default. Always ready to press the shutter, just so now.

Steve groaned a little, complaining about how his hair just wasn't looking good enough to be in a photo right now, but no one cared. As someone who loved taking photos – probably even more than the Byers boy – it was in fact one of your pet peeves whenever someone complained about having their photo taken. In your book, photos depicted memories. Why wouldn't you want to be in them?

"You gonna fill that film up today, Jon?", you asked with a grin, and the photographer just nodded.

"Alright, now that we caught Steve's mesmerizing beauty on film, anyone wanna go grab a bite?", Robin asked into the round while shifting her weight continuously from her toes to her heels and back, trying her best not to sound too desperate to get something between her teeth.

"Oh shit yeah, I'm dying", Steve replied after a quick yawn and stretch and the three freshmen boys agreed with heavy nods and exclamations of the words yes and finally.

Their boyish eagerness made Nancy chuckle just a little, and she continued by taking the hand of the older Byers boy and pulling him along with her, leading the way to the building for the rest of you.

Jonathan kept turning around every few meters to just take candids of everyone, trying to fill up the roll of film just so he could reload once you guys would arrive at the camp.

Everyone in the gang seemed to be willing to at least check out the offers from the shop, and like, get a slushie or something.

"M'lady?"

Eddie had squinted one of his eyes shut looking at you while holding his arm out for you to hold onto it, just so you both could follow the group.

"Oh, thank you good sir."

He was just a little taller than you, which made walking with your arm hooked into his quite comfortable.

You threw the knowing smile of his towards you right back at him.

And while you were following the rest of your friends, he leaned in to talk to you. Even more.

"Quite rude of Ms Kelley to interrupt our sacred listening session like that. I guess she just doesn't seem to value a good tune, huh?"

"We didn't even start the tape, Eddie."

"But we already had headphones on so we were about to, that still counts."

He poked a finger into your side while walking, trying to stop you from bringing another absolutely valid and logical argument to his silly remark, making you squeak and jump to the side a little instead, letting go of his arm.

You only could see Steve's head turn towards you, having heard your exclamation of surprise. More of his reaction was kept hidden from you though, since Eddie had decided to continue poking, so you were left with no choice but to run, giggling like a toddler.

"Eddieeee, stoooop", you yelled in a higher pitch than your normal voice, trying and failing miserably at the attempt to hide between Robin, Will and Lucas.

You could hear your friends laugh, the sight must have been hilarious.

There was no escaping Eddie the freak Munson.

You had almost reached the motion sensor of the front door when he grabbed you by the waist, pulled your back flush against his front and apparently felt no hesitation encasing you in his arms entirely. He let out a short, low hum at the feeling and it sent a shiver straight through you.

You were slowly getting warm at the frequency you were having physical contact with him, but having so much of his body touching yours in this way did not leave you unaffected in the slightest.

His embrace made your heartbeat speed up, but it also transported this really comforting, almost soothing wave of feeling protected.

And it had you yearning for him. And it was essentially confusing you.

"Say that I'm right", you heard his deep voice mumble, the side of his head pressed lightly against yours.

You could feel the warmth radiating from his body. The way he smelled. The way he held you tight.

Yeah, bye.

"Huh?"

You wanted your voice to sound equally low to his, but it didn't come out quite as such.

"Ms Kelley disrespects the law."

He couldn't be serious.

"Eddieeeeee!", you laughed at his silliness and the great amount of dramatics he put into his persistence with referring to his law of seat partners rule joke thing.

The long haired boy let go of you since the others had caught up. You just saw him grin at you, before Steve swung an arm around his shoulders, pulling his best friend through the sliding doors, while you felt Max grab your hand.

The road house your teachers had decided to stop at consisted of a restaurant, bathrooms of course and a small convenience store, the latter being the destination of Max and you, while the others ventured out into the restaurant, trying to find something warm and edible to stuff themselves with before they would join the both of you.

"Are you having a good time? With him, I mean", Max dropped at you, slowly strolling through the aisles of products that ranged from sweets over car supplies to toothpaste.

The widest grin was plastered over her face as she eyed you curiously.

The question surprised you a little. And maybe you hadn't really been aware of your surroundings for the last few hours, for obvious reasons.

"Hm? Oh yeah, he's being so sweet", you replied to your friend, "not sure what's gotten into him today though, he's never been like this."

Max gave you a questioning look, clearly asking you to elaborate.

"I don't know, I mean he's always throwing arms around me and stuff, but this, I don't know, this feels different", you continued, not being able to meet her eye, "I mean, he's always nice to me when we're around each other, but he seems so much m–"

"He likes you."

Max interrupted your sentence.

"What?"

"It's so fucking obvious. Have you seen the way he looks at you?"

I mean, yeah sure you had taken notice of the way he had been gazing at you with his baby cow eyes all day today. Actually, ever since he met you all those months ago, now that you're thinking about it. But why would you read anything into that?

You felt warmth spreading over your cheeks.

Did Eddie Munson really like you? Like that?

"He's just being nice, Max."

Only now you shot her a look, trying to tell her what you were too self-conscious, even anxious about to say out loud.

Guys never really seemed to see you as someone they could like. You were so used to the vast majority of them treating you as one of their bros, if they even treated you like anything at all, so when there was someone showing interest in you in other ways, it freaked the living hell out of you. To the point of denying yourself something potentially nice. Or more like, someone nice.

"Just nice? He is never that nice to me! I think you're just way too much in your head about this. You know you like him. And he likes you back, it's crystal clear to me, in fact, to all of us."

Wait. All of them? Had he talked to anyone about you?

Now you were the one giving her the questioning look, and before you could say anything, Robin popped up next to the both of you with a pair of wide eyes along with raised eyebrows.

"Okay, what are we buying, hm? I need more cookies, Steve and Jonathan ate all of them already", she informed you, walking off to find her restock of baked sweets, just as quickly as she had appeared.

You giggled lightly at the similarity of her and your snack situation.

Max only gave you a grin and a wink through her sky blue eyes before following Robin to the cookie section. The boys and Nancy returned from their feast not long after and you had tried your best to bring your focus to the task at hand: finding something snackable that wasn't too much of an overload, but also essential for the remaining time on the road.

Steve grabbed and pulled you away from the others on the way outside, back to the bus. The thirty minutes were almost over and no one wanted to risk being left in the middle of nowhere aka Bumfuck, Wisconsin, nor having a search party consisting of Ms Kelley and Mr Clarke out roaming the area.

"Hey there", Steve looked at you while walking by your side and throwing an arm around you.

He truly was your best friend and so you just happened to know everything about each other's lives. He had always been your rock throughout high school and mainly responsible for having you be part of the gang. He knew about your issues and always tried to give you advice.

