#the further we go in the story the more random information we unlock from my brain

[salteytakesonmanga]

Dishonorable mention for this extremely confusing translation and making it sound like England exists in the world of One Piece.

In Japanese the word for “tea” refers specifically to green tea. Here Mister 3 offers them “black tea.” Earlier he was drinking “Earl Grey” which, y’know what, it's just a person's name. I’m sure Oda would invent an explanation for that so I don’t care.

I was going to get on my soap box about the politics of tea but I’ll spare you this time. THE POINT IS, England is not an island in the world of One Piece so such a thing as “English tea” can’t exist. Why do these translators use the direct translation only when it makes things more confusing??

[kivrumi]

⭑ᡣ𐭩"₊SEVEN 𐙚⁺˚

chapter 3 - toji fushiguro

FEM!READER × ? JJK

ʚ PAIRINGS : Satoru Gojo, Suguru Geto, Choso Kamo, Ryomen Sukuna, Toji Fushiguro, Ino Takuma, Higuruma Hiromi, Kento Nanami, Naoya Zenin ɞ

{ it is not stated here who the reader ends up with, the story is to find out.. }

NON-CURSE AU | COLLEGE AU

꒰ SUMMARY : How did you end up in such a mess with various guys? From strangers, friends, and crushes to ex-boyfriends and enemies. How did, what you thought was simple, life turn out like this? And who exactly were you to end up with?

꒰ WARNINGS : SLOWBURN - NSFW 18+ - mature & sexual themes - smut / lemon - language - violence - mentions of obsessive behaviour - sub/dom mentions - angst andd fluff :3

SEVEN MASTERLIST

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'How has my life been moving so quickly?' You wonder, as you violently press the buttons on your Nintendo Switch 'And why is this Super Mario 3D world level so difficult...'. You put down the game before you accidentally break it out of anger. It's been more than a week since your interaction with Satoru Gojo, where you got invited to perhaps your first ever college party. You had a sickening feeling about it as it was only tomorrow, and you hadn't exactly prepared for it in any way. Your brain hasn't assembled the information together that you are going to Toji Fushiguro's party on Halloween, and you have the chance to say something to him.

'What would I even say...' You wonder as you then stroll into your kitchen. You see that Shoko has made a lil something, so you immediately grab a bowl to eat. You then sit down, ready to eat your meal, but annoyingly there was a knock on the door. With a long sigh, your legs moved to open the door for the individual.

"Wanna come over to mine now?" Choso asks. Staying over at yours has the benefit of the Nintendo Switch and gaming, but going to his always meant movie night that doesn't end well. Due to Choso being the worst at watching horror movies and your experience with sad ones.

"Yes, please." You then go grab your bowl ready to leave,

"Don't bring your bowl- just eat here first. Don't worry, I have plenty of snacks, so you don't get peckish mid movie."

"Alright alright," you say as you then sit down and consume your bowl as Choso sits by you, fingers silently tapping on the table. "What are we watching?"

"Was hoping to decide as we scroll through Netflix"

You are about to respond with some ideas, but your mouth is full. You take a minute to chew and swallow your food, and you open your mouth to begin spitting out ideas of a genre but of course, another knock on the door is there.

"Is that Shoko? Did she leave her keys?" You questioned as you got up to answer the door but Choso was already there unlocking it. Expecting the chestnut brown-haired girl to appear but instead, a snowy-haired man with deep diamond eyes stood just before you and Choso.

"Can I help you?" Choso asks Gojo as Choso tries so desperately to recognise this guy, and why was he here? Choso was hoping to hear the words 'Where is Shoko?' But instead, he painfully heard him say whilst looking straight at you,

"Hey sweetie, you look cute in your cinnamoroll PJs."

Choso was utterly confused, not because of this random man but rather the burning sensation in his heart. Why was he flirting with you, and why did he hate it?

"You knowing who cinnamoroll is just shows how much of a whore you are," you bitterly replied to Gojo before swinging another spoonful of food.

"Satoru?" A girl from behind Gojo says as the white-haired man turns back to be met with multiple other faces,

"Oh- hey, Shoko.. and Kento and Utahime," Gojo says as he makes way for them to enter by him also leaving the entry to step further into your dorm.

"Satoru, what the hell are you doing here?" Shoko asks as she goes by to sit next to you.

"Wasn't here for you, Shoko, well- actually I was at first but now seeing cinnamoroll girl there I just remembered I have important business to attend to with her."

"Ew, what do you want with her?" Shoko says in utter disgust as she eyes Gojo up and down, with the more unpleasant face.

With the door shut now and a quiet, intrigued trio consisting of Utahime, Kento and Choso now sat on the sofa, where Gojo stood in front of the table where you and Shoko sat.

"The party tomorrow, just reminding you, sweets," There were a few gasps between your friends, ultimately surprised you're attending such an event.

"What makes you think I forgot?" You question,

"Nothing, was just wondering what you were going to wear."

Shit. You totally forgot a party consists of dressing up in a dress or some sort, not that you disliked dresses. In fact you did love dressing up, but it doesn't mean you feel confident to do so, resulting in you always wearing baggy clothing and whenever you want to wear a skirt or revealing your intimate parts and legs you end up pussying out.

"You're coming too?" Shoko asks you whilst grabbing hold of your arm. A wide grin was displayed clearly on her face. She has always pushed you to attend with her but often gets rejected by you. "And seriously? I have asked you a dozen times to come with me, but as soon as Satoru asks you you're all of a sudden down for it?" Shoko says as you laugh nervously.

"Well, Gojo did give me a good offer."

"What offer?" A questioning Choso asks as his eyes remain on Gojo.

"To meet Toji.." As soon as the scarred-lipped man's name was exposed, there were defeated groans, and you overhear Utahime crying out the words no and Shoko excitedly crying out of joy. Kento was more intrigued by his phone and Choso; well, Chosos's expression was hard to read.

"What are you wearing then" Shoko questions

"Not exactly sure."

"Well, I was thinking for myself to be a nurse. Last year, I was a police officer, and I would rather not repeat that."

Right, you didn't need a dress. It was Halloween! You needed a costume...

"I have an inflatable Garfield," you say with pride.

"Are you serious? Not only were you that last year, but you're trying to seduce Toji here," Shoko says as you shrug it off

"What if Toji just has a weird interest in inflatable Monday-hating fat cats?" You joke around,

"If an inflatable Garfield makes him want you in bed, then I'm afraid he just isn't the one." You and Shoko both giggle at the idea to be cut off by a concerned Choso,

"As if he isn't already bad enough."

"Agreed," Kento adds on. His face might be stuck in his phone, but his ears do not miss the surrounding gossip.

Ignoring the Toji dislikers, you and Shoko were coming up with ideas for costumes.

"I'm leaving. Shoko, I only came by to drop off your cigarette packet you left at mine." Gojo says, handing out the packet to Shoko.

"Aawh thanks boo" Shoko says as she snatches her cigarettes back, "you always tell me to stop smoking, but you're bringing it back to me."

"Only because you would then waste your money on more" He replies as he opens the door to leave "And sweets, make sure to wait here for me to pick you up" He unexpectedly says with his eyes aimed straight towards you.

"And not me? Fuck you, Satoru." Gojo is silent from Shokos words as he sighs, knowing no matter what, Shoko will find herself getting a ride by him.

"Fine, Shoko, you can come too..." Gojo was so obviously hurt by this decision as Shoko was almost about to break into a victory dance.

"Thank you Satoruuu!" Shoko makes a heart with both her hands just for it not to be seen with the slam of the door.

"Be a zombie," Utahime says, who is now also giving you ideas.

"Nice idea, but I don't want to ruin any of my clothing, and it might not be sexy enough."

"Sexy zombie police officer?" Shoko says, "I still have my police officer costume from last year, girl."

"Well, the zombie police officer idea is extremely good, so I will do it, but I can see myself regretting such an idea."

"Okay I'm going to dig deep in my closet to find it hold up" Shoko then leaves to go to her room and then you look towards the sofa to see an uninterested Choso and Kento who are just mindlessly scrolling on their mobile devices. Utahime just sat there, staring at your wall.

"Uta, are you coming?" You ask, as her eyes shift towards you

"Nah, I'm always forced to go when you reject Shoko" She put her hands together as if she were praying and closed her eyes, "I can finally be at peace."

"Kento? Choso?" Kento laughs at the fact you suggested for him to attend, which was all you needed to hear to be certain of his response. Which was a no.

You look over at Choso, who is just like you, never wants to attend parties and major social gatherings. So why was he so deeply in thought and looked as if he was trying to find an answer?

"I'll... Come too.." Choso says so quietly that if he was an octave lower, you don't think you would be able to hear his words at all.

"WHAT?" Utahime says, turning her head towards him, Kento also following the same action.

"Really?" You ask, what makes him want to come?

"Well, it's about time I attended.. something. And since you're coming, I guess I just feel more confident to come too." A smile on you grew large at the boys' words,

"HERE," Shoko exclaims, throwing the police costume on you. You held the material in your hands, eyes looking over the design.

"This is.. really cute" It wasn't very revealing; it was a tight fit. You see a pair of shorts that would possibly end just beneath the end of the curve of your butt. A belt was included, a gun holster and everything. There was a police hat and handcuffs, what the fuck. Even a fake gun. The collar of the shirt was quite low, you suspect that the top of your tits would be exposed which makes you cringe. Slutty outfits were just your thing, only for your imagination. It scares you to actually expose yourself like that. You put the outfit to the side, needing to deal with it tomorrow. Plus, you have a bowl of food to finish.

"Awh, my food has gotten all cold now."

—

The harsh brush dabbed your face, and a petite hand strongly had hold of your cheeks.

"You keep moving!" Shoko complained as she made her grip tighter,

"Not my fault, you keep stabbing me with the brush," you respond in a muffled voice only to earn an eye roll from her. You and Shoko were sat on her bedroom floor, heads facing each other as one violently helped the other dress for a said party tonight.

"Ok, done!" she cheered as you looked towards the mirror. She had done zombie face paint on you. it wasn't vibrant colors as it was more suited to your features and skin color; it was clear that you were a zombie mainly by the patchwork across your face. She enhanced your features and made sure you didn't look like some terrifying ugly zombie but somehow rather a good-looking one? You began having doubts about this fit; hell, you were having doubts about attending. You were already situated in your police fit; you felt shame from how visible your bust was and your exposed legs. Shoko, who is already dressed up, then put on the tiny police hat on you and squealed how cute you looked and how Toji would go crazy for you, which only made you feel more nervous.

"Shoko, I don't know if I want to do this anymore-"

"Hey," Choso interrupted, you and Shoko glanced at his attire. A vampire.

"When did you come in Choso?" Shoko asked, you both are looking at how his hair was opened. You weren't used to seeing Chosos hair like that. "Did you break into our dorm?"

"I have a key.."

"Where the hell did you get a key?"

"You"

"Oh,"

You watched Shoko and Choso bicker at each other as you giggled silently.

"Shoko, when is Gojo arriving?" You butt in,

"Not sure, assumed you would know."

You hum in response, but the conversation still seems to continue

"Who even is this Gojo guy?" Choso asks as he sits by you now, his eyes making a point to not look at the way you are dressed.

"He was my friend since 16. Come on, man. I've told you about him before, " Shoko replied,

"So what's he got to do with you?" Choso asks with eyes on you now, strictly just your face.

"W-well we ended up meeting the time you ditched me to help out Kento. I was lost, and he helped me to my dorm. Ever since then, he approaches me randomly, and I guess you could say we are friends now?" All Choso was thinking of was if he had just not gone over to Kentos, you wouldn't even be friends with this Gojo guy, wait. Why is that such a problem? You can have your own friends, can't you? Choso really wonders why he cares so much. He's never been bothered that Shoko hangs out with that delinquent; what's any different than you hanging out with him? Bad influence? Steal you away? Well, maybe Choso is afraid Gojo will be your new guy best friend. it's quite pathetic to even consider that in his head since you and Gojo aren't close at all, why would you ever choose Gojo over Choso? He just nods in silence at your words as he then pokes his finger onto his false sharp teeth. Shoko then groans to say

"I swear Satoru is always late to everything."

"No, I'm not," a voice by the door says as it gradually widens.

"What the hell, Satoru!? How did you get in?" Shoko yells as she gets up to point a mean finger at the man.

"Someone left the door wide open." With that, you and Shoko look towards the culprit, Choso. "Sweetheart... You look..." You turn towards the speaking man and this time take in what he is wearing. A doctor's outfit.

"Quit staring at the top of my boobs man" You pull your shirt up in hopes to cover something up but it doesn't quite work.

"But I'm not" He says even though he is unshamefully staring at them.

"Can we just leave?" Choso initiates

"What makes Vampire Man think he can get there in my car?" Gojo responds but quickly realises his mistake when you and Shoko's eyebrows furrowed at Gojo. "All right, fine, let's go."

—

"It's so lively in here!" Shoko exclaims as she makes eye contact with the bar and rushes over there.

"Shoko wait- don't leave me yet!" You look around you to see no Gojo or Choso. Are you already alone? With a shy hand, you covered your chest area as your other hand kept pulling down the end of your outfit. It kept hiking up somehow as if you weren't already embarrassed by how revealing it was.

"There you are, come" a voice, quite clearly Gojos, emitted from somewhere in the crowd. But you can't seem to find him. A hand gripped your wrist, forcing a yelp from you, as he pulled you through the countless people. Finally, you reach the corner of the room where there was a long, dark gray couch. The area was full of smoke, and you see Gojo initiating you to sit. Once you do, you see a Black-haired man who seems to be quite close to Gojo right beside you to your right. Not the black-haired man you came here to meet. Your name left Gojos lips as he introduced you to what he calls his best friend, Suguru Geto.

"Pleasure to meet you, princess," Geto says as he takes a strand of your hair to twirl it around. This man is clearly extremely high, his eyes are red, and his costume is a military man. Gojo started complaining about how Geto was already high but Getos eyes were fixated on you. Well, fixated on your breasts. Both men- no, all men are the same. You embarrassingly blush as a result, covering your chest with both of your hands, inching further away from Geto. His attention then went back onto whatever Gojo was babbling on about, but you doubt Geto is catching onto a single word of his. You look around the large room and fixate on how the house looks. It was large and quite beautiful if you removed the drunken college students and mess. You innocently look around but his sharp eyes catch you, once again. Toji Fushiguro. He was staring at you from afar, eyeing your attire. Your hand went to cover your chest more, but you realised you were only dressed like this for him. You nervously hold eye contact as you bring your hands down to your thighs. You gulp at his mean stare; he could definitely tell what you were doing, and he could definitely sense your fear.

"Princess, what brings you here anyways" You look back at Geto, who is staring down at your thigh and now gliding his finger across it. You move a hand to halt his movements, which makes him slowly raise his head to look at you. You realise how good-looking this man is, deep purple eyes, his cat-like eye shape. He was enchanting but way too close for your liking. You see that Gojo has gone off, talking with this girl who is blushing like crazy with a hand on his chest. You don't feel any jealousy like you usually do when Toji would be around other girls. "What are you thinking about Zombie Girl?" Geto then travels his hand up your thigh, not daring to go any further than the end of your fabric.

"Nothing to your concern..." he let's out a heavy sigh in response as he fully backs away from you to roll up some weed.

"Ever smoked this shit?" You shake your head no, which ends up in him giggling. "Ever smoked anything?" You shook your head no again, and a smile crawled up in his face. "So you're a goody two shoes? You don't seem to be the life of the party, but you sure do look the part." He motions his hand that holds the spliff towards you, but to not much surprise, you push it back towards him, declining his offer. "Alright, I'm not one to force you into anything." He starts lighting the bud for himself as another girl goes close to him, motioning how she wanted the spliff to share, but he just told her to fuck off and slightly pushed her away as she was getting too close to him.

You look towards where Toji was before, but you can't see him. There has been so much regret of you coming to this party bubbling inside of you. You get up to head to the restroom to fix up your look. Once you get there, you then see how the top of your baby pink bra is showing. Despite that you think it makes the fit better, you try your best to pull your collar to hide it.

'Fuck, seriously, what am I doing here?'

It's all been happening so fast; if you told yourself a week ago what your life would be like soon, you would laugh at your face. Your whole life has been repetitive boring days, but now? Your life for once is getting interesting.

You open the restroom door, and a drunken man immediately falls into the restroom. He was clearly leaning on the restroom door beforehand. He laughs stupidly so you walk off, ignoring him. You look at your surroundings, unaware of where you are.

'which door was it... did I take the stairs to get here or not...' you open random doors, randomly seeing people heavily making out or straight-up breakdowns.

"Tryna find me?" Looking in front of you, to see a man. The man you're here for. Grinning sinister as he looks down at you as if he was going to eat you right there and then. His teeth were apparent as his smile left your pussy fluttering. But you take note of his attire this time, you look down to see him wearing a plain grey shirt and black pants, no Halloween costume?

"Yeah, you're just the man I've been looking for" Your mouth runs faster than your thoughts, Toji's face seems to be closer to you now, and he doesn't seem to stop growing closer.

"You got a name?" You blurted your name to him with no hesitation. You may be sober but looking into his eyes made you feel intoxicated. "You look like you're going to faint Miss, you good?" his hand wraps around your body as your legs feel unsteady. It really hits you now, you've been speaking to him so brazenly. Why? How? Tojis arm was wrapped around you right now and you're speechless! Your face was white and your fingers fidgeted. "Y'know, it's not good for a little cop like you to get so distracted" he finally lets go of you, but remains close to your face. Oh god, you're stuttering now. You're stuttering right in front of Toji!

"F-for someone holding a Halloween party, you're surely underdressed"

"underdressed? I'm here as yours, ma'am" His hands brushed over your hair, his eyes piercing yours. Your back is already on the wall as his face inches closer to your ear to whisper something to you.

"Want me to put you in place, miss?"

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@kivrumi do not steal / copy / reword / translate my work

[soulmate-game]

Daughter of wonderwoman au where marinette finds out her mother is actually Diana and somehow it ends up with her meeting/being introduced to the batfam maybe because she has super strength and is seen yeeting some bad guys who tried to mug her... Or something.

“... you are running from your problems, Mari,” Adrien’s exasperated voice reminded his best friend. Again. She ignored him, and he threw his hands up in exasperation. “Look, you don’t have to do anything about it! Nobody would hold it against you if you decided to just, ignore that you found anything out at all. But you need to actually think about what we just found out and decide whether or not you’re gonna do anything—“ he side-stepped a piece of trash that went flying in his direction. “—or if you’re gonna move on and pretend nothing happened.”

“Isn’t that what I’m doing?” Marinette shot back, pushing her bangs out of her face and tying her hair back with one hand.

“No, you’re currently hiding away in Gotham to avoid your parents while you beat up every random group of idiots who thinks you’re an easy mark,” he retorted. Another wannabe kidnapper went flying in his direction, making him sigh and side step again. She had thrown that one with only her one free hand, showing just how upset she was. “You’re ignoring everything in your life, which is not what we meant we said you should get a little space.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Marinette dropkicked the last criminal into unconsciousness before stepping back and putting her hands on her hips. She looked over at the now seven passed out men in the alleyway, and the one very frustrated ex-model pinching the bride of his nose. “I think I’m coping just fine.”

“It’s better than being forced to suppress all of your emotions, sure,” Adrien reluctantly agreed. “But not by much. Your angry rampage through Gotham has already attracted more attention,” he raised his hand to point at a nearby rooftop. Several shadows lurked there, looming over the building’s edge. “Which, might I add, is exactly why I told you not to come to Gotham.”

“You’re the one who followed me here,” she shot back before turning to the shadowy figures above them. “Go ahead and come down! But it was self defense, and you can’t arrest or beat me up for defending myself!”

The first figure to drop down straightened your just as quickly, revealing the imposing figure of none other than Batman himself. The little white eyes on his cowl seemed to narrow on their own as he looked down at her.

“That might be true, but I’m sure you know my policy on metas in my city,” he grumbled back at her. He wasn’t necessarily threatening, but he definitely wasn’t welcoming either. With all of his limbs hidden behind the cocoon that was his cape, Marinette would never be able to predict his next move if he did decide to fight. Not that she seemed particularly worried about that as she crossed her arms over her chest and met his glare evenly.

“Oh, do you own this city now? I wasn’t given the memo,” she retorted. “And considering I didn’t even know I was a meta until last week? I think I deserve a little slack. I’m angry and if people think the tiny little girl in pink is an easy kidnapping target, then it’s their fault for making themselves into the perfect practice dummies for me to try out my newly discovered strength on.”

Adrien saw the eyes on Batman’s mask narrow even further. Marinette wasn’t exactly at her most charismatic at the moment, and Adrien didn’t wanna get the both of them into a bad relationship with the experienced superhero who always seemed to know things he shouldn’t know. So he stepped up quickly, getting in between Marinette and the Bat and holding his hands up in a placating gesture.

“Okay, Monsieur Batman,” Adrien started slowly, making sure his posture was impeccable and his smile bright. “She’s telling the truth, even if she’s not... the most tactful about it right now. She just found out some very concerning things about her origin and Gotham is the best place for her to hide from her problems and let loose a little pent up aggression. But— well,” he grimaced. “We didn’t intend to run into you guys, but maybe it’s a good thing we did.”

“How so?” Batman was clearly still incredibly suspicious of the both of them and wasn’t giving an inch. So Marinette rolled her eyes (she was still very moody) and leaned around Adrien so she could get a good look at the monochromatic hero.

“I thank my lucky spots that we ran into you, Batman!” She said monotonously. “Me and Adrien are paw-sitively excited at this opportunity.”

Batman. Froze.

Not only were those two lines the very first lines ever spoken to him by two foreign heroes a few years ago (with a few key words changed to protect identities), but they had become their code phrase for whenever they made calls to one another outside of their costumes. All at once it seemed to hit him— the golden hair and bright green eyes on the boy, the blue-black hair and normally super-focused bluebell eyes on the girl that were currently sporting very uncharacteristic frustration. Their heights. Their builds. All of this info flowed through his mind and compared to the information stored in his memory, and it only took the span of two seconds for everything to click.

Suddenly Batman was at full attention, back straight instead of looming over them and eyebrows clearly raised high under his cowl.

He knew Chat Noir and Ladybug would never take a random vacation to Gotham. Ladybug herself had nearly waxed poetic about how much the city depressed her just from the pictures she saw online. If she had willingly come to visit, it was more than to just blow off some steam.

“Batcave?” He asked, earning a relieved look from Adrien and a moody silence from Marinette.

“Please,” Adrien agreed. “You can probably help us, actually.”

—*—*—*—*—*

Marinette leaned back in the metal debriefing chair, legs up on the table and looking for all the world as the picture of pure teenage rebellion and angst. Coincidentally, Red Hood was in the exact same position in the chair next to her.

Batman and all of his other bats and birds were in the cave with the two off-duty Parisian heroes. Everyone except Adrien and Marinette still had their masks on, since the two Parisians were still not privy to their identities. Yet.

