#the other characters from previous games i met look find so far | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

zepskies · 11 months ago

Text

Smoke Eater - Part 15

Pairing: Firefighter!Dean Winchester x F. Reader

Summary: Dean Winchester is the cocky, but well-respected Lieutenant at Firehouse 25. He leads by example, but he’s also known to break a few hearts. He’s starting to crave something he’s never had, though. Something stable. Something real.

That’s when he meets you, on a truly terrible day, trapped in a rickety old elevator.

AN: Thank you as always for the lovely responses on the previous chapter! It was a long one, so thank you for sticking through with me. We're about to lighten up a little with some Christmas spirit! ❄️🎁

**Also, if you're a fan of The Boys (and Soldier Boy), there's an awesome book you can check out, called Supes Ain’t Always Heroes: Inside the Complex Characters and Twisted Psychology of The Boys.

If you want to learn more about the book (including cast interviews and a character study on Soldier Boy), I wrote a review about it here!

Otherwise, on to some more firefighter!Dean!

🔥 Series Masterlist

Word Count: 5,800 Tags/Warnings: 18+ only! Smut, fluff, tinge of angst, hurt/comfort, lots of feels.

Part 15: “The Good Part”

“How many damn arrests does that make?” Daniel asked. He gripped his pool cue with both hands while he leaned on it.

His son stood at the other end of the pool table, lining up his shot. He paused to think.

“Six,” Nick replied. His cue released, and it knocked two of his balls into the pocket.

“Six,” Daniel repeated, while Nick came his way to find an angle for his next turn.

Daniel shook his head. His lips were angrily pursed. His eyes might’ve been on the pool game, but he was playing chess in his mind. He had underestimated John Winchester for far too long, it seemed.

The man was stubborn as all hell. And he’d been busy lately, getting “Azazel’s” men busted for all manners of bullshit.

“Alastair’s mole says Winchester’s been calling in favors from his old friends in Narcotics, trying to bust our small fries,” Nick reported. “Getting them on everything from petty theft to drug possession, with intent to sell. But it’s nothing we can’t pull ‘em out of.”

“Time, money, added risk,” Daniel cited on his fingers all the reasons why John Winchester was a pain in his ass. “It’s only a matter of time before they get a warrant to rip apart Savage & Co., sweep the whole damn building. For forensic evidence, our files, all the jazz.”

Daniel’s fingers drummed thoughtfully against his chin. “A damn cop thinks he’s being cute.”

Nick missed his second turn. His hand fell against his thigh in annoyance, but he looked up.

“Dad, it’s your move.”

Daniel rubbed at his chin. His eyes were no longer seeing the board in front of him. Eventually, they slid up and met his son’s gaze.

“We’re going to start from the beginning,” he said.

Nick’s face gave away his confusion. “What? What do you mean?”

Daniel just smiled.

It was Christmas Day, and John was late. Sam and Dean were used to that drill, so they weren’t expecting him until dinnertime.

Meanwhile, it gave you a chance to find your footing as you got to know Eileen. She had helped you bake the pies that were now cooling on the counter (pumpkin and berry crumble), and a few of the side dishes for dinner. Sam had covered cleaning up the rest of the house, while Dean tackled his favorites: the ham and the mac and cheese.

Now the guys were in the living room watching football while you and Eileen were still in the kitchen, decorating some gingerbread cookies you two had made. She enjoyed it; doing holiday crafts with her students had been bringing out her artistic side, she told you. You were happy for the help and the conversation.

You later tried to cover up your snort of laughter as she finished telling you the story of how Dean once dared Sam to wear women’s underwear for a whole week.

If he managed it, Dean had promised to do all the household chores for three months. If Sam couldn’t make it the whole week, then he would face the consequences: Dean would tell their dad about the bet.

“How old were they?” you asked.

Eileen scoffed. “Sam was a senior in college.”

You burst out laughing again. “So too old, is the answer… Did he win?”

Eileen gave you a mischievous smile.

“He did,” Dean said, as he appeared in the kitchen doorway with a familiar smirk. “I’ve got photographic evidence. It was a cheetah print thong, in case you were wondering.”

Your eyes widened on a laugh. “Oh my God.”

Cheetahlicious, you couldn’t help joking in your mind. Even if you’d rather not think of Sam wearing a pair of Victoria Secret’s best.

Eileen giggled with you. Dean’s amusement gave way to curiosity as he eyed the little gingerbread men you two were icing. You warned him off with your eyes, but it took Eileen batting his hand when he tried to steal a cookie.

“Hey! Wait ‘til after dinner,” she said.

Dean pouted. “Come on, don’t be stingy.”

Rolling her eyes, Eileen sighed.

“You’re like one of my kids,” she said, while signing with her hands. But she caved and handed him a cookie. “Here. To tide you over.”

Dean smiled and signed back to her in ASL, Thank you.

“That’s why you’re my favorite,” he said. He leaned down to kiss her cheek in a brotherly gesture.

He shot you a wink before taking a bite of his prize. You shook your head at him, even though you were smiling. He came around to your side of the table. His hand rested on your back and he bent down towards your ear.

“I actually came over for you,” he said. “Got a minute?”

Your brows rose, but you turned to Eileen in askance. “I’ll be right back. Is that okay?”

She nodded and made an “OK” gesture. “Of course.”

You smiled and let Dean lead you out of your chair, and even out of the apartment. He made sure you both grabbed your coats by the front door.

“Where are we going?” you asked. While you put on your coat over your sweater and jeans, you didn’t notice him grabbing two sets of keys.

“Just downstairs. No big deal,” he said, hefting on his own leather jacket.

You eyed him with some suspicion, but you walked with him down to the elevators and let him keep you close to his side. He smelled like the cologne you bought him for Christmas, and he was already wearing the new watch as well.

You’d struggled to find him the right gift. Nothing felt quite enough after everything he’d done for you the last few months. He’d assured you that he was grateful for both gifts, and had even tried to say the watch looked too expensive. (You’d shut him up with a kiss.)

Now, you had to wonder what he was up to as he led you into the parking lot, but not toward Baby. Instead, you two stopped in front of a shiny silver Chevy parked in a guest spot.

“Dean, what’d you do?” you asked, both excited and worried. He shot you a grin and dangled the keys in front of you.

“You like her?” he asked. His eyes were dancing. “You could keep her, if you ask nicely.”

Your face slackened. You looked between him and the sleek looking car.

“What?” You covered your mouth with both hands. Even after a few moments, your brain was still having a hard time computing. “No…what? Oh my God!”

You grabbed onto his jacket, just in case your legs failed you. Dean laughed and gathered you up in his arms. By the time you peeled your eyes away from the silver beauty to look up at your boyfriend, there were tears already swimming in your eyes.

“Dean, this is really too much. Where’d you find—”

“Bobby had it sitting in his garage for years,” he explained. His hand came up to brush your cheek, and the tears there. “I cleaned her up, dropped in a new engine, safe-proofed with new tires, new airbags, the works. Got her purring like a kitten.”

Your eyes grew a little wider with every admission. Then you softened, gripping the edges of his jacket while you bit your lip to keep it from wobbling.

“How much did he sell it to you for?” you asked. Dean dropped his head back with a sigh.

“Don’t you wanna take a test ride before we start hagglin’?”

You lightly smacked his chest. “Hey. How much?”

He let out another heavy sigh, but you eventually got it out of him. While the price wasn’t as bad as you might’ve expected, you still shook your head.

“I still have a decent chunk of insurance money left. I’m giving you at least half,” you said.

Dean shook his head. “This is my gift to you.”

Your lips pursed, despite the smile that wanted to peek through.

“Nice try,” you said wryly. “You already got me perfume.”

“That was just the decoy.” He grinned, and held you a bit tighter against him. He nodded towards the car. “She’s the main event.”

You wanted to sigh, but this conversation wasn’t over. You were definitely not letting him buy you a whole new…old car. You turned to look at it again.

“What model is this?” you asked.

“2002 Camaro Z28,” Dean rattled off. It sounded impressive, but you didn’t know much about cars.

He let go of you so you could get a closer look. Your hand passed over the hood, but didn’t touch, as if you were afraid of staining the paint with your fingerprints. He had to admit, he’d waxed it up good and managed to get rid of a lot of superficial nicks and scratches.

What he said was true though; Bobby had given him a frankly ridiculous deal. Because when Dean had told him what you’d been through after the car accident, dealing with your grandfather’s passing, and now your ever-mounting expenses, Bobby hadn’t let him walk away from Singer Salvage with anything else but this car. He’d even helped Dean get the new parts he needed to fix it up.

“Is it automatic or manual?” you asked, trying to peer through the driver’s window. “I haven’t driven stick in a hell of a long time.”

Dean came up from behind you and his warm hand found your hip. You let him draw you back into his arms, leaning against his chest.

His lips were close to your ear when he said, “I think you’re damn good at driving stick.”

It took you a second, but the heavily laden innuendo in his deep voice was hard to miss. You uttered a laugh and swatted his arm.

“You’re ridiculous,” you said. You were still smiling when you turned and twined your arms around his neck. Then you leaned up for a kiss—one that kept getting deeper with the full force of your gratefulness, and your love for this man.

“It’s an automatic,” he answered, between kisses. You giggled against his lips.

You barely felt the chill on the air. Your heart was beating fast, even when you pulled away from him. Your eyes slowly opened and met his. He smiled down at you and curled an errant strand of hair behind your ear. As usual, you had most of it clipped up.

“Merry Christmas, sweetheart,” he said. His voice was quiet, but steady.

You let out a shaky breath. Emotion was clogging your throat, making your tears burn anew.

“This is a bit more than a Christmas present,” you said. He gave a more self-deprecating smile.

“Well, it’s also kind of an apology,” he said. “For getting you mixed up in my ‘family business.’”

He still felt guilt beyond belief for putting you in danger. For your life being threatened. For being the reason you couldn’t go home.

You just shook your head. Your hand raised to press against his cheek. Your thumb drew tenderly along his chin.

“I thought you said you were part of my family now?” you said. “We’ll figure this out together, like everything else.”

Dean’s eventual smile lightened you, and his kiss warmed you down to your toes.

“If you want, let’s go for a ride after dinner,” he said.

It was your turn to smirk. Your hands migrated under his jacket and teased at his belt.

“Well, I’m certainly down for a ride,” you said.

Dean laughed and squeezed your hips. “All right. I’m puttin’ you on my naughty list.”

When John finally arrived, the brothers welcomed him in first with big man hugs and good-natured ribbing for him being so damn late.

In Sam’s words, Upholding a Winchester family tradition.

John had taken that with a chuckle. “Smells damn good in here.”

“Yeah, food’s been done for an hour,” Dean prodded at him again. His grin betrayed his teasing, however. His welcoming hand stayed on his dad’s shoulder until they reached the living room, where Sam had set up a longer fold out table and chairs to function as the makeshift dining room, since the table near the kitchen only seated three.

There you were opening a bottle of Jack Daniels. You smiled up at John.

“Figured you were more of a whiskey than wine kind of guy,” you said. You were a bit nervous to see him again, no doubt with flour in your hair and frosting staining your hands. He clasped your shoulder with a hint of a smile.

“You’d be right. Good to see you, darlin’,” he said.

“You too,” you replied. Despite the fact that the first and last time you two had met, it had been in front of your house as the police rifled through your life, looking for more explosives. He graciously didn’t bring that up as he greeted Eileen next.

Once dinner was on the table, there was a lot of catching up between the brothers and their father while you and Eileen continued talking, even through dessert.

“This really is amazing,” she told you, pointing her fork at her slice of berry crumble. “I can see why you went to culinary school.”

You blushed as Sam, Dean, and even John echoed her praise. All three men had generous slices of both pies.

“Well, thank you. I’m glad you guys enjoy it,” you said, and your smile was genuine.

You loved making good food, but you loved feeding people even more. Whether it was a simple hearty soup or a rich dessert, you liked putting smiles on their faces and giving them a good experience; one they could share with their family and friends. Even better if it was your family.

Or as Dean would say, Your people.

To you, that was life.

“I’m tellin’ you, if you opened up a bakery you’d make a killing in this town,” Dean said. He nudged your hand with the one that held his fork; it held a precarious piece of pumpkin pie.

You shot him an amused look.

“Don’t you look at me sideways, I’m serious,” he said, laughing a little, but his gaze was steady.

Your cheeks warmed against your will. He believed in your dream, even when you couldn’t quite let yourself.

“Hey, if you ever want to look into applying for a loan, I could help,” Sam said, earning your attention. “I have a friend who works at a bank.”

Your brows raised. “Really?”

He nodded. “Yeah, we were pre-law together back in college, but he figured he was better with numbers.”

You smiled. “Well, it would make it easier knowing I was dealing with your friend.”

“Yeah, his name’s Brady. Let me know if you want me to call him,” he said.

You bit your lip, but you nodded. “Thanks. I’ll let you know.”

Maybe they were right. Maybe you should start to believe in yourself, just a little bit more.

“This was all real delicious,” John said to you, when you came back from bringing the leftovers to the kitchen.

Sam and Dean were already arguing about who was doing the dishes and who was drying them. Meanwhile, Eileen was putting away the food (and probably rolling her eyes).

“Yeah, it was a team effort for sure,” you replied. “Dean’s actually a really good cook.”

John chuckled. “Yeah, well, he didn’t get that from me. I can barely boil a damn egg.”

You smiled to yourself; you could imagine Dean got it from his mother then.

Meanwhile, John was watching you stack the empty plates as he grew more contemplative. He’d always been proud of his sons. They were good men, with strong heads on their shoulders.

He often looked at Sam and saw that he seemed happy. Despite the demands of his job, he was learning to balance that with the life he led with Eileen. As a father, John looked forward to the day when they made a firm foundation, taking the next step towards building a life together.

But Dean had seemed to him, a little unstable. John was still proud of his eldest, but while he’d seen a glimpse of it that day at your house, he saw it even more today. Like his son finally had an anchor, tethering him to dry land.

Even so, he couldn’t help heaving a sigh. And he asked you something he knew he shouldn’t.

“Have you given any more thought to filing a report on Nick Savage?” he asked.

You paused in your plate and cup stacking. You looked up at him with a frown, but you thought about your words before you said something rude.

“Yes, I did,” you replied. “I decided my life and my peace were more important.”

He let out a short sigh. “I understand—”

“I’m sorry, John, but I don’t think you do,” you said. Your words were matter-of-fact, if a tad more sharp than you meant them to be. Your hands were starting to tremble.

You crossed your arms to try and steady yourself, but Dean ended up doing just that, by joining your side and resting a hand at the small of your back. He was frowning, glancing between you and his father.

“Tell me you’re not talking about what I think you are,” Dean said, addressing John in particular. “Not on damn Christmas.”

“Like you said, it’s her decision,” John replied. His gaze once again focused on you.

You let out a breath, mostly of exasperation.

“I’m going to bottom-line it for you. If I report that man, and you can’t guarantee me a job and safety until it’s all over, then I’m not poking the bear,” you said. “I plan to keep my head down until I can find another job. Until then, you can have at him all you want. Just leave me out of it.”

Part of you felt selfish. You knew what John was trying to accomplish, and you knew how personal this fight was for him, and for Sam and Dean for that matter. You just couldn’t shake your gut instincts here. You knew Nick far too well by now, and you didn’t want to underestimate him again.

“I agree,” said Dean. You gave him a grateful look.

John conceded with a nod, but all of you knew he wasn’t satisfied. It became a bitter ending to an otherwise brilliant day after he left for the night.

In your mind, it wasn’t quite over yet though. You had a plan up your sleeve for one Dean Winchester.

Sam and Eileen had their own time together while you and Dean went for a drive in your new car. You’d have to transfer your plate and registration and insurance, so it was technically an “illegal” drive, but it was already late and traffic was scarce.

By the time you pulled back into the parking lot, you were smiling from ear to ear, and Dean was giving you that smug grin that said, Aw yeah, I did good.

You couldn’t even fault him for it, because he did exactly that.

Even when you and Dean were getting ready for bed, it didn’t quite feel real. You were living with your boyfriend of just a few months, you now had a new car, and a crime lord had threatened your life.

You chose to focus on the new car. And on your boyfriend, who sat on the edge of his side of the bed, rubbing his right shoulder through his shirt. You knew it must still be sore, though he likely wouldn’t admit it.

Hence, you were about to enact Phase 1 of your plan…

You hadn’t undressed yet from your jeans and sweater, but you crawled across the bed to come up behind him and drop a gentle hand on his shoulder.

“How’s your slugging arm?” you asked.

Dean quirked a smile at you over his shoulder. “Just fine.”

“Dean,” you said. Your tone was gentle, but warning. No downplaying.

You pressed your lips against the side of his head and soothed your hand along his shoulder and down his arm. Still, he was resistant.

“I’m fine, sweetheart,” he said.

You hummed. “Okay. I guess you don’t need a massage then.”

He paused. His head tilted just so, once again turning to you over his shoulder. You spied the edge of his piqued interest, his grin.

“Well, if you’re offering…”

You withdrew your hand from his arm, but you spoke close to his ear.

“Are you asking?”

He let out a small sigh, despite his lingering smile.

“All right. Will you please give me a lil’ massage?” he asked.

He couldn’t see your triumphant smile, but you happily kissed his cheek.

“I sure can,” you replied. You laid gentle hands on his shoulders, however briefly. “Stay right here. Don’t move, but take off your shirt.”

“All right, Miss Bossy,” he grumbled. You knew he was teasing by the amused look he threw your way.

“I thought you liked that,” you teased back.

You climbed off the bed before he could playfully grab you, and you giggled all the way to the bathroom. There you began Phase 2 of your plan.

First, you collected a few different bottles from your designated drawer under the sink. Then, you made a quick wardrobe change, after popping back into the bedroom to grab something from your nightstand.

You also connected your phone to the speaker on his nightstand and put some music on a low volume. It was a playlist he’d made and shared with you a while ago, with songs he thought you’d like. The Eagles’ “Take It to the Limit” was definitely on the list.

By the time you returned to Dean, he was indeed shirtless, still in his sweatpants, and checking his watch.

“I’m here, I’m here,” you said. You climbed across the bed with your small haul—a difficult feat with your hands full, but you managed.

Dean turned to look at the bottles of moisturizer you dropped next to him on the bed. He rose a brow.

“Twilight Woods. Japanese Cherry Blossom. Appletini. Are these my only options?” he asked. His face was half bemused, half reluctant.

You almost burst out laughing. “Which one strikes your fancy?”

He scratched the back of his head. You opened the second bottle first (your personal favorite), so he could smell.

“Not bad actually,” he muttered. You bit your lip so you wouldn’t giggle, but you managed to open the other two for him to get a whiff.

“Eh, the first one I guess,” he said.

Japanese Cherry Blossom. AKA: a classic from Bath & Body Works.

You finally had to laugh. “Just kidding. I’ve got this.”

You held up a jar you’d been hiding behind him. Its logo said: Massage Oil.

“I just wanted to see which girly moisturizer you secretly wanna slather all over yourself,” you said.

Dean shot you a wry look, but only then did he see what you were wearing.

“Oh, hold up,” he uttered.

Your hair was let loose, how you knew he liked, and you’d teased it out a little. You’d had to give away the red lingerie you’d bought, to rid both of you of its lingering memories of your work Christmas party. Instead, you’d found something in a vibrant emerald green: satin and lace.

Dean’s hand reached for your waist, probably to bring you closer. But you playfully slapped his hand.

“Eh-eh! Not yet,” you said to his surprised face. You smiled. “I have a plan for you tonight.”

Slowly, he smirked. His eyes still dipped to take in the rest of you, from your pretty face, to exposed skin and cleavage, to shiny satin that clung to your curves and draped down to mid-thigh.

“I can see,” he said. His voice was a notch deeper. “Merry Christmas to me.”

Despite your blush and growing smile, you turned him back around by his shoulders.

“Just relax.”

You let your hands drift up the back of his neck to slide your fingers through his hair. There you began with a slow, gentle massage of his head. You felt him take a deep breath.

You couldn’t see it, but Dean’s eyes had closed at your ministrations. He secretly really liked the feeling of your fingers running through his hair. It made his shoulders loosen; with tension he didn’t know he had releasing from the neck down.

Aside from the rigors of his job, he also had to work out and condition his body to keep up his stamina. He probably didn’t spend as much time as he should on this aspect of things, making sure he wasn’t overtaxing himself.

He appreciated what you were doing though. He knew you cared about him, that you loved him. But he liked that you were also a caring person, who tried to take care of him. Dean hadn’t really had that…from anyone before. Sometimes, it was hard for him to let you.

…Damn, we really got too much in common, he realized.

When you migrated back down his neck, your hands left for a moment to gather up some oil. It was warm against his skin when you started between his shoulders, digging with the heel of your hands.

He groaned deep, surprising even himself.

Behind him, your brows were furrowed. “You’re really knotted up here. When was the last time you had a massage?”

Dean chuckled. “Never.”

You frowned. “Hmm. Okay, we’re definitely doing this more often.”

“No complaints from me,” he said with a grin.

Of course, you gave special attention to his right shoulder. You were gentler there, asking what was tender and what felt good, or too much. By then you had an easier time getting the truth out of Dean. He let you know when the pressure was too much, and you even helped him stretch out that arm until the muscles and joints were warmed up and the pain was gone.

You encouraged him to lie on his stomach in the middle of the bed, so you could start on his back. Your hands glided down planes of muscle and smooth slopes while you straddled his thighs. The only sounds you heard from him were occasional moans and rumbling, pleased sounds. That was also what let you know that he hadn’t fallen asleep.

“Okay, turn over,” you said, smiling when he groaned in protest. “I haven’t even gotten to the good part.”

“What the hell’s the good part then?” he asked. His voice was muffled in the mattress, but when he turned around, flopping onto his back, his eyes once again took in the green satin and seemed to remember what your real intentions were.

“Oh, yeah,” he said. His grin was lazy, now that he was beyond relaxed, but his hands found purchase on your hips. You smiled down at him.

You let the remaining oil on your hands glide up his chest, until you lowered down for a kiss. It was unhurried and sweet.

“I love you, you know?” you said.

Dean swept his fingers through your hair, tucking a few strands behind your ear.

He smiled. “I’ve got some idea, yeah.”

You both laughed, soft and true. Your hand rested against his cheek as you pressed your lips to his, soft and slow at first, but soon gaining in both passion and urgency. You felt his grip on your hips tighten, grinding your center against his growing length.

He groaned. No goddamn panties on. Good.

You kissed your way from his lips to his neck. Your teeth grazed his ear while you rolled your hips into his. It was a tease for both of you, but not for long, as Dean grew impatient enough to slide his sweatpants down, followed by his hands slipping under the satin covering your thighs. They traveled further still, squeezing your breasts and rolling hardened nipples under the pads of his thumbs.

Your breath hitched, and your pleased hum was music to his ears. By now you were bracing yourself against the mattress, but you used his shoulders as leverage to raise yourself up.

You took his hands and encouraged them to bunch up the satin and pull it over your head. Dean sat up with you still in his lap, and once his strong arm wrapped around your waist, it was skin to flushed skin.

You held his face and brought him down to you for another fierce kiss. He held you tightly against him, hands splayed across your back and tangling in your hair. His arms were a cage you never wanted to escape.

But you did press away from him, just for a moment, so you could reach down between your bodies to take a firm hold of his cock. You guided it to your entrance. There was already a small flood between your legs, and your core ached for him.

There was almost no resistance when you slowly sunk your hips down and down, until he was buried deep inside you.

You both made sounds of pleasure, with labored breaths as Dean’s hand cradled your cheek. He laid open-mouthed kisses to your jaw, teeth grazing down your neck.

You clung to his shoulders and began to move, slow in the way you let almost the full length of his cock escape you, before you slid back down. Dean moaned into your skin, and you let out a shuddering sigh.

You pushed at Dean’s chest until he was lying back, and you continued rolling your hips against his. He helped you create a steady rhythm on top of him, but he was being treated to a feast of the eyes as well as the pleasure rocking through his body. He watched the way you swept your hair back. The way your eyes closed and brows furrowed in concentration as you bit your lip.

But he couldn’t stay still for long; he knew he was close enough to practically taste his end, but you had some miles to go. He gripped your thigh with one hand while the other glided up between them, to further part your folds. His fingers found your clit, circling insistently like it was a button. It had your hips stuttering.

“Oh, God,” you uttered. “Dean—”

He managed to smirk through panting breaths. “Right there, right baby?”

You nodded, unable to speak. You continued to move as steadily as you could, but the feeling of him deep inside combined with his talented fingers playing you like a five-string guitar—it finally made you tighten on him, shuddering deep inside. Tingles broke across your skin, zipping up your spine as you gasped.

Dean helped you with the last few hard thrusts that brought him along with you, and you felt his warmth spilling inside you.

It was a heady feeling, and you needed a moment just to recover. Even though you were on birth control, every time he came inside you still felt like a dangerous, delicious game.

But after you slid off his lap and practically rolled into his side, him welcoming you with an arm wrapping around your waist, it did make you think, as you caught your breath.

It made you think about the first time you and Dean slept together. It had been the first and last time you’d asked him to wear a condom. The next morning, he’d made a remark that still hung in the back of your mind…

“You like kids, huh?”

The thought still rattled through your mind now, after you and Dean shared a quick shower, ridding you both of the oil clinging to your skin. The thought remained when you slid into bed, under fresh sheets and thick covers, and close to your man. He cupped your cheek and pressed a kiss to your forehead. You closed your eyes at the feeling.

Contrary to what this night had been, the whole “moving in together” thing hadn’t been all that easy. You two had bickered about the way he often left drawers and cabinets open and dirty clothes on the floor.

