#this file got corrupted for a year and i only managed to bring it back now

[deva-arts]

Teehee human Sera being her normal little self.

[pinkiemachine]

BATMAN: GOTHAM FILES - SEASON TWO

OKAY, so this season starts off with a spectacular BANG! Joker makes his debut, causes a ton of mayhem for the Dynamic Duo, but of course, in the end, the heroes save the day. Here’s some sketches of Joker I’ve been working on…

Still not sure if this is what I wanna go with. Like I said, work in progress.

Anyway, what really matters is what happens after Joker gets defeated. He’s thrown into Arkham Asylum, for the Criminally Insane, and the doctors there attempt to treat him. Namely, one Harleen Quinzel. This does not go well. Instead of her being able to bring Joker back to sanity, he manipulates her and gets her to cross over to the insane side, becoming his twisted on-again off-again lover, and they break out of Arkham together.

But this is all happening in the background while the rest of the season goes on. The real highlight of Season 2, aside from revisiting classic villains and meeting new ones, is the arrival of BATGIRL! Now, Barbara Gordon (17) was going to get a law degree after high school, but after seeing what sort of corruption there was in Gotham from her father’s police job, she’d lost faith in the system. Instead, she became inspired by Batman to take matters into her own hands. Batman initially tries to tell her to stop—she’s just going to get herself hurt—but then she manages to make a strong case for herself. She’s smart, she’s been taking self-defence classes since she was three, she knows the criminal justice system, she’s passionate about making a difference, Robin’s allowed to fight crime despite being four years younger than her, and… she’s not going to take no for an answer. Batman begrudgingly agrees to let her help, especially after she saves his life on a mission, but he has one condition: no crime fighting alone. She must always have backup. He’s not about to let the police captain’s—now Commissioner’s—daughter get hurt on his watch. Because he knows who she really is. Because he’s a detective.

So now they’re the fanatic threesome. I should also mention that there is NO Dick X Barbara. He’s 13 now, she’s 17, both going on 14 and 18. He’s like a little brother to her. Moving on.

Some time goes by, more baddies get thrown into Arkham, and then… Bruce meets Catwoman. It happened on a cold night when Bruce was soloing it as Batman. Dick was behind on his homework, Barbara was taking time off to rest, so he was all by himself when he got called in to investigate a series of expert burglaries/murders. He had to admit, she was good at what she did. Barely a trace of her was left behind… but barely was enough. He figured out her next target and then had her captured in one fell swoop. Catwoman. It’s not like she was a brawler or anything, just a cat burglar. It was during their ride in the Batmobile later that they got to talk some and learn about each other. Bruce questioned her about the two other robberies—ones where people died—and Selina pleaded innocent. She never killed people. Then, surprising Batman, she managed to escape from right under his nose. They would meet again, though, when he and Selina teamed up to catch the other burglar who had attempted to frame Selina with murder. The two had formed something of an attachment. Selina found Bruce attractive, and Bruce thought she had some good in her (and was also attractive), and they both found themselves wanting to see each other again some time. Purely for work purposes. Bruce only wanted her to face justice. There was totally NO OTHER reason. *cough cough* I have a post where I talk more about her and her relationship with Bruce.

Moving on, there’s an episode where we briefly head to Star City and meet The Flash, but THEN we get introduced to Ghostmaker. A fellow vigilante from Bruce’s past. His rival… and friend. He had also been one of Ra’s’s top students and they had fought often, but the main difference between them was that Ghostmaker was willing to kill. Bruce wasn’t. They have some funny, witty, exciting times when he comes to visit Gotham, but in the end, Bruce establishes that Gotham is his city. And there will be no killing in his city.

Grande finale sees the return of the Joker, alongside Harley Quinn’s debut!

And guess who they’re working alongside? TONY ZUCCO!! Dick has his revenge arc, trying to chase Zucco down, but in the end… all those years of Bruce’s training keep his hands from committing the most horrible act. I mean, Dick does rough him up, but in the end, Zucco gets sentenced to life in prison. Now Dick can finally let go. He can finally visit his parents’ grave with a clear conscience. They would be proud of him for what he did. They would be proud knowing their son was not a killer.