To be fair, the bats hadn’t known the identities of the two miraculous users either before today.

“Cha Noir,” Batman started, only to get a head shake from the blond boy.

“Just call me Adrien. Chat’s out of the bag—“ he ignored the groans at the pun and soldiered on, “—so might as well use my real name.”

Batman nodded. “Adrien, then,” he amended. “Why are you and Ladybug really in Gotham?”

Adrien sighed. “I wasn’t lying, before. Marinette,” he gestured to his hero partner. “Just found out some distressing family news. Since HawkMoth is gone, she doesn’t need to repress her negative emotions anymore. But she also didn’t want to be around her parents while she processed everything. I told her to choose any other city— really, I begged— but she insisted on coming to Gotham.”

“The never ending cloud cover and constant rain seem thematic,” she finally spoke up, reaching into her big over-the-shoulder bag and pulling out a large envelope. She threw it to Batman, making the thin package slice through the air like a knife. To nobody’s surprise the seasoned hero easily caught the projectile between two fingers. He looked at the envelope and back to Marinette, silent questions floating in the air between them. Marinette decided to answer at her own pace.

“That’s what we found out. You see, one of my friends is a huge science nerd. A genius. And he wanted to compare DNA samples between us to see if there were any genetic components that determined a person’s suitability towards certain Miraculous or other magical artifacts over others. It was supposed to just be a fun side project that he didn’t expect any breakthroughs on. He mostly just wanted to satisfy his own curiosity. But instead of finding out if our DNA was linked to the miraculous, he found out that my parents are not biologically my parents.”

“Hence the whole just finding out that you’re a meta thing, right?” Nightwing spoke up, fully invested in the story. “Did they never say you were adopted before?”

“It’s not in the system,” she replied easily. “My parents have all the documentation to prove that I’m their biological child, except I’m not. When I confronted them about it, they caved and admitted that they had adopted me in secret and covered it up. Apparently a friend of theirs was involved in something illegal, and,” she waved at the envelope that Batman was now opening. “The details of what we were able to dig up are in there. The summary is this; their friend was part of a secret, illegal experimentation to create clones that could defeat the Justice League—“ the air seemed to get sucked out of the room as soon as those words left Marinette’s mouth. Everyone seemed to know exactly what she was talking about. “—a group called CADMUS. They made me, as apparently one of their early attempts. But I didn’t exhibit any of the powers they were looking for, or any meta traits at all, and my body refused to mature at the rate they wanted. They had no use for a seemingly normal human baby that they managed to clone, so they were preparing to kill me and start over. That’s when my parent’s friend stole me, not wanting to kill an infant, and begged my parents to take me in and pretend I was theirs. Low and behold, it turns out that my DNA just needed a very specific series of emotions to unlock it’s latent abilities.”

“Those emotions being..?” Red hood trailed off, earning a wolfish smile from Marinette.

“Intense anger, betrayal, and confused frustration closely followed by the desire to punch other people’s faces in.”

“That last one is just an assumption,” Adrien chimed in. “And maybe not accurate. But the first three, our scientist friend was able to confirm. The rapid experience of a lot of negative but action-oriented emotions released whatever had been holding back the powers in her DNA from expressing themselves,” he had switched to French so that he could explain everything exactly as Max had told it to them, but he knew all of them were fluent anyway so it was fine. They nodded along, processing the information.

The crinkling of paper drew everyone’s attention back to Batman, who had been flipping through the detailed break down of everything they had found about Marinette’s situation and how she was made by CADMUS.

“Uh,” Red Robin nervously spoke up. “What’s up, Batman?”

“Your genetic donors...” Batman breathed, getting a wink and finger guns from Marinette.

“Yup. Isn’t that just the most fucked up thing you’ve ever seen? They were clearly trying to make someone who could destroy the world.”

“That makes me nervous,” Nightwing admitted, getting up and going to get a look at the papers himself. “It can’t be that ba—“

When even Nightwing was left agape, everyone else who wasn’t in on it found themselves squirming.

“Just tell the rest of us, already!” Robin demanded after the silence stretched just a bit too long.

“The unknowing genetic donors that CADMUS used to make me,” Marinette spoke up, still with her legs up on the table. “Are a very mad-scientist’s-wet-dream combination of Lex Luthor, Bruce Wayne, and Wonder Woman.”

“We don’t even know why they added Bruce Wayne’s DNA,” Adrien admitted. “Although our scientist friend thinks it’s because of physique. His hypothesis is that, in order to support the genes of Wonder Woman, they had to add male genetics that could support the production of a very high muscle mass and would lean towards easy development of a very athletic body. Lex might be evil-scientist smart, but he’s a string bean. But if he added the DNA of another multi millionaire who just so happens to maintain a ridiculously fit body without putting any obvious work into it,” Adrien shrugged. “Then maybe the clone would be able to support Wonder Woman’s genetics and that of two human donors without falling apart.”

“So I’m ‘the clone’ now, huh?” Marinette snarked, earning an exasperated eye roll from her friend.

Batman just stared at the both of them for a moment. He walked away without a word, and came back with a fresh needle and a box. He placed it on the debriefing table.

“Can I do a paternity test myself?” He asked, his voice suspiciously less gruff than normal. “I trust the both of you, but I rather be safe than sorry with something like this.”

The both of them just stared at him in confusion. They traded a glance, and finally Marinette shrugged and moved to sit in her chair properly. Her shirt was already short sleeved, so she just held her arm out so Batman could easily get a blood sample.

“Sure, why not. But do you just have Lex Luthor or Bruce Wayne’s DNA sitting around to compare, or—“ she shut up when she watched Batman take off his glove and roll his own sleeve up. Realization slowly sunk in as he asked Nightwing to take a blood sample from him.

“Holy shit,” she breathed, eyes wide. “You’re— and Luthor doesn’t know— holy shit this is even worse than I thought,” Marinette rambled, not even noticing as Red Hood moved forward and took a small blood sample from her.

Adrien put a hand over his face and just laughed for a moment hysterically. “Oh my god,” he looked over at Marinette. “You could take over the world.”

“I have the blood of Batman AND Wonder Woman on MY side,” Marinette joked back, also hysterical.

When the bat’s high tech equipment was able to come back with a positive result only a few minutes later, Marinette and Adrien had to sit on the floor and just let it all sink in. Which Batman did not at all help by immediately unmasking himself and trying to make a proper introduction.

“I wanna go beat up random thugs again,” Marinette whined, pulling at her hair. “I’ll put on a mask, whatever, but just please let me punch people. I need to punch people right now.”

[watchmegetobsessed]

VALERIE - Part IX. (Harry Styles)

yall are gonna hate me for this but it needed to be done IM SORRY! also, i can’t believe valerie is ending this week, just one more part to go! can’twait to read your reactions and thoughts on this part, even though i know yall gonna be upset lmao

word count: 5.6k

SERIES MASTERPOST

masterlist

Some days it truly feels like the universe has plotted against you to make every possible thing go wrong. As if it wants to see just how much you can take before breaking, experiment how long it can dance on your nerves before you end up one of those crazy people who shout at random strangers on the bus for no actual reason.

Starting the day you overslept awfully leaving you only ten minutes before you had to leave. In your hurry you ended up putting on socks that do not match and you were forced to buy a sandwich on your way as breakfast, but you promised you wouldn’t buy packed sandwiches for a reason, this one tasted like it’s been sitting on the shelf for weeks. Maybe it really has been. 

You made it to work successfully, but then you realized that you’ve left your notebook at home, the one that had quite a lot of important information you need for your work, so you spent your first hour at work emailing different people for things you should now, explaining that you just left your notebook at home. Some didn’t really give a fuck and just answered you normally, but others didn’t shy away from commenting that you should be more responsible and careful.

This alone gave just the perfect foundation for the day. It was all downhill from then. Your boss loaded twice as much work on you than usually, everything with close deadlines, throwing even more anxiety into the mix as if you didn’t have enough already. 

You met up with Marcus at lunch, but that didn’t go as planned either. It’s been getting more and more frustrating with him, the two of you have already had at least five fights this week and it’s only wednesday. It seems like even the smallest things push you over the edge these days and you easily pick a fight over anything. It didn’t happen differently this time either and by the time you got back to the office you were fuming. Worst part is that you always have a hard time ending a fight and tend to continue it through texts, the same thing happened today as well.

Now it’s a few minutes past five and you’re getting ready to go home, get changed and head to family dinner since today is Valerie’s first birthday, but even on the bus you’re still furiously typing away on your phone, sending a reply to Marcus, wanting nothing more than to throw the device right ot the window.

At one point you decide you’ve had enough. Turning your phone off you sink it into the depth of your bag and just try to focus on breathing, because even the smallest things seem to be hard tasks in such an upsetting state of mind. 

These past few weeks things have taken an absurdly wrong turn between you and Marcus and you don’t know what to do about the whole situation. Every night you go to bed thinking that you should just let go of him, would do a favor for the both of you, but then that stupid little voice in the back of your mind tells you that if you break up with Marcus it’s game over for you, you’ll spend the rest of your life alone. It all ends up with you violently holding onto the pieces of what’s left from your relationship and you’ve been trying to figure out where it went wrong, but you have absolutely no idea. 

After you changed into a pair of light washed jeans, a bright orange sweater and your black leather jacket it’s time for you to leave, though you already know you’ll be late. With a sigh deep you decided to turn your phone back on when you were sitting in the Uber, immediately deleting the notifications about the messages Marcus left you and going straight for the few ones from Rosa, your mom and Harry. They all arrived not too long ago asking when you’d be arriving, so you quickly typed your sorry and told them you’re on your way, you just got caught up at work. For Harry, you add something else too:

“Save me a seat and order me a tequila.”

His response came quickly.

“Done. Both.”

You let out a chuckle seeing his message. He knows you too well.

Walking into the small restaurant you don’t have a hard time spotting your family, three tables have been pushed together to make enough room in the back, taking up the small, kind of separated area of the place. Rosa smiles widely when she spots you, Valerie standing on her thighs, hands on the table as she is trying to snatch one of the glasses away, but her dad is pushing it further from her grasp.

“Sorry for being late,” you huff out and take the seat right next to Harry who watches you with a smile. “Well hello there, birthday girl! You’re so big now!” you babble at Valerie who giggles at you before her attention is averted once again.

You feel Harry’s elbow poking your side and turning to him you see him nod at the two shots on the table.

“Oh, fantastic. You’re drinking too?”

“No, I’m driving. Both for you.”

“If I didn’t have such a shitty day I would question what kind of alcoholic you think I am, but I kinda need both,” you sigh, taking the first one and downing it faster than ever. From the corner of your eyes you see your mother’s disapproving look, but you decide to ignore it for now.

“Wanna talk about it?” Harry asks, eyebrows furrowed in worry, but you shake your head, the alcohol still burning your throat.

“Not now. Can you give me a lift home tho?”

“Sure,” he nods, turning back to the conversation at the table. 

You somehow succeed in putting everything that happened today behind and just focus on the time spent with your family. It helps that seemingly Harry works hard all evening to tell you about random things, just occupying your thoughts as much as he can. It’s nice to relax a little and forget everything that’s been weighing down on your shoulders recently. 

“It’s so crazy she is one already,” you sigh when you and Harry are walking to his car.

“Right? It makes me feel incredibly old,” Harry huffs as he fishes his car keys out of his pocket.

“How old are you even?” you ask laughing, realizing you don’t even know how old he exactly is. There are quite a few things, small details you’ve just never gotten around to find out about Harry.

“I’m turning 27 in February. Wild, isn’t it?” he chuckles.

“Yeah, you’re basically a grandpa,” you tease him and he narrows his eyes at you, but you can’t miss the little smile hiding in the corners of his mouth. 

“That makes you a grandma, because you’re turning 25 in April, don’t you?”

“You know when my birthday is?” It takes you by surprise, you don’t remember ever telling him when your birthday is.

The two of you reach his car and he clears his throat unlocking it. Seems like he doesn’t really want to answer, but your burning gaze on him kind of forces him into it.

“Uh, I do. I wanted to meet up with Steven last year the day you had your birthday party, but he said he had plans already. Tried to lure him into cancelling, but he didn’t even want to share where he was going. Then he admitted that it was your birthday party, but you told him and Rosa not to even mention it to me so I don’t show up.”

Your stomach drops hearing his version of a story you’ve only known from your own point of view. You remember that you indeed told them not to tell Harry about it, but now it seems like such a hate crime, when in real life, it was still when the two of you hated each other with passion. 

“I’m… Harry I’m sorry. That was--”

“Don’t worry about it,” he smiles at you, starting the car. “We left it all behind, didn’t we?”

His smile seems genuine, but you still feel guilty for being such a bitch. It reminded you how much time and energy the two of you wasted for years hating each other when you could have been just like you are now. If only things happened in a different way…

Arriving at your building Harry parks the car and stops it. As the engine stops, the silence that’s been thickening the air just becomes even more obvious. He is waiting for you to say something about what’s gotten you so upset today, you know that, but you don’t feel like sitting around in his car.

“Want to come up for a little bit?” you ask and it’s a hidden message that you want to talk in the comfort of your own home. Luckily, Harry understands it right away and nodding he tells you to lead the way. 

You make some tea and the two of you sit on your couch, Harry is sitting sideways so he can see you while you bring your knees up to your chest, staring down at the mug in your hands.

“I had a fight with Marcus,” you quietly start.

“Oh.”

“And… it wasn’t the first time. We’ve been constantly fighting lately and I’m just… so tired of it.”

Saying it out loud for the first time, having someone listen to you brings you an odd sense of relief, and it doesn’t feel weird that you’re talking to Harry about all of it. He has proven himself to be a great listener.

“We’ve been fighting constantly, over the smallest things and my… my patience is running short, at this point.”

You’re talking slowly, carefully putting your thoughts into words, trying your best to interpret them for Harry after boiling them only in your own head for so long.

“I just… I have no idea what I should do.”

“It seems like the relationship is not making you happy anymore,” Harry softly speaks up and you have nothing to bring up against what he just said. “So why are you trying to continue it?”

You were expecting the question, you just knew he would ask it, but it still brings a painful, stinging sensation into your chest as you try to find the words to answer him. 

“Because…” you breath out and slowly turning your head, your eyes meet his gaze. “If I can’t make it work with him… then… who is it gonna be? There’s this voice in my head that keeps telling me, that he is literally my last choice, that if I mess this up it’s gonna be over for me.”

“Y/N, you know that’s not true,” Harry tells you tilting his head.

“Do I?” you chuckle bitterly, turning your gaze to the ceiling before you look back at him. “Because I don’t think I do. I’ve been literally feeling so miserable for weeks, yet I still can’t get me to move on, because I think I’m gonna die alone.”

“That’s not gonna happen, don’t say that. You’ll find the right person for you, you just… have to be patient.”

“But that’s the thing. I have lost my patience. I’m done, over it.” The tears form in your eyes in just a few seconds and the next thing you know is that you’re crying. “I’ve been trying so hard in my whole life, but somehow I always ended up… not being enough, or thrown away, stepped over, left behind. No matter what I did, I always ended up alone and I can’t help but notice a pattern in it. It has to be me, what else?”

“It’s not you, okay? You just had a few bad experiences.”

“Not a few,” you huff closing your eyes. “All of them are bad. I was… I was never enough for anyone and now that I found a guy that seemed to be just perfect… I’m ruining it.”

“I don’t think you’re ruining anything.”

“Then explain to me what’s happening, Harry!” you snap in despair and Harry stares back at you at a loss of words at first.

“Do you have feelings for him?” he then asks. You can’t answer right away and it tells him a lot.

“I… I’m not sure.”

“That sounded more like a no.”

“Okay, alright. No, I don’t. But… I could develop feelings eventually, couldn’t I?”

“That’s not how it works, Y/N. You can’t just torture yourself hoping that one day you wake up and you’ll be in love with him. It’s not gonna happen and you’re just wasting your time.”

“How do you know it’s not gonna happen? What makes you so sure of that I will not end up alone?”

Harry stays quiet, her green eyes are staring right into your soul and for a moment you forget about your misery. This man alone holds such a power over you, it’s starting to scare you.

“I know it, because… I know you. And I see you. You’re literally the funniest girl I know, so easy to talk with, you always know when to crack a joke and when you have to be serious. You have so much love for others, you care about your loved ones and you’re always there for your friends and family. You make it so easy for others to get comfortable around you and you make everyone feel safe around you.”

You listen to him intently, drinking up every word that leaves his lips. Harry looks down at his hands as he continues.

“And you’re beautiful. So fucking beautiful, it always baffles me when I see you.”

“What?” you breathe out.

“It’s the truth,” Harry chuckles lightly, he brushes his knuckles together nervously. “Every time you walk in, you just… make everyone turn their head at you, and I always wonder if you even notice that. The way you walk, your smile, your laugh, Y/N, you make every man go crazy about you.”

“You’re just saying that because you are trying to cheer me up,” you sniff, wiping a few more tears away from your eyes.

“I’m definitely not,” he chuckles and his eyes finally find yours. “I remember when we first met.”

“When you walked in on me changing,” you sigh, the memories living vividly in your mind.

“Yeah. I remember how… breathless I felt when I saw you standing there, your dress handing a little on your frame because of the zipper. I forgot my name for a moment. I offered to help with the zipper because I just… wanted to touch you in any kind of way. So I knew that you were real.”

“Harry…”

“I know this sounds made up, but I’m telling you, this is the truth. And I know I didn’t act like that for a long time, but I always thought that you were an amazing person and I know that any guy would be so lucky and incredibly happy to be with you. I hate the thought of you thinking otherwise of yourself, when you are literally such a delight and… just a gift to all of us. I don’t know what’s really been going on between you and Marcus, but if he can’t see your worth and can’t make you feel like you deserve… he is not worthy of your time.”

You feel your throat closing up, but you’re not sure Harry knows the reason behind it when the tears start rolling down your cheeks again. 

Because it might look like his words touched you and made you tear up, but in reality, a bittersweet feeling has taken completely over you. If this is how he thinks about you, why did he act like that when he had the chance to be with you? Why didn’t he want you to stay? What did you do that made him want to throw you out?

It’s a spiral straight down and you can’t stop yourself from falling. Harry has always been the biggest mystery of your life, and now you’re just even more sure it was something you did or said that made him want to run. 

He reaches out and easily scoops you into his arms and you let him hold you tight, face buried into his chest. You hold onto his shirt as the silent cries escape your lips. You want him to want you. You want him to mean all those things he just told you, but you just can’t seem to move on from the past even though you’ve agreed to forget about it. It keeps bugging you in the back of your mind that no matter what he says, you weren’t good enough to make him want to stay with you when he had the chance. 

***

It doesn’t get better after that night. Harry stayed until after midnight, made sure you got into bed and told you he’ll check in on you the next day. And so he did. 

You felt guilty for loading all of it on Harry, so you decided it was the last time you ever talked about Marcus or your love life in general with him. You easily made yourself believe that he didn’t really care about it and he just listened to you because he was trying to be nice. It seemed the best to just try and forget about it all. 

For a while you were contemplating breaking up with Marcus, but you didn’t have the strength to do it, telling yourself you have to give it another chance and some more patience. However it’s ending up to be quite draining, you gotta admit, but you are starting to get used to feeling numb every day.

Rosa invites you over, because she went through her closet and found some stuff she thought you’d like, so you head over not long after you get home from work. She mentioned that Harry would be over watching some kind of football game with Steven, so you are not surprised to see his car parking on their driveway.

“Hi guys!” you greet them when Rosa lets you in, the game is already on so they just wave in your way, intently watching the TV.

“Come on, I have everything in the bedroom,” Rosa nods in your way and you follow her upstairs. Valerie greets you with a loud shriek as you walk in, she is sitting in her crib, surrounded with a bunch of toys, seemingly having a great time.

“Hi there, Princess!” you coo at her, caressing her cheek before you sit on the edge of the bed that’s filled with piles of clothes. “What’s the big sorting?” you ask, grabbing a cardigan and taking a look at it.

“I just have way too much stuff, can’t fit new stuff into my wardrobe, so I needed to sort it all out.”

The two of you go through everything and just catch up while you try on what you like. At the end, you are just sitting on the bed playing with Valerie. You can tell there’s something Rosa wants to share, but she seems reserved about saying it out loud.

“So, the other day we were talking with Steven about how crazy it is that Val is over one year old,” she starts, eyes glued to the little girl, handing her another building block as Valerie works on… whatever it’s going to be when it's finished.

“Yeah, that’s what we talked about with Harry after her birthday dinner. Makes us feel old,” you chuckle.

“Exactly,” she sighs chuckling. “So then we talked about, maybe… having another kid sometime soon.”

You perk up and looking at Rosa you see the shy smile on her lips and you gasp, but she shakes her head.

“I’m not pregnant,” she assures you, but then adds: “Not yet.”

“Oh my God, so you’re trying for another baby?” you whisper, even though there’s no chance of the guys hearing the two of you. You can hear the sound of the TV up here, they have no clue what you’re talking about.

“I mean, it can take some time, so we thought we could… start now.”

“That’s fantastic!” you breathe out, truly happy for your sister. You just know Valerie will be such a good big sister. “Val, you want a baby sister or baby brother?” you ask her and she looks at you with a serious expression, holding out one of the blocks.

“Baba!” she exclaims.

“Yes, baba!” you chuckle. She’s been learning kind of real words lately and it won’t take too long before she’ll be bossing around everyone in the house.

When it’s getting late you pack the clothes you choose and head down to leave. The guys are still on the couch, but Harry’s head perks up when he hears your footsteps.

“You want me to give you a ride?”

“Um, I’m fine, don’t want to bother you while the game is on.”

“It’s ending in five. If you can wait a little it’s alright.”

“Okay,” you nod smiling so instead of going to the front door you stop in the kitchen to wait for Harry.

Rosa puts Valerie into her high chair and gets a banana for her while you check your phone just when Marcus calls you. Hesitantly, but you answer it.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“Hi, just wanted to check in if the weekend is still on.”

“Uh, sure. It is.”

“Great. I’ll have to check again with my boss, but I think I’ll be able to pick you up.”

“Great. Talk to you later.”

“Bye, babe.”

The call ends and you find yourself facing a curious looking Rosa on the other side of the kitchen island.

“Marcus?” she asks and you nod. “How are things going?” You’ve only mentioned it to her that it’s been hard between the two of you, but you definitely didn’t go into details. Harry was the first and last person to hear the whole story.

“Um… neutral, I guess?”

“That doesn’t sound promising.”

“I know, but I’m just trying to figure it out. We are spending the weekend together, I hope it’ll help us to get a little more… settled? I guess, I don’t know,” you stammer, nervously fidgeting with your phone in your hands. 

“That’s nice, was it his idea?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s good to know that Marcus is making the right attempts to smooth things out.”

