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neonlights92 · 3 years

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Night Changes: PART TWO

Jeon Jungkook has spent the last twenty years alone. Single. Solo.

And that’s just the way he likes it. That is, until he meets the supposed love of his life. Suddenly he’s falling over himself at the chance of a real relationship with someone.

The only thing getting in his way? You.

genre: fuckboy!jungkookie, college!jungkookie, romcom, e2l (kinda)

AN: I am so fuckin soft for college Kook you wouldn’t even belieeeeeve

Within days of their ‘truce’, Jungkook realises what a huge dickhead he truly is for not remembering Y/N’s name.

She shares his timetable almost entirely.

“I’m the worst.” He bemoans after a particularly stressful lecture on American poetry, “You weren’t kidding when you said you were in all my classes.”

“Almost all your classes.” She laughs a little at the look on his face and shrugs, “I did tell you.”

“It makes perfect sense now why you hate me.”

Y/N nudges him playfully and shakes her head, “I don’t hate you.” “Yes you do.” He sniffles dramatically, “And you should. I’m an asshole.”

She pulls a face, “Now what am I meant to do here? Tell you that you’re not an asshole? That would be lying.” Jungkook reaches for his heart theatrically and frowns.

“I deserve that.”

She scoffs playfully, “Shut up, Jungkook.”

It’s been exactly four days since Jungkook and Y/N began to hatch their plan to try and get their respective soulmates to fall in love with them.

And though Y/N’s original idea was to host some kind of movie night at her apartment Jungkook has been slowly persuading her into throwing a full blown party. Park Jimin is an absolute animal, Jungkook promises her (that’s a huge stretch, but what college student doesn’t like alcohol and loud music?) and throwing a party is a surefire way to get him to agree to coming.

But Y/N isn’t so easily swayed.

“I’m going to make it up to you,” Jungkook tells her confidently, “I’m going to make sure that you and Jimin get together, and then when you have beautiful babies together you’ll be thanking me. And we’ll forget all about the incredibly unfortunate way we met each other.” Y/N’s smile is soft, but Jungkook sees it.

“I know you will,” She says, “I have faith in your matchmaking abilities, Jeon Jungkook.”

“Which reminds me….Did you think about what I said, Y/N?”

Jungkook has to admit - he really likes having her around. Try as he might at first to have seen the worst in her, he has to admit Y/N’s not half bad.

“About the party?”

He winks, “Bingo!”

“It’s a bad idea.”

“Oh my god-”

“No, because I’m such a wallflower,” She insists, shaking her head firmly, “Jimin will just think I’m boring.”

“I’ll help you come out of your shell. I’ve told you that already. It will be like a life lesson for you - a chance to shine in the spotlight.”

“I don’t shine,” Y/N is whining now, “It’s stupid to even try.”

“No it’s not,” Jungkook insists, “Everybody shines. In their own way. Everybody.” He feels kind of awful for her.

How can she even think that way about herself?

“You don’t - it’s not. C’mon Jungkook I can’t-”

“What about the night we met?” Jungkook interrupts, as the two round the corner of Jungkook’s street, “You were partying then, weren’t you? You were shining then?” She flushes, “That’s different.”

“How?” She shuts her eyes for a moment. Jungkook worries he might have pushed her too far. He slips his bottom lip between his teeth and just as he opens his mouth to apologise she sighs heavily.

“It’s stupid.”

He brushes a hand over her shoulder, “It’s not.”

Her eyes open and he’s taken aback by the softness there.

He wants to reach out and maybe pat her cheek but he decides against it. Fuckboy or not, Jungkook is not the kind of guy to do that. Is he? No. He isn’t.

Besides. Soomi.

“Okay. Okay. I’ll throw the damn party. But you’re helping me with everything, okay?”

Jungkook feels something like electricity shoot up his ass. (He won’t ever tell anyone else he thought that.)

“Yes! This is going to be perfect Y/N I swear. Jimin will love it. So will you,” He grins like he’s hit the jackpot, “It’s the last day of semester in three weeks time. We’ll use that as a reason okay? And we’ll plan everything together. It will be amazing.” Y/N’s eyes dart across Jungkook’s face nervously.

She seems to be looking for something - what he’s not sure - but after a moment she nods.

“Fine. Okay. End of semester,” Her lips fall into a small smile, “Do you think this will work?”

They stop at the entrance of Jungkook’s building.

“It’s perfect Y/N. I swear. Just perfect.”

When her smile widens Jungkook thinks he’s never seen her look better.

“I’m trusting you Jungkook.” She narrows her eyes playfully, “Don’t fuck it up.”

He crosses his index finger across his chest and nods determinedly.

“Trust me, Y/N. We’ll have Park Jimin eating out of your hand before you know it.”

And he really believes it, too.

The next day Jungkook runs into Y/N at lunchtime. He hasn’t seen her in any of his classes today and when he texts her to tell her this, she reminds him that Friday is the only day they don’t share a timetable.

He has to admit he’s kind of bummed.

So when he finds himself wandering into the campus garden with Hoseok trailing less than enthusiastically behind him, his eyes zero in on her immediately.

She’s eating some kind of burrito - probably extra spicy as she’s told him that’s the only way to eat Mexican food - and reading a book. Of course she’s reading a book.

Nerd.

“Hey Hobi let’s go sit over there.” He points her out to his friend and Hoseok raises a brow.

“Who’s that?” “Y/N.”

“Y/N?” His brow raises even higher if possible, “Y/N as in the girl you slept with who’s name you can’t remember and who’s roommate you are in love with? And who you’ve promised to help set up with Park Jimin? That Y/N.” Jungkook frowns, “Well when you say it like that…” He rolls his eyes, “Shut up. Let’s just go.” Hoseok shrugs and follows his friend - what good will it do him to argue anyway? - and when Jungkook reaches his destination he clears his throat noisily. Y/N looks up and Jungkook notices she’s wearing a pair of thick-framed glasses. He has to admit… She looks kind of adorable in them.

The moment recognition dawns on her face, Y/N’s lips lift.

“Hi.” Jungkook’s smile widens when she grins up at him.

“Hi.” She shifts slightly, “What are you uh - doing here?” “Stalking you obviously,” Jungkook takes a seat beside her on the blanket she’s set up to eat on, and gestures for Hoseok to do the same, “This is my friend Hoseok. The one I said dances with your boyfriend.” She wrinkles her nose and flushes, “Jungkook! He’s not my boyfriend.” She turns to Hoseok and smiles softly, “Hi.”

Hoseok - to his credit - doesn’t seem to mind the Jimin comment. He smiles back at her.

“Hi Y/N.”

Jungkook unwraps the dismal lunch he’s made himself - a sweetcorn and tuna salad - and gestures to the book sitting in Y/N’s lap.

“What’s that?”

She looks down and then up, “Oh. It’s uh - god. It’s stupid.” Jungkook quirks a brow, “C’mon tell me. What is it.” She hesitates for a second and then rolls her eyes, seemingly accepting her fate.

Jungkook almost wants to remind her that they’re friends - she shouldn’t be embarrassed in front of him - but he stays quiet.

She lifts the book to show him the cover.

“It’s a book on gaining confidence.” Her shoulders shrug, “I thought it might help. Y’know… With the whole…” Her eyes flit over to Hoseok briefly, “Jimin thing.”

Hoseok chuckles and it catches Jungkook off guard.

He’d almost forgotten his friend was there.

“That’s adorable,” Hoseok comments, “Man if a girl did that for me I’d be beyond flattered.” Y/N’s cheeks flush and she shakes her head, “No - I mean. I don’t know. It’s not just for him…”

“Still.” She bites her bottom lip and shrugs, “I mean I guess. Yeah. He should be flattered.” Hoseok laughs again and Jungkook has a sneaking suspicion his friend might be flirting.

He doesn’t like that.

Y/N is not for Hoseok. Not at all.

“Well she’s not reading the book for you,” Jungkook tells him, trying to control his anger, “She’s reading it for Jimin.” Hoseok raises a brow. He takes a moment and then smiles again.

“I gathered.”

Jungkook spends the rest of the lunch break trying to stop whatever weird energy Hoseok and Y/N have going on.

There is absolutely no way in hell that Jung Hoseok thinks he can just swoop in and ruin all his plans, right? Y/N needs to fall in love with Jimin. Park Jimin needs to be the one laughing with her and smiling at her and flirting with her.

He’s absolutely livid by the time Y/N scurries off to class.

“What the fuck was that?” Hoseok pulls a face, “What?”

“That. That… Flirting. What was that?” Jungkook has barely even touched his lunch (and it’s got nothing to do with the absolute miserable state of it, he swears.)

Hoseok seems confused for only a moment later. Then his face opens up.

“Oh, right.” He shakes his head, “I wasn’t flirting, Jungkook.” Jungkook hates the look on his friend’s face. Like he knows something Jungkook doesn’t.

“What’s that look for Hoseok?” Hobi chuckles and shakes his head, “Nothing Jungkook. Absolutely nothing.” Jungkook spends the rest of the day thinking about that godforsaken look.

Jungkook wakes up the next morning (which thank god happens to be a Saturday,) to a text message from Y/N. He’s been trying to convince her to use more emojis - but she refuses.

Secretly, he finds her texting kind of cute.

But he’ll never tell her that.

Y/N: Are you free today?

Jungkook: as a bird. what did you have in mind?? :)

Y/N: It’s my birthday. Soomi is taking me out bowling. Wanna come?

Jungkook feels his heart swim all the way up to his throat.

Soomi? And wait what - it’s Y/N’s birthday? He’s sort of offended she only brought it up now.

Jungkook: uhhh… what?? happy fuckin birthday y/n!!! ur naughty!!! birthday ??? why didnt you tell me yesterday???

Y/N: You’re an English Lit student. Use proper vocabulary and grammar please. And I don’t know I didn’t think it was a big deal.

Jungkook: u cant change me boo… u just text like a granny. its your birthday stupid ofc its a big deal. mind if i invite some of my friends??

It’s a few minutes before Y/N finally replies.

Y/N: Yeah. Sure. Meet us at Blue Pins in an hour?

Jungkook: c u there… birthday girl!!!!!

Y/N: Ugh.

Jungkook smiles at the way she still acts like she hates him even though he knows she doesn’t really.

It really is the start of a beautiful friendship.

An hour later Jungkook finds himself sat in a booth with Hoseok, Taehyung and Namjoon, nervously tapping his fingers against the surface of the table.

Hoseok clicks his tongue loudly and grabs his friend's hand from across the booth. His eyes are narrowed a little.

“Will you calm down?” “Are you kidding?” Jungkook’s eyes are as wide as a pair of saucers, “I’m about to meet the woman I’m going to marry.”

Hoseok scoffs at that and Taehyung scrolls through his phone, bored as always.

After a moment, Taehyung clears his throat, “He said yes.”

Jungkook feels like his heart has just fallen out of his asshole.

“What?”

“Jimin said yes,” Taehyung rolls his eyes, almost as if he’s annoyed at this spectacular outcome, “He’ll come to Y/N’s party at the end of the semester..”

“Oh fuck YES!” Jungkook fist pumps the air in joy as Hoseok chuckles in delight.

“You’re overreacting,” Namjoon tells his friend seriously, “Jimin coming does not equal Jimin falling in love with Y/N.”

“It gets me one step closer though,” Jungkook feels lighter already, “And one step closer to that means one step closer to Soomi falling in love with me.”

Namjoon snorts out a laugh, “Stop it.”

“What?” Jungkook takes a swig from the cappuccino he insisted on ordering as soon as they arrived, “It’s true.”

“You’re not seriously thinking you’re in love with this girl Jungkook?” Hoseok’s eyes dance with mirth, “I know you man.”

“What do you mean?”

Hoseok raises a dubious brow, “You’re the ultimate fuckboy.”

“I am not.”

“Yes. You are.” Taehyung tacks on helpfully, “Notoriously so, actually.”

“Shut up.”

Jungkook doesn’t want to admit it but he knows his friends are kind of right. Sue him - he’s young and handsome and he’s in college. Everybody fucks around in college.

“And anyway I don’t actively pursue girls unless I have the intention of taking it somewhere.” Jungkook crosses his arms, “A fuckboy I may be, but a dickhead I am not.”

“Says the guy who forgot Y/N’s name after a vigorous night of lovemaking.” Namjoon grins like the cat who got the cream and Jungkook wants to smack him.

“You can thank your dear friend Kim Taehyung for that.” Jungkook replies sharply, narrowing his eyes at his so-called childhood best friend.

Taehyung gasps like he can’t believe what Jungkook’s just said.

“Seven tequilas on an empty stomach is never a good idea Tae,” Jungkook rolls his eyes, “You kept insisting.”

Taehyung answers with a flippant wave of his hand, eyes finally moving away from his phone, “Whatever. You’re an adult, right? You could’ve said no.”

“Not when free alcohol is involved.” “Anyway Kookie, the point is you can’t be in love.” Hoseok leans back like he’s just discovered the meaning to life. Always so smug.

Jungkook can’t help but find it a little annoying.

“And how, oh wise one, are you coming to this conclusion?” Jungkook’s tone is dripping with sarcasm. He raises a brow at his friend and gives him the most pointed look he can manage.

It’s still Hoseok and Jungkook has to admit he respects his opinion the most.

“Because you’re you. And you barely know this girl.” Hoseok rolls his eyes, “That’s how.”

“I find that offensive,” Jungkook retorts, “People are allowed to change and grow. Now I’ve met Soomi I’m different.”

Namjoon shakes his head, “There’s no point, Hobi. We all tried, believe me. But he’s decided that he’s in love with her. Just get on board with it.”

Jungkook sends Hoseok a toothy grin once he swallows the last of the cappuccino and nods emphatically.

He knows what his friends think of him.

That he’s slutty and careless. That commitment scares the shit out of him. That he’s incapable of monogamy. A combination of all of the above.

But Jungkook knows the truth. He didn’t want a girlfriend before this because he hadn’t met someone that made sense to him.

And what’s the point of being with someone unless you’re all in?

“Anyway when you’re guests at our wedding it’ll all make sense,” Jungkook pushes his empty coffee cup to the side, “We’re meant to be.”

Taehyung laughs at this - despite himself - and Hoseok and Namjoon chuckle too.

“Jungkook?” The sound of someone calling his name causes him to turn quickly, eyes widening when he sees who it is. Y/N. She’s smiling at him of course - but that’s not what causes Jungkook to almost go into cardiac arrest.

No. Of course not.

It’s the beautiful angel standing beside Y/N that causes him to almost forget how to breathe.

“Hi,” He squeezes out despite himself, eyes riveted to Soomi’s beautiful face, “Hi.”

Soomi smiles and Jungkook is immediately breathless.

“Jungkook right? Y/N’s… Friend.” The suggestive tone annoys Jungkook - he can’t have Soomi thinking he belongs to anyone else but her - and he nods.

“Yeah.” “But just a friend now,” Y/N pipes up helpfully, “We… Uh… Worked through our differences. And now we’re friends. Just friends. Totally platonic.” Jungkook thinks she’s kind of overkilling the whole thing but he doesn’t say anything. Instead he smiles at Soomi and watches as her face puts two and two together.

Yes. Yes.

Jungkook wants her - no he needs her to know that he’s single.

Really single.

Totally single and available and hers.

Namjoon clears his throat somewhere from Jungkook’s left. He turns to his friends and nods quickly.

“Right. Yes of course. My friends - these are my friends. Taehyung and Namjoon, and Y/N you’ve already met Hoseok.” The two share a small wave. Jungkook ignores the stab of annoyance that sends to his gut.

“Hi,” Soomi smiles in a way Jungkook is sure is almost too heavenly to be real, “I’m Soomi.” God. He really is a goner.

Jungkook doesn’t want to brag, but he is pretty good at bowling.

Okay. Who’s he kidding?

He totally wants to brag.

The moment Y/N splits them up into two teams - Soomi, Jungkook and her versus Namjoon, Hoseok and Taehyung - he’s determined to win.

He has to win.

He has to show Soomi one of his many, many, many talents.

“You’re pretty good at this,” Soomi remarks as he throws his first strike, “Or is that just beginner’s luck?”

Jungkook shakes his head and shrugs, “I’d say I’m pretty good.”

Her giggle is music to his ears.

“That’s impressive. What kind of girl doesn’t want a man who can throw a strike?”

Jungkook smirks, “That’s what I always say.” Her eyes crinkle at the side when she smiles and though it's not quite as adorable as Y/N’s - he’ll never admit this out loud - she still looks so sweet his heart constricts almost painfully in his chest. He forgets for a moment where he is, laying on the charm thick.

“Is that how you seduce poor unsuspecting women then? With your bowling skills?”

He winks in that way that usually works and his smirk widens, “You know it!”

Soomi giggles again and Jungkook is surprised at how smoothly this all seems to be going - when the sound of somebody throwing a gutter grabs his attention.

His eyes lift - thinking it has to be the other team - and he furrows his brow when he sees Y/N standing at the very top of the bowling lane, staring at the full set of pins in front of her.

Holy shit.

Jungkook momentarily forgets about Soomi - his competitive nature kicked into overdrive - as he shoots up from his seat and rushes towards Y/N.

“Oh my god,” He’s right beside her in an instant, “Was that you?”

Y/N looks up at him - cheeks flushed - and nods, “Yeah. I’m terrible at bowling.”

“So why would you choose to come here? On your birthday?”

Jungkook is somewhere between disbelief and pure horror. But he has to admit, the look on her face is sort of funny. She’s mortified.

“Soomi suggested it. She said it might be fun,” She looks away for a moment, “For her maybe.”

The sound of someone scoring a strike blares to Jungkook’s left and when he sees Taehyung performing some kind of ridiculous victory dance, he decides enough is enough.

“No. No.” Jungkook sets his jaw, “I’m going to help you.”

Y/N’s brow lifts, “What?” “I’m going to help you. You’re going to score a strike.”

She snorts out a laugh.

“I don’t think you realise how truly terrible I am at this.”

“And I don’t think you realise how truly competitive I am,” He gestures to the balls, “Grab the lime green. That’s the lightest.”

Y/N watches him for a moment longer. She looks behind him and moves her hand in the general direction of Soomi.

“What about Soomi?” He flares his nostrils, “She’ll still be there after I finish helping you.”

Y/N stares at him, and when Jungkook cocks his head towards the row of balls lining the back of the bowling alley, she shrugs and follows his command.

Jungkook takes this as a moment to teach Y/N how to shine.

After all, what better way to fell good about yourself than being good at something you always thought you sucked at?

When Y/N comes back with the lime green ball, he grabs her free arm and positions her to stand with her back to his chest, wordlessly.

“Woah.” Y/N breathes, “What are you doing?”

Jungkook’s mouth is right beside her ear, “Just follow me okay? I’m helping you, I swear.”

He slides his hand down to the ball and grips her fingers carefully.

“Don’t hold too much tension in your wrist,” He tells her sternly, “You’re too tense. You’re always too tense. Relax.” Something strange passes between them. Y/N takes a long, deep breath, and Jungkook tries to concentrate on the task at hand.

“Now slowly, slowly, bring the ball back,” Y/N follows Jungkook’s movements, “And… Release.”

He helps her flick it onto the lane, and they watch in suspense as the ball spins towards the pins. There is almost a moment where everything is suspended in time - before the ball crashes with the pins and nine of them fall down.

Y/N squeals in happiness and turns around sharply, throwing her arm around Jungkook’s neck and pressing herself against him in a hug.

“Thank you Jungkook!” She is smiling so widely, his heart turns, “You’re the best.”

“You’re welcome.” Jungkook finds he’s grinning too, “You deserve it. Happy birthday Y/N.” He pushes some hair out of her face - practical purposes of course, it was getting in her eyes - and she seems to catch her breath at the gesture. They stare at each other for a moment, before someone clears their throat from behind them and they break apart. Soomi is standing between them, holding a bubble gum pink bowling ball.

Jungkook wonders almost flippantly if she only picked it up for it’s colour.

“It’s my turn, right?” She turns her smile on Jungkook and he melts.

God.

She’s beautiful.

“Right.” Jungkook smiles back, “Your turn.”

When he turns to move back to their booth he notices Y/N watching their interaction carefully. Her eyes flit away the moment she’s caught, but Jungkook knows what he saw.

Strange.

Very strange indeed.

Later on that evening, after they’ve all shared a pizza, and Jungkook has spent the rest of the night watching Soomi with hearts in his eyes, Hoseok clears his throat with purpose.

They’re sat in their living room - Hoseok has decided to crash over because, why not? - and playing a midnight mario kart match, when Jungkook’s friend seems to have something to say.

Jungkook pauses the game. He turns to Hoseok.

“Yes?” There is a brief moment of silence. Taehyung is forever scrolling through his phone, and Namjoon has long ago gone to bed. Hoseok clicks his tongue.

“Are you sure you like Soomi?”

The question completely throws Jungkook off.

He raises a questioning brow, “What?”

“I’m just - asking. I’m just…” Hoseok turns to Taehyung for support. When his friend doesn’t notice, he smacks him across the shoulder, “Tae.”

“What?”

Jungkook narrows his eyes, “Have you guys talked about this?” Taehyung seems to realise where the conversation has just come from. He actually locks his phone and sets it to one side.

“Yeah.” Taehyung answers honestly, “We have.” “I’ve told you guys a million times. I know I barely know her but -” “That’s not it.” Hoseok licks his bottom lip, “I mean it’s crazy you think you fell in love at first sight but… Stranger things have happened.” Jungkook scoffs, “So? Why have you asked then?” Another beat.

Taehyung sighed heavily, “Because we think you like Y/N.”

“What the fuck?” Jungkook snorts out a laugh because really - what else can he do?, “Why the fuck would you think that?” His friends share another look and Jungkook hates that.

He hates that they think they know him better than he knows himself.

Hoseok shakes his head, “Just a feeling.” “A feeling that’s wrong.” Jungkook states firmly, “Dead wrong.” Taehyung nods and picks up his phone, “Fine. Alright. We’re wrong then.” Hoseok seems like he wants to say more but he doesn’t opting instead for something that sounds sort of like a grunt.

Jungkook watches his friends for a moment longer.

“Yeah. So wrong.”

That night, when Jungkook’s just about to go to bed he receives a text message. He opens his phone, expecting Y/N and finding, instead, an unrecognised number staring back at him.

Soomi: hiiiii jungkook :) it's soomi… y/n gave me ur number. hope u dont mind.

Jungkook pushes his friends’s ridiculous theory to the back of his head, and focuses instead on the fact that Soomi has just texted him. His thumbs move to answer her but he pauses, moving instead to open Y/N’s chat history.

Jungkook: hey. happy bday again champ. u da bomb!! also thanks for giving soomi my number. u a real one for that, chief!!! :) :) :)

Y/N’s reply comes only a few minutes later.

Y/N: Thank you Jungkook. I appreciate it. And no worries… She seemed to really be into you after tonight. So well done, yeah? :)

Jungkook smiles at the emoji that he imagines Y/N forced herself to add, and almost misses the part when she says Soomi was into him.