You let your arm sneak around Steve's back, around the height of his waist.

"Everything alright with you, honey?"

You glanced up at him just nodding and he shot you a knowing look, before turning his head around to wink at someone.

The grin on his face widened before turning his attention back to you.

"Uh yeah, I'm having a good time, thanks for checking on me", you replied to him while holding onto the box of chocolates you had ended up buying.

"Munson treating you right I hope, yeah?", Steve inquired further.

You could feel your heart jump a little at the mention of Eddie's name. What you also could feel was the eyes of the long wavy haired boy on your back. He had run after Dustin who had pinched his ass on the way out and you just assumed they were a bit further behind you and Steve.

"A bit more than usual, yeah. I don't really understand why, though. Max said he likes me? But–"

A little frown now covered Steve's lightly freckled face.

You stopped. He stopped. And kept his arm around you. And then you sighed, when his big brown eyes found yours and the way he looked at you changed into a worried brow furrow.

"I think I'm terrified, Steve. I don't know how to behave around him seriously and I don't know how to handle all the affection. That's all so new and I don't want to disappoint him because he deserves someone who's able to give him everything he wants and he's already making himself vulnerable by letting someone in close like that and what if he's gonna realise that I'm just really weird for not being used to–"

"Hey, hey sweetheart, slow down", Steve put a stop to your little ramble, a soft tone to his voice, "you're overthinking. You like him, isn't that right?"

You just looked up at him, almost a bit teary eyed since you were realising a lot of things at the moment, and dealing with your own insecurities and issues was just not easy. Especially in a situation where you couldn't retreat or flee.

And then you nodded.

Steves frown shifted into a grin.

"Then there's absolutely nothing to worry about. Eddie right there is probably genuinely surprised that you're not shying or running away from him, like everyone else. Just look."

Steve pointed in Eddie's direction which made you turn your head. Next thing you saw was the metalhead chasing after Dustin again, both of them running through the group trying not to bump into anyone, all the way over the expanse of the parking lot like two headless chickens, his dark mane flowing in the wind which carried the laughter and giggles of the whole group over to you.

The sight made you laugh a little.

"I mean, not that he really ever tried to get close to someone, like, he doesn't have to try for people to be sort of intimidated and even scared off by him, but that's besides the point. Anyway, I just know for a fact that you could never disappoint him. I'm very sure he's gonna be fine adapting himself to your pace", Steve explained and then paused to take a deep breath.

"It's up to you of course, but I'd just hate to see you get in your own way just because you're too much in your own pretty, little head."

You had snapped your head around again, and Steve lovingly ruffled your hair a little, the way he always did when he tried to tell you that he'd always be there for you and the situation you'd found yourself in would turn out just fine.

You would be just fine.

Deep down you knew Steve was right.

"Yeah, yeah I know. You know how I can get sometimes", you replied to him, reciprocating the same look Steve was now giving you. The depth in his brown eyes was radiating warmth and it helped you calm down your racing thoughts. Steve had known Eddie for a bit longer and was closer with him in general, which was one of your reasons to believe the words of your best friend. In this moment at least.

-----

It was time for the tape.

You took off your shoes again and pulled your legs up to rest your feet on the barrier, this time right in front of you, facing more towards the window.

The boy next to you was still trying to catch his breath from shaking off some energy, pulling a squished paper bag with greasy spots out of the back pocket of his jeans and placing it on his lap, before he lost the vest and leather jacket. He then proceeded to sit down, take both of your headphones and held yours out to you.

"Alright, unlike Ms Kelley, let's obey the law again, huh?"

He let out a deep chuckle when you nodded with a smile.

"Oh hey, and I got you some extra fries, just in case you get hungry."

He handed the small paper bag to you.

Did he just carry fries in his ass pocket?

The thought made you snort.

Oh Munson.

"Did you pay for them?"

"Yeah of course I did. Is that all you think of me, sweetheart?"

There they were again. His dark brown doe eyes blinking at you all sweet, the purest form of Eddie he was willing to show you in this moment.

He was clearly letting you in. Showing himself to you. Letting you read his eyes, hoping you would take the hint which he secretly was yet too insecure to speak out.

He was the town's freak after all and getting his hopes up had never really turned out too positive for him. It had painfully taught him to better keep everyone at a distance.

It took every little ounce of willpower that you could find in yourself to not melt into a puddle, right there in that seat.

And if that wasn't enough already – him being thoughtful enough to think of you while devouring his own lunch – he pressed play on your walkman, before you could give him any sort of response to the fries situation.

The fact that the opening chords of Everybody Wants To Rule The World by Tears for Fears now filled your ears, your absolute favourite song, was sending you into another dimension.

How did he know your favourite fucking song? Did he ask Steve? He must have asked Steve.

He had asked Steve specifically about your music taste.

So many thoughts were flooding your brain at the same time, you were having trouble catching up.

The boy next to you just grinned at your visibly delighted reaction. And then he leaned in a little and you felt the heat once again rise to your cheeks.

"Is that good, that's a real good song, yeah?", you heard him ask, a very light sultry tone to his voice, after you quickly pushed one of your headphones behind your ear.

"Yes Eddie, immaculate choice right there", you praised him in a similar tone, before giving him a genuine giggle, unable to hide the way he was undeniably making you all flustered and earning another warm chuckle from him in return.

The way his cheeks turned into a beautiful shade of rose almost made your heart combust in your ribcage. At this point he was practically beaming with pride, reveling in the fact that he had elicited praise out of you. And it was the most beautiful thing you had ever seen.

You lightly nudged your shoulder into his, which made him lift his arm, a gesture for you to lean into his figure.

"Come here, you."

That head of yours landed on his shoulder and you let him drape his arm over your torso like a seatbelt. A (still very) warm hand was placed between your waist and hip and you were pretty convinced it was going to burn a big hole right through the fabric of your shirt.

He just had to touch you, right?

His boldness however gave you enough of a confidence boost to return the gesture. At this point you needed to tell him, too. Make him feel the burn on his own skin. So you just hugged his arm, pulling it close and nuzzling the side of your face into the soft fabric of his hellfire shirt covering the skin between bicep and shoulder.

With every song you went on listening to, it became more clear than ever that Eddie Munson must really have gone all the way to Steve Harrington's house to ask him for a list of your favourite songs. Which he could then put on a mixtape. For you.

That's what you do for friends, right?

Yeah, right.

For a few songs you both just sat there in utter peace as you watched the landscape outside the window pass by. The wide plains of Wisconsin, fields of crops, forests, small gatherings of houses, farms, barns and horses and cows and sheep. The sky was slowly losing its light grey cover, which had you anticipating an actually nice sunset later.

