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euphoricfilter · 3 years ago

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Devil That I Know (Part 3)

~ Goodbye My Friend

Pairing: Demon! Jungkook x Human! Reader

Genre: (Inaccurate) Historical AU || Strangers to lovers AU || Supernatural AU || Smut || Fluff || Angst

Summary: Maybe the trip wasn't such a good idea, Jungkook's rage draws him to revenge, and you have to say goodbye to a friend.

Word count: 9.3k

Tags/ warnings: Angst, fluff in the wrong places, threatening to murder, sexual assault, character deaths, murder, graphic (?) descriptions of violence (I'm squeamish so idk how graphic this really is) , blood, crucification, too much lying and secrets.

Notes: somehow they haven't made it to the capital yet but i have plans for the next chapter/ the 'new era' i guess when we get to look more into the m/c's past plus the return of deceased characters.

My Masterlist

Series Masterlist

+++

As the sun begins to rise, so do you. The warm light slowly waking you up. You briefly sense what was happening around you, Jungkook’s soft breathing tickling the top of your head, you small cat friend shifting to lay more in the sun between yours and Jungkook’s bodies. You make a small noise in the back of your throat when it’s paw pushes on your chest weirdly, arm twitching at the feeling.

Your cheek was squished against Jungkook’s upturned palm, your feline friend chewing on the hem of his ridden-up shirt sleeve beside your head. Jungkook watching as you sleep peacefully, he could see the cogs of your mind starting to rev back up, slowly but surely bringing your conscious back to the world.

You could faintly hear Namjoon milling around the wagon, checking its wheels so you ready to depart by midday, the ashy smell of burning wood wafting through the early spring wind from the fire you had used to keep warm throughout the night.

You willed your body to sit up, head falling forward as you ran a hand over your hair to try and tame its unruliness that you knew would be there. You hummed when you felt Jungkook’s hand on the back of your neck, fingers squeezing a little. Not tight enough to hurt but just enough to ground you so you wouldn’t slip back into the blissful sleep you were teetering into.

“Good morning” you whisper, mind still fluffed over with sleep. The only way you could describe the feeling would be when you used to wonder as a child, what would the clouds feel like if I were to just lay in them? The soft cushiony, (cotton candy, but that wasn’t around yet) fluffy feeling that was hard to explain.

Jungkook grunts as he sits up beside you, pulling you into his chest. You let him, still too tired to argue with his antics.

“We’ll travel a lot today so stretch before we leave” he runs a thumb over your lips, smiling when you try and bite down on it. “Oh, is my baby still sleepy” he rocks the both of you back and forth as you yawn, eyes still barely open. He sniggers at your lame attempt at hitting him, limbs still heavy as you fling your arm onto his chest lightly.

Eventually you find yourself sat beside Namjoon; the morning having gone by in a blur. Lil meow meow had finished its eel meal from the night before while you ate berries that Namjoon had foraged for while Jungkook ran along the edge of the beach.

You weren’t sure when Jungkook had got into working out, you’d only ever seen him sat in the main room of the hanok, or on the porch with a book in his hands or a pen and paper. You never asked what he would write, assuming it must be precious if he felt he had to write in the dim candlelight of the room once you and Taehyung were dead to the world.

“How’d you end up in Korea?” Namjoon asked, sick of the silence between the two of you.

“Travelling” you tell him, although it wasn’t a lie it wasn’t the full truth.

Before you’d left for your travels, Jungkook had told you not to give too much information away to anyone no matter how much you trusted them.

“You can’t tell anyone, okay?” He slipped his fingers through your own as you lay in his bed.

“So, I tell them that I’ve always been with you?” You ask, and he nods with a smile.

“Exactly, that way they won’t take you away. You don’t want that right? To be a prisoner again?” he frowns when you do. (What you fail to notice in the orange glow of the candlelight was the lack of emotion behind his onyx eyes at that exact moment)

You shake your head, “Not really” you whisper. The thought of being starved and treated worse than a street dog not an experience you were particularly fond of.

“Good girl” he praises, pulling the blanket up higher before kissing your forehead as you just stare up at the ceiling.

“And your family?” Namjoon asks, tone soft, calculated even.

You point over at Jungkook who was now sat on the rocks Namjoon was crab hunting on the night before. Said man opened his mouth to elaborate on his question but the look on your face told him he shouldn’t ask, so he just throws another berry into his mouth instead. He nodded slowly, eyes trailing back to the frothy waves that looked identical to the clouds in the sky.

“How did you meet?” Namjoon asks hoping to break the awkward silence that sat between the two of you.

“Jungkook?” You ask, Namjoon humming in reply.

“The village in-front of the mountain sent me up there. Their crops were dying and thought Jungkook was the one behind it” you explain.

“You lived in that village?” Namjoon looks at you confused; eyebrows furrowed.

You turn to look at him now, “Something like that” your smile not reaching your eyes.

“I visited a few times years ago, I don’t think I ever saw you there” he tilts his head in thought, “You said the crops were dying?”

“Yeah, livestock too I think” you explain.

“I’m pretty sure everyone in that village died years ago. A rumour went around about a disease spreading, no one knew the cure or where it even came from. Ate people’s flesh and rotten the land” he scratches his head.

“Maybe the same disease came back then when I was there” you watch as Jungkook stands up, long limbs helping him take long strides towards the two of you.

“But that land-“

He was cut off by Jungkook squatting down in-front of you, “Ready to go?” The demon asks, comically wide smile on his face. You could tell that it forced, not the usual bunny-like smile he would give, you ignored the eery feeling that crawled up your spine.

You look over at Namjoon, sheepish smile on your face as an apology as you stand up with the help of Jungkook. He motions for you to go and get ready to depart before he bends down so his face is only inches away from Namjoon’s.

“Listen here village boy. Don’t talk unless you’re spoken to and don’t ask her stupid questions unless you want to end up dead in a ditch somewhere in the forest” he whispers, patronisingly patting his shoulder before Jungkook stands straight again.

The demon picks up the cat by the back of its neck, dropping it onto a pile of someone’s clothes before jumping up into the wagon himself.

Namjoon tilts his head up to look at the sky, hand running over his jaw.

It seems Jungkook doesn’t want you to know that the land of that village hadn’t been occupied since the disease spread 6 years ago.

A chill runs down his spine, he could tell Jungkook wasn’t joking, the dark onyx of his eyes looking like a never-ending void that would swallow him whole if he didn’t do as the demon said.

Shaking off the odd feeling that spread through his body, Namjoon chucked his things haphazardly into the back of the wagon. His eyes quickly flitted up to you, oblivious of the things your friend seemed to think about doing to any minor inconvenience that faces the two of you. You placed your cat into your lap as Jungkook chatted animatedly about what the both of you should do once you were in the capital.

Namjoon briefly met Jungkook’s eyes, the demon smiling at him.

Namjoon didn’t know if he found that scarier than when the demon seemed openly angry. Namjoon nodded at him lightly before shutting the door to the back of the wagon before scuttling to the front where the horses were ready to leave.

By late afternoon you had found yourself back into the forest, the bumpy road making Lil meow restless in your lap even as your fingers would comb through his sandy blonde fur. Something you knew the cat secretly enjoyed.

As you took a break to let the horses drink from a nearby river Namjoon came and stood before you and Jungkook.

“There’s a village nearby if you want to stay for the night. I doubt we’ll make it to the next stop by nightfall” he explains, “We can also stock up on supplies, we don’t have much food left”

Jungkook rummaged through the backpack, checking what supplies the both of you needed to stock up on.

He knew you tended to get hungry in the afternoon and with his bag of snacks slowly dwindling it wouldn’t hurt to stock up, so you didn’t throw a tantrum about being hungry.

“Yeah, let’s stop for the night” he look up at Namjoon from where the both of you were sat on a scarce patch of grass.

Namjoon nods, walking back to herd up the horses and clip them back up to the wagon.

+++

Apparently at some point you had fallen asleep, head pressed against Jungkook’s stomach as he pet your hair.

“You awake, pretty?” he smiled down at you, your back arching as you stretched.

You hum, too sleepy to even think about opening your mouth.

“We’re almost at the village, you slept most of the day” he muses, fingers combing through your knotted hair.

“Why didn’t you wake me?” you murmur, before yawning.

“You seemed tired” Jungkook motions for you to come closer.

“Kook I’m practically sitting on you” you snort, but he hauls you into his lap from under your arms anyways, “my legs feel cramped up”

“Oh, my poor girl” he pouts, fingers inching down to your calves, “Let me help”

You wince each time he presses hard on a tight muscle, “feel better” he asks.

“Sort of, I think I just need to stretch” you flop back, head hitting a sack of supplies.

“Kook?” you ask, voice barely above a whisper.

“Yes angel?” his tone as soft as yours.

“Next time, can we stay at the beach longer?” you pull back to look at his face. He smiles brightly as he nods.

“Of course, we can build a house there one day too” he tells you, cheeks flushing a light pink at the thought.

What if he built a small home, have you bare his child after he fully converted you to be like his kind, that way you would be tied to him in more ways than one. He’s sure your child would be the most precious little creature to exist in the whole world, he wouldn’t care if it were a boy or girl although he would hope that his daughter would look more like you. The thought of having two of you to keep forever, you didn’t need to rush having children as you had the rest of eternity to create a family.

You look to the side, Namjoon’s back coming into view, the conversation you had earlier coming to mind. Maybe you’ll have time to pick back up on what Namjoon had wanted to tell you once you stop at the village.

You also wanted to ask about the disease that had plagued his own village, the one that had taken Taehyung’s life a few weeks ago. You looked up at the sky once the wagon came into a clearing, wondering if Taehyung was up there watching you travel. Your eyes caught sight of the small notebook you had snuck under a bag of food, Taehyung’s notebook where he wrote all of the places he wanted to travel and all the activities he wanted to do with you.

“Look, we’re almost at the village” Jungkook points over Namjoon’s shoulder.

You sit up, peeking over the edge of the wagon, eyes opening wide in awe of the size of the village.

“It’s huge” you whisper, never having seen a village of this size before.

“The capital is even cooler” Jungkook pokes between your shoulder blades as he directs your attention back onto himself.

You open your mouth to speak but close it again when the wagon comes to an abrupt stop.

“You two will have to get off here, the horses have to stay in a stable just outside the village” Namjoon calls from up front.

You look over at Jungkook who nods, grabbing your feline friend by its neck again.

“I see why it doesn’t like you” you playfully shake your head, the cat looking grumpy as you coo, fingers tickling its tummy.

“It would scratch me otherwise” he wiggles it around a little, dropping it into your open arms, “out you go” he encourages after opening the door.

Namjoon calls out for both of your attention, “there’s and inn that my friend owns, called ‘Hope’s Inn’, tell him you’re with me” Namjoon tells you both.

You nod, Jungkook having already started walking along the path towards the arch opening of the village.

“Thank you Namjoon” you wave at him as he kicks the side of the horse, riding towards the large stables you could see over a few bushes.

You walk a short distance behind Jungkook, not bothering to run and catch up with him. Eventually he turns to you with a frown.

“Why are you all the way back there?” he asks.

“You left without me” you call back at him and he sighs, motioning for you to hurry up.

He holds out his hand, “hold it” he tells you.

“My hands are full” you shake your head, lil meow looking at the demon with what you should describe as a smug expression.

“Stupid cat” Jungkook mutters.

He stops abruptly, “gotta put these back on” he tells you, draping the cloak around your shoulder, he ties a small bow at the front, your cat’s head peeking out of the neck hole.

You kiss the top of the cat’s head, getting a nose kiss along your jaw back.

As you and your cat bond, Jungkook drops the backpack on the floor, slipping one pair of arms through the sleeves of the cloak before tying the front, his second pair of arms glued to his side to look less suspicious as he flips up his hood before doing the same to yours.

He picks up the backpack again, hand on the back of your neck as he starts walking towards the village entrance.

You unconsciously gravitate towards Jungkook once you get further into the village, it was nothing like you had ever seen.

What seemed like hundreds of people were bustling around, wooden stands that sold all things from food to hand-made trinkets scattered the expanse of the street. Everything seemed so much more vibrant here, the pretty pink petals of blossoms covered the path as you weaved through the crowd. All the fruits here looked so vibrant, everyone having smiles on their faces. You couldn’t help but smile too. You giggle at the hiss lil meow makes when it sees a stray dog sniffing up your legs.

“kook” you tug at his sleeve, he instantly turns to you.

“yeah?” he asks, bending a little to hear you better over the chatter of the village people.

You point to a building on the corner of the street, “I think that’s the place Namjoon was talking about”

Jungkook’s eyes flit in the direction you were pointing at, his eyes squinting to read the sign.

“Did you read that?” he asked, tone questioning.

“yup” you tell him proudly.

He smiles down at you, “my smart girl” he coos.

You nudge his shoulder, nose scrunching at the cheesy name.

As the two of you walk with purpose now, he can’t help but wonder how the magic had affected your memories.

You remembered who he was, who Taehyung was, and the things he had taught you so your long-term memories seemed fine, on the other hand you couldn’t remember what he had done that night and even admitted that what happened in the village with the boys that attacked you seemed hazy.

He would have to look up conversion magic in more detail when he was in the capital, the demonic population preferring to blend in with the humans in more dense places as to not get caught.

Jungkook hadn’t told you, but after the new king rose to power, demons weren’t as accepted as they once had been. The prize for bringing a royal the head of a demon exceeded any comprehensible amount for a commoner, so many demons migrated towards the capital where they could easily hide instead of secluded locations like the mountain the two of you lived on.

Demons were once worshipped for their power, the humans giving easily into their tricks, placing money at shines, praying to the demons that owned their land. Once the new king rose to power however, he felt offended that his own people would worship an evil being more than they would him. (This era is where the downfall of demonic entities starts, groups forming to hunt down demons, more access to magic that could rid the world of the devil that plagues their land.)

You pushed open the door to the inn, bell ringing above the door to let the sunshine-smiled desk boy know that he had new guests.

He didn’t seem fazed by both of your hooded figures as he drops the rag onto the counter before focusing all of his attention on Jungkook, eyes flitting your way to give you a brief smile.

“Welcome to Hope’s Inn, I’m Hoseok” he beams.

“One room for the night” Jungkook drops a few coins onto the table, Hoseok’s eyes widening at the amount, but he takes it nonetheless.

You take a moment to look around, the first floor of the Inn looking like a bar. Round wooden tables scattered around, the shelf behind the counter stacked with expensive looking alcohol and wooden jugs and crates of liquor. Further down the room, behind a thick wooden door you could hear pots clanking, presumably the kitchen.

“Of course” he nods, rummaging through a drawer, dropping a hefty metal key on the table.

Jungkook grabbed it off the counter, hand wrapping around your wrist as he pulled you towards the rickety old staircase at the other side of the building.

“Kook can you slow down a little” you puff, legs straining to keep up with the demon.

He turns back to you, steps shorter as he nods, “sorry angel”

You hum in reply. Clearly something and put him in an iffy mood and you didn’t want to make it any worse.

You both stop in-front of a door, Jungkook looking down at the wooden tag on the keys to make sure he got to the right room before he sticks it into the lock.

The door clicks open, and you both peer inside.

“Seems nice” you say softly and he nods as you both pull the hoods from your heads.

You both look at each other, smile quirking onto your faces as you suppress a giggle. Both of you felt giddy at the idea that this was happening. Maybe now that Namjoon wasn’t here with the both of you, it felt like your own trip. Just the two of you, exploring the unknown. You felt your heartbeat faster as you peered up at Jungkook, his own giddy smile a mirror of your own as you took a moment to take it all in. This was really happening.

You quite liked Namjoon, he seemed genuine and didn’t have a problem with you being a foreigner or Jungkook being a four-armed demon. He seemed knowledgeable enough as well, albeit a little oblivious when it came to social cues. You weren’t stupid enough to not notice the fear that would glaze over his eyes whenever Jungkook was too close, you knew the demon would have said something threatening at some point, you just hadn’t thought it would be a few days into the trip.

But you knew Jungkook meant well, you didn’t know Namjoon, the few and far conversations you’d had over the course of the last few days not enough for you to get a true reading on him.

You let go of Jungkook’s hand, letting lil meow hop down from your arms. You wander into the room.

It was cute, you thought. Two beds sat beside each other, a small table between them. A window on the far side of the room, the golden evening sunlight pouring into the room.

Jungkook shut the door, dropping the backpack before placing his hands on his hips.

“This won’t do” he huffs, stalking over to the table that rest beside the beds.

Without a second thought he lifts up the table, muscles flexing under the loose sleeves of the cloak as he carries it out of the way of the beds. He then grabs the wooden crates that the mattresses lay on, pushing the two beds right next to each other.

“You don’t even sleep” you tut, finger scratching the base of the cat’s ears.

“Doesn’t mean I don’t like laying next to as you sleep” he deadpans, and you snort.

“I’ll never find a husband because of you” you muse, tone light-hearted so he would know you were joking.

Honestly you hadn’t really thought of marriage all that much except with your childhood friend but after he was killed by the village people you hadn’t put much consideration in tying yourself down. Never finding another man that you could love. You knew somewhere deep within that the two of you would never properly get married, the jokes made as children meant to stay that way, but you could dream.

