#technically no actual direct mention of breeding but shes still trying anyway | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

carelessannie · 3 years ago

Text

lookin for love (in all the wrong places)

chapter five

Chapter One | Chapter Two | Chapter Three | Chapter Four

In CA:CW Steve kicks Spider-Man in the chest, awakening a soul deep bond and sending Peter into his first heat, before running away to Wakanda.

The soul bond, omegaverse, Spidershield angsty romance everyone needs.

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Peter Parker Chapters: 5/ Chapter word count: 6.5K Fic Rating: E Warnings: mild violence and implied sex trafficking, extreme levels of fluff Read it here on AO3 Title is from this song by Johnny Lee

Steve

The ferry docks in the Åland Islands for a few hours overnight, allowing the two of them to sleep in shifts to be safe. After dinner, they had swept the ship for suspicious persons and bugs, tagging three places around their hallway with ears to keep an eye out for possible threats.

Even with the precautions, Steve feels on edge as they sail in the morning. Neither he nor Natasha get more than a few hours of sleep, and once the sun rises, they decide to spend the rest of the journey on the upper deck. Separating for the duration of the trip, Steve takes the helm while Natasha lounges closer to the stern.

There’s no attack, no threat to be concerned about— so when the ferry docks a few hours later, the two of them are already seated in their car and driving down the off-ramp. Steve takes the wheel first, while Natasha guides him East, following the sun until it sits high in the sky.

They stop at the border to Russia and switch vehicles, easily slipping through as the newly-mated Alpha and Omega couple on their Russian passports.

And if Natasha bats her eyes and gets them a free passage to St. Petersburg, Steve isn’t complaining.

It’s as they’re driving away that Natasha flinches at something one of the border police says under their breath, and Steve raises his eyebrow in question as he steers to merge back onto the highway. If Natasha is showing her reactions, it has to be important.

“They thought…” she pauses, chewing on her lower lip, before starting over, “When they reviewed our documents, they thought you might be my... trophy Alpha.”

“Okay,” Steve says slowly, furrowing his eyebrows, “Is that bad for us?” He doesn’t quite understand what the issue is, or why Natasha might be anxious. The two men— Betas, probably— had given them a suspicious onceover, but otherwise let them travel in peace.

Natasha makes a frustrated noise, “I’m not translating it right. They think you’re my stud— that I brought you in from America or England to… breed.”

Horrified, Steve almost swerves the car off the road. “What— does that happen often?”

“Often enough that they may call it in. It’s not illegal, technically, but if they catch wind of possible trafficking…”

“Oh,” Steve checks the rearview mirror, suddenly all too aware of the surrounding cars and trucks. “What’s our move, Nat? Do you think they’ll actually come after us?”

She shakes her head again, “Best to get to St. Petersburg. We can call Tony from there, and switch out cars. If someone’s on our tail, they’re bound to know where we’re headed anyways. Stark can get us new documents by the time we reach the base.”

“Fine. I assume you know your way around the city?”

“Steve,” Natasha coos, “haven’t I taught you not to ask questions you already know the answer to?”

He shoots her a grin, “Good, then you’re in charge of ditching our ride. I’ll make a few calls.”

“Teamwork makes the dream work,” Natasha murmurs as she reclines in the seat, shifting to give herself a good view of both side mirrors while still seeing clearly out the front windshield. She crosses her feet at the ankle and pulls down the lid of a carefully worn baseball cap. If Steve didn’t know better, he would assume she fell asleep in the passenger seat.

They spend the last two hours of the drive in a tense silence, both of them on high alert. Steve knows from experience that Hydra likes to hide in plain sight— so he scans license plates, calculates distances, and carefully surveys the people in each car, looking for anything out of the ordinary. So far, nothing.

That changes when they enter the city.

Immediately, both of them sit up straighter, scanning the surrounding lanes for a threat.

“Do you—”

“Yes, stay alert,” Natasha hisses. Her hands are digging rapidly through her backpack until they pull out their last international phone. In one swift motion, she destroys it on the dashboard, lowering the window to sprinkle pieces onto the highway, sure to be crushed further by oncoming vehicles.

Steve changes lanes, inching closer to the quickly passing exit ramps. He doesn’t see a suspicious car— no black sedans, no tinted windows— but the feeling of being watched is undeniable.

“Exit here.”

Natasha’s voice is flat, and if Steve wasn’t listening for it, he would have missed the direction. Instead, he steps on the gas and throws the car into the right lane, barely avoiding the traffic cones as he speeds down the single exit ramp.

“Slower,” Natasha is reaching behind him as he merges back into traffic, this time heading West into the heart of the city. “When we get into the city, look for a coffee shop. You’re going to drop me off. Drive around the corner and watch for me— I’ll order you a drink inside and pretend I’m grabbing an item from my car. Instead, you will switch places with me, and sit outdoors drinking what I order. Keep your eyes up, run if you need to. I’ll rendezvous within an hour. Got it?”

“Got it,” Steve confirms, already slowing down as they breach the populated city limits. It isn’t long until he’s pulling up to a small café and Natasha is sauntering down the sidewalk, drawing any nearby attention to herself as he swings the car around back.

Traffic is thick, stifling, and he’s grateful to have the intel portion of this operation. Within five minutes, Natasha is in his rearview mirror, and he steps out of the vehicle to offer her the wheel.

He pulls his own hat lower to shield his face before slipping into the coffee shop, sidestepping immediately and settling into a corner table. There are three other patrons, all scattered throughout the space and engaged in the work in front of them. No threats yet.

“Peter?” a heavily accented voice calls, and Steve has to stop himself from flinching. It’s a common name— he needs to get himself under control. The voice calls out, “Peter?” once more, just as a tall, well-built man strides through the door, walking up the counter and picking up the drink.

The man turns around, “Huh. Didn’t know you were goin’ by Peter these days.”

“Sam,” Steve breathes, meeting his friends’ eyes with a shocked smile. He jumps to his feet and pulls the other man into a hug. It’s shakey— both of them chuckling and holding on tight— but the embrace is warm and feels like home.

“The hell are you doing here?” Steve grabs his arm, steering them both outside and towards the patio. “Not that I’m not grateful to see you, but… how did you find us?”

Sam shoots him a disbelieving look, placing the coffee cup between them before reclining back in his seat, “I got a tip a few days ago— something about Hydra and a base nearby. Stark got me a ride over yesterday and said I could plan on intercepting you here.”

Something in his face turns thoughtful, “You seriously didn’t see Redwing on the way in?”

“Uh,” Steve sorts through the details of their fast paced cut into the city, but can’t remember Sam’s drone being anywhere in sight.

Sam chuckles, “I followed you from the moment you entered the city— c’mon, you can’t tell me you didn’t see him, not with the way you were driving.”

“Dammit, Sam,” Steve curses. “We thought…” and then he laughs, slumping back into the patio chair and scrubbing his face. “You’re an asshole, you know that?”

Sam spreads his arms wide, and gives Steve his widest, most charming smile, “Takes one to know one, Cap.”

There’s a beat of silence as Steve sips his drink— it’s perfect, not that he expected anything less from Natasha. Sam looks good, if not a bit tired. The smile on his face is practiced, and Steve knows it’s more for his sake than anything. They’ve never lied to each other, never had the opportunity to, so if Sam is appearing strained and weary, Steve knows he’s supposed to notice.

“Decide not to take a pardon, then?” Steve hedges, watching as Sam raises an eyebrow in amusement.

“No, Steve,” he looks out into traffic, carefully thoughtful, “it’s been a rough few months since Germany, but Sharon and I have been doing some ground work wherever King T’Challa is willing to send us. There’s a lot of shit going down, and— up until now— the only goal I really had was finding you again.”

A rush of guilt hits Steve in the chest, and he winces, “Look, I’m sorry for leaving you—”

“Hey, no— don’t do that,” Sam dismisses him, waving away the apology with one hand, “I knew you had to go to Wakanda, I had other shit that needed to get done.”

“Still, you deserved a better friend than that.”

Sam laughs, but the sound lacks any real joy, “I think we all deserved better than we got.”

There’s not much to say after, and Steve takes a long pull of his drink, trying discreetly to check his watch. Forty minutes until Natasha returns.

And speaking of, “So where did the Widow herself head off to?” Sam asks, checking his own watch. “Thought I’d catch both of you here.”

“Switching out cars. We assumed Hydra was tracking us into the city,” Steve narrows his eyes across the table, and it makes Sam laugh again.

“Damn, well... can’t say I’m sorry. Stark wanted me to keep a low profile until we crossed paths, and…” Sam sits up taller and leans across the table, forcing Steve to meet his eyes, “he mentioned something about keeping you stable.”

“God dammit—”

“Language.”

“Shut up, Sam,” Steve huffs, scrubbing his face with one hand, “why can’t Tony keep shit to himself.”

“Something I shouldn’t know about?”

Sam’s always been good at coaxing answers out of him, and Steve curses the other Alpha mentally for it. Why does he always attract friends who know him better than he knows himself?

“I found my soulmate, Sam.”

Jerking forward, the other Alpha’s eyes grow wide as his hands come down, hard, on the table. “Shit, Steve. When on earth did you have time—”

“I didn’t, Sam. That’s the thing. Fuck—”

He feels rage flow through his body for the first time in ages, and Steve’s hit with a flash of their bonding moment, marred by fear and devastation from his young Omega. He closes his eyes, remembering the residual pain from each heat. Scared and empty and alone.

There’s a hand on his arm, but Steve shakes it off, “Remember the kid Stark brought to Germany? Spider-man?”

“Sure, Bucky and I fought the kid, and he stuck us to the floor.”

“I fought him, too,” Steve sighs, rolling up the sleeve over his left arm to show the bright red and irritated word etched into his skin, “and I kicked him right in the chest.”

Sam doesn’t reach forward to touch. He barely gives it a glance, reaching over to roll up his own sleeve. Steve has to stop himself from growling in sympathy— the writing is black, smudged and illegible.

“Sam…”

With a sad smile, Sam rolls his shirt back in place, “It was years ago— and we bonded in combat. I got a few years with him on active duty, and then I felt when he was shot out of the sky.”

Sam meets his eyes, “Fucked me up good for a few years.”

“I had no idea.”

“I’m better now, sure. Wouldn’t show you if I wasn’t. Just letting you know, whatever you’re going through with this kid— because obviously you’re not with him now— that you’ve gotta value whatever time you get. In our line of business? I’m grateful I got years instead of moments, you know?”

Something clenches in his chest. Steve feels tears prick his eyes. He has to look away, afraid of the suddenly all too real possibility of crying in public. Quickly, he covers it up with a swig of cooling coffee, letting the emotions wash away alongside the bitter, familiar taste.

“I’ve never even met the kid, Sam. All I know is that he’s an Omega, and he has a strong bond with Tony.” Steve sighs, checking his watch again, “We were supposed to be extracted in Oslo, but got the tip instead. I’ll head home to him after we take care of the threat here.”

He can tell Sam disapproves of this choice, but the other Alpha just shakes his head, nodding to draw Steve’s attention back to the street, “Looks like our ride is here,” he chuckles just as a beat up Jeep swerves across traffic, coming to an abrupt stop in front of them.

The window rolls down, and Natasha makes a show of lowering her sunglasses, “Pickin’ up strays, Rogers?”

Both of them stand and approach the car, and Sam smiles as he takes the backseat, “Good to see you too, Romanoff.”

“I hope you brought your uniform,” she muses, swerving back into traffic once both of them are buckled in, “we’re gonna need all the help we can get.”

---

Peter

I think you’d hate my friends, Alpha. I don’t know, maybe not. I think you’d like that they wanna take care of me, even if they’re both little pieces of shit. I bet a visit from Captain America would shut them up. Or… Are you still Captain America, Steve?

Just as Peter finishes the line, the main cafeteria doors slam open. Both of his friends— MJ and Ned— have their arms in the air, gesturing animatedly.

“There you are!”

It’s as if he summoned them. Damn Spidey-senses, never working when he needs them to.

Peter squirms in his seat, “Hey, guys…” he checks his exits, noting quick escape routes. Sure, he’s never actually needed to run from his friends, but it doesn’t hurt to be prepared. “What’s up?”

Ned scoots into the bench next to him, pressing in close and draping an arm over Peter’s shoulders. MJ takes a seat on Peter’s other side, and both of them give Peter award-winning smiles— terrifying, really. Matching smiles only usually mean one thing.

“Can’t we just hang anymore, Parker?” MJ rolls her eyes, taking a discreet look at the pages in front of Peter on the table.

He quickly closes his notebook, “Sure, sure. I mean, we can hang— we hang all the time,” Peter catches them exchanging a glance, and sighs, “is there something you want? I’m trying to get homework done before practice.”

With a shake to his shoulders, Ned chuckles nervously, “No, no… we’re just looking out— ow!”

Peter looks down. MJ definitely kicked him.

“— I mean, we’re just wondering…”

“You wanna go to a Halloween party, Peter?” MJ cuts in, flicking at Ned’s arm where it’s still draped around his shoulder. Her face is open, fairly honest, and it catches Peter off guard.

“When’s Halloween?” he asks, thankful when Ned pulls his arm back.

The two of them exchange another look, “Uh…” Ned clears his throat, “it’s today, Peter. Today’s Halloween.”

“Oh.” Peter peeks into his folders to check the date on today’s homework, and sure enough, October Thirtyfirst is printed clearly across every page. Huh. He’s usually great at remembering holidays like this. “I wonder why May didn’t say anything…”

“Because,” MJ grabs his backpack, starting to shove notebooks and textbooks back inside, “we asked her to keep it a surprise. And your mom, too. We just didn’t think you were enough of a dumbass to miss the whole holiday.”

“Honestly, Peter, I don’t get how clueless you can be.”

He just nods along, letting the two of them pull him out of the cafeteria and walk towards the carpool lane. Maybe some part of him wanted them to find him today— who knows? Several other, better, hiding spots come to mind, but Peter doesn’t have it in him to protest.

A night off sounds like too much fun.

His mood immediately improves when they step outside. Parked closest to them, dark and intimidating on the curb, is one of Mr. Stark’s cars.

Happy is standing outside, holding the back door open, “Hey, kid. C’mon— haven’t got all day.”

“Oh!” Peter turns to his friends, both of their expressions smug and satisfied, “Please tell me the party’s at the compound? Oh god, I literally have nothing to wear. I have no idea—”

“We’ve got it taken care of,” MJ pushes him from behind, and Ned laughs, motioning for Peter to get in the car first.

“How did you—” Peter slides into the back seat, freezing when he sees who’s waiting for him, “Mama!”

Mr. Stark smiles— wide and genuine— and opens his arms wide. “Hey, kid. Surprise?”

Peter melts into the older Omega’s arms and squirms to get closer, ignoring how his friends laugh and tease him as he does so. Mr. Stark ruffles his hair, and rearranges them as the car starts moving. Ducking under his arm, Peter settles into Mr. Stark’s side and lets his eyes slip shut with the steady movement and noise of chatter in the background.

“You have a good day, Pete?”

He looks up to Mr. Stark and smiles, “It was okay, a lot better now. Did you help plan this?”

“What do you think, bambino? These friends of yours are… passionate.”

The description makes Peter chuckle. He’s fully aware just how passionate his friends can be. They are digging through the amenities stored in hidden compartments, and somehow both end up with a can of soda and several boxes of candy.

Peter ignores them in favor of burying himself into the warmth of Mr. Stark’s scent. There are lazy, calloused fingers in his hair, and he relaxes even more— a pleased purr building effortlessly from his chest.

When they eventually pull up to the compound, Ned and MJ are out in a shot— barreling through the doors and screaming into the empty halls.

Before Peter can leave the car, Mr. Stark grabs his shoulders and turns them to face each other, staring intentionally into his eyes. “If you don’t want to do this, Peter, we don’t have to? I have about fifty people coming over for a costume party, but I can cancel it and we can spend the night just us, if you’d like?”

He takes a moment to actually think it over. His skin is crawling, eyes already heavy with exhaustion. The thought of socializing with more than a few people is turning his stomach, and he looks into Mr. Stark’s eyes with a helpless grimace, “I guess I wouldn’t mind a party…”

“But you’d rather not?” Mr. Stark guesses, giving him a knowing smirk. Peter scrunches up his nose and shakes his head, and gets a chuckle in response, “Alright bambino, let me make a few calls. Why don’t you go inside and coral the animals.”

Peter laughs and leans in to give Mr. Stark a quick peck on the cheek, “Okay, Mama. Don’t work too hard.”

He catches a glimpse of Mr. Stark’s embarrassed flush before hopping out of the car, skipping towards the compound joyfully. Now that the threat of social interaction is out of the way, Peter feels excited about Halloween and the evening ahead of them.

“Ned?” He calls out, “MJ? Where are you guys?”

“Try the Eastern living room, Peter,” Friday’s voice rings out in the hallway, and Peter turns around to race down the corridor in the opposite direction, still calling out their names.

“In here, Pete!” Ned hollers.

When he turns the corner, Peter comes face to face with the classiest Halloween party room he’s ever seen. Every wall is covered in glass decorations, backlit with soft lights in various colors. An entire section of the room has been converted to a wardrobe, and both of his friends are rifling through the options.

Peter gravitates towards them, pushing aside different dresses and masks, “What’s…”

“Look, Pete— I’m you!” MJ has a Spider-man mask pulled down over her face as she laughs, pretending to shoot webs from her wrists, “bet I’d be a kick-ass Spider-man.”

He just shakes his head, “I bet you would, MJ.”

“What about me?”

Both of them turn to look at Ned as he wobbles over, legs and arms shoved haphazardly into the wrong end of a Spider-man onesie. His face is so confident as he stands in the middle of the room, and Peter can’t help the cackle that bursts out of his mouth, bringing tears to his eyes as he keels over in laughter.

“Where did… what did…” he can barely breathe, and looking up again at Ned is just a mistake.

MJ isn’t any better. She tears off the mask and coughs loudly, falling to the floor in a heap, “Ned! Where did you find that?”

“What?” Ned whines, striking a pose that sends them back into a fit of hysterics, “I don’t get how you can fight bad guys in this Peter— I feel too sexy for crime right now.”

“Please!” Peter begs as he wipes away tears, “mercy!”

“What’s all the— oh mother of god,” Mr. Stark’s voice rings out in the room, and it sends all three teenagers back into peels of laughter. He stands at the entrance to the living room with his arms crossed and an indulgent smile stretched across his face, and Peter lets himself roll on the floor and laugh and laugh and laugh.

Peter turns onto his back and lets the tears flow. They drench his cheeks and drip onto the rug, creating small spots on both sides of his head. It feels good— freeing. His next inhale is deep, his mind clears completely, and Peter realizes this is the first time he’s laughed in months. That every time he’s cried in the past few weeks has been full of devastation and sorrow.

Their combined scents slowly fill the room and bind them together as the evening progresses, each of them relaxing further and further into the moment. By the time the sun’s setting, Ms. Potts and Aunt May arrive with delivery, and the small group of them curl up on the couches to watch a Halloween movie.

Mr. Stark and Pepper take the love seat, and— with one last, longing gaze at the small spot in between them— Peter settles into a lump of blankets and pillows on the far end of the longer couch. He keeps a good distance between himself and his friends at the other end, but he can tell that there’s some awkward tension in the room as the movie starts to play.

He tries to ignore it, but Aunt May keeps giving him a look from her seat on a nearby chair.

“What?” he hisses at her, pouting a bit when she smirks.

May points at the loveseat and whispers, “You should sit with them. I know you wanna.”

“Stop!” Peter shakes his head in denial, “I’m not going to—”

“Hey, pup!” Mr. Stark calls from across the room, and Peter flushes. He knows the nickname is aimed at him.

Peter pulls the blankets up around his face, “Yes, Mama?”

There’s a snort from the MJ-Ned-shaped-lump, but it’s ignored. Mr. Stark and Ms. Potts exchange a few hushed words before motioning for him to join them, “Come on over, Peter,” Pepper says with a confident smile, “plenty of room to join us.”

He’s up and out of the seat before he even processes moving.

At different points in his life, Peter has imagined how it might feel to curl up, safe and warm, between his parents. Never, in a million years, did he think he would get to experience that.

But the space between Mr. Stark and Ms. Potts feels like home. Scents like home. It’s sweet and warm in a way Aunt May’s Beta scent has never been. Peter has never scented Ms. Potts up close, but he’s not surprised when her scent has him immediately relaxing, melting back into the couch cushions.

The only Alpha he’s ever been close to is MJ, and her scent is terrifying .

