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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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valentinaagarcia · 1 month ago

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twisted wonderland characters as a fist fight i just witnessed

(chat a fist fight just happened today and it was WILD i just gotta share it with yall)

(poorly written in 2nd pov because "you" is basically what i was doing during the fight and i aint the best at writing ykyk)

----

you were sat on your chair in the middle of the classroom. yes, in the middle.

vargas had decided that today you were gonna discuss questions about muscles etc. which is why you didn't have to run around today like a sweating pig.

"no, like i actually don't have an opinion on it." "yeah sure...." deuce side eyes you while he writes something down on his notes.

you continue discussing about the questions for a while until heard epel screaming in the back row.

you snap your head back and the only thing you see is epel bolting towards floyd, who was grinning.

"you think your so fucking funny, huh?" epel spits as he slaps floyd across the face. floyd's grin immediately disappeared as he stood up from his chair.

epel grabs his shirt and scratches up his chest a bit which made floyd swing his arm back-

-and hit him square on in the face.

epel grunts and lets go of floyd while vargas tries to seperate the two. "quit it!" teach yells with a growl.

vargas quickly grabs floyd's shirt and tries to drag him out of the classroom but epel followed him.

epel grabs floyd's computer and smashes it on his head which made vargas use his arm as a barrier so they'd stop.

"epel out now!" vargas spits and attempts to push epel out of the classroom but said boy growled and punched floyd's stomach.

floyd uses his foot to kick epel out of the classroom but apparently he used to much force or something because epel dropped his pants

(chat this happened.)

when vargas succesfully gets epel out of the classroom he shuts the door behind him and runs after the periwinkle haired boy.

floyd lowers his hands because he had them in a boxing position and straigthens his back while clearing his throat.

"sorry gang." he apologizes and walks back to his seat.

your mouth was covered the entire time and during the fight you kept looking at deuce to see if he was seeing the same thing you were.

ace (who was seated next to floyd) giggles and runs a hand through his hair. he stands up from his seat and walks over to you.

he stands behind your chair, "man! we were just messing around with epel and when i look back at floyd all i see is him swingin at epel!" he snickers.

you look up at him, "bro all i hear is epel screaming and when i look back floyd's punching the shit outta him"

cater looks around the classroom, "guys what do we even do now? should we go to lunch orrr...??"

everyone went to lunch after the fight and the entire day, that fight was the main topic in the entire school.

the end.

jkjk no but deadass that fight was so intense that the entire classroom was quiet and in shock.

i think the funniest part tho was that we had a test right after lunch💀 like a fucking fist fight happens and after that we go eat and then we gotta calculate math

and then after school we gotta stay for practice and "floyd's" on our team so it was kinda awkward

but then again "floyd" can literally not shut the fuck up so he was talking about the fight the entire time

#twisted wonderland #twst #floyd leech #football team #twisted wonderland smau #twisted wonderland x reader #twst x reader #storytelling

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ruvviks · 2 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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angstflavoured · 5 months ago

Note

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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tinyfishtits · 5 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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runningupthatvecna · 2 years ago

Text

the law of seat partners | part 3

part 1 | part 2

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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mirkwoodshewolf · 1 year ago

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Hi, if you’re still doing Doctor Who fanfics, I was wondering if you could please write a silly little 11th Doctor x Platonic!TimeLord reader where they are best friends and have a relationship dynamic like Joey and Frankie from the Basement Yard Podcast.

Like they’re in a dangerous scenario and one of them makes a joke and they both just start laughing. Or when they’re on the TARDIS they’ll be arguing and then one of them says something that reminds them of a song and they both just start singing it. And they use insults and a term of endearment.

I think this would be really fun and silly, but no worries if you don’t want to.

Thanks<3

okay I’m gonna be honest, I have no idea who those guys are but I’ll still do this idea.

Okay so one thing the 11th doctor is the best next to Tennant (yeah I’m biased cause Matt smith is MY doctor).

and yeah being friends with 11’s doctor is a WILD ride!!

yet at the same time you guys just click with one another from the moment you guys meet.

let’s say both of your chaotic energies just mesh together like fish fingers and custard hehehe

and that sometimes can be pretty strange or confusing to others especially when it comes to saving the galaxy

like this one time when you, the doctor and the Ponds got ambushed by the Daleks.

“Resistance is futile. Prepare to be exterminated!”

“Damn and I think I left the stove on in the Tardis.” You say.

at that comment 11 couldn’t help but say.

”how many times does this make? The fourth? The fifth?”

”lucky number seven actually my friend. But you’ve forgotten plenty of times. Remember when you thought a grease fire could be extinguished with water?”

“And you could’ve told me that?”

after briefly glaring at one another you both start to laugh.

“What is all this?” Proclaimed one of the daleks.

”it’s better you go with it” Amy said.

There was also another time with some space pirates that had taken a town hostage for their crops and money (real bugs life type situation)

they had you and the gang in cages along with the villagers and the pirate captain was going on a villainous monologue of how he was superior than these foolish villagers.

"With the subordination of these meek-little farmers, soon the entire galaxy will know my name! BLAZER THE WRATHFUL!!!" the pirates soon uproared in celebration, but soon a loud laugh overcame that.

It was your laughter.

"Something funny monkey!?"

"I'm sorry, I-I'm sorry my dude, did you say your name is Blazer-fury?"

"Yes!"

"So do you--shoot blazers out of wrath?" you ask.

"Enough out of you! Or we'll kill you first!"

But you couldn't help but snicker under your breath. The Captain turns back to you demanding what's funny.

"I'm sorry. My guy I am soo sorry. I just keep thinking to myself of how every morning you standing in front of them mirror saying to yourself, 'You know what would be a real kick-ass name! BLAZER THE WRATHFUL!!' HAHAHAHAH! That's how I hear you in my head. Remember Doc like that movie?!"

"Which one? You mean the Dinosaur one? Ahh I remember when we got to have those dinos on a space ship. That was a fun time."