He had leaned his head against yours, which made his warm breath trickle down the side of your neck down to your collarbone. And you had felt the goosebumps spread all over your arms underneath your longsleeve.

You were feeding off of the warmth radiating from Eddie's body once again, and the ringed hand on your waist had started rubbing up and down softly and slowly.

When Eddie felt you leaning more of your weight into his side, you could hear him let out a satisfied little sigh.

Every second of this part of your little road trip, whenever he tried to search for some form of physical closeness, felt like a fever dream.

And you didn't want to wake up just yet. How about never?

-----

Golden hour announced itself by coating the trees of the forest, the earthy paths for walking, the accumulation of dark wooden cabins and the water on the vast lake in gradients of yellow and orange.

Said lake would look more like the sea to you, it made little waves that were lightly crashing onto the shore of a small beach of a bay around which the camp was located, and it was so vast in fact that you were unable to see the opposing shore on the horizon.

You had just woken up from another nap which you had slipped into after one, two, you actually don't know how many hours of watching the endless fields and forests pass by through half-closed eyelids. Listening to The Romantics, New Order, Fleetwood Mac, The Cure, Genesis and of course Metallica, on Eddie's account.

Still surrounded by the warmth of his body, still tucked in between torso and arm. His hand however had sneakily breached an invisible barrier, now resting comfortably beneath the hem of your shirt on the skin of your waist. You didn't dare to check, but the hole in your shirt was certainly there now, burned through.

Even Ms Kelley's announcement of your arrival didn't bother any of you to move or shift positions. Or god forbid, separate your bodies.

You only slightly turned your head to watch Mr Clarke leave the bus in the corner of your eye, probably to head into the administration office of the camp with the intention to make your arrival known to the staff and to pick up keys for about 40 students.

From what they had told you pre-trip, you were gonna be sharing a cabin with Nancy, Robin and Max, since the plan foresaw keeping the middle schoolers separate from the older kids. And of course there couldn't be any cabins accommodating groups of mixed genders.

Which is precisely why Eddie was going to share his cabin with Jonathan, Steve and Dustin, while Lucas and Will had the honours to be joined in theirs by Gareth and Jeff.

Before letting you go to take the headphones off and gather all your things, Eddie's grip on your waist tightened a bit as he pulled you minimally closer for just two seconds, the vibration of his chest against your back telling you that he was humming softly.

You already missed him, and you hadn't even left the bus yet.

The structure of the camp was simple. There were ten cabins, each of them intended to accommodate up to four people comfortably. A row of them was spread out along the shore of the lake directly by the water. Another row spread out further towards the forest. Both separated by the same earthy pathway stretching and winding itself through the entire place, connecting the cabins to the rest of the camp. There were little houses with sanitary facilities not too far from the cabins, a little square with lots of seating opportunities intended for bonfires, barbecue and other gatherings, the office house, the beach further down the path past the cabins, and a pergola kinda situation with benches for mealtime and a corner with outdoor couches and further more cozy seating.

The cabin you were designated to spend your next 6 nights in was one of those directly by the water. Excitement spread through you at the thought of falling asleep to the peaceful sound of the lake water lightly hitting the shore at night and cicadas singing their songs after sunset. Frogs croaking and birds chirping away. The ambient background noise of a forest by the lake.

You had always been a dreamer.

"Top one's mine!", Robin exclaimed as she was the first one of you to enter, throwing her bag onto one of the top beds that were part of two bunks standing opposite of each other in each corner, a window with light beige and pastel floral curtains separating them.

You were loving the rustic atmosphere. The log aesthetic gave off the biggest summer cottage vibes, so taking in the interior of your small home for the next few days made you smile.

There were two closets with multiple drawers, enough space for accommodating clothing of four people.

The bag hanging from your shoulder landed on the bed below Robin's, while the other two silently agreed on Max above, Nancy on the same level as you.

The beds themselves were about the standard bunk bed size, nothing too fancy, but of course all wooden, fresh bedsheets folded into a neat pile along with a towel decorating the mattress.

While you were getting to making your bed (you knew that you'd thank yourself later), your mind started wondering if you could fit maybe even two people in there. For science, of course.

All of you had agreed to meet at the fireplace once everyone had dropped off their stuff, and when you and the girls arrived there, six pairs of eyes were already awaiting you.

The boys had probably just messily thrown their belongings onto their respective beds, not giving a flying fuck about pulling the covers over the duvets or maybe even taking power naps after the journey.

So yeah, night number one ended with all of you sitting by the fire that Mr Clarke and some guy from the staff team had set up. Conversations about everyone's most anticipated activities that were planned and scheduled for this week were held, your friends' former earth and science teacher telling stories about his first time field tripping back in the day.

Once again you were sat between Steve and Eddie, the metalhead's leather jacket around your shoulders, because he had insisted you'd take it. A sly grin on his face directed at you at the gesture, before turning his attention to the mutual best friend on your other side.

The younger kids had been tucked in by Ms Kelley already, since their curfew had been set to 9pm. Yours was at eleven.

You admired the multiple strings of fairy lights that had been hung into the lower maze of branches long ago, illuminating the earthy pathways throughout the whole camp to keep the kids from stumbling off into some bush or having to pull out flashlights.

At least until midnight, cause that's when the lights were going to be turned off.

-----

Your first full day at camp. The teachers had taken the whole group to a hike through the forest and up the hill at the end of the bay, overviewing the stunning scenery and you had taken a few moments away from everyone to take in the enormousness of the vision opening up in front of you.

Closing your eyes, you tried to wrap your head around the moment, taking a few deep breaths, feeling the freshness of the air surrounding you.

Slow down.

The sun made the deep blue of the sky reflect on the lake, a shimmer on the surface in the distance, sparse trees and bushes covering the top of the hill you were standing on, a bit separately from most kids.

The light brush of a hand against yours caused you to shoot open your eyes, jumping lightly at the sudden delicate yet profound touch.

"Uh, sorry I didn't mean to sneak up on you. I can also leave again if you want another moment to yourself?", you heard him say, an apologetic tone to his voice.

The rough facade now showed cracks.

Traces of softness, a great amount of empathy and hints of sensitivity were shining through them. He had always been a little more gentle with you than with everyone else in the group, but this telltale sign of trust he was instilling in you over the last hours? That was new.

So new. And so new to you.

Your head turned towards him, eyes squinting a bit because yeah, it was quite bright up there with almost no trees to throw shade, and of course clumsy you had forgotten your sunglasses on the little nightstand next to your bed.

"Eddie no, it's okay" was the only thing you managed to get out, brushing the back of his hand with the back of your index finger, in silent search for more contact, trying to support the words that had just come out of you.