“Attempts?” Harry’s voice makes both of you look in his way as he stands at the door, seemingly confused about what he just heard. “You’re still with Marcus?”

“Harry, I…”

“No, don’t try to explain it. I thought I talked sense into you last time.” He is clearly pissed, not holding back how upset he is to get the news that you are still dating Marcus. But on the other hand you can also feel yourself getting angry how he tries to control your life.

“You did, but I never said I’ll break things off with him.”

“Well, it surely sounded like you made up your mind,” he huffs.

“Well, I didn’t,” you scoff, crossing your arms on your chest.

“What the fuck, Y/N! You can’t keep doing this to yourself!” he snaps gesturing in your way. “I thought we were over this!”

“We? What do you mean we?” you grimace and now you are raising your voice as well. “Harry, there’s no we! This is my relationship and it’s nice that you care, but you can’t tell me what to do!”

Harry is vivid. He needs everything in him not to burst right then and there and for a moment you think he’s gonna just explode. But when he speaks up again his voice is quiet, however you can feel all the anger and frustration behind it.

“Get in the car, we’re leaving.”

“What?”

“Get in the fucking car, Y/N!” he barks making you jump. Rosa and Steven, who arrived to the kitchen in the middle of this madness, are just watching the scene unfold, completely unable to even say a word.

Slowly, you slide off the stool and grabbing the bag filled with clothes you turn to Rosa.

“Thanks for… these,” you mumble before walking out, Harry following you right behind. 

Nothing is said as the two of you get into the car, Harry is clearly on the verge of anger outburst, but you’re pretty upset yourself. The drive back to your place is painfully quiet, but you can’t stop staring at his hands gripping the wheel. HIs fingers and knuckles are turning white from the way he is basically crushing the wheel in his hold. You wouldn’t be surprised if it had his grip’s imprint on it by the time you arrive to your building. 

“What the fuck, Y/N?” he snaps once the car is parked.

“Would you stop pretending like you have a saying in what I do?”

“I do have a saying in it! Because when you break again I’ll be the one picking you up from the ground!”

“Well, sorry it’s such an inconvenience to be my friend. But don’t worry, I won’t come to you again,” you snap back with a grimace and try to open the door, but it’s locked. “Let me out, Harry!”

“Fuck no, not until we talk about this,” he scoffs and it’s the last straw for you.

“There’s nothing to talk about! It’s none of your business, Harry! Stop pretending like you care!”

“I do care!” he shouts back so forcefully you are taken aback, sinking into your seat. “Of course I fucking care! How would I not?! I care about you so fucking much, how do you not see it?!”

At this point, you’re certain Harry has lost all self control and he is about to load he has been holding back out on you, while you’re just sitting there, staring at him completely speechless over how his whole being is filled with anger and fury.

“Stop fucking telling me that I don’t care when all I think about is you! Every damn day! I can’t fucking stop thinking about you, because every time my mind snaps right back to you when I’m trying to think about something else! Do you know how fucking painful it is?! See you fucking waste your time with that dickhead when I want to be with you?!”

Eyes widened you forget to even breathe as the words leave his lips and soon enough realization hits him hard about what he just said. His chest is violently waving, eyes staring straight ahead. Next time he speaks up the shouting is over, he is clearly shocked at his own behavior.

“Y/N, I-- what you told me last time, about ending up alone, that wasn’t the first time you told me all of that.”

“What?” you gasp.

“You broke down the same way at the wedding. Told me all about how you think you are just simply unlovable and will probably die alone.” His eyes snap down at his hands on his lap as he continues. “I was shocked how you’d ever think that way about yourself, because I was… I was already falling in love with you and I barely just met you that night. I couldn’t imagine what happened to you that made you believe that nonsense. I never felt like that with anyone else before and it was so fucking scary. Every time you looked at me or touched me, I could feel… the sparks. The fucking sparks, Y/N,” he lets out a bitter chuckle. “I never believed in that, but you made me feel that way. Then… one thing happened after the other and we were up in my room. I saw the way you looked at me, like I was your fucking everything and I have never experienced that. You fell asleep in my arms and I told myself that this is exactly how I want to spend the rest of my life.”

Tears roll down your cheeks as you listen in complete shock as Harry is still avoiding to look at you.

“I wanted to be the person who shows you how lovable and amazing you are, how worthy you are to be loved. Like I found my mission all of a sudden.”

“Then what the fuck happened in the morning?” you ask choking out the words. Harry finally turns to face you and you see his watery eyes. He was crying.

“You fell asleep and I was just watching you… and I realized that… sooner or later I would do something to hurt you. Because that’s what I always do and I didn’t want that. You didn’t deserve that, but I just knew I won’t be able to give you what you wanted and needed. And you told me all about how you just want to be loved and… I didn’t want to disappoint you in any way.”

He rubs his eyes turning back to look straight ahead and you see his lips tremble before he speaks up again. 

“I said all those stuff so you’d have a reason to hate me and you wouldn’t try to stay with me.”

“This is literally the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” you chuckle bitterly as the tears keep rolling down your cheeks. “Do you have any idea how fucking horrible I felt after that? I felt so ashamed for fucking weeks, Harry!”

“I-I know. I mean, I figured.”

“You made me feel unwanted and dirty, it took me so long to build my confidence back and be able to think of myself as more than just some used rug that was thrown out!”

Harry sits there in complete silence and just lets you load everything out on him, because he knows that’s what he deserves. He has tried to punish himself in so many different ways for what he did to you, but he knew he had to face you someday. Now the time has come and he is done trying to run away from the consequences of his actions in the past.

“I was blaming myself all this time, thinking that I must have done something wrong, when in reality it was you! It was fucking you!”

“I know, I’m so sorry, Y/N. I didn’t mean it to end like this.”

“You didn’t mean it to end like this?” you snap. “You literally continued to treat me like shit for years! If it wasn’t for Valerie, you’d still be a complete dick to me! And what was your intention with this now, huh? Why did you tell me all of this now?!”

“Because I couldn’t stop… seeing you be so unhappy with someone who clearly doesn’t deserve you in any way. I’m selfish and I realized that I made a mistake, but I now know what I should have done, because…” He finally turns to face you again, you see a tear roll down his cheek as he takes a deep breath before continuing. “I love you. I love you, Y/N, and I’m fucking done pretending like I don’t.”

You stare back at him, breath caught in your throat and it’s the breaking point. You reach over to his side and unlock the doors so you can open yours and you jump out of the car wanting to get as far away from him as possible. He can’t just throw all of this on you after everything the two of you went through, that’s not how it works. Does he even mean it? How are you supposed to believe him after years of hatred?

You try to get inside the building, but he is quick to catch up with you, he grabs your upper arm and pulls back, but you yank his hold away. 

“Where are you going?!” he snaps towering above you.

“Home. And don’t fucking touch me!”

“But I literally just told you I love you, you’re not gonna say anything about that?”

At first you plan on not even answering, you make your way towards the door, but then you change your mind. Turning around you unload on him once again.

“You don’t have the right to tell me you love me! Not after all the shit I took from you! How am I supposed to believe it when you literally made me feel like shit for all these years, saying the meanest stuff to me every damn time we met! I was avoiding you like the plague because I can’t even count how many times you made me cry calling me names and treating me so fucking horrible! No, you are not just gonna waltz in here, tell me that I have to break up with my boyfriend because you’ve been in love with me all along. I don’t fucking believe you, Harry. So stay the fuck away from me,” you tell him and push your way inside. This time he doesn’t follow.

By the time you reach your front you’re sobbing, barely seeing from your own tears. With shaking hands you unlock the door and get inside shutting the door behind you before you collapse on the floor. 

Harry lives in delusion if he thinks he can just unload all of this on you and make everything right magically. Not after more than three years of the shit you took from him. How are you supposed to believe that he is telling the truth? If he loved you all along, how could he treat you like that? That’s not what love should feel like. All those countless times when you came home after seeing him and you couldn’t help but cry after some of his meanest comments… and now he is trying to make you believe he did it all to protect you from him? Bullshit.

It doesn’t work like that and now he is gonna have to face the consequences of his actions. 

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TAGLIST

let me know if you’d like to be added or taken off!

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[pregnant-piggy]

Cursed - one

            |~|CHAPTER ONE|~|

series masterlist

A/N: The first chapter is here! I loved all the comments on the prologue and I really appreciate them. Those comments keep me motivated to post more! (even if they are just random letters or a single word) Enough about the comments; like i wrote at the prologue, this series is full of pain, scars and blood. So if you don’t feel comfortable with that i suggest not to read it. I will put warnings on every chapter, but this is just a heads-up. Love ya!

Warnings: blood, scars, wounds and cuts

Words: 2.7k

PROLOGUE

-  - -  -  - -  -

Four boys shoot up in their bed. Shocked faces look at each other and at the open door. A light comes on. Five seconds it takes them to find you. On the floor in a puddle of liquid. Even with the small light it is immediately clear what the puddle is; blood.

Sheets are being thrown away and within a second eight pair of knees are placed around you. Some touch the blood, others are placed more delicately and further away. They all see the cuts right away. All across your body. On your arms, your legs, your chest and your neck.

Two strong hands pick you up carefully. But the tension is real. Not one of the boys has said another word than your name. The hands that are carrying you are strong and stable, but the person they belong to is everything but that.

The door bursts open with magic without even one of the boys taking their wand. Steady, big steps take you down the stairs, through the empty common room, through the abandoned, dark corridors.

Two loud bangs on the heavy doors and they open. You are being carried into the Hospital Wing, placed on a bed and shielded from the four scared boys. Madam Pomfrey immediately starts to whisper difficult, melodious incantations.

Outside the night bleeds into day. The first rays of sunshine light up the space. Slowly, like it is afraid to disturb the night, the sun rises on the horizon. Birds start to chirp cheerfully, but the ambiance in the Hospital Wing is the exact opposite. The four boys haven’t moved since they brought you here. Their gazes are focused on the curtains around your bed and they concentrated listen to the incantations.

After hours madam Pomfrey appears from behind the curtains. She says nothing, but nods. Four sighs escape the mouths of the worried boys. They get up to see you and when they step through the curtains they find you asleep.

The expression on your face is relaxed, but your body tells a different story. All across your body are fresh scars. The blood stains are on the sheets and the clothes on the floor. Your body has a strange pale colour. But the boys can’t stop looking at the scars. And they cannot even see all of them. Just your arms and neck are exposed to their view. A dark red line walks from your right forearm to the left side of your neck. From under the covers another line appears, just as red, and moves up to your collarbone. Even under your chin a scar walks to the right corner of your mouth.

The edges of the sheets are red and soaked with your blood. The stains are everywhere on your body. On your arms, your chest and even in your face. But the boys aren’t spared from your blood either. Their pants are red and so are their hands. They have swipes of blood on their faces from their hands.

The four boys stay at your bed until madam Pomfrey makes them move for professor Dumbledore. She sends the boys to the other side of the room aware that she won’t be able to make them leave.

All they can do is wait again. An hour they sit on chairs and beds staring at the silhouettes of the nurse and headmaster. They see your arms getting lift and sheets being pulled up. Dumbledore’s deep voice can be felt in their bones, but it is not clear what he says. After what seems like forever Pomfrey and Dumbledore step away from you. Without exchanging any words madam Pomfrey makes sure the curtains around you are closed and then walks to her office. Dumbledore walks to the boys and gestures them to follow him.

Still no one talks. In silence the four Gryffindors follow their headmaster to his office. The whole school is just as silent as that night but not as dark. The sun has risen fully and shines through the windows. But no sunshine breaks through on the faces of the boys. The corners of their mouths hang down and their eyes are pointed at the floor. Two by two they follow Dumbledore not even paying attention to where they are going.

‘Caramel toffees.’

The first words the boys hear this night. The weirdness wakes them from their trance. The walls in front of them disappear to reveal a stairwell. Dumbledore precedes the boys. He walks up five treads and stands still. The boys follow him and the stairs start to move. The higher they get the more the boys wake up.

A wooden door appears and opens when Dumbledore places his hand in front of it. In the round room there have already been four comfortable chairs placed. The Gryffindors sit down and stare at Dumbledore who sits down in front of them on the other side of the desk. His bright, blue eyes, that usually sparkle even in the dark, look like they have burned out. The sunlight glides over his face and his wrinkles get very obvious. He looks like an old man. An old, worried man.

For minutes the room is filled with silence. Not a single sound breaks the silence, not even a sniff. Even Felix the phoenix is silent, like he can sense the tension in the room. It is Dumbledore who breaks the silence by closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, but James who talks first.

‘What happened?’

And it is like his words unlock the waterfall of questions and comments the boys have gathered throughout the night.

‘Will she be okay?’

‘Who did it?’

‘The scars…’

‘How long until she will be able to talk again?’

‘It must have been dark magic…’

‘I’ve never seen such a thing…’

Dumbledore lets the boys talk until they have nothing left to say. He keeps his eyes closed the whole time and when he opens them again, he is greeted by eight worried eyes staring at him. Placing his fingertips together he takes a deep breath and starts to talk.

‘(Y/N) will be fine. She is in wonderful hands right now; Poppy is the only person I trust to take care of her. If you had found miss (Y/L/N) a minute later, she wouldn’t have made it. I know you want to know what happened to her and I will try to satisfy your thirst for the truth as much as I can, but I can only tell what I think happened. It is up to you to decide if you believe me.

‘Miss (Y/L/N) must have been hit by a curse less than fifteen minutes before you found her. This curse is not a simple one. In my life I have come across it only twice and twice the victim didn’t make it. But (Y/N) will make it,’ Dumbledore adds when he sees the worried faces. ‘She is a strong girl and will walk out of this incident with only the memory…’

‘And the scars,’ Remus mumbles while staring at his own scars.

‘Scars only show that we are strong survivors. There is nothing about it to be ashamed of.’ Dumbledore looks ahead of him but his words are pointed at Remus. ‘To answer your next question: yes, it is indeed Dark Magic. The wizard who hit miss (Y/L/N) with the spell must have done thorough research in the Restricted Section of the library. The teacher who signed the form will be examined.

‘Sadly this is all I can tell you for now. I want to ask you to fill me in on what happened. Together we can paint a more clear picture. Two minds accomplish more than one. And in this case we have five minds.’

It is Peter who tells Dumbledore what happened, sometimes with help from James. Remus keeps staring at the scars on his hands and arms. In the chair on the other side of the room Sirius is sitting. His face is pale and he has dark bags under his eyes. He is covered the most in your blood; he is the one that carried you to the Hospital Wing. His hands are red from your blood and his clothes are covered in now dried blood. He doesn’t react to anything Dumbledore or his friends say.

When Peter is done talking Dumbledore gets up and turns to the painting of Phineas Nigellus Black. ‘Phineas, please tell Horace that I will meet him in the dungeons in ten minutes.’ Then he turns to headmaster Viridian. ‘Vindictus, will you tell Minerva to assemble the professors in the teacher’s lounge?’ The two men disappear without complaints and Dumbledore turns back to the boys. ‘Don’t worry, we will find the perpetrator and (Y/N) will be well soon. Go get some sleep.’

The door opens and the four boys walk down. In silence they walk to their dorm. No one wants to talk. The picture of your body is still in their mind.

When they enter the common room there are only a few people awake. They look up weird when they see the four boys, deep in thought, sad and covered in blood. But they figure it is probably another prank they pulled and unaware of the terrible incident that happened in the school they turn back to their friends to chat about upcoming exams.

In the dorm, in the middle of the floor, is still the puddle of your blood. With a flick of Remus’ wand the blood disappears, but it still feels like it is there. James, Peter and Remus fall down on their bed but Sirius hides in the bathroom.

~-~-~

No one leaves the sixth-year-boys dormitory that day. Not until McGonagall enters it in the evening and asks the four boys to follow her. They do as told and after a few minutes they reach McGonagall’s office. She leads them in and closes the door behind her.

‘Dumbledore told me what you have told him, so no need to repeat that. Miss (Y/L/N)’s parents have been informed. They are with her right now. They would like to talk to you, but understand if you don’t want to.’

McGonagall looks at them like she just asked a question. Eventually James nods.

‘Good, I will send them here. They will just have a few questions I guess. You must be hungry,’ McGonagall says and she conjures four plates with food on her desk. ‘Eat this while I go and get Mr and Mrs (Y/L/N).’ At the door she turns around and watches the four boys dive into the food. A small smile appears on her face and then she walks away.

Ten minutes later McGonagall returns with your parents. The four boys, who had only managed to eat very little, look up to them. The tears are on your mother's face and your father looks ill. As soon as they walk in, they thank the boys. Your parents thank them for saving your life. Your mother can’t stop crying and your father’s voice is raspy. He tells the boys that you will be kept here and not go to St. Mungos.

There is not much to say. Your parents know what the boys told Dumbledore and the boys have nothing to add to that. Seeing your mother has shocked them. They can’t imagine what it is like to hear that your daughter is attacked by dark magic and she is in a life-threatening situation.

After a silence your parents announce that they will be going home. You’re not awake and there is no reason for them to stay any longer at Hogwarts. They thank the boys again and step into McGonagall’s fireplace. Your father disappears first and before your mother steps into the flames she turns to the boys.

‘I trust you to take care of my daughter. I know that that is what she would have wanted,’ she says and a tear escapes her eye. Then she steps in the flames and disappears.

~-~-~

You are still asleep and madam Pomfrey won't let the boys see you. They beg to differ, but the nurse declines. There is no point of seeing you, she says and with that she closes the door.

Defeated the four Gryffindors retreat to their dorm. No one knows about the incident yet. Every student is happily enjoying the beautiful weather and the common room is almost empty.

The boys try to act natural as they walk through the common room but their faces reveal more than they want. Fortunately for them, the expression on Sirius’ face is enough to keep any unwanted conversations away.

In the dormitory every boy focuses on himself. Remus turns to his emergency chocolate-stack, Peter opens and closes his favourite book again and again, James starts to play with his stolen snitch and Sirius isolates himself from his friends by closing the curtains around his bed. The room stays silent, with only the sound of chocolate breaking and pages being turned.

The evening turns into night, but only Peter falls asleep when the sun rises again. The other three boys stay awake, too scared of what their sleep will bring them. The whole night they don't move. Remus on his back in his bed, covered with blankets hoping to catch some sleep but knowing that he won't. James is laying on his stomach, feet dangling off one side of the bed, arms off the other, with his head buried in his pillow so no one will see the tears that escape his eyes. Sirius, still hidden away from his friends, sitting straight up in his bed, eyes focused on one point, not letting himself slip into sleep.

But even though Peter fell asleep at sunrise, he doesn't sleep much. His usual snores have disappeared and every thirty minutes he wakes up with the image of your body covered in blood. Every time he wakes up the images get worse and worse, until Peter doesn't fall asleep anymore.

At six o'clock Peter gets up. He can't stay in his bed any longer. After getting dressed he drags the other boys out of bed too. James grumbles but gets up too, Remus follows just a few minutes later but Sirius doesn't respond.

‘Pads, if you don't eat you'll get sick.’

Nothing.

‘Sirius, come on. You have to eat something.’

Still nothing.

Fifteen minutes later, only the promise of dropping by the Hospital Wing after breakfast gets Sirius out of bed. He looks terrible. The bags under his eyes are darker than the other boys' and his cheeks more hollow. His skin is pale, but less pale than yesterday. His eyes are red from crying and the shock is still in them, like he just heard what happened.

The Great Hall is empty. No one is at breakfast this early. Not even one teacher is at the teacher's table. The deafening silence fills the hall with mystery. The empty spaces seem reserved for spirits, not living teenage boys.

The ceiling shows today will be just as a beautiful day weather-wise as yesterday. The last red from the sunrise disappears and a blue sky stretches out over the space. The sunlight breaks in through the big windows and bathes the hall in golden light.

But neither the blue sky nor the sight of the food makes the boys feel better. In silence they eat their breakfast, chewing but tasting nothing. The toast tastes like cardboard and the coffee is bitter.

Sirius is the first one to drop his food. His barely touched breakfast lies on the plate but it doesn't look appetizing. Sirius stares at his eggs, shining in the light from the sun that comes from the big windows behind him. His throat is dry and all he can think about is you. He misses your presence, your positivity and the way you make butterflies appear in his stomach. Your smile is the only thing Sirius gets up for in the morning. That gorgeous smile that creates dimples in your cheeks. Your giggles are the most pure sound in the world and Sirius misses them. Missing your smile reminds him of home, the only time of the year when he doesn't get to see your smile.

Your absence and the reminder of home are enough to almost make Sirius throw up the little he had eaten. But he has to be strong. For you.

----------

taglist:

Cursed: @starcross16 @racerparker

Sirius Black:@treestarrrrrrrr @bumbelbeeesblog @with1love1anu @transparentttttttttt @sirius-satellite @cheoco @girllety @figlia-della-luna @malikinglove @alwaysinmydaydreams @eateraa @bi-andready-tocry @fangirlofbooksandpasta @littlemissgothgirl @always394patronus @heavenly-ascended-melodies @mrs-moony @coldlilheart @fific7​

Marauders: @secretsthathauntus​ @ronniethelost​ @sognatrice-as-a-hobby​ @hxrgreeves​ @belovedadam @wecouldbreakthedistance​ 

Harry Potter: @kitkatkl​ @yuptha-tsme​ @sleep-i-ness​ @iamak20​ @thefuturelawyer​ @weasleydream​ @missmulti​

let me know if you want to be added! (also it won’t let me tag some people? idk why, but it makes me pretty pissed)

MASTERLIST

[purpleyellow]

Asking again

Seventeen 14th member

Hayun’s masterlist

“Movie night gets interrupted” 

a/n: Feel free to let me know your thoughts as well as send me some requests💙. Ask box is also open to random chats. Look at hiimmmmm i love him smmmm

“Someone’s calling you,” Jun said without taking his eyes off the tv, his hands still massaging Hayun’s feet who only looked at her phone on the coffee table and hummed without making any efforts to pick it up. “You’re not going to check it?”

“It’s off-work hours, whoever it is can wait until tomorrow” She mumbled, still engrossed in the movie. The vibrations of the phone clearly not bothering her as much as it was bothering the boy.

“I’ll do it myself then” He groaned taking her feet off his lap and getting her phone, but before he could press the decline button the flashing name got his attention “Jackson Wang is facetiming you”

“He can try again tomorrow” Hayun sat up quickly and took the phone from his hands, ending the call almost instantly. As if nothing had happened, she laid back down on the couch and got the controller “Great, now we’ll have to rewatch this whole scene again”

“Don’t bother, this is boring” Jun sat this time unlocking his own phone and scrolling through some messages. “Why didn’t you answer him?”

“If it’s urgent he’ll call again” Hayun picked her nails and got ready to go to her room. The moment her feet touched the ground Jun held her arm and turned his phone to her. 

The screen showed his chat with Jackson and with her mediocre understanding of Chinese, she read some of his messages asking Jun different questions that went from which restaurant was her favorite to what kind of flowers she preferred. 