He was the perfect man, tall, pretty, more confidence than you could ever imagine having. Maybe you were biased because you had known him your whole life, and maybe you liked him a little too much because he had the most handsome face, plush lips and a smile that could make even a man swoon at him. He wasn’t broody, didn’t boss you around like the other men in the village, and always put you before himself, never forcing you into conforming to the stereotypical roles that were expected of you as a woman.

(At some point you’d realize you’d lived before your time, never liking the idea of a man dictating your life, because as a woman why should you bow down to the unreasonable and unrealistic standards of a man and conform yourself to an image that is moulded by the male gaze?)

“That’s because I’ll be your husband” Jungkook frowns, unhappy that you would even think that another man or woman would be allowed to whisk you away from him.

You laugh at that, falling back onto the bed. Maybe it was the cute frown on his face, or the dedication in his eyes, but you were happy. You couldn’t explain exactly why the bubbly feeling rose in you, like the first spoonful of hot soup on a freezing winter day, or someone giving you a gift because they were reminded of you when they saw it.

“Jungkook we can’t get married” you tell him.

“And why not?” he flops on top of you. You groan at the weight.

You sadly smile at him, fingers brushing his bangs from his forehead as he holds himself up on his elbows.

“Kook, you don’t die. I’ll be gone eventually” your eyes flit over his face, gauging for his reaction. He just looks at you, no clear emotion on his face.

“So, you won’t marry me because you’ll die?” he asks, tone wavering between bitter and sad. If only you knew the plans, he had for you.

“I don’t want to assume, but you marry someone because you love them. And if you were to love me and I die then you’ll be broken. I don’t think I could fathom the idea of someone I love dying kook, like a piece of yourself is missing.”

“‘Were’ to love you?” he asks, you nod.

“Oh my pretty thing” he runs a thump over your cheek, leaning down he pressed a feather light kiss between your eyebrows, “I already love you, more than you’ll ever be able to comprehend”

You stare up at him, time feeling like it had stopped as you just look into each other’s eyes.

You flick his forehead, “stop trying to seduce me when my baby is here” you turn your head towards lil meow, “you see this guy?” you scoff, your cat meowing in agreement.

Jungkook’s lip quirks at that, pushing himself up and off you as he pushes a hand through his hair.

“Hurry up and change, we’re going down for dinner” he stands up, starting to rummage through the bag, chucking a long sleeve shirt and baggy trousers at you. Ones Taehyung had made for you to lounge around in during the evening, so you didn’t have to wear the scratchy cloth that you wore while working.

You undo the cloak, it pools around your feet as you lift your current shirt over your head. Jungkook watches you from where he’s sat beside the bag, your skin glowing in the evening sunlight.

Once done, you crouch down beside the bed, “you’ll have to stay here” you tell your feline friend. Worried that the bar will be busy, and the last thing you wanted to happen was your new friend to get hurt because you were selfish. You assume a meow of understanding is your reply as you stand to full height again, turning to Jungkook.

“I’m hungry” you tell him, and he snorts, opening the door for you before he locks it.

He watches you walk down the hallway, arms stretched above your head, joints in your back popping. You sigh, turning your head to look back at him, tilting your head in the direction of the stairs. His footsteps pick up to catch up with you, faint blush on his cheeks when you hold onto the sleeve of cloak when you start to descend the stairs.

+++

You watch Jungkook bring the jug of liquor to his lips. Mind wandering to what happened earlier.

You’d never thought too much about the relationship the two of you had. He’d been a friend just like Taehyung had, the three of you falling into a rhythm at some point in the months you had spent living with them. So, you never really delved into what exactly the two of you had. You seemed closer than friends, sleeping beside each other, him pulling you into his own little bubble more times than not. He never took it any further though, never gave any other hint that he wanted to court you, wanted anything more than what he already had.

Jungkook had been kind enough to keep you around, you’d been ignorant to the thought of why exactly he had let you stay around.

He already had Taehyung at the time who seemed fine with the abundance of chores that he had, clearly not needing your help with the set routine that you somehow weaved your way into. But he let you stay, fed you, gave you a bed, even taught you how to read and write. Now he promised to take you to the places you wanted to visit.

Love at first sight felt like a stretch and a weird boost to your ego that even in the state you had been all those months ago he still found you attractive. You knew he couldn’t have liked you for anything more than the shallow reason, he didn’t know you at all.

Another issue the two of you seemed to never address was the fact that Taehyung, who was 100% healthier than you died because of a disease, you lived and somehow knew nothing about even contracting the illness? Suddenly waking up weeks later like nothing happened?

So many things didn’t seem to be adding up. Jungkook had no reason to lie to you, and you’d never accuse him of ever stabbing you in the back, he was too kind to do that. You’d been on the recipient end of his hospitality, he wouldn’t do anything bad to you.

“You’re staring” Jungkook pokes between your eyebrows, “what are you thinking about?” he asks.

Your eyes flit up to meet his own, you say nothing for a moment.

“How scary the capital must be” You lie, leaning back in your chair.

The bar had gotten busier now that it was supper time, rowdy men laughing in large groups around the round tables. Serving women dressed in pink hanboks to match the cherry blossoms outside, Hoseok chatting with Namjoon at the counter.

Namjoon had called the both of you over when you’d made it downstairs, properly introducing you to Hoseok. One of the serving women’s hands trailing over Jungkook’s arm, asking if she could take his cloak to hang up. You watched in amusement at his eyebrows furrowing in annoyance at her close proximity, brushing her off with a shake of his head as he pulled you to a table.

“I’ll be there with you” he tells you softly, hand skimming across the table to hold your own.

You nod, biting your lip in thought. You’d ask him all of your questions once you get back to the hanok, not wanting to ruin the trip that had only just started.

“Can I have some money?” you ask him, “I’ll order us some food”

Jungkook hums, “And what do I get in return?” his eyebrow raises.

“What do you want?” you ask, sceptical of his answer.

He taps his cheek twice, “kiss”

You give him a deadpan look, pushing yourself up with all the confidence in the world as you round the table, leaning down and planting a soft kiss on the apples of his cheeks.

You outstretch your hand, and he drops a few coins in your palm. You ignore the smug look he has on his face as you turn towards the counter where you can still see Hoseok and Namjoon catching up. You weave through the small gaps between pushed out chair.

You hear it before you feel it, a palm colliding with your behind. You halt. Mind processing that some random man had just slapped your ass.

It was Jungkook grabbing the man around the neck that eventually snaps you out of your daze, eyes watering as you watch the man with Jungkook’s art filled hand squeezing his neck, eyes looking like they would pop out of his head.

You flinch back when Namjoon hold your arm, his hands flying back to his body when he sees the fear in your eyes. You think you hear the man wheeze out “she shouldn’t have dressed like she was asking for it”

After that you blank, the next moment you're aware of your surroundings, Namjoon had led you back upstairs, standing outside your door after you shakily tell him the number when he asks softly. Jungkook still had the keys so the both of you just stood there.

“I would ask if you’re okay but you’re not” Namjoon nervously rambles, not sure what to do with his hands.

“I’m sorry” you snivel, mind finally comprehending what happened as tears fall down your cheeks.

“Don’t apologize, that man was at fault” he reassures, gently pulling you into his chest. Namjoon pats your back as you shudder. Hands roaming your body too soon after the shock it just went through, your mind on overload as you tried to comprehend what just happened.

“Get off her” You lift your head at the sound of Jungkook’s voice at the end of the hall.

You can see the rage in his eyes, see the hint of red behind his irises as he looks at Namjoon, roughly pushing the village boy away from you. He fishes the key from his pocket, roughly shoving it in the door before motioning for you to go inside.

Your legs take you to the bed, falling beside lil meow who looks up in confusion as you bury you face into the fur of its stomach.

You don’t notice the door clicking shut, don’t notice Jungkook sit on the edge of the bed with his head in his hands.

How does he fix this? “I’m sorry” he doesn’t look up, eyes trained on the floor as he talks once your crying stops, just your shuddering breaths filling the expanse of the otherwise silent room.

He looks over his shoulder at you when you don’t reply. He watches you scratch under the cat’s chin who licks at the salty tears that streak down your cheeks.

“I’m sorry” he tells you again.

“I heard you the first time” You don’t look at him, “you didn’t do anything wrong Jungkook” your fingers grab onto the blanket. Trying anything to stop your hands from shaking so badly.

“But I brought you here, this wouldn’t have happened if we had just stayed at home where it’s safe” one of his hands hold your ankle.

“Jungkook” you push yourself to sit up, “I can’t stay cooped up in the mountains forever”

“But you can, can’t you see the world is too dangerous?” he goes to hold your hands, but you recoil.

You watch the hurt flash through his eyes, eyebrows curving as he bites his lip. You look down at your shaking hands, worried you’ll give into him if you look into his sorrow filled eyes for a moment longer.

“I know what the world is like Jungkook, I’m not stupid” you shake your head.

“I never said you were stupid” he pinches between his eyebrows.

“It sure feels like it sometimes” you scoff.

“How have I ever made you feel stupid?” He laughs in disbelief.

“You act like I’m fragile Jungkook, I know how shitty the world is you don’t have to hide it from me”

“I’m not hiding anything” you watch his body language.

“You sure? Because you’re getting defensive” you raise an eyebrow at him in question, shaking your head in disbelief.

“I’m not being defensive, you’re dodging my questions” he throws his arms up dramatically, “Why would you want to leave?” He asks, genuine curiosity evident in his voice.

“Because I’m scared” you exasperate.

“Of what? You- I’m here to help you” Jungkook’s voice raises, your eyes watering again.

“If one day you kick me out, I have nowhere to go” you cry, startling lil meow, the cat running its nose over your thigh.

Jungkook looks at you, watches as you wipe your cheeks with the back of your hands. The both of you breath heavily, staring into each other’s eyes, both of you too stubborn to back down.

“You done?” he asks, voice soft.

You shrug, feeling sorry for yourself as you crawl over to Jungkook, arms wrapping around his waist. You think the events of the day were finally catching up to you, shock finally dissipating and anger bubbling down to exhaustion.

“You’ll always have a home” Jungkook whispers, fingers slipping through your own, “If you’re ever lost, remember there’s a home for you on top of the mountain. If you’re ever lost, come home, please”

+++

You’d fallen asleep eventually, Jungkook had gotten good at being able to differentiate between you pretending to sleep and you actually having fallen asleep.

His eyes wander of your body as you lay in the middle of the two beds as his first pair of arms slip through the sleeves of the cloak.

Jungkook gently clicks the door open, feet light as he wanders down the hallway, down the stairs.

Jungkook looks over at Hoseok who is drying a jug, the inn owner nodding at Jungkook as he walks by.

If the group of the man’s friends hadn’t pulled Jungkook away from the son of a bitch that harassed you, then he would have suffocated to death. But he supposes he’s grateful they had stopped him as his revenge plan is a lot more fun than letting the guy off easily.

Jungkook pushes the door open, bell tinkling as he looks down the street.

His eyes catch onto a group of men sat on a rusting table beside an alley way. He tilts his head, eyes scanning over all of their faces before a sinister, demented smile pulls at his lips. He watches them puff smoke from their cigars for a moment before he struts over to them, shoulders wide.

A few of the men look his way as he stops in-front of the table, his fingers holding the edge before he turns, throwing it behind him. Each of the men stand abruptly.

“Ah yer the whore’sfriend” one of the man’s friends scoff at Jungkook.

Jungkook cracks his neck, eyes trailing off into the alley way where the man he is looking for is pulling up his pants, commotion ruining his time with a woman from a nearby brothel. Jungkook shoulders the men out of his way as he stalks over towards the man with purpose. Eyes shining crimson in the white light off the moon that peeks through the crack of the building into the narrow alleyway.

Shoving his hand into the pocket of his cloak, Jungkook’s fingers grab the pocketknife he had hidden in there.

The old man grunts at Jungkook as he lights a cigar, “What do ya want kid?” he squints, growling when he realises its Jungkook, “Doll, you better get going” the old man tells the woman from the brothel who nods, eyes seductively trailing over Jungkook’s face. He ignores her, waiting for the clacking of her shoes to be far away enough that he can finally get down to business.

Jungkook unties the knot that held his cloak together, smile stretching into a grin when the man’s eyes widen looking at his extra pair of arms.

“Yer a devil” the man slowly takes steps backward, grunting when he hits a wall.

“No. I’m a demon, now be quiet I don’t want my angel waking up because of you” Jungkook shakes his head mockingly, one arm grabbing over the man’s mouth.

Jungkook first knees him in the crotch, the man falling to his knees, large puff of air escaping his nose as his throat clogs up at being winded.

The demon crouches down so he’s face to face with the man, two of his hands holding the man’s wrists, his last hand trailing a knife down his neck.

“First let’s get rid of your filthy eyes. How dare you even think about looking at her like you did back there” Jungkook sighs, trailing the knife up the man’s plump body. “Remember don’t scream”

Jungkook found the knife harder to use when he poked it into the man’s eye, so instead, he dug his fingers into the man’s eye sockets, fingernails clawing that the sensitive tissue before fully grabbing his eye and ripping it out with a wet pop. He drops it to the floor like trash, shoving two fingers into the now empty socket, wriggling his finger around, blood pouring down his forearm as he laughed. Something sickly amusing about ripping a human apart. The man’s cries for help now getting louder as Jungkook covers his nose now as well.

This caught the attention of the friends who were previously occupied with another of the local brothel women, trying to convince them to come and spend the night at the cheap inn.

They shone the candle at the two in the alley way, all of them watching Jungkook with bloodied hands as he pushed at the man’s other eye into his head with his thumb, their friend’s right eye having rolled off onto the floor, where his eye used to be now gushing thick crimson blood down his cheek, over Jungkook’s hands.

They could hear the pop of his other eye being ripped out of its socket, Jungkook’s shirt soaking in the blood that ran down his arms, blood squirting onto his face.

The man’s head felt like it was going to explode with how hard Jungkook was holding it, jaw dislodging itself from its joints, cries of agony being unheard as the man’s friends ran, not wanting to face a demon who was clearly enraged. They could probably take him on in a group but the blood lust evident in his eyes enough for them to run, not daring to stand up for their friend.

Jungkook let go of the man, his body slumping onto the floor.

Picking up his knife from the gritty floor, Jungkook drags his feet to stand over the man once again, he wiped the sweat from his forehead with his forearm, blood smearing over his face further, dripping down his cheeks as he breathes heavy.

“Now, your hands. How dare you even think of touching what belongs to me” Jungkook lift one of the man’s arms, thumb pinched between Jungkook’s thumb and index finger.

He raises the knife, cutting through the skin like he was cutting a piece of meat, tendons snapping as he cut through the thick muscle. Jungkook frowns once he gets to the bone, blood preventing his from getting a good view and the best place to hack away at. He realised the pocketknife wasn’t the best tool for this job, he should have gone to the carpenter’s house before this and asked for an axe. He supposes this method will inflict a lot more pain though so in a satisfying way he didn’t care that he chose a weaker weapon.

Covering the man’s mouth again, smearing blood over his chin further, Jungkook decided to just snap the bone in half before sawing away at the muscle and skin again, throwing the man’s hand to the side once he had successfully detached it from his body.

He cut off the other arm in a similar fashion. Jungkook wasn’t sure exactly when the man had seemed to die, probably from the blood loss, most of it having spilled into a puddle on the dusty floor or sprayed onto his clothes.

“I didn’t like the way you spoke to my angel” Jungkook continues, well aware the man had stopped breathing.

Standing up, Jungkook sighs. He looks at the dead body in the floor, man almost unrecognizable with no eyes, eye lids still open from the shock, blood matting his thin wispy hair, staining his skin, jaw dislocated, and hands severed, thrown off to the side somewhere.

He picks up his cloak, wiping his hands so they weren’t dripping with blood. Leaving the alley way, the streets were a lot emptier than they had been earlier.

He makes his way around the inn, opening the wooden door to the bath house.

+++

“Good morning angel” Jungkook brushed your hair out of your face as he smiled down at you.

You don’t say anything, just looking up at Jungkook.

“I need to go and buy some supplies, why don’t you go and eat breakfast with Namjoon and Hoseok?” he suggests, smile never faltering.

“I thought you didn’t like Namjoon” you rasp, voice still woven with sleep.

Jungkook watches your back arch as you stretch, reminding him of the cat beside you that seemed to also be stretching.

“I never said I didn’t like him” Jungkook waves you off, pushing himself off of the bed towards the backpack. He throws you some thicker clothes, “hurry up”

You yawn, “I’m pretty sure you threatened him” you muse, hand running through your best of hair.

“I would never do such a thing” he drawls, and you snort.

“He’s always so skittish around you”

“I mean, if we were to fight then I would win” Jungkook boasts, flexing his four arms and you giggle at that.

“meow meow you stay here, I’ll bring you some breakfast” you boop the cats nose as it curls back up on the bed.

Once the two of you stand at the top of the stairs you stop, palms sweating as you think about what happened last night.

“Hoseok said that son of a bitch left last night and didn’t come back if that’s what you’re worried about” Jungkook tells you, voice flat.

You look into his eyes for a second, you weren’t sure what you were looking for, but you just nodded.

“When did he tell you that” you ask, voice barely above a whisper.

“Last night. I went out for some air to calm down” Jungkook lies easily, feeling no guilt.

You nod again, “I think i’ll eat outside anyways just to make sure” you take a step, breathing shaky as you descend the stairs.

“Morning” Hoseok calls from the counter, he smiles sadly at you.