"No, no, no Doctor you know the one with the talking Raccoon."

"Oh yeah. Huh? Art imitates life."

"RIGHT!?!? HEY! HEY CAP! What was your second choice gonna be? BLAZER THE SCROTUM HEAD!?"

At your comment, you had his entire crew laughing when Blazer the wrathful puleld you against the bars, his sword to your neck as he sneered.

"That's it wench! You die now!"

"Well, dying would certainly be better than living in a galaxy where a misogynistic moron who thinks Blazer the Wrathful is a kickass name." you said bluntly before using your taser gun that River gave you the last time you both met.

In the end, you all saved the village and defeated the piarates.

Overall, when it comes to being you and the Doctor, you better watch out cause there's bound to be some chaos, mischief, and a bit of eye-rolling due to their chaotic energy together.

"Hey Doc! Where's the flux-capacitor on SEXY?"

"She doesn't have one of those, this is a TARDIS, not a Delorian."

"Do you think she'd be able to transform into that?"

"No! I like her this way and this way she'll stay."

"Then can you make me a time-machine Delorian?"

"No."

"C'MON DOC!!"

Yeah, chaotic energy at the max.

#doctor who #doctor who x reader #doctor who imagines #11th doctor #11th doctor x reader #1tth doctor x gn reader #doctor who imagine #11th doctor imagine #11th doctor imagines #doctor who fanfic #doctor who fanfiction #11th doctor fanfic #11th doctor fanfiction #pond family #doctor who fandom

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catchyhuh · 1 year ago

Text

RANKED BY HOW SQUEAMISH THEY GET AROUND BLOOD

self explanatory baby let’s get into it. except it’s not totally self explanatory because this accidentally bled (haha get it) into an analysis about how they handle seeing death too. THIS ONE GOT WILD

WARNING!! we’re not going to get like, excessively detailed, but there will be discussions of. you know. death, blood, violence, what happens when human bodies are shot and stabbed and the other grotesque shit that happens to them in this series. stuff like that! we’re going to be getting into it quite a bit so heads up

goemon is easily the LEAST bothered by the sight of blood, or gore in any capacity. not to say he’s fully desensitized to it-- on an objective level, it bothers him, like it would anybody, to see some undeserving living creature torn up like that. but his method of. you know. HANDLING PROBLEMS is a little bit messier than a gunshot from afar, so he got used to grizzly sights pretty quickly, ones that he himself was responsible for or otherwise. you could show goemon some absolutely horrific, mangled shit, and his expression would hardly change. he’s not very proud of that fact but i guess in that sense it’s the one thing in his training that really, REALLY 100% never fails to pay off.

the only reason jigen is SLIGHTLY more bothered by it (just slightly) is because he usually only sees uh. gunshot wounds, like we said, whereas when goemon is done with some monster of the week or whatever THAT guy looks like he fell into a person-sized papershredder. unfortunately he. is a LITTLE desensitized to bullet wounds, not in a malicious way, but it just does not bother him like it should since he sees it so, SO much. goemon can easily place himself in the shoes of a bloody victim, but jigen just sees a dead body as. a body. THIS ONE IS REALLY GRUESOME NOW THAT I’M WRITING IT I’M GONNA GO BACK AND ADJUST THAT TW

and again, fujiko is only SLIGHTLY above jigen here, too. the only difference is that she, like goemon, sees the human behind the meat a bit too much, and certain sights are just a bit too much. jigen shuts down entirely, but fujiko stares with quiet shock. however, she’s never bothered by the result of her OWN carnage, you know? sometimes jigen or goemon take down a particular guy and they go “damn… rest in peace, sorry bastard” BUT NOT FUJIKO LMAOOO fujiko does not misfire. fujiko does not regret a single knife thrown, a single bullet shot. so the visual results of that mean like, nothing to her. idiot had it coming!

you’re probably picking up that these are very faint increments here, AND WE’RE NOT STOPPING BECAUSE LUPIN ALSO IS ONLY SLIGHTLY MORE SENSITIVE THAN FUJIKO HERE like fujiko he does not hesitate killing a motherfucker if he has to, but (you may have noticed this in canon too) he always feels a bit… weird about it. even if the opposition 100% had it coming, and then some, it’s not the act of their rightful death that bothers him, but the fact HE had to be the one to do it, that there is (literally sometimes) blood on his hands. out of the gang he’s always been the most staunchly anti-murder, to the point anyone can tell lupin’s alleged involvement in a crime is a lie if there are any murder victims, where the others… have never tried to say they’d never take a human life IT’S NOT FUNNY BUT. IT’S A BIT FUNNY. THE GUY LEADING THESE VIOLENT CRIMINALS DRAWS THE LINE AT MURDER sorry we’re getting off topic a smidge. the point is, lupin is the type of guy who kills only through necessity but also faints when he gets his blood drawn just because the sight of his OWN blood is so gross ew!

and then the most abnormal normal guy! everybody say hi zenigata! it’s no question that he’s got the lowest murder count, (i feel like, not counting manga stuff, he’s maybe indirectly killed two people max?) and also tends to be the most (reasonably) sensitive about horrible shit like this. it’s not that he’s some weak link who faints when somebody’s arm is broken so badly the bone is sticking out, like no question he could stare down some shit you and i would easily be (AGAIN, REASONABLY) horrified and left in shock by. it’s just that in comparison to the others and the others alone, he would be the only one to be visibly alarmed and pale upon seeing a body left mutilated and twisted to the point it doesn’t look human anymore. but yeah based on rule of funny he’d ALSO faint when you draw his blood. or he would if the needle could get through his impossibly thick skin. what’s this motherfucker made of honestly

#i dont know what possessed me here this just. appeared on my screen before me. i mean it's really not THAT bad #but just coming out of the blue. hm. probably needs a warning!#lupin iii #lupin the third #lupin #jigen #fujiko #goemon #zenigata

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valyrra · 6 months ago

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Ok. I have the need to explain myself due to the recent ask because I like to over-analyze and kinda am just an otherthinker.