Hayun felt a hole opening on her stomach at the fact that he cared so much about those details yet it didn’t miss her attention that most of the answers he got were “I don’t know” or “She doesn’t have one”, because, in reality, she didn’t care that much about those things to mind sharing them with others.

“He’s growing desperate, if you’re going to turn him down at least do it sooner” Jun raised an eyebrow as she read over the texts.

“I didn’t say I was going to turn him down” The girl mumbled, handing back his phone. “It’s just… Doesn’t this feel rushed to you?”

“No?” Jun answered uncertain “If the story you told me was right, he asked you on a date, so the next step is the actual date itself” 

“Award show season is starting, we should at least wait for it to be over, you know” She groaned resting her head on the couch.

“Once it’s over we’ll go back on tour. Do whatever you want, I just think it’s mean to play with him” He crossed his arms like a child and Hayun kicked his leg.

“I’m going to answer him at some point, today was the first day he called” She rolled her eyes trying to convince both him and herself it wasn’t a big deal.

“And how many times has he called you already?” The boy smirked at her nonchalant expression.

“Just three” As she said that her phone started ringing again. “Now four. I’m telling you if he calls a fifth time I’m giving up on him, he’s too clingy”

“You’re clingy too, see, a match made in heaven. And he’s not calling a fifth time because you’re answering him now. Do it or I’ll tell Wonwoo and he’ll have this whole conversation about you-”

“Hey what’s up” Hayun spoke as casually as possible while rolling her eyes at Jun, who gave her a thumbs up but didn’t bother to move from his spot.

“Hi, are you busy?” Jackson smiled on her screen and his voice was as energetic as ever despite the missed calls he just went through.

“Not really, I was watching a movie with Jun, sorry I ignored you the other times,” She said sincerely and the boy on the couch frowned at how transparent she was being. 

“Hay, I know you’re not too keen on this but-”

“No, no, I am. Just- wait a minute please” Looking at Jun, who watched everything from the front roll, Hayun muted the call and lowered her phone, nodding to the hallway with her chin“Can you leave?”

“I don’t feel like it” Jun smiled innocently, making her face drop even more. 

“I’ll tell you everything after, just please” She rolled her eyes and kicked his thigh until the boy got up.

“Okay, bye” Jun screamed loud enough for Jackson to hear and zoomed out of the room.

“I understand if you felt pressured to accept my offer and are rethinking it” He began right as she unmuted him and something about the disappointed tone in his voice made her feel bad.

“Can I just explain myself for a moment?”  Hayun sighed shifting on the couch until she was upside down, her head hanging off the seat “I’m going to say the unfiltered truth so if you don’t want to hear me rambling just hang up”

“I’m all ears” Jackson sighed and leaned his phone against something, allowing for her to check out what she assumed was his room.

“I try to be friendly to everyone. That’s mostly because I don’t want people to be uncomfortable around me, and I understand that to some it’s too much, or it looks like I have second intentions but the truth is there isn’t.” Her words left her mouth at a record speed making it a little hard for him to catch up at first, so when she did a little break and he had a minor idea of where she was going for Jackson butted in.

“Is this about jealousy? Because if you’re scared I’m going to be jealous and get mad at you for it you can forget it, I know how you are and I don’t need you to change anything about yourself”

“That’s not where I was going to but, aww thanks” She cooed and he rolled his eyes making her clean her throat “What I mean is I don’t know how to go on dates and do the romantic stuff everyone likes. I get awkward when things start to get serious and most of the time I let people down because the flirty image they have of me doesn’t go further than just playing around”

Silence reigned for a few seconds after she poured her heart out and through his phone Jackson could understand she had set up expectations for herself that even he didn’t think was a big deal.

“If I asked you out it surely wasn’t because I thought you fit into my criteria of a perfect girlfriend. I want to get to know you better, see how things play out, and, hopefully, we’ll get together ” He shook his head frowning “I like you enough to know that where the location is and how it goes doesn’t matter to me. If you don’t have a place in mind let me pick somewhere lowkey and we’ll hang out normally, we don’t even have to call it a date if that makes you uncomfortable”

“But… you wanted one” The girl shifted due to the rush of blood to her head and sat up normally.

“I want to hang out, just me and you, because we haven’t done that yet” Jackson smirked. “We don’t need to take things fast, but again, I’m just asking you to give me a chance”

“I already did dummy” She breathed out confused and he rolled his eyes.

“You thought you were getting yourself into a situation you aren’t comfortable with, that doesn’t apply to this situation” He shook his head crossing his arms and then smiling welcomingly “Do you agree to go out with me without any pressure”

“I wasn’t pressured the first time for your information” Hayun smiled mischievously “But again, yes, let’s do it”

“Well, now there isn’t anyone around if you want to turn me down, just say something in the next five seconds,” He said with wide eyes and she shook her head denying it “Okay. You, Kim Hayun, just scored a good hang out session with Jackson Wang.” He sang along making the girl laugh and rest her head on her arm.

“You’re dumb”

“And you are amazing, just these few minutes getting to know you better got me excited for Friday” He winked at her

“Friday?” Hayun screamed shocked at how quick he established a date but before she could say anything else Jackson ended the call.

[gamer2002]

Super Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair - Review2002

Super Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair is a sequel to Danganronpa that focuses on a new cast that, this time around, is trapped on a tropical island. The game is an improvement when it comes to writing, mechanics (mostly), characters, and executing own premise. It’s pretty much a perfect sequel that is a genuinely good game.

Like in the first game, we have a set of cases where one of participants of the killing game commits murder and tries to frame somebody else for their crime. This time around, our main character is Hajime Hinata, who doesn’t remember his own Ultimate Talent. Hajime is much better main character than Makoto, not just because of an intriguing mystery about him, but also because of being a better character with a better story. Sure, since Makoto was a painfully generic goodie-goodie, it isn’t saying much. And, Hajime isn’t really an outstanding character. But he is relatable, sympathetic, and funny, as the only sane man in the cast. He does a good job as a protagonist, while going through his own journey. He actually experiences far more hardship and Despair™ than Makoto did in his game. Which is why, at the end, you really want the guy to overcome it.

The gameplay also has improved, mostly. I like new blue statements in the Nonstop Debate. I like new trial minigames, though Rebuttal Showdown is more a neat idea than a good execution (you can’t really focus on what the characters are saying). I like that now, from the start, there is some logic element in the rhythm minigame. The so-called Improved Hangman’s Gambit is an overcomplex crap, though.

Outside of trials, the game also has improved acquiring new skills. Now you gather skill points from Free Time events, and you can spend them on buying available skills from a list. You can also unlock characters’ skills, by maxing out their Free Time events. It’s a much better system that gives you more control over gaining new skills. And you also have more control when it comes to getting presents, as you can buy few from a vendor machine, or spend coins on rolling random ones. Acquiring coins is also improved. Now you don’t need to examine same locations all over again, you just hunt hidden Monokumas. You can also get coins from taking care of Tamagotchi.

Music is pretty much the same, with just few new tracks. Island is much more interesting environment than the school. Direction is also more interesting during the trials. And also, we have better characters, but I will elaborate on that later on. There is still meme writing with hope and despair, but it is twisted into something far more interesting.

There are flaws, tho. I say that finale, while it had great last third, was exposition-heavy and also was relying on pretty heavy retcons. The world lore is expanded on, but is pretty unimpressive. But I still say - it’s a good game. A ridiculously animu edgy shonen that relies on selling underage waifus and a shock value, which can be not to your tastes, but a good one. The previous game was just fun, which means that you could enjoy it despite its flaws. The sequel fixes quite a lot of flaws, and also improves its strengths. And one of such strengths is its set up that allows to experience brutal treatment of likable kids. Yeah, the kids actually earn that they can be called likable, this time around.

It is an 8/10 game, even though I maybe should have given it a half point lower. I enjoyed it a lot more than the original, and also was more moved by it. I think that sequels that strive to improve the series deserve recognition.

But now, to expand on my review, I’m going to tell more why Danganronpa 2 gives us better cast than the first game, and why it is such a good sequel. In the spoiler section, I’ll be focusing on the new, much better, villain, and expand my thoughts on the game’s finale. So, let’s start with the characters…

Prepare them likable before the slaughter

In this game Danganronpa finds its strength as a series, which lies in its set up that allows building up likable characters, before brutally killing them off. While the new cast is still is mostly a bunch of two dimensional ridiculous stereotypes, they are more likable and useful to the player. Because they actually try to be.

The first cast wasn’t really good at giving us reasons to like or respect them, with two or three exceptions. Especially if you didn’t happen to make free time events with them. Most treated Makoto like a pushover (albeit deservingly), or plainly neutral at best. The motives, while understandable, were just realistically understandable, not sympathetic. Most of those that didn’t end up being killers still mostly focused on self-survival than improving anybody’s else situation. It wasn’t a group of people you’d be happy to live with, let alone be locked with. It wasn’t even much of a group. Even in the final case, after everything that survivors went through, Monokuma still could make them turn against one another with a rather unimpressive trick. While it’s realistic that kids in such situation would be self-centered, even if they didn’t end up becoming killers, such characters’ deaths rather can’t make you feel devastated. Not you can feel glad over their survival. Even if you happened to like their personalities, which is subjective anyway.

Hajime has better relationships with his cast. Only Fuyuhiko and Hiyoko (after her personality has shifted from killer of little animals into a foulmouthed shortie) ever treated him like crap, but they were like that towards everyone. And one of them had proper character development. Everyone else was neutral towards Hajime at worst, not best. One character has noticed Hajime’s reliability, and asked him for help with keeping security of others. Other character wanted to watch girls on the beach with him. I also don’t remember the first cast to mourn the deceased ones as much as the second cast does. Neither I remember them trying much to be supportive to those that were feeling down. The motives that are meant to be understandable are also more sympathetic, so even the killers are more likable.

And the usefulness? Let’s do a spoiler-free comparison of both first cases. In the first game, everyone, but one person, falls for the set up that framed Makoto. During the investigation, aside from the most reliable person in the cast, nobody really was much of any help, excluding one person witnessing something helpful. During the trial, Makoto had just one ally to count on, until he managed to clear himself from wrongful suspicion. But even afterwards, the trial was still carried by just two people. It doesn’t help the mystery wasn’t really complex.

The second game? The situation isn’t better just because nobody is wrongfully accusing Hajime. Excluding the two smartest characters in the cast, three Ultimates use their talents during the investigation, and each provides us with useful information. There are also two others that were screwing around, but still accidentally allowed us to learn something of use. During the trial, everyone tried to be involved, and just one character was briefly idiotic about it. Other than that, mistakes happened, but they were understandable due to the crime’s complexity.

The difference in the first impression is pretty self-evident, and that was just the start. Needless to say, 2nd game’s emotional peak is higher than the 1st game’s. Actually, more disturbing and sad things are happening in the 2nd game. And that’s where Danganronpa can shine. While this game can turn people off for being a ridiculous animu nonsense, when you get past that, you do get likable and pretty useful characters that experience terrible things. This is what this series has to offer, with the writers realizing that in their second game. Because, let’s face it, most of the first game’s cast were either caricatures, or had no proper chance to shine. 

But this game isn’t just what the first game should have been. It is also what its sequel should be.

How to sequel

There are three kinds of sequel: betrayals, cash-ins, and genuinely good ones. Danganronpa 2 is the last one. An example of a cash-in sequel is second Ace Attorney game, Ace Attorney: Justice For All, which is my least favorite game in the series.

JFA is pretty much everything you’d expect from an Ace Attorney sequel, and that’s simply not good enough. While it’s always nice to be able to follow the story further, long-runners are popular for a reason, good sequels are more than that. They are supposed to do more than just deliver another set of cases that are rather similar to the previous game. They are supposed to give us a better rival than just watered down amalgam of previous ones, but with boobs and a whip. Expansions are more of the same, sequels are meant to have a game-changing aspect to them. And it’s not supposed to be only used as the final case’s main gimmick. An example of good sequel is Virtue Last Reward, because it uses the concept introduced as a final twist of 999, as the core element of the game. Even Zero Time Dilemma, the disappointing finale of the trilogy, does add an interesting twist to said concept.

Danganronpa 2 is a good sequel because it improves a lot from the previous entry. The main character actually has an interesting story that isn’t just “an optimistic guy tries to remain optimistic, so he does”. A new setting allows for more different murder mystery set-ups. Ultimate Talents are frequently used during crimes and investigations. And, like I’ve said earlier, many game mechanics are improved. And there is also a game-changer.

Years before Among Us becoming popular, I was playing with my friends Battlestar Galactica board game, which is also about managing a space ship with a traitor, known as Cylon, among us (hah). In a way, Danganronpa series is similar to those games, with a killer being a hidden withing the group traitor, that will doom everyone, if remains undetected. Anyway, an expansion to Battlestar added new characters, new environment, and also a game-changer – Cylon Leader, a character that is a known Cylon, but at the same time may be not, due to own mysterious agenda. While regular Cylon players wins when Battlestar Galactica is destroyed, and human players win when they reach their destination, Cylon Leader player was a wild card. At the start of the game, Cylon Leader randomly draws its own secret victory condition. And it not only could go either way, but also had special requirements. A Cylon Leader could want Cylons to win, but only after specific game phase. A Cylon Leader could want humans to win, but only after specific losses of resources. Other players didn’t know Cylon Leader’s exact agenda, only that he could shift sides depending on situation.

That being said, Cylon Leader was a controversial addition to the game, and not every fan liked it. But regardless, it was a game-changer. Which is what Danganronpa 2 offer, by quickly introducing its own Cylon Leader. But that’s for the spoiler section.

The superiority of Hope Man over Despair Thot

Nagito Komaeda is a superior villain to Junko, and this is simply an objective fact. Like you could tell from previous paragraph, he is this game’s Cylon Leader.

When I started the sequel, I’ve already been spoiled that Nagito is a psycho. What I expected was him being the sequel’s hidden in the plain sight Junko, a nice guy that befriends us just to be revealed as the mastermind in the finale. Well, I was wrong about that. In the very first case, Nagito tries to kill somebody, but this is all part of his plan to drive somebody else to murder, because he has no interest in his own survival. The killer was executed, but Nagito remained, declaring own readiness to aid anybody who wants to kill him and escape, at the cost of everyone else. And this put the new cast in a situation the old cast never was.

Some people say that Nagito has Byakuya‘s role from the previous game. But Byakuya was just openly outspoken about wanting to accomplish what every other killer wanted, until he was hit with character development, before delivering anything as an antagonist. Fuyuhiko is more similar to Byakuya. Meanwhile, Nagito delivers, first early, and then later on, after his character development goes wrong, orchestrating the most twisted and personally devastating crime in both games. He successfully forces us to sacrifice the Ultimate Gamer Waifu, how can you get more personal than that?!

But doing twisted and devastating stuff is what Junko is all about, so what makes Nagito better? First of all, even though he has literal good luck superpower, he doesn’t pull things out of his ass. Nagito doesn’t have Junko’s unexplained endless resources, he just finds opportunities in what is available to everyone. Even in case 5, where he has ton of crazy tools, we know that he obtained them during case 4.

Nagito also does have his twisted philosophy. For Pate’s sake, Junko herself admits that causing despair is nothing more than main characteristic of her one-dimensional character. He also does have a past (if you complete his Free Time event), even if it is the Joker-style multiple choices of past. Maybe he lied to Hajime about being terminally ill. Maybe he lied about lying, to motivate Hajime into killing him and escaping. The game never tell us, and this makes it more fascinating.

There are also opinions that Nagito ultimately plays into hand of Junko, nearly delivering her 15 bodies to control. I don’t agree with that. In the event of Chiaki being the sole survivor of her trial, she wouldn’t have a reason nor intention to graduate and allow Junko to take over bodies of the deceased. Neither Makoto and co. would have a reason anymore to risk themselves getting trapped in virtual world. Wrong and twisted as it was, Nagito plan would’ve neutralized Junko, forever trapping her with Chiaki in her virtual prison.

In the end, Nagito is a highly dangerous enemy, a highly useful ally, and a highly unpredictable wild card. He is an interesting character and he actively makes the game more interesting. Did I mention the sequel has Junko again and it is same old, same old? Ok, Junko/Monokum is slightly better now, but she still has many of her old issues.

The good and bad things about the finale

Overall, I liked the finale better than the first game’s, but it had some issues. One problem is that the investigation is an lazy exposition dumb. The first game was better at handling its revelations during its final investigation, as we were receiving more vague clues, not fucking walls of text. Not to mention, there were emotional moments, like Kyoko visiting her father’s office. Here, we are hit with a wall of text after wall of text, and there isn’t any meaningful scene. The only exception was meeting Alter Ego and receiving message from Makoto, but that was it. And those weren’t really strong scenes. The final investigation of the first game did much better job at handling its reveals. Even the final trial was better in the original, until the confrontation with Junko.

Also, retcons. The sequel wants us to believe that Junko, who was easily defeated, was constantly screwing herself over, and whose successes at driving people to murder were more attributed to weak opposition than anything, was the one responsible for the world’s collapse. When I played the first game, I saw Junko as a part of Ultimate Despair, whose task was to infiltrate Hope Peak Academy and broadcast a killing game to lure the groups’ opposition. A high and mighty Doctor No that only works for SPECTRE. But her being a manipulative genius that has turned the entire cast into her devotes? Have you seen her doing that in the first game? Where she could left Aoi devastated and resentful towards everyone, after the 4th trial, but she blew it so hard that fucking Byakuya had a change of heart? Where she was ultimately beaten by Makoto like it was nothing? Please.

That being said, Junko/Monokuma are better in this. Because the game is set in simulation, there is no problem with Junko being able to do whatever. Because the cast has stronger morality than the previous one, she does have to be more cunning with driving them to murder. Junko also sticks better to the rules, even if she is forced to. Her plan and the final dilemma she has for the cast is also actually a good one. But that actually wasn’t Junko anyway, just Junko-based Alter Ego. If I was writing this, I wouldn’t try to retcon a turd villain into something she never had been, I’d just state that Hajime/Izuru was behind everything in the first game and he has used Alter Ego to recreate Junko and lure Makoto and co.

One last complaint about the finale I have is that they retcon Kyoko’s father into a doctor Mengele, without her even reacting to it. The twist itself with the Academy fucking over Hajime was good, but they shouldn’t just carelessly (and without noticing it) turn a character that wasn’t evil, but good-intentional albeit flawed, into a monster that was experimenting on children. Or, at best, a detective family’s failure that had no idea what was happening in the Academy he was running.

After all that complaining, what is good about the finale? Well, things have slowly picked up since it was revealed that Monokuma/Junko wanted the cast to graduate. Everything related to Hajime was also good. The dude really went through a lot, starting from doubts about his lost talent and Nagito’s betrayal, through the revelation that he never had any talent and the loss of Chiaki, up to learning that the Academy has altered his very identity. The idea of everyone from the cast being part of Ultimate Despair was also a good twist, a much better one than “lol, the world is already destroyed”.

Besides that, the last moments of the game have masterfully used gameplay for storytelling. Movies and books can make us feel two things – pain or pleasure. Alternating between those is how stories have impactful twist and turns, causing them to be engaging. But in video games, we can experience a spectrum of feelings that other mediums cannot provide. In games, we can also feel power or powerlessness. And the game’s final gameplay segments put us at start in a state of powerlessness, in form of a choice between bad and worse, then letting us slowly regain power, culminating in a satisfying beat-down of helpless Junko. The point of that section of the game was death and rebirth of Hajime into SSJ Chadiyan, and the game makes you experience all of it.

Also, unlike the previous game, this one makes a proper statement. In the bad and worse situation, where you can either allow the devil to triumph at cost of other people, or become a martyr to stop the devil, what you say is “screw the devil, there’s a chance we will still survive, and we are risk takers!”. This is exactly the statement that the first game should have made. You can’t fall into despair and give up in face of overwhelming hardship. But you can also be betrayed by a false hope of everything working out. But not much can be accomplished without facing the risk and taking your chances, even if you odds are desperately small.

Overall, the finale did drag and relied on retcons, but its climax was truly enjoyable and worthwhile.  

[dindjarindiaries]

Collide - Chapter 2

summary: Bella attempts to adjust to life in Colombia with dinner at the Murphys’, hoping she can forget about the man who lives down the hall.

warnings: angst, flashbacks, mentions of sexual content, cute!javi

rating: R

word count: 3.133k

masterlist

chapter 2.

You sigh as you lean against your kitchen island, a glass of water in hand. Your eyes look around the place you’ve just settled into. The apartment’s quite modest, not decorated with much more than some retro-colored tile on the kitchen walls and a few pictures of you and your parents you managed to frame and fit into your luggage. There’s a single hallway that leads to a bathroom and your bedroom, which also has a bathroom of its own. The kitchen opens to the living area, which has nothing more than a couch, a coffee table, a lamp, and a small television. You don’t envision yourself hanging around your apartment often, anyway. From what Steve and Javier told you earlier, you’ll probably be spending the majority of your days and nights at the office. Again, it’s rather small, but it’s satisfactory for you. It’s not like you have to share it with anybody.

You scoff to yourself at that. Speaking of the situation at hand, you hoped you’d be hungry after such a long day of traveling and moving in, but your emotions have other intentions. The thoughts that haunt you continue to affect your entire body, making you feel sick. Just knowing Javier’s currently right down the hall is enough to make you want to regurgitate the food you never ate. You’ve been in such denial of seeing the man again that you never even planned what a possible reunion could look like, and that just makes the situation hit you even harder. You didn’t ever prepare yourself for this.

You’re battling two main emotions: anger and fear. The former—well, how dare he never come after you, and then try to blame you for never going after him? His remarks from earlier still have you pissed off. The latter is mainly because you’re not only afraid of the way you still have feelings for him, but you’re also afraid of what you’ve missed out on in his life. What if he’s found love elsewhere? You’re not sure if you’d be able to see him in love with someone else—even after all this time.

The suffocating feeling of these dark thoughts have you wanting to wash them away with a drink, but without anything in your stomach and a severe lack of alcohol anywhere in the apartment, you settle for the glass of water in your hand. Thanks to the heat of Colombia and the poor strength of your air conditioning unit, the glass has already started to condense in your hand. You let out a sigh after realizing that you’ve chugged the rest of the glass, not feeling any particular motivation to go pour yourself another glass.

Suddenly, a soft knock sounds at your door. You turn towards it curiously, setting your empty glass down on the counter as you walk over to it. Your eye checks the peephole, where you see a petite, blonde woman standing outside with a small smile. Deciding it’s safe, you unlock the door and open it, watching as the woman’s smile grows.

“Hey!” she greets in a friendly manner, offering one of her hands to you. “I’m Connie Murphy, Steve’s wife.”

Upon hearing her relation to Steve, you return her smile, shaking her hand as you introduce yourself. “It’s great to meet you.”