Pepper lifts her arm and gives him a small smile, “You comfortable, Peter?”

Words won’t come, his senses are on overload. He feels a hand on his shoulder as Mr. Stark moves him, turning him bodily to lay across their laps with his feet in Pepper’s lap, head on Mr. Stark’s shoulder.

“Just relax, bambino,” Mr. Stark whispers, scratching at the baby hairs behind Peter’s ear, “we’ve got you.”

He lets his eyes close slowly. Both of them are scent-marking him subtly— squeezing his arms and legs, kissing his hair, and laying a blanket over him sometime later. The movie passes by completely unnoticed, and Peter dozes comfortably.

Why can’t every night be like tonight?

As the thrill of the night is fading away, Peter hears Mr. Stark offer his friends a ride back to the city. The two of them are fading as well, and it doesn’t take much convincing to get them out the door and into a waiting car.

May kisses him on the head before she leaves, “Sure you don’t want me to stay, Pete?”

“M’sure,” he murmurs, blinking up at her lazily, “you have work in the morning, right?”

“Yeah, champ. I do. You okay staying the night here, or do you want to head back with me?”

Peter looks back at Mr. Stark and Ms. Potts with a hopeful smile. Both of them laugh, and Mr. Stark waves his hand dismissively, “You know you’re always wanted here, Pete.”

“By both of us,” Pepper adds, squeezing his leg where her hand is resting.

“Alright, alright, I can take a hint,” May chuckles. She leans in for another kiss and Mr. Stark gets up to walk her out, leaving Peter and Pepper together on the couch.

He looks up at her. Everything about Pepper screams an intimidating mix of composure and warmth. Now that Mr. Stark is gone, he can separate their scents— and something about her distinct Alpha scent has him ducking his head, shy and submissive.

There’s a light touch on his arm, “Don’t hide from me, Peter,” her grin is soft and reassuring, “if you feel uncomfortable with me like this, you don’t have to stay— you know that, right?”

Her eyes are kind and not at all judgemental. He believes her doubtlessly.

“We haven’t spent much time together, have we?” Peter asks, hesitantly.

Pepper shakes her head, strawberry hair sweeping gracefully over her shoulder, “No, I don’t think so. Tony does come home smelling of you often, though.”

“Oh!” Peter sniffs his shirt, grimacing, “sorry about that, he helps me…”

“No, don’t worry, Peter,” she places a hand on his shoulder again, “I just meant that I’m familiar with your scent already. Tony even puts some of your items in our nest— I know he wants me to get used to our scents together.”

“Why… why would he do that?”

“Oh, Peter,” Pepper sighs. She shakes her head and leans back against the cushions, “we’re gone on you Peter. We really want to adopt you… at least informally.”

“She’s right.”

Mr. Stark’s voice is loud in the living room as he makes his way back to the couch. With a little bit of maneuvering, Peter is stuck in between them again, and this time he’s resting against Pepper’s chest. Her arms easily settle next to him on the sofa, aware of his space and cautious not to close him in.

“We have a secret plot to adopt and steal you away, kid,” Mr. Stark smirks and kicks his legs up, sipping on a drink as they settle together. “I just needed to get proper approval beforehand, you know?”

Peter hums, and he knows his own scent has gone sweet in satisfaction. The thought of being adopted— having a mom and dad, Alpha and Omega— is overwhelming.

“You promise?” Peter whispers. Part of him is scared of the possible rejection, even though he knows Mr. Stark rarely lies to him.

“Of course, bambino— whatever you want.”

As they cuddle together on the couch, trading hushed stories and sweet laughter, Peter has a thought.

It’s not the most responsible thought he’s ever had. If Mr. Stark digs too deep, he’ll chalk it up to being a teenager, being emotional, being an Omega.

“Mama?” Peter stares up at Mr. Stark with his best puppy-dog expression, and pouts his bottom lip, “Can I ask a favor?”

“I’m suspicious already, but sure— what is it?”

Pepper chuckles behind him, and Peter reaches down to hold her hand for comfort, “Can you get my letters to Steve?”

With a loud cough, Mr. Stark chokes on his drink and sputters. His hands fly up and wave around frantically, possibly looking for something to anchor him. Peter curls further into the shield of Pepper’s body and lets her deal with the aftermath— patting Mr. Stark’s back and criticizing him for being so dramatic.

“In what—“ Mr. Stark starts, coughing hard, “In what universe would that be a good idea, Peter?”

“I... I didn’t...”

“Actually,” Pepper interrupts, interlacing their fingers together, “I think that might be a good idea.”

Mr. Stark looks betrayed, affronted. Peter turns to smile up at her, “Really? You think so?”

“Once your hormones are stable, why not?” Pepper asks, kicking at Mr. Stark when her Omega makes a disappointed face, “It might be helpful for your Alpha to hear from you.”

“Get his head on straight,” Mr. Stark grumbles. His hands are clenched, and he refuses to look at them.

There’s a beat of silence where Peter just stares at Mr. Stark, hoping for an answer. He knows it’s a big favor to ask— but if anyone can get it done, he knows Tony Stark can.

“Fine.”

---

Hi Steven Grant Rogers, God. Would you make me take your name? I really hate that. Maybe I’ll ask you to take my name instead. Mr. Stark said I could send you one letter every month, and that if you respond, I can have that letter back. I hope you respond. Uh... I’m not sure what else to say. My name is Peter and I’m in high school. I know that makes things hard for you, being old as dirt, but I hope when we meet that it won’t be too awkward. I hope you stay safe. I’m finally on suppressants and doing better than I was before. Your words on my arm barely hurt anymore. Okay. That’s all for now. Yours, Peter Benjamin Parker Oh! PS I’ve sent a little sample of what I scent like. Mama said that you would like that.

Tag list (let me know if you’d like to be added or removed): @purplefreakwolffish @instantsharkskeletonpizza @justslightlycrazy @angelstarker @femmeparker @starkeraddictbaby @starkentrprises @snowstark @sarcastich

#spidershield #lookin for love #lfl #spidershield: lfl #update #fanfic #steve x peter #ao3 fanfic #fluff #found family #no hurt this chapter! yay!#chapter 5 #mcu #rare pair

29 notes · View notes

nelllraiser · 4 years ago

Text

catakitrophe | bex & nell

LOCATION: the vural residence PARTIES: @inbextween & @nelllraiser. SUMMARY: bex arrives to meet nell for ice cream. nell has other plans. CONTAINS: domestic abuse (mention)

Nell, though pushy, was an easy person to get along with. Bex had never imagined she’d make friends with someone who witnessed her destroying-- well, not her, but close enough-- school property, but Nell hadn’t seemed to mind. And she hadn’t told anyone, so that was really good enough for Bex at the moment. She couldn’t deny she was lonely. Her parents tried to control every aspect of her life, including which friends she socialized with, but this somehow felt like something they couldn’t, something they didn’t know about, and Bex liked that idea. She could remember all the times she’s snuck out of the house a teenager, unlocking her locked window, and scaling down two stories. Her knees had always been scraped and bruised, but her parents dismissed it because she “had always been a clumsy child”. And she’d been happy enough to let them believe that.

There were plenty of things Bex was happy to let her parents believe that weren’t true, but having something completely secret was still new. Ever since she’d been outed, she’d felt as if everything she wanted to keep for herself was suddenly bared in front of her. But Nell was, well-- different. No one but them knew about what happened. And so, despite Nell’s pushiness and her insistence that what had happened was magic-- and maybe, just maybe a teeny, tiny eency part of her believed that-- Bex found herself at the other girl’s house, staring up at the arched roof of the cabin like home. It was such a large house, hidden back here partially in the woods, glowing with something almost other-worldly. It took her a minute to raise her fist and knock, stepping back from the door and smoothing the frills of her dress down as she waited. Fixing her hair just as the door opened. “Hi! Hello! I-- I made it! It’s me, Bex. Your house is so big, I sort of didn’t expect it. Am I late?”

Apprehensive was the best way to describe how the week had gone for Nell while she was waiting to take Bex out to ice cream. The initial excitement of meeting a new witch had somewhat quelled in the face of realizing just how badly she could fuck this up. Bex needed guidance, a steady hand to show her the path of magic, and the last time Nell had tried to teach a form of magic hadn’t exactly gone...smoothly. Regan had balked when the witch had tried to teach the banshee how to glamour, panicking when Nell had made her fake wings disappear. Then the door to instruction had been shut, and Nell was determined not to make the same mistake with Bex. Beyond that was the worry that she might be ostracizing Bex by teaching her. Surely the right thing to do would be to hand Bex over to her old coven, and into the hands of witches who’d taught literal generations— Nell being one of them. But it was plain to see that Bex already struggled with control in her life, and Nell couldn’t help but think about how her mother was still on the board the coven, no doubt eager to get her hands on any fresh and young witch that came to learn. That was a fate Nell wouldn’t wish on anyone, so it seemed it was up to her.

Brushing her doubts away, Nell clung to the excitement of seeing Bex again, greeting the girl with an eager wave and smile. “Hey! No! You’re perfect- I just finished feeding Taki, actually. I think he’s excited to meet you.” She’d already instructed the overgrown cat to be on his best behavior, and to do his best not to let loose any fireballs or soot sneezes in the presence of their visiting witch. Nevertheless, she wanted to let Bex get acclimated first before introducing a cat with eyes of fire. “Yeah- technically it’s my sister’s house but we all live here. Both my sisters and me.” Corpsey, Bea’s reanimated corpse, had been carefully hidden away as well amongst other alarmingly magical things, but there was still a healthy air of mysticism around the home as Nell waved Bex inside. “I can show you him before we get going for ice cream if you still wanna see him.”

“You have two sisters?” Bex said, astonished and excited. She’d always wanted a sister-- or even brother. Growing up alone in that big house of her parents’ had been lonely, and all the weight of their expectations had been firmly placed on Bex’s shoulders because of it as well. She glanced around as she stepped inside and looked down at Nell with a smile. “What’s that like? Living with them? Is it nice? Are you parents not in town?” She shuffled around awkwardly for a moment, unsure of what to do with herself, when Nell offered to let her meet Taki. “Oh! Yes! I’d love to! I’d love to meet Taki. I haven’t met many cats before, actually. People mostly have dogs, and my dad never let me have any pets growing up. Or...now.” She cleared her throat, rubbing the back of her head. Why was she nervous? Well, she supposed she was sort of always anxious. She stood behind Nell and waited for her to show them off to her cat, unable to help the nerves bubbling in her stomach.

“Yeah! There’s Bea and Luce. They’re both older than me. I think they’re out somewhere right now, though.” To be honest, Nell had specifically chosen a time that she’d known her sisters wouldn’t be present for, wanting to have Bex all to herself for the moment being. “It’s fine living with each other. I mean obviously we fight sometimes, but it’s also nice not having to tiptoe around them like you might have to do with a normal roommate. And I can get into their closets whenever I want,” Nell finished with a grin. She was built smaller than her two sisters, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t find ways to make their garments work if she really wanted to wear something of theirs. Magic was also good for temporarily resizing things if need be anyway.

The question about her parents made Nell internally wince, and she did her best to hide the tenseness that claimed her shoulders for a split second. “No, they live in White Crest. I was born here and grew up here, too.” There went Bex anxiously babbling again, but it was precious in a way that endeared Nell to her. “Don’t worry, I have a feeling Taki’s gonna like you. I’ll get him now for you.” Then she was calling the cat in a singsong voice mostly for Bex’s benefit. Normally she would have simply tugged on their mental bond to let him know he was needed, but with Bex present she was currently employing a strategy of ‘the less magic, the better’. Almost instantly, a black cat that had absolutely no right being as large as he was came down the stairs of the home, tail high in the air in a cat greeting. In truth he was an Ovinikk, a Shiba Inu sized beast, and Nell’s familiar...but Bex certainly didn’t need to know that. “Bex, this is Taki,” Nell said as she bent down to give Taki a pet. “And Taki- this is Bex.” The Ovinikk looked up at the new witch with a slow blink before settling himself on his back haunches, tail swishing curiously while he waited for Bex to make the first move.

“I always wanted a sibling,” Bex admitted, sighing fondly as Nell explained her living situation with them.It sort of sounded like an impossible dream-- living with people you didn’t have to tiptoe around. Not that Bex wasn’t grateful for all her parents had done for her, but she was finding it increasingly more difficult to hide her true self away from them. She felt...suffocated. Her throat dried up at the thought and she had to swallow hard to make it go away, concentrating back on Nell and the situation at hand. “You were? I was born here, too! And I guess technically I grew up here, but I went to a boarding school and even when I was here during the summers and holidays, my parents didn’t really let me off the grounds, so I only went into town on weekends with them or my nanny.” She realized she was rambling again and cleared her throat, giving an apologetic shrug.

“Sorry. Right. Yes! I’m ready to meet him!” She kept her eyes on Nell, trying not to be too nosy by looking around the house, but finding herself unable to quell her curiosity. The place had so many plants and art and objects hung on the walls, it was like something out of the ‘New Age Home Decor’ magazines her mom scoffed at. It was definitely a home someone who claimed to be a ‘witch’ would live in. It made Bex wonder if Nell’s sisters were also ‘witches’. But before she could think on it more, Nell was introducing her cat and Bex turned to look-- and almost jumped out of her skin, taking a large step backwards when she saw the massive black cat and its burning eyes. Wait, were they actually on fire?? A pot next to the door shattered as Bex inhaled sharply. “His-- I’m-- I’m sorry. He’s so-- big. How is he so big?” She looked at the shattered pot, then to Nell. “Are you-- is he okay? What’s wrong with his eyes?”

“Well- let me know when you’re really craving one, and you can borrow one of mine in a heartbeat. Especially if it’s when they’re annoying me,” Nell quipped with a crooked grin, her words easy. Plus it wouldn’t hurt for Bex to have more contact with witches in her future. “Really? How long were you at boarding school? That’s probably why I don’t remember you from public school or anything,” Nell mused aloud, vaguely wondering if Bex’s parents knew more about the girl’s magical prowess than she’d originally thought. Maybe that was why they’d sent the girl far away? “Sorry- I know he’s big.” The pot shattered and Nell barely flinched, though she did let a momentary grimace slip through her expression. This was only further proof that Bex was wound far too tight, a literal ticking time bomb just waiting to explode. She needed to learn how to harness her emotions before something more troublesome than a pot or computer exploded.

“It’s alright! It’s just a pot.” Her hands were open palmed and stretched in Bex’s direction, as if she were trying to make sure a skittish and wild animal would stay calm. “It’s his breed- they’re all big like that.” It wasn’t exactly a lie. “He’s perfectly happy! He’s just a very special cat.” The end of Nell’s words had a hint of a coo to them, always enjoying complimenting her familiar. Taki enjoyed it too, his whiskers twitching intelligently as he preened under his witch’s pride. “His eyes are another trait of his breed- that’s all.” Nell gave Taki a meaningful look, as if willing him to appear as non-threatening as possible. Their bond rang true as the Ovinikk flopped heavily onto his side, exposing a fluffy stomach to the pair of them. “You can pet him if you want.” The pot was still broken in the corner, and Nell wondered if this might be her chance to dip Bex into the world of magic that wasn't just breaking and destruction. “You know...you can fix the pot- if you want. It’s not hard, and it won’t hurt or anything.”

Bex stayed in her corner for a hot minute, observing the cat, and taking in Nell’s words. There were a lot of really strange animals in the world, it made sense that there were giant cats. Her eyes stayed trained on the large creature as it flopped over and slowly, she unfurled herself from the corner and took a step closer, glancing between Nell and the large cat. He looked so soft and fluffy, like velvet fur. She could remember digging her hands into a big, fluffy dog’s fur she’d met as a child once, and not wanting to let go. Only losing her grip when her mother pried her from the poor dog. “What um--” she felt her voice wavering and had to swallow again, staring wide-eyed at Taki. “What b-breed is he?” She was trying her best to stay calm, she didn’t want another pot to explode-- not that it was her doing or anything, of course it wasn’t! It was just the tension in the room, a total coincidence-- and possibly freak out the cat, or Nell. Slowly, she made her way over and bent down, still a fair distance from him, reaching out her hand to pet his back. “He’s so soft…” It almost felt strange, but if she didn’t look at his strange, glowing eyes, or the rest of his large, maned body, she could pretend he was a regular cat. Her eyes drifted back up to Nell. “I went to boarding school my whole life, until University,” she finally answered, not wanting to look back at the cat in case she had another freak out. Hands shaking, she stood back up and smoothed them down the front of her pants. “Fix the-- but I didn’t-- that’s not-- do you mean like with glue or something?”

Nell paused a moment before answering Bex’s question, realizing she was going to have to make a decision on exactly how truthful she was going to be when it came to the more magical things in her life. But the girl seemed to accept the explanation of a different breed, so perhaps Nell could test the limits a little. “He’s an Ovinikk,” Nell replied carefully, wondering if the other girl had ever heard a name such as that in her life. A part of her felt as if Bex might go home to Google it, and be apprehensive about the myths and legends she’d find. If she did, the best Nell could hope for was that Bex wouldn’t think she was insane, and still be willing to come back and learn. “He really likes his ears scratched,” she offered with a small smile, happy to see her familiar and Bex getting along. Taki stretched as Bex pet him, basking in the attention he was receiving. Initially, he hadn’t been too happy to learn of another human coming along and stealing away his witch’s attention, but if she kept petting him...perhaps she could stay. “Not with glue,” Nell began delicately, desperate not to scare off Bex. “But...fixing it like the computers were fixed. And the same way they got broken.” Maybe if she kept names out of this, it would all be a little less scary and detached— and easier to accept and explore.

“Ovinikk?” Bex repeated, raising a brow. She’d never heard of that breed before, but she hadn’t heard of a lot of breeds before. So she took the explanation at face value, and decided to look into it later. Because there was probably something weird about this breed that could be explained online, like why its eyes looked like they were on fire. She glanced back over at Nell as she bent down once again to scratch Taki’s ears as instructed. He seemed to be liking the attention, and she felt herself relaxing a little the longer she pet him. Her eyes fell on the shattered pieces of the pot as Nell started to explain. Without taking her eyes off, she tensed up a bit. “That-- that’s not possible,” she said quietly, still not looking up at Nell or down at Taki. Kept her eyes trained on the shattered remains. Could she really mend instead of break? Was that even possible? All she’d ever done her entire life was ruin and destroy. Was she really able to fix anything? “...Is it?”

“Mhm,” Nell hummed her confirmation, trying not to linger too long on the foreign name. Hopefully Bex wouldn’t think it too strange. “That’s him.” While Bex scratched at his ears, Taki began to purr, apparently already reconsidering his bitterness of no longer being an only child if the new witch was going to give him this much attention. As Bex’s hope began to blossom before Nell’s very eyes, a stab of sympathy ran through the summoner. It was like watching a dying man chancing upon an oasis in the middle of a desert he’d been crawling for longer than he could remember, already having given up hope that he might ever find refuge. “It is possible,” Nell continued gently, still well aware that Bex was an unpredictable creature, and easily startled. “I could show you if you want. Putting them back together isn’t as easy as breaking things, but it’s definitely doable.” That just seemed to be the way of life, and magic followed a similar course. And a small pot would be the perfect place to start— small and simple.

Bex paused her petting to look up at Nell, well aware of the pot still broken across the room. She didn’t want to admit that it had broken because of her, but it was becoming harder and harder to deny that all the strange things that happened around her were because of her. Hadn’t that been why her parents were so desperate to send her away? Strange things happened in White Crest, especially around her. Whatever it was, it wasn’t normal, and all they ever wanted was a normal child, a normal daughter. She couldn’t give them either of those things, though, could she? Slowly, she stood back up. “And you...can show me how?” she asked quietly, almost shamefully. She was tired of breaking everything-- of breaking herself, her life, her parents’ trust. She wanted to mend something. She wanted control of something in her life. Even if it wasn’t something she wanted or understood or even believed.

“I can show you how, and teach you how to do it yourself. It’s not like riding a bike or something, though. It takes focus and determination. But it’s also just as simple as wanting something, and letting yourself have it.” Nell forced herself to stop talking, worried she might lose Bex at any moment with all her hippy witchy talk. Thankfully she’d at least had a blink of experience with speaking to someone who waslearning magic later in life as opposed to being reared on it in the form of Winston. Unfortunately on the opposite hand Nell didn't have the luxury of Bex believing in magic as her childhood friend did. Nell edged closer to where the pot had broken before sitting herself in front of it, patting the floor alongside her as an invitation to Bex. “Come sit with me, and we can get you fixing things in no time.” Looking up at the girl, Nell began her first line of questioning. “So when things...break- how do you feel leading up to it?”