You didn’t want his pity it just made you feel worse about yourself. You nod at him nonetheless, smile not reaching your eyes.

“I’ll bring breakfast out, on the house” He tells you, “Namjoon is sitting on the porch if you want to sit with him”

“Actually, I won’t be needing any food, errands to run” Jungkook calls after Hoseok who nods in understanding.

+++

“You feel any better?” Namjoon asks you once Jungkook leaves, the silence slowly eating away at him.

“Not really” you tell him honestly.

“It’s okay not to be alright sometimes. Thank you for being honest with me” he smiles, “we don’t have to leave today if you’re not feeling up for it”

“I think the sooner we leave the better I’ll feel” you nod at Hoseok who places two bowls of noodle soup in front of you and Namjoon.

“Okay, we can leave this afternoon, I’m sure there’s a shorter way to the capital. I’ll check a map after breakfast” he tells you, “Y/n” You turn towards Namjoon as he calls your name, “If you ever need to talk, I’m here. Human to human or something”

You crack a smile at that, “do you ever feel like something is missing?” you ask, “like events in your life don’t fall into place properly?”

“I always lose stuff if that’s what you mean” he swallows the food in your mouth.

“No, nothing physical. Forgotten memories” you ask, “I can’t remember what seems like a significant event, and when I try and think about it, my mind just blanks and stop thinking for a while”

“My memory is pretty good so I don’t think I’ve ever experienced that; do you know the rough time period you can’t remember?”

“A month ago” you watch a few children play around, their mothers chatting away to an older woman who owns a stall.

“Huh that’s pretty recent” he tilts his head, “maybe Jungkook knows I’m sure he’ll tell you if you ask him”

“You’re probably right” you muse, picking up your chopsticks.

“I’m sure it wouldn’t have been important if you can’t really remember it” Namjoon tries to console when he sees the from on your face.

“You’re probably right, I shouldn’t stress over something I can’t even remember” you shrug, watching Jungkook make his way back over to the inn from the other end of the street.

“Can you not tell Jungkook about what we’ve spoken about?” you ask Namjoon quietly, worried Jungkook may hear even with the sound of the village people chattering.

“Sure” Namjoon nods slowly, watching your facial expression turn neutral as Jungkook walks up to the table.

“You two talk about anything interesting?” Jungkook asks, fingers swiping the chopsticks out of your hands, looking between the two of you with a mouthful of noodles.

“Nope. Namjoon was just asking if I felt any better. We plan to leave this afternoon” you tell Jungkook who runs a hand through his hair.

“Sure, let’s go and pack. I got you some stuff” he wiggles a bag in his hand.

“Thanks for the chat, Namjoon” you smile at him, a genuine one.

He nods back at you, dimpled smile making an appearance.

Jungkook stops you when the both of you reach the top of the stairs.

“It smells like blood” he tilts his head, eyes flirting down to his hands. They were clean, he made sure to scrub himself clean last night, even going as far as burning his clothes so you wouldn’t find them.

“I don’t smell anything” you turn to Jungkook, pulling your wrist out of his grasp.

It’s when you see the blood pooling at the base of your door that you stop. Your eyes trail up to the open door, lock looking busted, as the door sat wide open.

Jungkook slips a hand into yours as you both slowly make your way towards your room. You feel the bile rise in your throat at the sight you see when you stand in the doorway. Your hand flies to your mouth, trying hard to not throw up the breakfast you’d just eaten.

Your cat has been crucified above the bed you had slept in that night, long metal nails hanging the cat by its paws.

Written on the wall in what you assumed to be your cat’s blood was ‘Demon’ sprawled in bold letters.

You fall to your knees, puddle of your feline friend’s blood soaking into your cotton pants.

You choke a sob, Jungkook looking at the cat hung above the bed. His eyes trailed over to the bag; both of your things scattered across the floor. Luckily, he had taken all your guy’s money with him so they couldn’t have taken anything valuable.

He turns down to look at you as you choke a sob.

“You’re getting dirty, get up” his hands fall onto your shoulder, and you push him off.

“Jeon Jungkook” you laugh in disbelief, head in your hands as you shake your head.

You have to cover your mouth again when you gag, the pungent smell of blood and the sight of your dead friend too much for your stomach to handle.

You aren’t sure how long you just sit there, watching your shaky hands through blurry eyes, but at some point, your brain tell your body to get up. With the help of a wall, you push yourself up to stand, swaying as you climb up onto the bed, fingers pulling at the nails that hung your cat.

The dead cat flops onto the bed with a dull thud, unmoving and you just stare down at it.

Your head eventually turns towards the wall with the blood writing on it.

Jungkook just watches, all light gone from your eyes. He isn’t sure if you’re mad at him, clearly the people that had killed your cat knew he was a demon, leaving the only culprits as the cowardice friends from the night before.

Without saying a word, Jungkook begins to pick up both of your belongings. You kneel on the bed, fingers tracing over the slit in the cat’s neck as the tears fall down your cheeks.

You stand on shaky legs, stumbling forward on the soft hay filled mattress.

“Where are you going?” Jungkook asks once you get to the door.

“I’m going to bury it” you whisper, cradling the cat in your arms, uncaring of the fact its blood was staining your clothes.

Jungkook wordlessly follows you down the stairs. Namjoon standing in alarm when he sees the blood covering you as leave the inn.

“What happened?” he asks, following after you and Jungkook. Said demon shakes his head at Namjoon who just gulps at the sight of the limp animal in your arms.

You remember seeing a large blossom tree in a field on the way towards the village, as you slowly wander through the village, catching the attention of stall owners and other locals.

You can’t help but think that maybe you were a bad omen. First your childhood friend had died because of you, Taehyung dying shortly after due to a disease and now your best friend because someone had found out Jungkook was a demon. It’s hard to see through your tears, feet stumbling through the crowd of people gathered around stalls, your shoes getting caught on larger stones as you wander towards the large blossom tree.

You kneel before the tree, dirt clinging to the blood on your clothes. The soil around the tree was moist enough for you to dig it up with your hands, the lax body of your cat laying over your lap as you occasionally wipe your eyes with the back of your sleeve to clear your vision.

You carefully place the cat into the hole, dirty fingers gently brushing between its ears one more time before you push the dirt over its body reluctantly. You can’t suppress the sob that wracks through your body when your cat’s open eyes stare blankly back at you as you bury it’s cold lifeless body.

“We should hurry up and leave, someone knows Jungkook is a demon” You turn towards the two boys, eyes red rimmed, nose runny as you feel another lump form in your throat.

“Don’t worry about that right now” Jungkook reaches out for you, you push his hands away. Worried you’ll start crying if he pulls you in for a hug.

Something briefly flashes behind his eyes before he sighs, turning to walk back towards the inn.

Namjoon stays behind to walk with you as Jungkook stalks forward. Sulking because he can’t hold you. Truthfully, he couldn’t care about the cat, never having been attached to it, he was just glad you had found something to keep your mind off of Taehyung’s death. Your mood lifting once you decided to take in the cat. But not only had someone harassed you, but the feisty cat had been killed within the span of a few hours.

He was angrier that those cowards had upset you more than anything, he knew he should have done after them last night.

+++

Jungkook places a notebook on the table, your eyes recognizing it as Taehyung’s book that you kept under your pillow as you slept. You were never superstitious but you believed that having his notebook under your pillow helped you have better dreams, dreams of travelling and growing old.

You’d been sat in the bar as Namjoon got the horses ready, Jungkook having gone upstairs packing the rest of your things as you didn’t want to go back upstairs.

“If I would have known they had done that I wouldn’t have let them leave” Hoseok scratches the back of his neck as you sip on water.

“It’s fine, I shouldn’t have left my cat alone” you give Hoseok a tight-lipped smile. “Thank you for letting us stay” you bow at him when you see Namjoon in the doorway. He waves at his friend who nods in acknowledgment.

Jungkook leads you out of the room with a hand on your back. Fingers light, realising he shouldn’t overcrowd you for the time being.

“I found a shorter route to the capital; we should get there by midnight” Namjoon explains as you wander towards the stables where the horses had been staying.

As you get comfortable in the wagon, your hands reach out to give your cat a chin scratch, shoulders slumping forward when you realize. Your eyes wander over to large blossom tree that you can see over a building.

Once Jungkook sits down, you face plant into his thigh. Fingers holding onto his loose pant legs as Namjoon hauls himself on the horse.

Jungkook’s fingers brush over your hair, humming a soft tune to help lull you to sleep. Hoping that sleeping will ease your pain for at least a few hours.

You make it to the archway of the village when the wagon stops.

You sit up in confusion.

“Sorry for the inconvenience, there was a murder last night.” One of the two men looking up at Namjoon on the horse, “Heard it was a demon, the village owner ask us to inspect everyone who leaves” they explain.

You and Namjoon make eye contact, your eyes furrowing as you turn towards Jungkook.

“Well now we’re fucked” you push your palms into your eyes, Jungkook seeming unfazed by the situation as he inspects his nails.

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seijorhi · 3 years ago

Text

asks :))

once again i have let these pile up for too long fhjdkhvgfjd

HI, I don't know is my misjudgment or not, but I felt that yandere haikyuu boys have more love than the yander tokrev boys. Can I assume that most characters in tokrev (expect Kazutora lol) do not love the reader?

not necessarily. i'll be the first to admit that the last bonten fic was BLEAK but it is kind of hard to compare characters from both fandoms as a whole. for the most part i tend to write haikyuu fics in more or less the same universe it's set in. as in, yes the characters are darker but they're still volleyball players/uni students/people with regular jobs. on the other hand both times i've written for tokrev it's been in universe as well – and those characters have fucked up lives.

even if i change very little in regards to their characteristics, by the time the bonten gang is formed down that timeline mikey's all but gone off the rails, all the characters are established as ruthless killers – their base characters are just a lot darker and have a lot more baggage. can they still love the reader in the same obsessive way? sure. but just by nature of their backstories and what they've been through and who they become that 'love' is gonna come out in very different ways.

Will you write some fics which have yandere kenma in the future?

i'm not gonna say no... but not likely. or if i do it would be with kuroo because while i adore kenma to pieces he's not someone i'm super excited to write for solo

ok but who in bonten would be like the best/worst to be around from to the depths,, like based on my very limited knowledge i thought that kakucho would be maybe not as sadistic as some of the others but based on one of the other asks,,,

haha. hahahahahah oh dear sweet beloved anon. it's like asking if you would rather lose an eye or a hand. neither is a good option.

koko can be loving when he's not jealous. kakucho isn't as sadistic as the twins but that doesn't mean he won't fuck you till you bleed when he's pissed off about something. sanzu's a wild card and honestly you're never gonna be perfectly comfortable around him. the twins are... like that. and mikey is well, at this point basically unhinged so good luck with that one :)

I LOVED UR LAST FIC SM PLS IVE READ IT 5 TIMES also do yk more dc tokyo rev blogs <3

ahhh thank you bby!! tbh i don't know that many other tokrev writers on tumblr aside from @rocorambles and @kunigamiis so if you have any recs?? lemme know

Hello! Bonten story is awesome!

So,I wanna ask you about Kakucho since he's my favorite - does he also fucks the girl, you didn't write about him,so I'm just curious - @renxnana

yes. just because it isn't explicitly stated does not mean he's not getting what he wants from the reader haha

You're the best!

ty nonnie <33

I’m just thinking deranged Bonten!Mikey who gets his darling taken from him. It was a rival, someone who wanted to hurt him. Bad. You were locked in his penthouse while he and the executives went out for a meeting. Guards he trusted were left to watch you, members who had been in his gang since the early days. He was wrong to trust them. You weren’t there when he got back, neither were the guards. Mikey thought you had somehow escaped. He started to lose his shit, until he saw the message that was left behind. He eventually found you, him and the executives. Bloodied. Beaten to a pulp. About to be executed. Remember the deranged part? Yeah. They are gonna wish they never took you. The guards, no matter how big their bribe was to sell you out, there won’t be a place far enough for them that Mikey won’t find them.

mikey'd just go apeshit and literally beat them to death. he simply would :))

#rhi answers #fic asks

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eirianerisdar · 4 years ago

Note

Could we get Director's commentary on Sweet Dreams Form a Shade?

Oooh yasss

For other readers, this is from chapter 1 of Sweet Dreams Form a Shade, When Nero and Vergil are seventy-two hours into a four day odyssey of blood, trapped in a dome without the Yamato and endless waves of demons emerging from a portal to hell. This scene takes place immediately after Vergil takes an injury for his son when they both have reduced healing.

Vergil tears his arm out of the Fury’s slackening jaws with an agonised shout that melds with the Fury’s roar – so loud and so not Vergil that Nero almost freezes there and then – drops the Yamato’s sheath, reaches up with his ruined arm, wraps his bloodied fingers around Nero’s on Red Queen’s hilt, and revs Red Queen once.

The Fury’s head explodes.

Red Queen plunges into the ground, both Nero and Vergil’s hands still wrapped around the hilt, blood-slick fingers intertwined.

Nero finds himself kneeling with his brain-spattered face no more than a handspan from Vergil’s ruined arm, with a jagged end of a white bone poking up through Vergil’s tattered sleeve, blood cascading down to the ground below.

“Shit,” he whispers, as his empty stomach clenches.

The next wave of demons begins to scuttle out of the portal ahead.

“Nero.”

The word is the merest susurration of air.

Nero turns to his father, whose hand is trembling where it wraps around Nero’s on Red Queen’s hilt.

“You need to…you need to set the bones, or my arm will not heal correctly,” Vergil whispers, lips white, pale eyes somehow bleached further of colour. “I cannot do it myself.”

“What do I...” Nero says swallowing against his dry throat.

“Pull…my wrist...one way, and my elbow another,” Vergil says. “It does not matter if it is not exact. I will heal. Quickly. We have no time.”

Nero pauses, watching the moonlight glisten off the sickly white of bone.

Nero’s arm had looked much the same, the raw, torn ends of bone stark white against the fountain of blood gushing onto his garage floor, when Vergil had taken his Devil Bringer from him.

“Nero. Now.”

Nero fixes one trembling hand around his father’s wrist, the other around the elbow, and pulls.

Vergil howls into Nero’s shoulder, one awful, long-drawn scream, breath hot against Nero’s neck, then the Lusachia are upon them and Vergil has heaved Nero to his feet with his good hand, Mirage Edge flickering to life in his palm the moment it leaves Nero’s arm.

Nero does not know if he glimpses or imagines Dante’s curled form against the barrier a little ways off, head in his hands, silhouetted by dozens of camera flashes behind him.

Then his father is at his back, and Red Queen is in his hand, and he survives.

Director’s Commentary:

This was my absolute favourite scene to write in chapter 1. I always frame each scene and chapter around character progression; how each of the characters progress in their personal narrative or grow in regards to their relationships in each scene. The point of putting Vergil and Nero into an enclosed space with constant danger on all sides was for the angst, yes - but also to allow both characters to see a side of each other they hadn’t before as estranged father and son.

Vergil’s primary perception of Nero early in this fic is that Nero does not care for him due to their estrangement, and that Vergil himself can do nothing except hurt those he loves. All tied to his childhood trauma, etc.

Nero, on the other hand, believes his father is still on that same power schtick he had in the events of DM5, and does not know enough about Vergil’s history to understand what caused Vergil to become what he is now. He believes his father thinks him weak and unworthy, and thinks his father untouchable emotionally or physically.

And over it all we still have the issue with Vergil having ripped Nero’s arm off mere months before this scene, a problem that was never fully resolved in DMC5.

So here we have Vergil taking a demon attack for his son, and Nero having to set the bones in an eerie imitation of Vergil previously ripping off Nero’s arm.

There are several things this scene does for Nero:

1. Nero sees his father’s vast wealth of experience for what it is - something worth his respect.

Vergil has experience surviving endless hordes of demons when he was hunted by Mundus, and is very much the more experienced one in terms of drawn-out battles. He is far better equipped to survive this four-day ordeal than Nero is, and although Nero has difficulties accepting Vergil’s advice initially, this is a turning point for both of them.

2. Nero sees his father’s vulnerability for the first time.

Despite beating his father in their duel upon the Qliphoth, Nero never sees Vergil truly vulnerable until now. This is Vergil at the weakest Nero has ever seen him - and he has just taken an injury for Nero. The scream and the setting of Vergil’s arm adds to that. The terribly human scream and pain-filled, hot breath against Nero’s neck. This is his father’s little-shown humanity coming to the fore for the first time since V - protectiveness, pain, stubborn, human determination much like Nero’s own.

3. Nero realises how much his father trusts him.

The fact Vergil trusts Nero to set his arm is something Nero never expected. It forces him to realise that he can trust Vergil in return - to protect him as a father should, and to take control of the situation with utter focus despite the horrifying injuries Vergil has sustained. It is the first step that eventually leads to Nero understanding that Vergil loves him as a father does, despite their horrible history.

On the flip side, there are several things this scene does for Vergil:

1. It forces him to face how much he cares for his son.

Vergil is just about the most emotionally constipated man in DMC (to be fair all the Sparda men are, but Vergil takes the cake). He would be the last person to admit the four-letter-word beginning with L in regards to Nero, but here he instinctively puts himself in harm’s way to protect his son, and deals with the consequences.