“And you too. Steve told me he’s real excited about you joining him and Javi.” You try your best not to flinch as you hear Javier’s name hit your eardrums. “I just got back from work, and I was gonna start making some dinner. Did you want to join us?”

You feel your heart warm at the kind gesture, deciding that you could indeed use the food, no matter how loudly your stomach wanted to protest against it. “I’d love to, Connie.”

Connie gives you another smile, and she waits for you to grab your keys and lock your apartment before she leads you upstairs to theirs. As soon as you enter, you can sense the homelike atmosphere, its warm walls and plentiful decorations establishing it as an ideal home for a small family like theirs. Connie leads you into the kitchen and living area, where you see Steve sitting with a small child. That must be Olivia, you remind yourself. He looks up at you and offers a small smile.

“You made it!” Steve exclaims. “Wasn’t sure you’d want to after I stuck ya’ with Javi.”

You snort, staying by the island as Connie heads into the kitchen to start cooking. “It’s alright. It’s not like we’re strangers.”

Steve raises an eyebrow at you, continuing to rock Olivia as she looks to be just moments away from deep sleep. “Speaking of which… how do you know him?”

You chuckle, pulling out a chair from the island and sitting in it before you cross your arms over your chest. “It’s a long story.”

Connie looks up from where she’s started boiling some pasta for a sauce that smells as if it’s been cooking deliciously for hours. “We’ve got time, sweetheart.”

You let out a laugh, sighing shortly after to think about where you can possibly start. You’re about to begin when you see Steve stand up, and he holds up a single finger at you as he starts to walk slowly towards their small hallway. “Wait one second, I’m gonna put Olivia to bed.”

You give him a nod, turning completely to Connie once he’s out of your sight. You lean your arms against the counter as you watch her work, and she looks over her shoulder to give you another small smile. “You enjoyin’ Colombia so far?”

“From what I’ve seen, it’s beautiful—scenic wise. I’m sure I’m in for a surprise once I get more into my work.”

Connie scoffs, nodding as she gives the pasta a stir. “Yeah, I got a feeling you just might be. But don’t worry, as long as you pick and choose the right people to trust, you’ll make some great friends down here.”

You offer her a smile. “I think I’m off to a good start, then.”

“Oh, that’s real sweet. I’m glad they let you join them. I think all that testosterone was gettin’ a little dangerous for the DEA.”

You laugh, shaking your head. You hear Steve enter the room again, and before you have a chance to look at him, he pulls out the chair beside you and sits there. “Were you talkin’ shit again, honey?”

“Never, Steve,” Connie assures her husband, biting back a sly smile.

Steve shakes his head, and you chuckle at their playful interaction. He then looks at you with a raised brow, leaning one elbow on top of the counter. “So, you and Javi?”

You take a deep breath, folding your hands in your lap as you force yourself to dig through your now-painful memories. “Javi and I were childhood best friends. Ever since kindergarten.”

Steve’s eyes widen. “You gotta be shittin’ me.”

“Nope. We were inseparable. Spent just about every minute we could with each other.”

“Wow. What are the chances?”

“I know,” you mutter under your breath.

“But if you were so close, then why the fuck did I feel so uncomfortable when you two saw each other?”

You snort, running an anxious hand over your neck as you try to answer his question as vaguely as possible. “Well, I haven’t seen him since we left for college. In fact… I haven’t talked to him since.”

Connie, having just strained the pasta in the sink, looks over her shoulder with a sympathetic expression. “Was there a reason?” she asks.

You clear your throat, hoping you don’t appear to be as flustered as you feel. “No, no, we just—uh—fell out of touch. That’s why we were so surprised to see each other here.”

Steve raises an eyebrow at you. “And he didn’t know you were DEA?”

“Guess not. I didn’t know he was, either.” You pause, thanking Connie as she slides a plate of pasta and homemade sauce in front of both you and Steve. She follows up with a glass of water, and Steve offers her his seat as he stands across from you both at the counter. You all begin to eat, but you also continue your conversation. “I didn’t even know he was in Colombia.”

“So, how long exactly has it been since you last saw him?” Connie questions curiously.

You exhale deeply. “Almost twenty years.”

“Damn.” Steve huffs as he takes a sip of his drink. “Not even a phone call?”

“Nope. Nothing. Like I told you, we… fell out of touch.”

You can tell that Connie and Steve can sense your uneasiness on that part of the topic, and you’re relieved to see them resigning to it as they don’t interrogate you further. There’s a brief silence, during which you inform Connie of how delicious the meal is, but Steve’s curiosity gets the best of him eventually. “Now I need to know: what was Javi like back in the day?”

You tilt your head at him. “What do you mean? In what way?”

“Well, the Javi we know is…” Steve trails off, his gaze floating up to the ceiling as if he’s in deep thought. It returns to you shortly thereafter. “Stubborn. Caring, but also an asshole. And he’s a true lady’s man.”

You raise an eyebrow at the last one. “A lady’s man?”

Steve scoffs and nods his head. “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anything like it. I hate to admit it, but the man’s practically got a talent. He can get any woman to drop at his feet.”

You wrinkle your brow in slight confusion, unable to picture Javier being whatever Steve’s describing him as. “I mean, I remember him having a few girlfriends back then, yeah. Girls thought he was cute. But it was never anything out of the ordinary.”

“Huh. That’s interestin’. Good for him, I guess. He’s had some growth in that area.”

Despite the deliciousness of the meal Connie’s provided, you’re suddenly not sure if you can finish the rest that sits idly on your plate as your stomach starts to churn again. “How so?”

Steve chuckles, waiting until he finishes taking a sip of his drink to answer. “You’ll know soon enough. I feel bad for ya’ living on his floor—he’s not too quiet with his informants.”

Your eyes widen at his words.

Oh.

The image of Javier taking random women into his apartment and fucking them suddenly enters your head, and you almost spit your dinner back up onto your plate upon visualizing it. Memories of that night after prom start to hit you like a slap to the face, and it’s almost as if you can feel his hands on you again, his breaths in your ear, his firm grasp that had once made you feel so safe. You blink a few times and shake your head in a desperate attempt to get the scene to disappear. It suddenly doesn’t feel as sacred as it used to; it feels tainted, as if you were the first in a series of dominos for Javier and his body count.

“Oh, don’t worry, darlin’,” Connie assures you, placing a hand on your shoulder. It effectively pulls you back out of your head, and you look to see both Connie and Steve staring at you. “Steve’s just bein’ an asshole. It’s not that bad.”

Steve raises his hands in surrender. “Speak for yourself. I’ve heard—.”

“Hush, Steve!” Connie chastises, causing both you and him to chuckle. She then turns back to you. “But enough about Javi. What about you? Where do you come from?”

You smile at her easy change of the subject, beginning to tell them both more about yourself. You try to skip over the painful parts, instead choosing to focus on the lighter things. Still, you can’t bring yourself to tell them of your motivation to join the DEA—the memory, while being a few years old now, is still too painful. It’s not even something you’ve truly come to terms with yet, and you’re not sure if you’ll ever be able to.

You used to have someone to share that trauma with. And now, they feel like a complete stranger to you.

After you spend about an hour talking with Steve and Connie, getting to know them better and vice versa, you find your exhaustion from your long day finally catching up to you. The very second you yawn for the first time, Connie’s shooing you towards the door, encouraging you to get some rest for your first full day of work tomorrow. You’re smiling by the time you descend the stairs to your own apartment, thankfully having forgotten all about the first part of your discussion.

You freeze, however, when you notice a paper bag sitting outside your apartment door. Looking around suspiciously, you bend down to pick it up, seeing a piece of paper attached to it. Your fingers reach for it delicately as your eyes read the all-too familiar handwriting.

Bella,

I hope you still like these little shits. They’re a pain in the ass to find around here, but I have my connections. As for the rest, I would’ve had it ready sooner if I knew. Enjoy.

See you soon,

Javi (cariño)

You hate the way you’re now biting back a stupid smile, opening the bag and almost gasping as you spot the exact thing he’d first referenced. Your hand reaches inside and takes a hold of one of the 100 Grand candy bars. A small laugh escapes your lips as you shake your head, and suddenly you’re launched into a plethora of memories—but you land upon a single one.

You wipe the back of your hand across your nose as you sniffle, your shoe kicking a rock as you sit on the bench outside of the local convenience store. You want to cry even more when you have to look at the shoe, remembering just how long you’d spent picking out your outfit to look nice that day. It’s Valentine’s Day, and you were intent upon finally telling your crush how you felt by giving him your homemade valentine. You wanted to look as good as you could, hoping it would cause him to accept your request.

Before you even had the chance to say anything to him, the other girls after your same crush had swooped in, demeaning the way you weren’t caught up on any of the current styles—and promptly managing to hijack your valentine and throw it into a nearby trashcan.

It was hopeless from there. You felt as if all that time you’d taken to match the perfect shirt to just the right skirt had gone to waste—and now you feel as if you’re the worst-looking fifth grader in the class. You never had a chance from the beginning, you remind yourself.

“Bella, I thought I lost you,” you suddenly hear a familiar voice say from nearby. Your head lifts to see Javier approaching, and upon seeing your evident sadness, the relieved smile on his face fades away. He quickly sits beside you, nudging your shoulder. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

You let out another short sob as your head falls against his shoulder, and you tell him everything. Javier wraps a comforting arm around your shoulder, letting you show the emotion you need to as the horrific words fall from your lips. When you finish, Javier takes the edge of the short-sleeve button up flannel he has on over his white t-shirt, wiping it against your cheeks to dry your tears.

“They don’t know what they’re lookin’ at, bella. I wouldn’t keep callin’ you that if it wasn’t true.” You give a small laugh, causing Javier to smile again, his eyes wrinkling up a bit as he continues. “I think you look amazing. In fact, you know what you look like?”

You tilt your head at him, watching as he stands from the bench and tells you to wait for a second. He then dashes into the store, and it’s a few minutes until he reappears, holding something in his hand. Javier holds it out to you, giving you an even bigger smile.

“You look like a 100 Grand.” You laugh as you take the candy bar into your hands, opening it and breaking off a piece for him before biting into it yourself.

“Thank you, cariño,” you respond, leaning your head against his shoulder again. “You always know how to make me feel better.”

And, apparently, it’s still true. You realize you’ve been holding the candy bar to your chest as the memory passes through your mind, and you don’t bother looking through the rest of the bag just yet as you finally let yourself into your apartment. You walk over to the kitchen island and set the bag down gently, opening it as you start to view the other items.

There’s about four other 100 Grand bars, and you set those aside on the counter. The next obvious item is a small bottle of whiskey, and you snort as you appreciate Javier’s effort to get some kind of a numbing substance into your apartment along with the candy. After you put that aside, you pick up the last item, and your heart nearly evaporates in your chest as you view it.

It’s a small pillow, colored in a cream hue with black stitching written in cursive reading the word cariño. You’d given him the same exact thing but with the word bella stitched when he left for college—of course, before things went to shit between the two of you. You’re suddenly left to wonder when, where, and how the hell he managed to get that done. Did he just have someone make it tonight? Or has he had it made, and he just decided to gift it to you?

You shouldn’t be thinking about it this much. So, with a small sigh, you put the whiskey away into an empty cabinet and toss the 100 Grand bars into a drawer—deciding to hold onto one just for now. It feels like a blur as you get ready for bed, and you soon find yourself chewing on the candy bar as you hold the new pillow on your lap, trying not to think too hard on the day you’ve had.

If these are how all of your future days are going to go, you’re not sure if you should’ve ever left Texas in the first place, because you can feel every single old feeling you’d been trying to escape coming right back to you.

chapter 3

tags: @tarrevizslas @none-of-your-bullshit @lavenderl3mons @gooddaykate @flower-petal-blooming @stilllivindue2spite @mrsparknuts @fionnthebandersnacc @pisss-offf-ghostt @gaydreamland @longitud-de-onda @literallytrashhhhhh @arrowswithwifi @rage-isaquietthing @awesomefandomsunited @theforceofdarkandlight @murdermewithbooks @blushingwueen @rachelloveseveryone @madadlorian @ah-callie @mrsdaamneron @lokiaddicted @arcadianempress @benakenalove @pascalisperfect + kkgraham, irishleesh93, wickedfrsgrl, & moonlightmrvel (make sure you can be tagged in posts!)

[isolaradiale]

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It was the last communication left by Ofiuco before she went dark at the end of the day on April 14th. The Stars scrambled to locate her, but not only was her signal missing but they were not able to find her with any camera in the city. Their only clue was the foreign signal that she had been previously intercepting. Given the amount of enemies the Stars had accrued, it was imperative that they locate her. In the wrong hands she could become little more than a weapon. If the assailants were competent, she could level all of Spirale.

This, however, was the least of their worries.

Less than a day after Ofiuco disappeared, a single, different, existence spawned within the city. It was an anomaly. It didn’t belong. By the end of Thursday it had multiplied by ten. Then, at midnight, there was a broadcast. 

Every screen in the city lit up with the image.

Ten robed figures standing in a dark room. Their message was clear:

ADDRESSING ISOLA RADIALE. WE ARE AGENTS OF NULL. WE HAVE SEIZED THIS CITY’S DEFENSE DROID AND DEMAND THAT THE REIGNING LEADERS OF THIS CITY, THOSE REFERRED TO AS “THE ISLAND STARS”, TURN THEMSELVES IN FOR ARREST IMMEDIATELY. DESMOND VENIER, ELEINE VENIER, SEIRAS WALKER, RENAE ADISA AND FELICITY BOURNE; YOU HAVE UNTIL THE END OF THIS SEVEN DAY PERIOD BEFORE WE DESTROY YOUR CITY AND TAKE YOU BY FORCE. 

CITIZENS THAT HELP US WILL BE GRANTED FREEDOM FROM THEIR CONSTRAINTS AND SERVITUDE. THOSE WHO OPPOSE US WILL BE EXTERMINATED. THIS DROID WILL BE OUR VESSEL UNTIL THE CRIMINALS ARE APPREHENDED. ANY CAPTIVE LOOKING TO FURTHER OUR CAUSE MAY REACH OUT TO ONE OF WE, THE AGENTS, AND A PORTION OF THEIR STRENGTH WILL BE RETURNED TO THEM FOR THE COMING CONFLICT. WE DARE "THE STARS" TO DEFY US.

The screen went blank as unrest spread across the city. The Stars, however, were not so quick to accept this threat. It took a few minutes for them to scramble to respond, but screens quickly came abuzz once more with the signal wrestled back from the GPU. This time, a man with white hair and blue eyes appeared on the screen. He sat dressed neatly in an old-styled formal clothing--given the short notice, it’s clear that it was his typical attire. When he spoke, he sounded much more calm than he felt.

“Attention citizens. It’s rare that we address you as such, but this circumstance is rather dire. I am Alathfar of the Island Stars. The infiltration of Spirale by the agents of NULL poses a serious threat not only to those of us overseeing this island, but also to the inhabitants both natural and otherworldly. They will not offer you freedom--only erasure.”

There was a pause, the sound of shuffling and frantic typing audible from the background. He took only a moment before continuing.

“There’s a lot we have to do, but the most important is taking back Ofiuco. In order for us to retrieve her, the network must be temporarily taken offline. Manually. Unfortunately, we can’t do this alone. For that end, we’ve created access points--holes--to reach the network’s cables that reside under the city. We need any citizen willing and able to go sever them using any means. The locations of these access points will appear on your phone’s map of the city.”

He took a breathe, then, and closed his eyes. When they reopened, they were full of determination.

“We will take back our city, but we need your help to do so. With Ofiuco able to override our commands, we’re unable to maintain any serious advantages, but once she’s been freed we’ll be able to offer a reward to any who assist in driving NULL out. Together, let’s make quick work of this.”

The broadcast flicks off as Alathfar’s explanation and plea for help rings throughout the city. All the citizens needed to do was sever wires across the island, but... would it really be that easy? 

Not if NULL had anything to say about it. 

Almost as if on cue--almost as if the agents had been waiting for the scientist’s cute cry for help, their pathetic defiance, to end--a loud explosion sounded from somewhere in the city. 

Ofiuco emerged.

Her expression was blank. Her eyes glowing an ominous crimson red. A low rumbling echo coursed throughout the city as storm clouds began to form and shift. As gravity began to fluctuate. And as the earth began to move.

It would definitely not be as easy as just cutting some cords. 

INFORMATION

Welcome to our new story event, SECURITY BREACH! As you can surely tell this will be one of the heavier events we’ve had in a while.

Ofiuco has been hacked by the mysterious NULL unit of the equally mysterious GPU. They demand the arrest of the Island Stars in exchange for the freedom of the city dwellers.

However the Stars have offered a counterpoint: the GPU’s definition of ‘freedom’ is in fact erasing the town and all of the people within altogether. They make a plea to help regain Ofiuco from the enemy control.

How this is done is through a forced reboot of the network that Ofiuco exists on. Many wires run beneath the city encased in steel tubing that are part of this network. They are typically protected by a barrier that prevents interference, but the Stars have disabled this barrier so they can be breached and cut. Disabling every line this way will force Ofiuco to shut down, and she can be retrieved. While these cords are usually buried so deep that they cannot be accessed, large holes leading down to the exposed tubing will open and close at random throughout the city at midnight each day. Once the cords in an area are cut, the phone service/internet/power in that area will go out--but this is optional flavor to include in your writing only if you’d like, since it’s near impossible to keep track of.

Exposed tubing will be marked on your phone’s map application, locations always current. Characters allied with GPU may be guarding them, but there are also monsters from NULL’s division that will manifest. They are like weak shades that appear in large numbers, each wielding a variety of elemental magic attacks (think standard RPG spells).

In the meantime NULL has their own agents at work to make this task more difficult. If a character buys into the GPU’s claims and trusts them over the Stars, they can have their powers temporarily restored through Ofiuco’s connection provided the character uses those powers to either stir chaos or prevent those attempting to sever the wires from doing so. At the first sign anyone given this gift might be turning against NULL, they will have these abilities revoked and will be targeted for elimination. Unfortunately, the Stars can not offer this same boon to those trying to sever the cords, as Ofiuco would immediately override their authority.

You’re free to give abilities to yourself if your muse would work with GPU, but you cannot unlock any abilities that fall under tiers 1-7 on the vsbattlewiki tiering system. You can, however, nerf existing abilities to fall under tiers 8 and up. If you have any questions about this please send it to the masterlist! 

Ofiuco, now a mindless hand of the GPU, will travel throughout the city over the course of part 1 of the event. She will be altering the weather and safety conditions in each ward periodically to cause chaos and inhibit the efforts of those looking to free her. We will post a Disaster Report detailing these effects every two days, with the first coming an hour after this event post goes up.

FAQ

HOW LONG WILL PART 1 RUN FOR? Part 2 will begin at midnight EST on April 24th. However you will be able to start new part 1 threads throughout the entirety of part 2!

DO I NEED TO PARTICIPATE IN BOTH PARTS OF THE EVENT TO EARN CREDIT FOR RANKING UP? No! You only need to participate in one part to earn rank up credit. You don’t need to hunt for the wires or impede anyone’s progress by siding with the GPU either, you could interact with others during the other parts of the crisis or even just do a drabble with your muse finding safety if you find things to intense.

IS THERE AN EVENT REWARD? Yes! However you will be required to contribute 500 words to part 1, and then again to part 2 to qualify. The word count doesn’t need to be a single interaction and can be spread across multiples if preferred! It also doesn’t matter which side, if any, your muse is on during the event. While we haven’t decided on the reward entirely yet, it’s likely to be an ability or weapon unlock.

CAN WE INTERACT WITH THE AGENTS? Not directly unfortunately, although you can contact them via a special text number in your phone just to request abilities if you wish to support them. For reference you might see them out and about on the field observing, but they cannot be interacted with or harmed.

CAN WE INTERACT WITH OFIUCO? No! You might be able to catch glimpses of her and her glowing red eyes, but you cannot speak to or hurt her.

MY CHARACTER IS FULLY UNLOCKED AND, IN LESS THAN A FEW WORDS, OP. SHOULD I EXPECT ANY TEMPORARY NERFS FOR THE EVENT DURATION? There are only special instances where this might be the case. Conceptual powers that would make this too easy for either side have been sealed by the GPU, so anything that might be able to instantly delete people or places without room for a struggle are off limits. If you’re not sure about a power you have already unlocked, feel free to send a question to the masterlist!

DOESN’T THIS FAVOR VILLAINS THAT MIGHT WANT TO SIDE WITH THE GPU TOO MUCH? Yes, and that’s intentional! Our events are usually geared towards giving heroes a chance to shine, and so for part 1 we’re trying to subvert that. Part 2, however? ;)

WILL ANY DAMAGE DONE TO THE CITY DURING THIS EVENT BE PERMANENT? It’s possible! However we’ll make sure it does not affect any character owned businesses after the fact and will be fixed, though they might sustain damages during. Normally the city structures rebuild themselves anyways, but the GPU has disabled this feature through Ofiuco. 

WHAT DOES GPU STAND FOR? ;)

CAN WE ACCESS THE BRANCHES DURING PART 1? The branches have currently been consumed by the mist that usually forms a perimeter around the island. That means leaving the city is impossible for the time being, and anyone who was in the branches before the event began will be teleported into the city.

[vs-redemption]

Crime is Common. Logic is Rare. (Ch 3)

Chapter Three: Unusual Monday (HawksxGN!Reader)

Plot summary: You thought your hands were full as a regular quirk geneticist, but then you meet Hawks and things get even more exciting! 

Warnings:  

⚠️This story contains spoilers from the manga. 

⚠️Some events and plot points have been altered from the original manga 

Next Chapter : Chapter Guide

You arrived to work Monday morning, coffee in hand, ready to start another usual week. Your boss had already unlocked the building and was sitting behind her desk, scanning over some paperwork. You mumble a “good morning” while heading to the break room to drop off your work bag. When you walk back out into the lobby though, your boss is eyeing you intently.

“So?” She asks, clearly holding back some excitement. “How was lunch yesterday?”

“It was fine,” you keep your face flat so as not to encourage whatever wild scenarios she might be concocting in her head. “He just had questions about quirk copying and transferring like most people do these days.”

“Sure,” your boss wasn’t giving up. “But he isn’t really like most people, is he?” You weren’t sure what aspect of him she was referring to, so you shrug. “Did you not watch the Hero Billboard Chart announcement last week?” She asks incredulously.

“No,” you admit. “I missed it because I had a video conference with that professor from America. I set it to record, but I haven’t gotten around to watching it yet. I saw the rankings printed in the newspaper though.”

“Did you pay attention to them? Hawks isn’t just any random hero,” your boss lectures. “He’s ranked number two in Japan.” The surprises just kept on coming.

“You’re kidding.”

“Nope,” your boss shakes her head. “He’s actually the youngest person to ever make it into the top ten heroes.”