TW: rape/suicide/hate/trauma/mental disorders/vent/selfharm/LONG post

TLDR: Morally bad things in fiction should and always will be existing. And you shouldn't tell people to kill themselves - you never know what consequences will be. If you think taking one's REAL life is good who's the villain then? ;)

Why I think fictional(!) rape is better (as a concept) than sending someone words like "you should kill yourself" in REAL life.

To anon: You don't actually can change my mind about this one. I think I've already gotten messages like this and still to anon - godbless you or whatever you believe in. I hope you won't ever be experiencing any of the trauma or just bad things in general. have a good day, sweetheart.

I didn't get to what character you referred to but I'm gonna take my guesses: Micah Bell, Thragg or Homelander perhaps? (with Micah I don't actually think it was stated in-game that he raped someone? if I'm wrong you are free to send me sources, but I think he just said that he threatened girls from the gang with a gun into fucking them but they still didn't/he let them go?)

Rape is bad :) That's it. There's no in-between. Killing is bad. There a lot of things that are bad and morally wrong. What's IMO justifying these things in fiction:

It's fiction. It isn't real

If it's written well - it can be a great story-moving point.

If you are closing your eyes to these problems you are delusional? This is a MORALLY WRONG concept - you SHOULD think about this. You SHOULD think it's morally wrong. Villains should get you icks. They give me icks. Most do.

Not writing morally wrong doings of a villain is your opinion. But idk who can you write that way.

I'm gonna talk about the Invincible comic book for a bit. Here's Thragg. Here's Anissa. I'm sorry but do you often see female r*pists in fiction? I don't think so. Does it make you hate her? Yes. Does it makes you think bad about female r*pists? Yes. Is this problem in society is talked about less in general? Yes. Is this raising the opinions? Yes. Is it going to make ME hate the character from the writing point of view? No. You do you. I like Anissa as a character, not based on her doings, but based on her writing. Same goes to A LOT of characters I like.

LOL remembered this vid about fictional violence:

youtube

Opinion about writing/Micah Bell:

I love him honestly. The first time I played the game I didn't put much thought into his character, but second playthrough is what made me appreciate the whole storytelling of the game from the writing position. Micah is an exceptionally amazing antagonist from his Man VS God conflict to the Fathers and Sons narrative that haunts him until his death.

People who write "WELL I THINK MICAH SHOULDNT HAVE EXISTED" I am afraid, didn't get his character. What the fuck did you expect? A wild west story without good written villains? Flowers? Happy endings? Dude, please drop your rose-colored spectacles. You got the amazing storytelling, great DEEP characters and yet you are complaining. You know probably you should hate Micah. Your choice. Probably I'm digging too deep, but I have analyzed this character too much to hate him now.

He's traumatized from childhood and isn't sympathetic to anyone, even himself. Dude's too deep in shit and I feel pity for him. I wouldn't be able to fix him, no one would. And I feel sympathy for most people in this position.

I love Micah Bell's philosophy in life. It's very much twisted but there are a lot of things that my overthinking mind is channeling fucking strength from.

"Listen. What will be - will be. Ain't nothing a feller can do about it. Ain't no one changing nothing. I've got all kinds of crazy in me - ain't nothing I can do about it. Ain't my fault - ain't no one's fault. Just live your goddamn life and when its time - go out shooting!"

Dude isn't making himself a victim. I love that. He gets that the world isn't a happy place, yet he's not going down without a fight :) Very good anti-suicide quote in my opinion ngl.

Man I don't even write bad things here I think...? I mean like about Micah for sure. Yeah, I ship him with my RDR OC just because like... I like his writing, I support women's wrongs IN FICTION. In my own story that won't ever elaborate on Lyra will get even pregnant from him because I think I'd like a certainly strong female character that fucks with a bad bad guy out of spite/he didn't rape her and she like kills and shoots and stabs people while being a woman and pregnant in that historic moment because that for sure would be fun. (plus I want also to integrate another OC Eva in the story which will kinda struggle to live a morally right life despite her both parents are crazy)

You aren't bad for liking bad characters:

Mental health // Here goes the thing that contradicts my own opinion internally // my psyche:

I'm pretty open about my mental health. I'm open about a very stigmatized disorders like for example BPD. There's this thing I never got properly diagnosed with and its OCD. Kinda a self-diagnosed thing is like I "get stuck" on some intrusive things. And this shit is what I struggle with daily. Usually yeah, they are violent but only towards myself (sometimes not violent at all). I have cut myself because I liked Bi-Han (Sub-Zero). You don't know how much time I spent hating myself for getting fixated on morally bad characters. I NEVER blame or shame or would threaten or bully a person for liking a bad character, I do this to myself only. Maybe it's more of a sexual thing? You know how my sweet mutual (@ l3vi4than)'s banner says: "My taste in men is a form of selfharm". With some characters - it's pretty much the case. Like with Thragg mostly I think or whatever idk. Homelander or Adam Smasher. Man, I am a certified monster fucker from like 13 years old when my brain went like: "Hello, Alex Mercer is sexy af with and without his armor ability".

Unfortunately - my brain is very bad and makes me thing I'm the worst human on Earth. But still kinda there are worse kinks than this? I think I've read somewhere that like a very big percentage of women like CNC even if they are feminists / against rape and etc. Well I'm not sure where I was going with that but like even having a kink doesn't make you a bad person? Who tf am I harming except for my own mind?