Wanting something and letting herself have it. Now there was something Bex knew absolutely nothing about. Because the one time she’d given in to letting herself have what she wanted, her business had been blasted around the school publicly and her parents had found out and it had been probably one of the worst days of her life. Still, she stuttered forward towards where Nell patted the ground, glancing back at Taki once, and finding herself wanting to stay with the strange cat much more than she wanted to sit on the floor next to Nell and “fix” a pot with “magic”, or whatever she was going to call it. Still...she couldn’t deny her own curiosity. Whatever had been going on around her, if Nell had a way to fix it, then Bex wanted to know. Because she wanted it to stop, she wanted to be able to fix her messes. Maybe then her parents would be proud of her. Maybe then they’d tell her she was good enough. She sat down slowly and looked over at Nell. “Umm-- usually scared o-or anxious. Or upset. Or paranoid. Or confused. Or--” she paused, frowned, “--pretty much anything but happy or excited. No, actually-- it happened when I was excited once, too. All the windows shattered in the house because I was really excited about going somewhere with my parents and then they said it was my fault so we couldn’t go anymore and they lock-- put me in my room for the rest of the day while they got the windows fixed.” A pause, as she realized she hadn’t taken a breath in a second. “Um...So, yeah. Mostly when I’m anxious, I guess?”

Nell nodded as Bex spoke, not surprised by what she was saying in the least. Magic could be triggered by most any strong emotion, but if one felt as if they were in danger, whether the threat be physical or something intangible— magic was more than ready to take to the defense of its vessel. “The problem is- you’re letting your emotions control you. People always talk about controlling emotions as if you’re supposed to dampen them down, or get rid of them entirely. But that’s not what it is when it comes to things like this. You can let yourself feel the emotions all you want, but you just can’t let them overwhelm you. You can give them a path to take, guidance through sheer will that results in you taking hold of them rather than the other way around. If you try and smother the emotions then they just get stronger, bottling up until-” Nell motioned towards the broken pot, figuring that was a good enough representation of the metaphorical bottle literally bursting open. “But you can make them work for you.” She leaned forwards to gather the bigger pieces of the pot closer together, putting them in a little pile in front of Bex. “Think of how you felt when the pot broke, and let yourself feel it again but gather it within you. And then you just...let it out. You let them out to make way for the new feelings that will come after the pot’s been fixed. You take hold of the little spark you feel when things break around you, pair it with a strong intention to fix the pot, and let the emotions power that intention. There’s no room to wonder whether the pot’s gonna be fixed or not. It just will be, and you’re gonna make it that way. The anxiety, the fear- all that stuff has to go so there’s room for what comes after, and you use those feelings to fix the pot and let the new stuff come in.”

Bex sat and listened while Nell talked. She was trying her best to absorb what Nell was saying, but a lot of it made it into her head rattled around like cymbals. She had no idea how to make sense of them, no one had ever taught her how to manage her feelings before. Pushing them down was how she managed them. But she had to try, right? If she wanted any chance at normalcy, she had to try. If she could fix her messes-- or better yet, figure out how to stop them from happening in the first place-- then she could stop worrying so much. She actually just...be normal. Or as normal as someone like her could get. Whatever was causing this-- and it surely wasn’t magic-- would be over. It had to be.

“Okay, I-- I think I get it,” she said slowly, adjusting herself to a more comfortable position and looking down at the broken pot pieces. Closing her eyes, she tried to remember what Nell told her. She tried to recall the feeling of fear and anxiety when she first saw Taki. On how strange he had looked, on how not normal it was to have a cat that large with eyes that looked like actual fire. She felt it hiccup in her chest and than spread through her entire body, the more she thought about it. It made her fingers tingle and her tongue feel numb. She felt a rattling inside of her and tried her hardest to focus on fixing the pot. Fixing her mess. Fixing the problem she created. She felt a rush of something inside of her, like energy, like warm cocoa when you drink it on a cold night and can feel it sinking into your stomach and spreading through your body. And when she opened her eyes next-- the pot was fixed. “Oh hashem!” she exclaimed, excitement pouring out of her as she pointed at the fixed pot. “How’d that-- Did I do-- It worked!”

Had her explanation been too muddled? Or maybe it had strayed too close to the hippy dippy witch-talk that was the true root of most magic. It wasn’t Nell’s fault that the very essence of their abilities was tied so strongly to intentions, life, and its emotions. Either way, Nell was only tentatively optimistic as Bex confirmed her understanding, believing it too good to be true that her first lesson might actually stick. But as the pieces of the pot fused together in perfect conjunction, not a seam or crack to be seen on its surface— Nell’s heart soared, and wasted no time in joining Bex’s celebration. “You did it!” she exclaimed with a jubilant laugh, arms thrown over her head with exuberation. “It worked! Oh Bex- this is amazing. That was amazing! You did so well! I knew you could!” Gone was the tentative nature of her previous teachings, wild abandon taking its place as joy and pride swept aside any sense of speaking carefully so as not to scare Bex out of this whole ‘magic’ thing. There was no time for such things when the witch had done her first intentional magic! This was a momentous occasion in any witch’s life, perhaps even more important than uttering one’s first words, and Nell had been privy to the gift of guiding Bex through it and bearing witness.

Nell’s excitement made something flutter inside of Bex that she hadn’t felt in a long time-- someone was proud of her. She’d done something to make someone happy and excited and before she knew it, she was bubbling with tears. Amazing, she had said. Something she had done was amazing. And she tried not to think too hard about what it was that she had done, because now another thought was rising in her throat and oh hashem-- what had she done!? Bex’s happy tears turned into a gurgle and she dropped the pot and it shattered again and she shrieked, “I’m sorry!” And then next to them, the lamp flickered on and off, and on the shelf next to it, books fell from their spots. “I-I’m sorry! I don’t know what-- I didn’t mean to-- This isn’t real, right? This isn’t real.” She pressed her hands over her ears, too much noise. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to--” She knew it couldn’t be true, she knew it couldn’t be that easy. She always destroyed more than she fixed. That was just who she was.

The tears that fell from Bex were the very definition of bittersweet. One on hand- Nell was overjoyed that she was finally finding release, the gentle crying seeming to have something of a cathartic effect on the girl in front of her. On the other hand...it was heartbreaking to see how something so simple as fixing a pot could give Bex cause for such desperate relief. Bex deserved better than to carry around such a weight on her shoulders, a heaviness that seemingly broke her whether it was being added to in the event of a magical accident, or lifted when she managed to fix her mistakes. But just as quickly as Bex’s joy had come it seemed to shatter before Nell’s very eyes along with the pot. “No, no- it’s okay! Really, it’s alright!” Nell paid little attention the mess Bex was making, not concerned in the least when she’d be able to fix it with a simple spell. Still...Nell didn’t exactly want to encourage the destruction of the house, so she reached out to place a careful hand on Bex’s shoulder, trying to calm the girl. “What if we just go outside? My garden’s out there by my greenhouse- and we could do some meditation.” Hopefully that would calm the younger witch, and it doubled as another lesson in magical application. Not that Nell would mention that particular tidbit. “We could do dynamic meditation- that’s what I always did. I’m really shitty at sitting still so it’s like meditation where you move. Not like the boring stuff where you just sit there.” Hopefully the movement would also help to relieve Bex’s anxieties.

Whatever had happened, Bex wanted out. Away. And Nell was offering that. She had put her hand on her shoulder and she didn’t even seem to be noticing all the stuff that was breaking again. Bex felt like her entire body was shuddering as she tried to concentrate on what Nell was saying. A garden, meditation, moving. She just nodded through her stupor, trying not to think about what had just happened here. Not about Taki and his weird eyes, or the broken pot, or the fact that she’d done something that had fixed it. And oh, if her parents knew what she’d done, what a mess she’d just made, they’d be so disappointed. She was nodding again through her shuddering and as they stood, she clung to Nell as if her life depended on it. She hated this, every moment of it. Why couldn’t she just be normal? Be good? Be right? Why couldn’t she just be what they wanted her to be? The disappointment flooded her chest and she tried her best to hold onto it and not let the energy explode out of her like her fear and her anxiety often did. “Garden is good,” she finally managed to squeak out, “I like gardens.” And it was one of the things she was allowed to like, and so a sense of calm followed the admission, and her grip on Nell’s hand loosened. She stole a small glance back towards the house and thought that, maybe, just maybe, having control wouldn’t be so bad.

#wickedswriting #ch:bex #catakitrophe #chatzy #domestic abuse mention tw

10 notes · View notes

0poole · 4 years ago

Text

Bloons

Honestly the entire Bloons series has been some of my favorite flash/other-than-flash games out there, and I feel like it’s worth bringing it up since I just crossed the 365 day threshold for BTD6. Maybe in the past, but nowadays I definitely don’t feel like I ever play a game daily for a year straight. Chances are it was a little desperate when I first started playing, but as of now literally every single day I open the game up and play the daily challenge just for the sake of it. Plus, since the chest technically resets every 9 hours or so instead of 24, I could’ve cheesed it a bit, but I didn’t. That’s a pure 365 days of playing the game.

And even apart from that, the entire Bloons series has been in my mind since the first one and my middle/elementary school Coolmath Games days. Even though the puzzle, pure form of Bloons wasn’t as much in my interest, the staying power of the Tower Defense version is crazy. Flash Tower Defense games are plenty, and yet the one with the stupid monkeys throwing darts at balloons was the best.

I went back semi-recently and played a round of each BTD, and I gotta say, it was fun seeing where everything came from. 1 is absolute garbage, forcing you to just spam Super Monkeys if you want to get anywhere, but a good starting point obviously. I honestly know nothing about the people creating these games, but obviously it wasn’t made by a AAA crew, so you can’t expect everything to be put in place in the first iteration. 2 and 3 feel much better, but obviously not much after being so used to the modern stuff, and 4 and 5 are the ones that really shine the most, apart from 6 obviously.

I definitely was one of the types of people who initially reacted poorly to the artstyle change of 5 and 6, but I’ve definitely turned over. I don’t know if the whole BTD community rioted at that point, but I at least was like “ew, they’re cute now” when I first saw it. Thankfully I turned over, and realized the current designs are the absolute best out of the entire franchise. Also, I love their cuteness, as I love cuteness in general, so basically just call it character growth. Even though 2D art always is more interesting for games than 3D in general, the entire art direction of 6 is genuinely really good, being so bright and cartoony (at least before the fifth stages of upgrades) really fits the cartoony idea of monkeys popping bloons. 5, and the entire franchise before it, really is proof enough how horrible a pure top-down perspective is. On the title screen, you can see what the monkeys are supposed to look like, but in-game they literally look like weird blobby scorpions. Even though in the back of my mind I knew what they were supposed to look like, the pure top-down perspective completely ruined the image. Not to mention the OG designs for the monkeys was really weird and bad anyway. Even if you wanted a goofy fat kind of monkey, there are a million better ways to achieve that than how it used to be. Again, of course, they weren’t exactly AAA game-level quality, so you can’t expect such perfect character design.

But, oh my god. One of the things about this game that must’ve kept me through 6 was the character designs. If you know anything about me, it’s that I love a good character design, and 6 is full of them. It’s so interesting to see how they extrapolate the main concepts of each tower into their three different paths. The generic Superman-based monkey can turn into a Batman-based monkey, a Terminator-based monkey, and a fucking ancient god of the sun. The seemingly chill Druid can smite people with the power of Zeus, become the much more expected forest-based type, but also turn into this completely out-there being of pure wrath. I could go on and on about that, but needless to say for so many of them look and are designed so great. I think the tower with the coolest level 5s of the game is the Ninja. It’s hard to explain, but they all just look really cool while also not deviating too much from the cartoony-cute art style. I think my all-time favorite level 5 is the top path of the Wizard, mostly just because he looks really cool, but also because the parts of the path before it show him aging and growing out his beard. I also have to say the 2-0-3/4 Wizard also looks exactly my style, with the dark purply-ness and gold rims. Also, if you haven’t noticed, the Magic monkeys are my favorite type, and not just because their signature color is purple. That’s part of it though. Magic is also just cool in general. My main RPG-class of choice is almost always a mage/wizard.

Also, the heroes are also really fun. As someone who often creates species of aliens/monsters, I always feel like I want to create a dedicated character out of them no matter what, so I feel like the heroes are basically just that. And, of course they have good designs too, and of course as you can probably guess my favorite is Adora, basically being the same thing as the 5-0-0 Wizard with the Sun God aesthetic. Since she has her own stage and a special interaction with the True Sun God/Vengeful Monkey, I think she’s a pretty big deal anyway. I will say that I highly slept on Gwen, but then for Easter they gave her the Harlegwen skin and I fell in love. It’s insanely good stuff. Apart from looks, it does feel nice to have some sort of interchangeable tower that you basically just place and forget about, aside from using their powers. Plus, it makes a really easy type of thing to periodically add to the game to keep things fresh, even with the skins in general. It definitely is much better than the stuff they had in 5, where you had to use Monkey Money to buy each one, and you could only use them once per stage. Obviously 6 has the extra powers to help you out, but they feel much more optional and cheaper than the heroes of 5. Since I barely buy anything with Monkey Money to begin with, and since I’ve obviously had 365 chest openings, and AND since I barely use them to begin with, I’m completely stocked up. I only ever use the farmer and sometimes the tech bot if I get lazy. I did use the portable lake I got from my 365th chest opening after I got it, just for the sake of celebration. That’s literally how my mind goes.

6 does have the slight tinge of a mobile game artstyle, but in this case it’s really just better. I’m not into mobile games, and especially not the generic artstyle they have, but it is really pleasing to look at anyway. It did chase me off before I converted, though. That, and the fact you had to buy it now. Like a true gamer, I was put off by the fact that something that was once expected to be free now has to be paid for. But, then, I realized that the entire franchise has provided much more than 10$ worth of entertainment to me throughout time, so it was extremely fair to pay that. It is still kinda weird how 5 has to be paid for for mobile, when it is just free online, though. However, unlike a true gamer I think the microtransactions of the game are extremely fair. Considering they just give you things that you don’t need, and can get for free otherwise, I think it’s completely fine to have them. It sounds bad on the surface to have to pay for the game and have there still be microtransactions in it, but since they’re completely optional there’s no good reason to hate it. I think people assume that means that you have to pay for the game, and pay extra for different major parts of the game, and that sours their opinion on everything. Gamers are a strange, irrationally angry breed. I do hate using my phone for pretty much anything, though, so once I bought 6 on Steam I haven’t played it on my phone since. It’s just so much better in every single way...

I bought the game around the time of one of my family’s semi-annual trips to England because I thought it’d help when we were traveling between wi-fi spots, and it really did wonders for me then. Probably looked like some asshole teen to strangers who don’t know I barely ever use my phone for anything, since I was playing it so much. My sister even saw me playing it and bought it for herself, although I don’t know how much she’s played since then.

For the sake of stats, I have 235 hours played of it on Steam alone, and in game I’m level 115. My most complete map is Monkey Meadow with all medals except CHIMPS, which I put the effort in because it’s the default map, and definitely not because it’s an easy/good map because it’s just kinda bad compared to so many other ones. My Dart monkey has a total of 4 million XP, and the only towers that haven’t crossed a million are the Ice, Heli, Alchemist, Druid, and Spike factory monkeys/tower. I think the farthest I’ve actually gotten round-wise is 200 once or twice, but I don’t remember if I’ve actually beaten that level and continued on or lost there. I think I might’ve gotten past it once, but just sort of lost interest in micro-managing my powers and let myself lose. I probably got there once after that and lost on it. As someone who didn’t look up the optimal strategies for things until very recently, I think that’s pretty good. It definitely feels like the kind of game where if you know the best strategies, you can literally just replicate that over and over and win really easily, but that just sounds kinda boring. Since I pretty much only do daily challenges nowadays, it forces me to use a limited amount of towers, so I either go much farther because it forces me to build up less towers more, or it makes sure I can’t even pass round 90 because it just was made to get you to round 40 and that’s it. When I have the full range of towers to use, I feel like I try to get the instant satisfaction of getting a new tower to increase DPS instead of making the few towers I have/need reach their full potential, which seems to be the better option. I also don’t really sell anything when I don’t have a limited number of monkeys to place, which I think is also a good strategy if you can eliminate the major money loss in it, since it can give you a massive boost in cash to get you the better upgrades quicker. I may or may not try to learn the strategies to wipe the rest of the game clean eventually, but right now I’m fine with just doing the dailies.

But yeah, that’s like the whole thing with Bloons Tower Defense and me. Something something reject modernity, embrace monke, or whatever the kids these days are saying.

I will say that if I didn’t have so many OCs to work with and could just pump out animated shorts on the reg, I’d love to do some sort of Bloons shorts. They’d all lean into the ridiculousness of it all. Like, the first one could do the 2001 thing with the monkeys learning to use sticks, and as the main one is bashing the ground with one or whatever and throws it up, an ancient, leathery patchwork bloon flies overhead and accidentally bumps the stick such that it lands back on the main monkey’s head, knocking him out. Cue the monkeys around him to go berserk and start throwing other sticks at the ancient bloon, and once they pop it using a sharp stick, they realize what they must do. Cue a long montage of the different stages of war and invention using the monkeys finding better ways to fend off the bloons, with the whole idea being that the monkeys are getting irrationally angry at the bloons, who are just sort of around and not actually sentient, even though they assume they’re malicious because of their history and upbringing. Absolutely no political message in there whatsoever. Just comedy.

Other short ideas could include, for the start of the modern time story, it could be the backstory of some sort of chiseled veteran main character, which would involve a bloon floating into his town, and from the people’s panic someone knocks over a lamp post that sets his town ablaze, only for him and his people to blame the carnage on the bloon, causing his classic edgy character motives for fighting against the bloons. Another, much more golden idea, would be an interrogation scene, where a bunch of monkeys capture a bunch of bloons for interrogation purposes. They’d obviously do the whole “Silent treatment, eh? Well, we have ways of making you talk...” thing, except the “way to make them talk” is to strap them to a wall with one dart guy on one side to systematically pop them to try and extract info. But, of course, it would look and play out exactly like the classic Bloons puzzle game. That’d be the fun part. If not that, then it could be like the classic carnival game that likely inspired the idea of using darts to pop balloons. I really just think this weird world of monkeys and bloons is perfect for some good comedic content. Watching the monkeys severely overreact to the bloons sounds extremely fun, and I’d love to see someone do something with it some day.

#bloons tower defense #btd #6 #poole #rant #rambling #opinions #bloons #ninja kiwi #nk #flash

5 notes · View notes

theotherteamrocket · 5 years ago

Text

Silver Linings - Chapter 1

Posting the first chapter of my fanfic, Silver Linings.

A Team Rocket grunt crosses Domino in a training exercise and sets off a chain of events that will change her life forever. She finds herself going to extreme lengths to keep her partner pokemon, becoming intertwined with her eccentric coworkers along the way.

Silver Linings

Chapter 1

The cafeteria was busy as usual. A tired looking, brown haired Team Rocket grunt squeezed through two other people and searched the room, finally laying her eyes on a vacant table. Her food was already cold, but she didn’t care. She sat her tray down at the end of the table. At the very same time, two other trays came down at the opposite end.

“Well, well, well.” It was a familiar voice. She knew who it was before she even looked up. It was the unmistakable rasp of Butch. He and Cassidy sat down at the other end of the table.

“If it isn’t the flavor of the week.” He laughed. “We were just talking about you.”

“Along with everyone else on the team.” Cassidy flipped one of her long, blonde pigtails over her shoulder and slid down beside the other girl as she lowered herself onto the bench. “Butch, take my picture with her and post it on our page.”

She flashed a peace sign and smiled wide. Ria smiled, too, but it felt as fake as her interest in talking to them right then. Still, as friendly as she was with Butch and Cassidy from having worked with them numerous times, they both outranked her and she wasn’t about to blow them off.

“I guess you saw the video.”

“Saw it?” Cassidy asked. “Butch was the one who filmed it!”

Ria blinked as she processed what Cassidy as said, before standing and pointing an accusatory finger at her green haired colleague.

“That was you!?”

“Calm down, calm down.” She glowered at him from beneath the brim of her cap and sat back down as he continued. “I made you famous. You should thank me. You should see how many likes this thing has on Rocketbook.”