He had made remarks about your hair products taking up too much space in his drawers. Not to mention how morning routines needed to adjust because Dean liked to shower in the morning, but you needed the mirror not fogged up in order to do your makeup.

Right now, however, you had peace. You felt safe here, and you weren’t alone in a huge house filled with far too many memories.

“Can I ask you something?” you said.

Dean’s lips lingered on your forehead. “Hmm?”

“I know this situation is sort of temporary, me living here,” you said. “So much has happened that we haven’t really talked about…what we both want, down the line.”

He pulled back enough from you to see your face. His face betrayed a thread of confusion.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“I mean like…” you hesitated, but you realized you were probably going to have to be direct. “Are you a marriage and kids kind of guy? Is that even something you’ve thought about?”

Dean met your gaze. It took him a moment, but he let out a short sigh.

“You wanna know what made me want to start dating, for real?” he asked.

You blinked; you hadn’t expected that, but you nodded.

“I started thinking about what would happen if something happened to me on the job,” he said. You frowned, but before you could say anything, he raised a placating hand.

“I thought about what I’d leave behind,” said Dean. He quirked a wry smile. “It’s not much, besides my car.”

You frowned in earnest. Your hand flattened against his bare chest.

“That’s not true,” you said. “You have your brother, your father, and your friends. That’s plenty, Dean.”

He conceded that with a nod. “You’re right. But I just started thinking, maybe I want more. Like uh…like what my parents had, when they were happy. The house, each other, me and Sammy…a family.”

You couldn’t be certain in the near total darkness of the room, with only the moonlight filtering through the blinds and casting a glow behind him, but you thought you saw a shine in his eyes. Your hand crept up from beneath the covers to find his cheek. It was rough with stubble, yet you tenderly swept a thumb back and forth.

“I think that’s beautiful,” you replied.

Dean paused. He then huffed in amusement. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” you smiled, hoping he could see it.

“Then uh, is that something you’d be into?” he asked. You were amused by his tentative approach.

“With you?” You pretended to think. Your fingers slipped into his hair. “Yeah, I think I’m into that.”

He chuckled. “Okay, then. Good to know.”

He grasped your wrist and turned his head to press a kiss into your palm.

And he spoke into the dark. “I love you too, you know.”

Your smile deepened as you rested your head against his arm. You whispered into the small space between your faces.

“Yeah, I’ve got some idea.”

AN: All righty, how'd you like that fluff overload?

...Ready for some more drama? 😏

Next Time:

But the more you thought about what you’d heard, and Nick’s ominous threat about a cop, you found yourself scrolling lower in your contacts. You called John Winchester.

It rang a few times, and all the while you made silent, fervent prayers. Pick up, damn it! You could hear your own heartbeat in your ears.

“Winchester,” he answered.

“John, it’s me,” you whispered. “Azazel’s here. Or, he’s not here, here, but I know who he is. Well, I mean kind of—”

“Okay, wait. Slow down,” he said. “What about Azazel? You know who he is?”

Keep Reading: PART 16

Dean Winchester Masterlist

Main Masterlist

Series Tag List (Part 1):

@hobby27 @kazsrm67 @letheatheodore @agothwithheavysetmakeup @jacklesbrainworms @foxyjwls007 @wincastifer @iamsapphine @simpforbuckyb

@vanillawhiskeyflavoredkisses @roseblue373 @this-is-me19 @emily-winchester @spnexploration @deans-spinster-witch @deans-baby-momma @iprobablyshipit91

@melancholictearz @nic-kolas @katherineann814 @sleepyqueerenergy @wayward-lost-and-never-found @thewritersaddictions @just-levyy @samanddeaninatrenchcoat @deanwanddamons @antisocialcorrupt @lacilou @adoringanakin @theonlymaninthesky @teehxk @midnightmadwoman @brianochka @branj19

@agalliasi @venicesem @chriszgirl92 @lyarr24 @ladysparkles78 @solariklees @xsophianicolex @deansbbyx @candy-coated-misery0731 @curlycarley @sarahgracej @bagpussjocken @ultrahviolentart @chernayawidow @beskarfilms @mimaria420

#The Good Part #Smoke Eater #Part 15 #dean winchester #Firefighter!Dean Winchester #dean winchester x reader #Dean Winchester x female reader #firefighter!Dean Winchester x Reader #dean winchester x you #firefighter AU #dean winchester AU #spn #supernatural #Sam Winchester #eileen leahy #john winchester #zepskies writes

475 notes · View notes

toboldlygohome · 10 months ago

Text

Oblivious

Leonard McCoy x Reader

Summary: You are oblivious to all of Leonard's attempts to flirt and all of your friends think it's hilarious.

Character(s): Leonard "Bones" McCoy, James "Jim" Kirk, Spock, Nyota Uhura, Pavel Chekov, Hikaru Sulu

Warning(s): Slightly cringe attempts at flirting, Painfully oblivious reader, Stephen King references

Leonard was finally ready to move on. The divorce had left him with wounds he wasn't sure he could heal from. He hadn't been interested in dating for years afterward. But for the first time since then, someone had caught his attention.

You were the new head of Archaeology aboard the enterprise. You had been transferred from the USS Celine to assist in the 5 year mission. To say you were new wouldn't be exactly correct, you had been on board for about 6 months already. You had taken to the position well and were already good friends with everyone in your unit, as well as all of the bridge and command personnel.

Leonard knew he liked you the moment you met. You had a firm handshake, a killer smile, and when Captain Kirk asked if you were single, you told him it wasn't his business. Jim's stunned face when you shook his hand and walked away was priceless.

Of course there were far more reasons to admire you other than your ability to take the captain down a peg. You were incredible at your job, finding ancient ruins in the most unlikely of places. You were like a dog when it came to fossils, sniffing them out almost as soon as you landed on alien soil. You were smart and always ready to answer questions. You were also highly tolerant of people's mistakes, something that was slowly rubbing off on him. When you were around, Leonard found he had more patience for stupidity and everyone else noticed as well.

You were kind, you were a great listener, you were hilarious, you were dependable, considerate, honest, cheerful, and you could always be counted upon for some witty banter. Not to mention you were the most beautiful person Bones had ever seen in his life.

That's not to say you didn't have your downfalls too, everyone does after all. You were self deprecating, a little easily distracted, and of course you were the most painfully oblivious person in the universe.

~~~

It all started one morning at breakfast. You were sitting in the cafeteria with Jim, Nyota, and Spock.

Leonard had made his decision the previous night while drinking with Jim. Bones wanted to pursue a relationship with you, but he wasn't going to just tell you point blank. He wanted to gauge your interest before taking that leap of faith.

"Mornin'" Leonard said as he sat down beside you. "Jim, you look terrible."

Jim, who was still hung over from the night before, frowned at the doctor. "Gee, thanks. I had no idea."

"You're welcome. Now Y/N on the other hand, you look great this morning," Bones smirked. Jim and Nyota immediately perked up, clearly not expecting him to be so forward (especially not this early in the morning.)

"Thanks Doc," You smiled at him and returned your attention to your oatmeal.

"What's your secret?" Asked Bones upon deciding that your smile was a good sign.

"My secret?" You raised an eyebrow.

"To looking so good every morning," he clarified. Nyota and Jim looked at each other incredulously.

"Ummmm," You thought out loud. "Get good sleep, take your vitamins, and don't get wasted at two in the morning." You patted Jim's shoulder and stood up with your empty bowl. "I better get to the lab, see you guys later!" You grinned.

Everyone bid you a good morning before gawking at Leonard, amusement etched on their faces. "What's your secret? Did you seriously ask 'what's your secret?'"Jim cackled.

"Leonard, you seriously need to up your flirting game." Uhura barely stifled a giggle.

"I know it's been awhile doc but seriously, that was terrible! And I've heard Spock's attempts at flirting," Kirk snickered.

"It wasn't that bad, y'all are acting like I'm some cretin who stole their oatmeal and called it flirting. I called them attractive, get off my back." Leonard rolled his eyes.

"No, you said they looked good. That could be interpreted in, so many ways. As far as flirting goes, that was pretty pathetic." Nyota said.

"I would have to agree doctor, perhaps you could take instruction from the captain or even-" Spock started.

"Shut up and eat your breakfast," Leonard snapped, causing another fit of giggles around him.

Bones sat there, glaring into his eggs, trying to figure out where he went wrong. The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed that Uhura was right. You didn't realize he meant it in a romantic way. Maybe he was more out of practice than he thought. He was just going to have to give it another shot. Practice makes perfect after all.

~~~

The next day, Leonard tried a different approach. Coffee mug in hand, he made his way to your office only to find it empty. He looked all over the labs, nowhere to be seen. It wasn't until made it up to the bridge that he found you deep in a discussion about landing sites for an upcoming mission.

Your head perked up when you saw the doctor come in from the turbolift. "Ahoy, McCoy! We missed you at breakfast this morning." you smiled as he came to stand beside you.

"Sorry darlin', had some gamma shift engineers to patch up." Bones casually passed the mug over to you. "Made you some coffee."

"Really? for me?" You peered into the cup and beamed, "thank you doctor, it's just how I like it!" Jim gave Leonard a subtle thumbs up while you sipped your drink.

Leonard had a good feeling this time. You were happy with the gesture and even Kirk seemed impressed. It felt like a good first step, until-

"First Chekov brings me a croissant, then McCoy brings me a coffee. I'm so lucky to have such great friends. Thank you guys!" You smiled at the two men.

"You are very welcome!" Pavel grinned.

Leonard's mood plummeted almost instantly. While he was glad you got to enjoy a croissant and a coffee, Chekov's untimely generosity made his romantic gesture seem more like a friendly one. He was going to have to go back to the drawing board.

You turned to the captain, cradling your warm cup in your hand. "Is there anything else you need of me Captain?"

"No Commander, I believe you've answered all my questions," Jim said.

"Wonderful! If anyone needs me, I'll be in the lab trying to decode some ancient texts," you took another sip of your coffee before strolling back to the turbolift.

Once you were out of sight, Jim patted Leonard on the arm. Sulu and Chekov were trying their damnedest not to laugh, and failing miserably of course.

Leonard furrowed his brows at the two of them before looking back at Jim's cheeky grin.

"You told them?" Leonard scowled.

"Told them what?" Jim laughed.

"About..." Leonard rolled his eyes and gestured to the turbolift.

"The only ones I told were Uhura and Spock," Jim assured.

"He didn't need to tell us anything, It's written all over your face Dr. McCoy," Sulu said.

"Yes, you get all red in the cheeks and you have this look in your eyes like you've seen the sun for the first time. It is very obvious you are vying for the Commander's attention," Chekov agreed.

"If I'm so obvious, why isn't Y/N picking up on it?" Leonard crossed his arms.

"Maybe you need a new approach, try... I don't know, making up new excuses to spend time with them. Or maybe you could try touching them," Jim suggested.

"Touching them?"

"Yeah, nothing inappropriate or anything. Just little things, like pats on the back, nudging their shoulder. Stuff like that. Might show Y/N you're interested without having to use the words, you know?"

"I don't know Jim..."

"Look, you're a doctor right?"

"I hope that'd be pretty goddamned obvious by now," Leonard glowered and put his hands on his hips.

"And as a doctor, you have a pretty good gauge on if someone's uncomfortable right?" Jim asked, "just try it and if you get the sense they're uncomfortable, just stop doing it. Easy as that."

"Why do I get the feeling it's not going to be as 'easy as that?'" The doctor shook his head.

"Because you are an incorrigible pessimist, Bones." Jim patted his shoulder.

"I'm done here, some of us actually have work to do," Leonard grumbled and trudged to the turbolift.

"All work and no play makes McCoy a dull boy," Kirk beamed.

"Quote Stephen King to me one more time. See what happens." Bones said as the doors closed. Alone in the elevator, he allowed himself to think about where to go from here. Perhaps Jim's ideas weren't so terrible. He rather liked the idea of spending more time with you. He usually talked with you during mealtimes and meetings, but not much outside of that. The touching is what was making him nervous.

He came into contact with people all the time, being a doctor was a very hands-on profession. He just didn't have Jim's level of confidence anymore. It felt ridiculous, he could stitch a man's thumb back to his hand and deliver an infant in the middle of a battle, but he couldn't touch your shoulder? Maybe he'd just skip that step for now. Quality time, that seemed like as good of a direction as any.

~~~

He continued bringing you coffee every day, It gave him more time to get to know you and Leonard was falling harder by the minute. He hadn't really looked forward to anything in a long time, but he looked forward to your coffee talks. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough anymore. The chats weren't long enough and you still weren't catching on to his feelings.

It had been a particularly stressful day, it felt like everyone needed something from him and he was in desperate need of a break. The moment things got quiet in the medbay, Leonard snuck away and his feet carried him to the archaeology labs.

It was quiet inside. A few ensigns were at work in their stations, putting together fossilized bones and carbon-dating old tools. Leonard found you in the back of the lab where you were busy decoding some old scrolls. Learning to understand a lost language was no easy task; Leonard couldn't fathom the amount of reading it would take to accomplish such a thing. Still, you seemed ready to take on anything the Captain dished out.

"Commander, I see you're hard at work," Bones smiled and came to stand beside you.

"I see you're not!" You joked and looked up at him from your seat. "What brings you to my neck of the woods doctor? Did I forget about an appointment?"

"Not at all, I was just taking a break and wanted to see how you were doing," he said, hoping you would understand what he was trying to say: that he was thinking of you and wanted to see you out of everyone else on the Enterprise.

"Well I'm really glad you're here Len, because I've just made a breakthrough!" You beamed. "Take a look at this," you motioned for him to look closer.

Leonard leaned in to look at your scroll. "So, you know how I found these papers in a box under the Mofeli excavation right?"

"Mhm, you insisted there must be a basement and you found one," Bones hummed.

"I originally thought the site was a business, that these papers must be some sort of documentation. You know, like land deeds, proof of insurance, perhaps even money. Basically stuff you would usually keep in a lock box, but these aren't ledgers or inventory slips or anything like that at all."

"What are they?" He turned to look at you.

You met his gaze and gave him a grin that could melt the ice caps and outshine Sirius. "They're love letters," you said and his heart hammered his chest painfully. He was only just now realizing how close he was to you. How his hand was resting on your back, how his face was mere inches from yours.

"See, if you look here you'll find this symbol all over the place in these letters. It's the symbol meaning love or lover. I've completed the translation on this one right here." You returned your attention to the paper. Leonard swallowed and glanced at the sheet, trying his damnedest not to stare like some creep.

"What, um... what does it say?" He cleared his throat.

"It says, and I'm paraphrasing here, 'My dearest love, I find words elude me. My heart blossoms for you under the light of the sun and keeps me warm when the light fades. I find not the courage to speak, but many a whim to write. I desire your embrace. I seek your song. I crave your hand. I covet your blazing eyes. One day I-' This part is all faded so I can't make it out, but the last thing it says here at the bottom is 'May our hearts and bodies be intertwined for eternity, and our souls may sing together as one.' Then there's what I assume to be a name at the bottom, but I'm not sure how to pronounce it."

"It all sounds a little sappy to me," Leonard joked in a slightly strained voice. This whole thing with the closeness and the touching and the letter was really affecting him. If you noticed his struggle, you gave no indication, In fact, you seemed perfectly at ease being this close to him.

"Hey, a little sap never hurt anybody," you elbowed him lightly in the side.

"Croakus sap can."

"Touché"

Leonard chucked softly and lightly patted your back before crossing his arms casually over his chest Your easy conversation was already helping him relax again. "so, Commander, you've been down here in your lab for an awfully long time. What do you say we go for a walk to the observation lounge?"

"Sorry doctor, I would but somebody's got to make sure the ensigns don't blow the place up. That, and Spock wants me to finish three more translations by the end of my shift," you explained.

"Of course he does," Leonard huffed.

"But I'm free this evening if that works for you?" You tilted your head.

"Of course, absolutely." Leonard had no idea if that was going to work for him, but he was going to make it work.

"Great, I'll see you then," you said with a surprising amount of enthusiasm.

"See you then. Don't work too hard," he smiled and left you to your translating.

Bones was pleased with himself. He had managed to follow Jim's suggestions and they appeared to work. He'd even managed to secure a date with you later that evening...Well...he hadn't actually called it a date when he suggested it. No matter, Leonard would just clarify all that the next time he saw you!

~~~

He never got to make the distinction that your walk was intended to be a date. You had brought a friend with you. Leonard could feel the fear in your ensign companion's eyes. Bones was sure everyone on the goddamned ship knew what he was trying to do but you. It was still a nice night despite the unwanted guest. He learned a lot about where you grew up, your interests, and your favorite films and music. He learned your favorite flower was the iris, your first job was a librarian, he even learned you were in a band during your time at the academy.

The more he learned, the more he liked you. He wasn't even sure if liked was the right word anymore. You had quite a few things in common. Your favorite foods, you liked the same movies, and you enjoyed the same music. You asked him questions that got him really thinking. They were the sort of topics you don't realize you have an opinion on until you start talking about them. But what surprised him most of all was when you asked about his daughter. What sort of interests does she have? How is she doing in school? I wonder if she would like X,Y, and Z. He was always hesitant to talk about Joanna or his ex, but it felt easier with you. Like that wound he had been carrying for so long was finally closing.

Your friendship progressed beautifully, but he felt like you were growing more and more blind to his advances. He had seen you turn plenty of people down before. If you weren't interested in someone, you made it abundantly clear. But you had yet to do the same with Bones. It wasn't just him: Jim, Nyota, Pavel, Scotty, Hikaru, and pretty much everyone else who knew you were puzzled as well. Even Spock couldn't understand how you were so incognizant. It was funny for them at first. They would laugh at every compliment you didn't register, every smile you didn't realize had meaning, every coffee, every walk to the deck, every deep conversation, every breath of relief when you come back from a mission. He was even so bold as to tell you in no uncertain terms that he'd do anything to make you smile.

The laughter turned into looks of pity. Leonard was about ready to give up. Maybe you weren't interested and you just wanted to let him down easy, you were good friends after all. Bones sat at the bar as Jim poured him another glass. Normally he was the one playing bartender, but Jim insisted he take over.

"I gotta say Bones, I really hate seeing you like this." Jim poured himself a drink too. "How did lunch go?"

"I told them they have beautiful eyes." Leonard sighed and shook his head.

"And?" The Captain probed.

"They said 'if only they worked as well as they look,'" Bones groaned.

"Ah..." Jim stared into his drink. He tried to put himself into Leonard's shoes. What would he do if he were in this situation?

"I don't know what I'm doing wrong..." McCoy muttered.

"You aren't doing anything wrong, Y/N just-" Jim started.

"It's something I'm doing, it has to be. Maybe this is a mistake."

"No, Bones it's not a mistake. That couldn't be farther from the truth."

"And how would you know? It's not like you have any problems finding dates," Leonard rolled his eyes.

"Seems like Y/N's not the only one who's oblivious," Kirk chuckled.

"I'm not in the mood for jokes Jim." Leonard took a sip of his whiskey and ran a hand over his face.

"Believe me Bones, I wish it were a joke. There's just no way the two most unaware people are head over heels for each other. I'm waiting for the punch line" James smirked.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Bones scowled.

"Look, just... we have shore leave coming up in a few weeks. Ask them on a date. Like really ask them. Be frank, be clear, make sure there is no way Y/N can misunderstand you. Trust me," Jim squeezed Leonard's shoulder.

"Fine. But if this goes south, you owe me as many drinks as it takes to forget this whole debacle." The doctor downed the last of his glass.

"Bones if this goes south, I'll eat my hat."

"You don't have a hat."

"Point still stands. It'll work, you just have to have a little faith. And lucky for you, I have enough faith for the both of us." Jim winked.