Apparently the bird man hadn’t been kidding about working fast. He was so young, yet he had already established his own agency and worked his way to the number two spot. It was very impressive, but it made you wonder even more about the case he was working on. It must be something serious, probably involving the League of Villains.

“Hey guys!” Simon the research assistant burst through the front doors suddenly, waving a tablet around. “This is incredible. I just got the results of the study! The findings were significant!”

“Let me see,” you take his tablet and did a quick scan of the data. “These numbers ARE outstanding,” you tell him, “but they’re wrong.”

“What?” his face falls as you reach over the desk and grab the stack of papers you’d left there the day before.

“I ran the numbers myself,” You tell him while handing back the tablet with the printouts. His eyes move back and forth between the papers and the tablet screen.

“I was so excited,” he says in defeat.

“The numbers aren’t bad,” you console him. “We can still publish, but we’ll need to do further testing if we want to make any real impact. We can talk about that later though. We should run the data through your program again together to see where you went wrong.” The kid seemed to perk up a bit as you headed to one of the labs. You worked with him for about an hour when your boss knocks on the door frame to get your attention.

“Your bird is here,” She was smirking. You’d never seen her smirk before. You tell Simon you’d be back in a bit while heading out into the lobby, wondering if this was a joke.

“You know,” you whisper to your boss, “one lunch meeting does not make him MY bird.”

“Some might say it was a lunch DATE,” she fires back.

“I think you’re the only one who would say that,” you tell her honestly.

She hadn’t been joking. Hawks was indeed waiting at the front desk, standing out with his bright red wings and devilishly handsome face. He smiles happily when he notices you and waves a gloved hand. “Long time no see!”

“Hello Mr. Number Two,” You wave back. Hawks lets out a short laugh.

“You looked me up, huh?” he asks in amusement.

“No,” you shake your head. “I was informed… against my will.” You tilt your head toward your boss who blushes a bit in embarrassment. Hawks took pity on her.

“Aw,” he smiles at her. “At least someone loves me.” Your boss looked like she might be experiencing extreme heart palpitations.

“So, to what do I owe the pleasure of seeing you two days in a row?” you ask Hawks. Teasing your boss was fun, but you really did want to know why he was back. Hawks reaches into his coat and pulls out a plastic folder with some papers inside.

“I wanted to thank you for your help yesterday,” He hands you the folder and you flip it open. “I talked to some people and got you access to the research center in Tokyo where they’re holding the captured nomus.” You could hardly believe what you were hearing.

“What? Are you serious?” you skimmed through the papers which contained confidentiality contracts and protocols for keeping the data private. It all looked legitimate.

“You’ll have to fill out all that paperwork,” Hawks grimaces. “Sorry about that. But once you submit the forms you’ll get a special badge that will grant you permission to enter the building.” You continued to flip through the pages for a moment, still in a state of shock.

“This is… unbelievable,” You look up at him. “Thank you.”

“Hey, don’t mention it!” He grins, seemingly pleased with your reaction. “You’ll still have to take the trip out there too which is a pain. I’d offer to go with you, but I’m being sent back to Kyushu today. Try not to have too much fun without me.”

“Is there like, a catch to this?” You had to ask. “You just met me yesterday. Having direct access to those nomus is every scientists dream right now.”

“No catch,” Hawks puts his gloved hands together as a promise. “Well, except that I might come to you for help again in the future if that’s all right with you.” You had no idea why he would want to do that, but if it got you into the nomu research lab, you could accept it.

“Fine by me,” You put out your hand to seal the deal. Hawks grabs your hand and shakes it happily. His wings ruffle behind him and it reminds you of a dog wagging its tail.

“Awesome!” He nods his head. “Well, I’d better be off. I have a long flight back to my agency. It was nice working with you though.”

“Yeah, no problem,” you say honestly. “Travel safe.”

“Of course,” he smirks. “I’ll see you later then.”

Hawks was out the door a moment later, leaving you to wonder how all this was happening so suddenly.

[golbrocklovely]

give your heart a break // colby brock - chapter five: the jealousy

A/N: so i’m about to go out with a friend so if this isn’t all fixed and there are some spelling mistakes, i’ll be fixing it later. i just wanted to post it for yall since you guys have been asking for this chapter. it’s a good one, trust me. alrighty, hope you enjoy. let me know what you think! byeeee! :)

story description

taglist: @azurebrock , @daddydobrock , @colbyf-ingbrock , @cuddlingwithcolby , @absolute-randomness-forever , @lovelycolby , @codename-nyx , @sweetxplr , @absolutelynobodyposts

trigger warning: SMUT, angst, cursing, partying, drinking, mentions of hooking up

word count: 2608

~~~~~~~~~~~

seven months, three weeks, five days

“So speaking of boyfriends... how are you and Colby doing?” Kat smirked, turning her head to me.

“Yes, how is our emo, lover-boy doing?” Tara asked, giving me the same look.

I rolled my eyes. “First off, not my boyfriend. Secondly, we’re good.”

“You’re doing a lot better than good if you guys are fucking.” Tara stated bluntly.

“Wait you’re having sex?! You didn’t tell me that.” Kat exclaimed quietly, smacking my arm dramatically.

I snickered. “I thought I told you! Anyways, yes; me and Colby are having sex. But it’s... different.”

“What do you mean by different?” Tara questioned, raising an eyebrow.

“Well for starters, we’ve separated romantic stuff from sexual stuff,” I explained. “We can kiss during sex but not when we cuddle and whatnot. And also there’s no romantic stuff after sex. We just kinda get up and go.”

“Why are you guys doing it like that?” Kat laughed.

“Because he and I have made it clear that neither one of us want to catch feelings for the other, so we think this is the best way.” I shrugged, “Plus, we’ve both agreed that if we want to see other people, we can.”

“We... or him?” Tara retorted.

“What do you mean?” I queried.

“Look. I love Colby, but I love you more. You have to be honest with yourself. Are you sure that what he wants is what you want?” Tara argued.

“Yeah. I mean I guess so.” I answered.

Tara sighed. “All I’m saying is if he’s the one making all the rules, this isn’t really a 50/50 relationship. And I know y’all are just friends with benefits, but those benefits need to go both ways.”

“You sound like you’ve done this before.” I remarked.

“Let’s just say before Jake, I was a bit crazy.” Tara joked.

Kat smiled. “You still are.”

“Shut up!” Tara giggled, pushing Kat.

~~~

I decided that after hanging out with Tara and Kat, I wanted to see Colby. It had honestly become part of my routine to come over mid-day and hang with him if he wasn’t doing anything. He even gave me a spare key so I could just come in whenever.

I walked down the hall to his place, pulling his key out of my pocket. I unlocked the door and opened it.

“Hey Colby, I was thinking of-” I started.

A brunette girl swung herself off of Colby, who jumped up when he heard my voice.

Oh my god... he was actually hooking up with someone else.

“Hey Zo. Uh uh what’s up?” Colby stammered.

I huffed. “Nothing much, Colbs. Seems like you’re busy. I could leave if you want.”

“Um that’s okay. Stacy was just leaving anyway.” He chuckled uncomfortably.

Stacy cleared her throat and stood up slowly, fixing her clothes. “Yeah, I gotta go. Thanks for your help.”

I stayed silent as she grabbed her stuff and walked up to Colby, giving him a quick peck on the cheek and whispering goodbye.

I stared at Colby as Stacy left, my eyes never leaving his. When I finally heard the door close, he exhaled. “Um so how-”

“Are you serious, Colby?” I hissed.

Colby furrowed his brows. “What?”

“Stacy? Stacy fucking Jackson? You know she’s only using you, right? She’s been bouncing from influencer to influencer since she got to LA last year. We literally used to joke about how much of a user she was.” I groaned. “At least she’s uped her ranks since she’s now hooking up with you.”

Colby scoffed. “Don’t be like that. She came over because she had a question about editing and-”

“Her tongue accidentally landed in your mouth. A tale as old as time.” I sassed.

“What’s with the attitude? It’s not like I’m breaking our rules.” He reminded.

“Attitude? You think this is me giving you attitude? No. You see, this is me being fucking angry at the fact that you are hooking up with Stacy.” I jeered.

“You sound jealous.” He speculated, a devilish look in his eye.

“I’m not jealous!” I hollered. I stopped, took a deep breath, and continued. “The whole reason we started this friends-with-benefits thing is because you felt like you couldn’t have a relationship with any other girl out here because they were all using you. Now you’re hooking up with the biggest user in L.A.?”

“I’m not hooking up with her. We made out. That’s it.” Colby informed, going into his kitchen.

“Only because I came in.” I followed him.

Colby opened his fridge, grabbing a water bottle. “You arguing with me really isn’t helping the jealousy thing.”

“Fuck you, I’m not jealous.” I deadpanned.

He paused. “Look, I thought allowing us to see other people while still doing this was something we both agreed with. If you didn’t want me to go hook up with other girls, you should have said something.”

“Have you hooked up with other girls?” I crossed my arms uncomfortably.

He shrugged. “Maybe. Have you hooked up with any guys?”

“No. I thought…” I trailed off.

“You thought what?” Colby took a drink from his bottle.

“…Why would you wanna hook up with other people?” I inquired.

“Because what we have isn’t serious.” He replied.

I felt my stomach drop and my heart skip a beat.

Why did his words hurt so bad?

“Right. So, if I hooked up with some random guy, you wouldn’t care.” I doubted.

“No. Hell, I encourage it.” He formed a tight-lipped smile.

I raised an eyebrow. “Really? Any guy?”

“Yeah. Whoever. It doesn’t matter to me.” Colby leaned against his counter.

“Okay.” I nodded my head, slowly turning towards his door to leave.