Ria sat back down. He slid his phone over to her and she looked at it warily. Since members of Team Rocket were barred from posting any of their information or photos online due to it being a security concern, Giovanni’s recent initiative to provide a social networking platform exclusively for Team Rocket members had been a hugely popular success. In light of recent events, however, Ria couldn’t say that she was a fan. She wasn’t particularly interested in re-living the battle, but the two of them were already standing on either side of her watching the replay of her earlier training exercise with Domino.

“Heh heh. Check out that excellent camera work.”

“Be quiet Butch, this is my favorite part.”

The three of them looked on as Houndour started to glow and change shape, becoming a Houndoom. Butch and Cassidy laughed as Domino’s Roserade fell almost immediately to its attack.

“Look at her face!” Butch cackled. “It’s like you didn’t even care that the flamethrower would be overkill.”

“I didn’t ask Houndoom to use Flamethrower.” Ria said quietly. “ It just…happened.”

She rubbed the back of her head. She was still in shock from its evolution when it all happened, and it happened so quickly. Had it been up to her, she probably would have stopped the battle altogether. It had just been a training exercise, after all, and although she had been volun-told to do it, had she known how things were going to turn out she would have surely found a way to get out of it.

“Well, either way, it was hilarious.” Butch said around a mouthful of French fries.

“I don’t think Domino felt the same way.”

“Oh, please.” Cassidy rolled her eyes. “She got cocky, she wanted to humiliate someone that had a type advantage over her to make herself look like a better trainer. She picks on spineless grunts like you all the time, no offense, knowing that you don’t have the backbone to actually defeat her even if you wanted to.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“Guess she wasn’t counting on that mutt of yours having a mind of its own.” Her partner chuckled. Ria sighed as Cassidy continued. She’d never had a problem with Houndour listening to her before it evolved.

“If you ask me, that little witch had it coming. That bleach job alone should be a felony.”

Behind Cassidy, almost as if she’d been summoned from Hell by the mention of her name, Ria saw Domino approaching the table. She had a sly smirk on her face and it was apparent she was up to something.

“Uh, Cassidy-“ Ria tried to interject when she saw the other blonde heading in their direction. Although Domino was technically the same rank as Cassidy and Butch, her relationship with Giovanni carried a lot of extra weight outside of the usual chain of command. Butch and Cassidy liked to tell anyone who would listen that they were the Boss’s favorites, but it was no secret that the title actually belonged to Domino.

“ -if only Houndoom had missed Roserade entirely.”

“Cassidy,” Butch also tried to intervene, but there was no stopping her at this point.

“HQ has been a much better place now that that spoiled brat has been taken down a peg.”

“Oh, and what spoiled brat are we talking about, exactly?”

Cassidy froze and, finally, turned to see Domino standing behind her.

“Domino!” She stammered. “Oh, you know…eh…”

“Actually, it’s no one that you would know at all!” Butch stepped in for the save. “Most definitely not anyone at this table or in the immediate vicinity of it.”

“Absolutely not!” Cassidy added.

“Well, feel free to carry on,” the blonde said, looking down at the lowest ranking member at the table. “I’m just here to see my good friend Ria on some urgent work business.”

“Work business?” Ria asked, suspiciously. She had expected some kind of retaliation, sure, but in the form of extra work detail or being sent on a field assignment in an undesirable location. The possibility of a face to face confrontation hadn’t even crossed her mind. Domino pulled a brown envelope from behind her back and handed it to her. She started to open it and Butch and Cassidy again leaned over her shoulder.

“Do you mind?” She muttered. Neither of them budged. She continued to open it carefully. Domino tapped her finger impatiently until she could no longer contain herself.

“You’re being audited!” She exclaimed, in a sing-song voice.

“What?!” Ria stood up in her chair, clutching the piece of paper so hard the edges wrinkled. Her eyes darted over the wording again and again, trying to make sure what she was reading was correct. It was an official order, and it had been signed by the Boss himself.

“Had to do it, Ria.” Domino’s remorse sounded more like sarcasm and Ria bristled at the sound of her voice. “It’s my duty as an officer to make sure everyone follows the rules, so I really had no choice. We both know that a grunt like yourself shouldn’t be able to defeat an officer like me in battle. The Boss would just be so disappointed if any officer witnessed something like that and didn’t report it.”

She glared at Butch and Cassidy who looked at each other sheepishly.

“You didn’t have to do it.”

“Now, now, you know as well as I do Rockets are only allowed to keep pokemon up to a certain level, depending on their rank of course. This may be a criminal organization, but we have rules for a reason and those rules apply to everyone, even me. But listen,” Domino leaned in, “I’ll tell you what. I’m in a really good mood. I know you’re about to leave on an assignment, so we can wait to do this until you get back. That’ll give you time to say your goodbyes to Houndoom. Don’t worry…once we retrain it, I’ll take really good care of it.”

Domino walked away seeming satisfied with herself.

“Thanks a lot.” Ria said, fighting the urge to smack Butch across the face with the lunch tray. “ She wouldn’t be half as mad at me if everyone hadn’t seen what happened on video.”

“Hey, there were plenty of people at that training who saw it first hand. That would have put her on a warpath with you anyway.” Butch defended himself.

“You guys are officers.” Ria pleaded. “You have to tell me, is there anything I can possibly do to get out of this?”

“There’s no way.” Cassidy was blunt in her reply. “Team Rocket is and always has been very strict about adhering to these audits, ever since…you know.”

“The incident.” Butch said with air quotes.

“What even happened, anyway? I was just a kid. My father was a part of Team Rocket at the time, and I remember hearing about it, but I didn’t really pay much attention. I…had a lot going on then.”

Ria ran her finger around the edge of her drink can. She was aware of ‘the incident’, as Butch called it, but it had occurred right around the same time her father had passed away, so she hadn’t paid it any mind.

“We weren’t there either, but the story goes an Elite agent decided he wanted out of Team Rocket.” Butch explained.

“Obviously they told him no.” Cassidy added.

“Right.” He continued. “So the guy just skips out one night. Makes a run for it. When the Boss finally finds out, he’s furious. Puts a BOLO on this guy, pretty much has the whole team after him.”

“A manhunt.” His partner echoed.

“When they finally tracked him down, I hear it was a bloodbath. This guy was a real hotshot trainer, there was talk he coulda made it into the Elite Four if he wasn’t a Rocket. His pokemon were really powerful and your typical Team Rocket issued field trash was no match for it.”

Cassidy narrowed her eyes at him when he said this. It was a well-known fact that Raticate was her favorite pokemon, and Ria assumed this was why she seemed to resent that remark.

“They say it took almost 50 men to finally take him out, and he didn’t survive.”

“Giovanni never wanted to have to deal with that again, which is why he put this policy into place where Rockets are only allowed to have pokemon up to a certain level. When any pokemon exceeds the level cap for their trainer’s rank, that pokemon becomes the property of Team Rocket. They’re sent off to the breeding center to be re-trained, and they’re either assigned to an officer or put into the reserves if they’re needed later.”

“Wait! I have an idea! You guys can have higher leveled pokemon than I can. Cassidy, what if you take Houndoom for a while?”

“Are you insane? That thing is public enemy number one right now.” She scoffed. “I’m not about to put a target on my back for Domino.”

Ria sighed. She pulled out Houndoom’s poke ball and looked at it.

“It just doesn’t seem fair.”

“Well, them’s the rules.” Butch said, matter-of-factly. He and Cassidy stood to collect their trays. “ It’s all in your employment contract, so there’s really nothing you can do.”

“My recommendation would be to just use the Team Rocket issued pokemon from now on. It’s what Butch and I do. They’ll send you a new one every few months. Even if you’re out in the field, Delibird brings it to you.”

“It’s kinda like a subscription service.” Butch added. “They’re tailored to the kind of work you’ll be doing, too. It’s neat.”

“Catching your own pokemon is allowed, sure, but you get attached and eventually you have to either hand them over to Team Rocket or set them free. The only other people I know of who actually do that are those losers Jessie and James. This is a really good example of why it’s just not a good idea.”

“Sorry kid.” Butch offered before he and Cassidy headed toward the exit. “That’s a real tough break. Here! You can have the rest of my fries.”

“…thanks.”

“French fries? Really?” She heard Cassidy hiss at him as they walked away.

“Well they always make me feel better after a bad day.”

Ria sighed as their voices trailed off and stared sadly at her lunch tray, which now overflowed with the addition of Butch’s leftovers. The fries actually were good here. Unfortunately, she had completely lost her appetite.

#teamrocket #team rocket #rocket grunt #oc #domino #butch #cassidy #butchandcassidy #yamato #kosaburo #fanfic #pokemon

3 notes · View notes

gamerwoo · 6 years ago

Text

Jihoon: The Last Of The Real Ones

Characters: Jihoon x reader (gender neutral)

Genre/warnings: superhero/superhuman au, angst, fluff, mild violence, blood, mentions of kidnapping and torture

Word count: 6,406

Summary: ‘Cause you’re the last of a dying breed. Write our names in the wet concrete. I wonder if your therapist knows everything about me. I’m here in search of your glory, there’s been a million before me. That ultra kind of love you never walk away from. You’re just the last of the real ones.

a/n: this is inspired by The Last Of The Real Ones by Fall Out Boy. I also wrote reader to be taller than Jihoon bc that’s just how I pictured them, but I tried to keep it gender neutral :]

Seventeen Song Series

Supers were hard as hell to come by. They typically stayed in hiding due to all of the people in the world that would kill to get their hands on one to shape and mold it into whatever kind of weapon they wanted. They were so hard to find, in fact, that people had thought they were completely wiped out or something.

Jihoon had known better. He knew they weren’t completely gone because he wasn’t gone. But the world didn’t need to know that, so he continued to live his life under the radar. He went to college like a normal kid, he walked to and from the bus stop and took public transport to school and then back home, and he did his shopping while keeping to himself. To the world, Jihoon was average, and he had yet to find anybody else like him.

Until he met you.

Jihoon was walking home one night from the bus stop, his backpack hanging off his shoulders as he kept his hands shoved deep in his pockets. He didn’t like making eye contact with people, and he didn’t like letting his eyes wander to see what other people were doing. He just liked to keep to himself and mind his own business, so his brown eyes stayed on the ground.

“Get off me!” he heard a voice grunt off to his right.

As an instinctive reaction, his eyes flashed up before they found an alleyway off to his right a few feet away. His feet continued to bring him forward before he was peering down the alley, just wanting to glance to make sure it wasn’t anything dangerous before carrying on his way. However, he saw a man pushing himself up against a girl, the girl’s back against the brick siding of the building behind her as she tried to shove him away from her.

While Jihoon did like to mind his own business, he knew this was a situation he couldn’t just ignore. He was about to shrug off his backpack and go intervene when he saw a shadow drop down from one of the rooftops, landing on the top of a dumpster with a bang. The person landed on the ball of one foot and their other knee, one hand holding them up. It was such a stereotypical superhero stance straight out of a cartoon, and yet, Jihoon couldn’t help but think it looked damn cool.

The shadowed figure looked up, eyes glowing a dusty lilac color that was easily visible in the darkness of the night. The girl gasped, and even the man started to back away. None of them had ever seen anything like that before, but Jihoon recognized eyes like that. He saw his own in a mirror a few times when he tested his power. His glowed a grey-ish color, though, but he was still used to the weird glow.

The figure raised their bare hand, palm out to the man before pushing away from them. Without even touching the man, he went flying back, his back hitting the wall of the opposite building as the air left his body with a huff. He collapsed onto the ground as the figure casually slid off of the dumpster, standing protectively in front of the girl.

Now that they were completely standing, Jihoon could see they were dressed in tight, black clothing with a black mask that covered half their face. Their hair was pulled back out of their face and tucked into a hood that was tight around their face, and he could barely make out their silhouette in the dark alleyway. Jihoon was surprised by their attire because they looked like they were trying to be some sort of ninja.

“Go,” they said over their shoulder to the girl, nodding their head toward the opening of the alley.

“Thank you, Void!” the girl said breathlessly before running off in the direction of safety, pushing passed Jihoon.

The person -- Void -- made eye contact with Jihoon, the glow in their eyes dulling before they swiftly kicked the man without even looking as he ran at them before they quickly lept back onto the dumpster, jumped to reach the fire escape, and made their way back to the rooftop where they disappeared.

Maybe he wasn’t the only super after all. He just wasn’t sure who that person was, but he wanted to find them again.

You were a superhero of sorts -- the city had deemed you one, anyway. News headlines, pictures, articles all about you -- you were like some sort of real life Batman with the way you hid in the shadows and only came out to defeat bad guys. Nobody even knew what you looked like, but they could recognize the all-black outfit you wore.

Jihoon had learned all of this that night when he couldn’t fall asleep. His mind was racing with thoughts of this other super that willingly showed themselves to normal people. But now he understood -- you were there to protect them, and they recognized you as a friend and hero. He had thought the ‘superhero’ idea had all but died out with the supers’ hope of fitting in, but here you were to shine some sort of beacon of hope -- not necessarily for Jihoon because there was no way he was going out of his way to be noticed when he tried so hard to stay under the radar, but for other supers that might be out there.

But the fact you were some sort of vigilante that protected people in danger gave Jihoon an idea on how he’d see you again. He had questions for you that needed answers. It was almost an odd instinct that Jihoon had to try to befriend this other super since he was all alone.

Maybe that was it -- he felt lonely.

So Jihoon did something really stupid the next night. He went out to a bar not too far from his apartment and started a fight with the first big dude he saw outside. The guy clearly had a couple beers in him, and he was leaning up against the side of the building smoking a cigarette. Jihoon went right up to him, kicked him in the shin, and then punched him in the mouth when the guy was bent over.

That explained why you found Jihoon the way you did. This poor, tiny boy had blood running from his nose and down his lips, and already had a bruised eye. You thought this was just some big, drunk guy pounding on somebody significantly smaller than him, but it was actually just Jihoon causing trouble just for the hell of it -- well, technically to see you, but still. So you ran to jump in, pushing the man off before you stood protectively in front of the smaller boy that had fallen to the sidewalk. Your eyes glowed their soft purple as you prepared for a fight. Thankfully, the man’s tipsy state had him terrified of your eyes, screaming that you were a ghost before he ran off down the street.

You turned to the boy still on the ground behind you. He looked completely harmless with wide brown eyes and a baby-like face as he looked up on you. Actually, he looked straight-up innocent -- adorable, even. You weren’t sure why some giant man with tattoos would beat on somebody like this.

You crouched down to examine him, your head tilting to one side as your eyes went back to their normal color. Jihoon was in awe of how close you were, unable to think of what to do or say next.

“You okay?” you asked, your voice slightly muffled by your mask.

Hearing your voice speaking to him, Jihoon came back to his senses, shrugging as he didn’t want to come off as weak to you.

“I guess so,” he mumbled.

“Here,” you sighed as you stood up, holding a hand out to help him up, “I’ll get you home. You look like you’re in pretty bad shape.”

While Jihoon would’ve declined the offer from anybody else, he took your hand and let you pull him to his feet. He had to look up at you to see your eyes, and you almost chuckled because this guy looked like you could carry him all the way home without a problem. But instead, you moved to stand beside him, motioning that you wanted to put an arm around his waist.

“May I?”

Jihoon just shrugged, lifting his arm so you could get yours around him. He rested his hand on your shoulder closest to him before you started to help him limp home. You had to bite your tongue to not ask if you could just carry him on your back since it would be faster.

After a few minutes of complete silence other than Jihoon’s soft grunts and hisses of pain, he finally asked, “So...you’re...Void…?”

You chuckled with a nod, “Yeah, I guess so -- that’s what everybody calls me.”

“Because of all the black you wear?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Your power doesn’t even have anything to do with a void.”

“What are they gonna call me? Force?” you snorted before turning serious. “Wait, that’s not bad…”

“You seem to really like this superhero thing…” he noticed with a grumble. He wasn’t sure why that annoyed him. Maybe because he was afraid of having a power while you were almost worshiped for it.

“Enough about me,” you decided, looking down at him. “What’s your name?”

He stared back up at you in silence for a moment before finally breaking. “Jihoon.”

“Alright, Jihoon,” you began, “what’s a kid like you doing getting beat up outside a bar by a guy like that?”

“I’m not a kid,” he stated, a harshness to his voice. “I’m an adult -- I was born in ‘96.”

“Sorry,” you laughed softly, “I didn’t mean it like you were a literal kid.”

“Oh… Sorry, I’m just used to the jokes like that since I’m...y’know…”

“Height doesn’t mean shit,” you scoffed. “Take that guy outside the bar for instance -- he was taller than both of us and still ran away.”

“I think any normal person would run away if they were up against a super,” Jihoon figured before he was gesturing to the building you were walking up to with his other hand. “This is my building.”

You turned to help him up the steps, mumbling to yourself, “I should clean you up and stuff.”

Jihoon had to bite his tongue to not let out an automatic response like ‘I can do it myself’. He still wanted his answers, and to do that, he’d need to talk to you in private. If he had to let it be known he was a super, too, he wasn’t going to do it in public. He refused to have anybody know what he really was but he had to gain your trust.

When you got up to the door, Jihoon unlocked it before you helped him into the elevator. He pushed the button for his floor and the two of you continued to stand there, your arm around him while he kept his hand on your shoulder for support. Standing in a silent elevator alone made you feel awkward suddenly, like you were too close. You weren’t sure why.

Finally, the elevator dinged softly before the doors opened. Jihoon hobbled out and turned to go to his end of the hallway before he stopped at his door and unlocked that. He pushed the door open and you helped him inside, turning on the lights by the door. He kicked off his shoes so you did the same before you asked him where his bathroom was. He led you to it before he leaned back against the sink with a groan.

“Do you have a first aid kit?” you asked, looking around the small bathroom since you didn’t want to be rude and just dig through his stuff.

“No,” he chuckled, dabbing at the blood on his upper lip with the side of his index finger, “but I have peroxide and cotton balls under the sink, and bandaids in the cupboard behind the mirror.”

“You just sit. You shouldn’t be standing since you were limping most of the way here. I’ll get everything.”

Jihoon moved to sit on the toilet seat cover while you got down to get the materials you needed. Then you grabbed the bandaids and set everything on the floor by Jihoon’s foot before you got on your knees in front of him and gingerly held his chin in your hand, tilting his head toward the light to get a better look at his face. Thankfully, the shadows outside definitely seemed to make him look a lot worse than he was.

As you examined him, Jihoon couldn’t help but examine you -- at least, what little of you he could see.

“Do you still have to wear all that?” he wondered.

Honestly, you’d forgotten you still had your hero gear on. It was actually pretty comfortable and breathable so you didn’t mind it. But you weren’t about to suddenly take it off in a stranger’s house. There was no way you were going to expose your identity to somebody you just met, no matter how cute they looked.

“Yeah,” you replied plainly.

Jihoon went silent for a moment before quietly saying, “I’ve never met a super before. I didn’t even know there were any in the city. I guess I was too caught up in school and keeping my head down that I didn’t notice the news.”

“You’re that oblivious, huh?” you chuckled as you began to soak a cotton ball in peroxide and clean the blood off his face and out of the small cuts on his face.

He sucked in a sharp breath at the sting, and you quickly began apologizing repeatedly.

“It’s alright,” he coughed, trying to just breathe through the pain.

You stopped, giving him a little time to relax. You tossed the used cotton ball in the trash before looking back up at him again.

“For what it’s worth...I’ve never met anybody like me, either,” you admitted quietly, your eyes casting downward. “Honestly, I’m starting to think they’ve all been wiped out or something. I know they’re all probably just hiding but it’s getting kind of...discouraging, I guess.”

“Lonely,” Jihoon offered.

You nodded, “Lonely, yeah…”

“I know what you mean…”

You looked up at Jihoon again, his gaze looking down and off to the side. You cocked your head to one side, “What, do you not have any friends or something? No family?”

“No, I mean…” Jihoon sighed as he trailed off.

His eyes hesitantly met yours before you saw them slowly start to glow to life, their dark brown turning a grey color that reminded you of cloudy skies. Your jaw dropped as your breath left you, realizing that there was only one explanation for this: Jihoon was like you.

You were at a loss for words. Jihoon didn’t show you what his power was, and he didn’t say anything. He just looked at you with his glowing eyes, his expression unreadable. But he had no idea what you were thinking, either, with your mask covering your expression. All he could see was the shock and wonder in your eyes.

Slowly, Jihoon reached forward. Your eyes didn’t leave his even though you knew he was reaching for the hood that was secured to your head. He slowly pushed it away, letting it fall to your shoulders. Then his index fingers hooked into the black mask and slowly tugged down, waiting to see if you’d stop him.

But you didn’t.