So that’s season 2 :)

Part 3 👇

Part 1 👇

More of Bruce and Selina 👇

[bayeis]

I've joked about it in the tags a lot but I've decided to sit down and actually compile a list on why I'm only half joking when I say my job is conditioning me to be the next Jonathan Sims

The Buried: A lot of my job involves putting people in small confined spaces, often with no windows and and a single, locked door. We frequently have people with claustrophobia that realize agreeing to be locked in a small space means being locked in a small space. 9.9/10 times they are peer pressured into doing it anyway, and have a miserable time

The Corruption:

The Building is rotting. There is no nice way to put this. The walls are slick with mold and soft to the touch, the ceiling drips despite us being on the ground floor of a two story building, the carpets squish with unknown water, and yet people's eyes just glaze past it. Our landlord for the building is a thick accent russian man who, for the past 4 years I've worked here, has changed his name on the emails several times, despite it undoubtedly being the same man, who I have met in the flesh twice before. The first time was to come into the building, shake my hand, and leave. The second time was to ask me to bring him upstairs (not apart of our business but we still have the key for some reason), which I did, and then have not seen him since. Speaking of upstairs, the handful of times I've been there it's just. Bizarre. An entirely furnished office space, completely abandoned. There's everything from paintings on the walls to files still in the cabinets and scattered across desks. I could not tell you what the office space used to be, or whatever the employees that worked there used to do, but I do know it was officially, genuinely abandoned because it was deemed unsafe to be in, from the sheer amount mold and rot. How it is somehow safe for us to work directly below with leaking ceilings I have no idea. I've occasionally had to dart up there with our key to snag a pair of scissors off one of the desks or some other office supply we can't locate in our own half, though I always disinfect them the second I bring them downstairs, and always wear a mask when I'm up there. There's also the bugs. I am so genuinely serious when I say one day I swept the lobby of our building and discovered the shelled corpses of around 300 dead superworms. Like the kind you would feed a pet lizard. I have no idea why they were there, how they got there, or anything. I just swept them up and disposed of them as my coworker watched in horror. Weird worm sightings aside, the building is frequently swarmed both in and outside with bugs, despite weekly exterminator visits. The stairwell to the second floor (located outside) spends about half the year covered in what has to be hundreds if not thousands of moth caterpillars and cocoons. Walking in that back porch area is near impossible as you cannot look anywhere without seeing the walls, floors, stairs, doors all bumpy and withering with the sheer amount of caterpillars (of the not so friendly verity as well. They feel like shattered glass to the touch and will frequently leave a rash). My old manager once found one in her ear. There. Are. Bugs. Everywhere.

The Dark:

Fairly self explanatory. The building gets zero light. The lobby has full glass doors, and walls of windows facing multiple directions but no matter how many blinds you open or what time of day it is you'll find your eyes slightly straining in the just slightly too dim setting. It's never bright enough. When we can get our lights to work (frequently blow out, and when they are attempted to be replaced we find that nearly every light fixture required a different kind of special bulb, meaning that to fix it requires hunting down that kind of random bulb, which will be different from all the others. An effort frequently left undone, dotting the building with random spots of shadows) they don't really help, not because they aren't bright enough, but because the building was designed with weird corners, so all the light the fixtures could be potentially giving, is almost immediately blocked out with odd shaped walls and randomized corners. Some rooms just don't have windows to even attempt to sap out some of the sunlight. The room the employees are made to sit in (about an 8ft by 8ft room) for the majority has no overhead lights, no windows, and like the rest of the building, the walls are painted solid black to sap any remaining light out. The only way you can see in there is from the glow of the monitors and two dim lamps shoved in opposite corners. We get complaints from customers that it's too dark and they can't see well, and we've tried everything to fix it, a desperate combination of lamps LEDs, and fairy lights, but no matter how hard we try, how many blinds we throw open, it's never bright enough.