Right. Yeah. Perfect.

He opens up Soomi’s chat and starts to write out a reply.

This is exactly what he wanted.

TAGLIST: @cuddleboo @veronawrites @minluvly @severetimetravelnerd @moonchild1 @bunnyjeonjk @multicolourunicorn @somewhereinthestarss @jwlmnbt @jojo-suga @zera10 @ggukkieland @thesugatoyourtae @dxlbts @wxndi

#bts #college!jungkook #fuckboy!jungkook #fanfic #fanfiction #bangtan #jeon jungkook #smut #angst #romcom #imagine

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prettytoxicrevolver · 3 years

Text

Heartbreak | awesamdude

Requested? Nope this just helped me with my writer's block

Warnings? None?

Summary: Sam helps you through a heartbreak

Word Count: 1,816

You were certain you were going to be sad forever.

Dramatic yes, but you always had a flair for grabbing attention whenever you could. As much as you didn’t want to admit it though, you were genuinely crushed though by your break up.

You and your now ex-boyfriend Austin had spent six months together, in what you would call a whirlwind romance. He had stolen your heart pretty quickly, the two of you spending what felt like every second for the past half-year together.

Dinners, studying together, errands, dates, weekends, everything was spent together. You couldn’t believe how fast it had happened and then how fast it had ended. You were still reeling a solid week later after being ghosted for a solid two weeks and then having the relationship end with a text that said he couldn’t do this anymore.

You had taken the break up as well as anyone or any of your friends knew. You had cried and cried and cried the first few days, watching sad movies or romance movies over and over until you cursed every man to the ends of the earth for simply existing. You then ate a copious amount of your favorite comfort food accompanied by many sympathetic hugs from your mom.

By the end of the first week, you knew you had to keep going in life, but didn’t know how to cope with the breakup. So, your next resort was sad music. You were pretty certain anyone looking at your Spotify playlists was probably concerned at the number of sad songs playing on a loop but it helped to know someone else understood the pain you were going through.

“Please tell me you at least left your house today?” Sam, your best friend questions.

Sam had been your rock through this entire thing. While he hadn’t come over (at your request since you looked horrific) he still tried and coached and helped as much as possible. He texted you throughout the day, calling you at night to check up on how you felt and what you did during the day. You were definite this boy was the only good one left.

“Uhhh,” you drag out at his question looking around your trashed room and see that you probably couldn’t even make a path to your door if you wanted to through the number of clothes on the floor.

“That’s okay. There’s always tomorrow,” he reassures and you smile lightly at his positive tone.

The next day, you woke up a familiar pang hitting your chest and memories flooding you. Today was probably not going to be a good day in the break-up department. You tried though, for the sake of your best friend, and got as far as showering and eating something.

After lunch you ended up back in bed, sad Taylor Swift music on a loop and your covers pulled up to your chin. Sure, you made progress today and you could carry that momentum into tomorrow but you were pretty certain this was as far as you were getting.

Just as you snuggle into the covers, your phone dings with Sam’s special text tone and you pick it up. Your eyes scan the text and a smile creeps along your lips again.

“You can do this!! What did you eat this morning?”

You text him back, telling him about how your day is going so far and what you’ve eaten, and ask the older boy what his plans are for the day. He’s quick to text back and tells you not much is up and you leave it at that and go back to your playlist and sulking.

Sam couldn’t help but worry about his best friend and the girl he had been secretly crushing on since day one. He hated knowing you were sad and couldn’t do much more than offer words of encouragement and support. As he paces his apartment ideas wracking his brain one hits him like a freight train.

He grabs his keys and wallet, heading out the door to your house. Once there, he knocks on the door, waiting patiently for one of your family members to answer.

“Sam!” your father greets and the brunette smiles.

“Hi, Mr. (y/l/n). Is (y/n) around?”

“Upstairs in her room,” your dad says and Sam nods and thanks him before scaling his way up the stairs and towards your room.

Just before he knocks on the door, he stops upon hearing music playing inside. All Too Well by Taylor Swift blasts in your room and Sam pouts at the idea of you alone and sad in your room. He knocks on the door, waiting for your voice and when he hears you call to him he lets himself in.

When you see Sam enter your room, you sit up in bed clear confusion present in your features. Sam makes his way to you, sitting down in front of you on your bed and you pause your music.

“Hi honey,” he greets and you smile sadly.

“Hi,” you respond weakly.

Sam doesn’t say another word, just opens his arms to you in which you dive straight into. He holds you tight rubbing light circles on your back as tears flow slowly down your cheeks. He pulls back after a moment, lifting your face into his hands and wiping away your tears with his thumbs.

“You’re too pretty to cry over an idiot like him,” he tells you and your sad smile shoots straight to his heart.

“I think I loved him Sam.”

“I know baby,” he says, still focusing on your tears and not meeting your eyes. “But he’s still a jerk who hurt you and doesn’t deserve you. Don’t waste tears on that. Your tears and emotions are precious.”

You nod, sitting up and pulling yourself over to sit next to Sam. You lay your head on his shoulder and he rests a hand on your leg rubbing comfortable shapes on your thigh.

“You ready to face the world?” he whispers and you take a deep breath.

“With you? Yeah.”

Sam stands, a wide smile on his face before holding his hands out to you. He pulls you up with him before whipping out his phone and blasting music. However this time it’s the good kind of Taylor Swift that makes you feel like a bad bitch and you can dance around your room too.

Sam takes your hands in his and spins you around the room, the two of you screaming the lyrics together and the louder you are the better you feel. Sam’s hands in yours, the music blasting, and the therapeutic action of yelling Taylor Swift’s music ebbing the pain away slowly.

By the time a few songs have gone by and you and Sam are exhausted from dancing he pauses the music. He holds up a hand, heading to your closet and picking out an outfit before throwing it towards you.

“Let’s go get some dinner huh baby?” he asks and you nod not even realizing the wide smile set on your lips looking at your best friend.

He lets himself out of your room and as you get changed you can’t help the little giggle that escapes your lips thinking about Sam. Before Austin, you had the biggest crush on your best friend. It had never gone away, granted you were pretty sure it was still there the way he had your heart racing just by being in the same room as you.

He made you feel like a queen on your worst days, and like the only woman to ever walk the earth on your best days. You wish you knew if he felt the same or not knowing that if he did you’d give that man the whole world and more.

You finish getting changed, swinging your door open and Sam looks up, an awestruck smile hitting his lips. He holds out his hand and you take it letting him pull you away from the room that held utter sadness for a week now and into your utter happiness.

When you get to Sam’s car, you’re back to blasting music and singing, the two of you trading laughs, jokes, and stories like any other day and Austin has been pushed so far back in your mind you barely remember what he did in the healing presence of Sam.

“The usual?” Sam asks, pulling into both of your favorite restaurant.

You nod and the two of you get out together and head inside the crowded restaurant. You’re seated to the side of the room in a big booth that hides the two of you away from the rest of the world. As you flip through the menu uselessly, already knowing what you want, you realize Sam’s eyes are on you.

“What?” you ask.

“Nothing. You’re smiling again,” he says and you don’t even realize the grin that had set permanently on your lips since he had walked into your room.

“I’m glad to see it,” he says and you both smile, a blush covering your suddenly nervous selves before looking away.

Dinner goes by quickly, and you wonder why you didn’t call Sam earlier. The thought crosses your mind but is quickly washed away by the thump of your heart when he sends a smile your way and your feelings reverberate throughout your entire body.

You head out of the restaurant and decide to head home for the night. The ride home is easy, music flowing, conversation traded back and forth, probably the best you felt in a long time.

When you get out of the car, Sam meets you on your side and you lean against the passenger door. You stare up at him as he leans next to you, body half-turned to face you and your heart speeds up a little.

“So,” he sighs out.

“So,” you echo.

His hand comes up to push a piece of hair back, before trailing slowly down your jawline and eventually cupping your cheek. He hesitates for a moment as he turns to face you completely, his body slotting in between yours perfectly.

“Can I?” he asks quietly, his head dipping down mere inches from yours.

You nod, heart slamming in your chest and his lips finally grace yours. You come alive under his touch, one arm wrapping around his shoulder while the other grips the fabric of his shirt pulling him as close as possible. Your lips sync with ease, his body pressed against yours as you sink into his touch.

When you’re out of breath you pull away but stay close to Sam as possible. His forehead lands on yours and he pecks your lips again before pulling back just slightly to look at you.

“So,” he repeats and a smile widens on your lips a giggle escaping shortly after.

“So, wanna come inside?”

#awesamdude imagine #awesamdude x reader #awesamdude fic #dream smp imagines #dream smp x reader #dream smp fic #mcyt imagine #mcyt fic #mcyt x reader #x reader #fic #imagine #bravebesson

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phairfantooooom · 4 years

Text

Obey Me Explained….. Kinda

In which I do my best to explain the shit hell that is the Time Travel in Obey Me.

Spoilers: It’s absolute bullshit

So we start in chapter uhhh 15 technically since the plot twist is explained that Barbatos is actually a OP Time Wizard, which feels like a throwaway plot device… like dude there are so many ideas and you use Time Travel? Come on.

However I do appreciate the Yugioh Pyramid room. Good taste.

Anyways Barbatos gives you VERY CLEAR INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO NOT FUCK UP and what does MC do? Why THEY FUCKING BREAK VERY FUCKING RULE IN THE LAWS OF TIME TRAVEL. *screams in quantum physics*

Barbatos’ Rules of Time Traveling (It’s more so Timeline Hopping but you know what, I can scream all day but it won’t change anything)

Do not reveal you are from the future (More like don’t reveal you are from a different Timeline or Universe)

Do not meet your past self (Hello??? Doppelgängers??? Stay the FUCK away)

Don’t make contact with others from the past. (Go back, observe how Belphie got out and then get the hell out)

To get back to this point in time (Read: Timeline) you need to KNOCK and ENTER through the door you used to get to the past

Now you may be thinking, Huh? What door? I don’t remember going back through a door in the story…

And you would be right. You didn’t.

From here I’ll be explaining the Timeline and order of events and speculation as to why it occurred the way it did.

For reference. There is the Original Timeline. Which is OT1, this is the Timeline of chapters 1 to the end of 15.

The Second Timeline, OT2 is the Timeline where Belphie kills you.

The Third and Final Timeline, OT3 is the Timeline we are currently in. Which is from Chapter 16-12 and onwards.

Alright now that’s out of the way let’s get this shit sorted shall we?

When you go through the wack time travel door you are sent back to Chapter 12-13, to the perspective of the brothers as they hide so that THIS TIMELINES YOU can go romance/befriend/ WHATEVER Lucifer.

So we start with OT1’s MC dropping into Mammon’s bedroom. You know, possibly fortnite like. With everyone in there. Worst possible outcome. And rather than fucking BOLTING, you stay and chat. You know, despite being told not to. You have the option to lie about how you ended up in the room but it doesn’t change the FACTS.

At this point, there are two MC’s. One from OT1 and one that is currently vibing with Lucifer.

The boys end up kicking you out of the room and telling you to go chit chat with Lucifer, unaware that there is already a different version of you doing that.

So you hear Lucifer and your other self coming down the hall and this is where shit starts to get weird.

Regardless of which option you choose (Run, Hide, Turn Invisible- which by the way seems kinda like a weird option right? I’ll get to that later) you end up going into Lilith’s room.

Now. Directly from the transcript.

It’s so warm in here.

I recognize this place. It feels like someplace I know very well.

Now. Time to over analyze. You may be wondering why this matters. I’ll get to that in a bit I promise.

It’s stated that it’s warm. But really that doesn’t make sense. The room is stagnant. Nobody comes in or out. The room is abandoned since Lilith is dead and nobody uses it. However, I have a theory that Lilith is spiritually attached to your body which is why you sense what you feel.

Lilith probably has plenty of memories of sitting by the FIREPLACE in her room with Beel and Belphie. A lot of times people with spirit attachments get senses of déjà vu when they are near places that the Spirit used to frequent when the Spirit was alive.

The next area of weirdness is Leviathan. He comes in, unannounced and addresses you as if you were Lilith.

Transcript:

I’m coming in, okay?

Aha, I thought I’d find you in here.

Wait, Belphie’s not here?

Huh, that’s weird… He was just telling me that he was going to stop by your room.

Both of you were playing hide-and-seek, right?

He said he couldn’t find you. He looked like he was about to cry.

Why don’t you try to go find Belphie yourself? I mean, I guess it’s hard to say who’s it at that point, but still.

Well, see ya later.

Alright. So we have a lot to unwrap here, but I’ll make it short and sweet. Something clearly happened when you KNOCKED and ENTERED Lilith’s room (Hint Hint Nudge Nudge) What happened you ask? You jumped timelines. Which is why everything seems disjointed and jarring. It’s not supposed to be normal or feel normal, the game is subtly telling you that you aren’t supposed to be there.

Time is beginning to fray at the seams and when you exit the room you jump into another timeline AGAIN. As you go to the stairs to get to Belphie which you would think should be vacant, they are not.

From a casual players perspective you’d think oh! Well Lucifer and past me are in the living room, and the brothers are in Mammon’s room. So it’s all clear, right?

Wrong.

From the moment you exited Lilith’s bedroom you entered the OT2 Timeline. Which takes place roughly right after Lucifer imprisons Belphie in the attic. And at this point in time, you haven’t arrived in the Devildom yet.

I make this assumption based on the transcript:

Belphegor: What scares you is the thought of disappointing Diavolo, isn’t it?!

Say something! Lucifer!

The old Lucifer wasn’t like this. He wasn’t afraid of what someone else thought of him. He wasn’t pathetic like that.

Lucifer: You’re free to think whatever you want, Belphegor. Also…

I’d say you’ve changed as well.

It would seem weird for them to be arguing like this in the present since it’s like. Wow y’all are really just arguing over the same plot point for an ENTIRE year? Damn and I thought I was stubborn.

Anyways.

Lucifer comes down the stairs. You hide and yadda yadda and you goooo upstairrrrssss

Oh boy oh boy this gets FUCKED in hurry folks

So you YOU can just. Open the door. Without Lucifer’s pact? 🤔 k. And then you go and have familiar dialogue choices to wake Belphie up and blahhhhh

Let me get something off the table here. I am calling entire Bullshit on the Lilith is my ancestor origin story. I hate it and you may or may not hate it too so I’ll present a better argument.

Lilith, the lovely gal that she was, upon remembering who she was when she died decided to haunt the House of Lamentation. Which would provide reasoning as to WHY people believe the House is haunted.

When you come to the house of Lamentation to stay with the brothers you catch Lilith’s eye, and she sees that you have the potential to fix the rifts between the brothers. When she attaches herself to you she forms a pseudo pact with you. Why is this important? Because that’s how you got the dumb door open in the OT2 Timeline.

Now some of you may be screaming, BUT THEN HOW DID IT WORK IN THE ORIGINAL TIMELINE THEN HMMMM? And to that I answer. Lilith could see how the conversation between Lucifer and you was heading and she went to go unlock the door. And before you yell and say BUT SHE IS A GHOST-

Ghosts can manipulate objects, yeah? All she had to do was open the door.

Now this is my theory, in the canon of the game it uses garbage Terminator Time Travel logic which is A PARADOX. Feel free to fight me on this, I have receipts.

Anyway. You open the door. Oh but! You can choose to call out before you do. But conveniently nobody answers. Which means one of two things. Either Belphie falls asleep very quickly, or something else is at work here.

Remember those turn invisible options? Kinda strange right? I mean they wouldn’t even work anyways so why were they listed? Answer: Lilith. Lilith is a ghost so at times of being discovered it would be easy for a ghost to just vanish. That’s why it’s listed as if it were one of the choices you would instinctively make.

Belphie had just been conversing with Lucifer, and while he is the Avatar of Soth, you have seen his anger. He wouldn’t succumb to sleep while enraged. And he has no reason to ignore you either.

What do I think?

*puts on tin foil hat like it’s a crown*

It’s because something isn’t letting him hear you.

I’ll get to that something later. First things first.

You get in the room and you have some…. choice dialogue. In OT1 Lilith had let Belphie out and naturally since she is attached to you, you have the same instinctive reaction to do the same. The difference is that you are still you. That’s why there is a Lilith choice and there is a you choice.

Transcript of Chapter 13-10

??? (Lilith):

Belphie…

Wake up…

Sorry Belphie…

Now the choices from Chapter 16-4

Wake up. (Lilith)

Belphegor. (MC)

Sorry. (Lilith)

It’s okay. (MC)

This might be over analyzing but fuck it. We ain’t here to under analyze.

Moving right along, remember how I said we are at the point where you weren’t in the devildom? Well you went through another door, and jumped timelines again. And not ONLY that but you jump into the body of the OT2 MC, your memories are those of OT1 but you are in the body of OT2.

Where is your OT1 body? It’s hidden by the stairs patiently waiting for you to die so you can inhabit it again.

Weird right? But it makes sense, and here is why.

When Belphie brings you to the edge of death you are lying on the border of the afterlife. As such you would be a lot more susceptible to, let say, communication with ghosts.

A.k.a Our good Lilith.

ALSO NOTE Lilith never outright says she is our ancestor and as such I’m going to ignore what Diavolo says because I don’t trust him for reasons. Don’t get me wrong, I love the guy but I don’t trust him. At. All.

I’m more inclined to believe that Lilith was trying to say “Because you are my last hope.” Rather than descendant. I mean she outright says she chose you and that she has been watching over you and the brothers. Fact-check brought to you by Chapter 16-10.

Alrighty. Still here? Good.

Lilith lends you some of her power. And you pop back into existence.

Now at first I thought. Oh hey Lilith reversed time! That’s neat, now Barbatos isn’t too OP.

Except…. that’s not what happened at all.

The body you had been killed in was in Mammon’s arms. And your OT1 mind and body are now in what I call OT3. The final timeline. Not the true timeline, but the final one.

Now you really should skedaddle back to the palace and go to the yugioh room AND LEAVE

But you get caught. And things get very very…. suspicious. History at this point IF we were time traveling would be fucked, but since I don’t believe we are, we are still golden.

ALSO TO EVEN PUSH MORE ON THIS FACT YOU HAVE A FLASHBACK TO BARBATOS TELLING YOU NOT TO COME INTO CONTACT WITH ANYONE

But a moment later Leviathan sees you. And things get funky. The OT2 you vanishes, we have canon confirmation that both OT1 and OT2 WERE REAL VERSIONS OF YOU. No fakes here folks.

Now. Here is what piqued my interest.

You explain the story of Lilith and Belphie calls you a liar before Lucifer proclaims it to be true. Then Lucifer asks you how you know about it.

When you tell him the truth, that he had told you, he denies it and asks for an explanation. Before you can so much as breathe a response someone intervenes.

Who you may ask?

Diavolo, of course.

He makes a proclamation about you being Lilith’s descendant and your connection to her. Lucifer often tries to interject but is shut down. Every. Single. Time.

Hmmmm indeed.

Spiritual attachments, if they are strong enough can cause visions. And you may see memories from the spirit.

I firmly want to believe that all this is bullshit in an attempt to distract us from the fact that we are not in the correct timeline.

I mean…. did anyone notice just how easy Belphie gave in once Diavolo used the Lilith card? I mean, seriously, the guy killed you. And attempted to do so again not even five minutes earlier!

Diavolo and Barbatos don’t want you dead. And naturally you’d reason that of course they wouldn’t! The exchange program requires you to be alive after all. But what if…. there is more to it? I have reason to believe that Diavolo has more in mind than just the exchange program.

I mean this is the same man who Barbatos serves, it would be easy for him to just…. manipulate reality. We saw an example of this when the OT2 body vanished.

However keep in mind that the Diavolo and Barbatos we are speaking to are not the same as the original ones. These two are from OT3. And they might have a very very different agenda when compared to OT1.

In Chapter 16-19 we ask Barbatos if we warped history.

This is what we get back:

I know I told you that I have the power to see both the past and the future, but the truth is that there’s one more secret —something I still haven’t mentioned.

You see, I have the power to select from any number of different potential realities and make any of them into the sole reality.

Within the various potential realities, there are an infinite number of versions of MC…

...however, in the sole reality I chose, the one and only MC is the one right there. That’s why the previous MC disappeared while you remained…

Now by this logic, there are an infinite number of Barbatos’. Which poses an interesting question. OT3 Barbatos is acting as if he is OT1, which he is not. But him acting shady isn’t not the big issue here, believe it or not.

He can manipulate reality. Unravel it at his fingertips. He himself could have gone back and figured out that the ghost of Litith was the one to have opened the door. Which begs the question, why didn’t he?

Either OT1 Barbatos does not possess the ability to manipulate reality or he had withheld information on purpose.

Now that’s a scary thought. I mean why would they withhold information unless…. unless…

You were a danger.

I am in the belief that Barbatos of OT1 is on your side, he gives instructions on how to get back. Because you NEED to get back. There are consequences for messing with time, like…. getting stuck in a parallel reality. *wink wink*

On the other hand… if Barbatos of OT1 COULD manipulate reality then why bother with you unless… there was an extra variable at play.

What if Barbatos couldn’t see what happened. What if Mister OP Time Wizard suddenly encountered an anomaly with you? What if this entire situation was orchestrated by Diavolo in an effort to figure out why Lilith attaches herself to you?

But. The horror doesn’t end here folks.

I believe that OT3 Diavolo and Barbatos are lying in an effort to keep you here, in OT3. After all, Barbatos just yeeted the OT2 MC into smoke after all. And we have NO idea where the OT3 MC is. Honestly I have a very funny feeling that you, the OT1 mc, have powers of your own. Ones that are not related to Lilith.

Because Lilith is just lending her aid, you already have something there for her to boost.

You traveling back in time (Timeline hopping, fight me) May have been a test, a test to see if you had powers locked up inside you.

And I think that you do. I think that we are being played as a fool and that there is something much larger at play here.

Or - And please hear me out - I’m going stir crazy in this quarantine.

Hope you guys enjoyed 💚

A/N this took me about 2 hours? To write and bounce between apps. This is about 2.8k words. Maybe I’ll come back and elaborate more on this but it’s late and I’m tired lmao. Someone take the tin foil away from me-

#Obey Me #Obey Me Headcanon #Obey Me Theory #Obey Me Lucifer #Obey Me Leviathan #Obey Me Diavolo #Obey Me Barbatos #Obey Me Lilith #Obey Me Belphie #Obey Me Belphegor #Lmao I hope this makes sense

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zodiyack · 4 years

Text

Snapping Is Over Rated

Pairing: Kol Mikaelson x Salvatore!Female!Reader

Warnings: Spoilers?, swearing, angst, mention of murder, mention of the humanity switch being flipped

Words: 1,635

Summary: It’s a bad time to be dating a Mikaelson when your brothers decide they want to go on a quest to kill the Original Family, who happen to be linked to each other.

Taglist: @matth1w, @redspaceace-writes, @fandom-puff, @darling-i-read-it, @simonsbluee

Masterlist | The Vampire Diaries Masterlist | The Originals Masterlist

It wasn’t long before Y/n discovered what her brothers were hiding. In fact, it was hiding that led to her putting two and two together. A poorly hid white oak stake and two very suspicious brothers, my my, what could be the problem?