A lot of reassurance from my mutuals in tumblr helped honestly. I am grateful for people reassuring me that like all human beings I am still deserving of love even if I FIXATE ON certain characters.

fyi:

Research has shown approximately 70 percent of people with borderline personality disorder will attempt suicide at least once in their lifetimes. About 10 percent complete the act. This suicide rate is higher than any other psychiatric disorder and the general population. You never know what people are going through. Don't push people. Suicide isn't a joke. Right now I'm in a right place of mind where I can even write long posts like these but things change quickly. Yesterday while playing DBD I encountered a very cute and friendly Wraith player who is suicidal. In gaming it's kinda cool to be immoral like wishing people to kill themselves especially in session games like idk Dota2,CS,LoL,Valorant,Overwatch etc (these are the games I've played which were kinda toxic). And I was a toxic gamer myself when I was younger. Wrote nasty things, but kinda grew up and realised that this shit is harmful af.

Sorry for this long post just kinda had to get some things out of my mind.

Have a good day and don't be like anon. Feel free if you want to contradict any shit I wrote I'm open for opinions.

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chirpingfromthebox · 6 months ago

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My favorite bits from Minnesota's post-game press interviews after PWHL Finals Game 3

You can find the entire interview here! Be sure to give them some views/likes/nice comments/etc., because her channel is great and the support it gets means the more people who will find it.

At the table were Michela Cava, Taylor Heise, and coach Ken Klee.

Transcriptions and some of my thoughts under the break.

[p.s. did you know that on computer, if you press "J", then Tumblr will automatically skip you to the next post? Something to consider if you get bored of my ramblings after expanding.]

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[The gang all come up to the table while having an odd conversation.]

KEN KLEE: Sorry, we were just having a little side bar there.

REPORTER: Can you elaborate on the sidebar?

KK: Apparently we had a ponytail holder break. And then they said, “Coach, she can’t go, ‘cause she broke her ponytail.” And I said, “I played with Chris Simon. His hair was flying everywhere. She’ll be fine. She can get through a couple shifts.”

TAYLOR HEISE: So our athletic trainer gave her hers. So, she’s a team player.

KK: Our trainer came to save the day. Which was huge. She didn’t have to miss a shift.

[I will include a picture I found of Chris Simon here for those of you who are like me and don't know what he looks like and want some context to Klee's reference:

In other news, I don't think I've ever heard anyone say the words "pony-tail holder" before? I buzz my head 'cause I'm lazy like that. People with hair, is that a common term? Growing up I've only ever heard people say "hair ties" for the general term.]

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REPORTER: For Michela and Taylor, you’ve obviously scored and assisted for each other, is that something you’re working on, obviously, in practice? It’s quite the series.

TAYLOR HEISE: I just think we both think pretty similarly. I don’t think we’re always in the same place, but we’re always looking for one another. You know, Kendall [Coyne Schofield] makes it easy too. All three of us roll off what we’re doing. And we do talk things out a lot. I’m someone that likes to talk a lot and Cava does too and I think it’s fun for us to roll through things. You’re not always gonna have time to practice in actual practice when you’re playing this many games. So I just think we have trust in each other and know where we’re gonna be at.

MICHELA CAVA: Yeah. I’d say the same thing as her. We kinda feed off each other. And we give each other positive energy on the bench and stuff. And always talk out plays. And every time we come off we always have something for each other to be better. I think that’s the most important thing with our line. Everybody goes and everyone’s supporting each other. It’s been a lot of fun so far.

KEN KLEE: I would say, high hockey IQ. That’s why they’re good.

[I have no evidence for this, but I have a suspicion that the reason I tend to see Heise at these press sessions more than Captain Coyne Schofield is because KCS is incredibly direct in her interviews. Delightfully succinct. Which I would love from a Captain, but would probably hate as a journalist. For an example of this check out this brilliant moment from the post-game session after Finals game 1.]

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REPORTER: For Cava and Heise, can you speak to the emotions of getting to play in front of an electric crowd like that?

MICHELA CAVA: Yeah, I think, obviously, it’s great. It’s a change for a lot of us to have so many people supporting our games. And the fans definitely elevate your energy levels when you’re feeling a little down after a shift. The crowd has just been phenomenal here all season for us. And I would say a big way to help us get these wins when you’re feeling tired. And it’s been a long playoffs so far. So yeah, they’re amazing and we love them.

TAYLOR HEISE: I think it comes full circle for me. Like, going to Wild games as a kid and kind of wanting that? And knowing that wasn’t a possibility at the time. But knowing that such an electric atmosphere of playoff hockey is something that’s special. It holds a special place in my heart, and I know in our entire team’s. Even after they scored with that 1 second left. You wouldn’t have been able to tell that. Like, in the 2nd period, we came off the ice and the fans were electric. And to have them on our side is definitely a one-up that any other team that comes into this building can’t find and can’t have.

R: And just to follow-up, Michela, what happens to your game in the playoffs? And Taylor can you speak to that as well? Of how well Michela’s been playing.

TH: I’ll start. I’ll take that one.

She has a lot of confidence in her play and what she does. And not to say that the beginning of the year that wasn’t a thing, because we both have gone through ups and downs this entire year. We’ve had some injuries, we’ve been through the losing streak, we’ve been in the gutter, we’ve been feeling bad. But I think, at the end of the day great players step up in great moments. And this is definitely one of those. She sees the ice really well. Clearly she put two defenders in a blender in her move. Just getting her the puck and knowing that she has that confidence. And sometimes it just takes getting that puck in one time for you to change your game. And I know that’s happened to me, but you know, she’s a great hockey player. She’s got all that, like coach said, all the IQ in the world to make it happen.

MC: Yeah, [points to Heise] that was really nice.

[Everyone laughs]

KEN KLEE: What she said.

MC: I don’t really know how to add to that.

TH: Retweet!

MC: Playoffs is do or die. Obviously it’s a super fun experience to win a championship and obviously this is gonna be the first one. Basically just do everything you can, use all the skill you have, use all the energy you have, and leave it all out there. Kinda what I try to do every single game.

TH: And she’s won a championship too! So let’s put that out there.

MC: Couple.

TH: Couple. [gives an impressed ‘Whooo!’]

[see what I mean? Journalists have gotta love Heise. She gives them so much material to work with for their stories.