The Eye:

Remember that employee room I mentioned with the monitors? Workers are instructed to sit in the room (control room) and watch their designated cameras. This is not a security job. Off the top of my head, our (relatively small building floor) has about 30 cameras. There is no where in the building you can be that doesn't have a camera. Even the control room has a camera so we can watch the employees watching people. Some of the cameras are on (all the cameras are always on, with the only way to shut them off being to physically rip them from the walls) but we have yet to find out how to access their feed. The cameras like to frequently switch, in that I mean their security codes, IPs, and registration numbers will jump and switch with each other to no rhyme or reason. When that happens I have to grab the notebook dedicated to writing down whatever this weeks IP numbers are and attempt to metaphorically shove the cameras back into place. We are not a security job, but we are, if you didn't know or guess, an escape room. The entire job, as I previously mentioned, is to sit and watch people freak out through the cameras. Everywhere a guest turns if they look up, there is a camera. Every word they say is recorded and logged. Every action they take is carefully judged. All while a worker sits in a completely dark room, all day, watching their designated cameras intently. I think, for the sheer inherentness of what this business does and advertises, we are the most closely working with the eye. I am one of the managers now, and there are even cameras pointed and trained at where I sit, even thought there shouldn't be anyone to watch them.

The Lonely:

This one applies less to our customers and more to the poor employees. This job is soul crushing. You can go an entire shift, sitting alone in a small dark room, watching people have fun, as you silently observe. I have thankfully graduated out of the control room into front desk, and yet I can go entire days not seeing a soul, watching people chattering as they enter and exit our neighboring buildings through windows that never seem to catch the sun. The "employee area" where we are supposed to be able to hang out in between games isn't really built for socializing. It has been overcrowded and shoved with chairs, so many fucking chairs, that it becomes near intimidating to try and navigate. The most use the room sees is when an employee shoves some of them together and takes a nap, because there is nothing to do. It's not like the employees don't like each other either, we all get along wonderfully for the most part, as well as coworkers relatively around the same age can (helps that we're all queer too), but once you're halfway through a shift, and absolutely nothing of interest has happened you start to drift. A typical lull between games (which can stretch for days in the off season) will usually result in me sitting alone at front desk, answering an occasional ghost call that hangs up immediately when I answer it, an employee sitting in the back area, surrounded by empty chairs facing the graveyard where we write old employees names, and another employee choosing to nest down in the control room, in the dark surrounded by monitors reflecting myself and the other worker being alone, angles scattered across the dozens of cameras. Even when we are busy, there's almost no time to socialize. I still sit alone at a front desk made for two, mindlessly checking people in with no altercation to the script, and the game hosts focus on their game, crammed into the control room with several other game hosts, all willingly silent as they watch whatever designated family they have through their cameras.

The Spiral:

Again, we are an escape room. The whole appeal is to present ourselves as confusing as possible. From room layouts, to our hallways, to the way the building wraps and twists, dumping people out at one door, opposite of where they just entered from, it is designed to drive people crazy. Honestly we don't help either. For our own entertainment, game hosts are particularly obtuse and confusing, partially because we don't want you to get out too early and partially because we have been watching the exact same thing over and over and over and it's starting to drive us a little crazy. People always do the exact same thing in the rooms, there's very little variation from the jokes made the to ideas brought forward. So if the game host wants to keep a little sanity, it's up to them to reek havoc on their game in hopes of startling out a new response, which, if one does occur, gets snapped up and thrown around the control room to the other employees for a slice of entertainment like a sliver of meat thrown to a starving pack of dogs.

The Stranger:

The doll room. Not a traditional "the stranger" kind of presentation, but gives that same prickling unnerving feeling.

In the exact center of the building layout there is a tiny room that is decked in as many old porcelain dolls as possible, all strung up from their necks and twisting around gently in non existent wind. Walking past the only physical door into the enclosed room, you'll usually hear the door rattling in it's frame, or one of the dolls knocking against the door. The room has no vents, no fans, no overhead lights. It's only light source is two red light bulbs, and the room was custom built by our owners. And like, I get it. It's an escape room. There's a creepy room. 1 + 1 equals 2. I cannot even being to describe the feeling this room gives or brings. Almost every time there is a group in there, one person in the group will become more unnerved then the rest, because one of the dozen of dolls looks uncomfortably similar to a doll they or a family member had as a child. The doll will sway on it's string noose as the cameras pick up the trickle of "doesn't that one look just like grandmas doll?" "this one kinda looks like my Betsy doesn't it?" with a chorus of agreements and half given glances, as the rest of the group gets absorbed with the next puzzle, and the single member who brought it up stares, and eventually leaves the room, typically not reentering the rest of the game. It is the strangest thing to watch (no pun intended). Occasionally, the similarity is met with delight, but more often then not it just seems to unnerve. The doll room also shares a wall with the control room, which means nothing, but is occasionally fun to kick.