You watched as Jihoon looked your face over, his expression still unreadable. But inside, he was beyond happy to finally see the face of somebody like him. He wasn’t alone now if you trusted him enough to let him see you for who you really were. But he was a super, too, so how could you not trust him?

“What’s your name?” he asked quietly, his eyes dulling back to brown.

“_____,” you replied just above a whisper.

He nodded, repeating, “_____…”

“You seem a lot more chipper since our last session.”

You didn’t even look at your therapist, staring out the window that overlooked the city instead. Her office was on a higher floor of a skyscraper in the middle of the city, so you always loved the view. It wasn’t uncommon for you to prefer looking out the window rather than at Dr.Yoo.

“Do I?” you asked, not really paying much attention to her observation, but you were curious as to how you gave that away. You didn’t think you looked or acted any different since two weeks ago.

Dr.Yoo only hummed in response as she observed you before she asked, “What caused the change?”

You shrugged, “I made a friend.”

“You did?” she smiled, seeming genuinely happy about this turn of events. Dr.Yoo was aware that you lived alone and didn’t speak to many people, so this was improvement in her eyes. “When did this happen?”

“Last week.”

“How’d you meet them?”

You wanted to go on and on about Jihoon. You wanted to tell her everything you’d learned about him since that day -- his personality, what he looked like, the way he made you feel, and how he finally made you feel like you weren’t alone in the world. But you knew you couldn’t reveal any of that. Jihoon didn’t like people knowing too much about him, and that was something you learned almost immediately after the two of you silently agreed to be friends.

“Fate.”

Months had gone by since then. You visited Jihoon on a regular basis, and he was more than happy to have you around -- even if he didn’t directly show it. But you quickly picked up on the small ways he showed affection, like remembering little details or buying your favorite takeout or the biggest way he tried to protect you.

“_____, don’t go.”

Those words left his mouth almost every night you decided to hang out at Jihoon’s -- which really was almost every night. Whenever you had to go out looking for any signs of trouble, Jihoon would immediately insist you stay -- even stay the night if you had to.

Tonight was the same conversation.

The thing was, the more he got to know you -- you, not Void -- the more he fell for you. Yes, the fact you were the only other super he knew had to do with it, but it was also just you -- what was inside you. You as a person was what really pushed him over the edge, and he was falling, falling, falling for a superhero that couldn’t save him from it.

That was why he wanted you to quit being Void. He knew it was dangerous. It wasn’t even just the ‘bad guys’ out there, it was the real bad guys -- the people who wanted to get ahold of a super and use them for themselves. He knew with you being public about yourself, that would make you a huge target. Hell, you could’ve been being tracked. He just wanted to keep you safe.

But he didn’t want to tell you about the people who were the real danger. He didn’t want to scare you, so he kept it to himself.

He knew about them. He was captured by them before.

“Jihoon, I promise I’ll be back in a couple hours,” you insisted, already grabbing your bag of clothes from where you left it by the door.

“A lot can happen in a couple hours,” Jihoon stated, standing up from the couch. He stayed in one spot but his eyes followed you around his apartment. “You know I’ll have no idea where you are if anything happens.”

You just scoffed, slinging your bag over your shoulder as you made your way to his bathroom, “Remember that time you got beat up outside a bar? How are you going to protect me?”

You entered the bathroom and shut the door, so Jihoon walked up and stood right outside the door while you changed.

“What if you run into somebody that you can’t handle?” he asked.

“I can handle anything,” you promised from the other side of the door. “With my power, I can keep people as far away from me as I want.”

“Until you meet somebody who is prepared to take on your power.”

“Like who?”

Them.

The door flew open and Jihoon looked up. You were pulling your hood up, tucking stray pieces of hair back into it. Your mask was pulled down under your chin as you smirked down at him, both eyebrows raised like you were still expecting an answer to your question.

He sighed, running a hand through his silver hair, “I’m just saying, _____ -- we’re not the only supers and maybe somebody out there has your anti-power or something.”

“Maybe it’s you,” you joked, your expression turned almost fond. “You still haven’t shown it to me.”

Jihoon looked away, grumbling, “I told you, I don’t like using it…”

You just chuckled, brushing passed him as you pulled your mask up to cover the lower half of your face. As you reached the window where the fire escape was, you pushed it open before turning back to look at Jihoon.

“I’ll be fine,” you promised him, giving him a serious look. You knew he cared deeply for you, and returned that, but you also knew that this was what you were made to do. “I always am, aren’t I?”

Jihoon didn’t look at you while he stayed silent, and you thought he wasn’t going to say anything, but he finally sighed and softly said, “I know you think this city needs you...but I need you more.”

You froze, unsure of what to say. Jihoon was more of a shower -- a tsundere one at that -- than a teller, so the fact he openly told you how he felt was almost shocking. It definitely took you off guard, that was for sure. But you were still a little confused by his statement.

“Why…?” you wondered, though the word was barely heard.

You could tell it took all of Jihoon’s courage to make his eyes meet yours. He took a couple breaths, trying to build up the guts to admit it.

“I love you.”

Again, you were surprised, but this time, you weren’t at a loss for words. You knew exactly what you wanted to say.

“Jihoon--”

“You don’t have to say anything,” he said quickly, turning away from you completely. “I know you’re still going to leave either way, so just go.”

You decided to just drop the subject as you swung one leg out the window before the other.

“I’ll be back before sunrise at the latest,” you promised.

And then you were quickly climbing the fire escape, making almost no noise with how stealthy you’d learned to be. Still, Jihoon knew when you were gone, making your way to the rooftop.

Jihoon never bothered closing the window. He always left it open for when you came back because he’d always find you crashed on his couch in the morning. But each time he left it open, he always wondered if this time would be the time he’d wake up to an empty couch.

Never once did Jihoon stop thinking about you ever since he met you -- especially after getting closer with you. You had become his top priority, and he made sure to always look out for you. His main priority was your safety, and even after his confession last week that was never brought up again, he put that at the back of his mind in favor of protecting you.

The fact he was so inconspicuous came in handy. He may have kept to himself, but he always paid close attention. So he could easily recognize the ‘incognito’ men who were wandering the busy streets of the city, all mumbling into earpieces as their sunglass-covered eyes observed the area. Thankfully, none of them seemed to pay him any mind. It had been years since he escaped, and he made sure to keep his appearance different than how he looked as a teenager -- which was easier since he’d grown up since then. But he knew that meant they were here for someone else.

There was just one problem: he didn’t know where you were.

Shops and food stands lined both sides of the street. It seemed almost like a slightly larger alleyway, but you liked the aesthetic of it. Glowing signs lit up above the street as you walked, your phone in one hand as you slightly readjusted your bomber jacket with the other.

Ever since Jihoon’s confession, you’d been trying to figure out how to bring it up again. Jihoon was supposed to be on his way to class when you decided to go for a walk to do some thinking. You weren’t sure just exactly how to tell him you felt the same. You didn’t want to just blurt it out but you didn’t know how to bring the subject up.

You were brutally pulled from your thoughts when you felt an arm shove against your neck, pushing you up against a nearby food truck. Suddenly, men all dressed in black clothing, bulletproof vests, and helmets were surrounding around you and the man -- who was wearing the same thing -- and aiming black guns at you that looked like something straight out of a crime show. Your phone had dropped to the pavement with your surprise, a gasp barely able to leave your throat.

Some sort of device was held up to your face before a bright light scanned down the upper half of your face. The man in front of you nodded before you heard him declaring that Void was caught.

“W-what’s going on?” you asked, your voice shaking more than you would’ve liked.

“You’re coming with us.” he stated, trying to turn you around.

You still weren’t sure what was going on, but it didn’t feel right. You had an awful feeling about this situation, and your fight or flight instincts started to kick in as alarms screaming danger were going off in your head.

“Get away from me!” you screamed, your eyes squeezed shut as you shoved away from yourself.

The man stumbled backwards as you opened your eyes, showing that they were glowing their dusty lilac color. You held one palm out to the man before flicking it off to the side, expecting to see him fly through the air in the direction you sent him.

But nothing happened.

Guns cocked, and you flinched as you went into panic mode. Why weren’t your powers working? Who were these people? Why did they want to take you and what did they want to do with you?

“Void, if you don’t come with us calmly, we will shoot,” the man warned, drawing his own gun.

But you wouldn’t go. You were afraid because you weren’t sure who they were, but they definitely seemed bad. Not only that, but you wouldn’t just leave Jihoon behind. You wouldn’t leave him wondering what happened to you, and you wouldn’t let him be lonely again.

You tried again, this time moving a food cart and throwing it into a few of the men to the left of you. People nearby were already hurrying away from the scene when they saw all the guns, but now they were screaming because of the chaos erupting.

“Fire!” the man ordered, realizing that you weren’t going down without a fight.

You shrunk back, holding your arms protectively in front of your face as if that would do something. You braced for the pain, your eyes closed as your face turned away. But seconds continued to tick by with nothing happening.

You peeled one eye open, looking around until you saw a shorter figure standing in front of you.

Jihoon had his arms out in front of him, the bullets that flew at you slowing down so much that they seemed suspended in air. He stared down each man with his silver eyes, somehow feeling fearless even though these men were one of the only things that could shoot true terror through him. But it was to protect you, so he’d face a million of them if he had to.

Due to his ability to blend in, it wasn’t hard to follow the men to find you. He apparently had shown up just in time, too.

The men in front of him wore the same shocked expression as you. Until the man in the center came to, shaking his head as realization hit him.

“Subject 217!” he gasped before he was pointing at Jihoon. “Capture him!”

Jihoon wasted no time, grabbing your hand, leaving the bullets suspended until he could tug you away.

“Run!” he ordered before he was dragging you off behind him, running down the strip as quickly as he could.

The shock had you stumbling behind him, but you quickly began pumping your legs as fast as they would allow, keeping up with Jihoon with his hand still gripping yours tightly. He didn’t look back as he bobbed and weaved through the crowd, but you attempted to look over your shoulder to see if they were chasing you.

Of course they were.

Who were ‘they’, though? And who was Subject 217? And how the hell did Jihoon find you? You had so many questions but you knew now probably wasn’t the time to ask. Still, you figured one question was one that could and should be answered now.

“Who are these people?” you asked, your breathing jagged from running as you looked ahead again.

“The bad guys I was worried about,” Jihoon replied before he turned sharply around a corner, pulling you with him. “I’ll answer later, just keep up.”

You did as he said, dropping the conversation in favor of paying attention to where you were going. Jihoon seemed so sure of what he was doing, so you decided to just trust him and let him go wherever it was he had in mind.

Truthfully, Jihoon didn’t have a set plan, he just knew he had to get you out of there. He planned on just finding a way out of the city that would effectively lose the men after you, and then find somewhere to stay for a short period of time until he could figure shit out. He just had to--

An opening. A public transport bus was just about to close its doors so Jihoon picked up the pace even though his legs were screaming for him to stop. He could hear you panting behind him but he forced you to go faster, refusing to let go of your hand even if you did slow him down a little. But he had to make it onto the bus.

When there was just a sliver of space between the doors, Jihoon shoved his hand through, keeping them open. The bus driver was forced to open the doors so you and Jihoon could get on. The doors closed as he walked down the aisle of the bus, glancing out the window to see the men dressed in the black anti-power vests running out of the alley as the bus pulled away. He knew they’d try to track down the bus and find its route, but for now, you were safe.

He gestured to a free seat, letting you sit on the inside before he sat down beside you. The two of you were still trying to catch your breath, and you were still trying to figure out what the hell happened. But now that both of you were sitting down and resting, you started to feel absolutely fatigued. Maybe questions could wait until later.

Wordlessly, you slid down in the seat and rested your head on Jihoon’s shoulder. He put an arm around your shoulders before he laid his head on top of yours, deciding he’d let you sleep for a little bit while he kept an eye out for anything suspicious. He had to stay awake to think of a plan, anyway.

“You can’t do that!”

But he did it. He emptied his savings to buy two tickets to Japan where he insisted the two of you were going to live.

“They’ve been after me before,” he had explained in the motel room the two of you shared that night, “and I relocated to a different city. Now that you’re with me, I need to make sure they don’t find us again. I’ve heard good things about Japan, so why not try it? It’s away from here, at least.”

He knew it would cost him everything he had to buy plane tickets and get a place to stay, but he knew that the two of you could save up again together. So despite you insisting he shouldn’t blow all his money on this plan, that’s exactly what he did.

You felt safe on the plane, and you could tell Jihoon did too because he finally closed his eyes for longer than it took him to blink. But you also decided to use that opportunity to get the answers you wanted, keeping your voices hushed just so nobody would pick up on what you were talking about.

“I’m not completely sure who they are,” he began, his eyes closed as he let his head lay back against the seat, “but I know they’re trying to get supers. I’ve seen and experienced the shit they do to them, and it’s nothing you want to be subjected to. You’d rather die, trust me.”

You frowned thinking about Jihoon going through that, “That bad…?”

He opened one eye to look at you, “It’s like brainwashing but through sadistic tactics.”

“Oh…”

You felt Jihoon’s fingers lace through yours. You could tell he was a bit embarrassed about doing so from the pink tint his cheeks and the tips of his ears got, but he still looked you in your eyes when he spoke, making sure you were completely reassured.

“I’m okay, and we will be okay,” he promised. “They won’t get us -- I’ll make sure of it.”

You sat up a little straighter, figuring this was finally your opening.

“Jihoon?”

“Hmm?”

“I love you.”

His face flushed a deeper red as he tried to hide the wide, happy smile that wanted to spread across his lips. But his eyes still crinkled at the corners, his brown irises twinkling.

“I love you, too. Let’s get some rest before we get to Tokyo, okay?”

You pushed the armrest up so you could lean into him. He kept his hand in yours, resting them in his lap as he put his head on yours and let his eyes close, content that you were not only safe, but you were his.

[Two months later]

“You’re even shorter now.”

“Alright, _____, fuck you.”

You giggled as you balanced on the short concrete wall that separated the sidewalk and all the shops from the beach, Jihoon more than a whole foot shorter than you because of this. It was too cold to actually go on the beach, but you and Jihoon decided to go out since neither of you were busy, and the beach was the place he thought to drive to. You were walking along the wall while Jihoon chose to walk beside you on the sidewalk, glancing up at you every so often to make sure you didn’t fall over.

“Get down, you’ll get hurt,” Jihoon scolded. “You’re taller so you have a longer way to fall.”

“Ha-ha,” you deadpanned before jumping down from the wall. Your hand immediately found Jihoon’s on instinct before the two of you were walking again. “Do you wanna go back home?”

“Cold?” he guessed, looking up at you to see your pink cheeks and nose. Even your lips were chapped by now.

“Yeah, kinda,” you nodded as Jihoon slid your intertwined hands into his jacket pocket.

So the two of you went back to his car and made the drive back home. Jihoon played his playlist softly in the background while you looked out the window and admired the views on the way back. He asked how you were feeling which was something he usually did because while he’d had to leave everything behind before, you never had to, and you had to speak to your therapist over the phone now and less often which he knew must’ve been taking some sort of toll on you. He never really knew what you needed Dr.Yoon for other than it had to do with something before he met you, but he also never pried, either.

When you got back to the house, the two of you changed into comfier clothes before you decided to climb into bed, turning in early for the night. Jihoon still had the lamp on the nightstand on as the two of you laid together under the covers, your head on his chest as you looked up at the ceiling. Jihoon and you had jumped on the bed and placed glow-in-the-dark stars on there to mimic the stars that you missed seeing since you lived deep in the city now. You used to be able to explore outside the city when you were back in Korea and went around at night as Void, but you couldn’t do that anymore.

“What’re you thinking?” Jihoon murmured when you stayed silent, fidgeting with his fingers.

“Just basking in the moment, I guess,” you shrugged.

“Really?” he chuckled. “Why? Nothing’s happening.”

“I like just laying with you. I wish we could do it forever.”

“Me too,” he said softly, pressing a kiss to your head.

Jihoon used to hate using his powers, but he was using them little by little now since the two of you moved to Tokyo. Because little did you know that it was moments like these when it was just the two of you, that Jihoon would use his power to slow down time around you, letting the both of you lay in your little own infinity.

193 notes · View notes

texanredrose · 7 years ago

Text

Omega’s Strength (Pt 5)

As I mentioned at the beginning, I don’t wanna play the guessing game with canon, so here’s where I hash out what liberties I’ve taken to make this non-canon compliant as well as what the plan is going forward.

The official mess was a big, spacious room down the hall on the second deck, with long tables and fixed seats. It never sat well with the majority of their ragtag group, feeling too sterile for comfort and too reminiscent of Beacon for ease, so they instead took their meals in the kitchen area, where the food actually got cooked by whoever pulled the short straw for the day. Most of their rations were the bulk, ready-to-heat style typical for Atlesian military vessels, like the spaghetti and meatballs currently being pushed around her plate by her fork. Ruby had already gone over some things to work on as teams and individuals, with all but the leader of Team SNOW taking well to the criticism. Stryker at least played the role of an interested party, though her gaze seemed to convey a level of concerted disinterest not too dissimilar from Weiss when the Beta was announced as their team leader.

Well, they had experience working with stubborn Alphas. A few good knocks and she'd figure out that the time for fun and games ended a while ago.

"Oh! And, we were able to make contact with Team SSSN!" Ruby announced with a smile that became faked the longer she spoke. "They'll be meeting up with us as soon as possible. Might not be able to reach us before we try infiltrating the base but soon after that! They're, uh, looking forward to seeing us again."

Weiss and Blake exchanged a look, the Alpha's slight frown met with an equally unimpressed raise of her mate's brow. Ultimately, she put her hands up. "We... certainly could use the assistance."

"And they're reliable friends we can trust," the Omega said, pointedly shifting in her seat and likely doing something hidden by the island they were gathered around to set the other woman at ease. "I'm sure a brief word early on is all they'll need to focus on the mission."

"We can certainly hope." Weiss didn't seem convinced and, frankly, Yang didn't blame her; Sun and Neptune hadn't been subtle with their advances and Blake's extended period traveling with the monkey Faunus likely meant the newly bonded mates would have to talk about that at some point in the near future, if they hadn't already. However, as far as Alphas went, Sun landed on the more laid back end of the spectrum, and Neptune could be an admittedly aggressive Beta but proved rather easy to discourage, seeing as he'd never really pursued any of his shameless attempts at flirting. "Do we have any other allies?"

"We're still trying to contact Team CFVY." Her sister frowned. "Professor Goodwitch mentioned that a lot of students stayed back to secure the evacuation for Vale, but communication across the sea is still pretty spotty at best."

Then, Stryker decided to chime in with her first genuine comment since they'd regrouped. "You still call her Professor? This isn't exactly a classroom, you know."

"Showing proper respect to a more experienced Huntress trumps technicalities." Weiss shot back, narrowing her eyes slightly. "We would show you the same courtesy... if it applied."

A flicker of annoyance passed over the woman's face. "Oh, great. You two have the whole 'apple and tree' thing going on."

"And your entire team has the whole 'getting destroyed by people two years your junior' thing going on. It's a very charming theme."

"Weiss," Blake said, her voice neutral. It could be a warning, a reprimand, or an agreement and the majority of them would be none the wiser; only Yang could really get a read enough on the Faunus to tell the single word held more of the former and latter than the middle.

"Look, I get that we're all getting used to each other still, but there's way bigger things going on right now than personal differences," Ruby said, effectively bringing the conversation back on topic. "Normally, I'd be all for duking it out until we can agree to disagree, but we really don't have that option." Her expression hardened, the corners of her lips pulling into a slight frown. "We need to work together, starting now. Any objections?" When Team SNOW shifted, a subtle inhalation proceeding a verbal response, silver eyes shot to the four, irises glistening just a little with untold power. She still hadn’t mastered the enigmatic abilities but they seemed to respond when she thought about certain things, so she could at least try to use them, and it had the desired effect as all movement ceased. "Let me make this really clear. We can use all the help we can get but anyone not willing to put differences aside is just going to get someone else killed in the long run." She leaned back from the kitchen island, crossing her arms over her chest. "This... it's all or nothing. No in between. We've already lost too many friends; I'm not losing any more because of dumb, petty squabbles."

With a small sigh, Stryker nodded, making eye contact with Weiss as she spoke. "Fine. We'll play nice."

Almost immediately, the Alpha opened her mouth to snipe something back but a hand at her elbow stopped her, Blake's fingers soothing the annoyance from her brow easily. Yang watched silently, abandoning any hope of finishing her spaghetti in favor of taking a few steps back and leaning against one of the refrigerators. She couldn't imagine how soothing that must feel, having a mate's touch to calm the storm of one’s anger; getting Weiss to drop a subject once she'd gotten started remained one of the hardest things for her teammates to accomplish, though it seemed now only the sisters were left behind in that department. She'd have to remember that the next time an argument started up about how should be doing the dishes or something.