Leonard wished he had Jim's enthusiasm. Officious little prick, he thought to himself...Dammit, now I'm quoting Stephen King.

~~~

Shore leave was just around the corner and Leonard was no closer to his goal of asking you on a date. Everyone was running around, trying to prepare the ship for inspection, he still had his normal duties to attend to, neither of you had time for coffee all week, Spock was being especially nitpicky about protocol, and he was anxious about what you'd say when he eventually got around to asking the million dollar question.

Yeah, Leonard was about ready to lose his marbles.

He was prepping the supply storage units, when Spock strolled in for the tenth time that day.

"Dr. McCoy," Spock greeted, startling Bones to the point that he nearly dropped his box of gauze.

"My god man, what the hell do you need this time?" Leonard implored, "don't you have anything better to do with your day than pester me?"

"Indeed I do, doctor" Spock replied.

Leonard huffed and sat down his box, "then what is it, did you miss my face or something?"

"I saw your face only moments ago, I have no need to miss-"

"It was a joke Spock, what do you want?" Leonard pinched the bridge of his nose.

"I came to inform you that I saw Commander Y/L/N coming in this direction." Spock stated.

Leonard raised an eyebrow, "and?"

"It is my understanding you are anxious to speak with them regarding your-" Spock started.

"Your understanding is correct, I just..." Leonard sighed and shook his head.

"Would it help if I told you the odds that they will say yes?" Spock asked.

"Never tell me the odds Spock," Leonard grumbled.

"Then I will simply say, good luck." Spock turned and left again, leaving Bones to decide if he was ready for this. He didn't have time for a decision, because there you were in the doorway with two mugs in your hands.

"Hey, stranger," You laughed. "Looks like I got here just in time, you look like you need some." You handed over the cup and Leonard took it gratefully.

"Thanks," Leonard offered you a smile and took a sip from his mug. It was just how he liked it, right down to the temperature. Together, they retreated to the safety of his office. Once inside, they fell into their usual conversation. He waited until things got quiet, then he decided to go for it.

"So, got any plans for shore leave?" Leonard asked, leaning back in his chair in an effort to appear more at ease.

"No, not really. Maybe I'll visit with a couple friends, catch up on sleep. How about you? got any exciting plans?" You leaned in, resting your chin on your hand.

"Not yet," he admitted. "But I'm hoping to make some."

"Oh? You got someone special in mind?" You hummed.

"Someone incredibly special, yeah." Leonard smiled. So far, so good.

"Oh, well I hope it goes well." You shifted awkwardly in your seat.

"Me too..." Leonard agreed. You both didn't speak for a moment, the distant hum of the warp core did little to tame the silence.

"Hey Y/N... I was thinking maybe we could go to that restaurant you like, you know the one with the really good Chicken Parmesan you're always talking about." He mused, "what do you think?"

"I, um... I think they'd like it" The smile you gave him looked...sad?

"What are you talking about? Who'd like it?" Leonard couldn't possibly be more confused.

"Your special someone?" It was your turn to look confused.

You've got to be kidding me

"I'm talking about you darlin', do you want to go to that restaurant with me, just us, nobody else. You and me. Together." Leonard clarified, meeting your gaze.

You looked positively flabbergasted. He couldn't possibly mean what he was saying, right? There was no way Leonard wanted to... I mean, he was way too good for you! You had been trying for months to get his attention, to no avail. This must be a dream. You're going to wake up any minute.

"Darlin'?"

"I, uh...what?" You blinked out of your daze.

"Dammit Y/N, I'm trying to ask you out on a date!" Bones ran a hand through his hair, exasperation evident in his tone.

"Really? Me?" You asked hopefully.

"Yes!" He replied "Look, it's okay if you don't w-" You suddenly burst into laughter and all the words died on his lips. "What's so funny?"

"Oh, I'm sorry! It's just-" You giggled, "I actually came here to do the same thing..." You said sheepishly as you dug into your pocket "I, um... I got us tickets to see your favorite band. Figured if you said no, you could just take Jim instead." You handed the tickets over to him.

Leonard stared at the tickets in his hand, shock written all over his face. "Sweetheart, are you telling me we've both been dancing around each other for months, when we could have been doing stuff like this the whole time?"

"Seems that way, yes."

Leonard smiled and shook his head. "We're not very good at this, are we?"

"Not at all," You laughed. "Ahoy McCoy? What was I thinking?"

"Points for creativity darlin'," Bones chuckled. He almost couldn't believe things had turned out so perfectly. But in his experience, coincidence didn't exist. "Jim knew, didn't he?"

"He was actually the one who pushed me to come here," you admitted.

"Same. The bastard told me you'd say yes... Guess this was one of the few times I should have trusted him." Leonard concurred.

"So... What now, doctor?" You leaned a little closer. How had he never noticed your eyes before. He knew they were beautiful of course, but the way they were looking at him now made him weak in the knees. Had you always looked at him like that?

"Well, for now we're going to finish up our shifts, wouldn't want anyone to think we're slackers. But later, we're going to meet at the recreation room for a drink, possibly a game of darts. Then we'll see where the night takes us," McCoy smirked.

"How romantic, I can hardly wait for you to sweep me off my feet, they're killing me from all this running around, you know?~" You mused, resting your chin on your palm.

"Now you listen here darlin'. I'm a doctor, not a broom." Bones couldn't hide his amusement when you rolled your eyes at him.

"Well, what if I sweep you off your feet then?"

"You'll have to be careful, you might drop me and we could end up tangled in a whole mess of limbs."

"Oh, I'm counting on it.~" You teased.

Leonard swallowed hard and hid his bashfulness with a sip of his coffee, "Well in that case, sweep away."

You laughed again and McCoy was sure he had never heard a more beautiful sound in his life. He could see a future with you then. He wanted to sweep you off your feet, kiss you until you were breathless, share coffee with you early in the morning, and swap stories until late in the night. He wanted to introduce you to his daughter.

Baby steps.

"I hate to cut this short doctor, but I left the ensigns alone for too long, I'm worried there will be no lab to return to. I'll see you tonight?" You asked, fidgeting nervously with cuffs of your sleeves.

"Don't worry sweetheart, I'm not going to change my mind." Leonard smirked.

You blushed and smiled in relief, "good! Great!" You stood, grabbed your mug, and sauntered happily to the door. You paused just a moment and looked back at Bones sweetly. "See you later, handsome."

"See you later Y/N," replied Leonard. You gave him a cute little wave before hurrying back to the labs.

Once he was alone again in his office, Bones leaned back in his seat and admired the tickets on the desk. He almost couldn't believe how thoughtful you were, but this wouldn't be the first time you gave him an incredible gift. A couple months after you met, Bones had mentioned offhandedly that he missed a particular brand of whiskey from Earth. Despite being light years away, you managed to find some and give it to him. It wasn't even a special occasion, you got it just to make him happy. Leonard supposed he should have realized your feelings for him right then and there. Damn. He really was oblivious.

McCoy wanted to give you something tonight- no, he needed to give you something tonight. Something sweet, something romantic, something that says: 'you're special to me and I need to show it to you because I'm terrible with words'. But where was he going to find something like that on a starship? The botany labs. Flowers make for a great gift on a first date! Maybe if he was lucky, they would have irises growing down there. So what if bouquets are a little sappy?

A little sap never hurt anybody after all.

#bones #bones x reader #leonard mccoy #leonard mccoy x reader #star trek #star trek fanfiction #star trek x reader #x reader #mccoy/reader #bones mccoy #oblivious #mccoy x oblivious reader #mutual pining

183 notes · View notes

am-i-the-asshole-official · 8 months ago

Note

AITA for telling my friend to not tell their crush how they feel?

TW: mention of suicide

So my (16 M) friend (16 M) who we will call T is a very close friend of mine despite us only being friends for about 7 months. He recently went through a super traumatic break up. Like he walked to my house crying and was threatening his life it was that bad, but I’ve always been there to try and help him. I’ve also introduced him to my friend group which consists of 5 boys and 1 girl, who we will call L. L and me had been friends for years. Since we’ve been 4. Me and her aren’t super close but she is definitely someone I would put in my emergency contacts. I love her. She is one of my best friends and her and my boyfriend are also super close. She also had just gotten rejected by her long time crush. She is a very skittish lady and romance isn’t her top priority. She also has just met T. Like. Very recently. They have had 2 conversations maybe and that was in the last 2 weeks.

Now, here is where I might be the asshole. So T tends to be very dramatic. He exaggerates a lot of things and makes them seem a lot worse than they actually are. Like for example, he said his family would make fun of his previous girlfriend, when actually they were just teasing him about even having one and saying he was a lover boy (I’ve heard these conversations myself) Recently, T has told me that he had a crush on someone in our friend group and that he was thinking about telling them. This concerned me, because 5/6 people in our group had partners, except L, who he barely knew. So when I asked him who, he made me do a bunch of tasks to find out, which annoyed me because I didn’t really care THAT much, but he insisted I did them. When I found out it was L, I was extremely confused, and I mentioned how he spoken a handful of words to her. He said that it didn’t matter because he was in love with her and was going to tell her. I strongly advised him not to, because he was far from her type, she would reject him, and future hang outs would be awkward or people wouldn’t want to come. He told me that he would think about it and one of our other friends told him to play the waiting game, which I reminded them that L had just got rejected and it would probably be awhile (like. Years) before she was ready to date again. T told me that I was discouraging him, which has started to make me mad. I’m starting to think he only likes L for her looks and not actually for HER. I recently asked him after one of his rants about her if he even knew her middle name, which he replied with “no, but we played Minecraft last night! I’m advancing into friend level!”

That irked me bad. You should ALREADY be friends with someone you have a crush on. I’m thinking about dropping him as a friend because he has said some kinda racist remarks about how black actors can’t play stereotypically white characters because it’s either “not historically accurate” or “not the same as the original source material” and this whole situation isn’t helping me. I just wanna protect my friends.

AITA??

What are these acronyms?

#aita #am i the asshole #suicide cw

66 notes · View notes

crystal-mouse · 1 year ago

Text

Thoughts on snw 2e6 (contains spoilers)

Okay ik i was saying this in my previous post but i really can't get over the whole chess sequence and how it leads up to how spock and jim's relationship/friendship in TOS.

Subtextually speaking, it shows how chapel and spock, whilst having some level of feelings for each other, are really not on the same page- Spock in his words and game actions, wants to be more committed in his relationship/moving faster/looking for someone on his level, whereas Chapel really just wants to take her time/not necessarily be in a 'relationship' relationship- she can't keep up with Spock in the fast-paced game he wants to play.

As we know, good relationships are usually based on having both partners wanting the same goal (in terms of what they want from a relationship) and good communication (which lets face it theirs, re: prev episodes, isn't that great, although it could be worked on etc etc) and regarding what both characters have communicated in the past (Spock valuing his career and relationships but not wanting to be 'settled on a planet' as T'pring does, and chapel who loves but wants a more FWB situation and wants flexibility and understanding in this) Ultimately, they're doomed by the narrative.

then we bring in Jim to the whole situation, he hasn't had many scenes with spock so far in snw so there's not loads to go on, but from the interactions we have had so far, we can see that they already have a much stronger basis (from their own core traits).

Jim is someone, who like spock, is career minded- he's always pushing forward (see his convo with sam about his promotion) but he's also someone who desperately wants roots within this, he's never truly had a solid home as his family has always moved about. This isn't necessarily about settling down and sticking on a planet, but it's about needing someone who understands him and he can share his goals with (cough cough mr spock)

Jim, particularly as we've met him in snw, is a really smart guy, and because of this he's been isolated as no one can level with him (ep3- his first officer couldn't keep up with him in chess) and once again this is something he can find in Spock.

Now back to the chess scene- they haven't met during this scene, and yet, from viewing the game from the bar- Jim is on par and even thinking ahead of the game Spock is playing. He can see the trouble Spock is in ahead of him, and this as we eventually see in TOS is how they can match each other and provide the support/dependency that both desire.

In each other ,Jim and Spock can find someone who they can finally keep up and level with, they can complete each other and support where the other struggles.

#snw #snw spoilers #star trek #strange new worlds #spirk #k/s #mouse rambles #mouse watches star trek #long post #i have a lot of feelings about this episode

81 notes · View notes

fancytrinkets · 12 days ago

Text

veilguard impressions

spoilers ahead. a list of my opinions and impressions as I play this game

basic starting notes after having played for 30+ hours

overall I am having fun playing this game

there are things I like and things I don't like. these are subjective and I don't think everyone is going to share these opinions or agree with me

I am not going to give an overall opinion of how much I liked it until I've finished playing

things I like so far

the way the characters look. I do like the character design style quite a lot

seeing characters from the books and stories: the crows from Tevinter Nights; Felassan from The Masked Empire; Maevaris from the comics and Tevinter Nights

the look of returning characters that I've met so far. I honestly think Dorian looks FANTASTIC. I do wish Morrigan and Isabela looked a little bit older in their face textures, but overall I love the look. (For Morrigan I'm also willing to let it go by imagining she can magic the subtle signs of aging away or something like that)

exploring scenes from Solas' past in the Crossroads

the Portal-style open-the-way-forward puzzles are fun because they're new (not sure how they'll hold up on multiple replay; could become annoying, I imagine)

that Rook has a unique conflict in their backstory, based on faction, and other characters mention and react to it. it feels like a solid way of rethinking the playable origin-story from Origins

the continuity with DA2 in having Varric as the narrator, speaking over beautifully illustrated backgrounds during some transitions

the continuity with Origins in having cutscenes of the antagonists play during transitions

combat related: I like the chained moves being mapped to buttons; I am still getting a feel for them; I imagine it would be harder if I didn't have an xbox elite controller with paddles, mapped to the ABXY buttons in addition to the buttons themselves

combat-related: using the bow is pretty fun. I never like archer builds, but I'm enjoying rogue plus bow a LOT. the smooth transition from blades to bow and back is great

not as much inventory management: I have spent plenty of my gaming life customizing swords while comparing them to every other sword in my inventory. I'm okay letting this stuff get simplified for me

Dorian DOES know Emmerich previously, a fellow necromancer, and I appreciate that!

Mae having been kicked out of the magisterium and the Lucerni disbanded a year before the present, and Dorian being the magister on the inside for the Shadow Dragons. That played out in a way that was pretty close to what I anticipated based on what we know of Tevinter politics

things I dislike so far

some of the companion conversations feel like they've been workshopped for a generation that's much younger than me — which is fine, but there are some things the characters say to each other that strike me as... well, YOUNG, and not the kind of dialogue I'd write if it were me

I'm also ready for varric to step aside as a character in game. while I appreciate his narration, I'm finding his pep talks and advice to be a little grating. though, depending on how I feel at the end of the game, I might find some fanfic inspiration in this feeling, so I'm actually not salty about it, just noticing my own reaction here

I'm finding I choose characters to accompany me based on who can prime and detonate the specific combat moves; and that feels limiting in a way that I wasn't expecting. I often pick one character who feels relevant to the mission, then default to whomever can prime or detonate for them

I totally missed the "customize your Inquisitor" side panel at the start of the game. disappointed enough at having generic FLavellan show up that I quit my first Rook and am now replaying on story mode to catch up to all the time and plot I lost

things I haven't formed a full opinion about yet

the combat overall. it is VERY different from all previous games, and I'm honestly not even comparing it to previous titles in the series because it is a whole new thing. the dodging and chained moves remind me of Elden Ring, but I find Elden Ring combat is more satisfying for me. the explosions and pacing remind me of the Borderlands franchise, but Borderlands was also more satisfying for me. I don't love it OR hate it. I'm kind of in the middle, I guess. Though, like I said, I'm fond of the bow

the Veil Jumpers. (I chose this background with my first Rook before I quit to replay.) I think I get what the writers were going for. Solas unleashes some new weird shit and the Dalish start checking it out and then recruiting more people to investigate. that feels reasonable to me. also, even though the mood is cheerful, it's clear a LOT of them are dying. I appreciate that because they are running around poking at unstable magic and malfunctioning old relics... but yeah, the cheerful mood and the "can do" vibe feels a little off to me in a way I'm not totally sure how to explain. it's almost like the writers realized the past games had written the Dalish into a really weird corner where they were "stuck in the past" but also uneducated about so much of their own history. and now they are trying to remake them into a newer, more "fun" group of people. it's just... a thing I notice

the choice between Minrathous and Treviso. I haven't seen how this plays out in the endgame yet, but I'm expecting a break or betrayal from Lucanis after choosing to fight with Minrathous instead. (I was planning to romance Neve with my first Rook, so that choice seemed important; I'm going to make the same choice with my remade Rook, as a Shadow Dragon whose home is Minrathous) So... yeah, I'm kind of hoping Lucanis will unleash an unholy mess upon us based on that choice. It feels very Mass Effect, but if the Virmire survivor lived and was changed by the experience of being abandoned by Shepard. I am hoping it goes poorly in the later part of the game, but you know, we'll see...

companion characters. I am reserving judgment until I've finished the game and of course I've spent more time with some than others due to the recruitment timings. at the moment I'm personally most fond of Neve, Davrin, and Taash (though I just met Taash, so will need more time to solidify that opinion. I think she's going to be my remade Rook's romance instead of Neve). I like Lucanis; he doesn't feel like a personal favorite, but I like him. Harding is fine; overall she's a bit too sunshine for my tastes, but I like her well enough. I will probably like Emmerich more as I continue to play. I feel like I just met him. Bellara is the one I'm struggling with most, but I think that's connected to my mixed feelings on the Veil Jumper faction in a way I haven't figure out entirely yet

the story arc overall. I don't have a handle on how I feel about what's happening and so I'm reserving judgment on until it I've completed the game for the first time

#veilguard spoilers #fancytrinkets reviews veilguard

8 notes · View notes

ym-loreposting · 4 months ago

Text

The Gloucester Conspiracy

Fire Emblem: Three Houses is home to many story threads that are only really explored in side content such as supports and paralogues found in it and its spin-off Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes. One of these storylines has to do with the death of Raphael's parents and might reveal more about a hidden power struggle going on in the Leicester Alliance. Spoilers for both games follow.

The 'accidental' death of Raphael's parents

Raphael is a character from the Golden Deer house in Three Houses, which represents the Leicester Alliance in the east of Fódlan. Three years before the start of the game, his parents were killed by monsters according to his in-game profile. In his support line with his friend and fellow Golden Deer student Ignatz in Three Houses, more details are given about the event. Both Raphael and Ignatz's parents were merchants working in the Alliance and Raphael's parents were attacked while they were traveling for work. This happened after Ignatz's parents declined to work that job because they had other business, so they recommended Raphael's parents instead.

This all seems straightforward enough, but is complicated in the Paralogue Death Toll, which involves both Raphael and Ignatz. It is revealed at the start that merchants traveling from the lands controlled by House Gloucester of the Alliance to those of House Riegan suffer far more monster attacks than those traveling in the opposite direction. Of note is that House Riegan is the leading house of the Leicester Alliance.

The battle of the Paralogue involves saving merchants from such a monster attack. However, there are also some people mixed in with the monsters who seem to be controlling them. These are identified as Alliance Generals who speak of performing some duty and not looking forward to telling a count if they fail to kill the merchants. In the aftermath of the battle, a surviving merchant speculates that Count Gloucester is behind the attacks because he is unhappy with the merchants contributing to House Riegan's wealth.

More pressingly, it is also said that such a scheme was behind the death of Raphael's parents. At the time, they were traveling with the incumbent Duke Riegan, called Godfrey, because Count Gloucester had invited them to strike a deal about some art pieces. Raphael's parents were brought along to assess the value of the pieces in question, but all met their demise at the hands of monsters.

Vying for control of the Alliance

This is not where the story ends however, as both the Shadow Library added in Three Houses's DLC and Warriors: Three Hopes elaborate on these events. The Shadow Library is a library located in Abyss where forbidden books end up, likely those discarded by Seteth from the surface library of Garreg Mach Monastery as explained by a Monk in Chapter 4 of Three Houses:

There are numerous books in this library that you cannot find anywhere else. But once you are here, you can read them easily enough. I doubt someone would go to the trouble of stealing one. Sometimes Seteth will dispose of books that are deemed inappropriate for the monastery, but that's about it.

In the readable book Burnt Remnants of a Report, the following is written about the situation:

… son of the Alliance’s leader, Duke Oswald Riegan, has died in an accident. This follows an incident involving the previous successor, and even the Knights of Seiros suspect it was at Count Gloucester’s command, though it seems too conspicuous. There is some concern that this could spark a war. With Duke Riegan gravely ill, the situation is…

It seems the Church of Seiros also suspected something was going on, but war between Gloucester and Riegan was averted according to the Japanese version of the report due to the sickness of Duke Oswald Riegan (the father of Godfrey and grandfather of Claude von Riegan, see family tree for clarification).

The question becomes as to why Count Gloucester would orchestrate the assassination of Godfrey von Riegan, leaving House Riegan to the leadership of his elderly and ailing father Oswald. Given that Oswald dies during the timeskip in Three Houses, it is save to say that the goal was to cause a crisis of leadership in the Leicester Alliance. At the time Godfrey is killed, the existence of Claude is not yet known in the Alliance after all as he only came to Fódlan two years later. A power vacuum would have been created in Leicester without Godfrey after the death of Oswald. House Gloucester is also an important house in Leicester and Lorenz, Count Gloucester's son, often emphasizes how he wants to lead Leicester in Claude's stead in the main game. The bid may have been for House Gloucester to take control of the Alliance.

Schemers in the dark

However, the Burnt Remnants of a Report also emphasize that Count Gloucester might not be behind this conspiracy. It seems too conspicuous in the words of the report and there is implied that there might be another party at play.

Three Hopes further elaborates on this idea, first of all by giving a name and a face to Count Gloucester: Erwin Fritz Gloucester. He is shown to be a pragmatic leader who wishes to protect the people of his lands and is willing to switch sides between the Adrestian Empire and the Alliance during the war that breaks out between the three nations of Fódlan during the game. He is less focused on becoming leader of the Alliance than his son Lorenz as well.

Furthermore, Three Hopes directly gives more details on the incident wherein Raphael's parents and Godfrey von Riegan were killed in the Paralogue Unsettling Truths. In the Paralogue, Lorenz (now Count Gloucester after his father retired), Ignatz and Raphael go to confront a group of bandits wreaking havoc in Gloucester territory. It just so happens these are the same bandits who worked as mercenaries for Erwin and were responsible for the death of Godfrey. The bandits are apprehended and questioned by Lorenz, where more information is revealed.

The bandits claim that when they still worked as mercenaries, they first had normal jobs like protecting villages. However, they one day received orders from an envoy of Erwin to threaten merchants going to Riegan territory. They balked at this idea and instead chased monsters into the path of the merchants to scare them away. This worked at first and might be what was seen in the Paralogue Death Toll. The people in that Paralogue were identified as Alliance Generals instead of mercenaries, but this might be an oversight or translation error in either Three Houses or Three Hopes (given the fact that Godfrey is also erroneously identified as Claude's grandfather instead of his uncle in Unsettling Truths).

Nonetheless, this all eventually led to the incident where Godfrey and Raphael's parents were killed. It seemed the envoy was someone from House Gloucester acting alone and by the time Erwin learned what happened according to Lorenz, the culprit had vanished. Instead Erwin punished the mercenaries and they became bandits afterwards.

The question remains as to who this culprit is. In Unsettling Truths, it is said that Erwin refuses to discuss these matters with Lorenz and instead changes the subject when it comes up. Ignatz meanwhile calls out a scheme like this one seems ill befitting of Erwin's character and motivations of protecting the reputation of the nobility.

It does however fit the modus operandi of another group in Fódlan very well, and that is that of Those Who Slither in the Dark or the Agarthans. They have the ability to shapeshift and so one of them could have easily impersonated someone from House Gloucester to orchestrate the death of Godfrey von Riegan. The Agarthans had also been sowing political turmoil in Fódlan in the years before Three Houses and Three Hopes take place, as they also had hands in the Insurrection of the Seven in the Adrestian Empire and the Tragedy of Duscur in the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus.

If Erwin was aware of the Agarthans' involvement is hard to say, as he is never seen directly commenting on these events. Three Hopes seems to clear him of most suspicion, but if he believed the death of Godfrey could benefit his people, he might have turned a blind eye, given his pragmatic attitude. And what exactly the Agarhtans were trying to gain with this whole scheme is perhaps best left for another time. Their involvement in this incident seems pretty clear either way, as the Remnants of a Burnt Report seems to cover incidents in which the Agarthans were involved as well.

#fire emblem #three houses #three hopes #raphael #lorenz #claude #those who slither in the dark

13 notes · View notes

seraphirism · 2 months ago

Note

I just counted the current butlers and now we have 18 but the prophecy told us there will be 20 butlers.... that means two more people 😳 I'm so excited for it and so far, Shiro is refreshing to have cus mostly we have gentle and kind butlers but with him being added as our butler who has tsun tsun and kiiinda condescending personality, I really like it 🤭 I imagine him as white tsun cat who's very distant to us but later on, he will warm up to us very soon 🥰

Now I'm looking forward to the future two butlers' personalities. And I wish we have a brown haired butler 😔 I really like brown haired characters in other games lol so I wish we have that

you and me both, bestie! Shiro is a refreshing addition for a multitude of reasons, the primary one being how blunt and cold he is. the rest of the butlers (although they have varied personalities from each other) are all polite and kind. all of them genuinely want to serve Aruji and are okay with this huge change from their previous lives (we see this with the villa first floor butlers as they adapt quickly.)

none of them refuse to see Aruji as this figure they have to serve and protect at the cost of their lives despite having just met them.

for the first time we see a devil butler who (at his heart) does not see Aruji as an authority in his life and wants them to earn his respect and protection. he also sees no reason to form connection with the rest of his fellow devil butlers as this wasn’t his purpose when he joined.

I’m also looking forward to how he’ll warm up (little by little)! i don’t think he’ll change too much, but just a bit softer, less harsher with his words.

now that you pointed it out, I realised; we don’t have brunet in the game 😱? we have green, pink, blue but not brown 😭? I like brunet characters too; typically they’re softer and gentler by personality. Bellen’s personality is of a brunet (though I love his current character design.) but yes! we definitely need a brown-headed character ✨ and considering how the characters are increasing, it won’t be unexpected if one of the next butlers is brown-headed.