It was just Eddie. You tried to remember Steve's words from lunch break yesterday. He's gonna be okay with adapting.

He turned his back on the sun, more towards you, and the light formed a halo around his head.

Given his reputation back in Hawkins, it looked hilariously absurd.

"Did you have a good first night?", you asked him then, in such a tone indicating your expectation of a sincere answer, while his shadow was covering half your face so you wouldn't have to stare into the late afternoon sun.

"More or less. You know how Steve snores", Eddie said before continuing his dramatic act, "plus, it was really lonely. I think there should be an additional paragraph in the law about an extension from bus seats to beds, you know? I think that would make a real difference and save me from eternal doom and misery."

He returned your previous gesture with his own index finger, his eyes finding yours, giving you a sheepish grin as your cheeks started imitating the colour of very ripe tomatoes.

Your entire body bloomed with electricity from just one light touch. If you didn't know any better, you'd say it was ridiculous.

Yes, there had already been touches that were way more direct than this, but there was something in the way and in the lightness of his touch now, that had your head spinning.

The lightness basically fuelled whatever this thing between the two of you was.

Ms Kelley's voice announcing the beginning of your descend ripped the both of you out of whatever moment you were having right there, and it sucked.

You could have stood there with him for the rest of eternity, if it meant being looked at by his warm, reassuring eyes, making you feel as if you were the center of the universe. It felt like his gaze was reaching the deepest corner of your soul.

And your brain started going 200 kilometers an hour, thinking about the allusion Eddie had just made. He was starting to consume your every thought at this point.

As a collective you managed to return to the deep green veils of the forest around an hour before sunset.

Slowly the day was coming to an end and since it had been a rather warm experience for everyone, the teachers had kindly granted you an evening dip in the lake.

High schoolers only though. Thank fuck.

Honestly, you probably would have gone for it anyway.

The beach included a small wooden pier leading into deeper water, which the boys delightedly acknowledged before using it to gracefully yeet themselves into the cold wet.

They also didn't deem it necessary to strip themselves of their clothes beforehand.

Too much enthusiasm and even more longing for relief from the day's heat and physical efforts. Who knew Michigan could be this warm already in May?

The girls and you had preferred to change into actual swimwear before joining the boys on the beach. A wise decision.

Because now you found yourself standing on the pier together with Nancy and Max, watching Robin follow Steve and dive in head first.

You were silently hoping the water was deep enough for her to not hit her head.

Next thing you saw approaching you on that pier was Eddie, dripping wet everything and soaked to the bone, some worn out jean shorts and dark blue Metallica shirt as well as his dark curls sticking to his skin like glue.

He left a trail of wet footsteps and sprinkles and splashes of water on the dry wood, grinning at you almost eerily and you threw him a similar glance back, because you knew he just wasn't anticipating your abilities to foresee the future when you jumped out of the way the second he started running towards you, trying to pull you into the water with him.

He landed face first, while everyone who had just witnessed that scene bursted into laughter, including you.

"You wish, Munson", you shouted at him and his poorly executed attempt once he had resurfaced, his appearance now reminding you of a wet poodle with his wet dark curls that were sticking to his reddened face, a piece of some green sweetwater plant decorating the top of his head.

You weren't ready to hit the water just yet, which is why Nancy and you decided to just plop down on the pier for a moment with crossed legs, while Max joined Robin and the boys.

Observing the scene happening in front of you, there were Dustin, Lucas and Jonathan, all of them fusioning their powers to swim after a screeching Will who was trying his best to escape being cruelly dunked by his brother and friends, Robin trying to stand on Steve's probably slippery shoulders while Eddie and Max were aiming for the same acrobatic performance.

Nancy next to you let out a chuckle at the sight before turning her head in your direction, "today was so nice, don't you think?"

With a nod you replied to her and leaned back on your arms behind you.

"Yeah it was beautiful! You just don't get those views in Hawkins."

"Yeah, absolutely not. The closest thing you're getting there is Lover's lake with a bunch of drunks fishing in their tiny boats, and that's about it", she paused, "are you in with us for the flower crowns tomorrow?"

Midsummer was still a few weeks away, but that didn't stop you from plucking and braiding.

You and the girls had been having this fantasy of spending this excessive amount of time in nature with flower crowns on your heads, inspired by Scandinavian summer solstice traditions. For weeks you all had been painting this picture in your conversations, anticipation bubbling up every time the topic came up. The picture of the four of you with the flowers of summer in your hair, in the deep green shades and distinct scent of the forest surrounding your every breath these days, had rented a big part of your mind, long before you had stepped on the bus, bringing you here.

"Hm? Oh yeah, definitely."

Losing yourself a little in the thought again, you hadn't yet taken notice of how two figures from the group of people in the water in front of you were missing.

You would learn soon, though.

Because before you knew it, a pair of strong, wet hands hooked themselves in the space of your armpits, lifting you up to stand, while another set of arms wasn't too shy to grab both your legs off the ground, wrapping themselves around your knees.

"Let's get you nice and wet, shall we?", you heard Steve's voice come out behind you in an absurdly husky tone, while–

"Time for your bath, princess!"

Eddie.

You were so taken by surprise, you couldn't even get anything in form of a verbal protest out.

The only thing you saw before your vision went black due to your reflexes was Eddie's mischievous grin between strands of his dark and wet curly mane, Steve's pearly whites being flashed at you equally prominent. Their laughter got muffled by the water invading your ear canals, and the sudden shock of the cold liquid surrounding every inch of your sun warmed skin was forcing a gasp out of your lungs.

When you returned to the surface, both of the boys held onto their bellies, high-fiving one another and still laughing on that pier like two fucking dipshits at you as well as at Nancy who apparently got to suffer the same fate as you, being dropped into the ocean mere seconds later.

With the back of your fingers you wiped the water out of your eyes along with strands of your hair that were clinging onto your cheeks for dear life, while you gathered back clear vision.

Unknowing to the two boys, Jonathan, Lucas and Dustin were currently in the process of sneaking up behind them. With big splashes both Eddie and Steve were forced to ungracefully breach the waves next to you, letting out equally surprised gasps for air before they had to instinctively hold their breaths.

You burst out into another laughing fit when the metalhead slowly appeared next to you just as soaked as half an hour ago, his hair now covering his entire face.

You took one stroke towards him while Jonathan and Dustin landed in the water not too far from you, shortly after being followed by Lucas and Max cannonballing their way in to join everyone.

The laughter and giggles filled the warm air, and you took both your hands to wipe Eddie's mane out of his face, just to reveal his brown chocolate orbs and a dorky smile, gazing at you from underneath.