"What was Sun and them even doing, anyway?" The Omega figured changing the subject now that everyone had agreed to cooperate would be best. Plus, she honestly didn't know; while she was avoiding Blake and trying to figure out what she wanted to say to her partner, the monkey Faunus left on his own mission. "Visiting family?"

"Oh! Right. We should probably go over that." Ruby turned, grabbing something from a bag she'd brought with her and unfolding it. A map of Remnant was laid down on the island after the plates were quickly cleared away. "So, according the the myths and legends that... I guess are actually true, there's four Maidens and four Relics in Remnant, and each can harness the power of either the Light Brother or the Dark Brother." She pointed towards Vale. "We know that Cinder stole the Fall Maiden powers in Vale and that Ozpin has one of the relics hidden somewhere on Beacon grounds. It's why we're trying to make contact with Team CFVY; they can retrieve it for us, since he’d removed it from the vault before Beacon fell." Her finger trailed along the paper to Mistral. "Sun, meanwhile, took his team to try retrieving the relic from Vacuo. If we can collect all four, we can combine them and harness the Light Brother's power to banish Grimm."

"Wait, I thought we were fighting some sort of secret society thing?" Oswald's expression screwed up as he looked at the map. "Why do we need to worry about the Grimm?"

Blake answered him, her expression smooth despite the hint of fear in her eyes. "We are and most of our primary enemies are flesh and blood people. Their leader, however, is some sort of combination- possibly a symbiotic Grimm that combined with a Human to create the creature we are trying to defeat. Salem doesn't appear to have a particular power to command the Grimm, but she can summon them and her base of operations is in the center of a Grimm breeding ground." Absently, her hand reached out, briefly touching the handle of Blush and Wilt attached to her back. Yang couldn't help but wince, remembering all too vividly the trials they went through to gain that bit of intel. Even if she'd yet to actually draw the blade in combat, she carried it more often than not as a reminder and it never failed to pull a concerned twitch from Weiss' brows. "If we can destroy Salem and weaken the Grimm, her pawns will fold soon after."

"But what about these Maidens?" Nigel nodded towards Ruby. "We should try recruiting them to our side, eh? Maybe get one or two out of the remaining three to join us?"

Yang had to physically bite her tongue to keep from speaking her mind on that front.

"Finding them is the hard part," Weiss said. "Aside from the fact they're moving targets, the Maidens' powers are limited to mortal fallibility the same as our semblances. Add to that we're fairly confident that Salem is the Winter Maiden and we've got one person out of millions to find, and only the hope that she'll be a Huntresses. The way the powers transfer, she could just as easily be a teenager rather than an adult warrior."

Everyone unfamiliar with the Maidens' story cringed at that while Yang looked away.

Wisteria tugged on Oswald’s sleeve and he nodded slowly. “That’s only accounting for three out of four- Winter, Fall, and one other. What about the fourth?”

“The Spring Maiden won’t help us.” On top of everything else, she didn't need to think of her mother as well, a harsh edge to her voice as she glared at him. “She doesn’t trust Ozpin and that matters more than anything else, even our lives.”

Thankfully, Ruby decided to press on quickly, a small smile directed at Oswald.

"Basically, it's a gamble we really can't take... and we also have to be prepared if the Maidens try to stop us." The Beta sighed, brushing a hand through her red tipped hair. "After the debacle in Mistral, we're probably going to be labelled threats soon; Salem has agents in every kingdom hierarchy, and they're working against us. Revealing ourselves to people and hoping they'll listen- it's just going to be a bigger and bigger risk the further we pursue it. Which is why we're going to try to find Salem's Atlesian agent; if we're lucky, we can draw attention towards a direct method of engagement while others find the relics. Once we have all four, we can hit Salem hard and end this, once and for all."

Everyone nodded as a sort of firm determination settled over them, with Jaune being the one to move the proceedings along. "So, what are we going to do here in northern Atlas?"

Ruby breathed in deeply, letting out in a long sigh. "Well. That's the fun part."

She bent over the map again, pointing to a spot near the most northern part of inhabited territory in all of Mantle, drawing everyone's attention to it while she explained the plan.

Yang laid on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. She'd thought about the whole mission plan from start to finish a dozen times already, hammering her part in the whole thing home. Using the spare uniforms and equipment left aboard the ship, they would infiltrate the Atlesian base and try to find Salem's agent. Winter and Weiss would remain back with the ship, the former Professors plus Qrow on the edge to create diversions if things got too hot, and Team SNOW would be there to walk them into the perimeter; it would be on Teams RBY and ORNJ to find the rat. They didn't have much to go on except that this gear in the machine seemed to about as important as Cinder- an elevated pawn, but a pawn nonetheless. Winter had already given them her thoughts on who it could be and tips for what things they should seek out, but they were essentially flying blind.

The Omega didn't like it. Too much sneaking around, too much subterfuge- she didn't believe for a second she could fool anyone into believing she was a member of the Atlesian military and banking on a charming smile seemed like dooming them to failure. Team SNOW had agreed to help teach them basics- greetings and simple acronyms- but it seemed like they were leaving too much up to chance.

However, an open fight against a fully staffed outpost didn't bode well, either. Qrow had managed to secure them enough dust rounds to be a good stockpile for when they launched the last stage of Ruby's plan against Salem's headquarters, but they didn't have the resources to go into a full blown firefight every other day.

Something would go wrong. She could tell already; Ruby's plans usually worked out pretty well, but her best ones were always formulated in the middle of the problem, the heat of battle, when seconds meant life or death. The rush helped her think and, while this probably constituted the best plan they'd be able to manage given the situation, it wouldn't be until something went terribly wrong that the real plan came out.

She just had to make sure everyone made it that far.

Loud banging on her door jolted her into awareness, glaring at the entrance to her quarters and sighing. Aside from the dull drone of the engines as they pushed further north, everything had fallen silent on the ship and most everyone should be asleep, preparing for the busy day tomorrow. They had about thirty six hours to become believable soldiers; it didn't leave much room for slacking.

With a muttered curse, she got up and went to the door, opening it and finding a scowl coming to her features.

"Hey," Stryker said, one arm against the wall as she nonchalantly stood in front of the blonde. "Still awake, I see."

"Very observant." She crossed her arms over her chest, already guessing how things were about to go. "Wanna get it off your chest now or are you going to waste time trying to woo me?"

"You're really taking the fun out of this, Blondie." The Alpha sighed, running a hand through her hair and missing the twitch of Yang's eye. "Look, I just figure we could help each other out here. Blow off some steam." The blonde growled, showing her teeth a little. Not the least bit intimidated by her display, Stryker chuckled. "Oh come on! Is a little bit of mutual enjoyment too much to ask?"

"Use your hand," Yang replied. "I'm not interested."

"You can't lie for shit, you know that? You're definitely interested in a little action." Pushing off the wall, the other woman took one step closer, nearly invading the Omega's space. "Just... from a different Alpha." Anger flashed across Yang's expression quicker than she could think to stop it, her right hand shooting forward to grab Stryker's lapel and bring her close, left hand drawing back for a punch aimed in the middle of that smug smile. She stopped before putting her fist forward, though, a twitch in her brow speaking to the effort of not immediately following through with the blow. "Touched a nerve, did I? Or is this your version of foreplay?"

"You're really asking for a beating, you know that?" Putting the Alpha through a wall, while cathartic, most likely wouldn't help her in the slightest. Besides that, a question burned on the tip of her tongue and she was using the majority of her energy to keep it locked behind her teeth. In the end, she couldn't, her eyes darting away as her shoulders dropped slightly. "Am I really that obvious?"

"Not really." Stryker shrugged, not bothering to remove the fist still holding her jacket while ticking off her fingers with every bit of 'evidence' she'd gathered during her brief time aboard the ship. "You're not bonded, you just came off heat from what I can tell, there's only one Alpha you get super tense around, she seems to be avoiding you like a pack of Ursa, your entire team seems super worried about you, and you really don't like me arguing with her." Her eyes darted down to the prosthetic before coming back to meet lilac, raising a brow in the process. "I took a stab in the dark that you're hung up on the Specialist and can't get her attention. Her loss, really; Omega like you needs a more attentive Alpha. Plus, she seems like a hardass-"

"There's nothing wrong with Winter." With a shove, she released the woman, scowling at her with her eyes flashing red. "What's going on between us isn't any of your business, and I'm not interested in you."

Catching her balance, Stryker smoothed out her jacket and cracked a smile. "Alright. But if that itch gets too bad, just come find me. I'll scratch it for you, no strings attached."

Not bothering to dignify that with a response, Yang hit the button to close her door and another to engage the lock, stalking back to her bed while quietly fuming. By the time she reached it, though, she had to sit on the edge, head in her hands as she sighed. Obviously, her efforts to appear unaffected hadn't worked, and if she couldn't fool a perfect stranger than the rest of her team had to know as well. They were likely just giving her time and space, remaining supportive without pushing her too far. She could appreciate that but she'd wished someone had told her how pathetic she was acting.

Winter didn't want her. Pining for the woman... there were better uses of her energy.

She leaned back to flop on her bed, staring unseeing at the ceiling once more. Anger spiked and mellowed in waves over different parts of the brief interaction- the slights against Winter, the teasing that she'd normally allow from friends but not strangers, but what stuck out most was her own foolish choice of words. Like an idiot, she'd gone with 'what's going on between us', an entire fabrication if ever there was one and wishful thinking getting the better of her. The Omega's propensity to go all in had created something within her mind, a give-and-take that never actually existed, and she kept buying into it just so she wouldn't feel alone. She felt so pathetic being this broken up over the whole ordeal still. What, would she just keep wallowing in self-imposed misery until her next heat, when she'd hopefully latch onto some other shallow attraction to a comrade? How long until she started baring her throat to that- that cocky brat?

"I gotta get over her," she said to the air, a frown tugging at her lips as she decided to turn in for the night. Yang didn't have much confidence in the words; two weeks later and she felt pain in her chest even glancing at the woman or catching her faint scent while walking through the hallway, especially now that the familiar scent had changed.

She'd noticed it after dinner, that strange addition that said the same thing but smelled different for everyone- the clear indication that the person in question wasn't available. For someone with a mating mark, it would be supplemented with the scent of their mate, a clear warning to any who might get too close without good reason that they wouldn't be welcomed. However, sometimes people just... developed the marker without a scent to accompany it, either through choice or by losing the bond that accompanied their mating mark. The Omega had expected it shortly after her heat ended; her unrequited mark probably upset Winter's body chemistry and, until it healed, the warning to others that she'd been marked would remain. Now that it had presumably disappeared, though, the fact the marker lingered worried Yang.

Just how badly had her recklessness hurt the Alpha? Or was this just the natural progression of the woman ensuring it wouldn't happen again, consciously swearing off even the chance to appear as a mate so they wouldn't run into another issue in the future? Considering their ragtag group consisted of mostly Omegas, Betas, and mated or otherwise unavailable Alphas, it would greatly reduce their chances of triggering another heat. It would be the pragmatic decision... which was probably why Winter made it.

Yang went through her nightly routine by rote, hardly noticing the flash of sensation as she detached her arm and set it on the dresser next to her bunk before settling down for the night. Faintly, it annoyed her that Stryker didn't seem like the sort to remove herself from the equation for the good of the group, but she pushed the thoughts from her mind. If she focused hard enough- if she truly began to believe her own words- then her scent would change, too.

Maybe then, she could move on and leave those shattered hopes behind.

They stood in the cargo bay, wearing the uniforms fished out from the bowels of the ship while Team SNOW demonstrated simple gestures- saluting, marching, standing. It all seemed ridiculous to Yang but she paid attention as best she could, occasionally glancing towards Weiss. The Alpha had accompanied her team but the anxiety showed plainly in her features; she did not like this plan, both because it separated her from her mate and forced her to stay as far away from the action as possible. She might have a comparably weaker constitution than the rest of her teammates, but Weiss would be just as eager to throw herself into harms way to protect them.

For her part, Blake seemed nervous as well. Part of it came from having her ears exposed- not entirely abnormal for Atlesian military forces but not... exactly optimal, either- and a larger part came from sensing her mate's emotions, her attention split between going to comfort the woman and paying attention to the demonstrations. Ruby, at least, seemed entirely invested, though the uniform made her look her age for once. That might prove a problem, though, considering the average age for new military personnel, but Stryker assured them it would be overlooked if they called her ‘baby face’ enough times.

Again, Yang couldn't help but feel like they were leaving far too much up to chance and hoping for the best. It chaffed at her, her nose scrunching up in distaste as the Atlesians demonstrated an about face for the umpteenth time.

"Right, then, now it's your turn." Nigel stepped away from the others, nodding towards their students. "Let's see what you've got."

One by one, they demonstrated the facing movement, until it was the Omega's turn. She did her best but the rigidity of the motion didn't sit well with her, and shifting her weight to one foot while turning around felt awkward with her right side being heavier.

"Try again, Yang." Stryker called out, a crooked smile on her lips. "Unless you want another demonstration?"

"Pass." She grumbled, trying a second time and proving no more successful for it. "Damnit."

"You're trying too hard," the Alpha said, starting to walk towards her. "Do it again. But, slower."

Blake and Ruby exchanged a look while Weiss pushed off from her spot observing, the rest of her team silently debating on whether or not to intervene. She hadn't divulged any information about their late night conversation the night before but they could sense the tension that radiated from the blonde growing the closer Stryker came. A snarl tugged at her lips, brows furrowing as she quite nearly started chewing the woman out, but a crisp order halted her in her tracks.

"Stop." Everyone turned to see Winter striding into the room, a duffel bag under one arm and a severe look on her features. "You're not going to get anywhere if everyone acts like new recruits."

Stryker opened her mouth to respond but obviously thought better of it, crossing her arms over her chest and ceasing her advance. Instead, Oswald piped up, motioning towards the bag. "So, what's the new plan, Specialist?"

"Give some of you a bit of clout." She dropped the bag on the ground and motioned for Blake and Ren to come closer. "Your cover story is that you're being assigned to the base but your transport came under fire, correct? No one's going to believe that a handful of fresh recruits managed to survive this far north on limited supplies without a superior aiding them." Kneeling down, she pulled out coats of a slightly different style, handing them off to the two she'd called over. "These will make both of you look like Sergeants. You're young but capable. Remember that you're elevated above the others; act like it, and no one will question you. If anyone asks how you survived, go with your gut, seeing as both of you have experience traversing Grimm infested wilds."

"That... does seem more feasible." Oswald admitted quietly, looking away when Stryker glared at him. "What? Walking in with two superiors is going to bail us out a little."

"You'll have a better cover than that." Winter looked over at Ruby and Jaune, grabbing something else from the bag. "You two, here: they're Engineer tabs. Put them on your shoulders. You'll be separated from the rest but most will assume you're a bit eccentric and leave you well enough alone. Just steer clear of anyone else wearing tabs like these and no one else will know the difference."

As the two started affixing the tabs to their shoulders, the Alpha pulled one last coat from the bag that looked much closer to her own. She started at it for a moment before standing. "Yang, this is for you."

"What am I going to be?" The blonde walked over, accepting the jacket and giving it a once over. It looked like it would be a bit tight around her shoulders but, hopefully, she wouldn't be doing much fighting in it.

"A Specialist." The woman clasped her hands behind her back. "Specialists exist outside the normal hierarchy and we're given a wide berth because of that. Between you, Blake, and Ren, no one will think twice about the group surviving and making it to the outpost. Your new cover story is that you're on a mission to drop off recruits and pursue Mantle purists in the area. All questions will most likely be directed at you, since you'll be the ranking member of the group."

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." Stryker rolled her eyes. "Put the Valen civilian in charge of actual Atlesian soldiers. Nothing can go wrong."

The Omega bit her lip. As much as she wanted to glare at the woman... she did have a valid point.

"Plenty can go wrong," Winter said, taking the criticism in stride. "And when it does, you'll have two Sergeants who don't care about their future careers and a Specialist who can benchpress a two ton truck." She turned her head, favoring her fellow soldiers with a sharp look. "I realize you four have yet to spend a day in the real military, but those aspects alone can get you out of a surprising amount of situations. A few more alterations and you'll have people jumping out of your way." She turned her attention to Oscar, who looked decidedly less mature than the rest of them, especially in the uniform. "I trust you've got your own plan."

"Uh, yeah..." He looked slightly concerned, one hand going to the collapsed cane at his hip. "It sounds risky but... if you can get us in, we'll manage. I'll manage. Whatever."

The young man didn't seem entirely convinced of that but the woman nodded regardless, looking to Nora next. "You'll be the communications officer. It's a fairly simple change; just tuck your lapels in and don't stop talking once someone asks you a question."

"Oh, I can do that!" The redhead smiled, though she tilted her head to the side. "But I can get kinda... carried away, until Ren stops me."

"That's precisely what I'm hoping for." The Alpha nodded. "It will help establish Ren as your superior and I'm sure your imagination can conjure up a suitably dire situation that you lot narrowly escaped. Just make sure that no one corrects her; everything she says will be taken as truth as long as no one objects."

"You really think they're going to buy this?" Yang couldn't help but ask, still holding the Specialist jacket in her hands. Especially given the confusion during Team SNOW's introductions, she didn't think an Omega could pass for a ranking officer in the Atlesian military.

"That comes down to you, really, and I'm confident you can pull it off." Winter favored her with a small smile. "I'll teach you what you need to do. In two hours, you'll be able to fool the majority of the Atlesian military into thinking you are exactly who you say you are."

The blonde struggled with a verbal response, at once wanting to agree, to bank on the Alpha's confidence in her, while also wanting to vehemently disagree, not looking forward to two hours spent with the woman. It would be torture but, at the end of the day, they needed to do this, and she needed every advantage she could get. With a stilted nod, she grunted out something vaguely affirmative and followed Winter out of the cargo bay.

Once they were out in the hallway, she found her voice, though it wasn't nearly her strongest. "We couldn't do this back there with the others?"

"They need to be surprised by your behavior. A Specialist being attached to the transport last minute makes far more sense than one travelling with the group for a long period of time," the woman said, leading them into one of the combat simulators. "If they appear unused to your demeanor, it will help sell the ruse."

"Fine." She sighed, rolling her neck. "So, where do we start?"

"The jacket, put it on." Winter turned around to face her, adopting a rigid posture with her feet shoulder width apart, hands clasped behind her back, and chin tilted up. "You need to associate this uniform with absolute power. We exist outside the chain of command and the moments we're subject to it are few and far between. Your mission supersedes that of others and the Atlesian military at large, no matter what it is. But you must carry yourself as if you're constantly aware of this. You're focused on your mission, you're mindful of your importance, and no one save for General Ironwood himself can dissuade your from your chosen path."

"I thought Specialists were just Hunters that decided to join the military." The fabric felt just as heavy as the other jacket but seemed to move a little better for some reason, but it still fit her tight across the shoulders. Styled more like Winter's, the first button sat below her diaphragm, effectively framing her chest much like her old jacket did, so she at least had that little bit of familiarity going for her. The long sleeves were a bit annoying though, and she could feel the cuffs pulling tight over Ember Celica. If she had to activate her weapons for any reason, the jacket would be a near total loss, especially her right arm. Once it sat on her shoulders well enough, she straightened up and cleared her throat. "How's it look?"

"Rather well. It won't draw anyone's attention as not being made for you, at any rate." The woman looked somewhat uncomfortable for a moment before her expression smoothed out. "And... that's not true, about Specialists. It's more accurate to say every soldier is trained to be a Hunter and given the option to fight only Grimm than the other way around, but we're... highly encouraged to stay within the military system."

Yang frowned, her brows drawing together. "That... doesn't sound very ethical. I thought Hunters were supposed to be neutral forces, belonging to no kingdom and standing strong for Humans and Faunus alike?"

"Admittedly, it's not. Ethical, I mean." The Alpha sighed, shaking her head. "I realize it may sound strange, but Atlas has always been concerned with consolidating its strength as much as possible. The Academy is geared to appear like any other to the casual observer but it... decidedly favors the military, and the majority of our tactics training comes from military doctrine. The Atlesian military is the most flexible fighting force in all of Remnant, precisely because we're training to combat both Grimm and... human adversaries."