She knew that they only hid it from her due to her romance with one of the Mikaelsons.

Kol was, like his older half-brother, a little off the walls. Nevertheless, he remained loyal and loving. Their relationship had shown her a good side of vampirism, as well as convinced him that life still had meaning even if he wasn’t a witch anymore.

But, if her brothers went through with their plan, neither of them would have that anymore. So she went out to put a large red stop-sign in the middle of their little plot.

“Gah!” Damon hissed as his younger sister sped in front of him, “Where the hell did you come from?”

“Home. Where the hell are you going?” Y/n spat back. She grinned when Damon sighed after studying her for a few moments.

“Uhhh...the Grill.”

“Ah... But, dear brother, the Grill is in the other direction.” Her smile grew wider with the feeling of success. “So, tell me, where are you going? And, please- the truth this time, if you will?”

Stefan walked up behind Damon, turning himself in as he knew they’d been caught. “Damn it. Curse our sister and her inhuman intellect.”

“Don’t curse me for my brains, curse that bitch of a vampire that turned you two as well. Had you not engaged in her games, we’d all be dead and happy in our graves.”

“You could just stake yourself or walk into the sun, ya know?” Damon chuckled teasingly but stopped quickly upon his sister’s dead glare.

“Yes, of that, I am aware. However, you two are also aware of my boyfriend...” She glanced at the bag in Stefan’s hand, somehow already having a terribly accurate guess of what it’s contents were, “A little too aware.”

Stefan sighed, “I mean, yeah. He’s a Mikaelson, Y/n/n-”

“That doesn’t matter! You can’t go through with it! Please...Damon?” Her older brother raised his hands in front of his chest, telling her to leave him out of it with a simple sympathy smirk and squint of his eyes. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Seriously? Have I ever tried to kill one of your girlfriends?”

The brothers thought for a moment before shaking their heads. Stefan looked down to the bag of stakes and back up to his sister, holding the same sympathetic expression as Damon. “I’m sorry. But, Klaus has to die. They all do.”

“No! Kol doesn’t!”

“He attacked Matt, Y/n!” Damon wasn’t one to care for most mortals, but Elena and Matt had been targets of some of the Mikaelsons for a bit of time, and he did end up growing a little closer to the group of abnormal friends, so he made an exception. Unfortunately, he was only willing to let that exception go so far.

“And? You attacked Bonnie! And Jeremy! Let’s not forget Alaric. My point is, we all make mistakes!”

“We all make mistakes, yet Kol has made over a thousand years worth of those without even apologizing. I’ve apologized...for most of them...” Stefan side-glared Damon, whom responded with a jab to Stefan’s side with his elbow. “And, well, my point is that he’s an original who’s just as bad as the other originals. We have a chance to kill the worst of them all, and you can’t stop us.”

She paused, chewing on the inside of her cheek as she thought. Usually, family went first, but they were ever so willing to destroy her happiness- to destroy her first ever romance- that she didn’t really care for the usual anymore.

“You’re right. I can’t stop you. But, if that’s how you guys wanna play,” the veins under her eyes began to darken and her e/c orbs turned red, “then lets play.”

“Wherever is your little play-thing, brother?” Klaus’ voice rang through the phone. Kol only chuckled in response, continuing to watch as Jeremy failed painfully at baseball. “I take it she has yet to arrive?”

“Well, for one, brother, she’s not my play-thing. She’s my girlfriend.” A sincere look of love washed over Kol’s features; his undead heart skipped a beat just thinking about her. “And secondly, I suppose she is rather late.”

“Would you like me to resort to plan two? I can always threaten the witch’s little boyfriend some more. Perhaps get her to do a tracking spell?”

He thought for a moment, debating his options and the situation before licking his lips and nodding. “Plan two it is. See you later, Nik.”

“Until next time, Kol.”

“Shit!” Damon yelped as he dodged a plate that flew over his head. The house had been turned upside down and wrecked in a fit of rage. Just as her brother once had, Y/n had flipped the switch.

Although flipping the switch sounds like something you’d do in a state of pain, Y/n did it in, like mentioned, a fit of rage. In result, it was more like she’d snapped than flipped a switch.

Stefan, hiding with his back against a flipped over couch, attempted to make hand motions to Damon; a wordless code. Sadly, Damon was not in the best state of mind to register the meaning of Stefan’s odd finger movements.

“What?” He whisper-yelled as his brows furrowed in confusion. “Okay, okay, can we continue this later? We kinda have a very deadly and very very angry sister trying to kill-” Damon rolled over, dodging a knife that had come out of the other side of the table due to it being thrown so harshly, “...us.”

“Damn it Damon- I was trying to get us to go,” He pointed towards the door, “in that direction!”

“I can hear you, you know!” Plate after plate hit the wall in front of them.

“On three?” Damon nodded. They began counting quietly in unison until they got to three. From there, they made a break for the front door and to Elena’s house, where they picked the doppelganger up and headed for Matt’s house. Luckily, Matt had never brought anyone from the group to his house aside from Elena and Caroline. He answered the door and let the three in quickly, looking around before shutting and locking it.

“No- you idiot- she can’t get in. There’s no point in locking it.” Damon groaned from the couch.

“Be nice.”

He bitterly responded to Elena’s demand with a fake smile and an obviously sarcastic tone. “Yes, milady.”

“So uh...” Of course Matt hadn’t been informed as to why the three were hiding in his home. “What happened?”

“Oh, ya know, the usual.” The sarcasm in Damon’s voice held thick as ever, “Pissed off my sister by telling her we’re going to kill the originals, as in all of them- including her boy-toy.”

“You did what-”

“Oops. Sorry Elena. I might’ve forgotten to add the part about pissing her off...which reminds me of the most important detail...” He smiled toothily with faux remorse.

The two humans blinked at the dark haired vampire, staring blankly as they waited for the detail he’d spoken of. When it became clear that he wasn’t going to tell them, Stefan cleared his throat and redirected their attention to him. “She flipped her switch.”

“Flipped her switch? Nah, screw the switch. It’s more like she ignored the switch and just plain old snapped.” Damon crossed his arms behind his head and kicked his feet up onto Matt’s coffee table.

He acted as if his sister was not going off the walls in anger. Or rather, he acted as if it was just a casual every day thing for the soft-spoken and caring sister of the Salvatore boys to go on a potential murder spree.

Elena rolled her eyes and scoffed before shoving his feet off the surface. She ignored the glare that burned into her skin and slapped Damon. The sound of her skin hitting his made the other two in the room flinch; it was clear that she did not approve of his choices in the slightest.

“You’re fixing your sister. S-”

“What!? That’s not f-”

“Stefan, and I will go stake the originals. Understood?” Damon huffed and ignored Elena. “Understood?” She repeated herself with a harsher tone before Damon sighed and nodded.

“Yeah yeah, understood.”

Finn was dead. And the other four still breathed the air of the living world. The link had been broken, and they’d failed.

Damon had been kidnapped by Rebekah, therefore failing to stall, as well as fix, his little sister. What he didn’t know, was that Rebekah had contacted Y/n as soon as possible, informing her on the details of her brother’s murder and the older Salvatore’s location.

She sent Stefan to pick up Damon with a disguised note, preventing him from knowing that it had been her to hint to him his brother’s location. After saying goodbye wordlessly from the shadows, she smiled to herself and ran as fast as possible to Kol.

The youngest Mikaelson chuckled as the female Salvatore knocked him off his feet and buried her face into the crook of his neck. “I see you’ve recovered from your snap? Nik told me how you flipped your switch.” His arms held her tightly against his own form. They relished in the feeling of one another, the knowledge that both were safe and together again.

“Snapping is over rated.” She smiled wider against his skin, causing a matching smirk to grace his face.

“You were faking?”

“Yep. Anything to be with you again... But, just to be safe, don’t tell my brothers.”

His chest heaved with hearty laughter, “Whatever you want, love.”

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secondhoekage · 4 years

Text

Ignore this long rant I’m high as shit but I... can’t take the hero commission oR HONESTLY THE HEROES THEMSELVES, seriously anymore

They’re BRAINLESS they all share one (1) brain cell and it belonged to Crust. THESE GUYS had MONTHS to strategize this attack and what did they do? They fucked it up. They want me to believe this was planned and not written on a chalk board the night before? Sent out to all heroes the next morning at 8am in a CHAIN EMAIL?

Unpopular opinion(?): they sent the worst possible, ill-suited heroes to each location for this PLF raid and I’m mad at them for it and I’m mad at Hori for making me be mad at it even tho he had to do it beCauSe oF pLot but I’m mad.

The MLA’s plans to take on The League of Villains? Spotless. Chef’s kiss. The detail. The one-on-one counters they planned out. Accounting for each enemy’s quirk. Yeah there were like 6 of them to account for but?? Heroes, yall had enough info and enough time to think of ways to go about this raid and I’m supposed to believe that you did, BUT DID YOU REALLY? MONTHS TO PLAN, and saw one electric Sir Crocodile rip-off and immediately threw Kaminari on his ass. Good move. Kinda. But the rest of the PLF? Heroes just gonna make shit up as they go I guess??

To make myself feel better here’s a long ass useless rant on what could’ve damn happened and which heroes should’ve gone where and to make this an epic ass rumble. ugh. Even just doing some of these things would’ve made this arc (imo) feel more... convincing and delicious

under the cut tho bc damn this is too long

In this essay I will—

Edgeshot??? EDGESHOT?? EDGESHOT?? i’M GOING TO GO OFF.

I swear to shit Edgeshot could’ve soloed the hospital but they had him at the PLF mansion for Some Reason like... like they didn’t make him run up on the League’s bar instead of the Nomu factory bc they knew he would take care of shit immediately. Make it make sense. If he was at the hospital eye just—Nomu in the way?? Doctor running off? Say less. Electric slide all the way in there Shinya. DID NO ONE SEE HOW EASILY HE HANDLED KUROGIRI? Did everyone just forget this man can pull a K.O in .3 seconds flat? Heroes didn’t think it might be a good idea to have him there, ready to give Shigaraki the paper cut of his life the second he woke up (if he even did bc my mans likely could’ve prevented the ‘doctor getting away>high-end awaken>rush to get shiggy out of the tank>shiggy wakes up’ chain of events)? Didn’t think to send him instead of this guy X Less just sitting there with That Look on his face?

I get they needed heroes like Edgeshot at the mansion to take out a handful of enemies in one go but COME ON NOW. There were more than enough long-range AOE heroes there. And even if you don’t wanna believe he could solo then STILL, EDGESHOT DUOING WITH MIRUKO, ANYBODY? If anyone was gonna keep up with her happy ass zooming into the lab it could’ve been him. We were robbed of an Edgeshot/Miruko teamup and I’m not okay. Could’ve had a sexy ass panel of the hospital-team hyping up Miruko and Edgeshot as they dashed to Ujiko’s lab, two fast as shit bad bitches, zooming through these Nomu, absolutely obliterating them at lightning speed, watching each other’s backs too, PROBABLY SAVING MIRUKO FROM BECOMING THE PRE-DEATH ORGAN DONOR THAT SHE IS NOW. I know it was hot watching Miruko take on these high-ends but I’d have rather Edgeshot share the spotlight if it meant Miruko was in one piece rn. Hori played her

Anyways the literal dumb bitch energy that went into not sending Edgeshot to the hospital is sending me. Could’ve at least let him just be on the team and on standby while Shigaraki was waking up. With those sharp as shit reflexes of his we’ve seen? Shigaraki would’ve been out like a fucking light the second Edgeshot saw him sit up. X-Less you had a nice thicc upper lip that lip was too shaded for you to die, but F in the chat bitch. Useless plot fodder I’m sorry X-Less. There isn’t a hero there right now (besides Aizawa but like... idk, plot is nerfing him) that could’ve incapacitated Shiggy so quickly and prevented the mess they’re in now like my guy Edgeshot could’ve. Feels like a cop out

In conclusion: Edgeshot sweety I’m sorry they did this. I’m sorry you were nerfed. I’m sorry they didn’t let you deliver Kamino Pizza to this hospital. I’m sorry they ignored you and now everyone’s gonna die bc they didn’t they respect your Ninpo rights

CEMENTOSS??? y’all sent him to fuck up the mansion FOR WHAT??? If I were the hero commission and thought :

“Dang we need to completely ass blast this huge PLF resort to make room for our heroes to run in... but it would also be good if we had someone to do that at the hospital too just in case things get tricky and we need to pave a quick way to Ujiko’s secret hideout... but I’m single-celled and can’t weigh my options logically so ok. Cementoss, to the mansion.”

...................... Ok but can I in interest you in PIXIE BOB? I get the mansion is huge but going by the shit we’ve seen her do?? I’m not about to underestimate ol’ girl. I know she could’ve fucked that place up if they let her, switched her out for Cementoss, who could’ve made THE EASIEST route for the hospital team to get into the secret lab, trapped Ujiko, also trapped a couple nomu/high-ends in cement while he was at it, rearranged some tunnels for optimal tactical movement, probably could’ve done a decent-fucking-job at slowing the onslaught of Decay too if it got to that point (AND IT MIGHT NOT HAVE BC THE WHOLE POINT OF THIS RANT IS TO INSIST THAT A BETTER SELECTION OF HEROES WOULDN’T HAVE RESULTED IN SHIGGY’S CURRENT THANOS SNAP ORdEAL)

I know Pixie’s mostly on rescue operations and that’s what she’s doing at the hospital/surrounding city but WHY?? EVEN IF THEY REALLY NEEDED CEMENTOSS AT THE MANSION—WHY NOT HAVE PIXIE BOB DOING SOMETHING IN THE ACTUAL HOSPITAL BATTLE? JUST A LITTLE? The hospital is built on uh.. oh yeah... EARTH? And considering in the Forest Training arc she was using her quirk from a remote location (to make that Earth golem, or whatever) she wouldn’t even HAVE to be IN Ujiko’s lab to be useful

Can y’all PLEASE put at least ONE of your terraforming heroes at the place where y’all REALLY need them?? And not after-the-fact like y’all just did with Pixie Bob? Because clearly she didn’t do shit this last chapter trying to stop Decay. I’m sorry girl. You may be dead. Terrible.

I would have legitimately sent Snipe to get Ujiko before I sent Miruko and that’s that on that. Where is he even? He was there during the briefing but he’s gone? MIA? Idk. No way Ujiko is getting away from those bullets. Target locked: Ujiko’s hand. Fire. High-end Nomu remote goes bye bye. Then another bullet in the leg. No need to worry about him escaping and waking up high-ends/Shiggy when he doesn’t have kneecaps. Problem solved. No way it would’ve taken that long to break Shiggy’s tank either with a few well-placed pew pews zigging around some Nomu (not that we really wanna break him outta his tank bc look what happened). Snipe’s 6/5 technique stat deserves better!!!!!

Gang Orca did not go off and give a bunch of kids brain damage during the License arc to be so thoroughly ignored here. He’s clearly about to get his shit rocked by some gauged-out ex-Hot Topic employee in the next few chapters and ugh you’re TOO GOOD FOR THAT ORCA. COULD’VE BEEN OF USE AT THE HOSPITAL. PARALYZING SONIC WAVES? WE’LL TAKE IT. Who knows if any of the high-end Nomu would’ve been affected by paralysis but the small fry? Probably. Shiggy’s little twink ass? I would bet on it. Not that it would really stop him from using Decay but still

At the risk of sounding like someone I know who endorses child labor (the hero commission) here me out: CAN I GET A UHHH JUZO HONENUKI??? AGAIN YEAH good that he was at the mansion to do some long-range AOE action but if y’all are gonna force kids to join in on this war anyways, put your strongest and most useful ones at the place you need them. Shit it would’ve been real nice if Honenuki was there to trap some Nomu—uncertain if it would work against the high-ends that show some pretty flexible quirks but who knows—and even at the risk of reaching, maybe in some universe where Shiggy and Honenuki face off, it would be interesting to see Decay against Softening, since Decay’s one big weakness is that it can only work on solid objects sooOooOo? Idk. Would’ve been a cool match up but I hate that the kids are fighting anyways so we’re gonna ignore this Juzo rant. Just know it would’ve been cool

And as for the mess that’s going to be this fucking mansion soon... .. We’re just gonna ignore a whole ass Geten, big destructive power, big fucking threat, and not gonna throw Endeavor’s ass in there? Makes sense. They’re leaving it to Shoto I guess. They said time for you to fucking shine kid. Get in there. I mean really trading Endeavor for Edgeshot would’ve been top tier strategy but...

I MEAN THEY?? Made up a whole ass plan to counter ONE greasy-looking PLF guy by throwing Kaminari in there, but they couldn’t make up a plan to counter Geten? Are they just?? Pulling names out of a hat to see who gets to fight who? Did they spin a bottle to see who it landed on? Did Mt. Lady pull the short stick? I swear on shit when Geten starts going feral soon I’m not gonna feel sorry about it. Unless heroes got a plan and someone’s gonna make a sexy ass top 10 anime entrances to counter his ice then I’m disappointed. We went ape shit over Kaminari countering one of the commanders but are we not gonna get anymore ‘I’m your perfect counter and I’m here to stop you’ moments? No? I’M PISSED.

I would have also settled for my kween Nejire being there to blast away some ice because who tf else is gonna do it? But eh.

Dabi will also be trouble depending on what he decides to do. He only has about 3 good ideas a month and he’s used them all up by now so he’s in dumb slut territory as we speak. But you’d think that a villain as widely recognized as Dabi with such a destructive quirk would urge the heroes to have some plan to take him on but?? So far I don’t really see anyone quick to take on the role. Not that it’d be that hard bc he’s dangerous but also dangerously dumb. Where is Inasa. Maybe he can just blast the flames back in Dabi’s face. I love him but at this point he deserves to have some of his rights taken away

Don’t even get me start on Gigantomachia. I get the heroes had little choice except to attack before Shiggy was full-power but just?? NOT having a plan in case by some little chance Gigantomachia DID wake up? You stupid bastards. You absolute fools. I guess there’s not much you CAN do but FUCK y’all just gonna let him SIT THERE? No counter measures? No ‘Let’s execute this incredibly thorough and thought-out plan we’ve spent months formulating to restrain Gigantomachia in case he does end up waking up, because better safe than sorry’? When he tramples like 50 students I bet that shit gonna hurt

I hate it all. I was really happy about seeing Shiggy go off 272 bc he’s a king but after rereading from like, 258 I feel... weird. Maybe this will be resolved with more chapters but. eh. Now that I’ve thought of this, I can’t go back. I miss the brain power that was behind the MLA fight

#bnha spoilers #bnha 272 #i'm mad #bnha #Why did I make this? It’s so dumb #i'm gonna wake up tomorrow and scream #they're 2d bro LMAOOOO #is htis a meta #meta #bnha meta

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whatsup-danger · 3 years

Text

not ready to make nice

chapter one: all these things i hate (revolve around me)

character(s): Bakugou Katsuki

word count: 2057

tags: canon divergent, bakugou pov, canon typical violence, nightmares, panic attacks, bullying, suicide mention, introspection

synopsis: After being kidnapped by the League, Bakugou starts to look at his life more critically. He reflects on why he was taken in the first place and starts to seriously consider whether he's really meant to be a hero or not.

This is my attempt at a fix-it fic and a character study of Bakugou. In both the manga and in fandom, Bakugou's experiences are typically glossed over (much like a lot of other things, but that's a different topic for a different day), and I have a hard time believing that both being kidnapped and told he'd make a good villain didn't shake him to his core. He's strong, yeah, but he was also 15 when it happened. Even the strong break, and I want to explore that (and many other things) with him. Also, some could possibly consider my characterization of Bakugou as.... out of character. But honestly? I'm writing him the way I truly believe him to be and how I think he'll beocme, and I won't let anything influence that. So thank you for coming to my TedTalk, and uhhh, here's my attempt.

Katsuki didn’t expect the aftermath of being kidnapped to be so damn hard. He couldn’t sleep without dreaming of being pulled into the awful blackness of the damn portal villain’s quirk, of being back at the League’s hideout. He couldn’t close his eyes without seeing Shigaraki, seeing his hands, the disconnected ones all over his body and Shigaraki’s own two that could utterly destroy Katsuki, wipe him from the face of the Earth. It was terrifying. It was fucking with his head, making it hard for him to concentrate. More than anything, though, he just couldn’t stop thinking about why the League kidnapped him in the first place.

A villain? Him?

Katsuki’s only ever dreamed of being a hero, being the best. And he was, wasn’t he? Everyone said so. His parents, his teachers, his friends—they all agreed on this one thing: Bakugou Katsuki is fucking awesome, and his quirk is the coolest.

Hell, even Midoriya, the fucking nerd that he is, could see how incredible Katsuki is. And the guy was never shy with his praise. Katsuki has never been able to get him to stop singing his praises, no matter how many times Katsuki told him to and no matter how poorly Katsuki treated him.

But… That was it right? The way he treated Midoriya Izuku was, to put it nicely, not very heroic.

And well, on some level, he’s always known that the way he treats Midoriya is extremely unheroic, but he could always justify the way he treats him to himself. Midoriya was quirkless but still wanted to be a hero, which was funny at first, but it got more and more annoying and downright outrageous the older they got, and Midoriya still made no attempt to accept that he would never be a hero. The nerd wouldn’t even try to work out, to make himself strong enough to even defend himself. How could he ever hope to be a hero if he wouldn’t even try to get stronger? It wasn’t in the books for him, so Katsuki looked at everything he ever did or said to Midoriya as a reality check, as him helping Midoriya to see that his dream of being a hero was only that—a dream.

And yeah, sure—maybe Katsuki overreacted when Midoriya got into UA with some all fucking powerful quirk that he couldn’t even control. But his anger was justified in every way. He thought Midoriya lied to him about being quirkless. Learning the truth about how he got his quirk didn’t really do much in helping him get over that anger, but he just couldn’t handle the fact that Midoriya had a quirk and didn’t even fucking tell him.

So yeah, Katsuki treated Midoriya like shit, but he thought he was justified in his anger toward the damn nerd.

But then—then Shigaraki tried to recruit him.

He can’t stop thinking about it. Ever since he got back, the nightmares have been fucking him up. They are all he can think about most of the time. They’re making him re-evaluate every damn thing he’s ever done in his entire life, everything he’s said.

And he tries to think about other shit. He really does. He throws himself into his training and his studies. He trains so hard that it’s impossible to focus on anything but the burning of his muscles, the way his body moves. He studies so much that he feels he could recite every mind-numbing reading assignment given to him. He even gives his peers more attention when they talk about whatever bullshit thing it is that has their attention at the moment—not that he’d actively show that he’s actively listening to them. But—he can only distract himself for so long before he has to go back to the quiet of his room.