i think at least one of the two new butlers will be from the West! the next parts of the story might just revolve around the West and Elboa—considering Shiro’s addition and his focus on finding his compatriots.

hmm, but we’ll see?

have a wonderful day ahead, anon 💞! october is almost here—which means it’s Halloween event time! i wonder if we’ll get an all character event this time too or if it’s going to be a few characters. I think 18 is a bit too much? but anyhow—i hope the cards are similar to the ones like last time (remember that card with Boschi? yep, the vampire one.) i can’t wait for it 😆

have a wonderful day ahead, anon (≧∀≦)!

#sol’s asks #manifesting more girly pop characters like Teddy and Bellen 🤞

6 notes · View notes

jazzystudios82 · 4 months ago

Text

Diabolik Lovers - An Angel's Embrace AU: Sofia's relationships with the Sakamaki Family 🥀

Image made with a picrew. Will probably change it when I learn to draw digitally for a more accurate depiction of the character.

Note (updated info):

Sofia Sakamaki is the younger sister of Akira, Shu, Reiji, Ayato, Kanato, Laito, and Subaru. She is the daughter of Karlheinz and Angelica, and the youngest of the Sakamakis. This 12 year old vampire adores her family very much, even if they can be a bit weird from time to time. . . .

WARNING: Diabolik Lovers is a dark series with mature themes and topics. Discretion is advised. . . .

Also, keep in mind that some of the information is for an upcoming story and some of it may change in the near future.

——————————————————————————

Karlheinz | Tougo Sakamaki ♔

Karlheinz is Sofia's father. Unlike the rest of his children, he was present for her birth.

As she was his and Angelica's child, Karlheinz put in more effort in being present in her life than he did with his sons.

This all started when after she was born, little Sofia had grabbed his finger with her tiny hand, and smiled at him. This melted his heart a little and she instantly became his favorite child.

Due to her being a girl and being far too young to partake in his "Adam & Eve" plan, Karlheinz allowed Sofia to live a normal life: what's normal for vampires anyway.

Unlike her older brothers (minus Reiji), Sofia likes Karlheinz. She enjoys hearing his stories of his accomplishments. It also helps that he only shows her his good side.

He believes that Sofia is the "perfect combination" of him and Angelica: she has her mother's light pink hair and his golden eyes.

Has framed the drawings Sofia makes for him on Father's Day: she would make him drawings for his birthday, but Karlheinz has been alive for so long that he doesn't see the point in celebrating it anymore. It also doesn't help that he's long forgotten the date.

One time when Sofia was a baby, she had mistaken Karlheinz as her grandfather and Reiji as her father in front of him when he tried to get her to call him "papa". Her brothers and mother still find that amusing.

When at work as "Tougo Sakamaki", Karlheinz typically tells his subordinates about the things his daughter does during the week, as he thinks she's adorable. While his workers do think it's cute, they'd rather focus on work than talk about the boss's daughter.

He has her baby teeth in jar somewhere in his castle. He's weird like that.

Karlheinz, however, is not above lying to Sofia. When she called him, using her mother's phone, about why Yui and the past sacrificial brides before her stayed at their home, he'd tell her he's paying back some favors for some friends of his.

He's tried to teach Sofia how to play chess once, but she was too impatient to learn how to play the game properly.

Karlheinz has told her a "fairytale" like version of how he and her mother met, causing her to believe that they are madly in love with each other.

He already had her enrolled at Nevermore Academy, the best and most prestigious school in the demon realm, when she was old enough to read and write.

When it was time for her "Coming of Age" ceremony, Sofia didn't go through the same horrific nightmare-like "simulation" he made her brothers go through when they were around her age.

Karlheinz has portraits of both Sofia and her mother (often of them together) in his castle: in fact, there's so many that they overtake the ones he has of his previous wives and sons. Though whenever Sofia would try to ask him about this, Karlheinz would redirect her attention to something else.

Freaked out a little when she asked him where babies came from when she was six years old.

Angelica Amor-Sakamaki 🎶

Angelica is Sofia's mother. Unlike her older brothers with their moms, Sofia is absolutely close with her.

Kind of like Kanato with Cordelia, Sofia takes some pride with how close she looks to her mother in looks. Though she sometimes wishes that she had her mother's silver eyes instead of her father's golden ones.

Enjoys playing dress up with Angelica, especially if it's with her mother's old clothes from her childhood.

When she was four, Sofia would often ask her mother to sleep in her room whenever she had a nightmare. If her mother was already asleep, Sofia would walk from her room and go to her mother's and curl up and drift off to sleep.

Angelica made her a stuffed bunny toy made of fabric of her old dresses so Sofia would have something to remind her of her mother whenever Karlheinz or her father would send for her. Sofia would go on to name her stuffed bunny "Usagi".

Like her older brothers when they were her age, Sofia would lie down on the peppermint smelling carpet in the main room whenever she misses Angelica.

Sofia also loves her mother's cooking, and often watches her prep meals with Reiji and offers help in whatever way she can. Though she'd often end up as the taste tester, but she didn't mind.

Likes to watch movies with her mother and brothers, though she'd typically end up falling asleep before the credits would roll.

Once for her mother's birthday when she was ten, Sofia helped Reiji with making breakfast for Angelica to eat.

Sofia once asked Angelica if she loved her father, Karlheinz, after he told her how they met, with little sprinkles of lies here and there, but Sofia was never the wiser. Angelica was taken aback by this, but she didn't want to break her daughter's heart, so she'd answer with "I care for him" or a variation of that. Sofia would think that was a bit of an odd response, but she could tell that her mother didn't want to talk about this, so Sofia would ask her something else.

She's aware that her mother was married to a different man and had another child before, but since no one really talks about them in front/around her, Sofia doesn't really know how to feel about them. She likes to imagine that they're good people though, since her mother seemed to care about them a lot.

When Sofia got older, she'd try to become less and less dependent on her mother, since she didn't want to "bother" her anymore with her problems and other things. When Angelica heard about this, the older woman would have a talk with her daughter and tell her that she'll always be there for her if she needed her, even if she was a "big girl".

Sofia was shocked to learn that her mother was once a student at Nevermore like she is right now. She feels like it makes her closer to her mother when she ends up in the same house she did and meets the teachers Angelica had (who are still apart of the faculty) speak her praises.

Angelica noticed that Sofia would have difficulty with learning certain subjects in school. So when she hired tutors to help her, Angelica was shocked to learn that Sofia didn't like any of them, as they were a bit frustrated with her and a bit harsh, Angelica didn't like any of that. After firing the tutors, Sofia's mother would hire tutors that were more patient and understanding with her daughter.

Shu Sakamaki 💛

Despite being called a "good for nothing" and a "deadbeat" by a certain someone (Reiji), Shu was pretty responsible with Sofia.

He was usually the one to hold and rock her to sleep as a baby when Angelica is tired.

Shu once played the violin for her when she was one in order to get her to sleep. When the worked, Shu even tucked her into bed and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

When Sofia got older, Shu would try to teach her how to play classical music so they'd have more interests. When he noticed that she was having some difficulty in learning how to play properly, Shu would be patient and take his time with helping her.

One time, he caught Sofia dancing to one of Kou Mukami's songs in her room. When she realized Shu was watching, Sofia immediately got embarrassed. He still teases her about it, though never in front of the others.

When Sofia got scared of a clown in the park, Shu decided to take her to get an ice cream and see a movie to help calm her down. Shu understands her fears as he's also scared of clowns (the scary ones).

Shu often has Sofia take naps with him when he senses that she's anxious about something or tired.

Basically a secondary father figure to Sofia.

Sofia of reminds him of Edgar and Akira: Edgar with her smile caring nature and Akira with her thoughtfulness and looks. This makes Shu especially protective of her.

One time, Sofia found a playlist of Shu's that contained "certain sounds" on it. When she was about to press the play button, Shu quickly snatched it out of her hands and told her not to touch his stuff without permission (not in an angry way, more of like an embarrassed way). When Sofia tried to ask why, Shu told her that it just didn't contain any music that she would like.

Sofia is aware of Shu's old friend Edgar. But like with her mother and her first husband and son, Sofia never really asks Shu about Edgar, since she doesn't want him to feel sad.

When Shu went to the North Pole for having to repeat a year of high school, Sofia would try to write letters to him everyday.

Unlike his mother Beatrix, Shu made sure that he showed Sofia the proper amount of affection and gave her space when she needed it.

Reiji Sakamaki 💙

Reiji was absolutely involved with Sofia's upbringing in any way he could be.

The man was even responsible for coming up with a "perfect" plan for what Sofia's first words would be. Yes, he was that dedicated.

Practically a secondary father figure to the girl, even though their brothers would joke that he gave more "mom energy" than anything.

Reiji would usually help Angelica with planning playdates for Sofia and what school she would go to in the human realm, since this happened around the time the Sakamakis moved to Japan from Eden.

Whenever Angelica was tired from looking after Sofia, Reiji would have her relax and reassure her that he'd look after his baby sister. He'd typically put her in a baby carrier and do work around the mansion that requires his assistance.

Reiji was the one to introduce Sofia to tea when she got old enough. Though unlike her older brother, Sofia likes her tea iced. She likes hers with fresh fruit. Though Reiji wishes that Sofia would drink tea the old-fashioned way, he still appreciates that he has at least one sibling to drink tea with.

He, alongside Angelica, taught Sofia to put her things away when she's done using them.

Reiji makes sure to keep his potions science equipment away from Sofia so she doesn't hurt herself or break them on accident.

Because of his complicated relationship with his mother Beatrix, Reiji made sure to never neglect Sofia, and whenever she does something that is considered in achievement in Nevermore Academy, such as getting the highest grade in her class, Reiji makes sure to make her feel proud of herself.

He has taught her proper table manners.

Reiji has also noticed that Sofia seems to learn at a different pace than most kids her age, so he makes sure to teach subjects her at her own pace whenever her tutors were too busy.

Reiji has his brothers watch their mouths around Sofia. He doesn't want her to pick up bad words and their habits.

He has taught Sofia some German because she asked: she thought it would be fun.

The bespectacled young man helped with baking Sofia's 12th birthday cake: it was in the shape of a rabbit.

Ayato Sakamaki ❤️

Ayato didn't really know what to do when Sofia was born and revealed to be a girl.

The redhead literally looked up advice for "what to do with a girl baby" on Yahoo! answers (depends on what year this takes place).

When he heard about how big brothers are supposed to "protect their baby sisters from the big bad wolfs in the world", Ayato immediately went into "overprotective big brother mode". He even refused to allow a six month old Sofia to have playdates with babies that were male: Laito and Kanato never let him live it down.

His overprotective nature calmed down over the years, since Ayato became one of those "fun big brothers".

Ayato has taught her how to play basketball because she'd watch him play at their house. She was very tired afterwards, but she had fun.

When Ayato learned from Laito that Sofia had a crush, he immediately went to Sofia to find out who it was (overprotective an all), the redhead was extremely shocked to learn that Sofia's crush wasn't someone who was real: it was some character from one of her favorite animated movies. After that, Sofia never told him about her other crush, the very real Kou Mukami.

He enjoys drawing with her. Ayato even has one of her drawings she made him framed in his room.

Ayato tried getting Sofia to like takoyaki. She thinks it's good, but she's not as big of a fan of it as he is.

He brags about having a cute little sister at school.

While Ayato is known to be a big prankster, he doesn't do anything "extreme" with Sofia: one time he wore a clown mask and snuck up on her while she was watching a movie. When he scared her, Sofia cried and ran to her room, hiding in the closet until her mother returned home from an acting gig. After getting thoroughly chewed out by his brothers and feeling extremely guilty, Ayato helped Sofia calm down and apologized to her. He promised that he wouldn't do something like this again and got her an ice cream to make up for it.

Ayato doesn't really understand why Sofia doesn't like drinking blood from humans. He claims that it's natural for a vampire to drink human blood, and when he asked her, Sofia simply says that she just doesn't want to.

While he thinks that Sofia is a bit too kind hearted, Ayato wouldn't change a thing about her.

Affectionately calls her "pipsqueak".

When Sofia wanted to learn how to swim, Ayato made sure that she learned the proper way, not the way his mother Cordelia made him.

Sofia thinks it's odd that Ayato sleeps in an Iron Maiden (without the spikes of course), though this is mainly because she doesn't like small and dark places.

Ayato does his best to not let Sofia anywhere near Cordelia's room. One time she asked why it was locked up, and Ayato simply told her that it was just to keep away a monster. Sofia, naturally, got scared, but Ayato comforted her and said that as long as he was here, no monster would hurt her.

Kanato Sakamaki 💜

Originally, Kanato didn't really care that his father Karlheinz and stepmother Angelica were having a baby. Would he still try to make the kid favor him over the others? Yes, of course. But like the others, he assumed that the baby would be a boy due to their father's track record, and Kanato didn't care for having another brother.

But when it was revealed that his new sibling was a girl? His feelings changed in the blink of an eye.

A girl? Finally! Kanato has someone (other than Teddy and Angelica) to partake in his tea parties and dress up games! And when he saw Sofia's tiny form for the first time and she grabbed his finger with her tiny fist? Kanato immediately became attached and vowed to annihilate anyone or anything that tried to harm her or take her away from him and Teddy.

He dressed Sofia up in the cutest clothes and made her the most adorable stuffed animals when she was a toddler.

Kanato attempted to have her first word be his name. It didn't work, but he got over it.

He likes to brush and style her hair: in fact, Kanato styled her hair to look like curly princess hair for her first day at Nevermore.

Sofia is the only one of his siblings that he shares his sweets with.

Like Ayato, Kanato is very protective of Sofia when it comes to boys, though with someone like Kanato, it's a lot more concerning. He did turn Cordelia's lovers and Angelica's unwanted suitors into "dolls" after all.

Also like Ayato, Kanato became very shocked to learn that Sofia developed her first crush. While he was planning to turn whoever her crush was into a "doll", Kanato learned from Ayato that Sofia's crush was a fictional character. He then relaxed and talked to Teddy about how he was going to need a nap after this.

Other than Angelica, Sofia is the only person Kanato allows to talk and hold Teddy.

When Kanato learned of Sofia's old tutors being harsh and impatient with her, Kanato became enraged and killed them. He didn't think that they were worthy of becoming part of his "doll collection", so he burned their bodies and got rid of their ashes.

If Kanato had friends at his school, he'd most likely talk about Sofia. But he still does this with Teddy.

Doesn't like sharing the time he spends with Sofia with. . . .anyone really. Unless they're Angelica.

Laito Sakamaki 💚

When Laito learned that he was getting a new sibling, he was happy for his stepmother Angelica, truly, he was, but he had his concerns since it obviously involved Karlheinz. What would his menace of a father do with the baby when they arrived?

He didn't really care if the kid was a boy or a girl.

When Laito learned that his new sibling was a girl, he was rather surprised, but not in a bad way. He was actually a little excited to have a sister in the house after having so many brothers.

Like Kanato, Laito dresses up Sofia in a lot of cute and fashionable dresses.

Laito doesn't want Sofia's innocence to be ruined like his was when Cordelia abused him, so he vowed to protect her from anyone who could harm her in a similar way.

Whenever they have little dress up games, Laito always has her wear little hats that match his.

He usually keeps his door to his bedroom locked so Sofia doesn't find his stash of "dirty" magazines and movies.

Whenever Laito has a girl over, he makes sure Sofia is either asleep in her room or she's with one of their brothers. He doesn't want her to meet whichever girl he's with and assume she's his girlfriend.

When Sofia was a baby, Laito would play a calming tune on the piano whenever she was fussy.

Laito takes her to a local bakery so they can share macarons.

He is helping Sofia with learning how to play the piano.

When Laito learned that Sofia had a crush on a fictional character, he thought it'd be funny to have Ayato think that she had a crush on someone from her school. When Ayato learned the truth, Laito laughed in his face.

He likes that they both have beauty marks on the right side of their chins.

Laito gifted her a bunny shaped pillow once.

Out of all the brothers, Laito has the least amount of trouble with not swearing in front of Sofia.

Like Ayato, Laito also brags about having a cute little sister to his classmates at school.

Sofia is aware of Laito's flirtatious nature when he interacts with girls, but she thinks nothing of it.

Despite being the older brother, Laito comes to Sofia whenever he sees a spider in his room so she can take care of it for him.

Subaru Sakamaki 🤍

Due to his close relationship with Angelica, Subaru is naturally the closet with his little sister Sofia.

He typically tries to keep Sofia as innocent for as long as possible: Subaru does NOT want her to have her mind ruined the way his and their brothers' were when they were young.

Sofia likes to help Subaru with his rose garden when she's free from homework and chores. She thinks the white roses he plants are so pretty and fragrant. Whenever she tries to ask him why he specifically plants white roses, Subaru gets quiet and seemingly sad, and would finish with the garden early. This makes Sofia worried that she said something wrong, and would try to do something to apologize to him.

She'd usually make drawings and cards that said "I'm sorry" and leave them by his bedroom door when this happens. Subaru would of course find them a couple minutes later and would put them in a box in his closet for safekeeping.

But Sofia thought to do something different, so she thought about making him something tasty to eat so he'd feel better. Even though Sofia knows that Subaru doesn't normally eat human food, she is also aware of the fact that he does enjoy their mother's cooking. So she would go to the kitchen and attempted to make him a specific soup her mother made that she remembered him liking.

But due to her being six at the time and not having adult supervision, Sofia ended up breaking a porcelain bowl and burning her arm. Subaru happened to be nearby when he heard the breaking of the bowl and Sofia's yelp of pain, so when he saw what she was doing, he immediately turned the stove off and yelled at her for not being careful.

This made Sofia cry and say "I'm sorry" over and over again, and how she just wanted to make him feel better. Subaru was naturally shocked by this, and after calming her down and getting some medicine to help with the burns, he told Sofia that he wasn't mad at her and was just thinking of something else. When Sofia tried to ask what it was about, he told her not to worry about it, and to focus on resting since she was tired from the crying and because of what happened in the kitchen.

Subaru would clean up her mess and would try to finish the soup that Sofia tried to make while she slept. When she woke up, Subaru would have her eat some of it with him while they watched one of Sofia's favorite movies.

He has most certainly taught Sofia some self-defense techniques.

One time when Subaru took Sofia to the park, she found a lost puppy and asked him if they could take it home as a pet. Subaru wasn't sure if it was a good idea, but after he contacted Angelica who told him on what to do, he said they'll only take care of the puppy until the owner came to take the dog back. No one came to claim the dog, as it turned out it was a hellhound and it imprinted on Sofia. The dog, Howl, became her little fluffy bodyguard.

Subaru gets embarrassed when Sofia compares him to a Disney princess whenever small animals from the forest near their home come to him. He knows she means it as a compliment, but still. . . .

Whenever Subaru gets worked up and punches a wall in the mansion, Sofia worries about his fist getting hurt.

Sofia does think that it's a bit weird that Subaru sleeps in a coffin instead of a bed, but she ultimately doesn't say anything since Subaru seems fine with it.

He keeps one of her baby photos in his room.

Kino Sakamaki 🐦‍⬛

Kino is Sofia's older half brother through Karlheinz, though not in the way one would think: Kino was in actuality a creation of Karlheinz's that he abandoned in the town of Rotigenberg. When the dark haired young man tried to take over the Sakamaki family, but failed, Sofia vouched for him and pleaded with her mother and brothers to at least give him a chance to redeem himself. This is basically the scene between Charlie and Sir Pentious from Hazbin Hotel episode 2 "Radio Killed the Video Star".

Kino did his very best to hate Sofia when he first met her due to her being half vampire. This lasted for barely two minutes as her kindness ultimately won him over.

While he liked Sofia, Kino was still jealous that the young vampire had a family that loved and cared for her, while he had nothing growing up. Though he'd try to keep in mind that she'd just a child that didn't have anything to do with his past, and was always nice to him. She's the reason why their brothers are even tolerating him.

After a few weeks, Kino became close with Sofia since she helped him get acclimated with his new home. She even helped Kino with decorating his room.

Like Ayato and Kanato, Kino tries to make himself Sofia's favorite brother.

Kino is a little scared of Sofia's hellhound Howl, since the dog growls at him and has tried to bite him if he gets too close to him and Sofia.

Kino likes having movie nights with Sofia.

One time, Kino tried watching a scary movie with Sofia thinking she could handle it. She couldn't and was too scared to sleep by herself, so she'd sneak into Kino's room and sleep in his bed for comfort. He'd be thoroughly chewed out by the others when they found out about it later.

He likes playing video games with her during their spare time.

Richter Sakamaki 🗡️

Richter's relationship with Sofia is practically nonexistent. This is due to his constant travels around the world and because he doesn't really care for her, as she's the child of the brother he hates and the woman he obsesses over to this day.

Due to the older vampire still having feelings for Sofia's mother, Richter believes that Sofia shouldn't be here, and that Angelica should have been married to him and give birth to his baby.

Sofia doesn't know how to feel about her uncle, while her mother and brothers clearly don't like him for their own reasons, Sofia at least tries to be nice to him whenever he visits the mansion, though her shyness tends to get in the way.

One time when Richter visited just before Yui's arrival, she tried to offer him a drink of water, and he refused, saying that he was fine. Her brother Laito reassured Sofia that he was probably just tired from his travels and not to worry about it.

When Sofia tries to ask her mother or father what Richter is like, both of them tell her different things:

"Your uncle? Oh, you mean Richter. Stay away from him, dear. Your uncle is a bit of an odd one." -Karlheinz.

"Your uncle? Oh, you mean the one with cloven hooves and the little rat claws." - Angelica.

When Sofia learns about Richter's plans to become the next head of the family and with her mother, Sofia's own hatred for him began to grow.

Cordelia, Beatrix, and Christa 💔

For Cordelia, Sofia wasn't really her biggest fan (to put it kindly). Due to her young age, Sofia wasn't aware of everything that Cordelia did to the triplets, but she knew just enough to know that their mother was a terrible woman. This had started when Sofia, at six years old, wandered around the mansion and came across a locked up room she had never seen before: her brothers and mother would keep her away from that specific area of the house. When she asked about the locked door, the triplets and Angelica knew that she was too young to know all the details, so they told her a simplified version of what she was like. So when Cordelia was resurrected in Yui's body because she possessed her heart, Sofia became worried for her friend and helped Reiji with making a potion to expel Cordelia's soul from Yui's body. Sofia is also unaware that Cordelia tried to poison her and her mother when she was still in the womb, since everyone agreed that would have been too much for her to handle.

For Beatrix, Sofia, while she didn't hate her like she does with Cordelia, disliked that Beatrix seemed to have been too strict with Shu and neglectful of Reiji from what she heard about her. She does wish that Beatrix had lived long enough to make up with her sons and have a better relationship with them.

For Christa, Sofia doesn't really know much about them since Subaru and Angelica don't talk about them much. For a while, Sofia thought that Christa was dead, and that's the reason why her mother and brother don't talk about her. However, one day when she and her mother were visiting her father in his castle, Sofia heard the sound of a woman crying. Concerned, Sofia had followed where the sound was coming from, which led to a metal door that was unlocked and a spiral staircase. Sofia walked up the staircase and when she reached the top, found a sobbing woman with white hair and a white dress, Christa, in a cell. When Sofia tried to ask her what was wrong and if she needed help, Christa mistook her for Angelica due to her near identical resemblance to her old friend. When she asked Sofia how things with Subaru were doing and if she left that "terrible man" yet, Sofia had no idea how to answer her, except with that Subaru was doing fairly well. When Sofia tried to ask her for her name and who the "terrible man" was, one of Christa's episodes began to take place, and worried for "Angelica's" safety, told her to go before she gets hurt. Even though she didn't want to leave her alone, Sofia did as she was told and ran down the staircase, making sure to close the door behind her. When Sofia's mother and father found her and asked what was wrong since she seemed shaken up, Sofia didn't say anything about her meeting Christa. She simply told them that she thought she saw a sad ghost woman and got frightened. While her parents knew that she wasn't being honest, they didn't push her for answers since she seemed like she didn't want to talk about it.

Anselm | Akira Amor-Sakamaki 🩸

Akira is the older brother that Sofia never got the chance to meet. He was killed by a vampire hunter long before she was born.

Because of how close her brothers were with Akira, Sofia tends to ask them what he was like when he was alive.

She feels a little jealous that her brothers got to know him and she didn't.

Whenever she sees his portrait, Sofia feels a bit of sadness. Though she wonders how this can be if she never met the man to begin with.

However, during her stay/imprisonment at the Tsukinami castle, Sofia had made friends with a familiar/follower of Carla and Shin, an amnesiac young man, who wore a cloak and mask, that went by the name of "Anselm".

Anselm knew that Sofia was the Tsukinami brothers' prisoner, and that all she wanted was to go home and be with her family again. But he wasn't allowed to disobey their orders, so Anselm tried to at least make Sofia's stay as comfortable as possible until Carla and Shin changed their minds and let her go.

Anselm was the one to make Sofia's meals and get her to reveal information about Karlheinz that the Tsukinamis could use against him.

Sofia liked Anselm, as he was the only one that wasn't scary to her originally.

He'd read to her every day in an attempt to comfort her so she could sleep.

When Sofia asked him, knowing of his condition, if he any potential memories of the people who cared about him, Anselm told her that all he could remember was the moment of his original death: where he protected a woman he assumed to be his mother from an attack by some kind of demon hunter. The attack left him with a scar on his face, and his resurrection had somehow erased his the important memories of his past. Sofia could tell that this upset him, so she gave him some space afterwards.

The two became close to the point where they came off as an older brother and a younger sister.

When Akira had finally regained his memories, he tearfully reunited with his mother and brothers, and had properly introduced himself to Sofia, who was overwhelmed with so much emotion that she ended up crying.

He does think it's a little funny that Sofia gets jealous that he has their mother's eyes and she doesn't.

------------------------------------------------------------

This took a lot of work. Which part of this was your favorite? And in case any of you were wondering, Akira's picture was made with this picrew that I found.

7 notes · View notes

tyrantisterror · 1 year ago

Text

Ok, so! I think Act 3 of Baldur's Gate is where the differences between a Dark Urge run and the normal Tav run are the most stark. For Tav, it's basically one quest after another of being the spanner in the works - the unexpected variable that helps all your companions' questlines end differently than anyone involved expected, and likewise the bit of chaos that keeps the main villains of the game from getting what they want. You're the weirdo who keeps breaking all these chessmaster villains' schemes by eating all their pieces when they aren't looking, basically. It's fun, but there are times you feel a little disconnected from it, and I think that's one of the reasons a lot of players report feeling like Act 3 is a bit of a slog compared to the previous two.