As I opened it, I stopped and spun back to him, smirking. “Hey… isn’t there a party tonight?”

~~~

I glanced around at the party taking place, sighing deeply and taking a long drink from my cup. I had been at this party for over three hours and regretted it.

I came here with the intention of hooking up with someone, literally anyone, just to prove Colby wrong.

But why did I want to prove him wrong?

Maybe because I was actually… jealous, of him and Stacy.

“Damn… I need more alcohol.” I sang to myself drunkenly.

As I poured more into my cup, I felt a light tap on my shoulder. I turned around and found Mike smiling down at me.

“Hey Zoe. What’s up?” Mike asked kindly.

“Nothing. Just drinking my feelings away.” I mentioned, smiling lazily.

He slid his cup in front of me. “Cheers to that.”

I laughed, pouring some vodka into his cup.

“What’s with all the emotions? What’s gotten you upset?” Mike queried.

“Colby.” I grumbled.

Mike chuckled. “Ahh. Our favorite emo king. What he do?”

“He hooked up with Stacy Jackson.” I informed.

He scrunched his face up. “That bitch?”

“Yeah. And I caught him doing it.” I took a swig from my drink.

“Aren’t you two-” Mike began.

“No, we are not together!” I exclaimed, groaning. “We’ve hooked up a bunch and now he made up these rules that we can hook up with other people but I don’t think I want us to.”

He gasped dramatically. “Oh no. Are you catching-”

I interjected again. “Feelings? No. But like, why do we need to hook up with other people when we have each other? It’s just dumb.”

“Sure.” Mike agreed.

“Plus, unless we get tested monthly, we could give each other STDs.” I reasoned.

He nodded his head. “Right.”

“And plus it’s just stupid.” I whined.

He bit back a smile. “You kinda already said that.”

I stared down at my cup. “…I have been drinking a lot.”

“Well, if you’re that upset with him hooking up with Stacy, why don’t you hook up with someone?” Mike suggested.

“I wanted to, but no one at this party is interesting enough for me. Plus, I don’t really want to do a one-night stand.” I confessed. “Making out is fine though.”

Mike took a sip from his drink and I followed suit, a light silence falling over us.

“You wanna make out?”

I choked suddenly, coughing into my arm. “What?!”

“You heard me.” Mike smirked.

I felt a weird blush come to my face. “Mike…”

“It’s definitely one way to get back at him.” He joked.

“I don’t know.” I mumbled.

“Look, all I’m saying is, if you decide to say yes, it won’t go any further than kissing. And for this one time offer, I will gladly forget it happened after tonight. Never bringing it up again. Never telling any of our friends.” Mike offered.

“I-I…” I stuttered.

“Just a thought. Come find me if you wanna.” He winked, walking away and heading towards the living room of the party.

I shouldn’t do this. This is sort of wrong, right?

But there was a voice inside my head that thought about what Tara said. Colby and I's relationship was not an even split. He was making all the rules and just expecting me to follow them.

And just because I don’t like him hooking up with other girls doesn’t mean I’m jealous! I’m just... upset.

I grabbed the bottle of alcohol I had from before, pouring out two shots and drinking them down hastily. I placed the bottle back on the counter and followed the way Mike had gone.

I found him not long after: sitting on the couch next to Colby.

Well... this was gonna be fun.

"Hey Mike?" I called to him.

He and Colby gazed up at me. “Yeah?” He responded.

"I think I’m gonna take you up on your offer." I stated breathlessly marching up to him.

Mike smirked as I straddled his lap, leaning into him and kissing him passionately. His lips tasted like fruity alcohol. His tongue found its way into my mouth as he pulled me closer to him.

I suddenly felt a hand grab my arm and yank me away from Mike’s lips. I looked up and saw Colby glaring down at me.

He pulled me off of Mike and dragged me to a door that led into a bathroom. He slammed the door shut, locking it quickly.

The room felt heavy as he paused before he spoke.

"Are you fucking serious?" Colby barked

I leaned against the counter cockily. "What’s the matter?"

"Mike... you’re hooking up with Mike?!" He fumed.

I shrugged. "You said any guy."

"Yeah well I thought friends would kinda be off limits. Besides you don’t even like Mike like that." He argued.

"Who says I have to like him to fuck him?" I deadpanned.

“Don’t be dramatic.” He hissed.

I scoffed. “Excuse me? Dramatic? You think this is me being dramatic? I’m sorry, but who’s the one that pulled the other into a bathroom, Cole?”

“Oooh, first name. I must be in trouble.” Colby sneered.

I paused for a second, clicking my tongue. “You sound jealous.”

“What?” He replied.

“You heard me. You sound-”

“Jealous? Right.”

I placed my hands on my hips. “Why else would you pull me off of Mike… unless you didn’t want me to hook up with him?”

Colby stayed silent; his arms crossed tight as he gazed down at the floor.

“You know what, Colby? Fuck you.” I pointed, shoving my finger onto his chest.

His icy, dark blue eyes glared into mine.

“You don’t get to tell me what to do, alright? You’ve made it very apparent we’re just friends, so you have no say in whether or not I fuck someone else or not. So I’m gonna go out there and me and Mike are gonna have a good fucking time.” I ranted.

I strutted past Colby, reaching the door in a second. As I unlocked the door and began to open it, it was slammed shut from behind by Colby’s hand. He spun me around, smashing his body and pinning me up against the door. His lips were immediately on mine, his tongue invading my mouth.

I gasped into the kiss. Colby’s hands gripped my hips, his grinding into mine. Our tongues glided against each other’s. His hands danced down my thighs, pulling them around his waist and lifting me up against the door. He pulled his lips away forcefully, giving me only moments to catch my breath.

“You’re not going out there and fucking Mike,” He stated lustfully. “I’m the only one that can fuck you.”

He yanked my dress up, finding my underwear and pushing it to the side. His fingers began to rub my clit, eliciting moans from me.

“I’m the only one that can make you feel this good. You’re already getting so wet for me.” He chuckled darkly.

Colby began to finger me, causing a whine to escape my mouth suddenly. I dug my nails into his shoulders, trying to hold back any more noises.

“Do you want me to fuck you?” He asked, fingering me harder.

I nodded hastily. “Yes.”

“Then say it. Say you want me to fuck you.” He demanded.

I exhaled. “Colby please.”

“Please what?” He bit his lip.

“Fuck me Colby, please.” I whimpered breathlessly.

He smirked. “Gladly.”

Colby rushed me over to the counter, placing me down and pulling out a condom. He unzipped and tugged his jeans and underwear down, his cock springing free. He jerked himself for a few seconds as stared at me. He ripped the wrapper open, sliding the condom down his shaft.

“Turn around.” He ordered.

I spun around, my body facing the bathroom mirror. I watched Colby pull down my panties and spread my legs.

“I want you to watch me fuck you from behind.” He growled into my ear.

Colby bent me over, his cock playing with my entrance. I bit my lip as he teasingly entered me, groans falling from both our lips.

Instantly, he began to thrust into me, his pace already fast. His grasp on my hips was tight, his fingerprints already starting to leave marks.

“You’re mine, you know that? You’re mine.” Colby grunted, gazing at me through the mirror.

He fucked into me deeper, my eyes rolling back at the feeling.

I finally stared at him. “If I’m yours, then you’re mine.”

Colby raised an eyebrow at me, his rhythm not faltering.

“I’ll gladly be yours if you’ll be mine.” I muttered, my eyes fluttering from the pleasure.

He slowed himself for a moment, bringing my body up against his. He kissed along my neck sweetly, lips landing on my ear.

“No one else. Just us?” He whispered.

“Exactly…” I agreed.

His lips stayed under my ear sucking on my sensitive spot, causing tingles to run down my spine. He pulled out suddenly, turning me around to face him. We looked into each other’s eyes as Colby leaned in and kissed me tenderly.

He tore his lips away from mine, lining himself back up. He slid in slowly, my body shaking from how sensitive I was.

He thrusted into me gentle at first, but it began to build up back to where it was. Noises fell from our lips as he pounded harder and harder. I could feel myself building up, unable to hold back.

I whined. “Colby, fuck. I’m gonna-”

“Keep your eyes on me, baby.” He uttered.

I looked into his eyes, not able to pull myself away as my orgasm hit me hard. I moaned loudly, gripping the counter and his waist.

Colby thrusted three more times and then grunted loudly, coming undone himself.

We finally relaxed against each other, my head falling onto his shoulder.

He kissed my cheek sweetly, his breath fanning against my neck. “No one else.”

<< CHAPTER 4 || CHAPTER 6 >>

[xxisxxisxxis]

Gateway Drug | Part Forty-Nine

Table of Content or Part Forty-Eight

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Word count: 3.9K

Warning(s): Explicit language, mentions of Drug abuse

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Vanity: something that is vain, empty, or valueless.

I watch with my water in hand as Vanity and Tansy dance like wasted strippers on the bar...granted they are wasted.

Sparkie and Nikki are in the bathroom, Vince is occupied with a bundle of groupies who waved him over, we're still waiting for Tommy to get here since it was date night with Heather but he still wanted to come out, so I'm sitting in silence with Mick and giving glances at anyone that looks like they may be interested in approaching me because I don't necessarily want to speak to anyone right now.

"So..."   I start, finishing me water. "...How've you been?"

Mick takes a sip of his drink and nods a little bit.

"Not too bad." He tells me. "What about you? Did you and asshole work your shit out?" He asks and I scoff.

"Yeah." I tell him, smiling a little. "We're good."

I honestly believed we were at that moment. Stupid of me.

"Good." He replies.

Nikki, Tommy and Sparkie all show up simultaneously, Nikki and Sparkie heavily under the influence of more tha just alcohol.

"Hey, man." Nikki smiles to Tommy, patting him on the back. "Haven't seen you since the wedding...over two months ago." His dimpled smile is a nice cover up to to underlying anger and bitterness woven into his words.

Tommy has been nearly disconnected from everyone since Heather and he got married.

I'm glad they're getting along that well, but life doesn't revolve around one person.

Even my codependent ass can leave Nikki to spend time with my other friends, and vice versa.

"Oh, yeah, dude, we've been really busy." Tommy tells him as they sit by Mick and I. "We just bought a new house and she's had some time off so we've been just enjoying it before she starts on a new project and the album gets going for us." He explains.

"Nah, I get it." Nikki scoffs, glancing at me. "Being married changes shit around."

"That's why I'm not marrying Tansy." Sparkie says out of nowhere, looking at the blonde as she and Vanity are a compiled of booze and giggles, nearly tripping and falling off the bar in their heels.

"Just depends on the person, I guess. I like being married." Tommy shrugs. "I'm about to grab a drink. Mick, you want another?" He gets up from his seat, motioning to the empty glass of vodka Mick's finished.

"Sure." Mick tells him.

"Get Saint Vivian another water while you're at it." Sparkie tells him, his tone a degrading scrape at me for not drinking, and the look he gives me stamps the confirmation of his aggravating attempt to rile me up some.

Nikki shoots him an unamused glare and I can practically see him cowering back into his shell out of fear of pissing Nikki off.

My ego gets a pat on the head.

He might have worn more makeup than me at times, been spazzing on coke one minute and nodding off on smack the next, but he could still kick ass up one end and down the other over me.

Tommy comes back with drinks for him and Mick, bringing Vanity and Tansy back with him.

The two girls sit down, hand in hand, whispering and laughing among themselves as they try to catch their breath.

"Where'd Vince go?" Tansy asks us, running a hand through her platinum hair and Vanity looks around.

"Oh, he's socializing." Vanity lets out and Tansy glances over in her line of sight to see Vince making out with a tan blonde in a mini skirt.

Before Tansy can say anything else, Vanity's reaching across the little cocktail table with a beaming smile directed at Tommy.

"Hi, I'm Vanity." She pipes and Tommy looks as if he knows who she is, but is still confused as to why she's hanging out with us. 

"Tommy." He replies, shaking her hand. 

"I'm Tansalyn's and Nikki's friend." She adds for explanation and he raises his brows a little, quickly shifting his eyes to Nikki, whose expression I can't quiet read...he looks kind of nervous.

"Yeah, I've seen you on T.V. some." Tommy strikes up conversation with her and she just glows at the fact she's well-known. "And a few magazines." He adds.

"I've done several differing magazine issues." She informs in, nodding. 

"Everything from fashion to Playboy." Tansy cuts in, grinning a little.

"So, that's how you two met?" I ask.

"Well, not exactly." Vanity explains. "We knew some people, who knew some people, who knew some people, who thought we'd be great friends and got us together and..." Her beautiful brown eyes catch on Nikki, who's nervousness seems more apparent, despite his neutral expression as he watches her. "...we just clicked from the beginning." She says softly, blinking at him before she quickly averts her attention back at Tansy, her hand squeezing at her's affectionately. "And have been great ever since." She adds.

"Agreed." Tansy nods, smiling at her.

"I need another drink." Nikki mumbles standing up. 

"Can you get me some more water, please?" I ask him and he nods, stepping to the bar.

"Why's he so tense?" Tommy asks once he's out of earshot.

"Must be the blow." Sparkie suggests with a shrug. "He spent good money on it and it wasn't worth a damn." 

I take it without question.

Vince is stepping to us before long, lip stick smudged on his lips as he tries to wipe it off before going home to his wife and child. 

I just give him a ball busting look and he raises his brows.

"Go ahead and say it, Viv." He tells me, sighing.

"Swine." He and I say at the same time, except he's being a smart ass and I'm being serious.

"So, how did you and Nikki meet, exactly?" Vanity asks me out of nowhere and my water glass is merely slammed down in front of me, causing the liquid to slosh out a little, and causing me to jump out of my skin, as Nikki sits back down beside me with an entire bottle of Jack.

He's giving Vanity a surly look and she doesn't even flinch, her curious expression focused on me.

"Tommy introduced us." Nikki shortly states before I can explain it myself.

"Well, that's not just what happened, Nikki, I mean, you two are married aren't you?" She argues politely to him. "I want the whole story."

"Tommy introduced us, dated a couple years, engaged, married, here we are." Nikki, again, interrupts me.

"Baby, it's not that big of a deal." I mumble to him, wondering why he's being rude to her.

"Yeah, baby, it's not that big of a deal." She repeats me, and I can't tell if she's mocking me or just being flirtatious with the way she says "baby."

He rolls his eyes, irritated.

Vince seems to be studying Nikki as Vanity and Tansy change the subject to the album.

I don't listen very much, neither does Nikki, apparently, because it takes Tommy repeating his name three times, and me nudging his leg with mine to get his attention.

"Yeah?" He asks Tommy and Tansy and Vanity let out some more cocktail induced laughter as his lack of enthusiasm.

"Tansy was just talkin' to you." He tells him.

"Oh, what Tans?" Nikki asks, sighing out a little.

"I was just wondering if you've gotten any songs up yet for the album?"

"No? Why would I? There's not even a concept." He states, borderline abrasive.

"You had some songs for 'Theater of Pain' written before the concept was decided on." I remind him and he just let's out a breath.

"Well, there goes that conversation." Tansy exhales, playing it off like Nikki didn't hurt her feelings.

Vince is now giving the slightest hint of a smirk to Nikki before it suddenly disappears from his lips and he's excusing himself to go get a beer.

Game recognizes game. And Vince--being the cheating bastard he was--had sat there and put together what he needed to in order to figure out Nikki either fucked Vanity, was fucking her, or planned on fucking her until further notice. The answer was all three. And he made no attempt to tell me...not even when Nikki later told him and confirmed it.

"We're still working on figuring everything out, Tans." Tommy tells her in a more polite way than Nikki.

"Like you would know what's going on since you've been up Heather's ass all this time. Literally." Nikki stifles out and I look at him.

"What is wrong, Nikki?" I snap.

He just lets out an exaggerated breath before getting up and heading outside.

"He's always moody." Vanity cuts in, rolling her eyes, lighting a cigarette.

I ignore her and follow after him.

"Nikki." I say, my heels clicking against the wet pavement as fine rain sprinkles down on us.

"What?" He asks, going to where we parked.

"What's wrong with you?" I gently pull at his hand, stopping him.

"Nothing."

"Nikki, c'mon, now, I'm not stupid." I argue, crossing my arms. "You're an asshole but I know when you're an out of character asshole."

He just unlocks his Corvette and slides into the driver seat, shutting the door.

Before he can crank it and get his window rolled up, I'm 'Dukes of Hazzard'-ing his shit and putting my legs through the window, scooting into his lap, my feet in the passenger seat, and he leans his head back and let's out a loud groan of irritation.

I just crank the car for him and roll the window up to avoid getting rained on, before turning the car off and waiting patiently for him to start talking, blinking up at him.

"Alright..." he gives up, rubbing his face before resting his arm behind me on the sill of the window. "...fine." he sighs. "I shoulda gone to the funeral, I guess. And I thought I was ready to go out and see everybody but it just--Vince is being Vince. And Tommy hasn't even acknowledged anybody since he got married. Good for him he's so fucking happy in his relationship he can't even call his best friend every once in a while but whatever. And Vanity--Jesus Christ--Vanity." He grumbles. "Like dragging my balls against shards of fucking glass anytime she opens her mouth."

"Then why're you friends with her?" I ask him, chuckling, and he rubs his lips together, looking at me.

"We're into the same thing." He tells me and I don't have to ask what he means.

"So, she's a drug buddy." I say as his fingers trace along my kneecap.

"Yeah." He replies quietly.

"Well, I think she's nice." I admit and he looks at me crookedly.

"No. You can't be friends with her, Viv." He chuckles with obvious distaste of the idea, and I raise a brow.

"Why not? She seems like a sweet girl."

"As much as I'm a sweet guy." He scoffs out. "People like her aren't good friends to keep."

"Tansy's like her." I argue. "You're like her and we're married."

"I never claimed that Tansy's a good friend or that I'm a good husband, did I?" He asks me in a stern tone, avoiding my gaze.

"Why do you think you're such a bad husband, Nikki?" I furrow my brows.

"I'm not getting in to--"

"'--No, baby, I'm serious. It's like your default when you're high is apologizing to me for being a shitty husband." I point out and he shakes his head a little.

"I just feel like I let you down a lot." He shrugs.

"I'm not perfect, Nikki, I let you down more than you do me." I assure him.

"No..." he looks as if he's thinking about something for a moment. "...you don't. I promise."

I was too caught up in Nikki's mood to notice the hole in the story Tansy had told me of Tommy taking Nikki out for our anniversary. But it was the first red flag that popped up in hindsight while assessing the situation after I found out he was having an affair.

Tansy had told me Tommy was taking Nikki out for our anniversary that year, that was the night me and the guys got locked up for a little bit.

That first night back out with Mötley and Vanity Nikki mentioned not seeing or talking to Tommy since his wedding...over two months prior.

What really happened on our anniversary: Vanity came to our house and was still there when Nikki came to pick me up from jail. Which is why he wasn't too eager for me to go back home with him.

My finger tips lightly brush over the scratch of his unshaven cheek and I give him my best smile, hoping it will cheer him up.

He just keeps his near frown and I decide to do to him what he does to me when he's trying to cheer me up.

My lips press to his cheek softly, then pepper random kisses all over his face until he's smiling, finishing off with one, long, passionate kiss to his lips.

"Okay." I breathe out, about to find a way to get out of his lap so we can go back inside.

He puts his arm across my legs, though and stops me, giving me a devious grin.

"We don't have time." I giggle, squealing a little as his fingers trail up the inside of my leg, going up my skirt as he says:

"There's always time."

Just before he can breach the fabric of my panties, a loud knock on our window has us both jolting.

It's Tommy.

Nikki sighs out cranking the car and rolling the window down.

"The girls are hungry." He explains to us.

"And?" Nikki asks.

"They want food, dude, c'mon." Tommy chuckles, nudging his arm.

"What're you kids up to?" I hear Vince next, and I lean my head back to lay on the open window frame so I can look up to see him and Tommy.

"Guys, let's go!" I hear Sparkie shout from the entrance of the club we were in and me, Vince, Nikki, and even Tommy, all share a collective eyeroll.

I think it's safe to say we simply tolerate the greasy bastard at this point.

"Ignore it, it'll go away." Nikki says, rubbing his eye.

"Guys!" Vanity calls next, the bubbliness of her personality in her tone.

"Why the hell is she so perky?" Vince asks next.

"She's been on a three day bender of base. That's why." Nikki replies flatly, rolling his eyes at the sound of heels coming towards us and my ears perk up, deciding to put the question on the tip of my tongue away for now.

He opens his door and Tommy helps me out of the car, Tansy and Vanity hand in hand.

"We're starving." Tansy tells us.

"The Rainbows's our best bet." Tommy suggests.

"Okay, let's go." Tansy shrugs, pulling gently at Vanity's hand, and Vanity's hand grasps at mine and pulls me along with them as we head to the Rainbow.

I wasn't good at making girl friends. Tansy came into my life before I adapted to mainly being around guys, so it was never hard to form a close friendship with her, but I got along better with men because Tansy, Tommy and Vince were the only people I really ever had relationship with before meeting Nikki, and Mick and my other friends I gained through them.

To this day, my list of close girl friends consists of Tansy, Susan--who I was motivated to get to be friends with because she's the step mother of Monroe, Brittany--who's married to Tommy...and is young enough to be one of mine and Nikki's miscarried children so I view her more like a daughter than a friend--and Sharise and I are still very close, despite her being divorced from Vince for 27 years.

Of course, over the years, I've had to adapt at being friends with everyone's girlfriends and wives until they split.

And most of them were sweet girls, so after a while it got annoying because I'd get attached to them and really like them, and then BAM! Divorce or sudden break up.

I learned not to get too attached to new lovers of any of my male friends. They wouldn't be around for long.

That being said, one of my girl friends, believe it or not, was actually my husband's mistress, for an entire year.

She just had a...er...learning curve, if you will.

I watch as Nikki goes back and forth from our bedroom, to the front door, going outside, coming back inside, and repeating.

"Uh...babe?" I call, raising a brow and he stops by the living room where I'm sitting on the couch in my pajamas, reading "The Art of War" and eating a granola bar.

"Yeah?" He raises his brows.

"Whatcha doin'?" I ask curiously.

"It's been over a month since Tansy was asking about the album concept and I realized I needed to start writing for the album, like, a month ago, so I'm cleaning up my shit in our closet and bedroom and kicking drugs so I can focus." He explains, walking back to our bedroom and I raise my brows, a little surprised.

"Do you wanna read my book?!" I offer.

"Nope, got my own strategy!" He replies.

"But is it on Sun Tsu's level?!"

"I'm getting a dog!" He explains and I furrow my brows, putting my book down and walking to meet him in the bedroom.

"A what?" I cross my arms as he's putting needles and trash into a garbage bag.

"It'll be like having a kid around, so I'll have more incentive--aside from you, and working on the album--not to shoot smack and keep away from blow." He goes on.

"A dog?" I repeat.

"Yep."

"You know if you're serious about kicking it this time, you're gonna have to distance yourself from some of your friends." I remind him. "No more Jason or any other dealers, no more Izzy--"

"--You're friends with Izzy, too." He argues.

"I'm not trying to get off drugs." I tell him. "And Tansy and Vanity."

"Okay, you three have sleepovers like fucking high school girls. How the hell am I suppose to avoid them when they're at my house all the time?"

"Well...Tansy doesn't have a house here in L.A. and Vanity's apartment gives me a God-awful feeling everytime I step foot in there." I inform him.

"Right, and I'm the paranoid one." He mumbles.

"Babe. When you're lying in bed and feel someone get into bed with you and start breathing down your neck, and nobody's freaking in bed with you when you turn to see who it is, you kinda never want to even think about going into the apartment it took place in ever again." I state and he chuckles.

"I would've asked it for a blow job." He comments.

"Nikki, I'm serious."

"I am, too." He defends himself and I give him an unamused look. "Alright, fine, for entertainment sake, let's say she has monsters under her bed. What sense would that make? She's up Jesus' ass as far as you are and I highly doubt dark shit stays around God fanatics." He brushes me off.

"Um, hard, mind altering drugs are a pretty good invitation for quote unquote 'dark shit' to hang around people. It makes it easier to get in their heads, break them down, and try to kill them."

"Kill them?" He tries not to laugh. "Are you on drugs?"

"Nikki, I'm being serious. I'm worried about our friend."

"Which friend? We've got, like, all of them on the highway to hell right now." He scoffs, tying off the full garbage bag.

"She's got a lot of shit she's carrying on her, Nikki, and I'm scared for her. And Tansy can say 'everything's fine' but I know she's got a lot of shit happening behind closed doors that she won't open up about, too."

"Everyone has shit going on behind closed doors, babe. That's life in this business. Smiles and good times out on the town, and demon filled bedrooms when we get back home." He shrugs.

"Is that not sad to you?" I ask and he sighs, stepping to me.

"Just pray about it. Like everything else you worry with." He wraps his arms around me and I roll my eyes, taking it as sarcasm. "Get all quiet and soft sounding so you don't wake me up, and start talking to the ceiling about bullshit that won't matter a month from now..." He grins, pressing a kiss to my neck and I refuse the urge to push him away from me because he's making fun of me. "...and after an hour of wasting your breath, you end it in 'in Jesus' name I pray, amen'. And then I think, 'wow, she's really has me fooled to believe she isn't on something, too'." He laughs out.

"Find it funny all you want. My prayers for your's and everyone else's bullshit doesn't fall on deaf ears or one of you would be dead by now." I state.

He smirks, before a lightbulb goes off in his eyes before walking to the closet.

"I'm glad we're on this topic of conversation because it's great foreplay for this." He pulls out a raunchy mockery of a catholic school girl uniform I completely forgot we had and I cross my arms.

"You don't get to insult my religious beliefs and then turn around and fantasize about a concept attached to a denomination of said religion."

"You can put it on and talk to me about getting on your knees all you want." He keeps his smirk and I grab the uniform off the bed, about to go hide it somewhere else in the house.

"We have plenty of film of me with this on to choose from. There's no need for a live show." I peck him on the lips and walk out of our bedroom with the skimpy clothing.

"I meant getting on your knees to pray!" He tries to tell me to get me to bring the outfit back and I laugh.

He was serious about quitting...but once he started getting dope sick, he got desperate enough to go out in the middle of the night, get the garbage bags full of used cottons and needles, and use the rinses of cotton to ring the smallest fix out of them before getting Jason back over as soon as possible.

And I knew he got back on crack when I came home from seeing Sharise and Skylar, to him and Vanity locked in our bedroom.

When I finally picked the lock, Vanity was having a base fueled arts and crafts session on the bed--wearing my clothes that I'd left in the floor--trying to explain the inspiration of her art was Jesus coming back for the rapture, while Nikki was screaming about his late grandmother, in the closet.

And that's typically what I would walk in on if they were at our house. It always appeared like they were way too far gone in their minds to even think about sex. So I honestly never thought anything about it.

But if there's a will, there's a way, and in the midst of Nikki waving a gun around, screaming, and Vanity laughing like a maniac while plastering glitter, styrofoam peanuts and Nikki's used cottons on a piece of construction paper, the two of them had the will and found a way to kickstart the demise of my already fragile marriage.

They truly were functioning addicts.

[dianapana]

SasuHina Month 2020- Day 6

Prompt - Crime Detectives

 I woke up with the worst headache, as I try to move my hands to grip my temple to try to put some pressure on them and relief some of the pain I hear an incredibly loud sound that splits my head in two, my hands are met with resistance just inches away from my head. I fully open my eyes and the blinding light makes my head hurt even more; on reflex I try to move my hands again the sound comes back and everything just fucking hurts.

When I can finally keep my eyes open for more than 5 seconds without passing out, I look to my hands and see they are handcuffed together and to a sturdy iron table. I’m sitting in a similar chair and my legs are also tied to the chair. I raise my eyes further and find myself looking in a mirror.

I have no idea what the fuck is going on. I don’t remember how I got here. The last thing I remember is being home with my girlfriend Hinata. The thought of her unsettles me; if she was with me than, is she also here? Fuck I hope not. I don’t have much time to sort thought my thoughts because the door to the side opens and two men come in; one of them is dressed in a suit while the other has the usual police uniform on. They both sit down and stare at me for a moment before the one in the suit starts talking.

Do you know why you’re here son?” he looks almost smug, like me being here is doing it for him. I am instantly disgusted by him.  

“No.” I say, my throat is dry and my voice sounds weird even to my ears. My head still hurts and everything is almost heightened; I’ve felt like this before so I know that I might have a slight concussion.

The man in the suit rolls his eyes at me and leans in closer. “Don’t try playing coy. This investigation is only procedure, if it weren’t for the paper work you’d be behind bars for a really long time punk.” There’s a light in his eye that tells me he’s enjoying belittling me.

“Why would I be behind bars? What is it that you think I did?” I feel like I am part of some really bad Tv show about corrupt officers. Talking about officers, the man in uniform hasn’t said a word. I turn to look at him and he looks back at me. Unlike the other man he isn’t smug. He looks serious and puzzled. He’s trying to figure me out. The fact that this is real and that I am being accused of a crime finally dwells on me and I’m not too proud to admit that I’m fucking scared. I’ve seen documentaries about how a shit ton of people go to jail on false accusations. That piece of information was just a fun fact my brain absorbed and saved for later to drop in a random conversation, I never thought I would relate to it.

“Murder. That is what you did. You killed someone in cold blood” The man in the suit spits out those words. I know I’ve gone pale; I see it in the mirror. The room is spinning and I can’t breathe. For the first time the one in the uniform speaks.

“Deep breath son you’ll pass out”

I am well fucking aware I will. But maybe that’d be better. Maybe I’ll wake up to see Hinata’s face inches away from my face, a worried look on her face ‘You were trashing in your sleep’ she’d say and I’d assure her it was a nightmare. I’d hold her closer and go back to sleep with her head over my chest and everything would be ok. But I breath, close my eyes and when I open them, I’m still here.

“Who do you think I…?” I can’t even say the word. A thought goes though my mind and I feel like I’ll pass out all over again “Hinata, is she ok?” I kind of regret my words the moment they leave my lips. She has nothing to do with this and I might have just linked her to something awful.

I look to the uniform man because I expect more honesty from him than from the one in the suit. He looks pained and fuck if that doesn’t scare me. I want to cry; I don’t even care that I’m in front of these two, possibly more people watching from behind the mirror or on security cams.

“That is private information.” The one in the suit says. I blink and expect him to laugh tell me he’s joking and tell me the name of whoever they think I killed. But he doesn’t we keep staring at each other like fucking idiots. This feels less and less like real life. What the heck does he mean ‘private information’ I don’t even get to know who they think I presumably killed?