And when he’s alone—well, that’s when his thoughts become a hell of a thing to be alone with. It’s when he can’t help but focus on the fog surrounding him, the one he wants so badly to say rolled in after the kidnapping. But he knows he can’t, knows that the fog was there long before that, thick and gray—suffocating. It’s when he’s alone that he realizes that maybe—maybe Shigaraki’s upheaval of Katsuki’s life only forced some of the fog to clear a bit, forced him to actually look at himself and see what he’s on his way to becoming, whether he wants to become a villain or not.

And that? That’s the most terrifying thing of all.

Katsuki wishes he could remember a time when he and Midoriya were ever really, truly best friends. Truth is, though, that he can’t.

The way his parents tell it, they were inseparable from birth until he got his quirk and Midoriya didn’t. And even then, Katsuki knows that he and Midoriya were still together more often than not, but…. Well, just because they were always together, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they were actually friends, does it? If you ask Midoriya, he’ll definitely tell you that it did. But Katsuki—well, Katsuki feels differently about it.

He knows he wasn’t always a little asshole to Midoriya the entire four years that they actually did get along—videos and pictures in both the Bakugou and Midoriya household can prove that—but he very clearly remembers deciding Midoriya was useless before they found out he was quirkless. He was a crybaby and weak and always so afraid. More than anything, though, he remembers being perpetually upset with the way Midoriya insisted on trying to help him every time Katsuki got hurt, as if he actually needed the damn help. They both knew he didn’t, but Midoriya kept insisting he did, even when he was always the loudest one praising how awesome and capable Katsuki was. It pissed him off to no end, so he called him Deku, useless, and he picked on him, encouraged others to do the same. Still, Midoriya stuck around.

And when they turned five, and Midoriya never got his quirk, well, that was it for Katsuki. Midoriya was Deku, and nothing Midoriya did or said could change that. Katsuki started to treat him worse and worse as the years went on and Midoriya still insisted he’d become a hero. His anger grew with every extended hand and offer of help from the weak, quirkless kid that just wouldn’t leave him alone. His words grew to be harsh and cut deeper with time, and his fists hit harder as he got stronger. Still, though, Midoriya stuck around.

And that, well…. No matter what his parents or Midoriya say, that’s not friendship. Friends don’t hit each other. Friends don’t tell each other how worthless and weak they are.

Friends don’t tell each other to take a fucking swan dive off the roof.

And looking back, that was a whole new low for him, wasn’t it? He managed to justify it then. He told himself over and over and over again that he was just helping the nerd see what he refused to believe.

And yet, that same very day, Midoriya still tried to save Katsuki from the sludge villain. Katsuki said the worst thing he had ever said in his entire life, and Midoriya still tried his hardest to free him from the gelatinous asshole when the damn pro heroes wouldn’t even come near him. He had no quirk, no support gear, nothing—nothing but a backpack, his hands, and such a strong desire to help that bordered on insane.

After everything that Katsuki had ever said and done to him, and Midoriya still risked everything to help him. The most fucked part? Katsuki couldn’t even thank Midoriya for what he tried to do.

And still, when asked how they know each other, why they have such an insane history, Midoriya still tells everyone that he’s just Kacchan, his childhood friend. And that? How Midoriya can say such a thing and actually believe it is so far beyond Katsuki that it might as well be a whole galaxy away.

Katsuki’s been here before. He’s seen this room a million different times, lived this scenario a million different times. But something feels…. weird about this time. Shigaraki and his cronies are still there, sure, but he can’t help but feel as if something—or someone—is lurking in the shadows this time.

And fuck if Katsuki doesn’t have killer senses because, of fucking course, he’s right.

Every League member in the room steps to the side, and out of the shadows of a doorway that Katsuki only vaguely remembers being there in the real hideout, a hooded figure steps into the light. He pauses for one second, hands in the pockets of the black hoodie he’s wearing, head down so as not to reveal his face. Then, faster than Katsuki can even wonder who the hell this guy thinks he is, he’s right in front of Katsuki, right hand wrapped around his throat. His left hand comes up, pulls the hood off of his head, and reveals himself—though, Katsuki really wishes he didn’t.

The man choking Katsuki is an older version of himself. His mouth is turned down at the corners, his brow furrowed, and his eyes are far more violent than Katsuki’s ever seen before. He opens his mouth to speak, and Katsuki closes his eyes and starts to fight back, tries in vain to break free of the death grip his doppelganger has on him. He wills himself not to hear whatever this fucked up version of himself is going to say. He hears it anyway.

“You think your dumb ass was ever going to be a hero?” Katuski can hear the venom of his own voice, wonders if this is really how he sounds when he yells at people. “You seriously thought that your sorry ass was ever going to be good enough to make it to Number One? You’re fucking pathetic.” He lifts Katsuki out of the chair he was sitting in, and Katsuki starts to thrash in his grasp to try to break free. The other Katsuki speaks again. “You’re nothing, kid. Fucking worthless.” He slams Katsuki down onto the floor, brings his other hand to Katsuki’s neck and squeezes tighter. “You’ve never been good enough for anything you’ve ever gotten, and you’ll never fucking amount to anything.”

Katsuki jolts awake, hands clawing at his throat to free himself from a grasp that isn’t there. He’s sweating, chest heaving. His throat is dry, and he knows he’s breathing, but he still feels like he’s suffocating. He doesn’t know what to do, how to stop the bone-deep panic that’s set in and won’t let go. He pulls his knees up to his chest and rests his forehead upon his knees, eyes wide and still breathing heavily.

In the months since the kidnapping, he’s had nightmares about it almost every other night. He works himself to the bone to try to avoid them, and sometimes he can, but more often than not, he wakes up in a cold sweat with a scream stuck in his throat. But this time—this is the first time he’s had this particular dream.

He’s dreamt of Shigaraki turning parts of him to dust, Toga cutting him and becoming him, Dabi unleashing his blue fire on him. He’s dreamt of himself fighting back and losing every single time. But this? What the hell is he supposed to do with this?

Katsuki’s breathing has finally evened out a bit, and he sits back against the wall, head tilted to look at the ceiling. He closes his eyes but opens them again almost immediately when he sees himself looking back at him, extreme hatred pointed directly at him. He brings his hands up to grab at his hair and pulls.

Before he can be pulled back into the panic of the dream, he jumps out of bed and puts on pants comfortable enough to run in and steps into his sneakers. He’s out the door and down the stairs before he knows it, doesn’t even know what time it is. All he knows is that he needed to get out of that room, needs to be moving. He doesn’t want to think anymore.

He doesn’t want to think about anything.

#bakugou katsuki #bnha #mha #bullying #suicide mention #panic attacks #violence #nightmares #introspection #bakugou fic #bakugou fix it fic #bakugou pov #bnha fic #mha fic #bnha fanfic #mha fanfic #bakugou fanfic

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surveys-at-your-service · 4 years

Text

Survey #313

“i’m your turbo lover / tell me there’s no other”

Where are you located at this moment? In my bed. What if you found out your ex was having a child with someone else? If it was Sara, I'm finding out who the fuck I'm flying up there to punch his face in. If it was Jason, I'd either faint or be in the bathroom vomiting. Or both. I can almost promise you at least one or the other while I have an absolute emotional breakdown. I'm not at the point in my recovery where I can hear that and be entirely okay. I'd be happy for any of the others. At what age do you think you'll be ready to have children? Never. When was the last time you couldn't stop laughing? Why? I don't recall. Which of your friends do your parents get along best with? I guess Girt, since he's known my mom the longest of the friends I still have. I don't know about Dad; he barely knows any of my friends seeing as I don't live with him and see him rarely. Is there anyone in your friendship group that your parents don't like? No. Can you recall the last time you were extremely disappointed? I surprisingly can't remember, even though I know it was recent. Who was the last person to un-friend you on Facebook? I don't know, it's not like I go hunting people down if I notice the number has dropped, lol. Do you know why he/she decided to un-friend you? I'm certain it would've been something political. Are there any food wrappings, boxes, containers etc. in your room? No. Do you know anyone who does have cancer? I don't think anyone who currently has it, no. I may know someone via association, but idk. What is the worst medicine you've ever taken? There are two that very strongly stand out: the first one was in middle school, and the second sometime last year. I was put on an antidepressant that made me absolutely love life in the morning, like I would practically prance through school, but come afternoon, I was a fucking demon. Mom took me off that shit so fast. Most recently, my birth control was changed to have more estrogen for some reason I can't recall (maybe it had to do with mood?? idk), and it made me... I'm just gonna say I was a ~mess~. I slammed on breaks with it so fuckin fast. Safe to say I returned to my normal pill. Has your house or where you stayed ever flooded? My childhood home came very close during Hurricane Floyd. Thankfully the water never got actually inside the house, but it was an absolute lake outside. What was the last event or special occasion you participated in? My niece's birthday was actually a couple days ago, so we celebrated at my sister's house. What do you find yourself reminiscing about the most? I'll give you one guess. Do you have a favorite pianist? No. Song you listened to last is...? I have "Turbo Lover" by Judas Priest on right now. What's the last type of cookie you ate? Uhhh I would assume chocolate chip. Do you have your own computer? I have my own laptop, and I'm possibly getting an actual computer come May?? One of my WoW friends knows the hell I've been through with this laptop, and she and her husband are getting new computers then, so she's basically pushed her husband's old one on me, lol. Apparently it works just fine, he just wants something better. I've told her again and again to make some money off of it, but she's pretty much giving me no choice lmao. I appreciate it a whole lot, though. It'd be pretty nice to separate games onto an actual, capable desktop versus making my laptop sound like it's screaming for God's mercy if I boot something up. Describe your computer chair? I don't have one. Well, there's an old one in the extra room I'm going to end up using, but all I know is it's black. I've never paid closer attention to it. Do you sleep with your door open or closed? Open. I feel too isolated with it closed. Are you going to keep your last name when you get married? God no, it's very unlikely. I hate my last name, take it away. Does it bother you when people beg? Why are they begging, and how insistently? It depends. Do you have any weird rings? I have two, but neither I consider weird, at least. Well, I suppose the one with "bitch" carved on the inside would confuse non-Supernatural fans, haha. Are you anything like your siblings? Not really, no. At least, my two immediate sisters. Mom says I'm extremely similar to her eldest daughter though and wishes we'd talk more, but yeah, I just don't have anything to talk about with her. I'm so bad at initiating conversation. When was the last time you shaved your legs? October for when I was doing that witchy photoshoot with a friend. I absolutely hate shaving my legs and pretty much only do if anyone else whose opinion would affect me may see them. What would be the best surprise you could receive right now? Uhhh I guess all the "upgrades" I want to make to Venus' enclosure: a 40g tank and a nice, accurate hygrometer and thermometer, as well as the proper kind of lamp for her. I feel like such a "bad snake mom" still having her in her current terrarium because, while it's perfectly liveable and not dangerous, it's too small for her. It's pretty much always on my mind to some degree nowadays, so just like, dropping the terrarium and extra tools off would be a massive weight off my shoulders. Did you ever skip a grade or get held back a grade? No, but I was able to skip the intro Writing course the last time I was in college; I just started in Writing II. Who took your profile pic? Anywhere where it's a picture of myself, odds are me. I hate getting pictures taken, but if it's gonna happen, it'll be through myself, knowing my "good" angle and such, lol. Have you ever been fishing? Do you know anyone who likes fishing as a hobby? I've been fishing many times, especially as a kid with my dad. There are pleeeenty of people I know who enjoy it. I don't anymore. Do you own any cats? What color are their eyes? Yes; his are a light blue. Is there a rose bush in your garden? What color are its roses? We don't have a garden. When was the last time you spent over $100 in one transaction? What did you buy? Over $100 with my own cash, a plane ticket. My recent tattoo deposit was exactly a hundred. Do you sleep with a stuffed animal? Would you judge a grown adult for doing so? No; Roman would NEVER allow me to cuddle anything else, and I am not even remotely kidding. I couldn't care less if any adult does, though. Would you rather read an erotic novel or watch an erotic film? Ew, neither, but I guess a book would be better just so my eyes weren't forever scarred. What’s your favorite way to make your home smell good? Do you spend a lot of money on making this happen? INCENSE!!!! God, I love incense burners. I don't light it anymore though because Venus' terrarium is also in my room, and it's not good for snakes. What are the main two colors in the room you’re currently in? Did you pick these colors out yourself? Just... white. That's it. Well, my furniture is brown. I didn't pick either. How often do you wake up in the night needing to pee? Usually once, sometimes not at all anymore. I guess my bladder actually grew a pair. If you live in a household with pets, who is responsible for their care - both in terms of finance and the physical tasks involved? As far as the physical care, me. Mom does help me do a full clean of Venus' cage sometimes, though, because I don't trust myself to both keep her around my neck while I scrub the tank, hide, bowl, etc., with a cat that is my absolute shadow. I don't want to be bent over the tub and Roman tries to do something; he's shown very little interest in Venus, but still, I'm one hell of a paranoid snake mom that doesn't want to risk her life. Full cleans only happen like twice a year, so I don't mind too much asking my mother for some help. I should point out that Mom doesn't want to hold her, so we can't reverse roles. Do you have anything hanging from your ceiling apart from lights? Not anymore, no. At my old house and the one before, I had lots of Pyramid Head gift tags hanging, but our landlord doesn't want me to do that here. Would you describe yourself as neat, messy or somewhere in-between? I'm in-between. If you have pets, when was the last time one of them needed to go the vets? Venus had to go to the vet about a year into me having her because she was showing symptoms of an RI in strange breathing episodes, which can be fatal to a snake. Thank God, nature, whatever, that she didn't. There were warning signs, but closer watch over her humidity saved her. Roman, meanwhile, was taken to the vet like a year ago to be neutered. When the pandemic is over, what is one thing you can’t wait to do again? I barely ever left the house beforehand, so... I guess go to the movies. What’s one thing (aside from essentials) that you spend the most money on each month? Has anyone ever told you you’re obsessed or addicted with it? N/A What’s your favourite genre of TV show to watch? What’s your favourite show that’s not from that genre? If I had to pick, uhhh... yeah, idk, due to the whole "not into TV much to begin with" thing. Would you rather be employed or self-employed? Why? Self-employed, though taking care of all business matters yourself is/would suck. I just really want to be my own boss for the sake of photographing whatever I want. IIs your hair naturally curly, straight or somewhere in between? Do you wish it was different? It's straight, but on the wavy side, and I wish it wasn't. Do you ever play online games with your friends? Which one(s)? Just WoW. In the last week, have you had any alcoholic beverages? Which? No. Do you ever wear accessories in your hair? Which ones? No. Do you feel free to post your views on social media? Yep. I honestly don't care who it pisses off. What is your favorite work of historical fiction? Well, I don't really know what you consider truly "historical" in age... That, and I'm bad at dates to begin with. There are lots and lots of older books and movies I adore, though. Old Yeller is one of my favorite books ever, for one. The Boy In The Striped Pajamas makes me sob, too. What cartoon character looks like you? I remember when Hotel Transylvania came out, my ex's mob pointed out how much she thought I looked like the daughter, especially when my hair was dyed black. Do you have hope for the future? Some days I do, some days I don't. Do you believe in yourself? Ehhhh... debatable, idk. Do you have trouble letting go of your past? Oh yes. Were you happy in high school? It's funny, I was very depressed in HS, but due to Jason and friends, it's one of my most cherished time periods. Were you ever a teacher's favorite? I mean it modestly, but I was almost always pretty obviously one of the teachers' favorites. I was a good student. Are you popular? I wasn't. If you won a title in the senior class polls, what was it? I didn't. Have you ever had a medical condition that made you unable to work? My social anxiety is so debilitating that it's made it questionable. It ruined my very short-lived previous jobs. What makes your life worth living? My future goals, family, friends... What is your favorite Bible verse? I don't have one. List five careers you've considered. Paleontologist, vet, game designer, author, and wildlife biologist are all past ones. Do you have any unusual talents? If so, what? No. What do you get compliments on? My hair and my art, mostly. What have people told you you should be? I've heard "a vet" most in my life. What is holding you back? My (mostly social) anxiety and extreme fear of judgment. Do you have anyone purely evil in your life? Hell no, I wouldn't allow that person to stay in my life. Have you ever felt threatened for your life? I've felt scared for it, yes. While riding my bike once, I ran into a guy in my old neighborhood who had a criminal history, including assault, just asking what I was listening to on my iPod. I stopped because I was scared to keep going, and he wound up asking for my Facebook, but guess who didn't accept THAT friend request. List ten positive words that describe you. That's too much thinking, man. List ten negative words that [you feel] describe you. And that's too much negativity to fish in. Are you a good person or a bad person? I mean, I try to be a good one. Have you ever contemplated being a bad person? I've done bad things, but I've certainly never deliberated tried to be an overall bad person. Have you ever resorted to vandalism because you didn't have a voice? No. Have you ever egged someone's house? Wow, no. Do you want to egg someone's house? Also no because I'm a fucking adult. Have you ever seen a piece of graffiti that you are thankful for? What an odd question. I mean, no? Name three people who hurt you and didn't care. I am quite positive Colleen doesn't care about the many times she did considering she's always right. Was your first crush sexual, or no? No, I was just a kid. What would you do if you got pregnant right now? I honestly can't say I know. If I was God forbid raped, I'd probably have an abortion because I psychologically could not handle that without being scarred for life. If it was by my own stupidity, I feel I'd probably have the baby but give it up for adoption. I just can't raise a kid. Do you have a medical condition that you are embarrassed or ashamed to tell people you have? No, I don't think so. What do you get asked the most? Hm. OH, WAIT, THAT'S EASY. I get asked a lot if my lip piercing hurt. Have you ever stood up for someone else who was being bullied? I know I have before, but I don't remember the occasion. What tragic news stories that you've heard has touched you the most? Man, that's a lot to think about. You see news articles on Facebook all the time, and a whole lot of them touch me, so I dunno. What is your favorite thing to order at Taco Bell? I like the cheese quesadillas, and whatever those cinnamon bites are called are really good. I'm still tilted they got rid of the fiesta potatoes, because I adored those. Where do you have cutting scars (if you have any)? I only ever had them on my wrist, but you can't see them anymore. Do you like cotton candy? Not very, but I mean, I can have a bite or two. It's way too sweet to eat a lot of it. What's the best piece of graffiti you've ever seen? I'm unsure, but I've definitely seen beautiful work, especially online. Do you like tattoos? "Like" is a colossal understatement. Do you like piercings? Yep yep yep. Have you ever made someone so mad that they broke something? No. Those are not people I hang around with. Who is the last person you slow-danced with? Slow-danced? I don't think I've done that since Jason.

#survey #surveys #questions #lyrics: ''turbo lover'' by judas priest

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imdoingthismspaintadventure · 5 years

Text

Worm 2.5 - In which Taylor makes a questionable decision

When we last read Worm, the trio were being horrible and Taylor NOPE’d out of school. possibly to consider Tt’s offer. I guess we’ll see how that goes

If you looked at Brockton Bay as a patchwork of stellar and squalor, upper class and lower class with no middle ground, then downtown was one of the nice areas. The streets and sidewalks were wide, and that meant that even with skyscrapers in every other lot, there was a great deal of blue overhead.

So BB is a city with huge class disparity where the difference in wealth between districts is vast. It sounds more Gotham than Metropolis. (Even if Gotham is probably unmatched in how much of a shithole it is. Holy shit that place is cursed)

Following my retreat from school grounds, I hadn’t been sure what to do. My dad worked an unreliable schedule, so I couldn’t spend the rest of the afternoon at home unless I wanted to risk having to explain what I was doing home on a school day. I didn’t want to hang around the general area of my school, so that had left me the options of the half-hour walk to downtown or a trip to the Boardwalk. Between my morning runs and the previous night’s escapades, I had seen enough of the Boardwalk, so I’d decided to head downtown.

Yeah that seems sensible. Going to the boardwalk seems like it risks an encounter from one of Lung’s subordinates, which were apparently seeking revenge. Although that shouldn’t be a problem given than Armsmaster took both the credit and the blame.

Poor Danny, he’s totally lost control of this situation.

I didn’t want to dwell on the subject of school or Emma, so I turned my focus to the recent message from Tattletale. She wanted to meet, presumably to repay the favor she felt she owed me. I considered the possibility that it was a trap, but I couldn’t imagine any angle where it would be. She just didn’t have any reason to go after me. The worst case scenario was that it wasn’t Tattletale, but that wasn’t the impression I’d had. What she said in the message seemed to flow with what I had seen of her last night. I would be careful, nonetheless.

Yeah I can’t think of any reason they would have to go after her besides being cartoonishly villanous, and they didn’t seem like the type.

That it is a trap from someone else (like one of the flunkies who were in the fight and saw the bugs) is more believable, but that is also unlikely, I think.

I think it’s genuinely Tattletale wanting to meet, which is also the most narratively interesting situation.

It was perplexing. These guys were, in large part, virtual unknowns. From what I knew of Grue and Hellhound, they were both marginally successful B-list villains who had been barely scraping by. Now both were on a team that was pulling high profile heists and confounding even the likes of Armsmaster. The two of them seemed totally different in methodology and style, and if I was remembering right, both Grue and Hellhound had lived in different cities prior to teaming up and setting roots in Brockton Bay. That raised the question: who or what had drawn these four very different individuals together?

Damn, seems like they leveled up! They got much more organized and competent! And are pulling larger scale heists!

They do seem pretty different! A darkness-generator seems more stealth based, as opposed to the feral monster dogs. But they seem to have good synergy!

Maybe Tt organized them and brought them together? We know so little of both her and Regent...

It was possible that Tattletale or Regent were the uniting factors, but I couldn’t really imagine it, having seen what I did of their group dynamic. Grue had poked fun at Regent rather than treat him like a leader, and while I couldn’t put my finger on it, the more I imagined Tattletale uniting that group of unconnected people with powers, the harder I found it to picture. In fact, when I thought about it, hadn’t Grue said they had fought for a considerable amount of time over how to deal with Lung? It didn’t really sound like they had any leadership worth speaking about.

So they seem to be competently organized while also having no organization at all and frequently bickering. Hmm.

Maybe there’s a shadow leader, or another group behind them? Or maybe they just work like that, in some weird way.

It wasn’t hard to sympathize with Armsmaster. The whole scenario there was just bizarre, and it was made worse by the fact that there were practically no details as far as Tattletale or Regent went. Information, it seemed, was a major factor when dealing with capes.

Knowledge is power. If you know somebody’s weakpoints or full extent of abilities, it makes things a lot easier

Information is often underestimated in series that are all about powerlevels and strength, but I love it when it makes a difference.

The streets were busy with people on their lunch break. Businessmen and businesswomen were heading to restaurants and fast food places. My stomach growled as I passed a line of people waiting their turn at a street vendor. I checked my pockets and winced at the realization that I didn’t have enough for even a hot dog. My lunch had been in my backpack.

Have I mentioned that Taylor’s daily life sucks hard? Because it does.

I stopped myself before I could finish that train of thought and put myself into a worse mood by dwelling on what had happened at school. Still, as I thought back to the circle of villains and Tattletale’s message, the amusing thought crossed my mind that I could ask them to repay the favor by buying me lunch. It wasn’t a serious thought, but the ridiculousness of the mental image – me eating a burger with a group of supervillains – put a dumb smirk on my face. I was pretty sure I looked like a moron to anyone on the street who happened to glance at me.