The Web:

There's the obvious ones, our rooms are meant to trap people, the game hosts jobs besides watching the cameras is to manipulate the line of thinking the customers have, ect, ect. The most unnatural thing to note here isn't the standard workings of an escape room however, but the sheer vast amount of spiders in this goddamn building. I have never seen so many spiders in my life. We can't shake them. From how disgustingly rotted our building is at this point I think the spiderwebs are one of the only things keeping our building together. Again, we have an exterminator come by every single week both in and out of the building. The spiders refuse to let up, every day is a constant battle of knocking down their webs only to turn around and see they've put several more up. We've all but given up on trying to get them out of the employee only areas and now focus our war to the battle grounds of where customers can see to only mild success. This isn't even a regional or habitat thing, no other building I have lived or stayed in in this town has ever even come close to touching the spider infestation happening here.

In terms of other entities such as the Hunt, Slaughter, and Desolation, I can think of a handful of things that might align my job and them, but nothing solid enough that's worth mentioning. There has not yet been anything that reminds me of the End, Vast, or Extinction.

Other things to note,

Quitting is weird? People do, don't worry it's not a genuine hostage situation, but once they leave they are very rarely every sighted by coworkers again. I don't just mean not visiting the building, I mean like going completely off the grid and moving states if not in some cases countries. The entire time this business has been open and operable I've been the longest standing employee, at a record 4 years of the 7 it's been open. I could not name a single employee that has ever truly quit and has been easy to contact again by anyone. If you are able to, it's usually polite conversation with any mention of how you know each other (meeting at the job) being laughed and shut down quickly. No one whose left this place wants to talk about it and I get it, believe me. When we get an influx of summer employees to help with the rush the heat brings, I'm no longer allowed to help train because I would try warn the employees to pace themselves so they didn't experience Game Host Death too early (what we call when a game hosts snaps, having watched the same thing over and over and eventually loosing their mind over it, resulting in crying when told they have to run a game, weird twitching/manic-esque break downs, or in some memorable cases, game hosts just walking out in the middle of hosting a game). This is incredibly ironic considering the majority of employees have admitted the only reason they stick around is because they like working with me but I'm not here to toot my horn. There's also a large collection of employees who are neither employeed nor not, who have moved an hour or so away and have gotten a different, closer, better paying, and enjoyable job, and yet inexplicable will show up once in a blue moon asking for a shift at the escape room for no other reason then they felt compelled to. Typically anyone whose worked here for more then a season falls in this category. Currently we have four official employees for the off season (including myself) and yet if I count this stragglers who all genuinely hate this job (also including myself) our employee numbers easily go over 20. I cannot even imagine what the owners taxes look like for that (all paychecks and stubs are handled by a women who I have only ever emailed and never met). The owners themselves actually don't even live in the same state as us, and we are not apart of a chain. This is the only escape room they own. They're main business? Sheep farming. Which actually, that might be the slaughter right there. Despite working for them for so long, the amount of times I have met them can be counted on one hand. They are completely uninvolved, this business is no mans land. I've thought about quitting multiple times, even briefly lived in another city states away, and yet still found myself back, inexplicably every time I think about leaving again a nice little bonus or raise hits my paycheck, a system I can't really complain about. As for the other managers, I've outlasted several. The only way I have ever seen anyone on the management team leave is to have the biggest mental breakdown known to man and disappear. That's literally it. I've watched it happen so many times. The only employee that came close to being here as long as me was my original manager, who, a couple of months before she left, started loosing her mind, twitchy, paranoid, at her wits end. She isolated and locked herself in one of the rooms for about a month, only emerging at the end of the shift. I tried to approach her once about it and she shaved her head as a panic response. This fucking job, it was choking her from the inside out. Eventually she couldn't handle it and left, effective almost immediately. In the span of a month I watched several new managers cycle in and out, from the women who would sit behind me and silently cry, to a previous employee who realized the jail cell of a role she was being forced into an dipped before the owners could lock the door on her. The current manager is the ex fiancee of the women who locked herself in a room for a month. The horrors are a cycle fr