The ground of the lake where you were finding yourself was close enough for you both to stand on, which made not sinking a lot easier.

"Thanks, sweetheart" was the only thing he brought out before putting a hand on your waist, pulling you closer before wrapping both his arms around your middle, while you responded by wrapping yours around his shoulders.

You thought he was going to bury his face in the crook of your neck with how close he was leaning in just now, connecting his lips to your skin, but all he really did was briefly running his nose over the side of your neck in an upwards motion. Giving you a little nudge while letting out another one of his hums.

It was almost like he wanted to do more than that, it was almost like you could feel him holding himself back. It was almost like you wanted him not to.

His warm breath hit the wet skin on your collarbone and it sent a slight shiver right through your system at the sheer thought of what exactly he was holding back.

And just when you felt him let go of you a bit more, you saw your chance at taking at least a little bit of revenge on him. For conspiring against you with Steve Harrington.

You placed your hands on his shoulders, found purchase on the ground, and your own weight forced him to go head below surface once again.

"Oh darling, that was an unwise decision", was all you heard before he returned the favour, his entire weight on yours as he drowned you beneath him, just before bringing one of his unnecessarily muscular arms around you to pull you back up again swiftly.

Soon after a few more dunks that you practised on Steve and Dustin, your swimming session came to an end when the sun had disappeared behind the trees and the sunset-ish colours of the horizon had faded into several shades of purple and blue.

After fresh showers that helped with rinsing off the lake water and smuck and sweat of the day, the older boys had decided to drop you off at the flower cabin, a nickname for your particular accommodation facility Lucas had come up with during the first bonfire.

To say goodnight or something.

Eddie held you in his grasp, pressed you into his chest for a second, letting you know that you meant something to him, shooting you one last glance, a hint of wistfulness in it, before disappearing surprisingly quickly into the dusk of the forest, towards the cabin he shared with the others.

You hugged Steve and Jonathan goodnight as well, the latter wearing a smirk on his face and you instantly wondered about the reason.

When you looked at your own pillow, you stopped wondering. A polaroid photo had been placed there for decoration, and you let yourself plop down on the mattress to inspect it more closely.

Jonathan had only recently started shooting polaroid in the first place, and the sun had delivered enough light for him to avoid using flash for this one, which had the colours of everything come out more natural.

The photo showed Eddie in his bus seat. You in yours, resting with his arm wrapped around you, his head on yours, both with your headphones on, both passed out. Steve, Dustin, Will and Robin behind you with widened eyes, tongues out and peace signs up.

Unable to hide the smile that spread on your face, you placed the photo on the little nightstand accompanying the bed.

Everyone knew. You knew. Eddie probably knew. But who would say it first?

-----

taglist: @josephfakingquinn, @ghost-proofbaby, @spellbounddd, @imjuststeddietrashatthispoint, @mystars123, @gothmingguk, @kennafild, @chloe-6123, @michaelfuckinglangdon and @bakugouswh0r3

#eddie munson x reader #the law of seat partners #part 3 everyone wow #eddie munson #stranger things fic #eddie munson x fem!reader fluff #eddie munson fluff #stranger things fluff #please be kind #and reblog #and let me know your thoughts #pls #this was a wild ride and took me a lot of nerves #nora writes

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alexihollis · 1 month ago

Text

Same Face (pt. 2)

Part One

*CW: illness/disease, beginnings of epidemic (AIDS), referenced child abuse*

Ajax refused to talk about her sister. This, in and of itself? Not a new development. Not in the slightest. The last time Rembrandt remembered actually having a full conversation about Jade that went beyond the stilted updates that Ajax somehow always got occurred that first night they ran away. After Ajax shoved her into the third subway car of the night and it seemed like they might stay longer, Rembrandt finally asked.

"What about Jade?"

Ajax hesitated. Her eyes darkened and her jaw shifted a bit. "Jade'll be fine."

The words rankled, but Rembrandt was too tired. Too tired, too numb...too bitter. Jade would be fine, after all. Jade was the one who was going to make it out, the whole building knew - the whole block. Clever Jade, mature Jade, sweet Jade, helpful Jade. The Gray sister who could always be counted on to help you to your apartment with your groceries, who tried her best to contain her wild sister and help out her veteran father. Nothing like that tomboy of a sister, the one always getting into fights. Nothing like that other strange slip of a girl, the vandal. Jade graduated with honors, Jade got a scholarship to college.

Jade was worth something. The underlying unlike that sister and her friend went barely unsaid.

Years later, Rembrandt could admit that seventeen-year-old Rembrandt felt a bit bitter at being tossed aside in a way that Jade wasn't, furious at the disparity in treatment between Jade and Ajax. From their father, from the teachers at school - everywhere. Everywhere they went: Jade the Golden Child and Ajax the Fuck Up. Jade was getting out and Ajax would be found in the gutter somewhere.

So after that night, Ajax didn't talk about Jade and Rembrandt never pressed the issue.

Rembrandt did expect Ajax to have a bit more of an opinion when Jade explosively reentered their lives, when Jade suddenly announced she had a girlfriend - Prim, leader of the Snipers up in Washington Heights. That was more than a bit of a surprise, Ajax's goody-two-shoes sister bagging a gang leader, and not even one playing nice with the Riffs' alliance.

Masai let Cleon off the hook for that one, though rumor on the street was that Riffs soldiers kept hanging around the edges of the Heights.

Regardless of rumor or surprise, though, Ajax said nothing. At all. For a solid month. Cleon must have made some secret rule, because even Cowgirl didn't badger Ajax about it.

Then...it started happening.

First, it was in Union Square, after another meeting with the Riffs. They were standing on the platform, Cowgirl complaining about something or another, when a man started yelling.

"Cheerio! Cheerio, wrong platform!"

The only reason Rembrandt even noticed the call was her brain acknowledging that 'Cheerio' was a weird name. Then, suddenly, a man in the wrong colors was checking Ajax's shoulder.

Multiple things happened at once.

The man's eyes widened as if he realized he had made a mistake.

Ajax went to deck the man firmly in the face.

A woman in similar colors - dark green and brown, like camo - pulled the man back in time for Ajax to miss and give Swan enough time to pull Ajax back.

"Ajax, stop!" Swan barked, before Cleon had even registered what was happening.

"The fuck? He just-" Ajax reeled on Swan, eyes blazing.

"Sorry! We're sorry, wrong person!" The woman apologized, then looked to Cleon. "Real sorry, Warriors. Reynolds an idiot." Her attention turned to the man, "The clothes didn't give you a fucking clue?!"