In a Dark Urge run, though, it's different. Those grand villains orchestrating the main plot aren't just villains - they're your former colleagues, the adventurers you hung out with BEFORE you got amnesia and met your current pals, and the people with whom you concocted this grand scheme to take over and/or slaughter the world. And their big villainous plot is no longer something you got dragged into as an innocent (more or less) bystander in the wrong place at the wrong time - YOU orchestrated it. This is YOUR mess, a problem YOU made, being continued by people YOU collaborated with. Few conflicts in video games are more personal than that - you are literally paying the price for your own big fucking mistakes.

And I think it's a testament to the excellent writing of this game that you can support a variety of interpretations of both Tav AND the Dark Urge as they interact with this big scheme. Writing a proper cipher protagonist for a video game is far more difficult than most people think it is. Fuck it up and you get characters like the Sole Survivor from Fallout 4, i.e. the most boring main character you can possibly imagine, to the point where you actively ignore the main plot because advancing their story just seems so damn dull and pointless. A good cipher protagonist needs a smorgasbord of choices to be properly flavored as what the player wants them to be, which requires a lot of work from both the writers and programmers alike to make it work.

And goddamn does Baldur's Gate 3 deliver on that.

To go to this specific example, there are two extremes you can play the Dark Urge as: a good person struggling to resist their violent impulses, and a monster who enjoys indulging in every extreme violent whim their mind comes up with (you can vacillate between the two as well for the record). And when you get to Act 3 and start discovering your backstory, it is doled out in such a way that you can interpret your past self as fitting those extremes. If you want evidence that you were a remorseless monster, you can find it. If you want evidence that you tried to resist in the past, you can find that as well. And you'd think the evidence of those extremes would contradict each other, but it's all presented in a way that's loose enough to be interpreted either way. You get to determine the what your Dark Urge was and what they are.

It's just really great. Excellent writing. Possibly my favorite game of all time at this point.

#Durge Brainrot Comics

20 notes · View notes

aparticularbandit · 1 year ago

Text

Take A Sad Song and Make It Better - Chapter Five

Summary: Miles almost hit Duke when he left Andi’s place. He didn’t stay to make sure that Andi actually died. What if, in all of the attempts to get into the house, one of them heard the car still rumbling in the garage? What if Andi didn’t die?

Chapter Rating: T. Fic Rating: T. TW: Hospital scenario.

AO3

previous chapter / next chapter

“Babe. I know you wanna be here.”

Lionel overhears Duke’s gruff voice as he starts across the parking lot to the hospital, straightening his shirt and trying to make sure that he doesn’t look like he just ransacked someone’s house. Because he didn’t, technically. He didn’t take anything because he didn’t find anything. Which is maybe the worst of the options.

His hands clench into fists and then relax as he shoves them into his pockets.

“Babe. She doesn’t even know you.”

Duke stands with one arm crossed and the other holding his phone to his ear. He’s right, of course. Andi doesn’t know who Duke’s latest arm candy is. Lionel barely remembers her name – it’s something to do with some sort of alcohol – Bourbon, maybe? – but she’d only been on their trips since Andi stopped joining them, so they’ve never met.

Lionel taps Duke’s shoulder, pulls down his mask, and mouths, Room number? He waits as Duke shifts his phone to his other hand and signs – actually hand signs because Andi had taught all of them a few signs back when Miles decided their annual get-together should involve scuba diving years ago, in the early days – something so quick that Lionel almost misses it. His brow furrows, and this time, Lionel catches it, then gives Duke a nod and a thumbs up.

“Babe, I’d love for you to be here, but I gotta know the scope first—”

Whiskey, Lionel remember as he steps through the doors without a snap of his fingers, Duke’s voice getting cut off with the close of the doors behind him. Her name is Whiskey. Just the sort of thing someone like Duke would want a shot of when he’s sick.

That’s not fair, Lionel can hear Andi say from far, far away. You can’t assume they’re all bimbos, Lionel. Those girls play a smarter game than you think.

Lionel remembers rolling his eyes. The last one – actually named Candy – had less sense than Birdie, and he can only handle one idiot at a time. Not that Birdie’s an idiot. He loves Birdie, he does, but sometimes her lack of the good sense anyone should have makes him queasy. But it meant that he’d spent most of his time avoiding Duke’s literal Candy and not getting to know her.

Andi just raised her eyebrows, gave him that look that said he was being blind and not seeing everything the way she did, and nudged his arm with her elbow. C’mon. Let’s get drunk, and then you won’t care.

And she was right. He hadn’t.

(A few months later, and Lionel was discussing the problems of this Klear bullshit with Andi while she reassured him that she had everything under control. And look how that had turned out.)

Lionel shifts his mask a bit before rapping on Andi’s door with one knuckle. Shave and a haircut—

The answer, much softer, from within – Two bits – Claire probably tapping it out on the wood of her chair before standing and opening the door to him.

It’s a small thing, but anyone in their little group could have done it. Any of them but Miles, who still could have but had never been part of that little joke. It was before his time, when they’d all met up at Andi’s place for a movie, the first time they’d met anywhere other than the Glass Onion as a full group. She had Who Framed Roger Rabbit pulled out, which came out when most of them were in second or third grade, and had been a point of horror for poor Duke, who had been a little younger than the rest of them when he first saw it (which led to him cowering, shaking, hiding against Birdie when the poor shoe got dipped). But by the end of it, they’d all had their characters – Lionel was Eddie, Claire Dolores, Duke Benny the Cab, Andi was Jessica Rabbit, and Birdie was the titular Roger – because that fit each of them so well.

At the time, anyway.

(Miles hated it because he’d never had a character. If the suspicions Lionel has are right – the ones he keeps trying to ignore – than Miles did – and does – have a character. Judge Doom.)

Claire opens the door, and Lionel, pulling on the old memory, gives her a wry little smile. “Hey, Dolores.” He nods to Andi. “How’s our dear Jessica doing?”

At his words, Andi’s brow furrows. She makes a small sound of discontent, and then her brow smooths back out, as though nothing had changed at all.

Claire turns back at the sound, stares at her, and then lets out a little breath before slipping out and shutting the door behind her. “They won’t let more than one of us sit with her at a time,” she says, her voice slightly muffled by her mask. “Covid restrictions. You know.”

“I know.” Lionel nods twice, his gaze only leaving Andi once the door shuts and blocks her from his view. His fingers clench reflexively, and his head lowers. “It wasn’t there, Claire.” He lowers his voice even more than his head, so soft that it’s barely above a whisper. He isn’t sure how Claire can hear him through the mask, but she’s always had impressive hearing. “The envelope,” he says, specifying, before repeating, “it wasn’t there.”

Claire doesn’t respond, and for a moment, Lionel can pretend that she didn’t hear him at all. Then he glances up and sees how ashen her face is, how wide her eyes are, and that faint way she shudders as though she is trying not to do so. “Claire.” He wraps his arms around her by instinct alone and pulls her against him. “It’s going to be okay,” he lies, because there’s no way he can know how all of this is going to turn out. But it’s a comfort, it’s an attempt at comfort, and she bows to it, leans her head against his shoulder, and lets herself quiver with the anxiety attack he knew would come. He runs a hand through her dark, thick hair. “It’s going to be okay.”

“You don’t have to lie to me, Lionel,” Claire whispers, the words muddied by her mask. She shivers against him. “You don’t have to say it will be okay when we both have nothing to tell us it will.”

Lionel nods and just holds her tighter against him.

Which, honestly, should be enough. They should be able to have this moment. Duke’s outside, still on the phone. He’s here. Andi’s still in her bed, not quite awake. That should be it.

Except.

“Oh, honestly, do you two have to do that here, too?”

Lionel doesn’t even raise his head. “Birdie,” he groans, “how did I get here before you?”

“We stopped at a Burger King for a salad.” Birdie steps closer, heels of her shoes sharp on the hospital tile. “Got you a burger, too. And one of those slushies Claire likes so much.” Her head tilts behind her as Lionel finally looks up. “Left the chocolate milkshake Whopper combo with Duke. He really needed that.” Her brow furrows as she holds another milkshake aloft. “Milkshake for Andi, too. She’s awake now, yeah?”

Claire slips out of Lionel’s arms and wraps her own around herself as she looks up at Birdie. “There’s…a lot you don’t know, Bird.” She brushes her hair back behind one ear, and for a moment, it looks like she’s regained some of her color. “Lionel, you should go see her,” she says before passing him to Birdie, “while I catch her up.”

She meets his eyes briefly, and he hears what she doesn’t say.

Don’t say anything about the envelope.

Just as silently, he agrees.

“So,” Claire says, gently guiding Birdie away from Andi’s room, “where’s Peg?”

Birdie shrugs. “She said something about wanting to wait in the car, but I think she just wanted to see Duke eat his combo all at once.” She grimaces and props one hand on her hip. “You know, he told me he couldn’t have milkshakes anymore! But I see him drink shakes all the time on his little YouTube show.”

“Those are protein shakes, Bird.”

“There’s protein in milkshakes, too!” Birdie’s eyes widen.

Claire gives her a look. Stares at her. Examines her. Birdie isn’t a great actress, but she was a model. Even if she wasn’t a bodybuilder, she should know that someone like Duke, who is focused on maintaining a muscular physique, wouldn’t want a milkshake or anything else that could potentially ruin that. “Birdie, don’t you lie to me.”

All at once, Birdie giggles, her nose scrunching up in that way she does when she’s the most excited, that way that Claire finds adorable, that way that has made it hard for her to ever think less of Birdie, despite everything else. “You’re right,” she says, giving Claire a little shove. “But he’s still out there – how does he call it? – scarfing it down!”

Well, sure, Claire thinks but doesn’t say. Give Duke a Whopper, and he’s all over it. Especially when he’s having a rough day. And today? It’s been a rough day for all of them. Even Birdie, who wouldn’t so much as look at a Burger King on her worst days, unless she needed something to make her feel better – even if it is just a salad. Just like Birdie to pull her feelings on what she doesn’t know to use by buying comfort food for everyone else. She reaches out, takes her cherry slushie (extra-large, because when it comes to comfort food, calories don’t count), and leads Birdie back outside so they can talk clearly without masks.

As Claire takes her mask half-off, letting it hang from her ear, she gives Birdie a little nod. “Surprised to see you in one of those,” she says before taking the first drink of her slushie and immediately relaxing.

“Peg had an extra one in the car.”

Something tells Claire that Peg has a lot of extra masks in the car because Birdie probably forgets them everywhere they go and throws them away without even thinking about washing them (and is probably especially picky about which ones she wears in the first place).

“So what’s going on with Andi?” Birdie asks, leaning in conspiratorially, holding half of her mask away from her ruby red lips. “You said she wasn’t awake? She’s still not awake? I thought we were just going to check on her, and then there’s all this don’t tell Miles and don’t come here, and it’s all very confusing.” Her brows furrow. “I know my birthday’s coming up, but dragging me all the way out to a hospital for a surprise party is not what I’d call a good time—”

“It’s not, Birdie. It’s not,” Claire interrupts, cutting off the rambling that she knows from experience is just as much Birdie’s way of covering her own uncertainty as it is her attempt to stem her fear. “When we got there – to Andi’s house – the new one – all of the lights were out, and the doors were all locked, but we….” She swallows, tastes the cherry on her own lips, and forces herself to keep going, “We heard a car going in the garage.”

Birdie’s brows furrow even deeper, and her gaze drops as she tries to puzzle through things. “That doesn’t make any sense,” she says, tapping a finger on her cheek. “You don’t leave a car running in the garage.” Her eyes widen, and she meets Claire’s eyes with her own green ones. “She didn’t back into the door, did she?”

Claire shakes her head. “No, she was….” She swallows again, harder this time, around a rising lump in her throat. “We think she wanted to die.”

Or someone wanted to kill her, she thinks but refuses to believe and absolutely refuses to say to Birdie.

Birdie stares at Claire. Just stares at her. “Andi?” she says in a voice like an echo. “Wanted to die?” She giggles, lips pulled back into her normal smile. “Why would she ever do that? You’ve got the wrong girl!” She reaches over, slaps Claire’s arm, still all smiles. "No, really, Claire. What’s going on?”

Claire stares at her. She can’t think of any other way to explain it. So she takes a deep breath in, pushes her hand through her hair, and lets out a heartfelt sigh. “I don’t know,” she says, and her shoulders start to shake again – this time not from panic, but from the weight of everything that has happened in the past twenty-four hours. “I don’t know, I don’t—”

When she looks up, Birdie’s smile falters. It’s a quick flinch of a thing, a stutter, quicker than the flash on the paparazzi cameras that tend to follow both of them on the odd occasion, even quicker than the ones that surrounded their entire crew during Andi’s trial against Miles. Unlike that moment, it doesn’t slip, doesn’t fall, regains its standing – that grin that is so naturally Birdie at her best. “Right. So we just have to convince her to not die!”

Claire chuckles, wipes away the tears that were gathering under her eye, and nearly smiles. “Sure, Bird. Convince her not to die. We are just the people to do that.”

“Doesn’t look like there’s anyone else!” Birdie grabs Claire’s hand and gives it a squeeze. “We just have to be there when she wakes up!” She tugs Claire back down the hallway then stops and turns back to her, brow furrowing. “…so why do we need to wake her up, again?”

#bandit fic #make it better with the glass onion fam #glass onion #claire debella #lionel toussaint #birdie jay #tw hospital #hospital tw #tw hospitals #hospitals tw #duke cody

9 notes · View notes

myloveforhergoeson · 1 year ago

Text

That's All She Wrote - Chapter 18 (Part 2)

Previous chapter

Find me on wattpad + ao3!

Show: Big Time Rush

Pairing: James Diamond x Original Female Character

Chapter 18: Jump Then Fall (1.18 - Part 2) ~ 13k

“So… There might have been a few things I lied to you and your dad about.”

Those were certainly the words Roxy wanted James to say to her as they stood outside the door to apartment 2-J.

After a particularly harrowing plane ride, something about it being a red-eye flight had made it far worse for Roxy’s airsickness, the only thing she wanted to do at the moment was get all her stuff into her apartment and take a nice, long nap in her wonderful, fluffy bed. It had been quite some time since she last slept and since James had been kind enough to stay up on the flight to make sure she was okay, she assumed he wasn’t feeling all that great either.

In lieu of a response, the girl only coked her head.

“First of all, it doesn’t seem like Hawk has the same kind of funding Gustavo has… So when we visit the record company tomorrow, I’m not sure how much he’ll be willing to pay you for your, um, assistant job.”

She wasn’t fond of how easily he had cut “songwriter” out of her job title, but Hollywood was Hollywood. It’s not like she was a songwriter-assistant when she first started at Rocque Records, simply an assistant who also wrote songs. There, Roxy had earned her title and she would gladly do it all over again if it got her closer to the music James would be making.

“Next, here’s your room key.”

Holding up the small brass key, James flashed a sweet smile before dropping it into her palm. Upon closer examination, she noticed 2-J etched into the bow when she nervously twirled it around between her fingers.

It made her laugh a bit, before she held it back out to him, pointing at the other key he was holding. “You mixed them up, silly, this is the one for your apartment. Give me the one you’re holding.”

Silly? Since when am I the kind of person to say ‘“silly?”

“Remember what I just said about funding? One newly renovated room at the Palm Woods is cheaper than two.” The boy deadpanned, taking the key in his hand and sliding it into the lock. “Welcome to Casa Diamond-Somerset.”

At the notion of sharing a hyphenated last name, Roxy had to steady herself on the handle of her suitcase.

“Ah…” The writer gently said, following him into the refurbished apartment as she did her best to look anywhere besides where James was standing.

Instead of the traditional Crib she had been so used to spending her days in - bright, flashing arcade games, guitars lining the wall, giant, yellow swirly slide - she was met with a modern sleek-style layout. Dark oak floors with ocean blue and stainless cool grey steel accents were littered around the apartment, complete with a large portrait of the wannabe on the back wall of the apartment… James had 2-J transformed into the bachelor pad of his dreams without even consulting his brand-new roommate.

All she was able to manage to get out as she gazed up at his gigantic picture was, “Good thing you didn’t mention that bit to my dad.”

“It’s probably a good idea to keep it that way since my mom isn’t coming, either.”

At this point, Roxy had done a pretty good job at concealing the slight tremor popping up as she spoke, and her shaking hands gripping the box of tapes she had carried up to the moving van to kept any unsettled movement from showing, but with that new piece of information, all her progress was lost in a matter of moments.

“W-what?”

The box practically slipped through her fingers, landing on the floor with a loud thud. Most of the tapes overflowing the top of the box clattered out onto the wood, scattering this way and that under the new modern appliances and furniture Hawk had installed.

“Aw, Roxy, are you that tired? Why don’t you go pick out one of the rooms and go to bed or something - you look like you’ve been up for ages.”

She had been up for ages, considering she couldn’t sleep when the only night they spent back in Minnesota was interrupted by an impromptu cross-country flight with an expected layover, but that was the least of her concerns at the moment. Squatting down to pick up as many of her tapes as she could, she did her best not to dwell on the fact that she and James were now both living and working together. That, and the concern she felt radiating off his words.

I need to see Jo and Camille, was her first thought, but considering their flight had landed around 3 am and she was still fighting off the jetlag, she decided to heed James’ advice.

“Good idea.” The assistant smiled toward the ground, finally standing again once she had gathered what she had dropped. “I’ll probably take Carlos and Logan’s room… It’ll be nice to have a window facing the pool.”

For a moment, James' smile flickered at the mention of their friends. “Got it… I’m gonna try out the new entertainment system; I’ll keep the volume low so it doesn’t wake you.”

With a thumbs up, she went to grab the handle on her suitcase and move towards the hallway, but James cleared his throat.

“Oh, I forgot, to tell you, Hawk mentioned I’ll have some sort of butler on retainer, so he’ll be here in the morning.”

In response, the girl yawned and nodded, even with her back turned to him.

Finally getting down the hall, she turned left at the door that connected 2-H and 2-J and into the new space she would be calling her own.

When Roxy flipped the light on, the emptiness of the room startled her.

Only one day ago, the colorfully painted walls held decorations fit to both Logan and Carlos’ tastes - sports posters, science diagrams, pin-ups of beautiful movie stars - and now, it was empty, void of any signs that anyone had lived there up until now. Logan’s overflowing bookshelf was missing from its usual corner, Carlos’ hockey jersey display and helmet rack weren’t hanging beside the window, and the glow-in-the-dark stars she had put up for them their first week in town while precariously balancing on James’ shoulders were nowhere to be found.

It’s wrong. She told herself. This is wrong. All of it. Everything.

Barely even setting her things down, Roxy found her legs moving without her permission, dragging her back out straight through the hallway, and into James and Kendall’s room.

Similar to what she had found in the other room, this space was also lacking signs of life. Kendall’s neatly lined binders of sports trading cards were absent from the nightstand beside his old twin bed, not to mention the disappearance of the framed pictures of him and Jo covering the walls above it. The vanity James had installed on the opposite side of the room by his bed was also gone, most likely moved into the master bedroom by Hawk’s renovations, though there was still the faint smell of his cologne hanging in the thick air.

I can’t do this.

Now Roxy was on the move again, pacing back to the other room and picking up the only CD in her box of tapes she had been desperately trying to hide from herself. If she hadn’t dropped everything BTR, Big Time Rush’s first and only album, wouldn’t have made its way from the bottom of the pile to the top. Holding on tightly to the sides of the plastic jewel case, the girl blinked back the well of tears filling her eyes and ignored the pain knotting her insides as she stared at her friend’s smiling faces.

James, Kendall, Carlos, and Logan all looked right back at her and the memories of their months in Los Angeles came flooding into her mind. From being fired on their first day at Rocque Records, to meeting Jo and Camille, to mansion-sitting, to chimp-napping Lo-Lo, to every other little thing that made their time together so special…

Hardly able to control where her mind was spirling, the girl found herself tearing through the hallway and into the living room, not stopping until she found herself directly in front of a very confused James who was trying to get through a round of Biohazard Blast.

“Roxy?” He tried, squinting at her before setting down the platinum controller. “Is everything-”

Flinging her arms around his neck, she practically fell into him, feeling the soft plush of the couch break their fall. Right now, nothing about how she felt about him mattered; she needed a friend, one of her best friends, to hold her, and tell her everything was going to be okay.

“We can’t do this without them. It’s not right.”

A light stream of tears began to flow down her cheeks as she buried her head into the crook of James’ neck.

Beneath her, she could feel his muscles tense, from shock at her actions or anger at her words, she didn’t know, but after a few moments of processing, James wrapped his arms around her waist to pull her closer. His game all but forgotten, the boy gently rubbed circles on her lower back, giving her time to get all her emotions out.

All the alarms that normally set off in her head, telling her she was too close, too emotional, too irrational, dissipated at his comforting touch. The warmth radiating off his fingertips combatted the chill from the air-conditioning vent blasting air out above them; the only sound heard in the room over the sobs raking Roxy’s body.

“We’re in this together, okay? You and me, Roxy. That’s all we need.”

Time seemed to blur for her, his hands on her back, running through her hair, wiping the drops streaming down her cheeks, until eventually, she didn’t feel anything at all - just the calming lull of sleep beginning to overtake her senses as she finally closed her eyes, allowing her body to tell her exactly what she needed.

***

At the sound of an annoyingly loud gong going off, Roxy felt her pillow shift under her as she snuggled deeper into it, squeezing the sides to fluff up the area in which she laid her head.

Despite not opening her eyes, she could lazily tell the sun had risen as the sunlight flooded through the window and reflected on the back of her eyelids.

Perfectly cozy, she tried to drift back into sleep before she heard, “Rox, I’m not gonna be able to breathe in a second.”

Her eyes shot open, the memory of last night filling her mind.

Where did I end up?

The answer, of course, was on top of James Diamond.

Sharp rapping at the door brought her out of her head as she sat up, scrambling onto the cushions of the black couch as fast as humanly possible. Trying to look anywhere but the couch below her, she glanced toward the windows only to find the large portrait of James staring back at her.

Jesus fucking Christ.

Thankfully, he didn’t say anything more as he slowly picked himself off the cushions and trudged towards the door, wiping the sleep out of his eyes.

With his back turned to her, the assistant was able to slip out of the room and back into the one she was supposed to have taken refuge in; a million thoughts running through her head, mostly centering on how good his arms felt as they had tightly encircled her, how hot his hand felt as it settled on the center of her back under her loose t-shirt.

There was the sound of a handful of individuals speaking in the other room, but for now, Roxy just tried to run through the events of last night. It wasn’t like her to do anything like that, yet, for some reason she had, and it sent her insides spirling into a twisting, turning mess. What few thoughts ran through her brain were hard to decipher, but they all lead down the path to What will he think of me? and I need Camille and Jo.

Kicking the pile of items she had left in the room from the night before, the girl frantically searched for her phone inside her bag, which she quickly found underneath the sweatshirt she had worn on the plane.

When she opened it, she noticed first of all, that it was the middle of the afternoon, and second, that she had a handful of unread messages from every single one of her friends.

One day back in Hollywood and she had wasted half of it sleeping in when she should be helping James grow into the pop star he deserved to be.

Ignoring the messages from the boys back in Minnesota, she quickly scanned through the group chat she shared with Jo and Camille.

J: Bitters just told us the worst thing…

C: he came right up to us at the pool, grimace on his face, and told us you and james moved back into the palm woods

J: But we said that obviously couldn’t be true considering you didn’t tell us at all!

C: as if he could prank us that easily

Those messages had been sent mere hours ago and when Roxy moved to type out her own message, she couldn’t even begin to formulate all that she wanted to say.

R: Hi, Bitters is right. We got back into town early, early this morning and I ended up sleeping in much later than I wanted to

R: I really need to see you guys, when can we meet up :)

While their responses were normally immediate, she didn’t receive any back in the usually short time span.

So, until they did, she resigned herself to get ready for the upcoming day and map out their schedule for their meeting with Hawk in the afternoon.

Though she hadn’t spoken to him at all herself, James described him as an odd man who was very obsessed with himself - which she thought to be quite funny coming from the wannabe. As he had told her, Hawk’s scheduling was much different than Gustavo’s, preferring to work in the afternoon rather than the morning. While everyone in Hollywood certainly worked in different ways, she found it strange she hadn’t even met the man responsible for bringing her back to L.A. yet and eagerly looked forward to their meeting.

After making it through her morning routine, Roxy made her way into the front room in order to reach the bathroom through the kitchen, but instead found a pair of sushi chefs clogging up the walkway as they prepared James’ lunch.

I need to speak with Hawk about his overspending…

“Sebastian! Stop the car,” She heard James call, spotting him back in front of the TV, however, this time, an older man was sitting in front of him holding a remote control steering wheel. While her friend had taken time to change into a nice, blue robe to kick back in, Sebastian was dressed in a very sharp gray and black uniform. “There’s someone I need you to meet.”

The girl wasn’t able to squeeze through the fast-paced chefs running around the kitchen before James caught her arm and pulled her over to meet his new butler. At his touch, she felt her heartbeat quicken and did her best to keep her breathing under control as he presented her to the man in front of her.

“This is Roxanne - Roxy - Somerset! Anything she needs, she gets… Got it? Oh, and speaking of there's someone else here you need to meet…”

Whatever he said next, Roxy accidentally tuned out as his words inadvertently sent her heart into overdrive once more. Sebastian was his butler, after all, that was a very thoughtful request of him to make.

Anything I want, I get… And if I want our friends back?

“Of course, Sir,” Sebastian answered in a perfect British accent, giving Roxy a small bow.

At his actions, the girl held out her hands, shaking them in an attempt to stop his motion, “Oh- Oh, wow, that’s too much, Mr. Sebastian… I’m here to help James, just like you.”

“Would you like me to ask the chefs to prepare you a meal as well, Miss?”

That seemed like quite a bizarre question.

“They’re… Right behind me… I can ask myself.” Turning her head to the boy beside her she chided, “Don’t let this newfound fame go to your head. You’re not too good to speak to anyone in this room.”

Shrugging, the wannabe brushed her off, “He’s just doing his job. Speaking of, wanna take a drive through L.A. with me? We’ve got it all hooked up to the TV.”

Buzz buzz

Having to ignore her messages for a minute, despite how her hand twitched to grab her phone from her back pocket as it buzzed, Roxy cocked her head, confused.

“The game is quite fun, Miss. Much easier than driving around the real streets of Los Angeles.”

What she wanted to say next was swiftly cut off by the sound of the gong doorbell once again resounding off the walls of the apartment.

“Sebastian, can you get that? I want to try my hand at a dramatic entrance from the staircase!” James called, reminding Roxy of his usual self as he ran up the steel steps to the loft once housing the swirly slide.

Without anywhere to go herself, the assistant resigned to take a seat at the breakfast bar to relax for a moment and check her phone.

C: WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU’RE BACK?

J: So weird, Carlos, Logan, and Kendall stopped by to say hello before you did…

R: Not fair to try and prank me either :( Where are you two?

When Sebastian opened the door, Roxy heard a collection of shocked gasps.

“May I help you?”