2. It allows Vergil to feel something like the pain Nero did when Vergil took his son’s arm from him.

Vergil orders Nero to set the bones because it is not something he can do on his own. The hand placement and the pain that follows is almost an exact mirror of Nero’s when Vergil took his arm - only that this time it is to heal, and not to harm. Guilt is something Vergil deals with here and also in It Is Eternal Winter There, and this moment has much to do with it.

3. With this scene, Vergil is well on the way to deciding to be a father proper.

This entire ordeal is Vergil putting Nero first. Realising what it means to have someone under his care. Having to take the lead and continue enduring for another person. This is love, of course, but Vergil being Vergil, he takes a good long while to realise it. It’s why he takes the Fury’s attack for Nero. Why he rips his arm out of those jaws to kill it despite the continued pain. Why he heaves Nero to his feet and buttresses him from behind, protecting Nero’s back.

Because Vergil loves his son already, without even fully realising he does.

So at the end of this scene we have Nero understanding his father might be capable of love after all, and Vergil already willing to give up his life for his son without realising that he is already acting as a father would by doing so.

Thanks for the ask!

Send me an ask for a director’s commentary on any of my fics! Specific scenes welcome.

#dadgil #devil may cry #vergil #nero #dmc fanfic #my post #writing #fanfic #replies

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aliypop · 3 years ago

Text

Beauty Has Her Ways (Sam x OC

Word Count: 1,131

Warnings : None

A/N: I’m back in business baby with a New character ! Angelica Monroe!

"Come here often?" a young curly-haired girl asked, Sam who was still looking at the menu of Santa Carla's renowned Soda shop, looked up from his menu to get a glance at the waitress. She looked to be around his age and was probably working a summer job. "I've only been here for about three months," he responded, "And you..." "I've lived here all my life ..." the young waitress sighed, "You get used to it, the Surf Nazi's and The Lost Boys, and the Tiger Lily's ." she laughed, one that was familiar to Michaels friend Tiffany. "But, anyway, can I get you anything..." she asked, her batman scrunchies keeping her hair together. "Uh... a coke and... whatever you got that's good on the menu." he smiled, watching her write down the order on her notepad. He took into account her every detail, the big important one that she wasn't a bloodsucker, not that he had anything against vampires. But he was tired of meeting so many of them. "I'll be back with that order." she smiled, walking away. Sam only sat there daydreaming away until he felt the cushions of the booth he was sitting in starting to shift. But Sam still had his eyes on her, the waitress with Batman scrunchies. As the boys around him picked up menu's Michael followed his gaze.

"Why don't you talk to her..." "And then what she rejects me..." he laughed, "I don't even know her name!?" he whispered, watching as she walked back to the table. "One coke and..." Her eyes on the rest of the boys sitting next to him. As she almost dropped the grilled cheese sandwich, David caught the plate handing it to Sam. A nod as he only watched her shocked expression. "Cat got your tongue." "Leave her alone, Marko..." David glared over at him. "But she's so cute..." Paul waved at her. As Michael only rolled his eyes.

"Hey, knock it off!" Sam shouted, "Forgive them. They can be dumb sometimes." he said to the waitress.

"It's fine... Oh, I gotta go, my shift ends soon..." she said, looking up at the clock. "See you around, Sam." she began walking off,

"See you around..." "Angelica, Angelica Monroe."

The Boardwalk lights were all out, and Angelica was standing alone. Her palms were sweaty as she began to walk back home. She could feel that someone was following her. She didn't know who the sound of a motorcycle revved up as it pulled up next to her, "Need a ride?" "What are you..." Angelica asked, looking at David, who was between draining her or saving her from anything else that might want to harm her. "Someone who has the answer to your question..." he winked,

"You wanna know about your sister..." "My parents told me she was-" "Dead," Dwayne responded from the shadows. "Funny, she said the same about them..." Paul growled. Angelica looked around, trying to find ways to escape, "Just leave me alone I'm only 15! I don't wanna die yet!" she exclaimed, "We're not going to hurt you...We want to help." David glanced at her, "Besides, she'd kill us if we harmed you..." "That's if she finds out about you." Marko laughed, ready to sink his teeth into what he'd hope to be his meal. As Angelica ran off, David punched Marko in the arm.

"Nice going..."

Angelica ran as fast as she could before she had bumped into someone. "Thank God I found you, Sam..." she said, nearly out of breath as he held her hand, "Hey... It's okay..." he looked at Michael, gesturing him to leave. "Are you okay... what happened." "I... I-I don't know I ... can I stay with you guys... " "I don't think your parents would like that bu-" "It'll be fine."

As it got later in the night, Angelica peaked down to look at Sam, who was in a sleeping bag. Of course, she called her parents to let them know she was staying with a friend, but Angelica was still wary of the fact that the infamous Lost Boys knew who she was. Tossing to the other side of Sam's bed, she couldn't help but notice two things. There was a taxidermy Beaver by his beside and two his love for comic books. "Hey, Sam... " she whispered, watching as his eyes opened, "Hmm..." he looked back at her, his vision a bit blurry. "I can't sleep..." she grumbled, " Wanna talk about it..." he began patting a spot next to him. Angelica nodded as she sat next to him. "Well, can we talk about something else..." "Yeah, anything..." "Superman." She smirked. Sam laughed as if she were joking but seeing the sheer look of enjoyment. She wasn't. "I mean, Lois Lane is a cool character but like..." "She just kinda pushes Clark around if you ask me..." Angelica began to yawn, "But if we wanna talk about couples Catwoman and Batman. Although and you may quote me on this." Sam looked at her in amazement. The night was slowly becoming the daytime. Sam, who had just fallen asleep, had his head resting on Angelica's as the two shared his sleeping bag. Michael, who peeped his head in, laughed as he was on his way to the record store.

"Mornin Tiff..." "Morning, Michael," She smirked, placing a few records in his hand, "We got a new shipment!" Tiffany said with a bit of pep, something that was usually rare for her in the mornings. "What's got you so happy..." he asked, noticing her bright, vibrant smile. "The boys have a surprise for me." she shrugged, her lime green sweater and high-waisted pants on.

"Good for you, Tiff."

"Hey, Monroe, hurry up with those orders!" The chef shouted, watching as Angelica paced around the Soda shop sat Sam drinking a milkshake that she specially made for him.

"Couldn't stay away from your girlfriend huh," Michael nudged him. "Aren't you supposed to be at work, doofus..." "Tiffany, let me out early." He laughed,

"Hey, you think I could take Angelica to the cave tonight?"

"I don't see why not..." Michael shrugged.

"Are you sure about this..." Angelica said, walking through the cave, "Trust me, it's pretty cool..." Sam said, leading her down towards the commons. Angelica only clung tighter to San as she heard someone come behind her. "We've been expecting you..." "Stand back!" she made a cross with her fingers at David as she shook her hands, a burning sensation running through her. "What did you do to me..." she whispered.

"Nothing, you're half of us ... half of..." "Who's this kid..." Tiffany looked at her, as her eyes then went wide from her scent. Another part of her that she knew nothing about,

"Are you my..."

"Sister..."

#The Lost Boys 1987 #paul the lost boys #dwayne the lost boys #david the lost boys #sam emerson x oc #fanfic #tiffany monroe #marko the lost boys #michael emerson

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snow-wind-and-all-we-will-find · 3 years ago

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Hi! My names arthur and im working on improving my word and building my story, which currently has no name haha! I have a myriad of characters who ill try to list out and give brief descriptions of, aether is technically my main character and some of the characters who are up for question are dead in canon. But you can still ask them stuff, itll just be set before death.

When asking characters questions, rememeber to include the name, their age if theres diffrent ages, i dont mind repeated questions, but if you see the question try not to ask it again lol. If you cant find it with a quick scroll just ask it, although i dont know if this blog will even get that big.

Aether

He comes in three evolutions lol, technically, theres four but idk if i would count 7 year old aether.

Ages: 13 yo - colder, hasnt gotten used to emotions, there are two to this as well, pre-rev and then post-rev 13 yo aether, remember to specify lol.

16 yo- a bit more out there, still kinda disconnected and figuring things out, a bit more defensive

22 yo- lax, hes sorta figured shit out, hes not going to go grazy, hes just gonna be chill lol.

!The gaggle Ghosts!

Yurei

Her personality is very, ehhh, becuase i havnt done work with her, and i havnt completly figured out who she is fully yet, shes 18 yo when aether is 22 yo

18 yo- pretty oblivious, somehow still a bit cynical, very nice and sometimes motherly

Kakoku

Few thousand- mean, likes to bully yurei as he huants her, lowkey a simp for yurei but he wont admit that. Kinda cynical and likes to bring others down, generally a bully

Tamashi

19- emotionless, has to be a really strong emotion to make her emote, tends to stray away from other people, likes to be alone, blunt

Gunnar

A few thousand- sweet, warm and welcoming, tries to be very fatherly and a trusted figure, is very busy most of the tiime unfortunatly though.

!The greek gang!

Argus agapov

16- unstable, pretty baby, protective over friends and family

Mythos agapov

23- whore. He also loves his family, lowkey, hes a trad wife

Perceus

15/16- timid, intrested in posiosn and acids, generally quiet, likes to eat leaves, scaredy cat

Diogenes

14- germ of phobe, kind of a brat, more just a bitch, will yell at you if he sees your hands were dirty from gardening or something while you’re walking to the sink, other than that hes fine, picky eater

Herodotus

15- disorginized, trys his best, likes to write stuff down, helps plato with his writing and grammar in general, gullible, likes record data, has a nice typewriter with tha good clicky clack

Plato

8- sweet baby boi, loves his older brother (socrates), idolizes him even, not a good idea though. He writes down everything socrates does, sometimes he imitates his brother as well.

Socrates

17- dumb of ass, also just dumb, held back a grade, feral child, bites alot of people, soft aestechic but hed stab as a warning

Heracles

30- also dumb of ass, loves cars in that ‘mah babeh’ kinda way. Hates motorcycles, he thinks they’re ugly. Chaotic but he utilizes it to be the weird and cool uncle/cousin thing

Zeus

46- too tired for this shit, is a dad, went out to get milk, jk jk, dissapeared for a hot few years, probably got captured by some gang dunno, it happens. Very serious, would make the dumbest jokes with his brothers with a straight face

Hades

50- lowkey the neglected middle child, soft goth lookin ass, loves his kid, tries his best to raise his kid, sometimes gets help from esme

Poseidon

57- proud stay at home dad, buff but does the typically wifely duties, makes sure his children get enough love, nutrience and care

Lillith

54- very active, the money maker, kinda soft, both her and her husband poseidon are so just in love with their kids, dote on them constantly, very extroverted, always makes time for her kids

Esme

51- tired of zeus’ shit, does her best to make sure no one dies, still treats mythos as her ‘little baby boy, tired mom vibes.

!the Eden gang!

Eden is a fictional country that i slapped onto the globe. It is where aether is from, technically aether is apart of the eden gang as well. Everyone here, if they have an age option, the first age option is the age they are when aether is 13, and the second will be when aether is 16 unless stated otherwise

General kyelli

49- fatherly, thinks of most of the gang as his children, calls everyone ‘son’, as a general rule. If you ask for another nickname, he will do his best. Has a bad knee, and is kinda of bad at existing physically

52+- fatherly still, loves almonds, always has a bag of almonds, dont test him. Enjoys travel, might adopt people he meets along the way, still has pains but now he sees doctors, wants to stay active

Indigo

13- sweet, optimistic, always looks on the brightside and tries to see the good in others. Little heater, understands that sometimes fighting is the only option

Akrano

16- lively, very loose and relax, can get serious when needed though, always making jokes and trying to lighten up the mood

19- a bit more, mellow. Still quite lively and childish, but with two signifigant-others you have to settle down sometimes

Ekrano

16- lively, more stern than akrano and kinda worried, but ultimatly also very loose and bright

Lilliana

16- serious, seemingly colder towards everyone, gets along great with psycho-lops, makes him new eye-patches to pass time, actually just very monotone and blank most of the time, although she does care

19- she doesnt change much, she got a bit more expressive, likes babysitting howl

Psycho-lops

16 1/2- always looks determined, actually kinda scared of conflict, likes to help out with healing though, very proficient in it as well, sounds intimidating while talking about how cute puppies and kittens are

19/20- still the same, is considering studying medicine and medical practices to become a doctor.

Bark

17- bright, incredibly lively, loves to joke around and tease and sometimes bully the others, targets aether primarily, hangs out with his brother most of the time, he can fight for himself but he likes the backup, especcially since he is kinda glass-jawed, being that hes a twig

Bite

17- quiet, intense eyes, always sounds vaugly confused when he speaks, deep voice lol, likes to train, doesnt understand barks need to tease others, likes to read to the children

20- quiet, intense eyes still, more so nervous sounding, slightly paranoid, cluastrophobic and cant stand dusty places, usually in his house or at the docks, doesnt really go anywhere else

Hanelle

17- loud, headstrong, adamant about her opinions, gets along well with bark, she tries alot to be intimidating, not a twig, but not very big, pretty friendly and sociable

!the band of pirates!

Aklea

A few hundreds of years- kinda bored seeming, loves blood, technically cannibal, but not really since he isnt human, to an extent. Despite being fine on the ocean, he gets very car sick very easily. Actually quite nice, very easily triggerd into violence, especcially by something that could be used as a good murder weapon, blood makes him jittery and more lively

Nerone

21- calm, too calm, deals with akleas bullshit wonerfully, he just stands there, blank smile on his face as aklea beats the shit outta someone, unintrested in most anything, likes to draw, but hes a much better pastry chef.

!the shakespears!

Midem(pink boi)

33- lively, loves to work with kids, very creative, likes to make things, mainly art, mainly carvings. Often make little minitures of scenes from midens writing, loves his twin, does anything it takes to fund midens intrests. Very loving to those hes close to

Miden

33- calmer by alot lmao, pretty introverted but he can hold a long conversation without becoming too drained, enjoys writing and making stories, also makes plays for fun, runs off little sleep cuase he stays up so late to write, and gets up early to write.

!gods!

Gideon

9 billion- confused boomer, loves his ‘children’, hates to be hated, always tries to help in anyway he can, despite making them, always curious into what mortals are doing, loves the universe he created and does anything he can to protect it

Merik

7 million- sore loser, does get a little salty, ultimatly bounces back and becomes a very good sport, always will adopt tactics, whatever it takes to win within the rules, keeps most all of his trophies from random feats hes done

Ventus

5 billion - calm, straightforward, tends to disregard others and do things himself, likes to sit on cliffs and watch the ocean

Kyle

Hes been around since 776 bc- very loud, lively, bright, tries his best to educate people on proper form, workout regime i intesne, doesnt allow others to take it, makes custom workout regimes for free, owns a gym, dude bro but hes nice, baby

Horo-sha

Her age technicaly is not accurate, shes like, 2 billion? Since dima was made right after her death. But since her history still lives, ima count it

5 billion but older than ventus- bitter, violent, former god of justice, fucking dead haha, hates mortals, primarily humans

Dima

Also not super accurate, hed only be a few centuries of being an active god before being sealed, but since hes technically, concious and has cognitive function hes counted

3 billion- mean lol, likes blood and gets even more violent when it starts getting messy, ‘new’ god of justice, uh, pretty bad at it like the last one, but worse, will kill over slight misdeameanors, everythings a crime smh

!misc!

Ivan

24- softspoken, from imperial russia, died young, he no longer feels his face is his own, has a mask that he likes better, has the sickness, but since he was human it killed him, can control it post mortem, is strong enough to be seen, but weak enough he can go invisible and go through solid objects.

More ocs will be added when i remember them, or create new ones, characters i dont really have built at all are not included

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bruttomisandro · 4 years ago

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hi um. abt ur eene!reverse au. Does it only reverse their core personalities or everything abt them? For example, is Dee still hyperempathetic to bugs & plants? Does Ed still have a soft spot for birds/chickens? Does Eddy still give ppl a bunch of nicknames? Or no bc theyre reversed... Pls and thank you ;w;

Well hobbies and passions are pretty different from personalities, but I really want to explore different stuff with those characters!

Rev Edd would respect animals and nature, he is a cosmic pessimist(Giacomo Leopardi's style) and accept that in general nature cannot be controlled, but unlike the original Edd who mostly focus on the scientific subjects and just respects the other ones(the violin, the reverse psychology book etc etc), RevEdd particularly focuses on them, like literature, philosophy, poetry, arts, psychology etc etc, he would know the divine comedy by Dante at heart and write a lot, like he would not buy science themed valentines but make its own

RevEd in contrast hates nature and anything that is wildlife makes him uncomfortable. He can't stay next to the animals and if you take him to the farm you can be sure he runs away. Having been pampered from an early age, a dog that barks scares him and therefore even animals such as birds, unpredictable by nature make him uncomfortable. RevEd hate horror, action and sci fi movies, he found them stupid, even if he has a thing for pemplum films, but he justify it by saying it's because they are historical movies(which they aren't trust me, I saw enough of them). Also he loves technology(this is Mason idea, thank u buddy), a nerd, even if he is also an athletic boy. Who knows if sooner or later he will learn to go over his echo chamber ...

Eddy is so polite he calls everyone Mr and full name, probably scared of being offensive by making nicknames. Chill out bro

#Ed edd n eddy #Eene #Reverse eene #Reverse au #Thank you very much for ur interest! I have a lot to work with it WHN I WILL FIND MOTIVATION #Reverse double d #Reverse eddy #Reverse ed

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dvp95 · 5 years ago

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creator tag meme 2019!