Hehehe

That sounds awesome.

Supervillain burger time!

As I thought on it, though, the notion that I might actually consider taking Tattletale up on her offer of a meeting nagged at me. The more I thought on it, the scarier the idea got, and the more it seemed to make sense.

Uh oh, I can feel the incresingly more likely villainous path for Taylor creeping closer

What if I did take them up on the offer? I could meet them, talk with them, see what they had to offer, and all the while, fish for information. If I got anything worth sharing, I could turn around and give it to Armsmaster so he could use it against them. Just going by what Armsmaster had said about these guys and the scarcity of information on them, it would be a pretty major coup for the good guys.

Uhhh that sounds shaky at best and a horrible idea at worst.

You would have to get close to them and then betray their trust. Which is both rough, cause you tend to form emotional ties with people, especially for someone as isolated as Taylor; and it is also dangerous, as you make very dangerous enemies in the process who know a lot about you

Okay, so they would likely see my ploy as a monumental betrayal if and when I pulled it off. I would be making enemies. That said, I suspected that when it came out that I was a hero and not a villain, they would count it as such regardless. Didn’t it make sense to leverage as much information as I could from them before they caught on, as far as their misconception went?

What the?

Someone finding out their assumptions about you were wrong and someone finding out you personally betrayed them and screwed them after getting close to them are two very different things

I feel like we are in a very high speed bad decision train of thought.

I turned around and headed in the direction of the public library. It was only a few blocks away.

The library was busy, which made sense, given the number of offices and businesses around, the number of people wanting some quiet during their lunch hour, and people doing research or casual browsing they couldn’t do at their workplaces. I would have included Brockton Bay’s biggest and fanciest high school, the nearby Arcadia High, in that generalization, but I doubted many students were spending their lunch breaks at the library.

Going to the library to clear your mind and think about all of this?

The Central Library looked almost more like a museum or art gallery than anything else, with tall ceilings, pillars and massive pieces of artwork hung to frame the hallways between the major sections of the building. I headed up to the second floor, where there were about twenty computers and a line of people waiting their turn to use them. I anticipated a fifteen or twenty minute wait, but as the clock approached one o’clock, people headed back to work and the line rapidly thinned out. A free computer came up within a few minutes of my joining the line. I let the person behind me go on ahead, waiting a bit longer so I could get a station with a little more privacy.

Oh is she heading to the library computer to avoid being traced as she responds? Smart!

Also I would love to be in that library. All of the yes.

By the time I sat down, I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to write. I found the message with the search function and clicked on the username ‘Tt’. A drop down menu appeared, and I chose ‘send private message’. It gave me the option of making an account, signing in with an already existing account, or sending the message as an anonymous guest. I chose the last option, then typed:

Subject: Re:Bug

Bug here. Would like to meet, but want proof you are Tt. I’ll reciprocate if needed.

Welp we put the plan in motion it seems! A very dangerous plan at that!

Going to the library, using an anonnymous identity, asking for proof...Taylor is being very smart in doing something that seems very dumb

I didn’t send it right away, taking a moment to consider. Getting decent proof would prevent any potential problems like the message turning out to be a trap laid by, say, Bakuda. Leaving the burden of proof on Tattletale and leaving it up to her to decide if she wanted verification I was indeed ‘Bug’ meant I didn’t have to worry about coming up with exactly how one might prove their identity. I reread it twice over, then sent the message.

I don’t think it would be Bakuda, especially now that you commented on the possibility.

The reply came only two or three minutes later. It was fast enough that I couldn’t imagine Tattletale taking the time to check and double check every aspect of her message the way I had mine. Was that recklessness on her part, or just the benefit of experience?

Maybe she has a knack for these things? Or has done this before?

I closed the tabs I had opened in the meantime and checked to see what she had written. It was a private message, from her to me, and it set my fight or flight instincts in high gear:

Subject: re:Bug

Proof? Last night you didn’t say anything until I asked your name. Big guy had a mess of nasty bites and you pepper sprayed him and I told my pal G that when he asked. Good enough?

G R and me will meet you at the same spot we crossed paths last night, k? Don’t have to get gussied up if you catch my drift. Rest of us will be in casual wear.

If we meet at 3 will that give you enough time to get there from library with everything you need? let me know

Ta ta

Oh what the fuck

Tattletale knows you are in the library? That is concerning

Is that her power? Is she able to know where people are and what they are doing? Therefore knowing their “secrets”, hence the nickname? That seems very powerfull

Let’s hope her mental-type power doesn’t also include reading minds, cause if it does, you are already extremely fucked.

Remember what I said before about this being a bad idea? With the possibility of a mental power in their group, multiply that ten times.

My heart pounded. She knew where I was, and she was letting me know. Why? More to the point, how? Had I unwittingly entered an online exchange with a savvy hacker? I knew my way around computers, my mom had made sure I had one since before I could read and write, but I would be lying if I said I could tell if I was being hacked or do anything about it.

She could have just seen your library IP, I guess. Powers seems more interesting though.

I would have interpreted the casual mention of my location as a veiled threat if it didn’t run contrary to everything else in her messages to me. Besides – Tattletale was talking about meeting me in casual clothes. I took that to mean they wouldn’t be in costume. I couldn’t understand why, but at the same time, it was hard to imagine her threatening me with one breath just a sentence after she’d offered to meet me in a way that made her totally vulnerable.

I would say her mentioning it was more of a power flex, than it was a threat.

And that move not only makes her vulnerable, it makes you vulnerable, It means that they both know your identity, and you know theirs. Which both sound really bad

Tattletale had unwittingly raised the stakes for my scheme. My primary goal was to gather information on them, and here I was getting a chance to see them with their masks off. It was too good to be true, which made me wonder what kind of safeguards they had in place to protect themselves.

I think the stakes were already higher than you realized. This is an insanely risky move. There is a reason why only trained professionals are double agents.

I just had no idea what I would be getting into.

That is an understatement.

The screensaver came up while I stared at the monitor with thoughts racing through my head. The words ‘BROCKTON BAY CENTRAL LIBRARY’ scrolled across the screen in varying colors.

I bet it never hits the corner.

If I went, best case scenario, I could get enough information to turn them in. I’d get mucho cred from the good guys and respect from an international celebrity. If I’d judged Armsmaster right, I’d get even more brownie points if I gave him the info and let him – or helped him – make the bust. On the flip side of the coin, the worst case scenario was that it was a trap, or they’d figure out what I was doing. It would mean a fight, maybe a beating. There was an outside possibility I could get killed, but somehow that didn’t concern me as much as it maybe should have. Part of the reason for my lack of concern, I think, was that the possibility existed any time I went out in costume. That, and from my interactions with them last night, I didn’t get a ‘killer’ vibe from them.

They are still villains! Villains you would royally piss off!!

Also I can’t help but feel that the “mucho cred” you would get from the heroes and the world is slighly idealized. The Risk/Reward ratio on this one is not good

On the topic of the status quo… if I didn’t go, what would happen? This particular window of opportunity would likely pass, as far as being able to get the dirt on Tattletale and her gang. That was okay, as I thought on it. It was a high risk, high reward venture anyways. Taking that path would mean turning down the meet, then killing time for the rest of the afternoon, trying to avoid dwelling on the fact that I had missed two straight afternoons of classes and might, maybe, miss more. It was depressing to think about.

Is she subsconsciously putting herself in very dangerous situations as a form of escapism ? That doesn’t seem healthy

“Excuse me?”

Startled, I looked up. A middle aged woman in a red jacket stood just behind me. As I met her eyes she asked, “Are you done?” She gestured at the computer, where the screensaver was still scrolling.

“Excuse me, ma’am, I was in the process of making a mistake”

Heady with the relief that she hadn’t been, irrationally enough, Tattletale, I smiled and told her, “Give me thirty seconds.”

Subject: Re:Bug

See you at three.

Well, we’re all in now. Let’s see how this goes.

#Worm #Worm liveblog #parahumans liveblog #worm parahumans #wildbow #parahumans #Taylor what are you doing #arc 2 #worm 2.5

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tracle0 · 5 years

Text

22/11

I was tagged by @joyful-soul-collector (thank you this is possibly one of my favourite tag games) ... Okay also also before I could finish this up, @hyba also tagged me so uh it’s 22/11 instead, ty ty. You two might want to check the tag list cause uhhh you might be there who knows not me c:

The rules are: Answer the 11 (22 this time but hush) questions, make up your own 11 and then tag... I think it’s 11 people but I don’t know 11 people who I haven’t already tagged so...

I sort of started spamming pictures to answer a question so I’m gonna... put the pictures under the cut.

1. Have any of your OCs ever stolen something? What did they steal, and why? Oh yeah sure - the first one I can think of easily is Cain. He used to live on the streets so had to steal to survive. But he’d also work for money. He’s not heartless, just desperate.

Also now I’m thinking about it, Tag would definitely be the kind of guy to just... hey I know I’m meant to hand this gear in but... no-one will miss it so.... he steals to amuse himself with the gadgets he gets.

2. Did you ever have imaginary friends as a kid? What were they like? I copied my sister in having pretend animal friends, but not really. Who needs imaginary friends when you have real-life ones lol I was a lot more liked as a kid.

3. Do any of your OCs have a favorite article of clothing? Why is it their favorite?

Uhhhh

Um.

Yeah, you could say that.

Andy likes his hoodie because it’s a thing that is only his. He didn’t get it from Murdock, I honestly don’t know WHERE he got it from, but it’s his, and the fact he owns anything means a lot to him.

Cain likes his because it’s one of the few things left over from when he was younger and again, it’s his. He didn’t steal it. It belongs to Only Him. He feels comfortable in it.

4. What do you fist develop about a character when you make one up? Do you think of their appearance first? Their personality? Their backstory?

Honestly? It depends. Backstory always comes after, but personality and appearance often intersect. I know for WIP 3 I thought of personality and traits first, and for Collateral it was appearance first. I think for Sonder it was more.. their role in the story? ‘Oh hey this is the antagonist, this is the protagonist, this is the love interest wait I hate romance, okay, side kick’ etc

5. Fluff or Angst?

If it’s not romantic? Fluff. I made myself angsty enough when I was younger, I want more happiness in my life.

6. Remember the color of that dress that everyone was debating about however many years ago? The one that was blue and black, or white and gold? What colors did you see?

The correct colours.

7. Pick your bubbliest, happiest OC. Now tell me what will make them turn into your worst nightmare. I wanna see what makes them the angriest.

Oh boy, let’s see uhhh... Tag. Tag from WIP 3 who is undergoing the process of a name change.

Seeing someone he loves die would twist him. Being isolated would eventually break him. Being unable to do what he loves would definitely upset him also.

Also idk if you’ve heard about it but in his world, there’s a nifty ability called being a silvertongue and I know at least one silvertongue is not gonna exploit this but I also know of another who would even on this19-year-old kid so maybe it’s not by choice but that could make him a nightmare. Just sayin’

8. Now pick your angstiest, most emo OC. And tell me what would make them blush and giggle like an idiot. I wanna see what makes them the happiest.

Okay for this one it’s a tie I write a lot of angsty characters.

>Andy - seeing something just. Really funny. Oh did Sam just fall over in a ridiculous way? Fantastic. That’s actually how they first have a proper conversation. Sam falls over, he laughs, they talk.

>Cain - anything awesome that Duck does. Oh hey what’s up Goose oh you drew this radical picture? /tearing up/ it’s so great oh my gosh you’re so talented. That’s more being happy than giggling but can you see Cain giggling? No, me neither.

9. If you could have any mythical creature for a pet, what would it be?

Dragon, next question.

10. What’s your go-to thing for when you’re hungry but don’t have time/energy to cook something?

Fruit! It is! Very good! And tasty! Apples have a good cronch! Oranges are mmmm juicy. Banana? Yes nice thank you. Oh wow we have strawberries? What a sweet treat. Also healthy!

11. Do any of your OCs have scars? Would they be confident enough to show them in public (like at the beach)?

Oh yeah sure man. Andy’s got multiple from... ‘training’. He doesn't show them off. Cain, Duck and Theo have all been badly burnt on the arms, and Cain ‘’shows it off’’ just because it makes him uncomfortable to have his arms covered. And uh Raya probably has some sort of scar on her knees or elbow from rollerblading. Because you do fall over and it does scar.

And now for Hyba’s questions, lez go bois

1. What cultural value do you see in writing/reading/storytelling/etc.?

I think that without storytelling specifically, humans would be so... mundane? We’d be no different to any other animal on the planet. Creating anything, be that stories or art or literally anything is so... human. To take that away would be like taking away humanities soul. The cultural value isn’t really measurable - storytelling makes up the culture.

2. Do you try more to be original or to deliver to readers what they want?

Honestly, I have no idea. I try to entertain myself, and if other people like it too, then that’s neat. But because I’m writing for myself, I anticipate everything, so I don’t know if it’s original or not. I know it delivers what I want! But is that readers want? Who knows!

3. As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal?

Crow. Not even as a writer, just... dude crows are so damn cool.

4. What do you think most characterizes your writing?

I’m not quite sure about the phrasing so uhhhh represents? Google is telling me ‘describes’.

In which case, a midnight fever jolting you out of bed, moments before you could fall asleep, and puppeting you to a writing surface so you can splurge ideas onto it sounds about right. 66% of my WIPs have elements in them that were based on dreams.

5. How do you select the names of your characters?

Mostly? Spite. ‘Oh Trade, you can’t have a bad guy named Andy, all Andy’s are good’ NOPE NOT ANYMORE SUCK IT. I also have a friend who is really good at coming up with names that fit the exact mood of the character so I go to her a lot. Sometimes they’re puns.

6. Choose one of your OCs (or more). How would they want to be seen by others?

Sam from Sonder wants to be seen as someone people can talk to, but also someone who pursues a science because yes sociology is a science to her, shut up, don’t talk to me if you’re going to mention the words ‘paradigm’ or ‘objective’ thank you.

7. How do you find or make time to write? Are you consistent or do you write whenever you get the chance?

Hahahahahhahha.

In the past few months, I’ve not been writing because I’ve had exams. Before that, I wrote at every chance I had - being a student, I had a fair bit of free time during the day, so I’d use that to write. But for a while, it was a nothing on the ‘what has Trade written recently’ chart.

Going up again boiiis

8. What does literary success look like to you? Is it important for you as a writer?

Literary success? That’s... a very interesting question. I think I’d be satisfied and feel successful if one person told me that my book helped them through something.

Jokes on me, I’ve already had that, my books helped me, I have already succeeded, see you losers in hell.

Also fanart but uh who needs fanart when you draw enough for five armies?

9. Are there any scenes that you’ve had to edit out of your WIPs? Can you tell us about them if they don’t spoil the book?

YES oh lord yes okay so in Sonder, chapter 15, I decided around draft 2 that I wanted a scene where Atlas got drunk. I made up reasons for it, asked lots of friends about what it was like to be drunk (as I personally have never been drunk), attended parties to get first-hand research and did so much preparation.

Wrote the scene, was pleased with it, left it to fester. Two years and two drafts later (now), I’ve come back and realised oh hey that scene is utterly useless and de-rails the plot. Time to remove it I guess.

I rationalise it as ‘well you wrote it and you had fun but it’s not needed, move on’ and that works well for me.

10. Would you feel comfortable publishing or sharing your writing using your real name, or would you prefer a pseudonym?

Pseudonym 100%. As cool as it would be to be able to go ‘hey I wrote this’ to people, the terrifying ordeal of being known is horrific, and people being able to track all my past activity from when I was literally seven is my worst nightmare. I wouldn’t even tell family or friends if I could get away with it.

‘Hey [real name], there’s a book at Waterstones called Sonder? With the exact same characters, plot and writing style as you have? But it’s under [pseudonym]?’ ‘oh hey, really that’s wild. Anyway,’

11. When writing, do you try more to be original or do you prefer to deliver to readers what they want? Do you think that a book can do both? Which is more important to you as a writer?

Oh hey, this is like question two but MORE. Standing by my previous answer, I think a book can do both - people want a happy ending, usually, but you can always be original in how you do that. No two stories can be told in exactly the same way. And hey - even if people do guess what’s coming up, that’s good.

As a writer? It’s most important to entertain. I don’t try and catch people out, I just deliver the story I have in my head and then edit it mercilessly until I’m pleased.

Questions!

1) Design a mask for an OC to wear. Would it cover their whole face? Is it a mascarade mask? Is it fancy or simple? Bonus cool kid points if you draw it.

2) Which OCs like spicy food?

3) Which OCs can take care of a plant - an orchid, to be exact?

4) Do you tell stories in any other medium beyond writing? eg: art or roleplay or...?

5) Do you have any irl items that you have because ‘oh dude this is something that’d totally be in my story’? Can I see them?

6) What’s the first book you remember buying?

7) Do you have any weird collections of things? As an example, I have a skull collection and a collection of... what’s best described as doll body parts. Anything just... weird that you have a lot of? Can I see it?

8) Which OC gets distracted by watching birds and which OC is like ‘dude stop watching the birds we’ve got STUFF TO DO’

9) Have you ever met a published author? Who?

10) Are you a person who likes tea or are you a person who prefers coffee? If the latter - dude c’mon tea is so much better smh

11) Have you backed up your files recently? Do it now. Please, for the love of god, back up your files.

Tagging!

@hyba @joyful-soul-collector (dunno if I’m allowed to tag the people who tagged me but fukkit here’s some more questions you eggs) @kaatiba @albatris @timetravelingpigeon @note-katha (hi we have barely interacted but nice new username) @nymph-of-diana (on your main if you want, idm c:) @writing-and-nutmeg @futurity-writing @osteoprecocious and @thatfizzyyyy

Honestly, the fact I made it to 11 is - wowza. Uhhh if you don’t want to then don’t, if you do want to then PLEASE do and then tag me so I can see your answers, I’m curious.

Ciao.

#writing #am writing #my writing #writerblr #writeblr #tagged in #Wow this went on #but seriously this is possibly my favourite tag game #coming up with questions is hard but #hey piece of advice #put stuff you love into the questions #I like masks for example #so #questions about masks lezgo

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cloudchaserandflitterexplain · 5 years

Text

Cloudchaser and Flitter Explain: Top 10 Friends Forever Cards

But you said—

Hi everypony! Are you ready for the next set to drop? Because Cici and I sure are!

When Cici isn’t freaking out about what deck to run for continentals, that is.

I’m not freaking out. I’m deliberately taking my time analyzing my choices so I can pick the deck that’ll let me win continentals this year.

Got it narrowed down yet?

...No.

That’s our Cici, always worrying until the last possible moment.

But anyway, as much as I’d love to tease Cici about her deck, we just don’t have the time! Leaders and Legends is right around the corner, and we’ve not given you all our top 10 lists for Friends Forever yet.

So let’s get right to it! Cici?

Oh, right!

What do you call a Pegasus wearing a—

I said we have no time for jokes, Cici! I mean what’s your first card?

Oh, okay.

So I wasn’t ever sure when we’d get to this, so I’d been kind of updating my list throughout the year. And, uh, there have definitely been a lot of changes… And not just because of the Banlist. My original #1, for example, is much lower…

But the actual ten cards haven’t changed much. They honestly weren’t that hard to figure out.

Well, top 11 if you count Old Money. But banned cards don’t really count anymore…

Anyway, my top 10 card is Lacking Lesson Plans

Huh. WIth how much you’d been ranting and raving about that card when the set first came out, I’d have thought it’d be much higher.

Well it was! Originally, anyway.

The fact that it let so many Manes flip through Tempest seemed great at first. I was looking forward to breaking in some new Manes and see what they could do!

But in practice, it’s not really enough. Tempest’s opening Grubber: Minion play can still slow them down enough to where they’re not flipping early, or still deny req, or what have you. So it’s really only helpful for the absolute most aggressive confront to flip Manes.

I just wanted more, you know?

If you don’t think it does enough, why’s it on your list, then?

Huh? No, it’s amazing.

I basically include it in all my decks nowadays!

But you said—

While, yeah, it doesn’t really enable many more confront to Flip Manes, it’s still incredibly valuable for decks that confront a lot, just because being able to ignore Troublemakers is really good.

It’s basically to the point where as long as strong Troublemaker control decks are in the meta, you basically have to run 2 of these!

It’s a problem the game’s needed for awhile now, and it’s great to see it in action. So yeah, not as high as I originally thought, but still an easy number 10.

So unlike silly old Cici, I had a lot more trouble narrowing down my top 10 cards! There’s so many fun arts and flavour texts and I love the set for that!

But on the other hoof, there weren’t actually a lot of silly fun build around cards in the set. So there’s not a lot of those my list.

But that’s okay, because the art is just so fun and I love it, hehe. And let’s start with Skipping Class!

Uhh, what’s fun about that?

Oh come on, Cici. It’s six best friends just hanging out together and having fun in the sun, relaxing without a care in the world.

So ditching school is something you endorse then?

Well, no…

But it’s still nice seeing them enjoying each other’s company. It’s very relaxing!

It was a tough call between this and another similar art, but I just had to go with this in the end. Paving the way for a new generation!

Which other card?

I can’t tell you that, Cici! These are top ten lists, not top eleven lists!

There’s no harm in mentioning your runner ups, though.

Top. Ten.

Okay, okay, sheesh.

Moving on, my number 9 will likely surprise no pony for being on this list: The Fire of Friendship.

Oooh, that’s a good one!

The Fire of Friendship lives in our hands! As long as it’s there, we foil Grubber’s plans!

Uhh, yeah, actually. Basically exactly that.

When Tempest fist hit the scene, she was infamous for locking ponies out of Entry thanks to Grubber frequently showing up turn 1. Now there’s a card that helps fight that, thanks to Fire of Friendship, being Entry that protects your entire hand.

It even works against other discard effects like Rarity: Soprano and can work with your own discard synergies like Tank: Burrower.

Not costs, though. If you want to exhaust Apple Bloom: Re-Markable to reduce the cost of a card, you can still discard Fire of Friendship to do it, but you can’t put it into play. Since costs can’t be replaced.

Sure, but that’s not the worst thing ever.

It’s still incredibly versatile while still being helpful Entry that does double duty for protecting your hand.

It does only provide 2 req unlike Singing Barrel and Motivational Speech, which is a notable downside. But if you build your deck accounting for that, it shouldn’t be a major issue.

So, yeah. Good card. Goes in a lot of decks. Highly recommend it.

It’s my number nine.

Or is it five or seven?

Kettle Corn’s so cute!

What was that all about.

Silly Cloudchaser!

Everypony else get it.

Check her cutie mark.

Okay...

Anyway, Kettle Corn is just absolutely precious! The haikus, the circles, the combinations of the two. She’s also one of Rumble’s new friends! What’s not to love?

I suppose she’s not bad entry either. Not amazing, but, you know. Respectable.

Whatever makes you recognize she’s amazing!

...That it?

That’s it! Kettle Corn’s just fun is all!

Uhh, guess I’ll move on, then?