Transcribers, however? Well, she certainly ups the difficulty rating, I’ll tell ya that.]

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REPORTER: Michela, you know, you and Taylor are obviously scoring a lot of big goals in the post season right now. Can you just speak to some of the little things that Kendall Coyne has been doing on your line? Particularly on the goal you scored. She’s driving the net, she’s taking Tapani’s attention.

MICHELA CAVA: Exactly.

R: What does she do to make things more open for you guys?

MC: I mean, people can’t keep up with her speed. So she’s definitely driving on the rush, she’s driving players. Usually that goes unnoticed. But when you play on a line, like, obviously a lot of times you guys are asking about us, but she could be sitting here too. Because she’s creating the opportunities. And she sees the ice really well too. Obviously we’re both- like, Heise’s a little bit taller than us, but we’re both very small, but I mean, she had 5 or 6 hits today. She’s playing so physical and so strong. Definitely a lot of credit to her too. And she’s definitely taking their players out of the play for us as well.

R: Ken, can I maybe just follow-up and get your thoughts on Kendall?

KEN KLEE: Sure. I mean, she’s awesome. She’s one of the fastest players in the world. When she’s on the ice the other team knows it. Just her speed alone creates large holes in the other team’s defense. Because she such speed they all, they either over back check or the D have to give her respect, which creates a lot of room for these two guys to be able to make plays in. She’s hunting pucks, she’s on it. She’s just going a great job. I think all three of them together are playing really well.

[I really like this exchange, because I think they really get at the heart of what makes KCS such a powerhouse of a player to me. If you just look at goals and assists she doesn’t have the highest in the league, but take a look at her +/-. She had the second highest in the league during the regular season for a reason. Part of why she’s one of my favorites is because of the way she makes an impact every time she hits the ice. Like, damn, she just seems like she’d be a nightmare to play against.]

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REPORTER: Taylor, Michela touched on it a little bit, but have you allowed yourself to think about, it is one win away, it’s the first inaugural season, what it might mean or feel like to win the first championship?

TAYLOR HEISE: Yeah, not really. I mean, obviously it’s gonna be a special moment, but it’s like, kind of thinking about what my next first shift is next- uh, next game. Thinking about the whole game: it starts with one shift. Obviously we came out and scored in the first shift. Cava came and had a great forecheck, got the puck to the net, Kendall drove to the net, and I was just there and was able to shoot. Those are moments you want to think about for the future, wanna think about for next game. So, no, I haven’t thought about what it’s gonna feel like, ‘cause I want it to be a feeling, that like, when it happens? I want it to be electric and I want it to be something that I haven’t had time to think about. So I guess that and just coming out hard next game. We’re just so thrilled to be in the position we are and hopefully we won’t have to go back to Boston. That’s what our goal is.

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REPORTER: This could be for either Michela, Taylor, or Ken, really. I think Sydney Brodt’s goal will prove to be the game winner in this one. Considering her injury and the rehab in the early season, what does that goal from that player mean to this team?

KEN KLEE: Well, I can speak for us. It’s huge. It’s awesome to have a player like that who’s rehabbing the whole year basically, I mean, she had, I think, one game before the break. And then, you know, came into the team when we were not playing our best hockey. But she stuck with it. She’s been at the gym every day, at rehab every day, working hard. I know that her teammates see it and they know how hard she’s working. I know that she wants to contribute. In some of the other games she wasn’t getting many shifts, so for an opportunity for her to step up? I think it’s a huge boost for our whole team.

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[End of Interviews]

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What follows is a just a lot of me thinking out loud and at length. And what and the hell do I know? Continue into the maelstrom at your own peril.

The reporters were asking much more interesting and thoughtful questions here than they did to the Boston team. And I know that it's easier to go in depth on things with the winning team, but still. I think a knowledgeable reporter can do a hell of a lot better than the standard "What are you gonna do better next time?"s and "Why do you think you got beat?"s they're always throwing out there.

Minnesota seems really confident here, which I love. And crucially, I got the feeling like they were confident, but not cocky. I like Heise's answer about them not thinking about winning the championship, they just wanna focus on how they can win the next game.

Of all the teams in the league I think Minnesota is the one who benefits the most from this format of playing the same team multiple times.

Nicole Hensley said in her interview after Game 2 that they're all used to a more one-and-done format when in comes to playoffs/finals games. And as we've seen, in that format Minnesota would have lost the championship to Boston. In fact, they never would have gotten to Boston, because they would have lost to Toronto.

But they've shown themselves to be highly adaptable. On that note they are the only team in the post season who was willing to try a different goalie. It's gotta be annoying to play against a team who's willing to mix things up like that!

Look at Game 1. Both teams playing out of their minds. Minnesota barely loses. And instead of saying, "Well, we were so close! Let's just do that again and maybe it'll go better this time." They decided, "hey, our offense is doing great, but Boston they seem to have a read on Rooney's style right now, let's mix things up defensively."

(speaking of which, no shade to Frankel, but guess who's been in net for Boston during 2 of Boston's wins against Minnesota? That's right! Emma Söderberg. And I suspect Boston itself thought Söderberg had a good defense to Minnesota's style, because they put her against them in their final regular season game against them too. But after Frankel went full raid boss against Montreal, there was no way they were swapping her out. And that's exactly my point of why Minnesota has got to be annoying for being so willing and able to make moves like that.)

[as I've said before I will always advocate for swapping goalies around, because I'm selfish and want to see them all more. And every goalie has a different style. AND wouldn't you want to try and match their styles to the offensive style of your opponents?]

Anways, when Minnesota is at their worst seems to be when they lose confidence and start trying to do the same thing again and again, trying to force it to work. But when they start to get confident they'll come at you every which way they can until they find that in.

But you can never count Boston out, because Boston seems to be unfamiliar with the word quit.

And as long as Boston doesn't let the stakes get to them, they are definitely a team that you have to respect. When they're on their game? The second you underestimate them, they'll come for your throat.