"I wasn't looking at her clothes! Goddamnit, Prim's gonna kill us if we don't find her," Reynolds muttered the last bit, shoving his hands in his pockets and looking around the platforms. "You guys see a girl in scrubs? Looks exactly like that one?"

They didn't. Ajax and Jade looked similar, sure, but they looked different, too, enough that it always bothered Rembrandt when people said shit like that.

"No. We haven't," Cleon said. "You make a habit of jumping her, too?"

Reynolds blanched. "Jump-? No! No, we're- Uh-"

"We'll just be getting out of your hair now," The woman smiled thinly, before physically pushing Reynolds away from their crew and up the nearest flight of stairs. As they disappeared, Rembrandt could faintly hear her yelling about him being an absolute nutcase.

"You should've let me deck him," Ajax told Swan.

"Yes. Because getting into a war with the Snipers is exactly what we need right now," Swan deadpanned.

Ajax scowled, but even she couldn't argue that any violence was not in their best interest right now. Not since the Orphans decided to meld with the remnants of the Rogues and wreak havoc in the Bronx, the center of this latest meeting. The leaders hadn't decided what they wanted to do yet, but it was getting tense. And it seemed like this new Orphan crew was trying to form their own alliance with the crews that hadn't agreed with the Riffs.

Like the Snipers.

"What kind of name is Cheerio?" Cowgirl asked after a moment.

"The exact kind of preppy shit she'd go for," Ajax muttered just as their train pulled up.

If any of them were hoping for any more than that, Ajax wasn't giving it to them that day.

Rembrandt truly thought this would be the end of the confusion. After all, Ajax nearly started a fight over it, that had to send a strong message to pay more attention to who you were talking to.

Apparently not.

Because a few weeks later, on one of the rare nights Cowgirl and Cochise convinced them all to go out in Manhattan as opposed to hanging around Coney, it happened again.

Rembrandt and Ajax were taking a break from dancing, leaning against a back wall. Ajax was leaning against the wall, at least, while Rembrandt leant against Ajax, Ajax's arms around her shoulders, hands clasped in front where Rembrandt held them. Rembrandt was laughing at some dumb joke Ajax had whispered in her ear, when, suddenly, someone was there.

"Cheerio, Prim, I was thinking- You are not Prim," the woman, not the same woman as the station, but in the same colors, took a step back. Looked at Ajax. "Wanna explain something?"

"I'm Ajax." Deadpan, but also full of stony violence.

"Ooh, shit, yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. Didn't think Warriors partied in Manhattan," she said. Not leaving.

"We go where we want in Allied territory," Rembrandt said. "Do Snipers?"

The woman's eyes narrowed. "We got a deal for the island, long as we don't cause trouble."

Huh.

Interesting.

Masai hadn't mentioned that before. Free movement outside of one's territory was a big benefit of the alliance, after all.

The woman left not long after that, likely in search of Prim and Jade.

"This is getting annoying," Ajax muttered.

"They'll figure it out," Rembrandt said.

"Maybe if I go find a bow and staple it into her head the way she wore it in high school."

Rembrandt had almost forgotten the bows. Jade started wearing them in high school when she got on the-

"Oh, my God," Rembrandt laughed, not even meaning to, as the realization dawned on her.

"What?" Ajax asked.

"Guess someone found out she used to be a cheerleader," Rembrandt said.

It took Ajax a moment. Then, "No way. There's no fucking way she got her name from that."

"Its either that or the cereal."

"Jesus Christ," but Ajax was chuckling at the thought, too, though she muffled it in Rembrandt's curls as she rested her face on top of Rembrandt's head.

Overall, subway platforms seemed to be the biggest cause of confusion, since trains meant cops and cops meant wearing colors wasn't the best of ideas. It didn't used to be as much of a thing, Cleon didn't have a rule and Ajax rarely took off her vest, but, after Fox, Cleon made her preference clear and even Ajax didn't push it. One time, Ajax stormed off as soon as she heard Jade's new name being yelled, muttering something about getting chips from a kiosk, and it took the woman yelling until reaching the Warriors to realize her mistake.

"Sorry," she winced when she saw Rembrandt. "I swear, Cheerio went this way. Can you tell her that?"

Rembrandt eyed the woman. "Is it just Ajax dealing with this crap or is...Cheerio getting this, too?"

"Oh, uh, hmm," the woman's eyes darted around the gathered Warriors. It wasn't many of them, just Rembrandt, Cowgirl, and Mercy. Cleon, Swan, and Cochise were off with Masai. "Yeah. Kind of."

Rembrandt raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean kind of?"

"I really shouldn't say," the woman said.

"Okay, but now you have to, actually," Cowgirl said. "Girl code and all that."

"...this about the Orphans?" Mercy asked. Caught Rembrandt off-guard, how serious Mercy sounded suddenly.

"Whatchu know about that?" The woman asked, suspicious.

"Mercy. Used to run with them, been keeping tabs on the situation, and one of the old girlfriends was asking me the other day about why the Warriors kept pushing their territory. That it was making it worse," Mercy said. "Said the Snipers might got to war with them."

"...Have you told Cleon about this?" Rembrandt barely heard Cowgirl hiss to Mercy.

"That's what they're doing today," Mercy responded, also quiet.

The Sniper woman sighed, rocked on her feet a bit. "It took us a minute to figure it out and the Orphans won't listen to us. Cheerio keeps getting jumped. They think she's Ajax, colors or no colors."

Oh, shit.

"Also, Prim might be calling you guys to ask if there is anywhere else Ajax is banned, because there was also some bar that Cheerio almost got trespassed from, but that was actually kind of funny," the woman said.

"Where the fuck did Ajax get banned from?!" Mercy looked to Rembrandt.

"A lot of places, don't act surprised," Rembrandt said. Then, to the woman, "Is she okay?"

"Pissed, but alive," the woman shrugged. "More annoyed that Prim keeps making us escort her to and from work, which is why she keeps disappearing on us like an asshole, Cheerio!"

"Stop yelling. I told you I was getting a snack," Cheerio shoved a bag of chips at the woman. Nodded at Rembrandt. "Nice to see you. Ajax said she'll meet you at Coney and not to wait for her. I definitely pissed her off."

"How did you do that in two seconds?" Rembrandt asked, the old annoyance flaring. Cheerio had this way of speaking - like she didn't care about anything, like nothing rattled her, ever, like it was your fault if your feelings were hurt by something she did or said.

"It's Ajax," was Cheerio's only response.

Ajax didn't show up at their apartment until late, late enough that Rembrandt almost pulled on her boots to go back to Cleon's. She hated sleeping in the apartment alone.

"You okay?" Rembrandt asked, sitting on their bed as she watched Ajax change.

Ajax shrugged.