"And no one knows?" As much as it struck her as strange she had to admit that it made more sense; how Ironwood could spare so many ships and soldiers for the Vytal Festival without raising a ruckus back in Atlas. It probably only constituted a drop in the bucket as far as the Atlesian military was concerned and most didn't even notice the absence. "That Atlas essentially is raising an army under the guise of protecting Remnant."

"I suspect others do know; they just can't prove it definitively." She held Yang's gaze for a long moment. "The first thing we're taught is loyalty. It's framed as loyalty to our team and the conditions under which we learn it are... harsh, but no more unorthodox than catapulting fresh students into a Grimm infested forest with only their weapons and wits to aid them. The lesson is burned deep and, after that, all it takes is one or two to express an interest in remaining within the military or offered placement in the Specialist program before the others follow suit. Our Hunters are usually those who couldn't make it as Specialists but don't work well with others either; they graduate thinking they've made the decision to pursue their own paths, never realizing that they only had the one open to them anyway." Winter pressed her lips into a thin line. "Those of us who can recognize the signs of subtle manipulation remain silent out of loyalty to the system or because we truly believe it does the most good. Sometimes, it's our only path to freedom, even if it is trading one set of chains for another."

Suddenly, it clicked. "That's why Weiss went to Beacon."

"Yes," she replied with a single nod. "She would never have reached her full potential at Atlas Academy. I embraced the system because it provided me with an escape but I never wanted my sister to follow me there." For a moment, genuine affection shone brightly in her eyes as her lips curled into a small smile. "She's so much stronger than I was at her age. A strong will, a strong heart..." Her expression slid back into that cold mask from before. "She would've seen through the guise and washed out, given subpar training and ultimately denied her dream. Or, she would've killed herself slowly by keeping silent and burdened with yet another set of standards she had no desire to meet."

Yang rolled the information around in her head before she spoke. "That's what you mean by Specialists being a big deal. They're the best of the best, good enough for three other people to follow them into the military, so everyone's going to see in me the reason they're out here to begin with, an ideal they're entirely committed to without question?"

"Precisely."

"Alright. I guess I can get that." She shifted slightly. "I don't agree with it, though." Smoothing out the jacket and trying not to wince at how weird having a sleeve around her left wrist but not her right felt, she continued. "So, should I stand like you?"

"No. Stand like you." The Alpha moved, striding around her while speaking. "Specialists are highly trained and individualistic to a fault. We wouldn't fit into the mold of a regular soldier but we're strong enough to survive on our own. If you buy into the lines, rather than wasting our potential, we're utilized in this capacity; given free reign to adhere to what regulations we choose and disregard those that don't appeal to us. It's an enormous responsibility tempered only by our devotion to our mission." Yang remained acutely aware of the woman's motions as she circled the Omega, following her as best she could from the corner of her eyes. "You're extremely driven, dedicated to your ideals, and stubborn; by all rights, you could've become a Specialist yourself had you grown up in Atlas."

"Comforting," she said, rolling her shoulders and settling for crossing her arms over her chest, shifting her weight to her left foot. If needed, she could quickly react, but she felt more relaxed now than standing flatfooted with her arms at her sides. "Basically, act like myself and if anyone looks at me funny, don't care."

"That's one way of putting it." Winter walked in front of her again. "We'll also need to pull your hair up into a bun."

Yang frowned. "Is that absolutely necessary?"

"Unfortunately, yes." The Alpha looked her over. "You still look like Yang Xiao Long, the woman who broke a man's leg on a Remnant wide broadcast. If we don't do something to change your appearance, you'll be recognized just as easily as Weiss or myself."

She immediately broke eye contact, looking down at the space between him. "He attacked first."

"I believe you." Slowly, she looked up, finding no hint of deception in the woman's expression. "It's clear the events surrounding the Vytal Festival were manipulated by Salem. That's in the past and we can't change it; neither can we expect everyone to accept your version of the events immediately. Avoiding someone recognizing you is the best option and, trust me, once you're sufficiently in the Specialist mindset, no one will even think to imagine what you'd look like out of uniform." Her lips quirked up into a slightly smug grin. "The majority of Atlesian forces are rather scared of us Specialists. Once you capitalize on that, you'll be fine."

The blonde rolled her eyes. "So, basically, walk around like I'm the biggest badass in the room, glare at anyone who tries to stop me, and answer every question with 'classified', and I'll be good, right?"

"It's a little more nuanced than that," the woman replied dryly.

"Oh, right. I suppose I should mention my mission once or twice, too, so that almost every answer is 'classified'."

Winter looked at her for a moment. "Wait, are you teasing me?"

The Omega cracked a small smile and shrugged. "Classified."

For a moment, she just blinked, and then a chuckle escaped her lips that made Yang's smile widen just a little. It felt good to see the woman in higher spirits, more relaxed and smiling. It felt like a small lifetime since she'd seen Winter smile and, despite the pain in her chest knowing this would be as close as they ever could be, it still felt good to be the cause of it.

"Well, if you're done making light of the situation, I'm afraid we've gotten to the part where things are a bit more... complicated." What little amusement had crept into her expression vanished by degrees until she had that serious look in her eyes, lips drawing into a small frown. "Specialists are generally alone for long periods of time and don't have the same bond that other military personnel experience in units. For Alphas, this isn't troublesome; we're inclined to acting on our own in defense of those we hold dear. Betas are decently suited to the task as well." She paused, as if searching for the correct phrasing. "As an Omega, this lifestyle would grate on your nerves. You wouldn't have the team structure you're used to, but you would still be protecting people. Omega Specialists are..." Winter sighed, reaching up to pass a hand over her face while sighing. "They can be some of the most terrifying people you'll ever meet. I've met two and if I never cross their paths again, I'll be all too grateful for it."

Yang's brows furrowed as she tried to search her memory. The list of people who intimidated her actually ran pretty short and, excluding Blake's former partner- the spectre of whom still lurked in the back of her mind- very few actually scared her. She certainly couldn't remember an Omega who'd done such; aggressive Alphas and Betas, sure, the ones who came on too strong sending an immediate spike of warning running down her spine, but she always dealt with them swiftly. In those moments, she could see where the people on the receiving end of her rage might be a bit intimidated, seeing as that was kinda the point, but imagining the circumstances that would lead her to feeling like that all the time or push her to a higher level in the first place...

And then it struck her. Those Omegas likely had to spend the majority of their service on suppressants but that wouldn't negate the innate need for companionship. Even Blake, quiet and reserved as she was, wouldn't be able to remain entirely solitary for long. They might enjoy their company different ways- the blonde preferred the loud and boisterous kind while her partner opted for quiet contemplation- but they both needed to be around others. Bereft of anyone, however, would be awful, and the only time she'd consciously avoided others entirely directly resulted from her disastrous heat.

They couldn't fit into the soldier mold because they either couldn't or wouldn't trust others around them, so they retreated from the world. They'd be angry, resentful, caustic to any who dared interact with them.

"I'll need to be mad the whole time," she said, looking up to see the twinge of regret in the woman's face. "No one wants to deal with a ticked off Omega, right?"

Maybe it counted as a low blow because she couldn't keep the accusation out of her tone. Even if it was for the best and what she wanted... the only reason she felt a little bit of resentment towards Winter for not returning to check on her and sending Weiss in her stead came from a misbegotten idea that the Alpha should've seen the thing through. A ridiculous notion, really, but having to hunt her down after the turmoil passed... it hurt knowing that she wasn't worth dealing with that fallout, even if all it would likely amount to would likely be summed up entirely by the words 'bad idea'. It just came back around to the fact that they weren't mates, weren't anything, and it would've been easier on both of them if Yang had just suffered in solitude. Then there wouldn't be this awkward barrier between them caused by the events of those few days.

"Yang." Blue eyes searched hers for a moment and she caved almost immediately, preempting the apology she could sense coming.

"I shouldn't have said it like that. I'm sorry." The Omega waved a hand before running it through her hair. "It's like you said- it's in the past. We both... I made a mistake and you were doing your best. No going back to change it." A shrug. "The best we can do now is move forward. Right?"

A voice that sounded suspiciously like Blake chided her, saying that this didn't constitute 'talking it out' but she ignored it.

Winter watched her, something flashing across her expression- some sort of regret, that much she could tell- before she nodded. "You're right. Mistakes happen; it's best to forget." Her posture straitened, her voice taking on a crisp edge once more. "But if you happen to be holding onto any anger, I'd suggest keeping it a little longer. It'll help you infiltrate the base." The Alpha hesitated, apparently debating something before she spoke. "It will behoove you to practice in full uniform a bit. That includes your hair." She cleared her throat, coughing into one hand. "May I?"

She hesitated. No one had touched her hair aside from her in years. Not even Ruby- her sister understood that she didn't like it, so she never asked. The only exception happened to be their father, and only because Yang didn’t have her other arm. However, the stakes were a bit too high to balk over being a little uncomfortable. "Yeah. Alright."

"Excellent. Go ahead and sit down."

Considering the lack of chairs in the simulator, Yang had no choice but to lower herself to the floor, crossing her legs as best she could in the tight uniform pants. "How do you stand wearing these?"

"It comes with practice," the woman replied, coming up behind her and kneeling down. "I'll do my best to be gentle. Feel free to correct me if I'm not."

The Omega offered a grunt in response, trying to hide how she'd resorted to breathing through her mouth. Honestly, she couldn't tell whether it was a better or worse alternative, reminded for a moment how the woman tasted when she'd marked her. An itch to bite down tickled at the back of her mind, but she'd just be gnashing her teeth, so instead she focused on the long, lithe fingers carefully combing their way through her locks.

She realized her mistake too late, her eyes almost falling closed. True to her word, Winter carefully tamed the blonde's wild mane with nothing but her fingers, muttering something about using a comb to make it more presentable next time. Every time she winced at the tiniest tug, the woman had already stopped and smoothed the affected area out, offering a quiet apology. Yang didn't really get the whole 'mutual grooming' thing, allowing her mate or even a close friend to mess with her hair just seemed like a recipe for disaster.

But this was... nice.

"Your hair is beautiful. How long have you been growing it out?" Winter kept her voice soft, as if doing her absolute best to preserve the tentative peace between them. They hadn't been this close since their spar and not since their coupling before that; perhaps the woman felt as if walking on eggshells around each other was the only option left to them.

Maybe, while en route to their next battlefield, they could work out something different. For now, it seemed like the best option, so she replied in kind. "Since I was a kid. I get it trimmed up every few months or so, usually, but it's been a while, and Ruby's not the best barber."

"You've let her cut your hair before?"

"Once. When we were really young." Her lips curled into a smile. "As a matter of fact, that was right around the time I realized I don't like other people touching my hair."

"Weiss mentioned you're rather particular about it. I thought it odd but now... entirely understandable." The snap of elastic procured from somewhere preceded tension at the back of her head, and she winced at the reminder of those few months when she couldn't put her own hair into a ponytail and had to ask her dad for help. He never complained and said it was 'good father, daughter bonding' but all she could focus on was the sense of helplessness. By the time the strands were being wound up into a bun, the melancholy had passed. "It doesn't get in your way while fighting?"

"Sometimes, but once my semblance kicks in, it just... behaves, I guess." She shifted slightly, contemplating if she should dare continuing the conversation before taking the plunge. They'd have to start acting like normal people around each other eventually; as long as she kept herself firmly reminded of the strictly platonic nature of their interactions, she should be fine. "What about you? Does it... feel weird having your hair down now?"

"Weird is a good word for it. I've worn my hair up for so long, having it any other way felt very strange at first," the Alpha replied, a slight wistfulness in her tone. "But I suppose a prisoner might feel the same with their shackles removed. Having it down... I feel freer, less restricted."

"Well, I think your hair is beautiful, too, up or down," she said, and immediately wanted to slap a hand to her face.

Good job. Exactly the sort of flirting you should be doing around the Alpha who rejected you. Way to not come across as pathetic.

Predictably, the woman took her compliment in stride. "Thank you."

Yang felt a slight tug, wincing and using it as a cover to let out a sigh as relief suffused her being. Somehow, that had slid past without further comment and she felt grateful, because trying to explain herself would've been a nightmare and a half.

The snap of more elastic followed by a small hum brought her out of her head. "I think that's the best I can do without a brush. Tomorrow, I will ensure it's perfect." Winter stood up and walked around to in front of her, straightening out her jacket. "Now, stand up, and when you do, do it as a Specialist. I have absolute faith in you."

That makes one of us.

The blonde took a deep breath, trying to bring out her anger consciously. Pushing it down, that came easily, but turning it on... not so much. She usually reacted to something, but the times before when she'd gotten angry didn't seem strong enough to last- the bar, the tournament, those were too brief, and the idea of Blake being in danger brought back memories of Adam, which sparked anger and fear in equal measure.

Instead, she thought back to a few weeks prior, the self loathing rolling through her in waves. She remembered the moment when she fully prepared to lash out at Winter- the woman who'd supported her as best she could in the circumstances and didn't seem to hold her foolishness against her- and every damn mistake since. As she got to her feet, she remembered Stryker's attitude the night before, her insults against the other Alpha, and how much it hurt that she felt compelled to defend someone she'd insulted herself, turning against her when she'd only offered to help.

When she opened her eyes, they were blazing red and fell on Winter with all the weight of a fully loaded airship. Her right arm snapped into a salute as she spoke. "Specialist Betrugs, delivering new recruits." She paused, lowering her hand and furrowing her brows slightly, enough to convey annoyance. "How's that? Do I look the part?"

The Alpha appeared entirely caught off guard, posture straightening the moment Yang's eyes were on her and chin tilting up a fraction. Something flashed in her eyes, darkening them for a brief moment, before it seemed to be chased away. Finally, she seemed to register the questions directed at her.

"Perfect." Winter blinked, shaking her head slightly and clearing her throat. "You- yes, you look the part. Do that tomorrow and no one will think twice about your story. That was an excellent example."

Releasing a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, the Omega rolled her neck and allowed her anger to dissipate. "I'm not sure if I can keep that up for hours on end."

"You really only need to bring it out in full force when others are around," she said, coughing into her hand and smoothing out her jacket once more. "I'm confident you'll be able to manage. Once you're within the perimeter, most will steer clear of you anyway."

"You have a lot of faith in me," she said, rubbing along the back of her neck. Having nothing but the cool air hitting it felt so strange and it would likely get worse once she was out in the elements tomorrow.

"I do," Winter replied, a small smile on her lips when the Omega looked up. "Xiao could I not?"

Yang blinked. "Did you just make a pun?"

"Well, turnabout is fair play, is it not?" The Alpha's smile widened as the blonde shook her head.

"For the record, you Schnees are really bad at them." She couldn't help the little chuckle that accompanied the words. "So, what's next?"

As the impromptu lesson on Specialist etiquette continued, Winter's smile didn't fade, and she found herself wondering if perhaps getting back to normal between them wasn't as out of reach as she'd previously thought. Besides, if she couldn't have the woman as a mate, she at least had her confidence as a comrade-in-arms and that could be just as good. Not what she wanted, but something all the same.

When the lesson ended and they exited the training room, Yang tried to walk away without saying anything more, but her gut betrayed her, twisting into knots until she spoke. "Hey, Winter?"

"Yes?"

She turned to look at the woman, glad that the tightness at the back of her head had disappeared the moment she'd taken the bun down. Even though she could feel nothing but relief on a physical level, it still made her a little sad to have already lost any sign of the woman's work wrangling her unruly hair into something neat and orderly. "Thanks." The Alpha raised a brow. "All that talk about loyalty... abandoning your post to join us must've been a harder decision for you than we initially thought. I'm just..." She offered a small shrug. "Glad you came with us."

Winter paused for a moment before smiling, her shoulders dropping slightly from their severe line. She'd fallen back into a few old habits during their little session but they seemed to slide away as that twinkle in her eyes from before came back. "Surprisingly, it was the easiest decision I've ever made. As much as I'd come to believe in the Atlesian military, I believe in other people more." She turned, heading towards the cockpit. "No matter what, it's a decision I won't regret."

Yang watched her go with a pang in her heart. One day, the woman would make the ideal mate.

Just... not hers.

#TRR writes #Elderburn #Omega's Strength #Elderburn Omegaverse AU

28 notes · View notes

yourkeeperoftherunners · 7 years ago

Text

Gentle Monster Epilogue

Plot: AU All he wanted was a home, but it seemed like he was never going to get one. You wanted a friend who would keep you company. Upon stepping into the mystical pet shop tucked in the back alleys of a tourist area of town, you had no idea what you were getting into when you signed the paperwork.

Rating: PG (Language)

Characters: Dog Hybrid!Chanyeol x Female Reader, Magic Pet Store Owner!Kris, Dog Hybrid!Baekhyun, and mentions of other OT12 hybrids and owners

Notes: This is part of @oh-beyond‘s hybrid series – she gave me her blessing to write one for Chanyeol. The premise is slightly inspired by the manga Pet Shop of Horrors with differences (Ex. Chanyeol’s human form is only visible to the reader and Kris in private and Kris matches pets with appropriate owners versus Count D who used the animals to teach owners a lesson.) Chanyeol’s breed is a Great Dane Doberman mix (called a Doberdane), which is inspired by the writer’s own dog. The title was inspired by a real life experience when a young girl (same height as my dog) rounded the corner in a shop and saw my dog for the first time. (She dubbed my dog “a monster dog” when she ran to tell her dad because she had never encountered a dog as big as her.)

All content is fictional!

Banner created by me. Absolutely no reposting anywhere else as your own!

Ch. 3

Chanyeol stroked your hair as you slept soundly, smiling as he gazed upon your peaceful body. Out of concern for your well-being, he had turned off your alarm, reasoning that you could use the rest after a stressful night. Sure you might not be happy to learn what he had done, but he thought you needed a day off.

He frowned when he heard your phone in the other room and pouted, wishing he didn’t have to move from his spot beside you. You were still asleep and hadn’t heard the phone buzz on the counter in the kitchen. He slipped out from under the covers and tried not to disturb you as he headed out to the kitchen to see who it was.

He frowned as he looked down at the screen and saw a woman’s name, unsure of who it could be. Well, it seemed rude to not answer, so...

“Hello?”

“Oh Y/N? Did I dial the wrong number?” the secretary asked.

“Oh no this is her phone,” Chanyeol responded as he pressed the phone against his ear. “I’m her...friend! She’s sleeping now but I can –”

“Chan, who are you talking to?” you asked as you stumbled out into the kitchen, messing up your hair.

He ducked his head and mouthed that it was a woman. You held out your hand for the phone and he passed it over with a sheepish look.

“Hello this is Y/N.”

“Hey! Wanted to call and check up on you – we heard about the incident at your complex. My God, are you okay?” the secretary asked.

Your eyes widened when you heard her voice and you glanced over at the clock to see what time it was. Crap, you slept in and had missed a meeting already! What happened to your alarm clock?!

“Your boyfriend answered and said you were sleeping,” she continued. “By the way, he sounds cute. Anyways, we just wanted to hear if you were okay – glad they caught that guy harming you.”

“Please tell our boss I’ll in right away!” you said as you began speed walking to your room.

“Oh no sweetie, stay home please! You have plenty of vacation banked up – take a day or two! The boss understands and he said you deserve a break. Don’t rush in here after a stressful night,” she reassured you. “No, I mean it! Stay home, pet Puppy for me, and let the cute boyfriend take care of you. Okay?”

You frowned at her sentence and stared back at Chanyeol. Wait, she could hear his human voice? Hold up – she thought he was your boyfriend?!

“Did we lose connection?”

“Oh um no! No! I’m sorry, uh yes I’ll take a day off,” you said as you sank into a chair. “I’ll see you tomorrow then. Thank you.” You hung up and Chanyeol padded over to you with a guilty look.

“I’m sorry Y/N, I turned your alarm off so you could sleep more,” he admitted. “Last night was scary and you needed the rest. I heard your phone and didn’t want to ignore it so, I answered.” He clasped your hands in his and gave you a pleading look. “Please don’t be angry, I only wanted to take care of you.”

You tilted your head and shot him a knowing look. “Next time Channie, please don’t turn my alarm off unless its the weekend. But you were right, I needed to calm down after last’s night nightmare.” You closed your eyes and mulled over the secretary’s words again. She heard his human voice.

“I promise I’m not sending you back Chan,” you began, “but if my secretary could hear your voice, then I think we need to see Kris again to figure out why that was possible. I know she does not have a pet because her husband has allergies, so something’s up. Do you feel any different?”

He shook his head and agreed that seeing Kris would make sense.

“Did you lose a dog miss?” an elderly gentleman asked as you passed him, Chanyeol’s leash in hand.