Rules: It’s time to love yourselves! Choose your 5 favourite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2019. Tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

thanks for the tag @obsessivelymoody & @waveydnp !!!

this is the first year since 2013 that i’ve felt in any way confident and motivated in my writing. a lot happened in my personal life in the years between then and now, and i don’t want to get into that. let’s just say that this is the first year i’ve felt safe and generally happy in a long, long time. i either haven’t written at all in those years or i’ve focused on one project for so long that it morphs into something else entirely (looking at you, don’t complicate it, which i started in early january of 2017 and didn’t post until june, and you can see me trying to catch up with their move and other aspects of their life as i desperately wanted to keep it canon compliant) but something about dnp being open with us and the community i found here really revved my engine (maybe too much? we know how close i got to actual burnout). i wouldn’t change it for the world.

boring intro over! let’s talk about the things i’m fucking proud of creating!

1. still the best, more or less

come on, you knew i’d say this. even though i’m taking a break from even thinking about amnesia au until it no longer makes me want to scream into a pillow, i can’t deny that this is the easiest decision on the list. i am so extremely happy with the way i took a trope that’s often overdramatized and turned it into something bittersweet and domestic, based in reality, and extremely personal to me. i really pride myself on writing complicated subjects in small, simple chunks, like hacking away at some marble until you as a reader can understand exactly what i’m conveying, and i think amnesia verse is the best example of that.

2. can’t breathe when you touch my sleeve

this is the longest thing i’ve ever written, and the speed that i wrote it is actually terrifying in retrospect (for me! i’m NOT a quick writer, usually!), but that’s not the only reason i’m so happy with this lil monster. what started as a really simple concept of, “hey, i bet that phil would have just posted that five second coming out video ages ago in a different timeline”, turned into something extremely sweet and surprisingly funny! i’m happy with the original characters i included and so thrilled with the pacing of how i handled dan’s acceptance of himself. it’s just.... my baby. this is my baby.

3. good for you, good for you

stepping outside my comfort zone for this one. i needed a lot of reassurance that i could do something shamelessly kinky, and i don’t really think i managed that - it’s absolutely smut, no question about it, and it’s shameless, but shameless in the way that things become when you trust your partner with everything about yourself. the give and take of control is so interesting to me in terms of dnp, and i would absolutely love to talk about it a bunch more!! i think i probably spent more time making this comfortable and full of communication than i spent making it sexy, but i’m happy with that breakdown. i don’t believe kink can exist without trust and communication, and i’m happy that it resonated with so many of you!

4. giving you my forever

this is probably the fluffiest of fluff, for me. obviously i had to be a little funny as well, because that’s where i’m most comfortable right now, but all the proposal fics from japhan content were making me so soft-hearted and i absolutely needed to get my own take in a google doc as soon as i possibly could. i had this whole concept in my head where phil was right, but then all the logistics came crashing down around my ears and i was like, y’know what would make even more sense? i don’t want to spoil it if you haven’t read it. give it a shot!

5. Memories (co-written with @intoapuddle)

i love puddle, i love working with puddle, and i love this story we crafted together in like three hours. reading it back, i’m really really happy with the way our styles work together. i don’t think it’s obvious when one of us started writing and when the other stopped, and honestly we barely edited it. i told puddle we were drift-compatible after this, and i think our affection for dnp and their nostalgia and banter was really able to shine through our styles complementing each other so well. ferris wheels, jokes you can’t help making, an undercurrent of Love in every action - this is good. we did good. you should read it.

thank you, if you read any of these or even read this far in the list, haha. i hope to make 2020 a more well-rounded year in terms of self care and balance, but i also hope to keep pushing myself outside of my comfort zone with things like collabs and kinks and multi-chapter slow burns. i hope you’ll stick around for it <3

i’d like to tag @karcathy, @chickenfreeblog, @intoapuddle, @jestbee, @judearaya, @throwing-roses-into-the-abyss, @blue-draws-dnp, @cactilads, @watergator, and @calvinahobbes!!!

#tag meme #do not lose #long post #daye talks

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captainrogers-ass · 5 years ago

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Save Me - Chapter 9

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Reader, multiple MCU characters

Word Count: 4055

Summary: Y/N has finally landed her dream job as a lifeguard on Midgard Beach, but how well will she fit in with the team and how will she cope after grabbing the attention of the blue-eyed Captain?

***Masterlist***

A/N: Ok so I’ll be honest I’m not 100% happy with this chapter but it’s probs the best it’s gonna get. This is the second last chapter and I’m actually getting hell sad that this AU is coming to an end cause it’s been a blast to write. I hope you all enjoy and feedback is always appreciated xxx

You could tell something was wrong as soon as you had woken the next day. Having sent a message to Steve asking to talk you had watched on as he had read the message, began to type a reply, before deleting his words and becoming inactive. Later that day you had tried to call him only to be met with his voicemail.

The weekend had dragged on as your messages to Steve remained unopened. After having given up after several attempts to get in contact with the blonde haired man you tried to busy yourself by running errands; buying groceries, visiting your parents and going for numerous runs.

As Monday had rolled around you had half expected for the Captain to not show up for work, your predictions proven wrong as he had strolled through the door, earphones plugged tightly into his ears with his gaze locked on the floor. Bucky was the first to notice something was off, nudging at Sam before gesturing in the direction of Steve who was silently putting his bag away. The two men shared a look of confusion.

You ripped your gaze away from him as you turned back to the conversation you had been having with Thor and Bruce, trying your hardest to push the pain you were feeling away from your mind. Feeling his gaze on you you fought the urge the look at him.

Throughout the week it became obvious that Steve was avoiding you, always making sure that he was with a group of his colleagues so you couldn’t pry him away, as you tried to so many times in your desperate search for answers regarding his cold treatment towards you. His eyes were always staring anywhere but on you, obviously going out of his way to avoid eye contact. You had even tried talking to him in the carpark after your shift, Steve quickly bringing his bike to life, revving the engine loudly to drown out your calls, before driving off without a word.

As the week had gone by the team had become increasingly aware that something was off with their Captain and that it somehow involved you. No one had outright asked you about it but you could hear the whispers that were said behind you back, quickly hushed whenever you walked into a room.

By Thursday you had given up all hope in finding out what was wrong with Steve, resolving to let him avoid you if that was what he so wished to do.

You weren’t going to lie to yourself; your heart felt as if it had been torn in two. Seeing him act so distant and go to great lengths to avoid being in the same room as you plummeted your self esteem to an all time low. The two of you had become extremely close over your time working together, an extreme contrast to Steve’s current behaviour towards you. You prided yourself on being a bubbly and bright person but now you could barely hold back the tears that were seemingly always threatening to spill over from your eyes.

The kiss you had shared replayed throughout your mind constantly throughout the week, it’s never-ending loop driving you crazy as you analysed every aspect of the night wondering where you went wrong. Shaking your head with force you dispelled those thoughts from your head.

I did nothing wrong, you angrily thought to yourself. It’s him, not me.

Nevertheless the loop restarted in your mind, highlighting just how happy you had been in Steve’s embrace. The unshed tears came back, this time with a vengeance as they violently threatened to spill from your eyes.

“I’ll meet you in the shed, Tony!” You called out to your partner for the day. “I’m just gonna run to the bathroom.”

The tears had started to fall before you had even opened the door.

You let them fall freely down your face as you rushed to a cubicle, closing the door quickly behind you before falling onto the toilet. Your hands came up to cup your face, the tears streaming down your wrists as you cried quietly.

Fuck him, you thought to yourself as you wiped away the tears only for more to flood your cheeks.

Fuck him for kissing me. Fuck him for making me think that he liked me. Fuck him for treating me like I don’t exist. Fuck him. Fuck him. Fuck him.

You didn’t know how long you had been sitting on the toilet throwing silent curses into the air before a knock came from the bathroom door. Sitting up you bolted out of the cubicle, your hands frantically coming up to wipe at your tear stained face.

The door opened slightly, Tony’s familiar face poking through.

“Y/N?” He asked, concern written across his features. “Are you okay?”

You plastered the fakest smile across your face, going up to the sink as you washed your hands.

“Oh, Tony. Sorry, did I take too long?” The smile remained glued to your features as your colleague opened the door fully, stepping in before closing the door behind him.

“What’s wrong gorgeous?” He asked softly, having clearly noticed your puffy cheeks and tear stained eyes.

As you heard the gentleness in his voice your facade instantly broke, the tears returning to your face once more. Without another word Tony engulfed you in a fierce hug, leading you over to the change room bench as he sat you down.

“It’s okay,” he cooed, holding you as you sobbed into his shirt. “Is it something to do with Steve?”

You nodded into his shoulder, not trusting your voice enough to speak.

“Is he being a dick?”

You nodded once more, smiling slightly at Tony’s crude words.

The two of you remained like that for quite some time, his hold on you never once faltering as you emptied your emotions onto him. You only pulled away after you had calmed down, wiping away one last stray tear as it rolled down your cheek.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Tony asked, his voice remaining soft and gentle.

Before you had time to think your mouth began spewing what had happened, obviously eager to voice the hurt feelings that had been pent up in your body all week. You hadn’t even confided in Natasha or Wanda, having decided to face this pain alone. He sat motionless in front of you, his focus never once leaving you as he listened intently.

“I don’t even know why I’m crying so much,” you continued, having told Tony the whole story of what had happened after the party. “I’ve never cried this much over anyone. I hate crying, it makes me feel so weak.”

“First of all you’re not weak for crying. I’ve noticed how Rogers has been treating you all week and I’m absolutely furious about it. Secondly - and correct me if I’m wrong - but, to me, it sounds like the kiss was spontaneous, like he didn’t plan for it to happen.”

Tony quickly corrected himself as he saw your face fall.

“No-no-no, I didn’t mean it like that. I’m saying that it was an in-the-moment event. I know the Cap. He’s the kind of guy that likes to have everything planned. I think that his emotions finally just boiled over and he kissed you without thinking. I bet you money that the reason he’s being such a dick is because he doesn’t know what to do. He didn’t plan for the kiss to happen so he definitely hasn’t planned for what comes after.”

“Tony, where are you? Why aren’t you in position?” The Captain’s voice filled the bathroom from the comm attached to Tony’s waist. The dark-haired man whipped it into his hand before replying with a certain viciousness in his tone.

“Back off Cap, I’m dealing with something.”

He turned your face so that you were looking directly into his eyes.

“He’s being a coward Y/N,” he said with a serious tone. “He doesn’t know what to do so he’s avoiding the situation all together. Don’t let his struggles burden you. He’s obviously got stuff he needs to figure out and you dwelling on him will only hurt you more.”

You nodded as you listened to his words, your confidence growing by the second.

“So do you know what we’re gonna do?” Tony stood from his spot, dragging you with him. “We’re going to walk out that door, save some lives and look good doing it.”

You engulfed him in a hug before he wrapped your arm in his, sauntering out the door with confidence in every step.

***

The rest of the day only got better from their. You and Tony were constantly joking around whilst on patrol, the older man blasting out music from his phone as you sang along badly. Wanda and Natasha insisted on taking you for lunch at The Black Panther, having noticed something was off and wanting to help out in any way. Pietro had joined you, lifting your mood higher, clutching your stomach as you laughed uncontrollably when he had started dramatically gossiping about his coworkers, telling you a story about how he had ‘accidentally’ spilled a bottle of whiskey all over an annoying coworker.

Having returned to the tower early you draped yourself across the couch, joining in on the conversation your coworkers were having. Steve was sat directly across from you, listening to his teammates speak but never once joining in. You laughed at one of Thor’s jokes, Steve’s gaze lifting from the floor to stare at your smiling features. The heat from his stare caught your attention immediately but you refrained from looking back at him, trying instead to regain your focus back onto the conversation.

You could tell that each of your coworkers were slowly catching on to the tension that had arisen between you and Steve as they glanced back and forth between the two of you for the rest of the day. Brushing it off you focussed your attention on your job, getting back to work as the sun began its slow descent.

Tony drove the buggy expertly through the sand, weaving in and out of the remaining beach-goers as he made his way back up the ramp and parked just outside the storage shed. The two of you got to work, untying the paddle boards from where they rested in the tray on the back of the cars. You had just plugged the hose into the tap, readying it to wash the sand and salt off of the boards, when a second buggy made its way up the ramp. Natasha and Steve were sitting inside, clearly arguing about something.

You watched on as Natasha brought her hand up to smack the larger man on the back of his head, Steve whipping his head back to say something to her before Tony cleared his throat, catching their attention. As their eyes rested on you they both immediately closed their mouths, Natasha flashing you a wide grin.

You rolled your eyes as you got back to work, the last buggy making its way up the ramp before Bruce and Thor exited, joining the rest of you as you packed up for the day.

***

“Surely someone comes surfing with me,” you whined as you addressed your colleagues, all of them packing their bags at their lockers.

“Sorry gorgeous,” Tony responded, looking over at you apologetically. “Pepper’s cooking dinner tonight and I promised her I’d come home early.”

“I can’t either Y/N,” Natasha added. “I’m babysitting Clint’s kids tonight.”

You listened as each of your colleagues provided you with their excuses, each one looking back at you with an apologetic smile on their faces. Steve was the only one who didn’t respond, packing his bag hastily as he flew out the door without a word.

“Fine, you can all ditch me. Although I’m not convinced by half of your excuses,” you replied jokingly, smiling as you packed the last item into your bag.

After everyone was ready to go the team, minus Steve, left the tower together. You said your goodbyes as you parted ways, the rest of the team heading for the carpark as you headed down the steps towards the storage room where your board was situated.

You basked in the warm heat that washed over you from the setting sun, admiring the golden ocean as you walked. However your attention was soon distracted as you passed by the gym, surprised to see that the roller door was opened. Glancing inside your eyes were met by the tense figure of Steve, his back towards you as he punched violently at the punching bag at the back of the room.

You found that your feet had stopped in their movements as your eyes trailed up and down his figure. The tight shirt he was wearing did nothing to hide the movements of his back muscles, tense and outlined perfectly by the thin fabric. His hands were covered in boxing wraps, used to protect his wrists as he attacked the bag in front of him. He was angry, you could tell, watching on as he violently hailed punch after punch, his chest rising and falling deeply as sweat streamed off of him.

You were brought out of your daze when Steve finally stopped his assault, turning around to grab the towel and water bottle that lay on the bench behind him. His eyes met yours briefly as your legs sprang back into motion, quickly walking away as you made your way to the storage shed.

You could feel his eyes on you as you made your way down the beach, board now in hand. You indulged in your urge to turn around and meet his gaze, finding him leaning against one of the stone pillars that lined the edge of sand, his water bottle brought up to his mouth as he took a swig.

The water was cold as you waded through the liquid, placing your board in the water next to you and mounting it after you had gotten deep enough. Paddling forward you shoved the board under the water as you dove under an oncoming wave. Your eyes surveyed the horizon as you pushed yourself up, your legs straddling either side of the board as you assessed the ocean around you, waiting patiently.

You would be lying if you said your mind wasn’t distracted, the image of Steve’s tense and sweaty form filling your mind. Shaking your head you tried to rid yourself of the image as you turned your board around, paddling forward as a large wave began to form behind you.

Just after you had popped up from your board, your legs finding their place as you crouched down, the image of Steve came back into your head with a vengeance, catching you off guard. Your balance was instantly thrown off resulting in you tumbling from your board, landing in the water beside you.

You didn’t resurface immediately as you glanced around you, basking in the silence that the water provided. It was incredibly serene under the water as you lost track of time, replaying Tony’s words in your head. The burning in your lungs notified you that your lack of oxygen intake was an imminent threat. Reluctantly you pushed yourself upwards, gasping as you resurfaced before mounting your board once more.

Determined to not let Steve ruin any more of your day, you threw the image from your mind, focusing solely on the ocean around you.

***

You only reluctantly emerged from the water after the sun had fully gone down, taking with it the light you needed. The sand clung to your wet form as you made your way back up the beach, washing down your board before replacing it back into its position in the shed. The roller door that led to the gym was now closed, a sigh of relief escaping your lips at the knowledge that you wouldn’t have to see Steve again.

Your relief was soon quashed however as you opened the door to the showers, the sound of water and the sight of steam indicating that Steve hadn’t gone home quite yet as you had hoped. The want to slip out unnoticed was soon crushed as Steve’s eyes found yours as you hesitated by the door. You debated what to do, reluctant to spend your shower next to a man that had considerably hurt you but unwilling to stoop down to his level by ignoring him if you retreated.

I’m better than that, you thought to yourself.

Standing up straighter you made your way into the room, walking over to the shower that was two down from Steve’s, not glancing at him once. Turning the water on you waited for it to heat up, the steam rising from your shower mixing with the steam rising from Steve’s.

His eyes remained on you for the duration of your shower, burning a hole into your back as you turned away from him. You hastily ran your hands over you body, riding yourself of the sand that had embedded itself into your skin, eager to leave his presence as fast as possible. Your hand was just about to shut off the stream of water when a voice filled the room.

“Y/N.”

You closed your eyes as his voice filled your ears, sounding as if he was pleading with you and croaking slightly from lack of use.

Without thinking you whipped your body around and stormed towards him, your hand coming up as you slapped it across his cheek. His eyes went wide as a shocked expression filled his face, his mouth opening as if to speak but no words coming out. You barely noticed as the water from Steve’s shower began to roll over you, too infuriated to care.