So these next three are all pretty similar cards. Just a bit different in application each. But they’re all on the list for the same reason, more or less.

I was originally going to put them all as a tie, but Flitter said my list had to be exactly ten cards...

Top. Ten. It’s not that hard, Cici!

So here we are with Daring Do: Crafty Collector as my number 7.

Did you know A.K. Yearling was secretly Daring Do this whole time? I was so surprised!

Nah, it was definitely obvious. I knew all along.

Hehe, sure you did Cici.

I did!

Anyway, Daring Do is… kind of nuts. The amount of AT value she can provide you is just incredibly high. An AT every time you can confront with her, and saving an AT every time you need to move her to a problem.

Which, if you confront that turn, gets you the AT you spent on moving her right back.

The only reason she’s the lowest of these three is because if you can’t confront with her, due to eccentric or a TM or whatever, she’s not doing much for you. You can’t just exhaust her for AT like most other common AT gens. So she definitely has the worst floor...

But when she’s at full capacity, she’s just fantastic, and definitely worth a slot on the list.

So, to properly introduce the next card on my list, we’ll need an expert on fashion.

Gee, where could we find one of those in this town?

Well, Cici, you’re in luck! Since, as everypony knows, I happen to be a fashion expert!

You are?

Of course I am, Cici! That’s why you always see me in this bow! It’s the absolute pinnacle of fashionably cute.

...I genuinely have no idea if you’re making this up or not.

So, as a pony who knows all things fashionable, I am proud to present to you my next card, Rarity: Shine on the Inside.

...Another Eccentric 1 entry?

Yup! Quite the coincidence, don’t you think?

No. I’m pretty sure you’re doing this just to mess with me.

An added bonus!

But no, I just really like the art they got for these cards!

Plus, you’ve gotta admit Rarity looks fantastic with a three colour mane. And she just rocks that jacket!

If you say so…

I do say so! Your turn!

Hold on, let me just brace myself for the oncoming onslaught.

Onslaught?

You’ll see.

So, uh, my next card is, uh, us.

Eeeeeeeee!

Hug. Too. Tight.

Just look at how adorable we were back then! And that flavour text is so us! Right down to you being moody about not coming in first place, hehe.

I don’t get moody…

Yeah, just like that!

Anyway, uh, this card is pretty good.

Eh, who am I kidding. We’re amazing.

And you’re not just saying that cause it’s us, are you?

Nope. I looked at every card in the set and decided this legitimately deserved to be included. It’d have the same position even if it were Gyro on the art.

You shouldn’t joke about that, Cici. He’s been complaining again lately he still only has one card...

But yeah, this is basically everything I wanted in a Blue Yellow card! Saving AT, giving extra power to confront, 1 play reqriement so you can play it early with Trading Traditions. What more could a girl want?

It’s even an Immediate ability, allowing you to combo with Hasty Friends, or even just exhaust on the opponent’s turn to avoid a single problem faceoff. It’s just a great card!

That being said, unlike Daring Do and the next card, this doesn’t actually give you AT. If you don’t have Friends to play, you’re not getting as much value as you’d like.

But on the other hoof, you can get value out of us basically every turn so long as you can play Friends. Unlike Daring Do, who needs a free problem. And it’s in a colour combination that kind of needed it more. So despite not giving actual AT, I think overall we’re the better card.

So it gets your stamp of approval?

Absolutely!

Know what gets my stamp of approval?

Uhhh, cakes?

Uh, sure, but not what I was getting at?

Pancakes?

Are you hungry Cici?

A little.

Anyway, what I was trying to get at is that Sorry Stamp gets my stamp of approval!

Didn’t we just talk about that the other day?

Sure did! Aren’t you sorry I didn’t stamp your forehead back then?

This better not go where I think it’s going.

I wouldn’t dream of it!

Anyway, despite the sad nature of the stamp itself, this art just makes me smile! It’s just kind of ridiculous going around with a stamp like that on your head, you know?

Plus, just look at Princess Twilight’s face! It’s just wonderful!

Shouldn’t you, you know, be sad that she’s sad or something?

Well, I am! A little bit. Twilight is genuinely very sorry about the situation she found herself in...

But the whole thing is also pretty ridiculous, so it makes me smile a little too. And I think a card that can evoke both emotions at once is pretty amazing, don’t you?

Sure, I guess.

Well, I like it a lot, and that’s good enough for my list.

Yeah, for sure. Your list is your list.

As for my list, well, I’m sure everypony’s already guessed my number 6 card based on what I’ve said in my picks for the 7 and 8 spots. Starlight Glimmer Guidance Counselor.

Which is honestly kind of surprising. At first, ponies thought she was only going to be so-so since there were already a ton of good AT generator options out there, like Princess Twilight Sparkle: Cover to Cover. Plus she costs 3, which means it takes a long time for her to pay for herself.

But in practice, she’s definitely proven to be an absolute all star.

I think you mean an “All Starlight”, Cici!

Sure...

So, to explain why people weren’t that excited about her at first… In the Seaquestria and Beyond Meta, ponies had the mentality that 5-6 AT generators was usually enough. More than that and you were diluting your deck with too many AT gens and not enough other cards that do other things.

Turns out, uhhh, that was just plain wrong. And in the Friends Forever Meta, we’ve seen decks with 8, 12, and even 18 AT generators! And almost every one of those decks was running Starlight here.

So what changed? Well I’ll get to one of those reasons later in the list, but the other thing is just there are so many good AT gens now, that running as many as you can just means you can have a tremendous advantage over your opponent.

I mean, which pony’s more likely to win? The one getting 3 AT a turn or the one getting 9?

Probably the one getting 9, yeah… You can’t catch up if you’re doing only a third of what the opponent’s doing.

Basically, yeah. Once you’re generating at least 2 more AT than the opponent, chances are you’re a mile ahead. At 3, it’d take a miracle for the opponent to beat you.

Anything past that and you’ve basically already won the game, regardless of what the scores are.

Unless it’s 14-0! Then they might still have a chance! Hehe.

Okay, in the vast majority of circumstances.

Anyway, Glimmer is incredibly key in these strategies for two reasons. First is her 1 req, allowing her to be played early even without flipping your Mane. So you can get her out turn 2 and start getting an influx of AT ASAP.

Second, turns out that 3 power is really helpful. Like Filly Racers, you get the benefit of a lot of power to confront in addition to increasing your AT economy. This has actually sped up a lot of slower Purple strategies. Cover to Cover’s 0 power doesn’t help confront, but Glimmer absolute does.

Also, being mono-coloured means she’s a lot easier to play than Filly Racers or Daring Do, giving her that much more utility. And, well, that goes a long way towards making it on my list, really.

So would you say she guides people to victory?

Hey, yeah! I get that one.

Hehe. Way to go Cici! Rah rah!

“Rah rah?”

Cici, Cici, she’s our Mare! Her deck will take Continentals unawares.

Why thank you!

Though I’m not sure it will. I mean, Nothing I’m considering is really that out of the ordinary…

Wait… you’re doing something weird to set up the next card, aren’t you?

Is it that weird for me to be my besty’s cheer squad?

...No? But I can’t shake this feeling...

Maybe I should wear a mask of you at Continentals like Rainbow Dash’s Parents in Cheering Section?

Please don’t…

But look at them! They’re so happy! Giving their daughter their full support, 110%! 220% even!

That makes even less than 110%.

Don’t be silly, Cici. There’s two of them, so of course it’s 220%.

You might even say it’s 20%—

Don’t.

Spoilsport.

But no, seriously, I love seeing Rainbow’s parent so into supporting her. It’s all sorts of heartwarming, and just fun! Such an easy inclusion for my list, hehe.

Yeah… I guess that would be nice.

Oh no, Cici. I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.

No, no. It’s fine. You didn’t do anything wrong. I just miss them sometimes, you know?

Of course.

But now’s no time to worry about that. We’ve got our top 10 lists to complete, and I’m finally done with the AT gens.

And next up’s an absolute juggernaut! Daybreaker: Blinding Light!

Oooh, she’s a fun one, yeah.

I’m not sure I like the idea of Princess Celestia going evil at all...

But it’s just pretend, so it’s okay, right?

I’m sure no matter what happens, Celestia’d never turn her back on us.

But anyway, this card is just fantastic.

While you don’t get as many points from a single faceoff as you would from a Night Glider: Overpowering, you also don’t need to win by any threshold. Plus she works in any faceoff, meaning she can score you points off of Troublemakers, or any other faceoff she finds herself in.

And of course, she brings a lot more power to those faceoffs, due to her extra base power and extra point of Competitive. 6 is a lot of power for a 3 cost Friend.

She does cost more, though, and, again, gives fewer points. So there are definitely reasons to use Night Glider over her.

But all in all, she’s different enough to be a great option for different kinds of decks. And a very solid number 5 pick for me.

My number 5 pick also also very competitive.

Huh, really? You tend to pick build arounds or just flavourful stuff.

I don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s the most competitive card in the set?

Heh, we’ll see about that.

I mean, just look at the fierce competition going on in Smolder & Sandbar: Pillow FIght!

I… should have seen this coming.

Probably.

But just look at how much fun they’re having! Whap! Pow! Hehehehe.

Hey Cici! Think fast!

Gah!

You almost hit me.

Well, yeah! That is the point of a pillow fight, silly.

Great reflexes, though.

Thanks! We’ve been training a lot lately, and—

Ow.

You shouldn’t close your eyes in a pillow fight, silly!

Oh it’s on now, Flitter! Come here!

Don’t you have a list to finish?

Oh, right. I guess I’ll have to get you later.

I look forward to it.

So this next one, when she was spoiled, I could have sworn was going to be the top of my list. She seemed insane, and exactly what the game needed. And, well, she is. Mage Meadowbrook: Pillar of Healing is the answer a lot of decks were looking for.

Which is why it’s a shame she’s only number 4.

Which isn’t to say she’s not as good as I thought. It’s just, well, other cards wound up being a bit better than I expected. Cause Meadowbrook is absolutely insane.

There are a ton of great Resources out there right now. And Troublemakers have basically always been a problem for aggro decks. It’s kind of what they’re for. And while there have been a few cards that can deal with one or the other before, there’s never been one that deals with both.

And definitely not one that just deals with them all. Unless the opponent has a Desert Road, Meadowbrook just answers everything, no questions asked. And she even comes with a 3 power body to help you confront that turn. She’s amazing.

Plus, just look at that action pose!

Resources and Troublemakers beware, Mage Meadowbrook is coming for you!

Now she is a bit expensive, and she’s not all that great against decks that don’t rely on resources or TMs, so not every deck’s going to want her. But if you’re in Yellow, you should definitely consider her. Nopony does what she does nearly as effectively.

She may not be an all star, but what she does do, she excels at.

Well your number 4 may be a specialist, but mine’s a generalist: Ocellus: Master of Disguise.

She does a little bit of everything!

Sure, but why’s that fun?

Cause mix and matching abilities is just super fun! And you get a different combo of abilities every time, or at least in a different order, hehe.

Agile and Swift and Showy and Dilligent and Eccentric. There’s a lot of fun possibilities!

Kind of disappointed Purple’s is just Meticulous cause it doesn’t really synergize with the other 5 as well, but it’s not bad, I guess.

Plus they brought Transform back just for her and Silverstream! That’s one of my favourite mechanics!

Yeah, it’s not bad.

and for maximum fun, just stick an Alicorn Costume on her. Then she’s automatically fully enabled!

So long as you don’t put any resources on anypony else, of course.

Since when do you suggest not putting resources on Friends?

Not every silly strategy works with every other silly Strategy, Cici.

Alternatively, you could just put all the hats on Ocellus. That way you won’t have a problem!

Uh huh. No way that could go wrong.

Are you doubting the power of my hats, Cici?

Anyway, moving on to the top 3. And, considering how good my top 4 card was, you know the rest have got to be pretty amazing. Pony of Shadows: Pure Darkness is no exception.

The sheer raw value you get out of this card is insane. That’s 1 AT for a Friend. 1! By passing all colour req and everything. And it doesn’t even matter who beats the Pony of Shadows.

Sure, it does need to be beaten, but if you build your deck right, that’s not too hard. And if the opponent beats it, they only get 1 point while you get what’s likely to be an incredibly powerful Friend.

Now I’ve seen some ponies try and use this to put some of the 5 cost tri-colour alicorns into play…

Like me! I’ve done that!

...but it’s honestly not really worth it. They tend to be difficult to play if ever drawn, and usually you don’t have a guarantee you’ll even hit one.

The better way to use it, honestly, is to just include a bunch of medium-cost friends that you’re okay with drawing or with playing for free. This way you’re happy if you draw them or if you get them off of Pony of Shadows.

Farming decks particularly get a lot of usage from this as they can defeat it, then put a large friend into play at another problem with an epic and have a good chance at beating that too. Plus farm decks don’t tend to run all that many friends, so you increase the odds of getting what you want.

I’ve even seen some farm decks run exactly one kind of friend to guarantee hitting it. The results can be a bit scary.

I like using Purple effects like Scope Things Out to stack my deck so I know what Friend I’m getting!

Yeah, that’s not a bad plan either. Though usually you don’t have to. It’s just handy.

Anyway, give it a try. It seriously does a lot more than you might think at first glance. And you probably think it does a lot. I’ve seriously been incredibly impressed with how good it is.

My number three pick is also great value at 1 AT! Rockhoof: Pillar of Strength

Want to guess how many coutners I’ve put on him, Cici?

Nah. I’m going to guess some big number and you’re just going to top it with some ludicrously large number like eighty trillion or something.

Oh, Cici. You always think so small.

Eighty trillion is a lot!

Sure, but we got him to eighty trillion and one

...You’re kidding me.

Of course, that’s when we were just doing silly things to see how big we could get him, hehe. And we kinda just started rounding once it got too big, hehe.

In a normal match, I think it was maybe 100 or so?

That’s still way bigger than you need…

Well, yeah, Cici! That’s what makes him so fun! Rockhoof just refuses to not be the biggest pony around, it’s great!

But what’s even better than just growing Rockhoof yourself is dueling Rockhoofs! You have one at 2 power and have your opponent have one at 3 power and they’ll never stop trying to best each other. It’s great!

“I’m the biggest pony around!” “No, I’m the biggest pony!” hehehe.

Are you quite done?

Yup! I have more power than you, so I’m not growing anymore this turn.

Wah?

Just go, Cici!

So I think a lot of ponies underestimated this next card at first. A couple other cards did a pretty similar thing, and so it was a lot easier to dismiss.

But then ponies started using it and found out, wow, it was absolutely the real deal. And now School Shut Down is a staple in basically any Purple control deck.

So the cards it was being compared too, obviously, were Party of One and Applejack: Captain of the Seven Seas, being the previous board wipes. Each of which was, and still is, very good, but left you with something, while School Shut Down does not.

But the thing is, it gets rid of everything. Nothing stays behind, short of Persistent Friends. Not even discard piles! And that can matter a lot too. It’s definitely not as great as Party of One if your only goal is to get rid of Friends. But that’s not its only purpose.

It’s almost like different cards can have different strengths and weaknesses!

Heh, yeah, exactly.

Being in the colour that gains lots of AT certainly helps as well. Especially in the current meta with basically all the AT Gens. It may be more Expensive than Party of One, but that’s not always a factor when you’re getting extra AT.

And I guess that’s it. It’s a board wipe. It gets rid of everything. That’s all you need to be a super strong card, really.

Well, we’re at the third and last card on my list because it’s just pure fun: Silverstream: Fish out of Water!

Nopony else in the game does what she does, hehe.

Huh. I wouldn’t have even begun to assume that Silverstream would have made your list, let alone as your number 2. She seems kind of… tame.

Are you kidding? Silverstream is insane!

With the right deck, she’s an invitation to put whatever problem you want into play! Or even all of them!

Please tell me you didn’t put all 20 problems at once.

Oh, Cloudchaser. Still thinking so, so small.

We worked together to put all 116 problems in play at once!

116?

Yup! 3 copies each of all sixteen dilemmas for each player. Plus both players 10 problems, of course. That makes 116!

It was the biggest multi problem faceoff ever!

Whatever makes you happy, I guess.

Of course, that’s not the best thing you can do with Silverstream. But I’ll tell you about dismissing problems and uniqueness later, hehe. It’s a whole lot of nonsense.

Wha?

Basically, Sivlerstream lets you do a lot of fun and silly things that couldn’t be done before. And, well, Cici, you may not know this… but I just love fun and silly things!

I think I may have heard that once or twice.

Cici, you made a joke! I’m so proud of you!

Gah! No hugs while we’re doing top 10 lists!

All the hugs while we’re doing top 10 lists!

So we’re finally at my last card and, uh... yeah. All of you probably guessed it’s Mistmane: Pillar of Beauty.

Now, I wasn’t sure she was all that great at first, but the fact she does four different things across two abilities is what makes her absolutely insane. Four. That’s a lot of things for one card to do, and they’re all notable.

Sure, she’s primarily used for her ability to get you a card back while also getting you a point, but that’s only half of what she can do. She also can get herself out from the discard pile while filling it with stuff you might want to get back. Not to mention also filling the opponent’s discard pile.

This makes it incredibly difficult to get rid of her short of banishing her.

Most of you are also probably aware of the fact that being Unique lets you use two of them to just score a point for every 3 AT you spend. Having 2 in play means one is dsimissed immediately due to Uniqueness, and then can be gotten back thanks to her Trigger.

Then, since you’re back where you started just with 3 less AT and 1 more point, you can do it again. And again. And again.

Put simply, she is a finisher, and very effective at it in this meta of a million AT gens. 3 AT per point is kind of expensive, but if you can stall the game long enough to be able to do it 8 or 10 times in one turn, the cost begins to not matter much anymore.

How often does that happen? Seems unlikely.

More often than you’d think or I’d like…

Now she does come with the drawback of letting the opponent get a card back as well, but…

It usually doesn’t matter. Ponies tend not to play Mistmane if the opponent can get something important back, unless they don’t care. It’s mostly meaningless. Kind of disappointing, really.

Long story short, she is incredibly versatile while also being exceptionally good at a single thing, which isn’t a combination you see very frequently. She’s trivially the best card in the set, even more so than Old Money, who got banned.

Which isn’t to say I think she should necessarily be banned…

But I wouldn’t mind it.

Cici!

I just don’t find her very fun to play against.

But that’s just me. I’ve actually heard a lot of ponies talking about wanting to ban her... But I don’t think it’s necessary. At least not yet since rotation is right around the corner. Which isn’t something we need to get into today.

We’ll just have to wait and see, I guess. And it’s not like every powerful card needs to be something I like specifically or anything.

Different cards appeal to different ponies.

Exactly! Part of what makes a card game great.

I do hope she’s being watched for the possibility of banning, if only because a lot of ponies think it might be necessary. But I doubt it’ll need to happen any time soon.

And that’s my whole list. Lots of powerful stuff this time around. Mostly good stuff too.

Well, my last card’s one we don’t even need to talk about…

Wah?

...Since Cici already did that for me!

Look! it’s us again!

Heh, yeah, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.

It’s always nice seeing us on a card, and this one’s particularly nice.

Plus we’re just so gosh darn cute! Filly us is the best!

Shame I was wearing the bow that day and not you. That was back when we were taking turns, remember?

Flitterrrrrrr.

But yeah, I don’t really have much more to say that I didn’t already say when Cici talked about us! We’re adorable, we work great together, and we’re the perfect team. Always!

Always and always.

So, that’s our lists! Now if you’ll excuse us, Cloudchaser’s got a lot of freaking out to do now that there’s nothing else to do between now and Contientals.

I do not freak ou—

Gah, Continentals is like 2 days away and I have so much playtesting I need to do! Why did I let you waste so much time trying to teach me how to tell dumb jokes? I’ve got to go now! Later Flits.

That’s our Cloudchaser, hehe.

Bye everypony! See you all at Continetals!