So will Minnesota get cocky and let their win streak go to their heads? Will Boston let the looming risk of losing the championship get in the way of playing their best? Will both teams bring everything they have and leave it all on the ice?

Here's hoping that whatever happens on Sunday, it's a game to remember.

#pwhl #pwhl minnesota #michela cava #taylor heise #ken klee #pwhl transcriptions

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agent-oo-z · 2 months ago

Note

What's a fun fact about any of your OCs 👀 (a scar, an instrument they play, something they got up to in their youth, etc.?)

Oh ok this is actually like. The perfect opportunity to drop some teasers for my BG3 fic So Full Of Love I Could Barely Eat!

So my Tav, Atavia, is a weird character. She’s got a whole lot going on and while writing the fic she’s changed massively. It’s been really fun! But a lot of the “lore” I originally came up with for her no longer really works, so I’ve been kinda debating making a sort of “update” post about her. I’m gonna kinda do that with your ask(sorry lol).

As far as scars go, Atavia is covered in the tiny mostly invisible scars people tend to get from just being alive, but they’re all pretty faded from being outdoors and in the sun so much. The two most prominent scars she has are the ones on her face! The one on her left temple and the one over the right side of her mouth. These scars came from her falling out of a fruit tree while picking fruit, at the very start of her time as a ranger. She managed to make her own very basic healing salve, and while it wasn’t like a proper magic thing it worked and kept the scrapes from getting infected. She’s actually kinda proud of the scars because they’re a reminder of her first “proper” ranger moment to her.

As for musical instruments! I decided that because you have to play Art Cullagh’s lute to get him to wake up, that Atavia isn’t a proper musician but that she used to play instruments as a kid so she has enough familiarity to pull it off. She mostly played to get money/be a distraction while she was bouncing around street kid gangs, and because of that she quickly burned out on playing. I like to think post game she ends up picking up music as a hobby, and maybe Art Cullagh like. Gives her his lute in his will or something.

When she was a kid, after her parents died and while she was with the kid gangs, she would befriend rats and pigeons and things by giving them bits of whatever food she could scrounge up. Atavia always felt a kinship with animals and while she didn’t know how to communicate with them via spells yet she still enjoyed spending time with them. It’s part of what got her to leave the gate and try living in the wilds instead. Because everyone around her treated her weirdly for being kind to rats and she didn’t want to be around people like that, on top of her general discomfort with the way the kid gangs would steal from everyone and anyone.

Finally, just a little fun tidbit! Atavia has a major sweet tooth. She loves treats and pastries and candies, and when the party finally gets to the gate I fully believe she ends up befriending the chefs at the elfsong(and local bakers/candy makers) because in between dealing with the absolute she makes stops to purchase little treats for herself and the party. She’s always extremely polite, and super grateful, so the various people she’s buying from like her as a customer. Plus she’s always got the energy of a kid whose parents told them they can pick one thing to get, but it can be anything in the store, and she’s super interested in learning about all the treats and how they’re made. Then after the final battle she checks in on the shops and their owners before leaving the gate, and while some of they probably died just probability wise, most of them are ok enough. Just the fact that she checks in on “regular people” is a huge part of why she gets remembered and made into a sort of figure of legend a la “the heroes of Baldur’s Gate”

#ani rambles #ani’s bg3 adventures #bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #baldurs gate 3 #ani plays games #bg3 spoilers #bg3 atavia tav #bg3 tav #ani got asked

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rosybetta · 8 months ago

Note

Who’s your DnD character? And, did you defeat a dragon with the power of friendship??

I'M SO GLAD YOU ASKED

Okay so when I say "defeat", it was more like "she surrendered", but a win is a win!! I'll get to that in a second -

This is Pip! Short for Piperre, she's my houndfolk glamour bard!! I'm in the process of redrawing her to suit my current art style, so this is the best art I have of her right now lol. She's just a little ouppy that plays the harmonica and the banjo and I ADORE HERRRRRR.

Her backstory is a bit convoluted, but the major highlights are: She was kidnapped from her clan as a pup and sold to some drow royalty, where she was trained as an entertainer/handmaid/servant for the princess (yikes). She escaped with a gang of orc thieves who raided the drow castle. She acted as their "distraction" getaway person for a while, until she inevitably got caught while distracting the city watch, so she ended up in jail.

I'll put the rest under the cut bc I got kinda carried away lol

That's where this new campaign picks up! I'm a bit busier than the other players, so my character needed to be able to disappear occasionally. So I worked with the DM and we landed on this... While in jail, Pip was visited by "The Jester", the main antagonist(????) of our campaign (I think?? It's confusing). He offered to free her and set her up with a secure comfortable life far away from the people looking for her... she just had to agree to complete tasks for him on occasion. When she made the deal, she was told it would be "nothing that would weigh on your conscience", but it turns out that she just has no memory of what happens. Long story short, when the rest of the party meets her, she's an entertainer at the local inn, and disappears some nights, waking up in odd places with unexplained scrapes and bruises. But she's not gonna let that get her down!

Buncha other stuff happens that I can't easily summarize, but anyway. The green dragon stuff!! Long story short, we've found ourselves in an underground fighting competition thing, essentially a dungeon crawl where each room is another fight closer to the exit. This is the opening "qualifier" match, so we're allowed to pick our opponents, and Pip obviously chooses to face off against the other bard in the lineup. What ensues is a brief but spectacular...

BATTLE OF THE BARDS!!

Pip pulls some showstopping bardic ability shit and the crowd goes WILD, her opponent forfeits the match, and she's doing a victory lap around the ring with the rest of the party, when one of the competition organizers approaches her. Essentially, this woman "collects unique talent", and was very impressed by Pip's performance. Pip politely declines because "I don't do residencies, sorry! ^-^", and the woman is like "Oh, I Wasn't Asking". And that was the end of the session for the night.