“No,” was all you said as you glared up at him, anger slowly rising within you. He stayed silent, allowing you to speak.

“No. You don’t get to pick and choose when you want to acknowledge my existence.” His eyes grew sad as he listened to your words.

“Y/N, I-” he began before you cut him off.

“Shut up.” His mouth immediately closed. “You have absolutely no right to kiss me and then avoid me like the plague. It’s rude, it’s insulting and it’s cowardice. I tried all week to talk to you about it but you ran away like a scared little girl. I get it if you don’t like me, that’s fine. We were both tipsy so I don’t really blame you. I’m an adult, I can handle rejection. But the least you can do is communicate that with me. I’m not a mind reader Steve; I can’t predict your thoughts. I’m over you pretending you can’t hear me or physically running away when I walk into a room. The only reason I’m here is to do my job, so go ahead, ignore me until your hearts content.”

By now you had backed the large man into the wall, his eyes never leaving yours as he listened intently, never once cutting you off. Yours eyes went wide with surprise as one of his hands reached out to grab onto yours, the other coming up to gently cup your face. He was so gentle that you could barely feel his touch, your mind telling you to pull away but your body remaining rooted. Steve’s heart broke slightly as he felt you tense immediately at his touch.

“I fucked up.” His blunt words shocked you slightly. His voice was soft, contrasting vastly with the angered tone you had used to berate him.

“When I kissed you it was like the whole world had disappeared and I had found everything I could ever want. I’ll be honest that it scared me. I didn’t know what to do. If Fury found out I could’ve lost my captaincy. I didn’t know what would happen and you’re right, I was being a coward.”

He took a breath before continuing, “So I ran. I avoided your texts and calls all weekend and I thought I could do it. It was easy to decline calls. What wasn’t easy was seeing you. As soon as I saw you on Monday my plan went out the window and before I knew it I’d scheduled a meeting with Fury.”

You stared at him in shock as he proceeded to tell you the lengths he had gone to to talk to Fury throughout the week; setting up meetings every day, constantly pestering him with emails, leaving constant messages with Fury’s secretary. He even got the head of human resources, Maria Hill, involved in the process, talking back and forth until she relented and confided that, although it was frowned upon and warned against, there were no explicit rules to a Captain dating their employee. After being harassed for several days Fury also came around. He wouldn’t strip Steve of his position as Captain (“For now,” he had emphasised) as long as he could maintain an unbiased rule.

“I don’t really give a damn who you date Cap,” Fury had stated as Steve remained silent in the chair adjacent.

“What I care about is you getting distracted on the job. I’ll allow it for now cause I’m sick of seeing your face in my office, but if I hear that someones died on your watch cause you’re too busy making heart eyes with Y/N I’ll fire the both of you.” His words were stern and severe but Steve could hardly mask the smile that threatened to erupt onto his face.

You listened to him, not daring to say a word, your mind trying to process all he was saying. However, many of your questions still remained unanswered.

“So you do like me?” You asked hesitantly, doubting the man in front of you.

“Yes,” Steve responded resolutely, not hesitating for a second in his response.

“And why were you incapable of communicating all of this?” You still weren’t fully convinced of the mans motives.

“That’s where I fucked up,” he admitted, flicking his eyes to the floor in embarrassment. “I couldn’t ask you out straight away since I had to sort everything with Fury. I was scared that Fury would say no and I didn’t want to get your hopes up if I told you about it. So I tried to avoid the topic but then that somehow turned into ignoring you all together.”

Steve paused slightly before he began talking at a rapid pace.

“But then I realised that I’d hurt you and then everyone was mad at me and I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t know how to fix things and I was scared that I’d fucked everything up and I wanted to talk to you but I didn’t know what to say so I told Nat about everything but she just called me a twat and said I was stupid and-”

You ceased his talking as you crashed your lips onto his, catching him off guard. He hesitated for a few seconds before easing his tense muscles, deepening the kiss as you opened your mouth up to him. The water that was still spraying over the two of you dripped from your foreheads and mingled in between your mouths, your hands coming up to run through Steve’s wet hair. He moved his hands down your body, resting them on your waist as he pulled you closer towards him.

After several minutes of your mouths fighting for dominance you pulled away reluctantly, your eyes being drawn to Steve’s lips which were now red and puffy. He smiled down at you, his eyes shining with happiness as his hands remained firmly on your waist.

“You’re not off the hook, Rogers,” you stated sternly, watching as he nodded back in understanding.

“Let me try and make it up to you,” he stated pleadingly. You raised an eyebrow questioningly, motioning for him to continue.

“How about I take you for dinner tomorrow night?”

You paused to think, teasing him as he eagerly waited for your response.

“Alright,” you finally replied, looking up at the man in front of you.

His smile somehow grew bigger causing your heart to flutter.

#Steve Rogers #Steven Grant Rogers #steve rogers au #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers x reader au #captain america #captain america au #captain america x reader #captain america x reader au #MCU #marvel #marvel cinematic universe #Chris Evans #chris evans x reader

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pxiao · 5 years ago

Text

Reasons I’m glad V///R is dead and gone forever

So V//R is dead and cancelled and my only reaction is FINALLY. Since VR is gone and we can finish forgetting the forgettable show and get rid of all our salt. You’re free to add to the post but there are rules.

1. DO NOT TAG IT SO THE FANS CAN SEE. As much as I hate the show and the fandom even they don’t deserve to see people bashing the show in their tag.

2. Don’t write the name of the show or the characters. Use /// or ---- in the character’s name like Yu///saku so the tumblr search can’t pull them up

ok good? Good.

Everyone but Yu///saku is worthless.

Seriously when have any of the characters actually progressed the story? Potentially only SB have done anything truly worthwhile. Everyone else was just to die to build tension for Yu//saku. And if you’re asking for RE///volver. OHHH I have a section just for him, don’t you worry.

Sto//rm Acc/ess aka Yu//saku is such a shitty duelist that the MINORITY of his duels has him not cheating.

SERIOUSLY it’s written that Yu//saku can get a random extra deck monster with his skill BUT the issue is despite it being “random” Yu//saku ALWAYS gets the monster he needs to win. NOT ONCE IN THE 100+ EPISODE HAS HE GOTTEN A USELESS CARD. ALWAYS THE ONE HE NEEDS. Totally doesn’t seem like plot armor. And you know it wouldn’t be as big of an issue IF HE DIDN’T USE IT FOR EVERY SPE///ED DUEL!!!!!!!! For a character that the show likes to say is “invincible” he sure isn’t good enough to win with the deck he built. It got ridiculous with his duel with G/oo in season 2 where G//o countered his skill BUT A//i revealed it had a secondary effect that let him draw a card AND still get a new extra deck monster.

Plot twists:

They fall into two camps, “we already knew you dumbasses” or “THE HELL WERE YOU GUYS SMOKING!” Essentially the twists are obvious like A///i was based off of Yu//saku’s data as why wouldn’t he be. Or the dumb ones like Spec///tre beating A///oi or somehow Spec//tre had CONSCIOUS TREE AS A MOTHER. There have been a few twists that I can count that surprised me but they lead to other twists that fall back into stupid.

the “Plot” just plain doesn’t exist.

It’s just things happening with some connecting plot lines BUT they rarely lead into each other. Light///ning revealed that his plan was happening THE EXACT SAME TIME as season 1′s finale. A//i being the villain is more due to Light//ning’s simulation somehow proving that A///i will destroy humanity than the fact that A/i’s the only Ig//nis left. And each season’s arc has no connecting plot either. Season 1 can be broken down to Yu//saku gets A//i which has him meet the “main cast” and then Yu///saku go to S//OL for info that was TOTALLY pointless. Which is isolated from Re//volver setting a virus that traps you on the internet which leads to Re//volver learning Yusa//ku’s face AND MEETING HIM but does jack shit with that info. And then Re///volver’s final plan happens that was based on timing than anything else.

Does that seem disjointed? YEP because there is no narrative at all, things are just happening. There is a vague connection at best but none of the characters’ actions actually affect how the story goes. THE FRUSTRATING PART IS THEY SET UP MOMENTS WHERE THEY COULD HAVE BUT THEY DIDN’T. SEASON 2 AND 3 IS THE SAME THINGS JUST HAPPEN AND THEN YU//SAKU HAS TO SAVE THE FUCKING DAY. V/R has no rhyme or reason why things happen, they just do and let me tell you, that’s fucking boring.

The Yu//saku praise

My fucking god. Look the protagonist getting praised isn’t new, it happens with each series BUT the issue is the volume that Yu//saku gets and how early he gets it. Most protagonists have to wait till at least the second series before the population love them. Yu///saku got it by the THIRD EPISODE. BY. BEAT. A. MOOK. He was called a hero, people were saying he was hot, people were copying his avatar. AND IT NEVER STOPPED. EVERY OTHER EPISODE HAS SOMEONE SAY HE’S AMAZING, STRONG AND SOOO IMPORTANT.

An A//oi episode in season 1 has a less than five minute section just to show that a kid HERO WORSHIPS YU//SAKU AND WAS IT. The kid appears with an avatar based on PM, PM saves him and tells the kid to trust him to save and then the kid logs out. AND THIS HAPPENS CONSTANTLY. “YU//SAKU IS INVINCIBLE”, “YU//SAKU IS MY HERO!”, “EVERYONE DEPENDS ON YOU YU//SAKU”. IT’S BEEN AN ENTIRE SHOW OF PEOPLE SINGING YU///SAKU’S PRAISES AND THE WORST PART OF IT IS, HE DESERVES NONE OF IT.

The setting.

Let me ask ... THE FUCK IS IT. What even is Link Vr//ains? Is it a game, a site, a program? WHY IS IT ONLY IN DE///N CITY? WHY IS DESTROYING IT WILL LEAD TO THE ENTIRE INTERNET CRASHING???????? Link Vr///ains is something that NEEDS to be explained but the show NEVER DOES. HELL IT NEVER EVEN TRIES.

The girls

Jesus christ ... the girls are .... just sad. A///oi ... my fucking god A//oi. A///oi’s personality starts and ends with “onii-sama”. NEARLY EVERY MOTIVE OF HER’S IS I WANT TO DO SOMETHING FOR MY STEPBROTHER. Everything else is a passing fancy. Mi///yu? Yeah nice motivation but that’s why her two duels as BM in season 2 is more about her relationship with Ak//ira than her “friend”.

Em//ma’s backstory was absorbed into BS’ despite the fact he was a new addition when Em//ma was around since season 1.

Vir//ya is just a bit character meant to fill out the remain KOH, since their return in season 2, she haven’t done anything of value.

Qu///een ... why is she there? I mean she appeared in a Bikini ... in virtual reality. seriously there is no point in that shit, and then did nothing besides watch over Ear//th’s death and then lost to A//i when her skill was named honey trap.

Mi////yu is so unimportant we haven’t gotten a scene of her out of flashback despite being a lost chi//ld.

Back to A//oi, it’s not even that A//oi isn’t important,sadly that’s not uncommon in YGO, it’s the fact EACH TIME SHE TRIES TO DO SOMETHING, THE SHOW PUNISHES HER FOR IT. She tries to be a symbol for people, it’s stupid why she trying but still, Spec///tre reveals he was toying with her the entire time and she had no chance. She tries to get stronger in season 2, SB beats cause she doesn’t have an Ig//nis and then she does nothing for half the season. She tries to save her “childhood friend”, Bow//man beats her and takes her consciousness so Yu//saku has to save her ... again. She tries to protected Ak//ira, A//i beats them and only takes A//oi to taunt her over her failure. THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE SHOW, ANYTIME A//OI TRIES TO DO ANYTHING, THE SHOW BEAT HER UP AS IF TO SAY, YOU SHOULDN’T DO ANYTHING EVER. Great message there.

Simulations

You know as people there are plenty of reasons that conflict starts, greed, hate, anger, lust, desperation to survive, hunger. And how does conflict start in V/r? FUCKING SIMULATIONS. EVERY SINGLE CONFLICT IN THIS SHOW IS BECAUSE OF A SIMULATION. K//OH are a thing cause Kog///ami did a simulation that showed that the Ig//nis are learning TOO FAST AND WILL CAUSE THE END OF HUMANITY. Ligh///tning turned evil because he learned no matter what he can NEVER BE FRIENDS WITH HUMANITY CAUSE OF A SIMULATION. A///i turning “evil” because he’s doom to end the world cause of you guessed it a SIMULATION. Simulations are just tools and are NEVER THE FINAL RESULT. There are too many variables to truly make an 100% accurate simulation BUT HERE THEY ACT AS IF SIMULATIONS ARE A FUCKING GOSPEL. IT’S STUPID AND INCREDIBLY LAZY THAT THE CAUSE OF ALL the conflict in this show is because of independent simulations.

Mental illness

As a person with a mental illness and went to therapy I can say this, VR doesn’t deserve any brown points for covering mental illness. If anything VR touching mentally illness takes points away. I have already said my piece on how poorly VR tackles mental illness. But my take away is this when it comes to mental illness VR is a absolutely horrible.

Rev///ovler

Re//voler is in all honestly a shitty character despite what his fans think. He’s an asshole that has no drive of his own. He admit he does this all BECAUSE OF HIS DAD. The one time he did do something of his own accord, turn his dad in, he later regretted so much that he refuses to do it again. LOOK I can understand missing your father despite the fact he’s trash, human relationships are complex BUT RE///VOLVER BEING “FATHER I WILL NEVER EVER GO AGAINST YOU AGAIN DESPITE THE FACT YOU KIDNAPPED KIDS AND THEN TORTURED THEM BECAUSE YOU FELT SAD HUMAN WILL EVENTUALLY GO EXTINCT ONLY TO TURN ON YOUR CREATIONS” IS FUCKING STUPID. And then he goes the EXTRA MILE OF ASS and says to Yu//saku’s face that he REGRETS SAVING HIS LIFE TWICE. And he never apologized either.

Also his “development” is forced as shit, Revo//lver never develops onscreen or shows signs of changing, just the show and characters say OH YES RE//VOLVER CHANGED.... IN A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME. Honestly after his return in season 2 where he showed he DIDN’T CHANGE, then he tries to help Hom//ura despite telling Yu//saku he regrets saving him. WHY THE CHANGE. HE HAS SEEN NOTHING THAT MADE HE FEEL SYMPATHY FOR THE LOST KI//DS. BUT HE’S ALL OF A SUDDEN KIND TO HO///MURA. AND THEN AFTER HE LOSES TO LIGH//TNING AND SAY’S A/I NAME, ONLY TO SNAP BACK IN SEASON 3 AND WANTS TO KILL A///I. What I’m saying is, he has no real character development, you can tell what the show WANTED him to become but my god they were too lazy to actually show him changing.

Yu//saku

OH BOY this is going to be long. Yu//saku is by far the WORST WRITTEN PROTAGONIST IN YGO HISTORY. He has no personality and no real background besides HE WAS TORTURED, POOR HIM!!!!! Seriously what was his life like before the Lo//st Incident. What did he like to do, did he have friends, where the fuck are his parents. There is no information about him, past or present. Like his current “personality”, WHAT IS IT besides he’s stoic/emotionless. He’s not nice or even mean anymore. He has no likes or even dislikes. All we know is he’s determined ... and that’s it. Yu//saku is a blank slate for the viewers to project on. Yu//saku is honestly NOTHING.

Honestly, Yu///saku isn’t strong as he cheats the MAJORITY of his duels, he isn’t smart as rarely does he do anything that’s smart, wanting to brutal force the solution and he doesn’t follow his own advice.

Yu//saku: Bonds are important and the only thing that are absolutes

Yu//saku then fucks off for 3 MONTHS NOT TELLING ANYONE

And like Re//volver, his “development” is forced as hell. He just says things that make no sense for him to say. Yu//saku shouldn’t say revenge doesn’t help WHEN IT OBVIOUSLY DID. The show was supporting him and he got the guy that kidnapped him killed and then he got better. HELL JI//N WAS SAID TO GET BETTER ONCE THE K//OH WERE BEAT.

#vr damn it

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hyperdrivehearts · 5 years ago

Note

Is the number ask thing still something you do? If so, 2, 15 and 18 please ^-^

QUESTIONS FOR THE MUN, REGARDING THE MUSE

(Always accepting these anon!! Seeing people ask me things (especially strangers on anon– it makes me happy that people are interested in my muses!!))

2. What made you decide to write this muse?

Kalin and Yusei have always been my favorite 5ds characters, ever since it originally aired in Canada! There’s this channel called YTV (youth television) that had a Saturday morning bit called Crunch where you’d get your regular Saturday morning cartoons, and in the early afternoon some anime would air! It was always in this order: Beyblade Metal Fight, Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds, Pokemon Diamond & Pearl.) My parents were and are seperated, so I was only able to catch episodes every second week (I relied heavily on the previous episode recaps but it would mess me up when things would have repeats) had a very hard time remembering the name of 5Ds for some reason, and was never able to catch up online of missed episodes like I did for beyblade.

Because I never could catch up on what i missed, I didn’t get back into YGO as a whole until 2012, where I originally wrote Yusei on wattpad in my original Dark Signer AU. (He had a really cool old lady seer for a friend (who was supposed to be Carly’s grandma(??)) and I had a self insert OC who was Crow’s sister and was supposed to be Yuseis love interest (how how far I’ve come.) ANYWAYS what I’m getting at here, is that Yusei has been a muse of mine since like 2012.