"Did she say something?" Rembrandt asked.

At that, Ajax sighed. Leaned her forehead against the wall. "I know you don't like her."

"I don't not like her," Rembrandt said. "We just...never got along."

Ajax was quiet for a moment. Then, "She said I needed to watch out for myself more."

What? "What does that mean?"

"...she said that I couldn't protect you if I didn't watch out for myself. And that if I wanted to keep you safe, I needed to watch out for myself more than I do."

Damn.

Damn, that was good, if manipulative as fuck. "Why would she say that?"

"Who the fuck knows," Ajax sighed, straightening and pulling her sleep top on over her head. As she moved over to the bed, she continued, "Also, apparently, she keeps getting jumped by people who think she's me, so she also told me to be less of an ass to the Snipers who fuck up."

"I'm still gonna be an ass, you two don't look that alike," Rembrandt grumbled.

"Yeah, yeah," Ajax kissed her forehead. "You've always been creepily good at telling us apart."

Because they were different, Rembrandt wanted to yell, but this was a losing battle.

"You'd think being literally color-coded would be a bit of a fucking hint," Rembrandt snarked instead and Ajax laughed as she turned off the lamp.

That time should have been the warning, though, for the Warriors. Rembrandt would kick herself later, for not taking what Mercy said, what the Sniper woman said, seriously.

The news first came through the radio, from DJ Lynne Penn.

Snipers officially declared war on the Orphans.

Cleon's phone rang, not long after. She closed the kitchen door, so they couldn't hear. When she came out, she looked at Ajax.

"Kitchen," Cleon nodded her head, but Ajax didn't move. "Ajax-"

"Is she dead?" Ajax asked.

No one wondered who she was this time.

"No," Cleon said. "She's hurt, but she's alive." Then, looking out at all of them, "The Snipers want a meeting with us and the Riffs."

"Where?" Swan asked.

"The Heights. They aren't leaving their terf while this shit's going down." Fair enough.

It was a tense ride over to the Snipers and an even more tense walk up to their apartment, flanked by two Sniper soldiers, even with Masai and a few of his crew.

"Prim," Masai greeted when they entered the living room of the apartment.

"Masai. Cleon." For a gang member, Prim was small. Barely two inches taller than Rembrandt. Thin and lanky. Gun to her head, Rembrandt would have said scout or tagger. Not Warlord.

Then again, the confidence she held herself with? The crossed arms and shrewd eyes? It didn't take much to be convinced.

"Sorry to hear about Cheerio," Cleon said. "Orphans say why?"

"Still don't believe that she's not her," Prim jutted her chin at Ajax. "At least, that's what they claim. They want our territory and I believe they think that if Cleon and Ajax had a falling out, then maybe the Warriors might be more willing to come after us as well."

"For fuck's sake, they are so stupid," Mercy muttered under her breath in the way she did when she was questioning her past life choices. Many of these instances revolved around men she had dated and ever wearing Orphan colors.

"So you are asking for our assistance?" Masai asked.

Prim's jaw flexed and she rolled her lips. "I have been considering your earlier proposition.

"How do we know you'll keep your word after we fix this mess?" Cleon asked.

"We don't need you to," Prim said. "We can handle this. But I would appreciate the extra help and had been considering your offer prior to this." She glared, slightly, at Masai, "Which I had also been considering before you decided to threaten to revoke the Island Agreement."

Damn. Cleon hadn't mentioned she'd passed along Rembrandt's scheme to Masai.

"We're trying for peace," Masai said. "It seemed you needed the extra encouragement."

"What's making you hesitate this much anyway? You clearly want in," Cleon said this time. Always the charmer.

"We're the Snipers. I'm not comfortable giving up my crews' guns. Simple as that," Prim shrugged.

...where the fuck did that come from?

"Who said anything about giving up your guns?" Masai asked. At least he also seemed confused.

Prim's brow furrowed. "Isn't that part of it?"

"No." Masai looked pissed. "Why did you think that?"

"Every crew not apart of your...alliance thinks that," Prim said. "Not sure who started it, but it seemed credible. No chrome, right? That first meeting? That we weren't invited to?"

"It wasn't meant to be a slight," Masai said, like he had said it a thousand times already.

"Sure. But we keep our guns?" Prim asked.

"Yes, one hundred percent," Cleon said. "You just can't use them on allies."

"Yeah, no shit. Awesome. Will you help us squish the Orphans, then, or does this have to go in front of some council and I have wait until we've already handled it to hear back from you?"

Masai looked at Cleon, who nodded. "You've got the Riffs and Warriors at the least. You have a plan?"

"I do. Prim is sitting out of this one for now, because she went nuclear," a woman, the one Rembrandt recognized from that first mix up with Reynolds, kicked off the wall she leaned on. "I'm Wren. Number Two."

"Yes, Wren, please take over this situation, that is entirely helpful," Prim drawled in a very familiar, deadpan tone.

"Blegh, just cause Cheerio isn't here does not mean you have to mimic her like a creeper. Anyway, plans are in the kitchen," Wren gestured for them to follow her.

The battle plans were simple enough, set to start the next morning and the Snipers would let them all crash in the Snipers' apartment that night. Cleon made a few calls to get some more soldiers up by morning. Later that night, Ajax found Rembrandt and grabbed her hand, leading her down a hall.

"Where are we going?" Rembrandt asked, confused.

Then, realization when they approached a door. Prim stood outside that door.

"Is she...?" Ajax didn't finish the question.

"Awake. She's fine with seeing you," Prim said, her heavy tone of voice implying how much she did not agree with this. "She's still recovering."

"I just want to check on her."

Prim stared at Ajax for another moment, before sighing and opening the door, letting Ajax and Rembrandt through. She came through as well, closing the door and leaning on it.

It was pretty clear that this room wasn't anyone's bedroom. The walls were bare and the bed was small. A beat-up dresser held pill bottles and med equipment, things Cochise would kill to have access to.

For all the bandages, Cheerio wasn't laying down when they came in, propped up, instead, on the headrest.

"You look like shit," Ajax said.

"Yes, well," Cheerio hissed as she moved slightly, pausing before continuing. "You were always better with your fists."

"Heard this has been happening a lot." This was how they always communicated, for as long as Rembrandt knew them. Pointed statements and barely veiled accusations.

"Here and there," Cheerio hedged with a shrug. Her usual nonchalance didn't work when she winced at every movement, though.

"No one else got hurt, though," Ajax said, eyes darting to Prim, who scowled. "Snipers can't protect their own?"

Oh, Jesus fucking-

"That was my fault," Cheerio interrupted. "Prim, she's pissed at me, okay? You don't have to be here."