SOOO before next session, we brainstorm a plan. Essentially, we challenge the green dragon to a fight using the terms of the competition - not to the death, but each party wagers something of equal value if they lose. We wager one of ours, for one of hers. (We suspected she was holding a beloved NPC hostage.)

She accepts, and the battle begins! Predictably, it's a TOUGH fight, but she's not in FULL dragon form, just partially-tranformed, so it's a bit easier. The turning point is when our aaracokra monk, who is kinda the glue holding our party together, gets targeted. He had just dealt some serious damage to her (thanks to my bardic buffs), but left himself vulnerable in the process. The dragon goes in for the kill, delivering a wicked slash that sends him across the ring, unconscious.

He's making death saves now. This is bad.

The dragon moves in for a killing blow, BUT that gives the rest of us a chance to make an opportunity attack against her! We had some really ulucky rolls, which we explain narratively by saying we're all in utter shock at our friend being taken down like that.

And then it's Pip's turn. She turns and makes eye contact with our aasimar paladin. The paladin nods. Pip turns back to the dragon, snarling. They've NEVER seen her this angry; it transforms her whole demeanor. That's her FRIEND, and she is ABSOLUTELY FURIOUS.

Now, some background here: When Pip first met the party, her nightly disappearances were linked to some bad shit that the rest of the party was there to investigate. There was a lot of suspicion initially, but once they filled her in on what had been happening, Pip was wracked with guilt, and swore she never knew she was a part of it all. The aaracokra monk was one of the last to put aside his distrust, but once he did, he became one of her strongest supporters. He ALWAYS had her back, assuring her that he wouldn't let anything take away her freedom again, even if they didn't know what was causing her disappearances (and apparently crimes). He was the first to run out into the ring to celebrate with her when she won the battle of the bards! He means A LOT to Pip.

So when he's taken down by the green dragon, our little supportive healer switches into fucking Attack Mode. And uhh I could just describe what I did mechanically, but it's more fun to make it a whole dramatic scene.

Pip plays the banjo, right? Well, I decided she can probably pull some bard magic bullshit to make it sound however she wants... Mostly so I could justify using a certain song for what she does next. Imagine the opening notes of this song in the following moments. >:)

She strums a sinister chord, then raises her banjo up as if it was a bow, pulling back a glowing magical bowstring. As she fires, an arc of magic shoots across the ring like an arrow. And in that split second, a deafening, discordant screech thunders from within the dragon's ribcage, shaking the earth, shattering nearby rocks, raising a cloud of dust in the air. The dragon's scales rattle, bones crack, muscles shudder as this wave of pure sound thunders all around her.

Pip cast the strongest spell she knows at the highest level she possibly could, dealing enough damage to send the dragon to her knees. This buys our paladin just enough time to slip past her and heal our monk, stabilizing him. But before the dragon can fully recover, the paladin is back on the offensive, going ALL OUT, sword blazing with divine fire, body radiating light in a way I can only describe as Going Nuclear. She tears through the dragon's wing, and that was the final nail in the coffin.

The dragon, grounded and badly hurt, cries out, "I yield!" Our monk rises to his feet and looks down at her, tired but triumphant.

And THAT, my friend, is how we defeated a green dragon with the power of friendship and incredible violence.

#SORRY THIS IS SO FUCKING LONG LMFAO #I WASN'T LYING WHEN I SAID THIS IS MY CURRENT OBSESSION #I'M CURRENTLY ANIMATING THIS MOMENT BTW

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giggly-squiggily · 2 years ago

Note

imma put in a small bllk senario here ehehe

remember episode 24 where rin was teaching the gang english

rin got angry at bachira for throwing the paper plane at him so tokimitsu had to hold him back but accidentally squeezed rin’s hips while doing so… maybe thats how they found out rin was ticklish there (/•/w/•/)

and then hell broke loose and it just ends up being tickle fight, rin on the loosing end (i can imagine isagi just hiding in the corner being a bystander again ehehhehe)

have a nice day

Aekjajkrjkejkrjkt this is golden! Rin needs to be tickled more often akjlerjkajkrakjr I had to turn it into a fic- that's the laws of Squiggily brain-rot. I hope you like it, friend!

EP. 24 SPOILERS AHEAD: It's nothing wild or major; it's literally based off that hilarious scene, but I'll tag accordingly anyway :)

Cloud 9 (Taglist peeps)

@cupcake-spice13

“I can FLY DAY!” Bachira cheered, his paper airplane soaring across the table and smacking Rin dead on.

That was the last straw, it seemed.

“Screw this! I can’t take it anymore!” A notebook went flying, smacking Bachira in the back of the head as Rin stood in rage, veins pulsing and fist knuckle white. “How long do we have to do this shit- COME HERE!”

“Ah, no! Rin, wait!” Tokimitsu yelped, arms wrapping tightly around Rin’s waist in an effort to keep him from jumping across the table. Aryu was still trying to figure out the whole “Th” noise, wincing when he bit his tongue, as Bachira made a bunch of gibberish in his seat, giggling through the entire thing.

Isagi pulled one earbud out, taking a moment to watch the chaos go down around him. He wasn’t surprised this was the outcome of their lessons. Not with Rin’s short temper and Bachira’s inadvertent way of grinding it down to a nub.

Still- it didn’t make the sight any less entertaining. He paused his audio but kept his headphones in as he watched.

“Rin, calm down! We have to get this right!” Tokimitsu was losing grip and adjusted his hands, one coming to the teal-haired teen’s hip and squeezing. “Ego Sensei will be-”

“GAH!”

Another new development- Isagi felt his eyes widen when Rin’s leg seemed to give out suddenly, sending him back into Tokimitsu. The buffer of the pair yelped as he adjusted once more, preventing any injury. Unfortunately- whatever he did got a similar noise out of Rin and the two hit the deck, a foot kicking the table on the way down and sending homework flying everywhere. Isagi yelped, hands shooting out to stop the table from upsizing onto the remainder of their little group.