I rewatched 5D’s in about…..2016?? Maybe later????And then again not long after I met Kasa ( @soulburnings ) on her Manjoume blog, and then Kasa made her Yu boys blog, and THEN HER CURRENT BLOG FOR TAKERU and it’s Kasa’s fault entirely for getting me back into YGO. Since Kalin and Yusei were my faves back then (What can I say? I love batshit murderers and cool bro characters– I have terrible tast,) it only felt natural to gravitate back towards them.

TLDR: Blame Kasa. Ily Kasa.

15. Would you like your muse as a person if you met them in real life?

Yusei could get along with a fucking LAMP POST honestly. He’s friendly, understanding, a bro, and he’s very patient with people and always sees the best in them. I feel like he’d be a person you could spill tea to, and he’d never tell a soul.

Kalin on the other hand…. not so much. Enforcer!Kalin would have definitely been someone I could get along with, while Dark Signer!Kalin would, y’know, try to kill me as one does. My Present!Kalin and hell, even canon Present!Kalin, are not a) approachable, b) are very open c) they both have the habit of shoving people away. And like, I also self project onto Kalin A LOT, and something that not a lot of people seem to realize that if you met someone so similarly like you, ESPECIALLY in the negative aspects, you probably wouldn’t get along that well and butt heads.

18. What aspect of your muse’s personality is most important to you? What aspect of your muse’s personality do you think is most important to them? Is it the same? Why or why not?

Unpopular opinion: the fandom likes to make Yusei seem like an “uwu good cinnamon roll boi who can do no harm uwuwu” so for me, personally, it’s very important to acknowledge that he has one hell of a petty attitude and temper. It’s established right from episode 1, where he revs his engine because his friends didnt realize he was back home in the subway– he doesn’t say anything (and the reaction of Tank, Nervin, Blitz and Rally implies that this is a regular occurrence with him.) Yusei has shown on multiple occassions that he isnt afraid to throw his disk down and knock sense into someone with his fists. He built another, and better duel runner, to go after Jack solely for his Stardust Dragon card– it wasn’t even a revenge plot, he just wanted what was rightfully his.

(Not to mention, he has one hell of a resting bitch face. He’s scowling so much, I don’t think he even realizes it.)

Despite all of this, from destroying duel disks and decks as an Enforcer, to he and Jack punching each other in the face, I think it’s equally important to know that even when Yusei is being a bit of a prick, he doesn’t hold onto negativity and resent– he essentially doesn’t hold any grudges. (However, he does hold onto grief and sadness, so much so that Luna picks it out while communicating with his duel spirits in the dub.) After he got Stardust back, while he was still rightfully peeved at Jack for his actions, Yusei forgave him and moved on.

Despite all of Yusei’s good qualities, and being an excellent friend, Yusei does have negativity inside of him and that part shouldn’t be ignored. People are not black and white.

As for what he values about himself: nothing. Yusei doesn’t really have an ego. He knows he’s good at dueling, he knows he’s good with technology and mechanics, but hes humble about both things. He doesn’t value one over the other. He loves his friends, and protecting them is second nature to him, but he believes that everyone needs to value the people they’re close to, so it’s not really a part of his personality that he finds the most important.

Honestly, if theres anything that he’d think that’s the most important to him, it’s his pride. I know that sounds selfish, especially when it’s in Yusei’s case, but when Kalin crushed his pride, it shook him to the core where Yusei felt as if he didn’t trust himself dueling. For him, I don’t think its a matter of honour as much as it is a matter of justice. He takes pride in his friends and family, he takes pride in being a Satellite, he takes pride in fighting for the right thing: it’s less about himself than it is about other people.

For Kalin, I’m going to solely focus on my portrayal bc fuck canon, but anyways, it’s his determination to keep fighting, to keep living and knowing that people can change. He probably valuse that part of himself too, but he’d never admit it. Kalin has literately gone through hell and back, and has come out entirely traumatized, but he doesn’t let that trauma win.

(suicide mentions below.)

Kalin’s suffering from PTSD and depression, and he is suicidal, yet he never truly gives up (until he’s sent to the mines in Crash Town, really.) When he first arrived at Crash Town to die, he could have lost his duel on purpose, but he never did until Yusei showed up. I think a part of it is pride, not wanting to go down without a fight, but I don’t believe Kalin was only fighting other duelists– he was fighting himself and his right to live. He already offed himself in the Facility.

As someone who tried to commit suicide twice, it’s important that Kalin keeps on fighting through it. There’s going to be bad days, days where you can’t leave your bed, days where you let out a nice cry in a hot shower. Keeping yourself going, for any reason, is very important because things do get better. (Im not great, but im better, and so is Kalin.) If that reason is as small as needing to feed your cat, its a good reason to keep going. For Kalin, he wanted to see Yusei once more and then he’d be satisfied.

Kalin’s not perfect, he is an ass and he knows that, but he does want to be better so other things can get better for him and rebound off of each other. (I was a prick too when I was in that mental state.) Things get better, but you also need to take charge and make it better yourself and Kalin knows he can force light into the darkness he was wallowing in for nearly 4 years.

It’s not a personality point, but I’m sure Kalin is just happy to be alive.

#long post #thank u anon for indulging me i went off my shit #i hope kasa doesnt mind the mention djhahjsdjasd #tw suicide mention #Anonymous #HEADCANONS:|| Kalin #HEADCANONS:|| Yusei

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peckhampeculiar · 5 years ago

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Constructive conversations

A Peckham project is working with young people in the community to address the issue of knife crime.

Let’s Talk is a four-year project that was set up by Peckham resident and filmmaker Chris Haydon in January. It evolved out of a one-off community event that he held in 2018 with the Rev Jonathan Mortimer from All Saints church on Blenheim Grove, asking what could be done about the rise in knife crime.

Since its inception, Let’s Talk has run a series of forums with local schools, youth clubs and a panel of professionals, where “adults listened to young people, as opposed to young people being talked at by adults”.

Students aged 10 to 16 from Harris Academy Peckham, Surrey Square primary in Walworth and Bede House’s Youth Adventure Project in Bermondsey have all taken part in the project.

They have held discussions with a panel convened by Chris that includes a judge and a director of policy at the Ministry of Justice, as well as police, teachers, youth workers and a youth pastor. Nearly all of them are based locally.

Let’s Talk also intends to gather many forms of content and data – including comment, rap, poetry, creative writing, music and art – from the young people involved so their voices are heard.

Speaking about a forum held with year 11s from Harris Academy Peckham earlier this year, Chris said: “The young people took it very seriously. They were articulate, they were sometimes funny. They asked the detective inspector on the panel lots of challenging questions.”

At Let’s Talk’s next meeting at Harris Academy in early July, the youngsters will hold the panel to account over what they have learned so far. Peckham dance company the Movement Factory will perform a powerful production about knife crime that sees one character choosing between taking two contrasting paths through an incident and the consequences of those choices.

Chris is currently producing a documentary about Let’s Talk that will tour schools and youth clubs this autumn. It will feature a musical about knife crime composed and performed by Harris Academy students. Tragically the story they wrote was almost exactly played out in real life when a former pupil of their school became a victim. Students will record a soundtrack for the piece in a professional studio, funded by Chris’s company the Community TV Trust and Southwark Council.

“We want to help young people to speak about the issues,” said Chris. “By bringing influencers to come and listen, the aim is to have an important and if possible, immediate ripple effect.”

Chris is making a website for Let’s Talk featuring content from the project’s first year. He hopes it will encourage schools and youth clubs “to beat a path to our door” and “take part in and expand the collection of stories and data that we can feed into all parties – the police, the local authority, government departments and faith groups.”

He said the impact of Let’s Talk will be local as well as national. To give just two examples, locally youth workers from Bede House have already become involved in a project at a nearby school; while on a national level, the panel member from the Ministry of Justice has incorporated information that has arisen from the discussions with young people into policy documents for consideration by the ministry.

Chris said: “We could, over the period of the project, be creating a local model of linkage, partnership and relationships, encouraging a culture of assuring young people that there are serious people who will listen to them without clogging them up with adult rhetoric.”

He added: “Let’s Talk is not just what it says. It has to be Let’s Talk – and do something.”

If you’re a school or youth club interested in screening Chris’s film this autumn, please email [email protected].

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hopevalley · 6 years ago

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WCTH Write-Ups: 1.4, “Secrets and Lies”

Hello, and welcome to another episode write-up!

I wanted to do a lot of these before the S6 premier, but it’s been hard to find the time to sit down for literal hours to put together each post. So, this episode begins a new version of my episode write-ups, reserved specifically for the older seasons. The goal is to have a format that allows me to post these more frequently, or at least more easily, so you can expect less rambling about the plot (because we’ve all seen the episode before and know how it goes) and more rambling about little things I’ve noticed, timelines, odd mentions, character bits, and so on.

Let me know what you think!

All right. Last time we dealt with a couple of different kinds of grief (Rosaleen’s and Mr. Backus’s), Reverend Anderson requested an investigation into the church-fire before he quit working for the mining company, and Cat Montgomery ended up number one on Jack’s church-fire suspect list...due to circumstantial evidence: whale oil.

But hey, Jack’s no fool! He asks Cat about it right away...

And she’s very compliant, of course, and tells Jack that she has to special order it to use to make candles--a side business she started when her husband died. “I still have three mouths to feed,” she tells him. “His death pension, it only goes so far.” The implausibility of a real death pension aside, this makes sense. These people haven’t really been given a real chance to mourn...or at least, most of them haven’t. Cat, and likely many others, can’t afford to just wait for things to happen; with the welfare of three children to keep in mind, she wasn’t given the luxury of time.

Jack gets a little pushy after this, suggesting that having to care for three children alone might make a person angry, and when Cat doesn’t understand where he’s going with it, he mentions the vigil, which was six weeks ago, and casually drops the fact that Cat wasn’t in attendance, to which she says, “I chose to grieve my husband privately.”

Jack comes clean about Cat’s place on the suspect list, more or less, and leaves her nervous and flustered in her garden.

Tiny Thoughts:

I like the attention to having a garden here; it’s too small to be of any real use, but I can dig it; at least there was an attempt made, and they’re utilizing the small backyard space as best as they can. I guess it could also be a bit of a glimpse into Cat’s life, or even just her husband’s; not everyone has a shed in their backyard! Heck, not everyone even has a fence.

The time frame even at this point is a little whack. You’ll see what I mean later.

I’m not sure how I feel about this scene, or this plot, in hindsight, but I’ll talk more about that soon.

“The children are my pupils, but they are also my instructors.” This was something I really enjoyed about the novel version of Elizabeth: she tried to keep an open mind and let learning happen on both sides of the classroom. This Elizabeth learns how to teach the students through getting to know her students, which isn’t quite as good, but, you know, I’ll take it.

This episode introduces us to Albert “Pockets” Bickley and gives us the first real glimpse at Elizabeth, The Hardened School-teacher. Honestly, seeing her act strictly to a misbehaving, bullying student was pure gold. She doesn’t hit anyone with a switch or do anything too crazy, but she’s In Charge and she acts it.

“I’ll make sure cleaning is extra fun for you.” I mean the raw power in her voice and stance is something to behold. I’m sure we all wished we had a teacher like this sticking up for us when we were children. I know I did.

And the way she just turns that attitude completely around to be peaceful and sweet to the bullied student? I dig it. This is a side of Elizabeth I really want to see more of. It’s no wonder Albert gets a little crush on her.

Tiny Thoughts:

I think they do an okay job of showcasing Albert as a character in this episode, but I really wish more of an effort was made to flesh him out as a person. The nickname of “Pockets” does a lot to explain what he does, but it doesn’t tell us much about where he comes from. I would like to assume Albert and his family are poor, and he’s had to make his own fun for most of his life thus far, hence him picking up pretty or interesting things he sees. Unfortunately he’s often dressed quite nicely, so we have to just assume they slapped a Quirky Trait on him for Plot Reasons. Most people might think these things are junk, but every now and then he finds something good. And hey, if you lost something, he’s the kid to go to; maybe he’ll be able to find it for you, if he hasn’t already picked it up. ;)

“I’ll admit, after what happened at the mine, I was angry enough at God to want to burn down a church, but I swear I didn’t do it.”

I really appreciate Cat’s character, but more than that, something missing in the later seasons is, well, what this scene gives us: Elizabeth socializing with the parents of her students...and better yet, taking their side in a way that lets us feel that they’re on friendly terms.

It’s never really made clear why Cat invited Elizabeth over. I guess we’re meant to assume that it was a vaguely subtle way of asking Elizabeth to talk to Jack about it while also looking for support and/or a second (educated) opinion.

Tiny Thoughts:

I appreciate that Cat and Emily share a bed while Gabe and his brother share a space. It’s definitely not ideal but it makes the most sense.

Gabe up late reading is sweet.

Seeing the children supporting each other is another thing that... Well, I won’t say it’s missing in later seasons, but it lacks the punch that it did early on. Gabe holding Emily to comfort her about her fears feels genuine in a way a lot of the later stuff just doesn’t.

Mr. Spurlock and Mr. Gowen go to Jack to ask about the reopening of the church fire investigation, which...seems repetitive because I’m pretty sure they already knew about it; maybe the intention behind their visit is to confirm that even after Reverend Anderson dropped the need to investigate, that Jack was still looking into it?

Anyway, Gabe’s timing is beyond atrocious, but I can really appreciate this kid as an actor. He was good. I think the scripting could be better, but he’s a teenager and he’s angry, and I love how that’s handled.

“If you try to take her from us, I swear to God I’ll fight you.” What a line! You can laugh about it if you want to, but it’s honestly really sad. You know this kid can’t fight Jack; he doesn’t have the training, doesn’t have the strength. But he would, for his mama. Gabe loves his family and he wants to protect his mom--and that’s part of what makes him such a good character.

Tiny Thoughts:

Mr. Spurlock was in training to become a Mountie and instead turned to the Pinkerton Agency, which he calls “a real job”--implying that being a Mountie is not.

Mr. Gowen says that the church fire, and therefore the vigil, occurred a month after the mining accident.

“This is a company town, and I need to maintain order or the entire system falls apart. We can’t have citizens running around, doling out their own sense of warped justice. On that we can agree, can we not?”

This is a small example of what makes Mr. Gowen such a great character. He plays an amazing antagonist, and it won’t be much longer before we’re into episodes that let him shine in that role, but for now he’s not quite there. This is insight into his character that is easily overlooked; he might be a jerk sometimes, but he knows what matters to him.

The scene with Reverend Anderson is short, but I’d like to just mention it really quick because I can appreciate the awkward small talk between Cat and the Rev.--and how that small talk actually is just them discussing, very briefly, the plotline from the last episode.

Which segues nicely into the next scene, where Elizabeth kneels down to talk to Rosaleen and again hearkens back to the previous episode. “It’s beautiful. Like the sound of your voice.”

It’s a bit heavy-handed for my taste, especially back to back like that, but at least it’s making an effort to tie the episodes together.

Jack and Elizabeth’s relationship in this episode makes them interesting to watch. You can tell there’s something there, but the situation with the church fire investigation keeps them apart and interferes in their ability to effectively communicate. Something I really appreciate about their interaction in this scene is how both characters are frustrated for very different, but no less believable, reasons.

Elizabeth wants to help Cat, and finds it hard to believe that Jack’s inquiries come from an honest, noble place. Jack wants to help Cat, too, but is finding it difficult to do so considering, well, the evidence and lack of an alibi on Cat’s part.

His suggestion to talk to the kids is a bold one, but I understand both his desire to try it and Elizabeth’s horror. The children shouldn’t have to be exposed to this kind of a thing, and it seems Jack would normally agree with her on that, but sometimes circumstances... Well, they’re not ideal, you know?

And this is a theme they carry into some of the later seasons with the counterfeit money plot, or even AJ’s perjury plot. The law isn’t always fair and just. In fact, it can and will be used to sentence people regardless of extenuating circumstances (in the case of AJ) , or it can be abused to protect bad people (as in the counterfeit plot).

Tiny Thoughts:

The little bird Albert made for Elizabeth really is sweet, isn’t it?

Jack’s interviews with the children are... Well, interesting. I like that Gabe doesn’t say “Mrs. Stanton” but rather, “Abigail Stanton” and then, later, he says, “Abigail stayed with us until [Ma] got there.”

I like the implication that Abigail is a Trusted Person that Cat felt she could turn to. And also, we know that not only was Abigail at the vigil, but Cat’s children know her very well, and either Gabe knows her well enough to be allowed to call her Abigail, or he’s being rebellious by doing it. Either could be interesting to think about.

Jack’s interaction with young children is showcased well here. He doesn’t treat Emily the same way he treats Gabe, and she responds to it well. I like that a lot.

Tiny Thoughts:

Cat didn’t come home until morning, and when she did get home, she crawled into bed with Emily. So if Abigail stayed the night, where did she sleep? Maybe just in a chair downstairs...

“The truth is always right, Emily. You did just fine.”

Something that always really got to me in this episode was Gabe’s relationship with Cat. A lot of shows flop when it comes to showcasing a believably sweet mother/son relationship, especially where a teenage boy is involved (he’s either completely disinterested/disengaged or holding onto the apron strings), but Gabe and Cat are a perfect balance.