"The fuck I don't," Prim looked at Cheerio like she had lost her mind.

"Awesome, this is going to go very well for me. I fucked up, okay? There was a clinic up north that needed a nurse, I volunteered to go after my shift, and I didn't wait for anyone," Cheerio said.

Ajax shook her head. "I don't understand. This has never been a problem before. Now you're running with the Snipers and trying to say you're getting jumped because you look like me?!"

"I was staying in Queens," Cheerio shrugged.

"It also isn't helping that you keep walking into drug dens," Prim said.

"You're what?!" Ajax yelled.

"Oh, not this, again," Cheerio grumbled, tilting her head back against the wall, looking up at the ceiling. "I am going for work."

"How does that have anything to do with you being a nurse?" Ajax demanded. When Cheerio didn't say anything, Ajax turned to Prim. "Do you know anything about this?"

"...yeah," Prim said after a minute. "It's how we met, actually."

That was't ominous at all.

Cheerio rubbed at her face, wincing when she accidentally pulled at the stitched above her eyebrow. "...you guys know anyone who got really sick out of nowhere? Probably a guy, completely healthy one day and then suddenly, death's door, the next? And I mean, literally, death's door, dies out of nowhere?"

And, at first, Rembrandt would say no. She didn't. But then she looked at Ajax and she thought...

Yeah. Yeah, there had been that bouncer at the bar in the Village. The Hurricanes soldier a few months back and his partner not long after - some weird flu, they'd thought.

"Yeah. Why?" Rembrandt asked.

"There's something going on. No clue what yet, but- some sort of...illness," Cheerio shook her head. "A lot of nurses are getting freaked out. They won't treat these patients when they come in, even though the doctors keep saying it's the flu, its pneumonia. It isn't."

"It took out half of the first Snipers," Prim said. "All within a year, but the doctors wouldn't listen. Said that it was some complication of drug-use, which- Okay, fine, some of them used drugs, but some of them were sober besides alcohol. Or pot- pot doesn't fucking kill you like that."

"Why haven't you brought this up to anyone?" Ajax asked.

"I tried, but no one wanted to listen. I'm not Cyrus, I'm not Cleon, no one gave a shit about us until Cheerio came along."

Which...fair enough. The Snipers weren't considered much of anything. Not a threat, not a strong ally.

"And even then, that had everything to do with you apparently pissing off every single gang in Manhattan. And half the bars - thank you, by the way, for those lovely conversations with bar managers and the cops. You beat up a cop?" Cheerio smiled tightly at Ajax. "Why?"

"I didn't know he was a cop," Ajax said. "He was undercover and being an ass-"

"And water's wet, he's a cop."

"When did you suddenly start thinking cops are assholes?" Ajax demanded.

"Excuse me, when did you ever think I liked cops?" Cheerio asked incredulously.

"When you were flirting with them when we were teenagers!"

"To get you and Rembrandt out of jail!" Cheerio exclaimed and, holy shit, Rembrandt never heard her yell like that before. "I'm sorry, did you think dad was going to bail your sorry ass out?"

Rembrandt remembered that. Remembered the times she and Ajax got picked up for spray painting or shop lifting or jumping the turnstiles. They were rarer than the times Ajax would fall behind, distract them and let Rembrandt get home, but they happened. When they did, they typically ended with her and Ajax being led out of holding to Jade in the waiting room. Usually in her cheerleading uniform, smiling and laughing with the cops, twirling the end of her pony tail and promising, "This will never happen again, Officers, I'll keep an eye on them!"

"I didn't ask you to!" Ajax yelled.

"And I didn't ask you to keep dad away from me so I guess we're even!"

Then, it went silent. The two of them staring at each other, breathing heavily and- Huh.

Ajax crossed her arms. Looked at the floor. Shifted her weight between her legs the way she did when she started getting self-conscious. "He just wanted to be mad at anything. You didn't deserve that."

"Yeah. Well. You didn't either."

Ajax barked out a harsh laugh. "Sure."

"I'm serious," Cheerio said. "You didn't. That's why I always got mad at you when you did that shit. You got hurt enough protecting her."

...Ouch.

"Leave Rembrandt out of this," Ajax's words were sharp. Pointed, once more.

"I didn't- Hm." Cheerio's eyes closed and she took a breath, before looking back at Ajax. "I didn't say it was a bad thing. You figured it out anyway."

"Figured what out?"

"That you had a limit. That you couldn't protect her and me and you made a choice."

"You were supposed to leave," Ajax's voice broke on the last word. "You were going to move into the dorms!"

Rembrandt watched realization dawn on Cheerio, though she didn't say anything.

Prim did, after a moment. "She lost her scholarship. Couldn't afford it."

"You lost your scholarship?!" Rembrandt exclaimed.

"I busted my shoulder," Cheerio said. "Doctor said no cheerleading and no cheerleading meant I lost my athletics scholarship and the merit scholarship didn't cover enough to afford the dorms. So I commuted. It wasn't that big of a deal."

"That's not how you described it to me," Prim muttered, under her breath but everyone could hear.

"Thank you, Prim," Cheerio said, sarcasm heavy.

"What do you mean you busted your shoulder?" Ajax asked.

Cheerio shrugged, wincing again. "Dad busted my shoulder."

"When?"

"...About a week after you left." Ajax stared at Cheerio, hard. "When he realized you weren't coming back. He wasn't too happy."

Double ouch. Rembrandt hadn't even thought about how their dad would react to...

Fuck.

"Motherfucker," Ajax swore, scowling at the floor.

"Look, I'm sorry about what I said to you at Cleon's," Cheerio said, looking like she was eating something particularly unpleasant. "I was a bitch. I was tired and I wasn't feeling well and I was really not expecting to run into you. I took it out on you and that wasn't fair."

"I didn't want to leave you," Ajax said.

Which was the first Rembrandt was hearing about this.

Cheerio looked almost ill at her words. "Amber-"

"I didn't, you have to believe me, but I couldn't-" Ajax cut herself off, a choked sound. "I knew that we were going to Coney. Cleon was my only plan and I didn't want you to go through this shit."

"I know. I know, I promise, I'm sorry. I'm really sorry," Cheerio said.

Ajax stared at Cheerio, lost. "So now what?"

"I don't know," Cheerio said.

And it felt like something mending and shattering simultaneously in that moment.

-----------

Listen.

Listen: Cheerio is a fantastic name and I will die on this hill. I made myself laugh so hard with the idea of "what if Ajax had a sister who was a cheerleader in high school" this is for me.

Ajax having a cheerleader twin is so special. to me.

#warriors concept album #fanfic #warriors musical #my writing #ajax the warriors #the warriors fanfic #rembrandt the warriors

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