“R-Rin! I’m so sorry, did I hurt you?” Tokimitsu squawked pitifully, arms still around the taller boy.

“I’m fine, now get the hell off me!” Rin snapped, trying and failing to pull himself free from the other’s death grip. “I swear to god-nngh!”

“Hold still- you just kicked the table.” Aryu crawled over, dragging a finger up Rin’s foot as he checked for damages. “So not glam- but it’s not broken. It’s gonna hurt for a few days, I'd imagine."

“Whatehever, now let me up- GAH! Rin yelped again, only this time instead of Tokimitsu being the cause, it was Bachira. “What the hell, bob cut?”

“My my, this is interesting~” Bachira cooed, eyes dancing. “Rin-chan, you didn’t yelp because Tokimitsu tickled you, did you?”

To Isagi’s absolute amazement, Rin’s face flushed a pretty pink color. He had yet to witness the other blush at anything before.

“Bachira, I swear to god, I will suffocate you in your sleep tonight-” Rin growled, only to let out a choked laugh when Aryu wiggled a finger against his foot once more. "Stop that!"

“Oh my, what a glam discovery~ Our dear Rin is ticklish?” He shared a look with Bachira, nodding once. “Keep him down, Toki.”

"Okay! Sorry, Rin!"

“NO! No, get the hell away! Stay bahahhahhack!” Rin tried sounding intimidating, but the second Bachira’s fingers attacked his hip, it was over. “Baahhahchira, dohohohohon’t!”

“Hehe! Tickle tickle, Rin~”

Isagi almost dropped his cassette, eyes wide and a faint blush on his cheeks as he listened to Rin laugh. It was bright and rich sounding, contrasting greatly with his usually subdued personality. He was currently in a losing fight between yanking away Tokimitsu’s arms caging him in and slapping at Bachira’s aggressive fingers; his leg kicking helplessly as he tried wiggling away from Aryu’s pinching fingers against his knee.

Isagi had heard a lot of laughs in Blue Lock. Soft muffled giggles from Chigiri to loud booming cackles from Kunigami. Bachira’s gremlin snickers to the high pitched titters of Nagi. All were great to listen to, and Rin’s was right up there.

And holy gods, that smile…

“Wow, Rin-chan! Aren’t you pretty when you smile!” Bachira sang, his thumb pressing against a particularly bad spot that had Rin swearing through his giggle fits. “I bet you love this, huh? Do you like it when I tickle you here? Or here?” He had both hands attacking now, gently massaging the joint between where his leg began and hip ended. That earned him a rather delightful sounding scream. “Ooo, that’s a bad spot, huh?”

‘BAHAHAHHCHIRA, FUHHUHUHUCKING STAHHAHAP IHIHIHIIIHT!” Rin swore, cheeks a deep shade of pink and eyes squeezed shut with mirthful tears. He looked about at his limit, and Isagi felt compelled to say something.

“Now, Bachira, let the man breathe.” Aryu, who must have been thinking the same thing, reached out and gently prodded the younger boy’s ribs. “We still need five people afterall.”

“Aehehe! Oohoohokay-Take THIS!” Bachira cheered, diving forward onto Aryu with flying fingers. They danced along his ribs, and Aryu…

“Oh..you’re not ticklish..” Bachira stopped, sounding a tad bummed at the discovery. Aryu smirked, eyes dangerous.

“Oh no, I am ticklish- just not there. A bold guess though- very glam of you. Now~” Aryu’s long arms were around Bachira in seconds, the smaller teen’s shrieks of laughter quickly came as painted nails drilled into his shoulder blades. “Come on, let’s see how bad it is for you!”

“Bachira! Hang on-” Tokimitsu released an exhausted Rin, scooting towards the pair in an attempt to save their dribbler. “I know where to go! His thighs- Ehehehehehehe!” Tokimitsu didn’t get a chance to finish- Aryu had released one hand to squeeze beneath the muscly player’s ribs, making him shoot up and squeal.

“Another glam guess, but you’re incorrect. Let’s see if either of you can figure it out.” Aryu let out a soft titter as he brought both boys down beneath him, Bachira’s cheeks pink and Tokimitsu laughing helplessly. Isagi pushed a fist against his mouth, shaking with mirth at the sight.

“Gohohod..he’s awful.” Rin groaned, surprising Isagi out of his giggle fit. He looked exhausted, hair messy and ears still bright red. Isagi resisted the urge to muse his hair more and call him cute. “How the hell did you get through Team Z with him pulling that crap?”

“Honestly? Scapegoats.” Isagi nodded, reflecting back on the many times he might have “redirected” Bachira’s attention to a different person in the team. “Didn’t always work of course- when Bachira wants to tickle someone, he’ll do it.”

“Hm…” Rin was quiet, then those pretty eyes of his slid over to Isagi, something curious in his gaze. “So does that mean you’re ticklish?”

“Rin Itoshi.” Isagi turned to him fully, raising his chin. “I am but a mere mortal aiming to be the greatest striker in the world. I have the ability to lie, but I won’t. I am ticklish. HOWEVER!” He cried dramatically, startling the other. “If you dare tickle me, I now have the knowledge that you’re just as bad if not more. If you dare choose to tickle me today, I shall find you in your bed at the wee hours of the night and tickle you until you’re pleading for the Soccer gods to strike you where you stand.” He raised a brow, daring the other to try.

Rin blinked, staring at him. A slight twitch to his lip was the only indication he thought Isagi’s ‘anime protag monologue’ was amusing. “I’ll take my chances.” He decided a second later, and before long, Isagi was flat on his back, squealing and giggling like a child as Rin seeked out all his own tickle spots.

Thanks for reading!

#blue lock #tickle #tickle fic #rin itoshi #aryu jyubei #tokimitsu aoshi #bachira meguru #isagi yoichi #fluff #dorks being dorks #english lessons gone wary #blue lock spoilers #blue lock anime spoilers #blue lock episode 24 spoilers

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