When Jack tries to take Cat in to answer some questions, Gabe’s reaction--and then Cat’s reaction to Gabe’s reaction--are just so good. Heartfelt. They don’t feel scripted so much as felt.

“Stop! I need you to listen to me!”

“No, Ma! You didn’t do anything! Don’t go with him!”

“I know, I just... I just have to answer some of his questions, all right? And right now I need for you to be a grown-up. To be strong, okay?”

AND THEN THAT HUG.

It hits me hard literally every time I’ve seen it. It’s fast and tight and scared and it’s amazing.

Gabe as a character is just the perfect age for this kind of story. He’s so close to being an adult while still not being there, and there’s something to be said for those years, if you remember them. You feel grown up even though you know you’re not, and you know you’re limited. Gabe does, too, and it’s frustrating and scary for him. I won’t say he still needs his mom in the traditional sense (someone to take care of him), but he needs her emotionally; he needs that connection.

Tiny Thoughts:

I will always be upset that Gabe never made it past the first season. There was a lot of potential for his character and he offered a unique perspective due to his age.

It’s hilarious to think about how the jail cell has been the same this entire time.

Anyway, Cat in jail is unpleasant, but I like Jack’s explanation to Elizabeth: “Because I have a responsibility to treat everyone equally, whether it be Catherine Montgomery or...Henry Gowen.”

“Just...let me do my job.”

Jack’s an interesting character in that he is the law, abides by the law, and tries to stick by the books. Comparing him to later-seasons Bill makes for an interesting experience. Is Bill the product of 30 years of Mountie work? Is Jack just an ideal youth? I don’t think a person can claim there’s only one factor. As we know, the character of Bill is the product of 30 years of Mountie work plus many of those years being in a high-stress position plus his marriage of convenience to Nora and any in-law drama that might bring plus the experience of losing his son and Nora leaving him plus... The list goes on.

Jack is still young, comparatively, but he’s not fresh in this field, and I really like that his character is wrapped up in this loyalty not only to his job, but to doing his job The Right Way. We don’t really get that from anyone else, and more importantly, Jack isn’t painted as a jerk for it, at least not objectively. (Elizabeth’s opinion is, of course, very subjective & completely biased!)

Tiny Thoughts:

I also really like what Jack says here: “But you’d be surprised at what people are capable of when they’re hurting Or when they’re angry.” It alludes to a history of experience that helps tie in his irritation at being assigned to Coal Valley when he ought to have been given a more important posting. He’s definitely seen some things.

Albert is such a sweet kid.

I like the implication that Mr. Spurlock has been around a reasonably long amount of time--long enough to know the kids in town, and to know to ask Albert to keep his eyes open for the necklace.

Tiny Thoughts:

I really dig Elizabeth’s high-collared dresses.

“Girls don’t care if a gift is fancy, not even girls who used to be rich.” This was cute.

Again Gabe is a ball of terrible teen energy. After he overhears Dottie and another woman gossiping about his ma, he runs to the jail to confront her and suddenly he’s on the other side of the argument: he thinks she might have done it because she won’t just be open and honest and tell the truth.

I wouldn’t say it’s OOC; it makes sense. The kid is scared, he’s feeling a lot of things, and his mother is lying--has lied about things in the past, too. That probably added up in his head and he doesn’t know what to think of her anymore. It’s a shame, really, because Cat hasn’t done anything wrong, but Gabe is old enough that he feels he should be trusted with the truth.

And...he’s not.

Reverend Anderson’s awkward visit to talk to Elizabeth about the kids... Yikes.

“What’s an 11-year-old need a bear for?” Well, we have an age for Miles at least. And Gabe’s starting trouble but at least we know why. You know he doesn’t want to feel like the only one “being strong” right now.

And then we find out that Mr. Spurlock wanted to marry Cat. You know, he’s not a bad-lookin’ guy. Too bad he’s so smug.

Cat and Elizabeth’s jail discussion is so wonderful. Elizabeth is hurt that she defended Cat even though Cat chose to hide things, and it’s about this point that Cat makes the choice to come clean to Elizabeth.

I really like the concept of Cat in this situation: a woman who has something to hide for her own reasons, who wants to keep it a secret even at the risk to her relationship with her oldest son & her neighbors. It doesn’t matter what the secret is so much that it is a secret, and in a small town...you know there are none--not for long, anyway!

And I think my favorite part of this scene is how Cat talks about her husband: “My husband, Joe, was a....good man, Elizabeth. He was a wonderful father... But he made...mistakes. He had a weakness, one that he was terribly ashamed of... One that the children didn’t know about. No one knew about it... He liked to, uh...gamble.”

In the novel, the role of “mother of three, gambling husband” was given to the character of Abigail Stanton, and Abigail’s motherly/mentor role was taken by a boarding house owner named Molly. The novel never goes into detail about the gambling husband (or the wife character) the way the television show does (even though it does take time to showcase the three children). Something the WCtH series did really well is show different types of relationships. Obviously in e4 we aren’t really far enough in to know that this is the case, but something that helped keep people invested were scenes like this: scenes that showcase and sympathize with, I don’t know, the human condition.

There’s nothing bad about this plotline! In fact, Cat’s role is so well-acted, it’s easy to get invested and feel horrified right along with her. Nowadays we might scoff at the “gambling” thing, but it’s not really anything to laugh at. Most of us know when to stop buying lottery or raffle tickets, or when to walk away from a casino slot machine, but addiction in general is a very real issue (see: modern casual alcoholism, loot box gambling in video games, et cetera), and in 1910 gambling was a different kind of issue. Women didn’t work outside the home much, particularly married women (men would consider it an insult to their ability to provide for their family), so debts incurred by a man would be shouldered by the whole family...even after his death, and with no means to repay lost money. And a man who didn’t have self-control to know when to quit was often shunned by his neighbors...and his wife and children suffered a similar fate though usually with a side of pity thrown in.

Cat’s humiliation and shame over her husband’s gambling addiction aren’t even remotely amusing. Worse, she didn’t even get a week to mourn her husband before a debt collector came calling.

“I couldn’t go to my friends--I was too ashamed. And Joe was a good man. There was no way I was gonna let this town think poorly of him.” I love these lines because it leaves things just open enough to be interesting. We’ve seen how gossipy this town can get (Dottie and the other woman in the mercantile), so we understand Cat’s situation a little better. Joe might have done bad things, but he never hurt her or the kids, and we can assume that most of the time, he was good to be around. It’s one of those situations where we, the audience, aren’t given a complete picture of Cat’s relationship to Joe, at least not outside of, well, this. She obviously cared about him, and though upset about his addiction, didn’t want others’ memories of him, especially her children’s, to be sullied by his one great weakness.

Mr. Spurlock fits into this equation, of course, because he played cards with Joe, knew Cat and her family were in trouble, and jumped in to offer to help... “If I would just be...friendly to him.” Yikes! We all know what that really means. And anyway, this is where the conversation gets a little iffy, starts to sound more scripted... I get that Mr. Spurlock is the bad guy here, but I think the important takeaway from his involvement in Cat’s issue is that he wanted, and was willing, to take advantage of her situation. He didn’t actually care about her; he was just attracted to her.

On the plus side, Cat knew what he was doing and it made her angry, which was what she needed to rebuke him; I feel like if she’d had enough time, and was genuinely worried about she and her children being homeless, she might have felt forced into accepting his offer.

Elizabeth: “Why not just tell the truth and avoid all this?”

Cat: “Because I’m not the only one who adored my husband, Elizabeth. My children... My children had already lost so much. I could not let them lose their good memory of their father, too.”

Powerful stuff right there. She wanted to protect her children’s memory of Joe, but in the process might have made things worse for them, if, indeed, there was an issue with Jack finding the card shark/getting him to verify Cat’s story. Elizabeth knows just a little too much, and on one hand..I find it annoying. On the other, as a relative outsider, she has a unique perspective. She’s not married, she has no children; she probably can’t understand Cat’s dilemma even though she sympathizes with it. She’s not emotionally invested in it or in Joe, and can’t be because, well, she never met him. This helps her see the longer-lasting consequences of Cat’s choices far easier than Cat herself can. (And it’s not just Elizabeth who sees this! Jack does, too, hence his frantic insistence that Cat just admit whatever it is she’s hiding. It’s just that Elizabeth is the one we get to see voice her concerns.)

Tiny Thoughts:

Worth considering: Cat’s friends didn’t have money either. Most of them lost their husbands right along with Cat, or in Abigail’s case, lost a child, too. Even if she turned to her friends, it’s not as if they could help financially. Telling them her situation would just open her and her family up to hurtful gossip.

Mr. Spurlock’s, uh, guilt in these things is...meh. The charred remnants where he burned the whale oil container are so fresh there’s no way they’re even a handful of days old, but I guess I can let that slide.

“You took that can from her shed and burned it right here.” I mean, I doubt this, considering he has candles hanging up. He seems to make his own and therefore I have to assume just had his own oil.

I’m extremely meh on the “Jack rides in to save the day” bit, too. The scene was... Let’s just say it was overdramatic and overacted considering Mr. Spurlock’s only legal crimes were framing Cat and threatening Elizabeth, and the latter would be a shaky accusation/wouldn’t get him any time in jail.

Also, and this is really nitpicky, but giving a man with the last name of Spurlock the line “and she spurns me?” was just silly. C’mon.

The Cat-and-Kids reunion scene was sweet. I like all the hugging. This show could use more hugs.

And I love the Reverend and Cat’s interaction. Watching him humble himself and apologize sincerely... That was so nice... And it wasn’t just to Cat, either; it was to his former congregation, too. Reverend Anderson had a lot of potential to be an interesting and engaging character. I should also note that the actor is surprisingly good. His soft, moved, “It would be my joy,” when asked to lead the service was delivered perfectly for that moment.

Tiny Thoughts:

“Over this past many months...” Timeline inconsistency. He implies with this statement that he’s talking about the time post-accident, so...three months at best at this point?

You know, if Cat and Reverend Anderson were around a lot longer, I’d probably have started shipping them? Oops.

The last scene...is cute. I mostly just can’t get over the spider. It was a big guy. I’d probably die a little too if I were Elizabeth, and I’m generally not spooked by spiders. ;)

But Jack’s delivery of some lines in the scene are genuinely funny, so it’s a nice way to end the episode.

And now, for some further thoughts!

Timeline: Boy do I hate the timeline. I’ve probably said this before, because, like Reverend Anderson, keeping things brief goes against my nature, but the timeline here just doesn’t work for me. Here’s the basics of what this episode lined up for us:

The Mining Disaster

1 month later: Vigil, church burned.

1.5 months after the vigil: Jack comes to town.

I mean, this is...two and a half months. Everyone would still be deeply grieving, there’s no way Cat could pay off the debt that fast (she could make candles, sure, who is going to buy them all?), and a lot of the early issues just haven’t had the time, I think, to fester enough to warrant the plotlines that we’ve seen.

It’s not all bad, though. I mean, a month after the accident is a good time to have a vigil. It’s that point where you know nobody is left alive. Like, even if they haven’t suffocated in the mine, even if they had their lunches with them and access to water, after a month they’d be dead. So the vigil feels like it takes place at a good time.

My issue is mostly with, you know, everything else. And sure, sometimes disaster hits one thing after another, a veritable shit-storm, but when you’re looking at the narrative power of storytelling, it’s just not really necessary to cram everything in there so tightly.

My personal opinion? The vigil should have been further out-- a 3 or 6-month mark. Like a funeral--at a point when they’re worried or even convinced that the bodies won’t be recoverable. This is something that happened a lot in mining accidents, so it’s not unbelievable, and it brings with it its own special brand of grief. It would also make Cat’s not being there especially odd, and would give her enough time to believably pay off her husband’s debt. (And when looking at the first few episode plots, it gives the children time to grieve and for the recovery of bodies to re-open the wounds.)

The Spurlock Plot: Mr. Spurlock was really smug from the start, so I was happy to see him go, but I feel like he could have been a better antagonist character. Men acting out because a woman told them no isn’t a new thing; men have literally killed women for their no. So I’m sold on him framing Cat as a petty act of revenge, especially because he probably genuinely feels like he made her a good offer. (And again, if the plotline allowed for more time, he would come off a little less nasty for approaching her. As it is, it seems he was on her doorstep making an offer before Joe was cold in the ground.)

The worst part of this subplot is definitely that he pulls a gun on Elizabeth. First of all, he doesn’t need a gun to threaten her with; he has his fists, and secondly, it’s just...ridiculous. As if nobody would notice she was missing? As if she didn’t tell someone where she went? Please. Mr. Spurlock might be a bit of a scumbag, but he’s not an idiot. At the very least he’d try to find out if anyone knew she was there before he did something as crazy as make an effort to kill her.

The Church Fire: Hey, it was probably an accident after all!!! Which means of course that Mr. Spurlock’s only crime was framing Cat for it, and not really in a conniving, cunning way, either.

It’s just kind of an aside that ceases to matter, I guess.

The General Overall Episode: This is a good episode with a lot of heart! There are a few things I don’t quite care for, but for the most part it holds up really well and delivers a wholesome, satisfying story.

And guess what?

It’s another episode that doesn’t even have a glimpse of Abigail in it. Can you believe it? I had no idea she was missing from so many early episodes! I think I just got used to her being around pretty much all the time, and forgot her lack of plot focus at the beginning. This story started off about Elizabeth, and I feel like, at least for the first half of s1, maintained that stance.

Which brings me to my next thought/consideration/whatever: the early episodes were episodic in a way that the later ones were/are not.

All right, so a television series is generally either episodic or a serial. Serials usually have long-term plots, and episodic television relies on a lot of single-episode events.

WCtH is a little like The X-Files in that it sometimes utilizes both. TXF started out episodic, but with time tried to implement really large overarching plot themes (called “the mytharc”). WCtH did the opposite! It started out with that overarching plot, and with time...resolved it and never really tried it again--at least not to the same extent. I guess Bill Avery’s counterfeit money plot was as close as we ever got to a primary overarching plot again, but the mining accident and eventual trial were the original season-wide plot, and they were what got the show started.

Anyway, even though the series had an overarching plot that it slowly worked to resolve through the first season (and part of the second), it also tossed a lot of episodic content at the viewers, which is to say, standalone plots that found themselves mostly resolved in a single episode. For example, the Rosaleen plot in e3, or the “forgive me” sign in e1.

The early episodes let these subplots take over the episode, at least mostly, and the showrunners didn’t let the cast dictate who received screentime--that is to say, characters like Abigail were allowed to fade into the background while the plot focused on someone else, without them feeling pressured to either involve her or include her in the background for the sake of just...giving her screentime. Now, Lori Loughlin is a pretty big name, and I totally understand why she gets so many mini-plots in recent episodes, but I think something the early writers got right was this ability, or perhaps desire, to dedicate episodes to the plots they wanted people to see--without distraction.

So, in this episode, we get a lot of conclusions, but they’re almost all part of an interlocking plot. Mr. Spurlock’s actions are related to Cat’s actions, which of course are related to Gabe’s actions, and were a catalyst for Elizabeth and Jack’s interactions. Even Albert’s plot isn’t entirely standalone; his crush on Elizabeth is what prompts him to give her the necklace that Mr. Spurlock originally presented to Cat, and this allowed for the mystery to be solved.

Now, I know that as a series progresses, doing plots like this get exponentially harder: the characters at the point of s6 have established themselves quite thoroughly, so it’s not as easy to find someone to fit a role; the roles really have to be written with the characters in mind and not the other way around.

Which leads me to my original statement: the early episodic content was, yes, episodic, but most of the individual plotlines were actually akin to a rope: a lot of threads carefully braided together to make something much stronger than those individual strands could ever be on their own.

Newer episodes are pretty much just those individual strands, though. Pick any episode from s5, and you’ll see what I mean. In Weather the Storm, for example, the four main plots (lazy kid, brain surgery, investor’s son, & rattlesnake) had nothing whatsoever to do with one another--and this seems to hold true through most of s5. I guess you could argue that AJ returning had something to do with the investor plot, but it definitely reads as “they wrote the plot and put AJ into the role” more than “this plot was written for AJ.” Anyway, my point is that, in later seasons, there’s not a lot of interwoven, or at least well-woven, plotlines.

But again, and I can’t stress this enough, as characters start to stand on their own, doing these complex interwoven plots gets much more difficult, and the writers want to try and keep things as fresh as they can, so... It’s unfortunately a problem of the show’s age, I think, more than anything.

That said, here in s1, Abigail being allowed to just not be there for a couple of episodes was nice. It made me really root for her character when I did see her, and gave me time to miss her. In current WCtH, she’s around...all the time. Literally everywhere all at once. You can’t escape her, and even in episodes where she has no role, you’ll see her involved anyway, oftentimes in ways that don’t work very well for the character.

I thought it was an interesting thing to think about; we’ve always had several plotlines going at once--it’s just that in the first season they’re all related to one another, and in later seasons they’re just...completely separate plots happening all at once, which has the unfortunate side effect of splitting our attention between too many characters at once, and rather than getting one plot with many threads that hold it together, we just get flimsy strands of plot that can’t really stand and be interesting all on their own.

Just some food for thought!

#when calls the heart #season 1 #analysis and meta discussion #character studies and information #long post #jack thornton #elizabeth thatcher #cat montgomery #reverend anderson #mr spurlock #henry gowen #gabe montgomery

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