“Oh um, no – I’m uh, going to adopt one!” you came up with quickly. You pointed in the direction of Kris’s shop and explained there was a pet store down that area.

Chanyeol caught up to you and he smiled brightly at the elderly man before greeting him. The man returned the greeting before noticing Chanyeol’s dog collar and frowned.

“Is that one of those punk trends you young bloods are into these days?” he asked as he pointed to the collar.

Chan tilted his head in confusion and you fibbed that it was, grabbing your dog’s hand as you hurried toward Kris’s shop. Once both of you had gotten cleaned up, you brought the leash but felt funny clipping it onto Chan’s neck, instead choosing to carry it. This time when you went out, people commented on the cute, child-like young man who was behind you, greeting everyone with a big smile. A few noticed the collar around his neck and you were regretting keeping it on him.

A random girl had stopped him during your walk over, flirtatiously trying to give him her number. Chan looked surprised but he quickly grabbed you in a back hug and murmured in his deep baritone voice, “Sorry Miss, but I’m hers!”

“Welcome to my – oh um, hi there!” Kris greeted when he saw both of you enter. He bowed his head and apologized to the mom and daughter who were admiring Tao on the counter. You shot him a polite smile and mouthed to take his time, gingerly leading Chanyeol over to a tank of fish to look at.

“I like this cat, he’s handsome!” the daughter remarked as she stroked Tao’s head.

“You’re going to take care of him?” the mother asked.

The girl rolled her eyes and huffed dramatically, “Mom, I’m 18! Not 8, I can handle a cat like a grown adult!”

Kris chuckled at the daughter’s response and produced the contract for the pair to review and sign. Chanyeol glanced over at Tao for a moment before you tugged on his arm to keep his eyes on the fish. You shot him a look and he took the hint, nodding as he remained silent. These two had no idea what kind of a pet shop this was and you didn’t want to scare them away if it meant Tao getting his forever home.

Once the pair finished the paperwork and departed, Kris walked over to you, motioning to the back. You and Chanyeol followed him and he led you to his office, closing the door behind you.

“First off, Chan’s not coming back,” you stated before Kris could ask. “We’re here because something’s changed.”

“Actually I was going to ask if you were okay,” Kris replied. “Saw the papers today and was glad they caught your ex. Albeit he should have been locked up sooner, in my opinion.” He glanced over at Chanyeol and tapped his index fingers to his lips. “Changed how?”

You relayed the accounts of this morning up to the street encounters on the way to the pet shop. Kris listened carefully and he glanced over at Chanyeol occasionally. After you finished, he pushed his chair back and produced Chanyeol’s file from a cabinet and placed it on the desk.

“That’s Chanyeol’s file,” he began, “my father brought him over from South Korea before he passed. At the time, he was mum about the shop and what it was like. Like everyone who steps through these doors, I had no idea what I was getting into.” He opened the file and pushed it towards you.

The documents stated that Chanyeol had one other litter mate that survived – a sister who was adopted after birth. The parents were split up and adopted by other owners and Chanyeol was taken overseas. Chanyeol frowned as he tried to picture his life before the shop but gave up and pouted.

“You were very young Chan,” Kris said. “Technically you should have been raised by your mom until you were fully grown, but the owners of your parents didn’t want to deal with puppies, hence the quick arrangements.” He flipped to a scribbled note in Chinese and translated it for you. “His father was a regular Doberman. Mother was the Great Dane and while my old man never saw her human form, he sensed something different about her. Also unusual that she only had 2 pups instead of more.”

“So...this condition is from Umma?” Chanyeol asked after a long pause.

“Possibly,” Kris said. “Apparently your sister never had the ability to take on a human form, which is why there’s some confusion about you receiving the trait. My guess is that it passes down maternally to male descendants – this would fit with Baekhyun-ah and some of the other dogs that were here in the shop.” He flipped through the rest of the file and tried to read his father’s spidery handwriting. “Import and customs docs – not much help there...hang on! When I was a boy, my father pointed out Chanyeol to me and said that he was a unique case.”

Chanyeol blinked and pointed to himself in confusion. “Me? How?”

“That’s just it, my old man was a master of theatrics!” Kris sighed. He leaned back in his seat and huffed. You pulled out your phone and started researching magical dogs for grins. You used your thumb to scroll through the results and you chose one on the fourth page about an old Anglo-Saxon myth on a myths fan page. You sat up straighter and showed it to Kris.

“I know Chan’s from Korea, but this myth from Anglo-Saxon mythology kind of fits with what happened to me,” you replied.

You glanced over at Chan as you read off the blurb, which mentioned a story of a family attending an animal auction when they needed protection. Because they couldn’t afford much, they were only able to adopt the runt of the litter, which the town mocked them for. Their youngest daughter of the large family took to him because she was always ignored in her family, raising him to be a loyal, helpful dog. One night wolves invaded the town and began killing and eating livestock. The youngest daughter was out trying to retrieve eggs from the henhouse when she was cornered by wolves. Hearing her cries for help, the family dog came to her rescue and defended his little mistress. He sustained wounds from the fights but refused to leave his frightened owner’s side until she was safely inside. He collapsed and the youngest stayed with him, crying that her dog had died saving her. But a god had looked down on them and healed her loyal dog, having fulfilled his purpose of finding love and protecting someone selflessly. Knowing the youngest was next to marry, the god changed her dog into a human, who would eventually become her husband.

Kris hummed once you finished and he nodded his head. “I know you found it on a fan site, but I have a feeling I’ve heard this somewhere too. ...So are you the youngest in your family?”

You nodded and explained that you had an older brother and a sister. “Brother’s 5 years older and sis is 2 years older,” you said. “I wasn’t planned but they welcomed me all the same. But I didn’t get everything I wanted like your stereotypical bratty youngest born. Remember when I said I never got to have a pet as a kid?”

Kris nodded and reassured you that he never assumed you had been a spoiled youngest child. Chanyeol had been silent, listening to both of you discuss the possible reasons for why he seemed to be stuck in his human form. He wished he knew why this was happening, but with the way things had transpired, he wasn’t complaining about his situation. He knew you would be a good owner who wouldn’t mistreat him and maybe you needed someone to share a little love that was missing right now in your life. His hands closed around yours and he squeezed them with a smile.

“I said I’ll keep you safe – that meant for as long as you have me,” he reminded you. “I’ll admit I like the sounds of that story you told us – maybe that’s why I’m human now.”

“Works for me,” Kris murmured with a nod. “Oh and Y/N? I think its safe to ditch the collar – doubt you want people thinking you control Chan in, um, some kind of way.”

“Kris-hyung, what do you mean? She is my owner,” Chanyeol protested with a confused look.

You blushed and stood up to loosen Chanyeol’s collar. Once you made it bigger, you prompted Chan to close his eyes before tugging it up and over his head. He was like a wide-eyed child, naive to the innuendoes you’d have to explain at a later date.

“Channie, I’ll explain it to you another time,” you said with a fond smile. “For now, let’s go home.”

Chanyeol was on his feet in seconds and he eagerly began leading you out the door. “Can we cuddle under the blankets when we get back?”

You laughed and ruffled his hair. “Course we can.”

#Gentle Monster #EXO Chanyeol #EXO Chanyeol imagine #Park Chanyeol imagine #Park Chanyeol #EXO AU #EXO Baekhyun #EXO Tao #EXO Kris #EXO Lay #EXO Sehun #EXO Suho #EXO D.O.#yourkeeperoftherunners original #number 2196

281 notes · View notes

nerdylittleshit · 8 years ago

Text

Thoughts about Spn 12x12

SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!

Man, I loved this episode. What a treat. I really feel like the second half of the season is stepping up in its game. Though I think this season had in general some really strong episodes, but towards the end of the first half I got a bit bored. But that is maybe because I think the whole Lucifer-story is done. And yes I know in a way this story brings us back to Lucifer, but in an unexpected and so far quite interesting way.

Before the episode aired we already suspected it would be an hommage to Tarantino (and well, I just saw a couple of his movies and that is years ago, so someone smarter than me please makes a post listing all the Tarantino references). What I expected was a random motw-case told in an unsual perspective/structure. And though we got the latter one, Davy Perez also surprised us with a really interesting case and some new mythology, a Crowley retcon and the return of an old friend. Well played.

I feel like espcially the new writers this season (Perez, Yockey, Glynn) did their homework. They know their stuff when it comes to the mythology of the show, but aren’t afraid to add new stuff (Yockey did this with the angel mythology in 12x10, and here we have Perez giving us new stuff about demons). And unlike some writers who just change the mythology in a way that it fits their story *cough* Bucklemming *cough* they do in a smart way, that doesn’t change the story the way we know it, but adds something to our perspective and makes it more complex. I think this is the advantage when you come to a show that already has twelve years of mythology build up: you don’t need to create something new but rather can go back and add something new to something old. I also feel that the new writers are fandom savvy. Stuff like Cas in a female vessel (or in general Cas’s past) or bringing back the Colt is I think a nod to the fandom. Those are the things many fans yearned to see. And of course there is always a thin line between telling your story and fanservice, but they added these things well enough into their actual stories to say it is just pure fanservice.

But now, let’s get to the actual story (I only remembered half of the title cards and tumblr couldn’t provide me with my need, so there you go).

Prelude:

Just as in 12x09 we see one of the British MoL speaking direct to the camera, though it is Mr. Ketch this time, not Mick. This again makes him the narrator of the story in a way, or as others speculated the stand in for the showrunner (just as Chuck was for Kripke and Metatron for Carver). The focus here is right on the storytelling part. Which makes sense because the actual story is told from different perspectives, which is something that I love (and just in general whenever Spn tells a story from a different perspective).

I think there is already plenty of meta about the dinner scene and the waitress and Cas and Dean’s reaction, which I haven’t read because I am awfully behind on my dash, but I won’t go in detail in here. But if anyone thought of it as a “no homo” I just kindly remind them of the giant “yes homo” that we get at the end of the episode. Either way, I like to believe that Mandy wasn’t just into Cas because he is, as I may quote one Dean Winchester, “devastatingly handsome”, but because they both are science nerds who know cheese isn’t a carb. Also, Cas is yet again associated with the sun (a sunrise special for our Mr. Sunshine). And Dean trying to teach Cas how to flirt reminded me a lot of 9x06 and Dean trying to prepare Cas for his date, aka the gayest episode ever. (Also, Cas stop sniffing the waitress)

I’m kinda indifferent when it comes to Wally, mostly because we didn’t know him enough (still he deserved better). I was wrong in my speculation there would be something shady about him. That was all on Mary. And I already expected he wouldn’t make it out alive in this episode, but I thought he would have lasted longer. It was also interesting to see that appearently he never dealt with demons before. I mean they pretty much walked the earth since season 3 (thanks to Sam & Dean) and we are so used to them I thought it was unlikely to find a hunter who hasn’t dealt with them. Also, did Crowley inform his guarding demons not to kill the Winchesters? It doesn’t seem like that.

Bonus: Mary finally using her mom voice.

The Wounded Angel:

We start with Cas listening to the radio and it is very intersting what we hear:

Man on radio: Each of us has a time when the physical body dies and we all face God's judgment in the end. There's not one of us alive walking on this earthly plane that will not pay the consequence for their actions. The Lord will hold us in the palm of his hand and he'll weigh our souls. Brothers and sisters, are you worthy?

This refers to Cas in many ways. He almost dies in this episode. We are again reminded of consequences that follow actions, one might say cosmic consequences. And of course the question if Cas is worthy, which I think the episode answers really well in showing us the love and support of his family.

Wally doesn’t seem to be surprised that Mary has two adult sons who are technically older than her, and later she tells him that technically she is her 60s, so I guess he knows her story. I don’t know how common it is for hunters to come back from the dead (because the Winchesters are not the standard), but even then coming back after 33 years is very unlikely. And again this is the same guy who never met a demon before. And who learns that Winchesters never joke when they talk about Lucifer’s child. Poor Wally. (Also “ Keep a lookout. Don't die.”, you had one job Wally, one job.) Of course the demon turns out not be a demon (or at least not an average demon) because that would be to easy. But when Mary saw the yellow eyes I thought for a moment the demon had the special power to make people hallucinate their own worst nightmare (and based on the promo Cas would have seen the Leviathans inside him again).

And of course, of course it is Dean who immediately goes to the wounded Cas. Not surprised at all.

Mother Mary:

Wally: “It all sounds swell, but someone walks up to you and offers you something that sounds a little too good to be true? I wonder, what's the catch?”

This already confirms that Mary made a deal with the devil when she agreed to work with the British MoL. We already know what the catch is, because the British MoL don’t hestitate to even kill humans if they get inconvenient and kill absolutely everything supernatural, even innocents like Magda in 12x04. And this will bite them in the ass with their angel best friend and the Winchester family tradition to become inconvenient.

Still, the question remains how much Mary is to blame for the events of this episode. We know she thinks she is doing the right thing, but we already know this is how half of the apocalypses started in Spn. Didn’t they get her the collector’s edition of the Winchesters gospels? And I think she knows there is something shady about them, otherwise she would have just told her sons about her working with the British MoL. And Dean even mentions that they almost killed Sam, so Wally might wonder what changed her mind.

I think Mary’s way of hunting is rather pragmatic. The good she can do with the help of the British outweighs any kind of consequences (and this again parallels her with Cas: they both have consequences for their actions waiting for them). She asks Sam since when is life about getting what you want. Mary wanted out, but hunters never get out. She wanted a normal life for her sons, but they turned out to become hunters anyway. So what can she do? The best in a horrible situation: saving as many people as she can. Entrance the MacGuffin (I think the light was purely a Tarantino reference and the Colt didn’t all of sudden starting glowing). The safe is hidden behind an image of Michael fighting Lucifer (with his lance?). They both are mentioned, the lance and Lucifer even appear. Regarding Mary though I wonder how much she knows about her sons status as the archangels vessels? Does she know that cupids set her and John up just to breed the perfect vessels? How much does she know in general about her sons lifes? In 12x09 Dean mentioned the prison cell was worse than hell and she didn’t blinked so I guess she knows about that as well. The segment ends again in the barn, this time with Dean and Cas’s dialogue. Dean keeps his distance to a wounded Cas, doesn’t even touch him, which is unusual. Is it because Mary is around?

Mr. Crowley:

Entrance the king of hell and some new shiny mythology. I think the name Ramiel almost sounds like an angelic name. Did Lucifer use it to spite God? Also, all the old demons have names, whereas the average demons seem to borrow their vessels name (Meg) or might keep their human name (Ruby). I wonder though where Crowley got his name from. I bet from Aleister Crowley and our Crowley thinks he is super clever like that. Anyway, princes of hell. Are they above the knights of hell? If so Abaddon believed them dead or otherwise she would have turned to them to claim their rightfully throne in hell. And it explains her outraged reaction after learning the salesman Crowley became king of hell. Because here is the thing: with Lucifer, Lilith and Azazal gone I thought hell had no longer a clear hierarchy, and Crowley used the chaos and made himself king. But... not so much. Planing, scheming Crowley never planed this but it happened accidently instead. Hell, the female demon he had with him almost became queen of hell. And I guess with the title you get the powers but also that Ramiel transfered them to Crowley in a way? Either way, it paints quite a different picture of Crowley. For years I thought of him as the ambitious demon who first made himself king of the crossroads and later king of hell, just to learn he only had luck. That bastard.

So, the lance of Micheal. Kills the bad ones fast and the good ones slow. Of course I thought it would refer to character rather than species (because Cas is anything but good). And just introducing a weapon that could kill Lucifer (and probably his child as well) only to destroy it. I guess it is useless now. But with the return of the Colt we are reminded of all the awesome weapons we had in the show (and that a lot of us fangirled about in the latest meta challenge), but also the disadvantage of a weapon that can kill everything from a writer’s perspective. Because they are just too good to be true, and bring easy solutions instead of conflict. So they either get destroyed or get lost.

We get the confirmation that there are at least two other princes of hell, Asmodeus and Dagon. Ramiel also said Dagon showed an interest in Lucifer’s child, so chances are we might see her this season. I really thought Ramiel would kill Crowley for breaking their deal, and at this point I feel like I’m telling for years now that I think Crowley’s story is done, and with the reveal how he became king it would have been a good end. Also yet another reminder Crowley never underestimated the Winchesters and that is the reason he is still alive. I wonder though if Crowley made another deal with Ramiel. If so it doesn’t seem to matter as Ramiel died anyway.

And that leaves us with Cas, who we first met in a barn and who is now about to die in one as well. *slowlytearsup*

Something something barn: (yes, that was the exact title of that card)

*startscryingforreal*

Just everything about this scene was so beautiful.

“Thank you. Knowing you, it... it's been the best part of my life.”

Can you imagine how old Cas is, all the wonders he had seen, he had created, everything about this powerfull alien being and yet, spending what seemed to him only seconds with those humans was the best part of his life. I can’t.

“And the things that... the things we've shared together, they have changed me.”

Ok, just everybody look at the way Mary looks first at Cas, then at her sons. Thank you for this very ambiguous sentence and giving Mary Winchester something to think about what exactly is the kind of relationship her sons have with the angel.

“You're my family. I love you. I love all of you.”

BE STILL MY BEATING HEART. Finally. Cas adressing them as his family. Cas accepting his place in this family. I love you. I LOVE YOU. On this stupid show where we still can count on one hand how many times our main characters have said those words this is so huge. And it is impossible not to see this from a Destiel perspective. Because they immediately cut to Dean after Cas said this. And the way he says it. “I love you. I love all of you.” Because the second part wouldn’t be necessary if he already meant all of them with his first “I love you”. So it is adressed to a single person. I wonder who it might be.

hint: this guy

“We are fighting. We're fighting for you, Cas.”

And just, it was so important for Cas to hear this. To see his family being with him, fighting for him, risking their lifes to save him. That is the answer to the question if he is worthy.

Another thing: pretty sure her sons told her they killed Azazel with the Colt. So Mary technically knows that thing can kill Ramiel? Why doesn’t she use it? So her secret remains a secret even though her sons are in danger? I doubt it. I rather think, or at least hope that there weren’t any bullets in the Colt, so it was (at least for now) useless. That is the only thing that makes sense for the woman who was ready to sacrifice herself for her sons in 12x09.

If anyone was betting it would be Crowley to save Cas’s life they are probably rich by now. He destroys the only weapon he knows can kill Lucifer to save Cas. And I think it might have been the image of the Winchesters all gathered around Cas, to be with him in his last moments, that made him make this decision. Because deep down Crowley wants such a deep love as well.

I wonder if the grace or whatever it was in Michael’s lance that healed Cas changed him. I recently read some spoilers that Cas would change, some speculated if he would be rebooted again (and forget about Sam & Dean) and for a moment I thought he might did. But for now he seems okay.

One last thing:

And the MacGuffin is revealved (that is actually not how a MacGuffin works, but never mind). The Colt is back. Now that it is back they will use it. I just wonder who will be the victim? Lucifer’s child? It didn’t work on Lucifer though. Another prince of hell? Crowley? Cas? Mary?

“I lost a friend. I almost lost one of my boys.”

Mary refers to Cas as one of her boys. OMG. We all wondered how Mary would react to Cas, if she might be suspicious about him (hey, I wrote a fic about that), but insted she just adopted him. Or maybe she was just confirmed in her assumption that Cas is her son in law. Either way, I love it. Cas has a mom now.

So Mary threatens the British MoL (and I totally forgot she filed them under “Hobbits” in her phone... Dean is so much her son). I already said they have no mercy killing her whenever they think she is going to become a problem for them.

Everbody and their mother already wrote about that season 12 so far seems like a subversion of season 6 in many ways. Instead of Cas we have Mary now working behind the backs of Sam and Dean. Whereas Cas opens up about his feelings and the three of them (Sam, Dean & Cas) get way better at communication and for once don’t keep any secrets the betrayal comes from a whole different direction. I wonder if the outcome will be the same. I sincerly hope they don’t kill Mary (again). I don’t think Sam & Dean would survive it (and neither would I). In 11x23 Dabb already showed that he wants to go in a different direction than before. Instead of a sacrifice the world was saved through love and understanding and communication. I think Mary will keep her secret for a while, just to create conflict. But that evetually she will come clean to her sons and ask for their help, and not when it is already too late. Please show us that you can to better than in the past show. I’m done with both Crowley’s story and Lucifer’s, so I hope he just stays in his cell and that’s it. I would say I look forward to next week but we get a Bucklemming, so let’s hope for the best instead.

#supernatural #spn 12x12 #stuck in the middle (with you)#spn meta #spoilers #my meta

28 notes · View notes