#cloudchaser and flitter explain #cloudchaser #flitter #mlp fim #mlpccg

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retail-truestory · 6 years

Text

Scammer Fail

Sit back and make yourselves comfortable because you're in for another true, long story! I'm watching self scan and this lady calls me over for help. Her coupon isn't going through - it's $8 off 2 hair prodcuts. "It's a perfectly good coupon, I don't know why it's not going through," she says. I know why it's not going through, but I just double check the items and the expiration date. All good. "It is fine," I tell her, "it's just that the coupon exceeds a certain amount so it needs me to put it in manually." Which I do. Now most customers, that's all it is. But this one keeps going. She has this printed paper of coupons she supposedly loaded to her store card from the internet. Now usually when customers say they have loaded coupons, they have the keychain app opened and to the page with the loaded coupons so if nothing goes through we can double check and then put the discount in manually. She points to an item on the list, a free yogurt. She asked why the discount wasn't coming off. I double check to make sure she put the store card in, and then totaled it. A couple of personal discounts - aka loaded coupons - appear, but not the one for the yogurt. She insists she has it and has no idea why there's a problem. I see right there on the screen she got the yogurt, and I also saw it when I checked the hair products a minute before. I tell her that sometimes it's a glitch in the system or the machine doesn't pick up the coupon for whatever reason. I then proceed to ask her if she has the app opened on her phone so I can make sure it's loaded. She doesn't have her phone, apparently. It's questionable, but some people leave their phones in the car. And for only $1 I don't think anything of it. So I put it in manually. And yet that's still not the end of it. She has yet ANOTHER question. She's asking why the total is what it is. Here's the breakdown - lady got three items. The yogurt and the 2 hair colors. Together the three items sans discounts came up to around $16, excluding tax. Two of her personal discounts from the card came up without a problem - $2 and $5. Take off another $8 for the hair coupon, and the $1 for the yogurt. When it gets totalled again, self scan says she owes $5.80. "I don't understand. Why is it saying that?" she questions. "I should only have to pay the 80 cents." I ask her what's up, never mind that there's a couple of other customers that need my help. Lady wants to know why her total is $5.80. She swears up and down she should only have to pay the tax because of all her coupons. She even goes so far as to tell me to do the math myself. I do the math on my phone and I see what the problem is - it added the $5 back on, taking off that original coupon. Lady isn't having any of it. She's questioning why the coupon was taken off and she doesn't want to pay the extra $5 for the stuff. At this point, my coworker came to give me my break. I give her my self scan card so she can help the other customers as I continue to try to help this lady. I basically tell her that it got added back on, there's nothing I can do about it. I'm not sure at that particular moment why it happened, but there's a reason. Since my basic answer isn't good enough for her I call over my coworker; maybe she knows something I don't know. I explain what's going onto her, all the while this lady's talking over me like I don't know what I'm saying. Coworker reads over the screen and she says, "yeah of course it voided it off after those extra coupons were put through. It's not going to accept it." "Why not? I shouldn't have to pay $5.80," the lady argues. "I can go somewhere else and pay less." Uhhh less than $5.80 for two hair products that are already on sale and equate to just under $16? I don't know about that. Even the customer in the lane next to her overhears and comments, "That's the best deal you're going to get. You're better off getting it here." Still not good enough. Now the lady's asking for a manager. Coworker openly rolls her eyes at her, clearly fed up wit her attitude. "Don't roll your eyes at me, call over a manager," lady insists. Meanwhile I'm still standing there because we're in the middle of dealing with this character and I'm supposed to be on my break. I offer to go to customer service and ask them to page a manager, but my coworker beats me to it and yells across the store for our coworker at customer service. She then proceeds to go and help yet another customer, because now she's in charge of self scan and she can't devote every second to this witch. But I can't take my break yet because this lady is STILL complaining to me that she's not getting the crap for only 80 cents. I proceed to tell her that they're going to call a manager who'll be here shortly and that, as my coworker said, there's a reason that the discount was canceled. I even went so far as to give her a couple of examples why it was voided, such as no meeting a specific total. For instance, the store coupons my store offers specify in the fine print you have to spend a certain amount to use them; we're not allowed to let customer use a coupon for $5 off the purchase if they spend $4, for example. But does that satisfy this lady? Hell. No. Coworker returs and lady is still demanding to speak with a manager. Coworker yells for customer service again. Moments later, a coworker in bakery is walking by, probably about to take her break. She spent some time up front as a cashier before switching departments, so maybe she knows something. Coworker pulls her over and asks her if she knows anything about coupons and tax. Bakery says no but she'll go let customer service know. I offer to go with her, since I still can't take my break yet. We go over to customer service and Bakery asks Customer Service, who is finishing up with a customer of his own (explaining why a manager wasn't paged yet) to call a manager to self scan. "What's up?" he asks. Bakery tells Customer Service that there's a customer dissatisfaction and then I give the abridged version of that there's a lady insisting that after all her coupons she should only be paying 80 cents for hair coloring and yogurt. Customer Service raises an eyebrow. "Is this an older lady? Short hair? Furry jacket? Glasses?" he asks. Bakery and I both nod. Customer Service sighs. "She's tried this here before," he tells us, "she comes in for a few items, forces multiple coupons to go through and gets mad that it doesn't accept them all and she still has to pay a few bucks." Of course Bakery and I are looking at each other and our looks say it all. What a witch. (I'm being super polite.) So Customer Service picks up the phone and announces over the loudspeaker for a manager to go to self scan for customer assistance. No sooner did he do that, I'm talking less than a minute later, we hear Coworker yelling to us from self scan, "Cancel the manager! She left!" "What the hell??" Bakery questions. Customer Service groans. "Go see what's up," he tells me before paging the manager to cancel and then going to help his own new customer. I return to self scan and Coworker is taking the two hair colors and yogurt - along with a few other throwbacks people ditched at self scan - to put in a throwback wagon. I help her with the items and then go to put the yogurt in one of the soda fridges by the registers. "What was that about?" I asked her. She uses my card to suspend the order - as canceling/voiding transactions are something only supervisor's and manager's self scan cards are capable of - and prints out the 'receipt'. I say that in quotations because it looks like a receipt but has a bar code so we can pull the order up again at any register. Essentially, the transaction is still in the system's record that it happened but hasn't been paid for. "As soon as they paged the manager she decided she didn't want the sht and left," Coworker tells me. "I HATE customers like that, I'm fed up with them. They come in thinking they can get all this crap for nothing and have the worst attitude about it. I'm sick of it. I can't wait to get out of this dump." She then gives me the 'receipt' to bring to Customer Service so he or the manager or whoever can basically have a record that this is something that happened - apparently for multiple occasions - and maybe they can figure out what the hell to do about it. So to recap, we got this lady who thinks she can use multiple coupons to get stuff for as cheap as possible only to throw a fit when she's told it's now how it works. Because - spoiler - the register DID void off the $5 because she WAS supposed to spend a certain amount to use it and since she went under the amount after she made me take $9 off (whether it worked with the transaction or not) she was under and would have had to pay $5.80, not the tax only like she insisted the whole damn time. And the SECOND that a manager is called over to 'help' her, she changes her mind and ditches the store because she knows manager is gonna tell her the exact same thing Coworker tried to and she was gonna be told that she was wrong which she didn't want to hear. So I say, good riddance to you, you scammer! I hope you had to pay even more for oyur precious yogurt and hair coloring somewhere else! PS - don't worry, I finally got to take my break after that. I made it a couple minutes shorter just because I felt bad my coworker was at self scan longer than intended but it wasn't like I had to spend half my break still at self scan dealing with a witch.

#retail #retail life #retail problems #self scan #self scan problems #customer service #customer service problems #annoying customer #scammer #scam #scamming customer #long story #true story #i hate people #no faith in humanity #people suck

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blog-in-a-corner · 6 years

Text

TSOTBL - Stuck

It’s been one week since Aaron and the others got to the lodge, and it had been three days since Aphmau’s car broke down.

All one hundred rooms of the second floor of the lodge had finally been cleaned. It was a difficult progress but having Zane and Aphmau at the lodge helped a lot. It was noon, and Aaron had just walked back inside the lodge after spending hours working on the cars.

“Is there really nothing wrong with them?” Aphmau asked impatiently. “I’ve looked through both of the cars inside and out for the past two days. They’re perfectly fine.” Aaron calmly explained. “Then why won’t it start?” “I don’t know. The same thing is happening to my car too” “So what, we’re all just stuck here now?” Zane grumbled in annoyance. “For now, yeah.” Aaron sighed, walking into the kitchen. “I guess I better go tell the others.” Aphmau thought aloud. “Great. Just great. Now I get to be stuck in the middle of nowhere with a limited food supply, almost no form of travel, no wi-fi or service, and surrounded by an absolute fantastic variety of morons!” Zane yelled angrily. “Well, it could be worse y’know.” Aphmau insisted. “I don’t see how much worse it could get.” Zane groaned, making his way to the waiting room and slouching on one of the couches.

That would be the most ironic remark Zane would say on the entirety of this trip, even if he didn’t know it yet.

Aphmau headed to Lucinda’s room. She thought it might be a good time to talk. Aphmau knocked on the door.

“Hey Luci? It’s me, Aphmau.” “The door is unlocked!” Lucinda shouted from inside her room.

Aphmau entered the room. Lucinda was laying on the bed, twiddling with her wand. As she usually was.

“So Aaron can’t find anything wrong with the cars, but they won’t start either.” “You have to be kidding...” “I wish I was.” “So we’re stuck here until further notice?” “Yeah…” “Mother of irene....can this trip get ANY worse?” “Don’t jinx it!” “Pfft, I’m not jinxing anything. Hell, I would be surprised if this place wasn’t already jinxed or hexed-or cursed even!” “You’re still jinxing it! Just you wait ‘til something even worse happens!” “Something worse? Like what? Zane gets swine flu? Actually that wouldn’t really be bad…” “Lucinda!” “I’m joking! Besides, saying stuff like “don’t jinx it” just makes you remember when someone warned you that just as something bad happens. Like good luck charms. They’re not actually lucky, you just think of them whenever something good happens to you and you start to associate the good luck charm with good events, even though the good luck charm didn’t actually do anything.” “I guess you do make a good point…” “Exactly. Don’t worry about this whole thing okay? Everything is gonna be fine.” Lucinda assured, as she sat up. “I know, I just...being here with Aaron is so awkward! It’s hard to give someone the space they asked for when your stuck with them in the middle of nowhere!” Aphmau groaned in frustration. “Oh right, I had forgotten about that whole break-up thing.” “We didn’t break-up!” “Sorry, Sorry!” “It’s fine….it’s just...hard y’know?” “I know where you’re coming from, but you do know you’ll have to make a decision at some point.” “Huh...?” “At one point...you or Aaron will have to decide whether or not your relationship is worth it or not.” “...What do you mean?” “Listen, you and Aaron are doing this whole “taking some time apart” thing, and I get it; I did it too, but at one point I had to decide if Ivan was really worth it, or to just...let go.” “It’s not the same, Ivan cheated on you.” “He did, but in the end it was still my choice to cut ties with him.” “...........” “It’s your choice Aph, but don’t make the mistake of lingering onto a relationship for too long. If Aaron is the person you want to be with...if your relationship with him is what you want for your life, then go ahead and tell him when you’re both good and ready.” Lucinda got up from her bed and began to walk out of the room. “But remember this. You’ll have to accept it and understand if you’re not what he wants for his life, as much as it might hurt, oftentimes we’re not “the one”.” “I’ll keep that in mind…” Aphmau muttered glumly. “I just don’t want to see one of my friends hurt...” “Don’t worry about me, but thanks for the advice.” “I’m always here when you need it.”

Lucinda walked out of the room, Aphmau on the other hand, stayed a minute to think.

“I guess….we can’t be “taking time apart” forever….can we…” Aphmau headed out of the room. “I guess I haven’t been thinking about this as much as I should have been.”

______________________________________________________________________________

Aaron was sitting in the kitchen, eating a little ham sandwich he had prepared himself. It wasn’t a very good sandwich but it wasn’t bad either. Aaron just wanted some peace of mind after everything that’s happened. The boiler exploding, Kim acting weird one moment and acting fine the next, Aphmau and Zane’s surprise visit, Michi, the cars, Aphmau...being there. But as always, fate dealt Aaron the worst hand of cards, and today one of them just so happened to be Zane. Zane’s whining to be specific.

“We can’t be stuck here!” Zane shouted, pacing around the kitchen counter. “We just can’t be!” “Dammit Zane!” Aaron snapped. “Can you go whine somewhere else? I’m want to eat my sandwich in peace...” “And I want to go home, but we can’t have everything can we?” “Will you shut up if I tell you your dad will be coming soon?” “What?” Zane turned his head around faster than he could say “what”. “My dad’s coming?! When?!” “In about uhhh, two weeks?” “TWO WEEKS?!” Zane shreaked. “THAT’S SUPPOSED TO MAKE ME HAPPY?!” “Maybe a little..?” “I can’t be here for two weeks!” “Doesn’t it beat being here for the whole month at least?” “Hmph,” Zane stopped his fit. “I guess.” “Irene I can only imagine how horrible you were as a kid…” Aaron said under his breath. “What was that?” “Nothing, I just choked on a bit of sandwich.” “Be more careful when you chew dumbass.” “Will do.” “So,” Zane mumbled, sitting down next to Aaron. “How’s it going with uh, Aphmau being here?” “Well…..” “I mean, wasn’t the whole reason you left to this place was so you could have some peace of mind?” “Yeah, but look at how that turned out.” “Yeahhh….sorry about that.” “It’s not your fault, or anybody’s fault for that matter. It’s just that now I’m back where I didn’t want to be in the first place, and stuck here too.” “Trust me, you’re not the only one that doesn’t want to be here.” “I guess all I can do is make the most of the situation. I just wish it wasn’t so...awkward with Aph.” “Well, have you made up your mind on anything about the whole “taking time apart” thing?” “No...I’ve been too caught up with everything that’s happened I haven’t had any time to even think about that.” “Really? Aside from me and Aphmau coming out of the blue and her car breaking down, what else could have possibly happened?” “More than you’d think.” “Hm.” “Well,” Aaron sighed, getting up from his chair. “I suppose I should get back to working on the lodge.” “Alright, you go do that.” Zane said, watching Aaron leave the room.

As Aaron walked out of the kitchen and into the center of the lobby, he saw Lucinda coming down the stairs.

“Hey Lucinda!” Aaron shouted to her. “Yeah?” Lucinda responded, walking towards Aaron. “I wanted to talk to you about something.” “What’s up?” “How uh,” Aaron looked around. “How’s Kim?” “She’s fine. She hasn’t shown any odd behavior today.” “That’s good. Have you...been able to see what’s causing it?” “No. Every time I’ve tried to talk to her about she gets all nervous and leaves the room the first chance she gets.” “Hmm, sounds suspicious…” “I mean, a lot of people freak out over hearing stuff like that, especially coming from a witch. I would know.” “You do make a good point…” “She hasn’t attacked anyone or anything again, so as long as things stay that way, I don’t think we should have to worry too much about it.” “I don’t know. It still isn’t normal regardless.” “True, but it’s not like we can get her professionally diagnosed with anything, and I can’t test her for possession without getting her to comply first.” “I guess all we can do is just keep a close eye on her for now. Right?” “Right. Well, I suppose we should all be getting back to work now?” “Yeah, but, I wanted to ask you one more thing.” “Yeah?” “Is, uh, is Aphmau....doing alright?” “...She’s doing fine. She just, well, she just needs some thinking to do.” “About what?” “About things.” “I wish you could not be all vague whenever I ask you a question that has anything to do with our friends.”

“Heh. We don’t get everything we wish for now do we?”

______________________________________________________________________________

Zane was wandering about the second floor rooms, as he had nothing else to do.

“Irene this is the worst...I should have never agreed to come to this stupid place…and for what?! To see my peanut-brained brother and my best friends ex? Tch, I shouldn’t have let myself be so easily swayed by Aphmau.” Zane grumbled.

Zane continued to look around the hallway, bored out of his mind.

“I guess I can’t be too mad at her, the whole thing with Aaron she’s been dealing with must be pretty rough...and now that they’re both stuck together far away from home and without any basic form of travel. She must be so stressed...but all I can do is be there for her. Like she’d do for me.”

Zane, just now, noticed a door that didn’t match the rest of the room doors.

“Huh? Is this,” Zane said in surprise, approaching the odd door. “....an elevator? I didn’t even know this place had an elevator! Then again….this place is supposed to have three floors, and I haven’t seen any stairs around here.”

Zane pressed one of the two buttons on the wall next to the elevator entrance. Much to Zane’s surprise, after a lot of whirring sounds and what sounded like metal screeching, the doors opened and the elevator was right in front of him

“Wow...I’m surprised this damn thing even moves after so many years. I’d try to use it to go the third floor…..buuuut I’m not about to get trapped in an elevator and die. This stupid trip is already bad enough, the last thing i’m going to do is die...”

Zane could’ve walked away. He really could have. But his curiosity got the best of him.

“Hmm….I wonder if the buttons on the inside still work too…” Zane muttered, as he walked inside. “I’ll just take a peek inside here.”

The inside of the elevator was old and rugged, but it still looked nicer than the rest of the lodge.

“So let’s see….there’s no button for the first floor, figures, but there is the buttons for the second floor, third floor, and...one more button, but it’s completely gone. If I remember what Garroth told me correctly, this place has an attic, so that’s most likely the floor that button lead to. I’d investigate it, but I’m going to come back with the others to clean up anyways. Speaking of which I should be meeting up with them right now-

Zane was so distracted by his inner thought that he didn’t realize that the elevator doors closed before he could exit the elevator. Although Zane did not press any one of the buttons, the elevator began to move upwards.

“W-What the hell!? Okay, okay just caaalm down Zane. Everything will be fine as long as the elevator doesn’t-”

The sound of metal squealing could be heard as the elevator came to a screeching halt..

“-stop...”

Zane screamed at the top of his lungs for help, as there wasn’t much else he could do in the predicament he was in.

#aphmau #mystreet #fanfiction #writeblr #lucinda #zane ro'meave #garroth ro'meave #aaron lycan #kim #tsotbl

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epersonae · 6 years

Text

ye olde liner notes

A whole bunch of meta for The Truth or Something Beautiful, which @magcretia and I posted two months ago? Sure why not?

It’s hecking long, so more under the cut....

Elaine: so I guess at this point (almost 2 months later) this is more of a retrospective, yeah? But we both want to take a look at how this thing happened, so it's all good.

Kath: Yeah, I mostly thought it’d be useful to us as we’re working on this big WIP of [redacted] where there’s gonna be some intense feelings to kind of take some “emotional inventory” for Taako and Lucretia, and maybe also ourselves? And remind ourselves where we came from and where we’re trying to go.

E: I think we were both pretty wiped out after finishing this, so a little distance is good. I’m trying to remember what the bit was where we decided, fuckit let’s just publish after trying to cut and then put back blah blah blah? Was it “But we — we keep choosing Forsake,” ? We cut because it seemed like a weird turn, but then it turned out to be important?

K: I think it felt like a beat we were hitting without it flowing naturally there, which happens sometimes? But I think with these two, there just isn’t always a flow, because they’re in their own heads so much and say so little of what they need to say aloud. So a lot of times it just comes out abruptly and feels uncomfortable, which isn’t pretty, but it’s true to life. And a LOT of writing this was uncomfortable, I think.

E: Ok, I’ll just dive right into that, then. We both went into this thinking it was going to be an easier conversation than Find the One Safe Way and NOOOOOOOOPE.

K: YEAH UHHH LOL.

E: I had this moment of absolute low where I thought: we broke it, the thing that we thought we’d fixed, we absolutely just broke it, and personally (hi overidentifying with Lucretia) I just kept thinking WOW that was a mistake bringing up Lup.

K: Yeah, I had that same feeling, and I remember talking about it with you like “do we scratch this? Are we really going to keep this?” and I think it was that uncertainty of letting Taako and Lucretia do what they do, the same way we wrote Safe Way, that was scary.

E: these chucklefucks. And the moment where Lucretia dives to the bottom of the pool and, look, I try really hard to stay away from the suicidal stuff when I write Lucretia, I’m just too soft to really handle it, but I was right there in it. (which was super surreal having those feelings at work, LET ME TELL YOU) But I had to trust that “no way out but through” was going to work.

So, ok, this “How could you not do something?” hit me, personally, so hard I could hardly breathe, because duh, of course. sigh

K: So, that all started from your coke!Taako fic, The Mirror, which really stuck with me for… clearly a long time, for a lot of reasons, but I hadn’t really explored those feelings until I started writing my longfic, Another Beach Year. And in ABY, in a scene that I never finished and probably never will, Taako has a nightmare that’s actually a memory of Sizzle It Up days, where Lucretia was watching him from the crowd (as she did in The Mirror) and she sees just how messed up he is, how poorly he’s doing, and she does nothing. And I think that stuck with me even though this series isn’t necessarily in either of those continuities, and I wanted to incorporate that, because I feel that a lot of times the Taako and Lucretia conflict is boiled down to the “you made me forget my sister” thing, and that’s not the whole thing. At least for us, (ESPECIALLY for us?) it’s, “you were my best friend, and you did all that, and you knew I was doing badly, and you still didn’t do anything.” And I think Taako didn’t know how to articulate that in any way that wasn’t accusatory, but it was (and I am biased) perhaps deserved? Definitely necessary, regardless.

E: So I think what made that as difficult as it was on my end was that she felt bad about what had happened, but what she was sorry for wasn’t the thing that was hurting him the most. She thought she knew but she had no idea. I don’t even know how to articulate the dawning horror of “I’ve been sorry about the wrong thing this whole time” except I guess how I actually did? And I think of Lucretia as someone who very much wants to be able to fix things, to make a plan that comes through and improves everything, and to be hit with “this is bad and I can’t do anything about that” is a heavy hit.

K: Mmm. I think it’s hard for Taako to admit that he’s hurting at all, so when he does, it’s kind of a “well I guess while we’re doing this, I’ll get it all out” deal. And so he has all of these feelings about the forgetting, and about Lup, and about a decade being essentially a shell of himself, but what we’re bringing to the table here is this added dimension of their relationships with Magnus, and consequently their friendship with each other. So I think it’s almost easy to lose sight of what exactly he’s hurting about and default to the Lup stuff (and, wow, yeah, there’s so much more there that in True Taako Fashion, even I am avoiding) but fixing the Lup stuff still won’t fix the Lucretia stuff, because he has his memories back. It’s not the forgetting that’s hurting him now, it’s the betrayal.

E: “it’s hard for Taako to admit” — so this. At one point, I was questioning whether he really would have pruney fingers (from the pool) because the amount of actual dialogue wasn’t long enough, and one of the curious things about this whole thing is how much goes unspoken. They take soooo much time to say honestly the briefest things. It’s tremendously frustrating, on some level, because god just say a thing already but it’s also artistically satisfying because it feels true to them, that they dance around their feelings until something just breaks. Usually because I have Lucretia just blurt out some godawful thing. (There’s a bit in the WIP where it’s WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT, but I just feel it.) Of course Lucretia would ask if he’s talked to Lup, and then instantly regret having asked.

K: Oh no girl she didn’t ask, she just abruptly said “I’m sorry about Lup,” which is maybe? Possibly? The worst thing she could have done in that moment. Which makes for good radio but not a good emotional state LOL.

E: Ha, I was thinking about the bit later.

K: YEAH. TWICE. OK LUCRETIA. I think it really does attest to how much she wants to fix things, and all her good intentions, but she can’t do it her way. That way doesn’t work with Taako… They’re the same in that they can’t handle being blindsided with feelings, but that doesn’t stop either of them from doing it to each other? And that’s why these conversations keep happening with the intensity that they do, is they have such a hard time navigating those feelings in the first place. To which we just say, at this point: these chucklefucks.

E: With so much love, but yeah. I can’t believe we thought this one was going to be more lighthearted. Because they were less defensive, maybe? Safe Way they were both on guard because it was a planned encounter, but this was accidental.

K: And they were getting along. For pages, it was like, wow, fuck, this feels good, they’re chatting? Laughing? Together? And then it was, (and wow this is a theme, huh?) talking about family, and ultimately Angus, that caused this whole… thing.

E: There’s so much I have to say about Angus in [redacted], because I’ve fallen headlong into the idea that out of all the adults in his life, Lucretia and Taako are the most parental. But even here, he’s almost a proxy for all this other stuff that’s hanging between them. The theft of the silverware ends up being about what Taako is like on his own, and how Lucretia made her friends into her employees. Angus as a kid on his own is both a thing that Lucretia feels guilty about and a reminder to Taako of his own childhood, and being a kid with Lup.

K: And that was something that I really only scratched the surface of here, because I think that feeling runs deep for Taako. And I think it’s not only why Taako winds up as the parental figure that he is in our timeline, but it’s also why he is so insistent on doing what he can to give Ango a normal life, or to somehow make up for the time Ango spent “alone,” so to speak. It’s hard to articulate, but Taako definitely feels a kinship with Ango in that way, and I think he is projecting some of his own feelings about his own hardships of childhood onto Lucretia? In the way that he blames her for… kind of many things lol. It’s something I want to explore separately later on, for sure.

E: Something that I’m noticing on re-read is that they have this common thread of “you’re the only person I can tell how shitty I know I am” — that might not be exactly it, but something in that neighborhood. That they look at themselves and think “I’m not a good person,” and everybody else is yeah yeah whatever, but they can say it to each other. Which is kinda fucked up, but interesting.

K: YES. I think for Taako it’s mostly “I can say I’m a shitty person to you because there’s very little shit that I could do that’s worse than what you did to me!” Which, yeah, fucked up and interesting lol. And for Lucretia, probably “You already know I’m a shitty person and are the first to tell me so, so I’ll say it anyway”?

E: I don’t think she means it to be calculated, but there’s definitely an aspect of “I’ll admit to it before you accuse me” on her part. I also sometimes see a bit of “you helped make me this shitty” from Taako. And for both of them, they feel like they’re comparing themselves to the people they see as whole-heartedly good, ie Magnus and Lup. (Having this set in Magnus’s yard turned out to be a hell of a thing.)