“Yeah…” A familiar voice spoke out, though with a very questioning tone as he looked into his former apartment. “We’re looking for Roxy and James.”

In a flash, the girl was out of her chair, listening to Sebastian invite the newcomers in.

Once the man moved, Roxy found herself smiling ear-to-ear as she gazed upon Logan, Carlos, and Kendall.

Anything I want, I get.

“You came!” She practically screamed, launching herself into Logan and nearly toppling him over through sheer force.

After a small “oof!” Logan was happy to return her hug, “Well, considering you called us about a hundred times, we figured you were up to something important.”

“A text message works just as well!” Carlos added, practically pulling his friend off of Logan and into his own arms.

“Sure,” She jokingly grumbled, “I was just a little bit upset with you three.”

Rolling his eyes, Kendall let out a small chuckle as Roxy let go of Carlos and wrapped her arms around his waist, “Understandable, but we did make the right choice in the end! Now… what did James do to our old apartment?”

“Irasshaimase!” The two chefs in the kitchen called, welcoming them to the space and holding up full plates of food.

It startled the boys, causing their heads to turn and examine the new, tricked-out kitchen, with Logan expertly stating, “Those are sushi chefs…”

“Well, our producer is doing all he can to make sure his new star client is happy - including feeding him his favorite food 24/7.” The girl shared, gesturing towards James, who was now dramatically making his way down the steel stairs.

This, however, was the least interesting thing about where Roxy was motioning as Carlos let out a small scream, “Oh! What happened to Swirly?”

His comments were quickly forgotten as James practically skipped down the stairs toward his friends, a smile plastered to his face, who he also wasn’t expecting to see so soon, “Hey! What are you guys doing here?”

It warmed the writer’s heart to see him so happy to see the boys, but felt her stomach drop when he tried to mask his smile with a distinct frown, “I mean… What are you guys doing here?”

“Big Time Rush is back together!” Kendall proudly shared, glancing between the pair as the news set in.

“What?!” Roxy whipped around, eyes wide as she found herself jumping up and down in excitement. “That’s incredible!”

“Yes! So…” Logan gave James a quick glance up and down, “Let’s get dressed and go.”

Feeling a comforting hand slide onto her shoulder once the boy reached the end of the staircase, Roxy finally settled down, turning to James with an irreversible grin, waiting for him to agree.

“And what happened to Swirly?” Carlos asked again, more upset this time as if the answer weren’t obvious.

Still looking back at her friend, Roxy felt her heart skip with anxiety as the boy stuck out his bottom lip in thought.

In an attempt to hurry whatever James was going to say next, Kendall motioned towards the door. “We gotta get back to Rocque Records to get ready for the concert.”

“Yeah!” James lit up, though his tone was dripping with sarcasm before following with, “No! You see, Hawk wants to sign me to a three-record deal, modified the crib to suit my new personal style, and gave me… Sebastian!”

From the hallway leading to the bedrooms, Sebastian emerged with a silver tray full of fluffy white cloths. “Hot towel, anyone?”

As if the conversation at hand wasn’t incredibly important, the three newcomers let out a chorus of “thanks!” as they accepted three towels. Though, when they unfolded them and laid them over their faces, a distinct sizzling sound echoed off their skin as the boys let out pained shouts before falling to the floor.

Immediately, Roxy was at their sides - even if she loved the feeling of James’ hand on her shoulder - to help them remove the source of their pain.

Without as much as a blink in their direction, James continued, “Ooh, and, as I recall, you were the ones who told me to get real and move on, so I did.”

“Seriously?” From where she was kneeling, Roxy looked up at the wannabe in protest. “They came all this way-”

“Megaphone for emphasis, Sir?” Sebastian asked, coming to James’ side in the blink of an eye with a large megaphone on a different silver platter.

With a smile, James graciously accepted the device as his friends finally collected themselves off the floor.

“I rock!” He yelled into it, sharp electrical sound pulsating in the teen’s ears at his misuse of the speaker.

Taking a moment to collect himself, Kendall uncovered his ears with a sigh, practically pleading with his best friend. “James, I was mad, okay? We shouldn’t have broken up the band, but we’ve always promised since we were peewee hockey players that we would stick together! We even made Roxy promise the same the first week we were here!”

“Ooh, and you’ve never broken a promise?” James bit back, absentmindedly playing with the collar of his robe.

For a moment, it seemed as though the three were pretty sure they hadn’t, before their faces fell, eyes widening as though they had just remembered something incredibly important.

Glancing side to side, Logan noticed Carlos and Kendall were feeling similarly, before straining, “We might be horrible people-”

“We’ll fix it!” The blond cut him off, “But first, we need to fix the band. James, Roxy, we’re sorry… Now, let's go!”

“Come on!” Carlos agreed, pointing towards the door.

The minute the boys had walked in the door, Roxy had forgiven them for everything they had said in Minnesota, but she wasn’t ready to discount James’ feelings about the situation either. They had come here together and she intended to leave there together on the same path to the greatness she know he deserved.

Besides, this was a disagreement between him and the other boys, it had nothing to do with her, and that was made evident by the hostility with which James spoke to his friends.

Turning to face him and gauge his thoughts, Roxy noticed two figures making their way down the steel staircase.

“He’s not going anywhere,” A well-dressed man declared, voice clear and commanding as he grew closer to the teens. Despite being indoors, he wore dark sunglasses, ones that matched his dark hair and clothing. Behind him, a younger, beautiful, blonde woman followed, carrying a black ledger to match her black dress and leggings. “Because he’s got everything he needs here. Right James?”

Immediately, she knew this to be Hawk, and the way he clapped James on the shoulder, pulling him away from the rest of his friends made her stomach turn.

Before James was able to answer for himself, Sebastian was at his side once again, “Some toys or money, Sir?”

Take the money and run!

Grinning, James picked up a Rubik’s cube, earning Hawk’s praise, “Excellent choice!”

Standing between the two groups - Hawk Records and Rocque Records - Roxy could feel the tension between them. Three of James’ oldest and most important friends had been very clear in their feelings towards his dream, and when James had heeded their words, suddenly they up and changed their minds. She couldn’t possibly imagine what it would feel like to be in his position, but she would stick by him in whatever choice he made.

While her own decision entirely, that choice scared her quite a bit.

Across the room, she locked eyes with the singer and gave him a subtle nod to convey her feelings. We’re in this together. You and me, James. That’s all we need.

Shuffling a few lines of the cube in his hands, he glanced upwards towards his friends. “You guys told me to move on, so… I did.”

“And now my assistant, Rebecca, will show you the door.”

The blonde woman beside Hawk smiled, showing off her perfectly white teeth.

At the notion of being kicked out by such a gorgeous person, Carlos scoffed, pointing between the band and the assistant, “She’s gonna show us the door?”

That comment was enough to upset Roxy just a tad as she scooted over to the side of Hawk Records - though she desperately wished to leave and join team Big Time Rush.

It was just a bit funny to watch Rebecca kick the absolute crap out of the three boys who underestimated her physical prowess out into the hallway.

“Alright, James, get changed.” Hawk almost demanded as he lightly pushed James down the hallway of 2-J. “It’s time to get to work!”

***

The ride to Hawk Records was about three times as long as the one the teens normally took to Rocque Records - not only that but instead of the skyscraper that housed many divisions of the RCM/CBT/Global-Net/Sanyoid family, Hawk’s facility was more like a small office building.

As the group walked through the halls, Hawk and Rebecca led the way as James, Roxy, and Sebastian trailed behind, they admired the cool gray aesthetic of the interior. Similar to their previous place of employment, there were numerous posters boasting the talent working among them at the label though, none of them were as famous as anyone who had worked with Gustavo.

“And now,” Hawk concluded the tour as he stood next to a poster covered with a black curtain, “The newest addition to Hawk Record’s line of pop superstars… Jamez!”

With a woosh, the man pulled the curtain away from the larger-than-life image of the wannabe, Rebecca proudly holding her hand up to show off their handiwork.

Had the poster looked anything like her friend, Roxy might have found this to be an emotional, heartfelt moment, considering Gustavo hadn’t even put up a Big Time Rush poster in his halls yet, but whoever had done the photoshop work on this image had horribly butchered it. James' normal, perfectly proportioned face was now taken up by a large, noticeably fake pout of his lips, which were far too enlarged to look real. Not only that, they unnecessarily changed the spelling of his name, replacing the “S” with an unpleasant “Z.”

“Woah,” Roxy tried to joke through her own feelings about the poster, noticing James' face visibly pale as he looked at the image. “Someone went a bit too hard on the lip filler.”

With a nod, James bit at his bottom, normal-sized lip, “Yeah… and you spelled my name wrong.”

“No, I didn’t.” The producer affirmed, a sickening grin forming on his features as he faced the teens. “You’re Jamez with a ‘Z’ now. It’s ‘awezome!’”

“I don’t think anyone has ever used that term before, Mr. Hawk.” The assistant tried to add, but her comment was swiftly ignored as the man waved her off.

Beside the teens, Sebastian was also examining the poster, bringing up a great point. “Isn’t that technically Ja-Mez?”

Grin falling, Hawk quickly darted his eyes towards Rebecca; The woman gave him a strained smile back and a little nod, confirming the older man’s pronunciation.

“I don’t pay you to speak, Sebastian!”

Not bothering to defend his butler, James squinted, leaning in a bit more to look at the poster with a bit more scrutiny, “Circling back around… What’s wrong with my lips?”

“We added new ones,” Rebecca stated, British accent rivaling those of the Americans around her. “We wanted something fuller. Yours are too thin.”

Roxy had to bite her tongue to hold back her thoughts on his lips.

“And check out your new ‘zingle.’” Hawk shared, switching the subject, as he trotted over to a stereo system he had set up on a desk in one of the many lounges Hawk Records had to offer. Pressing the play button, a simple, yet very electronic tune filled the room. The words were elementary, repeating “Girl” over and over again, followed by “You so fine” to round out the melody.

“But I haven’t recorded anything yet!” James protested, trying to figure out how Hawk had already put something together for him,

“Not only that,” His assistant scoffed, “Those lyrics are so simple! A child could write something better.”

Shutting the tune off, Hawk swiveled back and forth in his chair, “Well, thanks to digital enhancement, James will never have to record anything and Roxy will hand her songs over to me. And together, we are going to crush Gustavo and Big Time Rush!”

Noticing the menacing tone the producer took, still swiveling in his chair, Roxy began to realize part of the reason Hawk had been so adamant about getting James down here. While they knew that Gustavo certainly didn’t like him, she didn’t think Hawk shared the same feelings - their old producer always dramatized parts of his life, and she had just assumed this feud was a result of that. Now, it seemed as though Hawk felt just as much disdain for Gustavo as Gustavo did him.

Gripping the straps of her bag a bit tighter, she grew more uncomfortable the longer they stayed in Hawk Records. It was James who brought her out of her head, stepping forward to level with his producer.

“But I don’t want to crush Big Time Rush. Those guys are our friends…” He said, glancing over his shoulder to give Roxy a weak smile which she was glad to return. “Or, they were.”

They are, She thought. No matter what.

“Music isn’t about crushing other artists… It’s about art and expression! Plus, my songs are my own. I don’t just hand them over and they don’t go anywhere without my consent.” His assistant added, stepping up to join him as they stared down Hawk and Rebecca.

“That too!” Agreed James. “No need for this digital enhancement stuff. I just want to record good music written by a real and awesome songwriter.”

It seemed that none of these important statements meant anything to their new producer or his assistant - certainly a major red flag that further compelled Roxy to try and get the hell out of dodge.

“Ja-mez, do you want to have friends or do you want to be famous?” Asked Rebecca, motioning to the numerous silver records Hawk had decorating the walls behind them.

Taking a bit too long to answer that question for himself, the boy just shook his head, glancing toward the carpet.

“And besides,” Hawk chimed in, handing this morning’s newspaper over to the wannabe. “If they were really your friends, would they be searching all over town for your replacement?”

Page open to the classified sections, James and Roxy spied the Big Time Rush logo plastered on the bottom right of the page.

Big Time Rush

Open Audition

Gustavo Rocque is holding an open call for a tall, athletic, pretty singer for a pop/rock group. Must be 16-18 and available immediately for rehearsals, album recording, and tour.

Please contact: Rocque Records

Reading the ad nearly broke Roxy’s heart. Did they think James could be so easily replaced? Could they even call it Big Time Rush without him?

When they flipped the page to see if there was anything more on the other side, Roxy felt her chest constrict when she noticed the logo once again on the top left page. It read similarly to the other ad, but something about this version told her the boys were in charge of the text, as opposed to Gustavo.

Big Time Rush

Open Team Position

Kendall Knight, Logan Mitchell, and Carlos Garcia are holding interviews for a new songwriter-assistant (emphasis on the songwriter). Must be 16-18, cute, play the guitar, write songs, and have a cool first name but go by a nickname which we will further shorten.

Please contact: Rocque Records

Serious Inquiries only.

Whatever the boys were planning, these ads were enough to light a fire under the singer, who threw the ad back down onto the table.

“I want to be famous.”

Not bothering to waste any more time, James promptly turned on his heel, grabbing his assistant’s hand, pulling her out of Hawk Records as fast as humanly possible.

As James had done this, Roxy, after a few moments of not being able to process anything but the feeling of his touch, thought this meant he was finally ready to forgive his friends. So much so, she began to ask Sebastian to route their stretch limo to Rocque Records, before the long-haired boy swiftly cut her off, asking to return to the Palm Woods for dinner.

Any time she tried to talk to him, maybe even nudge him in the right direction by asking him his feelings about the situation, he just let out a long-winded sigh. After a while, it started to feel like she was trying to talk to a brick wall. Knowing that she stood fully and completely with him was hard, especially when she was somehow also rooting for the other team. Now was not the time to play double agent, even though she had no idea what lay behind enemy lines.

When they arrived back at 2-J, the sushi bar was still open, prompting the writer to wonder if Hawk was just paying them to stand around in an empty apartment. James, who hadn’t said anything since his declaration, took about three full rolls from his personal chefs and moped over to the couch.

Requesting a fresh Philadelphia roll, his assistant grabbed two pairs of chopsticks and sat down next to him as Sebastian pulled a chair in front of them from the dining room table. Taking the steering wheel remote control once more, he booted up the driving game he had been playing earlier while his master took a sorrowful bite of his first California roll.

After a few minutes of aimless driving around the track, Sebastian confusedly asked, “Uh, where to now, sir?” as he kept the wheel steady.

“Just… Turn left here.” Responded James, the usual confidence with which he carried himself seeming to dissipate as he sighed. The sushi piece he had picked up to eat before he spoke was moved to the left, clutched between his chopsticks, almost absentmindedly hitting his assistant right in the face.

The sharp screeching of the virtual wheels on the track scratched Roxy’s ears, causing her to jump.

More silence followed until Sebastian asked, “Are you alright, Sir?”

James’ reply was immediate, though neither of the people in the room believed his words. “I’m good! I got Roxy, I got you, and I got sushi. Everything’s awesome.”

Click

Screen in front of them going black, Sebastian swiveled around in his chair, facing the teens as he stood. “Yes… And you seem so awesome.”

His actions were suddenly far different than they had been in the morning, the once reserved, level-headed man adding a different inflection in his voice causing James to chuckle, “Are you being sarcastic? ‘Cause you sound like Logan!... Who I don’t miss, just like I don’t miss Carlos or Kendall.”

“Of course, you don’t,” The butler agreed with a roll of his eyes, throwing his arms out to the side as he continued. “Just like I don’t long for a life away from the smog and shallowness of this town.”

Though a bit of a downer, Roxy thought she was beginning to catch Sebastian’s drift. Perhaps now was a good time to bring up her own feelings about the situation, and compare them against James’ to find somewhere they could agree.

As she went to open her mouth, James narrowed his eyes, setting down his plate of food. “We still talking about me here?”

“How do you teens say it today?” Now he was addressing Roxy, completely ignoring the wannabe as he tilted his head to the side. “Whatever, Ja-mez!”

“Hey! Hawk is gonna make me famous.”

“Sure he can, but don’t you think we always do better together?” His assistant murmured, catching the singer by surprise once he understood who she was referring to. “You and I aren’t the best problem solvers, like Kendall. Nor are we as brilliant as Logan, or as tough as Carlos. I think we all balance each other out.”

“A whole life with your friends or a whole life filled with fake lips and fake vocals… Wake up, James, and do enjoy a hot towel.”

Bracing herself based on how the last hot towel fiasco went down, Roxy covered her ears and ducked away from her friend, who screamed once the white cotton cloth met his face.

Thankfully, it seemed to have the effect Sebastian wished it to, as when the singer was finally able to pull it off of his red, splotchy face, he motioned to his assistant. “Are you sure this is the best idea for us?”

That was almost the last thing she expected him to ask her; just the fact he was checking in and making sure his decision mattered to her as well made her heart rate spike. That, and the word “us” used perfectly in his sentence.

“Gustavo’s only let us down once, and it seems like he’s trying to fix it… I certainly trust him more than Hawk.”

Hand moving to rub his jaw, James took in her words. “Sebastian, do you mind taking us to Rocque Records?”

“Not at all, Sir.”

***

Though the back of the stretch limousine was ultra-comfortable, as Roxy stepped out of the vehicle and shielded her eyes from the sun to gaze up at the skyscraper that housed their old recording studio, she couldn’t help but miss her bright red Pontiac GTO.

If everything went according to plan, hopefully, the keys would be back in her hands soon enough.

As the two managed their way into the building, pleased to know that their Rocque Records ID badges hadn’t been shut off, they were silent as they entered the elevator. Hearty dings filled the small space as they ascended, waiting for what felt like ages to get to the correct floor.

“Do you think they’ll forgive me?”

James’ words were sincere, and when Roxy glanced over at him, she noticed how intently he was staring at the numbered control panel.

Without thinking, she gently reached out and grabbed his hand, giving it a comforting squeeze. “I think your best friends miss you… Besides, Big Time Rush is hardly Big Time Rush without one of its founding members. Try as they might to replace you, I’m not sure anyone else in the world has your wonderful voice, incredible sense of rhythm, or your effortless boy band-y charm.”

His reply was simple, calmly lacing his fingers between hers, “It’s not Big Time Rush without you either.”

“Oh, yeah?” Feeling the heat of his palm against hers almost sent Roxy’s knees buckling. For whatever reason, her first instinct was to try and deflect his comment, “Gustavo’s a great songwriter…. I haven’t even come up with any new song ideas recently, for Ja-Mez, Big Time Rush, or otherwise.”

The sound of laughter filled the elevator for a second, confusing the assistant as she turned to find its source. James, who had pulled his hand away from hers only to cover his face, was now nearly doubled over at her words. “God, I don’t ever want to hear the name Ja-Mez again!”

Fighting back her own smile, Roxy felt her shoulders begin to shake as well, “Then don’t mess this meeting up! Play your cards right and Gustavo might be begging on his knees for your return.”

Though seeming to sober him up a bit, the boy was finally able to move a few of his fingers, peeking down at the girl beside him. “For the return of both of us, Roxy.”

If he noticed the small flinch in her posture as he rolled out her name, he didn’t say anything, though she did continue to feel his eyes on her until the final ding let them know they had finally arrived at the studio floor.

Before she stepped out, James caught her arm, pulling her closer to him.

The swiftness of the motion scared her a bit, trying to find any explanation written on his face as she met his gaze, though, she only found a flicker in his eyes, glancing down a few centimeters. She was just delusional enough to believe he was surveying her lips and slightly leaned in, just to see what he would do.

Her answer would have to wait for another time, thoroughly and unwelcomly interrupted by the elevator doors beginning to slide closed, as James moved to keep them open before exiting and rushing off towards the studio.

In an attempt to keep his pace, she managed to shoot off after him, trying to pretend whatever had happened between them, didn’t really happen.

There's no way… Right?

Chain of thought half-disrupted as “Famous” began to blast out of the speakers of Studio A, Roxy tried her best to focus on the song, not the one clear message running through her mind stating: I want to kiss him.

However, it was easy to ignore her own feelings, staring at James’ back as he got closer and closer to the studio doors, considering the vocal work the three boys were rehearsing sounded next to terrible. The high energy, adrenaline-pumping practices the band used to have sounded like a thing of the past; the spirit of Big Time Rush lost before they heard Gustavo’s signature screaming from the booth and the track cut.

Now would have been the perfect time for James to declare his presence, confidently saunter into the studio, and easily earn his old job back, but before he entered, he turned around. With a lazy toss of his head towards the commotion, he smiled at Roxy. “Ready?”

“As I’ll-”

“Oh, you’re such a turd…”

From the studio, the lifeless performance of “Famous” was quickly replaced by Kendall singing the opening bars to the tune he had written the night of their audition in Minnesota. Though the songwriter felt the words were a bit cheap, as Carlos and Logan began to join in, she could practically hear their sardonic smiles and the new life the song was breathing into them. Though the song was just a warm-up, they sounded much happier together this time around.

Even if it had stunned both her and James into silence, as the boys rounded out the small tune Roxy felt herself reach out both of her hands, placing them on the boy’s chest and shoving him into the studio. Without even discussing a plan, James immediately caught on, rounding out the last line with a beautiful drawn-out ending note.

Suddenly, a verse managed to wedge its way into Roxy’s brain as she watched on, frozen, recognizing the ear-to-ear grin forming on James’ face. He hadn’t looked that excited about anything in days, and now, his reunion with his best friends was practically causing him to shine. No doubt, the writer had many thoughts about this, but more than anything, it made her so elated to see him this way.

Not wanting to miss out on this critical moment in their friendship, but also not wanting to lose her verse, the writer managed to pull herself out of her daze, rip her songbook from her bag, grip her favorite red pen, and scribble out her thoughts. It was good to be back.

You, you walked into the room,

On a Friday afternoon,

That’s when I saw you for the first time,

And I was paralyzed.

Of course, it hadn’t been the first time Roxy had seen James, but as she read over the words echoing in her mind, she came to a long-awaited realization.

I have a crush on James Diamond.

Despite being rooted in place outside the studio doors, songbook clearly in hand, Roxy’s petrification was soon undone as Carlos rushed towards her, picking her up and spinning her around until she landed right in the middle of her best friends. A clap on the shoulder from Logan, a hand on her head from Kendall, and a wink from James later, Roxy was happy to stuff her book back in her mini backpack and savor the euphoric feeling of this moment.

Everything was exactly as it should be, captured best as Carlos let out an excited, “Big Time Rush is back together - Whoo!”

“Yeah, I felt bad knowing how much you all missed Roxy and me.” James quipped, giving his helmet-wearing friend a hearty slap to the chest.

Matching his sarcastic tone, Logan smirked, “And you’re not gonna miss the cool pad, the hot towels, and Sebastian?”

“Oh, I’ll miss Sebastian.” Roxy jumped in with a raise of her hand, loving the airy feeling in her chest. It felt like a huge weight had been taken off her shoulders as she let the energy of her friends flow through her.

With a nod, the long-haired boy pointed to her, before answering with his own, “Yes, no, and yes.”

“Well don’t sweat it, because once we nail the concert, we’re gonna go back to the Palm Woods and get our own Sebastian, right?”

Kendall’s question was directed towards Gustavo and Kelly, who had finally managed to make it out of the control room with Katie and Mrs. Knight in tow.

As his words sunk in, Roxy managed an excited, “The concert’s back on?” that overlapped with Kelly’s “And what about Hawk?”

Like normal, Gustavo let out an annoyed sigh at the influx of comments, “We’ll talk about your Sebastian later. And we’ve got bigger problems than Hawk: As in the concert is in two days and we haven’t sold a single ticket and all the advertisement posters are now wrong!”

Motioning towards the back of the room, the teens turned their heads to find the fliers Gustavo had made in James and Roxy’s absence. An image of the band, Carlos, Kendall, and Logan, stood against a sad white background, adorned with the Rocque Records and Big Time Rush logos in the bottom two corners. Hideous red text in the middle reading Sunday 8 pm @ The Music Box Theater was almost impossible to read.

Not only that but as Roxy finally took some time to take in her surroundings, she noticed the studio which was often filled with instruments and recording equipment was close to empty. In the place of the normal adornments, brown, cardboard boxes stood in their place.

“Don’t worry!” Mrs. Knight lit up as if a lightbulb had gone off above her head. “Katie will donate her posters!”

Taking one from one of the many hundreds of boxes her daughter had ordered full of Big Time Rush merchandise, the woman rolled out a brand new poster - proudly displaying James in addition to the other three.

With a scoff, the young girl rolled her eyes, “No, I won’t!”

“Katie, donate them!”

Letting out a scream loud enough to rival Gustavo’s, Katie was quick to concede to her mother's demands, popping out of the room as fast as her little legs could carry her to find the rest of the poster boxes.

Promptly moving onto the next topic, Gustavo glanced over to his talent scout. “Kelly, what money do we have left in the budget for street team advertising and local TV and radio spots?”

Rummaging in her pockets for a bit, and pulling out a few things, Kelly listed them out: “One, two, three, four, five bucks and a punch card for one free Schmetzel’s Pretzel.”

The noise their boss made sounded somewhere in between a shocked gasp and the silent, pained cries of an individual choking on their food.

“We’ll go back to the Palm Woods and get some street team volunteers!” A brilliant idea from Kendall.

Nodding, Logan offered, “And I think I may know a way we can get some free TV spots.”

“Don’t worry about the radio either, I’ll call up some local stations in the morning.” Roxy confidently stated, hoping her knowledge of call-in radio shows would be enough to skirt some free advertising in the Los Angeles area.

Once no one else brought anything to the discussion, their talk swiftly came to an end.

“Well, what are you waiting for? I can’t sell this band to investors if we don’t sell out the concert! Go! Go! Go! Go! Get out of here!”

***

Roxy had hoped that her reunion with Jo and Camille would have been more heartfelt and comforting, but as soon as she crushed her friends into a giant hug, promising she had important information to tell them later, she put her feelings on hold for the time being.

In the morning, she had appointed herself as the leader of the street team, and the girl was now far more focused on distributing the correct posters to multiple groups containing her friends and other Palm Woods residents - marking everything out on a lovely list in her journal and a large map of Hollywood spread out on the dining room of 2-J. Even among the chaos of everything, she had tuned into most of the local radio stations, waiting for them to share their call-in phone number, and derailing every conversation she had on air to mention the concert.

Big Time Rush had managed to put together an eclectic collection of people from the hotel, but everyone was more than willing to lend their help in putting posters up on street corners, handing them out in front of shops and restaurants, and even bringing ads to their own auditions or practices over the course of the next 48 hours.

While the teens were taking care of advertisements, Gustavo also had his assistant set up a handful of meetings with some of the largest entertainment investment companies on the west coast: Giant Corp, Huge Corp, and, of course, Huge Giant Corp.

While still running her command center out of the apartment, Roxy even managed to get on the streets herself, standing outside of Amoeba Records on Hollywood Boulevard and passing out colorful fliers to anyone who walked by.

At one point, she even caught a glimpse of the news show Mrs. Knight was watching on the large entertainment center of 2-J, where Camille, using her expert acting skills, managed to get some air time. After claiming to have been abducted by aliens, local anchor Ted Garcia was eager to televise her story, before he was cut off by a mob of other teens, all holding up sign advertisements for the concert, as Camille repeatedly yelled the time and location of the show.