“I think that’s enough Kuzo-san” the one in the uniform says “I’ll take it from here” the one in the suit wants to argue, I can tell but his phone rings at that exact moment, he answers and leaves without any further argument.

“This doesn’t look good for you. The dead body of a 45-year-old man was found in the trunk of your car.” I breath relieved; I know it’s weird at this exact moment to do that, but I’m just glad that it isn’t Hinata that died. Having no recollection of anything but being with her and then being accused of murder made my brain have some weird connections. I think back to what he said and I finally remember a very important thing.

“My truck was stolen about a month ago. I called the police and reported it. A few days later I bought another car. There’s a ton of evidence to show I haven’t used it in over a month. I don’t know when you found the body but I’m sure it got there long after my truck was stolen.”

The man raises an eyebrow. “Are you able to tell me with which officer you spoke about your stolen truck?”

“Officer Iruka. I even came down to the police station, signed a form and places a written declaration.” The more I talk the more he relaxes. I’m glad the other one left; I have no idea who the man killed was but that guy just wanted to say the case is closed, in my opinion, he didn’t care if they solved it correctly.

The man gets up and leaves the room. I’m left alone and my thoughts go back to Hinata. How did I get here? I bet she’s scared out of her mind. Does she know I’m here? Was she with me? Are they accusing her of being an accomplice or some stupid shit like that? A few moments pass before the door opens again and I hear a voice screaming; all my senses are on edge. That was Itachi’s voice. I could always recognize him. I’ve never heard him scream. He’s always level headed even in the heated arguments we’ve had over the years.

The man in the uniform comes to the table but he doesn’t sit down; instead he walks around it and goes down to one knee and unties the rope around mt legs. His jaw is tight so I can only assume he’s clenching his teeth. “I checked your story out and it checks out” He says and unlocks my hands. “Even so we can’t let you go yet; no matter how fucking stupid this is. The other guy, he’s a crime detective hired by the victim’s family and apparently, he’s dead seat on you being the criminal. We won’t interview you any further for now. Your brother is out there you are allowed to talk to him. Get a lawyer kid; this will end fine for you but sadly it will take some paperwork and time”

He leads me from behind to the door; if I thought the room before was lighted this one is brighter than the fucking sun and my head still hurts like a bitch.

“Sasuke!” Itachi comes running to me but he’s not the one that hugs me; Hinata is. She was behind him all along. Her shoulders shake and I know she’s crying.

“I was so scared. This man comes to the house and knocks you out; I tell him that I’ll call the cops and he told me not to bother and showed me his officer badge. I’m sorry I got so scared I called Itachi to come” Her voice is small. Finally, thanks to her I know what happened but I’m more pissed now. The man dared come to our house.

“Is that how the police act nowadays? Break into people’s houses and accuse them of murder without having all the facts?” Itachi is the one talking and he’s questioning the man behind me.

“Is that what happened miss?” he addresses Hinata. She looks up at him and nods. He’s even more pissed now than before.

“I will need your statement. But first; is this the man?” he asks her and shows Hinata a picture of the man in the suit. Hinata nods once again. He sighs again and talks into the station on his shoulder.

“Cuff Kuzo-san. I’ll be there in a few” he turns back to us “after we finish with your official statement miss you are all free to go; but please don’t leave the city in the next 48h” I have no idea why this man in the suit would want to pin the crim on me but it seems he did a very poor job.

It takes Hinata about 5 minutes to give her statement; Itachi keeps rubbing his forehead and I can’t keep my eyes open for more than a couple seconds at a time. “It’s fucking frightening getting a call in the middle of the night from your girlfriend telling me that you got arrested or some shit” I bet it was.

“For the first about 5 minutes after I woke up in there, I kept thinking it was all a joke. We should swing by the pharmacy; I think I have a concussion”

Hinata comes back, her eyes are red and tired; all I want to do is go home and sleep; sleep while I hold her and not think about this shit. Criminal detectives my fucking ass. That dude is a phony and either doesn’t know how to do this fucking job or he had a hidden agenda against me for some reasons; who knows.

“Let’s go home and forget this ever happened.” Hinata says and takes my hand in hers. They are small and soft and warm. My mind goes back to those few moments when I thought it was her that had died and my heart felt like it had been swallowed by a black void. I look at her, now, trying to act strong for my sake. I look at Itachi; she called him crying just after the incident; I’m certain she has had it worse than I did in this time. I stop in my track and pull her to me in another hug. I love everything about her from her smell to her laugh and annoying addiction to cinnamon; from her eyes to her smile and the freckles she has on her chest. Since I woke up my head has been feeling fuzzy because of the concussion but just now I get a moment of clarity.

I let her go and kiss her nose. She offers me a small tired smile. She’s beautiful even tired and with her hair looking a mess; I notice she’s wearing the same shirt she was about to sleep in last night and jeans. There’s nothing in my mind now but her. I drop to one knee in the hallways of the police station and open my mouth to ask her to marry me but Hinata cuts me off.

“What are you doing?” she looks around, I assume people are looking at us but I don’t care. “Sasuke get up; this isn’t funny. I just want to get home” she extends her hand to me silently telling me again to get up. I take her hand but instead of getting up I turn it around and kiss the back of it.

“Hinata, will you marry me?” I ask her and she looks alarmed but it’s so fucking adorable.

“Jesus, Sasuke, what the hell. We’re in a police station after one of the worst nights of my life and you’re asking me to marry you? Are you for real right now?”

“He has a concussion” says Itachi somewhere in the fundal and Hinata’s eyes widen in concern.

“I’m not doing this because I hit my head. I’ve been thinking about it, how and when to ask, I’ve been carrying around with me the ring for about 2 months now always chickening out at the last moment. Bu now it felt right, I don’t know why. But I am ‘for real’ Hinata. I love you and I want you to be my wife. I want to spend all my life with you” her expression changes from disbelief to something I can’t really read but I hope is happiness; she’s tearing up.

“Of course, I’ll marry you, you big goof. Now get up” She pulls me to her and this time I go willingly. I kiss her and smile down at her.

“I’ve had that ring with me everyday for 2 months and couldn’t do it, and now that I did it, I don’t have the ring on me…I’ll give it to you when we get home. I promise”

What started out as the worst day ever ended up being the push, I needed to do what I had been afraid of; it put things in perspective. I thought asking her to marry me was frightening but the thought of her not being with me forever scared me even more. I look over my shoulder and see the man in the uniform and officer Iruka smile at me. Maybe I do own that stupid ass criminal detective something; but I’ll probably never admit that out loud. That fucker doesn’t deserve anything.

[excusemewhileiplaykh]

Another Origin for the Black Box

So there are a lot of theories going around that have connected MoM’s Black Box with the computational/theoretical term “black box”, which in very basic terms describes a device which receives information (an input) and then produces a response (an output). A lot of things can be a black box, like your TV remote that responds to the input of you clicking the power button and responds by turning on your TV. The human brain (kinda like Brain in KHUX *cough, cough*) can even be considered a black box, as it similarly receives signals and then reacts accordingly. 

While I do believe a lot can come from considering this connection, I want to suggest another inspiration for MoM’s black box, one that actually comes from Christianity…

Before I delve further into this theory, I want to note that Christian symbolism seems to be something Nomura has always been interested in for developing KH’s story. For instance, there is a big emphasis on 3 or a trinity of persons (as in the Holy Trinity). There is also the importance of the numbers 7 and 13, two numbers that are largely important in the Bible and Christianity in general (I’ll talk more about these numbers later). There may also be other religious symbolism in KH, but examining those symbols deserve their own posts.

Then, of course, there is the Book of Prophecies, whose name and purpose seems very similar to the infamous Book of Revelations contained in the Chrisitian Bible. 

As the name suggests, the Book of Revelations details how the apocalypse will come about, including how and what will trigger Jesus’ second coming.

It is said in the Book of Revelations that Jesus will appear after the Seven Seals secure the book or scroll that contains knowledge only known by God. It is said that only the “Lion of Judah” and the “Lamb having seven horns and seven eyes” will be able to unseal the scroll and read its contents.

Each seal triggers a different event. The first 4 trigger the arrival of the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse, the 5th the arrival of martyrs dressed in white robes, the 6th natural disasters,  and the 7th bring about the 7 angels with trumpets which signal the end of the world and the arrival of Jesus.

Ok… So what does this scroll have anything to do with Kingdom Hearts? Or the Black Box for that matter?

Well, the first thing we should consider are the seven seals which must first be opened to access the scroll. Does that sound kinda familiar?

Well that’s because the scroll may be reminding you of the notches on the Black Box (13 in total) which need to be unlocked before the contents of the box can be accessed. It should also be noted that in KH 3, the Black Box is connected with Pandora’s Box (Remember that this happens early on in Olympus. For more context, you can look at my theory on this connection here), which is said to bring about havoc and destruction to the world when it is opened, similar to how breaking the seals of the scroll will cause devastation.

Of course, one major difference between the Black Box and the scroll is the difference in the number of barriers; one has 13 while the other has 7 and these numbers are each other's stark opposites in Christianity and KH.

I would like to remind everyone that in Kingdom Hearts it seems that the symbolism behind the numbers 7 and 13 has been switched. Let’s remember that in the epilogue, when Eraqus starts the new chess game, he gives Xehanort 7 gold pieces (the “dark” pieces) and himself 13 white pieces (the “light” pieces).

Thus because of this change, I would suggest that the 13 notches then can be synonymous with the 7 seals.

Another noteworthy thing is that the seven seals will be opened by a “lion” and a “lamb”. The lion symbolism in KH has been important since the introduction of No Name, which features a chimera figure which is both a lion and a goat. Moreover, people speculate that MoM’s animal will be a lion based on this keyblade and the fact that MoM’s suggested sin, Pride (or Superbia like the “Super-X” on the Black Box), is represented by the lion.

Ok, so we’ve figured out who this lion could bo. So who’s the lamb?

To answer that question we’ll have to turn to another keyblade, principally one that is only featured in DDD, End of Pain.

As you can see, End of Pain is structurally very similar to No Name. Indeed, much like No Name, End of Pain is one of the few keyblades with the Gazing Eye. End of Pain even has an animal on it, although it is more obscured than the chimera on No Name.

Blowingoffsteam2 wrote a theory comparing these two keyblades here and they suggest how the animal may in fact be a ram. They analyze the meaning of this animal in terms of the zodiac (the ram represents the first sign in the zodiac, Aires. Curiously, Sora, who’s birthday is March 28th, is an Aires) and greek mythology.

I’d like to, however, also consider that a ram is just a sheep. And well.. A lamb is also just a sheep…

(also *cough, cough* RAM as in random access memory has to do with computing language, similar to the concept of a the black box just saying)

Also in Christianity, the lamb is meant to symbolize Jesus, who sacrificed himself for the sins of mankind. You could even say that Jesus died to “End” the “Pain” of our sins…’’

With all of this in mind, if MoM is the Lion and the original wielder of No Name, then the Lamb would need to be the wielder of End of Pain.

This is where it gets tricky because End of Pain is a keyblade that both Sora and Riku can wield, so it is hard to say which one of them is truly the Lamb. I suppose we can assume that its Sora since, ya know, he’s the main character, but it could also be a fusion of both Sora and Riku (for instance, look at the butterfly charm on End of Pain. Butterflies represents two halves working in symmetry, almost like a heart. Moreover, the butterfly is made of both purple and orange, two colors making one form.) 

With all of this context in mind, my hypothesis is that the black box can only be opened through a combined effort between MoM and Sora (or MoM and Riku… or MoM and some Sora/Riku hybrid *cough,* Yozora). Moreover, if and when this box is opened, it will bring about disastrous omens and possibly even some sort of rebirth, like Jesus’ second coming.

I’m offering this as mere speculation since there isn’t very hard evidence to suggest I’m right, but it’s strange how much things from the Christian ideology of the 7 seals seems to match up with KH lore. Guess we gotta wait until DDD 2 for some real answers.

[just-another-robin]

Paradox Maker • HalBarry (Part 1)

- As a quick author’s note this story is unedited. I’m sorry for any grammar, spelling mistakes or any inconsistencies. This is also an angst story. I’d recommend listening either to Closer by The Tiny or Ilomilo by Billie Eilish while reading. Also, Tumblr like ate my first post this is a repost.

Summary: Barry Allen knows he can travel through time and sometimes, realities. So, when he goes into a different universe, he finds out something new. Not everyone can be saved.

—————

The last time Barry went into another universe, he took over the spot of the Alternate Universe version of himself. This time, he found himself in the middle of nowhere. It was dry, rocky and empty. Barry hadn’t been in this universe long but knowing villains on his own planet, it wasn’t anywhere good.

The first thing he did was check his pockets, hopefully the change from one universe to the other possibly gave him a different ID or something.

The only thing he finds in his pocket that doesn’t belong there is a Justice League pager with a phone number on the back. Okay, he found a possible way out now, all he needed to know was where he was.

A quick run around the plane, and Barry’s worries about this being a villain’s lair was confirmed. Skeletons muddled the grounds. Normal people would be disgusted but, it was Barry’s job to keep his cool. So, he did just that.

None of the bodies seemed to have the same wounds as others. Odd. Most villains had one M.O and stick to it. When he investigated further he found some of them still had various forms of I.D. on them.

One had a worn down, disgusting ID badge, that bared a familiar name. And when he saw it, he ran.

*

He knows the Central City police department like the back of his hand. The police captain normally kept a file of his important passwords in the ride hand side of his desk, in an unlocked drawer.

If he wanted to know anything about this version universe of himself, he’d have to see what the police have on him and, being the fastest man alive had it’s advantages. In most cases he could use other’s computers and stuff like that without them knowing. And that he did.

Once successfully logged in, he found information on himself fairly quickly. Bartholomew Allen. Born March 19th, 1994. They also stated an address and an emergency phone number.

The emergency contact was stated as his husband. After writing down both the address and phone number, he clicked on emergency contact info and was instantly blocked by a new window opening up and asking for a password.

The new screen was mainly blank with a small version of the Justice League logo in the lower left corner. So, it seems like he married one of his teammates. That was good. It meant he didn’t have to worry too much about lying about who he truly was.

Despite not revealing who he married, they still showed the address so, Barry could easily run ‘home’.

*

Sometimes, when Barry knocks on a door he’s not sure if it’s actually taking a long time for the owner to answer or, it’s his increased perception of time. This time: it was nerves.

Eventually, Barry could hear the lock click from the inside.

“Sorry, we don-“ Hal’s voice started before he even looked out the door. “Holy shit!” He pulls Barry in for a hug.

“Hi.” Barry says, returning the hug yet still unsure of what to do.

“Where were you?” Are you okay?”

“No clue and I’m really, really starving.”

Hal walks into his apartment, leaving the door open for Barry to follow.

As Barry walks in a large, fluffy, ginger cat meows at him.

“Hey buddy.” Barry says, leaning to pet the cat, who begins to pur.

Hal smiles from the kitchen, and opens his fridge, pulling out some food that wasn’t way past its expiry date.

It seemed obvious that Barry had shared this apartment with Hal just from that fact alone.

“What do you want for a slightly early dinner?” Hal called out. “I really think those cooking lessons have been benefiting me.”

“I don’t know. What do you feel Iike?” Barry picks up the cat, and cradles it like a baby.

The cat sniffs at Barry’s hand before meowing, quite loudly. If this cat was the reason Barry gets caught, he may just cry.

“Jeff, what’s wrong baby?” Hal walks over and pets the cat.

The cat meows once more before hopping from Barry’s arms, walking towards the kitchen.

“I guess everyone’s hungry right now.” Hal looks down before looking back at Barry. “Well, it’s your house so, like take a seat or whatever.”

Barry walks into the living room, out of the view of Hal. He looks and sees several photos of people in the league. Including his and Hal’s wedding photo. One taken of Hal shoving cake into Barry’s face, and beside it one of the League sitting at a table together. Diana had her arms around Bruce and Clark, Arthur and Zatanna sat on the outermost corners. Everyone was smiling and it looked like it was a great night. Both Zatanna and Bruce were looking at each other like they hung the stars.

While Hal was busy in the kitchen, Barry decided to look around their house to see if anything could help him ‘sell’ being from this earth.

Next he walks into the bedroom, and sees that it’s surprisingly clean. There are several papers scattered across the left side of the bed. The right side had the blankets pulled back without disturbing the papers. Barry knew being nosy wasn’t good but, if this version of himself was missing, maybe it could help. Barry picked up one of the several papers.

The gist of the paper is that Barry and Hal have been accepted to foster two twins called Donald and Dawn West.

On the top of the letter was a sticky note that read ‘Foster to adopt? ♥️ you. ~ B.’

Aww, cute. They were adopting. Part of Barry actually started to feel bad that he was giving this Hal fake hope.

The next paper was bank statements. All papers seem to be preparing for adoption.

So next, he went to their study. It was slightly more messy than the bedroom. The desk had a computer monitor, several binders, and random scraps of paper all over it.

In the left hand corner of the room was a small table covered by an old Transformer blanket. As Hal said, it was his house. He could look through whatever he wanted as long as it didn’t rouse suspicion.

Hal sticks his head in the door. “Hey, I just got called to Gotham. Are you okay on your own?”

Barry jumps at Hal’s voice, before taking a second or two to respond. “Uh, yeah. Why are you going to Gotham?”

“Cause you know,” Hal leans against the doorway and looks to the ground. “Uh, Bruce.”

Barry’s face fell. “Oh. Do you want me to come with?” He wasn’t exactly sure what had happened to Bruce but just from Hal’s refusal to go into detail, that it may be bad.

Hal shakes his head no. “I know Gotham’s cleaned itself up after a bit but people like Poison Ivy are still out there. I don’t want you to get hurt.” Hal stands up and straightens his leather jacket. “Dinner’s in the oven. I’m really sorry I couldn’t stay.”

“It’s fine, man. I completely understand. See you soon?”

“Later, alligator.”

“In awhile, crocodile.”

Seems like Barry isn’t a superhero in this universe. And that’s okay. Or at least, should be.

[ranger-report]

Thoughts On: HEXEN: BEYOND HERETIC

In 1995, less than a year after the release of Heretic (which I talked about here), Raven Software unleashed a masterpiece upon the first person shooter landscape. Titled Hexen: Beyond Heretic, the game featured radical new features for the id tech 1 engine, including scripted events (such as monster falling through the ceiling to ambush the player), hub level design, CD music, and moving walls. But what it really brought to the table was an unrelenting difficulty and obtuse puzzle system revolving around the discovery of multiple switches throughout a central hub to open the path to the next world. Combined with a pseudo-RPG character class feature, beautiful sprite work, and a rich atmosphere to explore, Hexen introduced concepts and mechanics that influence FPS games to this day, overshadowed only by the release of Quake the following year.

YouTuber GmanLives produced a video on Hexen calling it, “The Dark Souls of FPS Games,” and that's really not far off the mark. Hexen is oppressive. It's brutal. It's actively trying to prevent the player from achieving their goal of beating the game. While the previous entry in the series, Heretic, offered a fast-paced shoot-em-up blitzkrieg, this game operated with a more measured approach. Methodical pacing, resource management, and the utilization of each class's weapons are key to moving forward. Hidden doors and paths and switches, sometimes activated with the use key and sometimes by firing a weapon at them, permeate the levels to the point where half the game can be spent clicking or shooting at random walls just to see what's going to open up when – or if at all. Most games would tuck away secrets by this method, but Hexen, oh no. Hexen offers little rewards aside from survival, and it's glorious. It's harder than shit, but it's glorious.

Opening up the game, players are given three options to choose from: Baratus the fighter, Parias the cleric, or Daedolon the mage. Each class has their ups and downs; for example, the fighter is a beefy fucker who has high hit points and damage, but weak magic, leading to a mostly melee combat style if you run out of mana. The mage is the opposite, low hit points but high magic damage, with some gorgeously rendered spells that beautifully highlight the detail that id tech 1 was capable of. And the cleric is a mixed bag, balanced between the two, with a woefully weak melee weapon and decent ranged magic weapons, but he also carries the single best weapon in the entire game: the Wraithverge, a crucifix that shoots out Arc of the Covenant ghosts that scream and eviscerate anything on the screen in a glorious display of carnage. Clear out a room in seconds with two well placed shot. Arguable, the Wraithverge should be right up next to the BFG 9000 as one of the most ridiculously overpowered weapons in any game – maybe even higher. But the Wraithverge is an Ultimate Weapon, and each class has an Ultimate Weapon, which needs to be assembled over the course of the game by finding the pieces of it tucked away in hidden corners of the levels. Depending on your vigilance, you might find the pieces sooner vs later, and the rewards for this are plentiful. However, unlike the prior game, this game doesn't use unique ammo type for each weapon; that would be too easy. This time around, weapons require mana to use, coming in two different flavors, blue and green. Each class works as such: weak melee weapon that needs no mana, a slightly stronger weapon that uses blue mana, a much stronger weapon that uses green mana, and the Ultimate Weapon which uses both. With the fighter, all of his weapons can be used as melee if he runs out of mana, but if he has the stock, they take on ranged properties. The mage has a starting weapon that requires no mana, but it still ranged. Meanwhile, the cleric maintains the balance with his solo melee weapon, and the rest are ranged. What's notable about the differences in the classes is that it's not just limited to weapon usage, but also inventory usage. Different classes will garner different amounts of armor points depending on their “familiarity” with how to use armor. There's an item called a fletchette that varies in use depending on the class; for example, the fighter throws the fletchette like a bomb, where the cleric drops it in place and it explodes into a cloud of poison. New players will have the opportunity to briefly look over the classes at the beginning as the opening screen displays stats such as speed, armor, magic, and strength, all of which seem a little arbitrary since they don't explicitly state what they do or how they affect the game up front. At the same time, each class is going to lean towards a bit more difficulty, seeing as how the tanky fighter is going to make bruting through the game a lot easier than the tissue paper mage. First time players would do wise to pick the fighter or the cleric as their first timer, saving the mage for a later playthrough, unless you're a masochist when it comes to the games that you play.

One of the great distinctions about Hexen as compared to Heretic is that the former feels more like a fully realized game world vs the cool fanfic/DOOM clone of the latter. Director and designer Brian Raffel no doubt had a hardon for dark fantasy substance, having worked on Raven's previous two fantasy games, and with the release of DOOM thought, “You know, we can do something with that.” Didn't hurt that id Software was just a block down the street from their offices around that time (true story!) and John Romero, AKA Rock God of Gaming, worked directly with Raven during development so they could make the most of id tech 1. Taking what they knew after Heretic, hungry to dive in further, Hexen feels like a natural expansion of the concepts introduced in the first game: weary travelers journeying through worlds and dimensions to combat an ancient evil using magic and steel. It's great stuff, leaning even harder on the 80's horror fantasy art aesthetic. The game is oozing with deeply detailed monsters and environments, even more refined than the very good work done on Heretic. Translucent objects, fog, breakable terrain, each hub and level are intimately crafted to feel like it's a living, breathing world, not just something you've decided to boot up on your 486 PC. Ranging from traditionally gothic architecture with stained glass and parapets, to jungley swamps, arid canyons, and moldy sewers. And as mentioned before, it's brutally oppressive, absolutely unwelcoming in design. Even the environment doesn't want your presence here. Sometimes it doesn't even want the other monsters around; if you're lucky, you can get creatures to turn on each other by creeping into a new area, and if you can go unnoticed before their attack animations kick in, monster castes will infight with one another, saving you precious mana in the process. It doesn't always work, but when it does, it's a fun little sight to behold your meddling.

The sound effects are truly phenomenal, a game worth wearing headphones for. Composer Kevin Schilder returns for the soundtrack, and while his work on Heretic was suitable, here he knocks it completely out of the park. Ominous, brooding, energetic but not too up tempo, it's perfect dungeon crawling music that creeps up your spine at the same time. Meanwhile the distinct creature sounds echo and crawl around corners, letting you know what is where, and also what to be afraid of. I can still hear the sounds of the Dark Bishop in the back of my head, letting me know that I need to turn tail and put some distance between me and them. Enemy design is even better this time around: the aforementioned Dark Bishops take the role of the previous game's Disciples of D'Sparil, teleporting and blasting you with dark magic from their hooded, faceless bodies. Ettins are double-headed warrior beasts that carry a spiked mace, and are the most prevalent monster class in the game – and while they might be everywhere, they pack a helluva wallop, meaning you don't underestimate them no matter how many times you've killed one. Meanwhile, the Centaurs and Slaughtaurs are horrible little shits. Just like the tag says, they're centaurs with full-face helmets, swords, and spiked shields. They can raise their shield to deflect any incoming attacks and reflect them back at you, which is infuriating, especially since the Slaughtaur can fire deadly green magic at you while holding up their shields. And since they look the same, you have to approach any of them with intense caution, otherwise you're staring down the face of death while waiting to make your next strike.

Puzzles operate primarily on a “find the key/switch” platform, but rather than tracking down everything necessary to proceed in a single level, Hexen challenges the player to locate and operate everything they need to move forward throughout a spread of areas around the hub. For example, the Swamp Key won't be directly located in the swamp itself, but maybe over in the Forest. Multiple switches necessary to unlocking the Final Door in the central hub are located in the various hub worlds, informing the player with a quick “You have solved 1/3 of the puzzle” text across the screen when you've found one. Find another switch, the number increases from 1/3 to 2/3, etc. But each hub has more switches, all the way up to nine switches necessary to journey on, which to some is going to be a slog. While frustrating at times, I never felt like I was wading through a switch hunt just to proceed. Each switch seemed to naturally pop up on its own, and once I realized that certain areas couldn't be accessed within the levels themselves, I'd hop around the various worlds in the hub until I found a new switch or key, and then went back. Imagine if Super Mario 64's paintings were all connected to each other, and you had to hop back and forth between them in order to get to the next floor of the castle. It's innovative, and certainly makes sense; if an evil overlord tyrant person were going to hide the keys to access their lair, they probably would spread them out to make it harder to find. It's gratifying to open up section after section of these levels, defying the odds and slaying your way through the puzzles. Adding to the depth of torment is that, unlike Heretic, clearing a room of monsters doesn't mean it will stay that way. Scripted sequences again have monsters teleport in when you least expect it, repopulating areas you thought were safe for the time being. Damning though that may be, it adds to the feeling like the player is being watched at every moment, and that the game is doing its level best to fight back against your progress.

Hexen is hard. I resorted to a walkthrough once, just like in Heretic, and absolutely utilized the minimap in order to suss out where switches were located. There is nothing here to suggest a walk in the park: it is labyrinthine, it is torrid, it is nightmarish. But the mechanics all come together in the end, particularly in the moments where the game gratifyingly presents a room full of mana and health and a lot of monsters to let loose on. These apeshit moments are some of the best in the game. After spending hours managing resources and trying to hoard as much mana and health as possible, to be allowed a moment of pure rip and tear is wonderful.

If you're going to play Hexen, I highly recommend getting the expansion, Deathkings of the Dark Citadel. Not only is the title metal as fuck, but the three new hubs it offers are even more vicious, demeaning, and frustrating. They shove all the elements of the previous five hubs down into three, and it shows. You'll be assaulted on all fronts right from the start, continuing where the final battle left off in Hexen. You still get to pick your class, but sadly, you're also starting over. Curiously depowered and without any inventory items to work with, you'll feel extra squishy for the first level or three. Honestly, Deathkings was where I felt I had the most pure Hexen experience: solidly brutal and unforgiving as fuck. Interestingly, Deathkings was released in 1996 around the same time that Heretic got a retail release with two additional episodes under the name Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders. Factor this in with the upcoming release of Hexen II in 1997 (which saw a hefty difficulty spike as well), it seems that Raven got in one last hurrah with id tech 1 before moving on to id tech 2 -- the Quake engine. But more on that game in another post.

As with Heretic, I recommend playing this one through GZDOOM in order to get the best experience. And you'll need the best experience to stay one step ahead of everything that's trying to kill you. In a nutshell, Hexen is a true masterclass of determination to see the day through. For fans of retro FPS games, it's a must play, but be warned that coming into this after Heretic there is a distinct shift in how the game plays, looks, feels. Gone is the run and gun, which exists now only in pockets. But what's here, crafted lovingly and passionately, is a true nightmare of agony and difficulty unlike anything made before it. As Gmanlives summed it up, perhaps Dark Souls should be called the Hexen of third person adventure games.

Next time, we'll take a look at Hexen II, a popular but vastly different title in the series, and how the changes it made not only distinguished it from the previous two games, but may have also set it slightly backwards as well.