K: Yeah, I think Taako is a bit more calculated about it, but also I think he’s always been quicker to admit that he’s not really good. (Justin saying “Taako’s not a good person, though, Taako’s not a good person,” on air was like. A LOT to take in. But also, my qualms with Justin’s Canon are well known lol.) I don’t think Taako’s a bad person. I think I summed it up nicely through Kravitz in The Way We Really Are, where he basically says “we’re not good, we’re not bad, we just are.” I think Taako really needed to hear that, especially considering he is Constantly Comparing Himself to everyone else around him, and he honestly believes everyone around him is just… Good. Capital G Good. It’s hard not to compare yourself to your twin.

E: They both have this comparison thing that WOW do I relate to, and actually that circles all the way around back to the thing that was such a difficult editing experience: Trust or Forsake. It was sort of a sideways swerve in the conversation, but it’s such a good metaphor. That they’re both good at calculating the odds and thinking in a very pragmatic way, but then experience the feelings backlash later. They’re both coping with the “rush of shame”, as you put it.

K: I was about to say, I always seem to gravitate back to the robot world, with Taako’s “Am I the only pragmatist here?” and how that was the only time we ever saw him actively disagreeing with Lup. The fact that he was almost angry with her there really stuck with me, and subsequently how he conceded after and promised (with the rest of the team) not to get “scary” like that again. It stick with me, and because of that, it sticks with Taako. I think he feels guilty for a lot of stuff that he knows had to be done. And for that reason, he and Lucretia have a lot in common.

E: That’s one of the core theses of our work together, this commonality. And it’s always such a visceral pleasure to play on that in the interior monologue. Maybe most of all in the new things/good things bit? (Bringing in Kravitz always makes me cry.)

K: Any excuse to bring in Krav. And it was really nice for me to tie him in with a callback to one of your pieces (which you gifted to me!) that was also mentioned in Safe Way. We’ve done a lot of talking outside of our works about how the seven, but particularly Taako and Lucretia, didn’t wind up with the lives they expected, but they wound up with something new and good, and I think that’s a big part of how Taako arrives at his conclusion of “we can’t fix this but we can build something new, maybe.” He knows the power of these new good things, and perhaps the Newest and the Best thing is Kravitz.

E: As I’m thinking about this, and rereading that part in particular, I’m actually reminded of some personal conversations that we’ve had, and this conclusion that they get to resonates: there’s a lot of Bad Shit in the past, and we’re/they’re kind of broken, but there’s enough good now to keep going. Which is a pretty …….. weird? conclusion to end up at, but for me personally it’s oddly hopeful. That it’s better to keep trying than to give up.

K: For sure. I think part of what attracts me to Taako as a character is that he’s the embodiment of the “third option.” Like, no matter how much shit is absolutely fucked, he finds some way to break the game and get the hell out of dodge (and sometimes save the day. But only sometimes.) And I think despite the fact that he struggles so much afterwards (and… basically all of that is my own doing bc lol projecting on fic) he still manages to find a lot of good. It reminds me of a thing you tagged me in that said something like “you don’t have to be hopeful about the future, you just have to be curious enough about what could happen if you stick around” which really rang true for me personally. And for Taako, I think it’s almost a matter of “well, my life was buckwild enough so far, might as well see it through.” (The ravishing boyfriend is a plus, tho.)

E: And honestly, Kravitz’s presence in Taako’s life is something that Lucretia cherishes as well, not that she can take credit for it, obviously, but seeing him happy makes her feel a little better about how everything went down.

K: Absolutely, and I think that gratitude comes through in some small moments in both of our individual works, as early as To New Beginnings which I wrote in October (!) and perhaps even before that? But I feel like there’s this unspoken understanding, almost, between Kravitz and Lucretia (which also came through in Copper for Your Thoughts, in a way) that I think comes with the territory of being the wise characters they are, always laden with such gravitas lol.

E: To zag on you: THE TEA? (which, actually, I’ve never had rose tea, I don’t think? But you made it a Lucretia thing in To New Beginnings at least, and it crossed over into this continuity.) This is another “third option” that changed the whole thing, and I love it.

K: Hah, I never even thought about the symbolic “third option” for tea. (There’s a lot of threes with these three, lol.) Rose tea tastes how roses smell, and it’s weird, but I’m kind of into it? It just always felt like a Lucretia thing to me. BUT YEAH THE TEA, I was having him transmute the juice into tea and I was gonna have him make rose tea, but he already did that in Safe Way, so I was sitting there musing for a minute and thought, oh, what if they had Magnus’s tea? (Oolong, if you’re playing along at home.) And then it hit me: oh, I don’t even know what kind of tea Taako drinks, because he’s always making two cups of whatever the other person wants, which I then raised to you outside of the doc, which then we were both just kinda like “oh… fuck… that’s a thing now” lol.

But I do want to go a little deeper into that, bc I think about it a lot, how Taako isn’t good at saying how he feels. This is known. And that’s another aspect that draws me to him, because wow, fucking same. I used to have quite a knack for naming my emotions, and then somewhere along the line I kind of lost that. And it’s not just about the negative. It’s absolutely a Thing to have a hard time showing people how you feel positively. And I think a lot about that in my own life and have done musing on “love languages” and all that jazz and I think for Taako, he does that in really subtle ways. Doing little things that he almost hopes people won’t even notice. He doesn’t want that “aw that’s so sweet” reaction. He just wants to make that person feel good and move on— which is quite different from the showboating Taako from TV. It’s an interesting contradiction that was so nice to be able to explore so naturally here. Lucretia’s spent a century with him and it hits her all at once that she’s never had the tea he likes, because he’s always taking part in hers. It’s so meaningful and says so much about him. (And maybe he’s not as Bad as he thinks.)

E: And she absolutely notices, first with the mugs — which AAAAAAAAAH the Moon’s Best Director mug, please — because it’s such a little detail that shows that he’s paying attention to her and to her relationship with Magnus, and then the tea and what that means. Again: trust. That she’s going to not try to protect herself or hide from him, she’s going to trust that she can be open and let what happens happen. Ok, I also have to say, we haven’t talked much about the actual process of writing, but the part where Taako says he’s sorry, I read that in the grocery store and then I just wandered the aisles in a daze for like 10 minutes trying to even figure out her response. (In the vein of “leaning into the feeling”, that sound that might’ve been oh or no was literally me in the frozen food aisle.) But they pull back from that brink so quickly! And I think what we’re both noticing in really digging into this again is how actually unresolved it is.

K: I am a big fan of Observant Taako, who cares very deeply but won’t admit it. Even if he’s not in a good place with Lucretia, I think at this point he’s moved forward for his own sake and everyone else’s sake enough that he can appreciate that she makes Magnus happy, and at least that much they will always have in common.

But um, yeah, that apology. It’s loaded, and it’s (appropriately) multi-dimensional. I had Taako feeling sorry during Safe Way, and not understanding why, and not being able to say it. And so here, he feels it again, and he’s ready to say it, but he still doesn’t know why. And it partially comes from a personal place, but it also comes from a lack of emotional literacy when Taako is taking stock of his own feelings? It’s a complicated apology that (you pointed this out, really) he thinks is surface-level for the emotional distress this conversation caused (re: “you spooked me” etc) but in reality it’s more than that. But the rest might be [redacted] here bc I’d like to explore that more in later installments. But yeah, the way they wrap up is… more unresolved than I ever realized? Like reading this back, they didn’t talk about half the shit they brought up, they kind of just threw it out into the arena. Which, for Taako, is more of a “well nothing else is gonna budge til I talk to Lup” thing.

E: In a way, it’s good to see how everything is still so half-formed, because it resonates so nicely as we get into [redacted]. It makes some of the interpersonal weirdness? unevenness? that comes out make actually a lot more sense. Also, if I may say it again for the Nth time: THESE CHUCKLEFUCKS.

#taz fic #my fic #writing about writing #actual tag: these chucklefucks #fwiw writing this influenced a scene we just worked on #so yay us?

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davidcarner · 6 years

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Chuck and Sarah vs The Break Up Ch 10, Christmas miracle

A/N: You ever swear you posted something only to realized days later you hadn't…me either…asking for a friend…Le sigh. Muh bad.

A/N 2: First day of Spring…Winter Advisory in Kentucky….Then I'm going to do a Christmas story. This will take place off camera between Santa Claus and the Third Dimension. So can we be honest, I think we all feel that the first half of season 3 killed the show. While there was some character growth, there were many other ways to do it. (Marc Vun Kannon's nine2five season one comes to mind). Season 3 was "Chuck can't become a spy because I'll lose him." We're going to address that today, in the way that can only be done by Grace and me. Today's story has been co-plotted by Grace Carner. Ch 10, Christmas Miracle

Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck, and apparently if I did I'd of hired some of the fanfic community to write Season 3 on…let's be honest, part of season 2 as well…

Chuck walked into his apartment, it was empty. He looked around for her, but he couldn't find Sarah anywhere. Everything was gone that wasn't his. All the furniture they had gotten together, all of her weapons, workout equipment…it was gone. Casey walked in with Forrest.

"What'cha doin' numbnuts?" Casey asked.

"Looking for Sarah," Chuck said.

"She's gone," Casey said. "Since you're killing people she decided to be with a real man since you don't have that 'special something' anymore."

"What?" Chuck said panicking.

"Don't worry, Kid, we got you Carina," Casey said.

"NOOOOOOOO!" Chuck screamed sitting up in bed and lashing out. He hit Sarah in the arm who had come in to surprise him with her Mrs. Claus outfit, but had snuggled up against him and fell asleep. When his arm hit her, she reverted back to training. She grabbed him, and flipped him onto the floor, crashing him onto his back. He looked up at her surprised face, looking down at him wearing the outfit. "Wha' happened?" he mumbled.

"I think you had a bad dream and hit me," Sarah said.

"I'm so sorry," Chuck said, wondering if his back was broke.

"It's my fault," Sarah replied. "What were you dreaming about?"

"You left," Chuck said, tears in his eyes. She scrambled off the bed and held his head in her lap, brushing his hair. "I had killed a man, and you left." Sarah tensed.

"In self-defense?" she asked.

"No," Chuck said. "He was a member of Fulcrum and I killed him, because he would hurt us if I didn't."

"You mean like you set it up for me do the actual killing?" Sarah asked.

"No," Chuck whispered. "I shot him. You wouldn't leave me if that happened, right?"

"Chuck, we need to talk about this later, but I have to take care of something, I forgot about," Sarah said, gently placing his head on the floor, but basically fleeing.

"Sarah?" Chuck asked.

"I'll be back, don't worry," she said. "I just need….I got to take care of something." She put a coat on and left the apartment quickly. Chuck laid there, not sure what just happened. She ran across the courtyard and banged on Casey's door.

"Hold your shorts, I'm coming," Casey grumbled opening the door. He saw Sarah, with the coat wrapped around her, and tears in her eyes. "Oh, hell," he mumbled.

"John I need your help," Sarah said.

"I hear it happens to all guys," he said. Sarah rolled her eyes.

"CASEY!"

"Sorry, come in, let me run off the troll," he said, trying to get his bearings.

"No, I think we need him," Sarah said, surprising herself. "Casey, he dreamed he shot a man and I left him because he became someone else." Casey stared at her, and Morgan who had come in during the discussion looked confused.

"So you left him when he dreamed that?" Morgan asked.

"I haven't left him!"

"Uh, you are standing right here, and he's over there, probably confused and thinking it's over," Morgan said.

"Maybe the old Chuck, but he's changed," Sarah said.

"He basically got a guy killed," Casey pointed out. "You think he's not reverting back to his old ways?" Sarah stared at him. "Let me ask you something, numbnuts-"

"What?" Sarah said.

"You're right, my bad, you don't have nuts," Casey corrected. "Moron, that's the better word for you." Sarah stared at him in shock. "He loves you, right?" She nodded. "You've killed people."

"That's different," Sarah said. "He loves me in spite of it."

"And you can't do the same for him?" Casey asked.

"It's not that simple, he'd change," she said. Casey gave her the "has his stupid rubbed off on you" look.

"You changed?" Casey asked. Sarah nodded. "Why?"

"Why? I didn't have anyone, I didn't have a support system, I didn't have anyone who cared….Oh." Sarah just stood there, it dawning on her.

"Do you think that perhaps the person to share all of these lovely lady feelings with is, oh I don't know, BARTOWSKI WHO'S OVER THERE BY HIMSELF!" Casey yelled. Sarah turned, opened the door, and walked back over to her apartment. She took a deep breath and opened the door. Chuck was sitting on the couch with a hurt look on his face.

"I'm sorry," she said. "For the record I didn't leave you, like I'm never going to see you again, I just had to talk to someone because I don't know how to do this. I'm sorry."

"If I killed someone would you leave me?" he asked softly, his eyes filled with worry.

"No," she said softly, crossing the room and grabbing him in a hug. "I would never leave you. I didn't have anyone when I was forced to kill. I didn't have anyone who cared. I hope it never happens, but if does, I'm here, and I won't leave to have someone explain it to me, because I understand now. You see me, the person underneath all the crap I dealt with over the years, and Chuck I'll always see you. My Chuck." Chuck stared at her for a moment.

"You literally just spiraled and ran out didn't you?" he asked, a grin growing. She nodded, tears in her eyes.

"I don't know how to do all of this, but I will figure it out," she said. "I will figure out to be what you need. I will always protect you, physically and emotionally."

"I made a man die," Chuck said. "And I'm not sorry for it, because he would have gotten Ellie, Awesome, Morgan, and you hurt." Sarah nodded.

"And you don't think that's right, you think you should feel something," Sarah said, not asked. Chuck nodded, feeling sorrowful. "It's called making the choice to protect those you love. I've done it too many times. It feels like something should have broke inside, but it didn't, and because of that, you wonder if you're broken." Chuck's eyes lit up.

"That's exactly how I feel," Chuck said. "How did you get over it?"

"I didn't," Sarah said. "I tried talking to my partner once, but all he did was shrug, make up some dumb excuse, and flee."

"Luckily my partner's smarter than that," Chuck deadpanned. She swatted him lightly on the chest.

"I'm sorry," she said, snuggling in to him. "I'll listen to anything you need to say."

"Maybe later," he said. "After talking, I feel better now, but if it comes back.."

"I'm here, Chuck, I promise," she said. Chuck nodded and looked down at her, grinning.

"Well, I'd like to know more about that outfit," Chuck said. Sarah sat up smirking.

"Well, that's more action then talking," Sarah said.

"Let's try that for a while," Chuck said, grinning.

}o{

A few hours later, Chuck was in the kitchen getting things ready for tomorrow's big Christmas Eve bash. Sarah came into the kitchen, dressed in jeans and a simple shirt, but Chuck thought she looked beautiful. He smiled at her, but she gave him a look.

"You okay?" he asked.

"No," she said, honestly. "We're going to try something new, honesty."

"We did say no secrets, no lies," Chuck replied. Sarah nodded.

"There's a second reason I ran this morning," Sarah said. "I was trying to figure out how to deal with something that happened yesterday, but I was too worried about how you were dealing with Mauser being killed. I didn't do what was best for you, I did what was easiest for me. I love being with you, I love how we've grown, but I was taken by surprise yesterday, and I reverted, and then this morning with that question you asked, it was too much. I didn't run away, but I did run. It was just across the courtyard, but I did run." Chuck put his hands on the outside of her arms and looked in her eyes.

"Sarah, we're both dealing with a bunch of new things, so it will happen," Chuck replied.

"Yeah, but your boyfriend didn't drop a bomb on you by telling everyone around you that he's in love with you. I had to hear it with everyone else, and I may have wanted that to myself," she said. Chuck's mouth dropped.

"When…I didn't…uhhh.." he stammered. Sarah picked up a remote and hit play.

"It's her dad, General," Chuck said. "She loves him, and when is it enough? When is the giving for this country enough? General, I love her, and how could I do that mission knowing it was going to hurt her." Sarah stood there, a proud smirk on her face. Chuck looked over at her, and grinned. He hugged her with everything in him.

"You finally figured out how to use the footage and stream it to the big TV, I love you," he said. She pushed him away and swatted him.

"Oh, that's why you love me?" she asked, faux anger on her face, but her dancing eyes told him it was anything but anger. Chuck took a second to take in the love of his life standing in front of him.

"No," he said softly. "I love that you have overcome one of the worst possible childhoods to be a warm, caring person. I love that you will protect anyone, but what you do for me and my family is next level, and don't even give me that it's part of the job. I love that you protect me emotionally as well as physically. I love that you care for me even though I'm a big goofy nerd and don't even try to act like I'm not. I love that you are trying everything in your power to be what you think I need. I do need you to know you already are what I need, all I need is you, Sarah. I love you. The woman that ignored all the orders, and took care of me, not the intersect, that's who I love." Chuck looked around. "There's that sound again…" He saw something in her eyes he'd never seen before, but he prayed then and there he would see it every day for the rest of his life.

}o{

Some hours later he was messing around at the tree.

"Hey, it's not Christmas yet," the playful voice came behind him. He stood up, smiling, and spun around, a gift in his hand that he extended towards her. "Tomorrow," she said grinning. Chuck shook his head, like a child. He gave her a puppy dog pout, she rolled her eyes, but took it. She opened the present, and her jaw dropped.

"So that was my mom's," he said. "I wanted you to have it." Sarah looked up at him, tears in his eyes, and she launched herself into his arms. He thought he might pass out from the lack of oxygen when he heard a banging on the door. The lips finally released him, and oxygen flowed back in. The black spots left his vision, and he saw the grinning blonde in front of him. There was the banging on the door again. Chuck walked over to answer it, looking a little disheveled. He opened the door, and there stood Ellie, looking a little irritated. She took a look at Chuck, glanced over to see Sarah, who was beaming, and saw the bracelet on her arm. She squealed, and Chuck thought his ribs would break. "Ellie," he choked out. "I. Can't. Breathe!" She let go, and Sarah and Ellie met in a hug that Chuck thought would blow off the apartment doors. When they finally let go, they both turned to look at Chuck, who slowly backed away.

"Nope, stay, Baby brother," Ellie said. "I have been waiting on this since Jill left and I am going to enjoy my Christmas present."

"Ellie I got you a nice-" Chuck began.

"Don't care," Ellie said, cutting him off, her eyes filled with tears. She turned to Sarah. "You promise me you'll take care of him?"

"Always," she answered without one ounce of hesitation. Ellie turned to Chuck

"Promise me you'll take care of her?"

"As long as she'll let me," Chuck answered. "And even then I probably will, although it will probably break the terms of the restraining order." Ellie and Sarah faux glared at him.

"Okay," Ellie said, taking a deep breath. "I'm here to invite you two to watch me to get Casey agree to come to Christmas tomorrow."

"Uh, Ellie, all you can really do is invite him," Sarah said, confused. She saw the amusement on Chuck's face, and the smirk on Ellie's.

"Wanna bet?" Chuck asked, rubbing his hands together.

They followed Ellie across the courtyard, Chuck saw the determination in her eyes, and felt sorry for Casey. She calmly knocked on the door, and Casey answered. He stood there a minute and took in the sight before him.

"Huh," he grunted. "I can't decide if I'm about to deal with two or three Bartowskis so I don't know if this is about to be two or three times the fun." He was grinning at Sarah, getting his dig in for having to deal with so many lady feelings earlier. Sarah straightened, and looked him straight in the eye.

"Since we know math isn't your strong suit, just go with three, that way you'll be ready when it's official," Sarah said. Ellie's face threatened to break from the grin. Chuck picked his jaw off the floor and slowly turned to Sarah, who didn't say a word, but simply winked.

"Focus, Baby brother, mission," Ellie said gently.

"I AM FOCUSING!" Chuck choked out. "My parameters may have just changed though." Sarah looked at him.

"I never fail a mission, Chuck," Sarah replied. Chuck's eyes nearly burst out his head. She nodded toward Casey. He slowly turned back toward Casey, but his mind was D, U, N, done. Ellie steeled herself, a grin on her face.

"John Casey," she began.

"Oh, Christ," he muttered.

"Tomorrow is the Bartowski Christmas celebration," Ellie began. "Since you've been here, you have forced your way into our life," Casey cringed. "You have monitored our activities," Casey turned a little pale. "You have watched us, protected us, and done what is best for us, kind of like Morgan Grimes." Morgan popped up behind him, smiling. "That makes you family, and tomorrow you WILL be at my apartment to be heartwarmed and to enjoy Christmas."

"Ellie," Casey began.

"You have your orders," Ellie barked. Casey stiffened.

"Don't make me come get you," Sarah said softly. "I'd hate to see my sister upset on Christmas Day." Chuck and Casey both stared at her in shock.

"Chuck me," Casey whispered.

}o{

Sarah sat on the bed, scared. It was the evening of Christmas Eve, and Sarah knew what she had to do. She was all-in, and Chuck couldn't be, not yet. Not until he knew everything. Chuck walked in the room and saw her face. He walked over, sat beside her, and took her hands.

"There are things I need to tell you, things I don't know how," Sarah said, tears streaming down her face. "No lies, no secrets, yet I keep keeping them."

"Sarah, I know there are things you can't tell me," Chuck said.

"I can't even say three little words because you don't know me, and I can't let you know me until I say the words," Sarah spat out, frustrated.

"I know you love me," Chuck said, rubbing his thumbs on her hands. She looked him in the eye and made a decision.

"Sit back on the bed," she said, patting a place and making him lean against the headboard. She stared at him. "Chuck, I am giving you my most precious secret, so you need to understand what this means." He nodded. She smiled sadly at him. "You don't, but I think you will. Kieran Ryker." The flash hit him, and when it was over he stared at her.

"The baby girl?" he asked.

"She's alive and Emma, my mother, has her," Sarah said. She took a deep breath, leaned in, took his hand, and whispered in his ear. The flash began, he saw her life, laid out by the CIA. Taken in at 17, Harvard, CAT Squad, wetwork, Graham's Wildcard Enforcer, he saw it all, and tears ran down his eyes as the flash continued. She lay her head on his shoulder. It broke his heart to see all she had been subjected to. The pain, the scars, the injuries…both physical and psychological…she truly was Sarah Freakin' Walker. When it ended, he ignored the headache, turned to her, and gently took her tear covered face in his hands. He gently kissed her.

"I love you," Chuck said. "I don't know what to call you, there's so many choices, but all I know is, you are never alone again."

"Sarah," she said. "That's how I met you, and that's how I end my career." There was no doubt in Chuck's mind by the look in her eyes what that meant. "The next time I change my name…" she let it hang, not ending it, but the grin on his face told her he knew exactly what she meant. "I love you, Chuck," she whispered. "I love you." They held each other until they fell asleep.

A/N: I'm not saying I cried the entire time I wrote that last part…I'm not saying I didn't either…..Next time, Jeff finds a grenade in the Buy More, and hires a security team to protect his favorite musical performer….no, I'm not kidding. Hope you enjoyed it…Til next time!

#Chuck #Sarah #Charah #fanfic #fanfiction #Chuck and Sarah vs The Breakup

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