By the time the night of the concert rolled around, though Roxy was exhausted, she still managed to get herself over to the Music Box and join the rest of Team Big Time Rush to watch the marquee be changed from “ON SALE NOW” to “SOLD OUT” right in front of their eyes.

As cheers roared around her, she felt like taking a good, long nap. Hopefully, after tonight, it would be one in her bed in 2-H.

Once the celebration died down, the band and their friends went their separate ways - both groups needing to prepare for the concert. In just a few hours, the band would be proving they have just what it takes to make it to the big time, but for now, they needed to sound check the venue and get oriented with their new surroundings.

Watching the venue staff inside rush around, much like they had been doing for the past few days, from the stage felt a bit strange. It was even stranger as the five took in the sight of their bosses; one furiously texting away on her blackberry, the other nit-picking every little thing about the room.

“Okay,” Gustavo finally sighed, looking up at his band on the stage in front of him. There was a moment of reminiscence to the first time he had met them in Minnesota. “All that’s left to do is - oh, right - the concert!”

“Gustavo…” Kendall trailed off before the rest of the band picked up his sentence. “Have we ever let you down?”

I need to get better at this mind-reading thing they have with each other.

“I’ll let you know after tonight… Now, get your butts to your dressing room and get ready to rock this place for your fans and for my big investors.”

With a motion towards the VIP area in the back of the venue, the girl felt her heart squeeze. All they had known was the parental company guidance of RCM/CBT/Global-Net/Sanyoid; hopefully, another company would be able to provide them with similar attributes.

Though once James wrapped a hand around her wrist and pulled her towards the dressing room with the rest of the band, she felt her worries wash away. All the chaos surrounding the teens over the last few days gave her little opportunity to fully see him, considering he was staking out street corners with Carlos throughout the Hollywood area to hand out fliers, and now, even as she took in the sight of his arm reaching towards her, she was grateful for the few seconds of joy buzzing through her veins.

Entering through the two large, grey doors labeled Dressing Room: Big Time Rush, she didn’t bat an eye at the red velvet curtain they pushed through, leading to the minuscule room.

“No way this is supposed to service five people…” She managed to choke out just as James let her go.

On the same wavelength as his assistant, Kendall did a little 360 to examine everything, “Smaller than I imagined.”

As if on cue, something mechanical kicked in, the air conditioner maybe, and the slight walls of the room shook.

“And it’s rumbling?” Carlos questioned, before the telltale sign of an engine turned over, emanating from the back wall of the room.

That was when the four walls began to move, pulling away from the venue, revealing Hawk’s assistant, Rebecca as she emerged from behind the red curtain.

With an evil smirk, she daintily waved to the five, “Make yourselves at home-” before reaching above her head and pulling down what looked to be the back slider of a moving truck.

“And it’s a trap!” Logan yelled, he and the band launching forward in an attempt to stop the slider from hitting the truck bed to no avail.

Watching, frozen in fear, Roxy felt the container begin to move faster, knocking her to the floor, while the rest of the boys let out pained cries, pounding on the back wall in hopes anyone would be able to help them before it was too late.

And too late it was, before 20 minutes into the drive - and Roxy’s subsequent claustrophobic breakdown - the engine finally turned off and the five were roughly hauled by Hawk and Rebecca into an empty warehouse.

Though, thanks to the Judo techniques Jo had taught Roxy in order to keep their sporadic sparring matches at the gym fair, the writer didn’t go down without a fight. After thrashing around as best she could, she successfully broke some skin on Hawk’s arm with a Judo-illegal biting technique and managed to pull out a fistful of Rebecca’s hair. Unfortunately, the two adults ended up overpowering her and her strong, hockey player friends, quickly subduing them in order to move them out of the truck.

Mini backpack left behind and cellphones pulled from their pockets, the five were helpless against the two adults.

What was worse, being tied down to the uncomfortable wooden chairs, ropes bitterly biting into their arms and wrists, or the single, bright spotlight casting light down on the middle of the room, blinding the teens as the adults shared a maniacal laugh, Roxy didn’t know.

First to voice his self-preservative concerns, James grimaced, tugging as best he could against the white chord holding him down. “Are… are you gonna kill us?”

“No. Don’t be stupid!” Hawk bit back, standing beside a now shocked Rebecca.

Oh, she definitely thought she was going to kill us.

The boys’ collective sigh of relief was much too soon as the producer continued, “But when Big Time Rush misses their first concert, your music careers will be dead.”

A blood-curdling scream emerged from James at the prospect of losing something more precious to him than his own life. Tied up next to him, Roxy didn’t appreciate the fact she couldn’t cover her ears as the sound echoed off the high ceiling of the facility.

“And more importantly,” Hawk was still talking, which allowed the assistant to catalog as many details about their location as possible. “So will Gustavo’s chances of ever topping me on the charts again!”

“You seriously needed to kidnap us to further your chances?” Roxy found herself laughing, laughing, at the man’s ridiculous words. “You hired a real, genuinely talented singer to make music but tried to use your stupid fake songwriting and electronic vocal producing machines instead. There’s a reason Hawk Records hasn’t ever produced a single hit, you idiot! Both you and your fashion-challenged sidekick will never be on the same level as Gustavo.”

She regretted her words the second Rebecca took a step toward her, fearing the woman’s vice-like grip that could easily damage any part of her body. Thankfully, the woman didn’t dignify her words with a response, only casting a sidelong glance at the five teens in front of her. “We’ll tell Gustavo where to find you and your phones once the crowd boos and abandons the concert.”

“When you mess with the Hawk, you get all ten talons!” The man finished, holding his fingers out in a claw-shaped fashion.

“Hawks actually only have eight talons.”

Logan’s factual correction was met with a scream: “I don’t care!”

“Okay… Just telling you…”

God, they should just kill us.

“But I do want to catch your concert so I don’t miss the look on Gustavo’s face when he loses everything.”

Producing another sinister laugh, and two strange caws, Hawk and Rebecca swiftly made their exit through a small door on the opposite side of the warehouse they had entered from - suggesting to the girl that was the way to the main road.

At this point, she had no idea what time it was, where in Los Angeles they could possibly be, and how they were going to get out of this with a viable career at Rocque Records.

However, any chances she had at forming an escape plan were instantly shattered as she heard James let out a cry for help. The raw emotion contained behind his scream sent a spike directly through her chest; so much pain, sadness, confusion… All things she was feeling, but his wail also contained something else she was having trouble deciphering.

“James,” She tried, in between his desperate attempts to regain air back into his lungs before another go. “Don’t damage your voice, please.”

Regardless of whether or not her comment was self-serving, she tried very, very hard not to think of what his raspy voice might sound like.

“Don’t worry, best friends of mine!” Carlos interrupted her train of thought, which was welcome considering they had bigger issues at the moment than Roxy trying to sort out her confusing feelings. “For this looks like a job for-”

Using all of his strength, he was able to hop his chair toward the right side of the warehouse, letting out a little “Hup!”

“Carlos, not now.” Kendall tried, his tone of voice sounding utterly defeated as well.

“Yes, now! ‘Cause it’s time… for…”

This time, James cut him off. “Carlos!”

“I can do this!” The boy continued, still moving farther and farther away from his friends as he did his best to get his superhero act together.

Watching his movement, the other four teens registered his quick pace and were in awe he had managed to get so far away from them. There was only one problem; he was heading towards a wide-open door, which boasted a cautionary sign reading STAIRS.

Even if it lead to their salvation, there was no use in getting out of the warehouse with broken limbs or cracked skulls.

Good thing Carlos is wearing a helmet.

“Dude!” Roxy called, a bit of hope hidden behind her concerned cry. “Keep going!”

“What?” Logan hissed, whipping his head around to face her. “No, Carlos,” His attention was back on his friend again, “You don’t understand!”

“No, you don’t understand!” Kendall’s annoyed tone bounced off the walls again, “Carlos, we’re trying to help you.”

“I’m trying to help you!”

“And you are! Just a bit farther-”

“You’re not looking where you’re hopping!” Cautioned James, brow furrowed in worry.

Finally at the doorway, Carlos let out a few shallow breaths, no doubt tired from his sudden display of athleticism across the warehouse floor. “I can do this. It’s time for… Ahh!”

There was clattering, shouting, crashing, rattling, and even the sound of a pained cat’s yowl before there was silence. No sign Carlos had broken free, or at this point, even managed to survive the fall unscathed.

“Well, we tried to tell him.”

“Is this really the time for sarcasm, Logan?”

“Oh, big talk coming from the girl who insulted our kidnappers.”

“They deserved it! Hawk’s a loser and Rebecca’s dress and leggings combo is so 2003-”

Rustling from the doorway alerted the teens to someone entering the warehouse on foot, turning their heads to see Carlos, and rope, and shattered pieces of a wooden chair, standing triumphantly in the doorway.

Excitement swirled in the assistant’s chest, she knew he would get it, as James practically shouted in her ear, “You really are a superhero!”

“No!” Carlos’ tone of voice changed, deeper, and more confident as he stood, arms at akimbo facing his friends. “I’m a pop star… Who wants to rock that concert, get our album released, and get chased by lots of girls.”

Aw… The power of the boy band.

“Then untie us!” Kendall screeched, uncomfortably straining against the ropes burning into his sides as his friends joined in a chorus of agreement.

Roxy had never played the guitar with robe burn around her wrists. Hopefully, it wouldn’t affect her performance.

This was the perfect chance for Carlos to boast about the knot-tying merit badge he had earned in boy scouts, which he promptly reminded each of his friends about as he ran around untying them. Thanks to this, in no time, the five were barreling out the door Hawk and Rebecca had taken and found themselves on a busy street with a bus stop a few yards away.

The sun was still setting, and though Roxy wished she and the boys had the time to admire it, this told them the show was supposed to start any minute now. Without their phones, they were practically stranded in a random part of town, unable to call anyone to come pick them up and race them to the venue. Even the map at the bus stop was hard to read, riddled with sun-bleached spots bubbling off the glass and cigarette-burn rings.

Logan was the first to figure it out, unable to mask his anger as he let out a frustrated growl, “Oh, we’re downtown! We’re never gonna make it to the concert in time!”

“No concert means no album means no Big Time Rush!!” James astutely pointed out, adding his panicked cry to the mix.

“Guys, we’ll make it, let me go flag someone down and ask to use their phone-”

Cut off by a large, black limousine pulling up to the bus stop, Roxy was more than happy to shut up the moment the driver rolled down the window. There, in front of them with a more than optimal vehicle to take them uptown was Sebastian, looking as wonderful as a fairytale knight in shining armor.

“Anyone need a ride to the Big Time Rush concert?”

Just as shocked as she was, James was a bit weary after their kidnapping encounter, questioning, “Sebastian? You- You work for Hawk.”

With a shrug and a wry smile, Sebastian simply stated, “I quit. Now, get in.”

Not wasting any more precious seconds second-guessing the decision, the five teens piled into the back, practically vibrating with anticipation. Bracing themselves for a speedy getaway, they buckled in, before realizing they were almost surrounded by the sound of honking horns and screeching tires.

In an attempt to ease some of the tension he could feel from the backseat, Sebastian chuckled, “Oh, how I hate L.A. traffic… and superficiality and-”

“Sebastian, we’re late!” Kendall, Logan, and Carlos chorused, sending Roxy’s leg into an anxious bounce overdrive. It also didn’t help that James had taken the seat directly next to her, squishing her so tightly into the curve of the seat that his acid-wash jeans roughly hit her calf with every bounce.

Her anxious movement seemed to literally rub off on the boy. “We have to get there! Just, please!”

Loudly swallowing, Sebastian simply nodded and put on a pair of dark-tinted shades. “I’m going to lose my California limousine license for this.”

How he could still be cracking jokes at a time like this, the assistant found herself in admiration of, following his lead, “You never liked it here anyway, did you?”

“No, I didn’t, Miss. How hang on.”

Tires screeching loud, and the smell of burning rubber filling the backseat, their driver sped off, practically flying down the streets of Los Angeles.

At some point in the ride, Roxy felt her motion sickness coming on - be it from nerves or reckless driving - and placed her head in her hands for the remainder of the ride. Looking out the window would probably do her more harm than good.

Seconds, minutes, hours, maybe even eons went by before someone slipped their hand into hers and roughly pulled her out of her seat.

Weakly letting out a “Thank you!” Roxy made a mental note to send a fruit basket courtesy of Rocque Records to Sebastian. Hell, at this point, she’d even write a song about him if it meant expressing her undying gratitude.

Just as she was trying to figure out the best way to get his address, the band pushed her through the back doors of the venue, through the winding hallways to the stage, and up a small set of stairs before she found herself trying to hold up a fainting Gustavo.

There was a chorus of comforting words from the band as they pushed their producer back into the upright standing position, and in front of them stood Hawk and Rebecca, mid-evil laugh.

The look on their faces was priceless as they realized the band and their assistant had escaped their trap, jaws dropping to the floor, hands gripping the hems of their clothing… It was a wondrous sight to see, that Roxy wished to savor longer, but had to pretend to ignore as they prepared to make their way to the stage.

“Sorry we’re late, Gustavo!” Kendall apologized, giving the man a few reassuring pats on the shoulder.

Nodding in agreement, Logan said “Yeah, we got a little tied up,” before shooting the nastiest death glare toward the two adults in front of him.

“About that,” Roxy sucked in a breath, “Can one of you call the cops? We’d like to report a kidnapping.”

As Gustavo and Kelly went wide-eyed at her words, something distracted them.

“Oh… The people are leaving!” Carlos expertly noticed, examining the room behind their kidnappers, a flash of panic in his eye.

Roxy knew this was her cue, but as more and more people continued to turn away from the stage, she felt herself freeze.

They had survived a horrific band break up, a terrible solo break out, a wonderful best friend reunification, a haunting kidnapping, and the dangerous Los Angeles rush hour traffic, and a crowded room of people leaving the concert venue had been the thing that sent Roxy over the edge.

Feeling her blood run cold, she gaped a bit like a fish out of water, especially as her chest constricted, making it more difficult for her to breathe.

Our last shot at the big time… and everyone is leaving.

It wasn’t until James covertly slipped his hand into hers, lacing their fingers together with a tight squeeze, that Roxy was able to find herself back in the present.

“We’re gonna need some microphones,” was his gentle reminder ghosting the shell of her ear, and she took off like a flash, rummaging around their equipment bins to find the four pieces of equipment she had packed and labeled from the studio. Right behind her, Kelly was able to magically produce the microphone stands, and the duo worked together to get the boys exactly what they needed to hit the stage.

“Gah!” Hawk screamed, before shoving Rebecca in front of him as if she were a human shield, “Do something!”

Too busy making sure her friends were properly equipped for the show, she didn’t even see Sebastian shuffle backstage. “Hot towel, sir?”

With his expert aim, his famous fluffy, white-hot towels managed to cover both Hawk and Rebecca’s faces, making them easy to rush past on the way to the stage.

Grabbing her in-ear monitors, Roxy slipped them in before slinging her electric guitar around her shoulder.

From the side stage, the band gave her a thumbs up, and she checked with bass player, Mick, and drummer, Austin, who gave her slight nods, before kicking one of the guitar pedals at her feet and beginning to play the opening riff to “Famous.”

The moment the boys ran on stage, expertly hitting their marks as they began singing out the first lyrics, the crowd reemerged, piling in from wherever they had gone, cheering and holding up their handmade signs for the band to see.

As the song played, visions of bigger stages, stadium crowds, and, hundreds of new cities flashed through the songwriter’s mind. Big Time Rush was back, and now all they had to do was find a new parent company to keep them on the track toward their shared dream.

That won’t be hard at all, Roxy thought to herself, effortlessly banging out the chords she had played hundreds of times while finding it difficult to keep her eyes off James. This is the best show they’ve ever played.

In the blink of an eye, the set was halfway over, and the band and their assistant ran off the stage as the lights dimmed, signaling a costume change before “Count on You.”

Rushing into their dressing room, the boys had about a minute to change and prepare for their next song as a pre-recorded guitar track connected the songs, and Roxy used this time to refresh her lipstick in the mirror hanging just offside stage. Since this song was an acoustic breakdown to show the investors some of the boys’ versatility, she didn’t need to hop in for another five or so minutes to start up “Any Kind of Guy.” Kidnapping wasn’t all that good for flawless makeup upkeep, so this time would be used to perfect her rockstar glam look.

Just as she had finished placing an extra coat of red over her lips - a shade she, Camille, and Jo had found while out shopping that perfectly matched her guitar - the band ran back past her, ducking behind the drum kit to make an entrance on the opposite side of the stage without being seen by the crowd. Oh, the wonders of backstage magic.

“Rox, you coming with?”

James’ words startled her, almost making her ruin her perfect coat as she jumped in the mirror. When she turned around to answer him, she sighed, “You know this show inside and out. I’m not on until-”

“No, I know, I just…I don’t know-”

Now he was fiddling with the zipper on his black jacket, time was slowly running out for him to make his mark. “James?”

When he took a few hasty steps towards her, she instinctively moved back before finding herself hitting the cold, brick wall. The chill bit onto her bare arms, but once James reached his hands up, cupping her face and leaning in, the bitter sensation quickly burned away once she realized what was happening.

Tilting her head up, she let out an involuntary gasp as the boy leaned into her, the shadows of the low backstage lighting streaking through his long, perfectly styled hair.

James was going to kiss her, and she was going to let him, in their own private corner of the loudest, most packed room Roxy had ever been in, under the cover of the set-change darkness.

God, he really knew how to get her heart rate going, and he knew it, letting out a soft, breathy laugh as she finally dared to grab the sides of his jacket and pull him in, roughly slotting herself into his warm, sickly-sweet lips.

And, for the first time in her entire life, Roxy literally felt like she was floating as she continued to lean up into him, pulling him down towards her, keeping him close as he kissed her again and again…

“Was it so, totally magical? Did you feel sparks fly?”

Jo’s words from months ago sped around in her brain, interrupting the euphoric sensation flowing through every inch of her body.

Then, Camille’s: “Like, the gods of love were showering us in a mist of rainbows and butterflies!”

Abruptly pulling away from her, Roxy immediately tried to stop James, running her hands from his jacket collar to lazily hang around his neck, worried he could somehow read her mind; He would probably be less than pleased to learn her mind was wandering at a time like this.

This, however, caused Roxy to open her eyes, which she didn’t remember shutting, to a blinding display of multicolored light. Rainbows emanated off the lights from the stage, indicating the next song was going to begin in about 30 seconds. As for the butterflies, they had weaseled their way from the top of her chest to the pit of her stomach, and she worried that if she opened her mouth, they might just fly out, removing the perfect, buzzy sensation she was basking in.

“I love the way you say my name.” He told her, just loud enough to hear even with the bulky monitors poking out of her ear canal, and she thought she might never, ever breathe again.

When he let her go, she felt the chill creep back up her spine as she reluctantly detached herself from him in return.

James was tall, just so perfectly, tall, giving her the perfect line of sight to his lips, which she so desperately wanted to find herself in again. His lips, which just so happened to be covered with her red lipstick.

Lord, give me strength-

Taking a few steps back, he sheepishly glanced back toward the stage.

“James!” Roxy found herself calling, inadvertently giving him exactly what he had wanted as she pointed to her own lips, trying to warn him of the stain.

The sound of “tsk, tsk, tsk” emanated from the clicking of his tongue against his teeth, “We’ve got a job to do, Roxanne, give me a break.”

Had Roxy not been wearing what felt like a pound of stage makeup, he might have seen the way her cheeks completely flushed. “No, um… You’ve got-”

Gently, he took the side of his thumb and wiped his bottom lip, dragging it to remove the makeup he’d stolen off of her, looking his assistant straight in the eye.

Then, just like that, he was gone, sprinting to the other side of the stage as the tack countdown began to play in her ear, though, she couldn’t hear it as she leaned into the wall behind her, his voice replaying over and over in her mind.

I love the way he says my name.

And the musical journey continues…

:) Thanks for sticking it out to the end of the first part. Original chapter 19 out next week before we dive into the second part <3

As always, comments, votes, literally any form of interaction with my work is so, so, so appreciated I don't even have the words to describe it. Tell me what you think here on tumblr!

Also, to the person who gave me the 'mangerine' friendship bracelet at btr vegas, this chapter is for you. Thank you! <3

#thats all she wrote fic #big time rush #btr #james diamond #james maslow #kendall knight #kendall schmidt #logan mitchell #logan henderson #carlos garcia #carlos penavega

3 notes · View notes

veryflirtytransportalate · 8 months ago

Text

< Previous > . . . < Next >

"Wow. This is going to be a great story! Just wait till you see this in print. You won't regret this, Blue." - Piper

Oh, Piper. Always there. Always chilling. Always ready for whatever. I cannot stand how she is about me stealing stuff, but other than that we get along great. She runs a newspaper with her little sister, although she's been following me because she wants to publish my story. In exchange, she takes some pics for me to post here. We all win.

She and Dogmeat get along really well. I'm actually kind of confused about Dogmeat on the whole. He's... I met him on the road one day out of the blue, and ever since, he's been following me. I'm not saying we met, got to know each other, I literally looked at him and went, "Hey," and he just made himself my dog. I don't feed him. I pet him, stab him with Stim when he needs it, but I don't know where he gets water from. I've never seen him poop. He can take a .303 round like a champ, too. He is also a vicious murderer who attacks anyone I get into a scrap with. That's true friend material right there and also, maybe, a, robot, I'm suddenly realizing. That's cool, actually, robo-dog. Why do Stimpa-eh they work on Nick too, funk it, like anything else makes any sense here.

Honestly, I get why people are falling over themselves to be with me (see: my legs, my torso, my face), but I'm sometimes weirded out by how into me they can get? And it does not take a long time. Preston made me dad of his local cub scouts after knowing me for fifteen minutes. All I'd done up to that point was get high, kill like two dozen dudes in a suit of armor (I think one of them turned into a dragonman but I was pretty up there), and insult his old lady friend right to her face. Hell, Strong Mad can't stand me, and he still spends all day riding my Red Rocket. ...okay hold on, I just meant he hangs out where I told him to, okay, me and Strong Mad aren't... we... well... let me go to the Red Rocket, and take a good hard look at him, and get back to you. There... may be potential there.

(Outfit credits, my thoughts, and a few more shots below the cut.)

< Previous > . . . < Next >

youtube

Cait is here too! I use Koozebane's Loving Cait mod (opens in new tab) to change her general vibe some. Piper's hat is Niero's CROSS_MojaveManhunter mod (opens in new tab).

Fallout 4 companions, dude. I've only ever gotten as far as Virgil's cave so I haven't met most of them, but like... bro, they are in rough shape.

Cait's storyline I think lays it out the best, which is to say, is one of the worst: it combines a desire to tell a deeply empathetic story of sorrow and trauma and regret and redemption, but that desire is so mishandled and poorly considered that it feels more like an insult to people who have lived experiences similar to her's - if you've ever been told 'you're so brave' by someone and suddenly felt a not terribly intense form of insulted, that's the exact emotional response I think this combination elicits. Her description of the physiological and mental effects of her intoxicated lifestyle feels like only a rough impression of what long-term functional intoxication feels like in the body, she doesn't follow the rules of addiction the player does, her story has to actively ignore the magical addiction cures around every corner*, but then plops a science-magic chair McGuffin into play with the same 'it's an instant cure' handwaving that the rest of the game already does as a deus ex machina to a story that could have been about the redemptive power of self-forgiveness, and there's not even time to mention that the story of the Vault you find the chair in implies that a group of addicts would turn kill mode over a single stash of drugs so fast that they'd storm in and murder an entire therapy group in their chairs, implying a discovery to murder timeline of less than an hour, and the fact that someone signed off on the only Irish character in all of Fallout just to have her be defined by violence and addiction and red hair and an accent feels funking nasty. Irish people in post apocalyptic Boston? Super fun. Thematic. Represents the reality of Boston and would have been an excellent addition! But Cait... the elements of her story could have been something really powerful to explore in a second person narrative, but instead, the writing placed on top of her damages the cohesiveness of the world in every place it touches.

We're all on the same page here**, and literally all of the characters are like this, although most other companions don't have narratives nearly so long or with nearly such personal themes (thank goodness). Nick is a hardboiled detective who smokes cigarettes. He does not have lungs. He also has memories of his previous life? I never do his quest. Piper is a scrappy reporter lady. She is upbeat and supportive and cares about her sister. The end. Codsworth is a robot who is a butler. Mr. Handycock is a ghoul dressed like a red coat, and, in his free time, something like a character. McGravy is a merc and a lazy Fallout 3 callback. Strong Mad is just Fawkes again but worse, which is ridiculous when we could have had Fawkes be the lazy call back, or another lazy call back, I guess. Danse is the words "semper fi" injection molded into a human shape (with a hot face). Preston is... actually a fun combo of dorky dude in a bad situation with good intentions, Preston gets... ugh, as much of a pass as I'll give anyone, even though he holds the terrible distinction of radiant quest giver. You never wanna be the radiant quest giver, okay, even Mike Rowe wouldn't do that dirty job. Lucky for him I kind of like the radiant quests, but that's only because the un-radiant quests usually have writing in them, and I have a hard limit on the amount of Fallout 4 writing I can stomach (I can't remember if I've ever through mods or whatever gotten to the Institute but I remember the cutscene with Father where you meet him and I Just... oh wow... if... if I was in a class, and someone presented that scene as a project, I'd be so embarrassed for them).

I downloaded a few mod companions (the super mutant lady, an Enclave general, and someone else, I forget), but they don't quite fit in with the general mood I'm trying to tweak Fallout 4 into: this Cowboy Bebop-esque colorful and bombastic adventure world with weird tech and sexy badasses.

I'm going to keep trying to Collect 'Um All! but... I don't have high hopes.

< Previous > . . . < Next >

*Addictol, which I carry on me at all times, doctors, who are in every town we stop at, a special tea from the chemistry station, or a funking omelet can cure addiction and if you don't believe me well than (opens in new tab) - your move, funko.

**Oh my gosh I just Googled "why is cait irish fallout 4" and the top answer suggested by Google was "The reason Cait has a (terrible, stereotypical) 'Irish' accent is because Bethesda didn't stop to think about how little sense it would make." YES, JUST RIP THEM APART. Oh, internet, you weird commercialized corpse of a thing - thank you so much, that made my day.

#fallout #fallout 4 #fo4 #fallout mods #reshade #fallout original character #screen archery #Youtube

0 notes

river-starling · 2 years ago

Note

hi!! i noticed you've been reblogging a bunch of genshin stuff lately, so what do you think about the game? who's your favorite character? i'm just curious hehe

Well! I'm glad you asked! I think I'm nearing a whole year of playing the game, technically. Man, it really went fast. My anniversary is next month. I'm only AR 50 though, out of fear for the harder world levels.

This is actually the game that made me realize a pattern in who I crushed on. Apparently, it's platinum blondes/ white-haired characters who are calm, intelligent, and holds a lot of power that's hidden behind their more passive demeanor. Albedo, Kazuha, and a little bit of Lumine. Klee is on that list too, platonically of course.

Then there's a large list of characters I adore one way or another. I try to find a way to appreciate every character, or at least understand why people would like them.

Now, about the game itself? Beautiful soundtrack and scenery. I'm one of the blessed few who can afford a computer and have the graphics up max, and let me tell you, I've stared up at a singular angle of scenery for the whole day and night cycle just falling in love.

Can you imagine how fresh the fruit is there? How nice watching the trees sway would be? Especially if you're able to hear the soundtrack while experiencing it all? Perfection.

Now, plotwise? I only finished Inazuma's Archon quest and a little bit of the Chasm one with Dainsleif, so I don't know the full story. I've been focusing on other things instead, like finishing up Mondstadt and Liyue until completion. Including the daily commissions achievements that you get from blowing dandelions or playing pirates.

There is an immaculate amount of story, and I keep hearing about more parts I've missed. I've never really been too interested in war stories, though, so most of my interests get attached to smaller things of the lore. Or the functions of how the world would work.

I am so curious about the element reactions and how most of the dendro ones would work in a scientific type of standpoint. Though I am really curious about the whole Abyss plot line and how that all happened, which is a shame because that's the last question that'll likely be answered.

I started playing Star Rail the day it came out for my servers, and I haven't made it very far in that, so I don't know if this will stick. But it's so sad seeing the characters just around and chilling, compared to Genshin, where you hardly find any life or hints of them.

I want the character in Genshin to leave a bigger impact. I want to see flyers around Mondstadt inviting you to Barbara's new performance, where it shows a picture of her doing a typical idol pose.

I want an NPC dialog in Inazuma where some random guy is like "ugh I just met the most obnoxious guy yesterday. He kept asking to do beetle battles with me. I don't even own a beetle!". I want proof that the characters are still alive in the world, and we just keep missing them by a hair.

On that note! I want to get previous event weapons. I HAVE Albedo, I love him! I want to be able to doll him up! Let me give him the weapon that's the best for him, and literally MADE for him!

And let me replay old events, too! Even the ones we already did! Mona's door is Right There and you're doing nothing with it. Do you know how easy it would be to just have her in there? She can Look Into The Past! Just give her some money and pay her bills and she'll let you play an old event! It'd even add more proof that the characters don't just dissappear if there's not an event going on or some Archon quest.

Anyway, case in point. I love the game, but I have some complaints.

#i think i may have a sneaking suspicious on who you are and...if im right #are we both really that see-through?#please genshin let the cast have a life #i miss hearing about all the lovely characters and the adventures they go through #thanks for the prompt of a ramble!#my only genshin friend has left for a while to deal with things so i have WORDS to share #star pulses

1 note · View note

aquilacalvitium · 1 year ago

Note

So we all know that the Purple Guy is the killer and we know that Mr. Afton built the Funtime animatronics. Well, here comes the kicker.

This franchise has books - a lot of books, but for now we'll focus on the original trilogy, The Silver Eyes, The Twisted Ones and The Fourth Closet.

The Silver Eyes was released a year before Sister Location and focused on a bunch of characters meeting up for the first time in years because their mutual childhood friend disappeared at a Fazbear pizzeria when they were all still children and his parents are hosting a memorial service. The four of them end up breaking into the old long-closed pizzeria and finding the animatronics inside. A lot of other stuff happens too, but I'm not going to go into it.

Now while they're there, they meet a security guard who introduces himself as Dave. It's been a while since I've read the book but I do remember Dave kidnapping Carlton - one of the friends - who then finds himself trapped inside a springlock suit. During this scene, Dave wears a Spring Bonnie suit and shows off symmetrical scars all over his body from a previous springlock failure incident.

After Carlton's friends rescue him, Dave starts to taunt them all. He says the animatronics will kill them and he'll be left alone, perfectly safe. He also reveals that his name never really was Dave, but William Afton. At the end of the book, Charlie, the main character, triggers the springlocks of his suit and his twitching, shuddering, dying body is dragged away into the pizzeria by the animatronics.

The Purple Guy's name is William Afton, and he built the Funtimes.

To answer your other question about whether the animatronics are evil, I'm sorry I forgot to talk about that by the way, it's different depending on which series on animatronics we're talking about.

The originals from FNAF 1 are possessed by children and are attacking the night guard because all they remember is being killed by an adult man. The book says they're aggressive towards any adults for this reason.

The Toys from FNAF 2 are not sentient or possessed, rather programmed to search for criminals and the night guard looks like a registered offender. The Withereds in the same game are possessed by a different group of murdered children.

Springtrap is William Afton a.k.a Purple Guy possessing the old suit and the Phantoms are hallucinations. We can get into what they're caused by later but at the time the explanation was the poor ventilation system of the building.

Things get tricky with the Nightmares as there's evidence to say they're real and evidence to say there isn't. But the leading theory is that since we're playing as the Crying Child who got his head crushed, he's probably having nightmares about the animatronics coming to kill him, making these animatronics figments of his imagination.

And finally, the Funtime animatronics. These are definitely the most self-ware this far into the series, but they don't quite seem to have full autonomy. It's strongly suspected that Baby herself never talks to the player and it's always Ennard using her voice. Ennard's goal from day one was to use the player as a disguise to leave the facility, so it's certainly a safe bet to say none of the Funtimes ever wanted to help us and we were being tricked the entire time.

Oh, and remember how we watched the player turn purple over the custom night cutscenes? That's very important, considering the presence of Purple Guy.

Okay, onto FNAF 6 - Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator

This game starts off as a cutesy 8-bit game where to take pizza to children. It then severely glitches out and you're met with the true game - a 3D pizzeria builder game where you buy attractions and supplies over the course of a week to build up your pizzeria.

At the start of every day, you begin in a room facing a strange, broken animatronic. A tape recorded voice tells you that you have found this animatronic outside and that you have the choice to salvage it or discard it. Choosing to discard will get rid of the animatronic and let you go forward as normal. Salvaging it will trigger a minigame where you watch to see how it reacts to different audio cues.

You then go to your office where you must complete a series of jobs in order to finish the day. But if you salvaged an animatronic, that animatronic is now in the vents around the building and is a threat. You must complete your jobs while keeping the animatronics away.

This game has seven different endings such as the Lorekeeper ending - where you find every hidden lore secret, the Mediocre ending - where you salvage nothing and buy nothing, and the Completion ending, where you salvage all the animatronics and have them all inside the building by the end of the week.

The Completion ending is supposedly the canon ending. Baby is one of the animatronics you salvage and talks about how she will do what she was created to do and will make her dad proud. She's quickly interrupted by a new voice. That voice apologises to her and the other animatronics, and explains they were lured there under false pretences. That they must give up the spirits haunting them. The pizzeria burns to the ground with the player and the animatronics still inside.

The Lorekeeper ending - while not the canon one - does give us some interesting insight into how a certain animatronic introduced in this game - Lefty - works and what he is for. In order to get this ending, you find all the hidden lore secrets you can. This means a secret path in the minigame Midnight Motorist and beating Fruity Maze and Security Puppet several times in a row.

Fruity Maze tells you how a little girl's dog died in a car accident. A man in a Spring Bonnie suit tells her he is still alive and to "follow me". Pretty obvious what happens to her next.

Security Puppet shows a little girl being locked outside of a pizzeria - a girl the Puppet is programmed to protect. The Puppet chases after her only to find her dead in an alley outside where he lies down next to her and breaks down.

Midnight Motorist has you controlling a car on a road. Finding the secret path will lead you through a forest to a house. The character who gets out of the car is an orange/yellow colour and he goes inside the house where he gets angry at someone for leaving their bedroom door locked so he can't get in. Going around the back of the house reveals footprints coming from the window as well as a single set of large rabbit prints.

As a bonus, you can also go off at the road at one point and visit a venue called JR's. You are turned away at the door.

It's certainly an odd game and the first one to include animatronics that aren't violent. Of all the animatronics you can buy to put on display in the pizzeria, only one is violent and if you don't buy him, he shows up as salvage on the final day. The versions of the main cast in this game are called the Rockstar animatronics and are some of my personal favourite designs.

Now, I've been trying to remember where a certain cutscene comes in and I thought it was in Pizzeria Simulator. Turns out it was actually the final cutscene for the Sister Location 20/20/20/20 mode custom night, whoops!

Anyway, this cutscene shows us the burned down ruins of Fazbear Frights - the FNAF 3 location - and we hear a voice. The dialogue is as follows:

"Father. It's me, Michael. I did it. I found it. It was right where you said it would be. They were all there. They didn't recognize me at first but then they thought I was you. And I found her. I put her back together, just like you asked me to. She's free now. But something is wrong with me. I should be dead. But I'm not. I've been living in shadows. There is only one thing left for me to do now. I'm going to come find you."

As soon as the dialogue ends, Springtrap appears. Weird, right? So who's Michael? Oh boy this is where it gets really hard to explain.

Michael is William Afton's - Springtrap's - son. And the real Purple Guy. What does that mean? Well, you may find some people disagreeing with me here because there are parts of the story no one can seem to come to a mutual agreement on and this is one of them, but I'll tell you what I believe. William Afton is shown as purple because he's a mysterious man in the shadows and any other colour in the 8-bit games would blend in too much with the black background. And there's no reason for him to be literally purple until he dies, at which point he's inside the springlock suit and we can't see his body anyway. The purple guy who actually turned purple is Michael, who is also the person we play as in Sister Location. He's the one who gets his innards removed and his body rots and decays as the only thing inside it keeping it moving is Emnard. How he survives once Ennard leaves his body? Uhhh... that's also a hard one to explain.

But this would also give us a good explanation as to why the animatronics in FNAF 1 and 2 are aggressive at us. The names on the payslips in those games are different but there's a chance we're using a fake name possibly to cover up that we're related to Mr. Afton. The Toys would have him registered on their database as an offender, and Michael's dialogue in the cutscene explicitly states how "they thought I was you" straight up telling us that he looks an awful lot like his dad. When the Toys see us and probably when the murdered children see us, they recognise us as William Afton, the man who killed them.

So how does his body keep moving? Let's get into something called remnant. In Pizzeria Simulator we get to see this Blueprint during one of the endings (along with a few others).

This is the scooper or S.C.U.P from Sister Location. Notice how it talks about remnant saying to "leave trace amounts on interior" and that the remnant storage tank must be heated to keep the remnant stable and malleable but that overheating could "neutralise the effects permanently" I.e. effectively destroying it.

Remnant is essentially spirit energy - the thing possessing the animatronics. The remnant from the murdered children is what allows them to make the suits move, and it can be destroyed with enough heat hence the fire at the end of the game. The voice talking to us intentionally burned the pizzeria down in an effort to destroy the remnant in all the animatronics lured inside and finally put the spirits of the children to rest.

Now we move on to FNAF 7 - Ultimate Custom Night

This one is a doozy. You're faced with a grid of fifty different animatronics and get to set every single one of them on a scale from 0 to 20 and you earn points when you win depending on how you set them. At many different point milestones, you'll unlock a very strange cutscene. There are a few series of cutscenes that follow on from each other but don't happen back-to-back meaning you won't unlock all cutscenes of one series in a row.

These cutscenes include Bear of Vengeance - an anime-style cutscene dubbed in Japanese with English subtitles about Freddy as a warrior trying to defeat the evil fox - and Toy Chica - The High School Years - cutscenes which show us Chica as a school student obsessing over various different male animatronics and becoming steadily more unhinged about it.

Yeah, they're very weird. But this game has secrets too, of course. Such as Old Man Consequences.

Old Man Consequences is actually a character from the game FNAF World which I have omitted up until now because it doesn't really have any lore implications outside of teasing the release of Sister Location. In this game you can enter glitching trees and travel through glitched lands, but if you go too far in, you'll never be able to find your war out again and you'll come across a character sitting and fishing by a lake.

Here, the only thing you can do to leave is to walk into the lake and drown, earning you a trophy on the main menu of the fishing man - Old Man Consequences.

In UCN, Old Man Consequences is one of the fifty characters you can set and will offer a fishing minigame. If you set him to 1 and have no other characters active, then completing his minigame will result in you being sent to the glitch world in FNAF World where, once again, your only option is to drown. Now, here's the fun part. If you have FNAF World installed and have not yet recieved the Old Man Consequences trophy, getting this ending in UCN will for some reason result in you earning the trophy in FNAF World. Even if you've never opened FNAF World before. It's a very strange and very interesting Easter egg.

And in this section, there's some weird audio going on. I'm not sure if people were able to clean it up or if this audio happens as it is and I just haven't heard it, but you can hear William Afton screaming in the background. Some people say he's screaming for Henry and Mike, but I personally can only hear Mike's name, and he's screaming for help.

This on top of various death voice lines from the characters talking about how the player can't die and they're relishing their ability to kill him over and over and over again, lead players and theorisers to believe that UCN is actually William Afton's personal hell. He's facing the consequences of his actions at long last.

Now we're nearly at the end, I swear! I'll let you read this and then update it with the last two games and any more questions you have.

There are many fan theories and theory channels on YouTube. I personally watch The Game Theorists over any other, but I'll be the first to admit that some of their theories are stretches or just flat-out incorrect. But they're still very good theories and a lot of what they come up with is reasonable. I think the reason a lot of fans don't like Game Theory is partly because they have their own idea of what the lore is and partly because they don't like Matpat's (the guy leading the channel) insistence that the story of FNAF is actually a story about the Afton family.

Because one thing I forgot to mention is that the Crying Child is very strongly suspected to be another of William's children and is very probably the reason why William is kidnapping children. Most likely William was killing for unknown reasons - maybe even just the heck of it - before his son died. He then turned to kidnapping and killing children with the intention of experimenting on them in an attempt to bring his son back to life. That's just a theory, though, and isn't confirmed. We're not even sure if it's William or Michael who wants the Crying Child alive again. Since Michael is the one who accidentally got his brother killed, but also seems to be the one trying to fix his father's mistakes, while William just keeps killing.

Anyway, I will leave this section here. Next time I'll explain FNAF 8, FNAF 9 and The Mimic.

Hey, I really liked learning about Nate from you. I also would like to hear about FNAF if you're up for it? I like the art I see around for it, especially the Sun and Moon boy, but have never really engaged passed that. I know it's based on a horror game which is Not something I've got the guts to play 😅 but I'd love to hear about the story of it and about the characters if you'd like to talk about them?

OH HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE

Gif from FNAF The Musical

Now I'm letting you know right off the bat that this post is very long. Much longer than my infodump about Nate. If it's too much I don't expect you to go out of your way to read it all.

I've explained the first three games and will explain the rest in a reblog :)

That means if you wanna know about the Sun and Moon boy, that'll be in a reblog too since they're very recent characters.

So if you rely know nothing about FNAF then I'm going to start with the fact that it does involve child murder. We never see anything on screen, but it's pretty obvious that it's happening/has happened. And of the very few gruesome events they actually show, they're all in 8-bit so it's just like a few red pixels.

I hope you're buckled in because I'm about to walk you through ALL OF THE GAMES FROM BEGINNING TO END. Also I'm not the best with lore, I'm not very smart, but I'm going to explain it to the best of my knowledge which considering how complex this franchise is, that's all anyone can really do.

FNAF 1

A small indie game called Five Nights at Freddy's drops suddenly on the 8th of August in 2014 and immediately blows up. This game was a last-ditch attempt by developer Scott Cawthon to create a successful game after several previous failed attempts. His previous game had recieved some negative feedback with reviewers saying his characters moved like "creepy aniamtronics", so he ran with the idea and made a game centred around creepy animatronics.

You play as a night guard keeping an eye on the four animatronics in this Chuck E. Cheese style pizzeria: Foxy the pirate fox, Chica the chicken, Bonnie the bunny and Freddy Fazbear. You're informed that the characters wander at night to stop their servos from locking up and that if they see you, they'll think you're an animatronic endoskeleton with no suit and will try to stuff you inside one. Now considering those suits are full of metal and electronics that would crush you to death, that's not really something you want to happen. So you must ration your limited battery power to keep an eye on where the animatronics are in the building and closing the doors to your office to keep them out. As the week goes on, the animatronics get more and more aggressive with only Bonny and Chica active at first, then Foxy joining in and eventually Freddy himself.

Now on it's surface this is already pretty scary, but then you realise weird newspaper clippings starting to appear on the walls in the cameras. A close-up look at these clippings tell the news story of five children going missing at Freddy Fazbear's. A suspect was caught but discharged due to no evidence being found. Papers dated a little later talk about complaints from restaurant patrons that the animatronics are starting to stink and weird fluids are oozing out of them.

While it's never officially stated, it's made pretty obvious to the player that the five children who went missing were killed and stuffed inside the animatronics. But wait, there are only four animatronics, right? Wrong! While Foxy, Bonnie, Chica and Freddy are indeed the only four on show, there is a secret fifth animatronic referred to as Golden Freddy.

Golden Freddy appears on rare occasions in the camera. Upon doing so, he will then force the camera to close, revealing that he's somehow appeared inside your office. Staring at him for too long will cause the game to crash and shut down, and the only way to survive him is to flip the camera back up as quickly as possible.

And for a few months, that was where the story stayed. Five murdered children and five murderous animstronics. Up until November of the same year.

FNAF 2

(Got sick of looking through the gif gallery, it's like 98% stim boards ugh)

FNAF 2 was like FNAF 1 but bigger! Instead of just five animatronics, FNAF 2 upgraded to eleven! You had the brand new "toy" animatronics with brighter colours, smoother textures and an overall much cuter appearance, and the old "withered" animatronics rotting away in the back room. On top of them, you also had two brand new animatronics referred to as Balloon Boy (BB) and The Puppet/Marionette.

This game's mechanics were pretty different where instead of having an office with two doors, you had two air vents either side of you, one massive hallway right in front of you and zero doors. Different animatronics would approach you from the vents or hallway and you and to remember which ones could be stopped with the torch and which ones would leave if you had a Freddy Fazbear mask on. The Puppet and BB were unique in their own mechanics. BB wouldn't kill you if he got in, but he would steal the batteries to your torch making you defenseless against certain characters and constantly laughing his extremely annoying laugh. And the Puppet remained inside his gift box in Prize Corner as long as you kept his music box wound up. Let the music box run out and you'll start to hear Pop Goes the Weasel which unfortunately means that you're now dead. 100%. The Puppet is on his way and once he's out of the box there's nothing you can do to stop him. At all.

Now the immediate impression everyone had was that this game was a sequel, until you looked closer at the evidence. For one, the withered animatronics - aside from being withered and broken - look very different to their FNAF 1 counterparts. The guy on the phone who talks to you every night (dubbed Phone Guy) is still alive even though he died on night four of FNAF 1. And the Phone Guy also states that once you've completed your week, you're free to move to a day position and Phone Guy himself will probably take up the role of night guard - the position we replace in FNAF 1 after his death.

FNAF 2 takes place before FNAF 1! But why do the animatronics want to kill you if the FNAF 1 killings haven't happened yet?

Now it has been a while so my knowledge about the earlier games is a tad rusty, but between every night there is an 8-bit mini game such as Foxy Go! Go! Go!, and Give Gifts/Give Life. In Foxy Go! Go! Go! You play as Foxy leaving his stage to entertain children. You do this once, then twice, and then three times. But on the third time, there's a strange purple man standing to the side of your stage. Once you leave the stage, you find not five children but five ghosts. The children are dead, and the purple man is to blame. We can prove this in the mini game Take Cake to the Children in which you control Freddy doing as the name suggests and taking cake to children who get progressively more upset the longer you take. But you notice that at the top of the screen, outside the pizzeria, is a single, lonely crying child. That child stays where they are until finally, a purple car pulls up and the purple man from earlier gets out. The player can do nothing but watch as the child's tears grow and grow until they become a ghost. Then the purple guy gets in his car and drives away. That child is dead.

Finally, in Give Gifts/Give Life, you play as the Puppet. There's no beating around the Bush here, you're in a room with four dead children. The Pupept goes to each four and gives them each a present, but that doesn't work. They're still dead. He then goes around again, doing as the title says and giving life. He places an animatronic head on each child. Once the fourth head is on, you get jumpscared by Golden Freddy and the nights continue. But if you're incredibly perceptive, you may notice that there is a single frame right before the jumpscare in which a fifth ghost child appears in the middle of the room.

These are previous murders, ones that all took place before the FNAF 1 location opened and ghosts that possessed the original now withered animatronics. But what about the toy animatronics? Well they're easy to explain.

Phone Guy explains how these new high-tech robots are built with face recognition software and have been programmed with a list of criminals in order to keep the children attending the restaurant safe. Whoever you are, whoever you're playing as, you are one of those people. Or at least you look like one. More on that later.

So then there came FNAF 3

This game is set thirty years after the closure of the last Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria - the FNAF 1 location and it doesn't actually take place in a pizzeria, but rather a low-budget horror attraction based on the rumours and myths surrounding the pizzeria franchise.

You work as a security guard keeping an eye on the attraction the week before it opens. You're accompanied by Phone Dude, similar to Phone Guy in that he speaks to you over the phone and gives you information, but a different person altogether.

Night one is entirely uneventful as you listen to Phone Dude drop a whole bunch of information on you and when he finally hangs up you realise it's 5am and nothing has happened. Yup, night one is actually completely harmless. But then night two starts and Phone Dude tells you that "we found one. A real one." He quickly has to go and leaves you with bunch of recordings that he mentioned in night one which all turn out to be training tapes from old Fazbear locations voiced by none other than our friend the Phone Guy! Quickly, you'll notice something moving in the cameras and sometimes even hallucinations. These are the Phantom animatronics and they're not actually there. They appear suddenly in various places and unless you manage to flip up/down the camera in time, they will jumpscare you. The good news is, they can't kill you since they're not real. Instead, they cause all of your systems to crash which you then need to reboot. Yeah, this game has various systems that break down randomly throughout the night that you need to keep active in order to survive.

But there is one animatronics that's both real and a real threat. Springtrap.

Springtrap is... disturbing. He's worse than all the other animstronics we've met so far. I mean, his jumpscare is a little tame compared to them, but when you realise just what he is? Yikes.

Focusing on his mechanics first, you need to keep him away from you by blocking air vents and luring him with voice recordings. He's actually not that difficult as long as you keep a close eye on him.

Now, just like FNAF 2, this game has mini games between each night. You can play them all normally and complete them all as intended, but that will lead you to receiving the bad ending. Getting the good ending requires finding clues within those minigames, performing certain actions in the real game and then playing bonus mini games which are now accessible. BUT, you then need to glitch out those mini games in order to find crying children and give them cake. It's weird.

Doing all of these will eventually lead you to the minigame Happiest Day. Technically you can access and beat this mini game on any night, but you must complete all the hidden mini games and then this one to get the good ending. In it, you control a child in a puppet mask walking through a Fazbear restaurant. You walk past the four children you met on previous nights now wearing character masks and give them one a big cake. A fifth child standing on the other side of the table and crying will then put on a Golden Freddy mask. Finally, all six children will disappear, leaving their masks behind.

Beating the game after this will give you to the good ending. The children's spirits have been set free and are no longer possessing the animatronics.

So, what is Springtrap, anyway? Well... gore warning.

The normal minigames throughout the week have you playing as animatronics following a mysterious "Shadow Freddy" through an abandoned and broken Fazbear Restaurant until Purple Guy from FNAF 2 shows up and dismantles you. On the final night, you then play as a ghost child. Going to the room where Purple Guy dismantled the aniamtronics will trigger an interesting situation. Four other ghosts will block the exit while you chase Purple Guy. He will be thoroughly freaking out and will keep running away until finally he runs inside a limp golden rabbit costume in the corner to hide. He seems victorious, laughing at you. Until you hear a sudden crunch and he starts shivering. Slowly, he collapses to the ground as red pixels spray out of the suit. So what happened?

Well in the tapes left by Phone Guy, you will learn about suits called Springlock Suits. These function as normal animatronics but include springlock mechanisms. These mechanisms hold back all the animatronic parts, allowing a person to get inside and wear it as a costume. But there's a huge problem here. That's a lot of animatronic parts being held back by tiny springs. So... what would happen if a spring failed while a person was inside?

You also learn from the tapes that after a certain sprinlock failure, the safe rooms in the pizzerias where the suits are kept are being bricked up permanently.

Springtrap is the Purple Guy. He's the child murderer. And he was crushed to death inside a golden rabbit springlock suit. He was then bricked up in a wall for around thirty years, rotting and decaying, until the room was finally reopened and the suit collected for Fabear Frights, the horror attraction.

That's pretty messed up, huh?

WHEW! Okay this post is getting pretty long and I don't want to overwhelm you. I'm going to leave it here, but I will reblog and it and explain the next three games when I can.

#fnaf #five nights at freddy's #fnaf 1 #fnaf 2 #fnaf 3 #fnaf 4 #fnaf 5 #fnaf 6 #fnaf 7 #fnaf sister location #fnaf sl #fnaf pizzeria simulator #fnaf ffps #freddy fazbear's pizzeria simulator #fnaf ucn #fnaf ultimate custom night #aquila infodumps

26 notes · View notes