[yourkimjaejin]

Stranded in Paris

Legend - Early June 2019

Bold ~ English, Italics ~ French, Inner Thoughts

Warnings: Cursing, One moment of unwanted touching

“Okay ladies! One last shot then you’re both free to enjoy the rest of your time in Paris. Now I want you to bring your heads together and glare down the lens of the camera…..Perfection!! That’s a wrap on Moxy and Aurora!!” The camera director called out and all the staff around the room began cheering, bringing out soft pink flushes on both girls' cheeks. 

After a year of practicing together, NCT AG had finally debuted together as four. Moxy, Hannah, Juno and Aurora were the newest members of NCTs’ all female subunit. Their debut song, Something Like A Party garnered some attention. Many netizens were not expecting the group to debut with a cuter concept as opposed to the more popular girl crush one. 

Nonetheless, SLAP got such a positive response that SM was already gearing up for another comeback. The title, Breakthrough, while not as cute, had a fresh pop rock vibe that all the girls were excited for. Their company even flew them out to Paris to shoot the video. 

While in the city, Soonjae-unnie told Aurora and Moxy they’d be staying an extra day or two for a duo schedule. A magazine wanted them to be on the cover for their next monthly release. So that morning the group's head manager left the groups newest manager, Jae, in charge while she saw Hannah and Juno off at the airport. 

The girls were all in agreement. They didn’t really like Jae but they had no reason to bring up his removal. Since the man was moved from Red Velvet’s management to theirs, he’d been distant. Sometimes downright mean. When the girls would ask for stuff, he’d huff and groan. Begrudgingly doing what they asked under the watchful eye of Soonjae. Other times he’d force the girls to practice way longer than they planned. Finding every excuse in the book to keep them behind longer. 

The worst part. His comparisons. 

“Seulgi would have nailed this choreography in minutes, why can’t you.” 

“You’ve got a lot of work to do if your high notes will be as good as Wendy’s”

“You should really study up on Irene’s leadership style”

“Your voice needs to be smoother like Joy’s”

“You should get some tips on how to act like a maknae from Yeri” 

It was grating. 

Luckily most of the day, Jae ignored the two members. Letting the other managers take over his tasks while he did whatever. Honestly Aurora thought he was lying about all his work but Moxy wouldn’t let her say it out loud. Especially out in the open. 

The girls bowed to the staff of the photo shoot as they headed back to their dressing room. Everything was being cleaned up once Moxy and Aurora flopped onto the couches in their room. Bone tired from being up early this morning. 

“What’s our schedule when we get back, unnie?” Aurora asks, barely acknowledging the stylist taking the bracelets off her wrist. 

Moxy threw her make-up wipe away, “We have to re-record a lot of Hit Me Up. Some of the files got corrupted so we need to nail it when we get back.” 

“I bet if Wendy and Joy unnies sang it, Jae would think we nailed it too.” Aurora flinched away from Moxy’s incoming hand. 

“What did I say about proper honorifics with Jae-ssi?” Moxy stood up to retrieve her bag.

“That I have to address him properly when he’s here. And he’s not.” Aurora smiled and all her leader could do was sigh. 

Aurora and Moxy were about to start changing into their normal clothes when their make-up artist walked in with Aurora’s phone.

“Before you change, Hannah and Juno are calling. They just got back to the dorm.”

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The other three AG managers just finished packing their things and met Jae outside to wait for the car. There was supposed to be two vans. One for Moxy, Aurora and Jae and the other for the rest of the SM staff who worked the shoot. But when they got outside there was only one. 

“Sunbae, where is the other van?” AG’s youngest manager, Kyungso asked, looking around for the matching vehicle. 

Jae just smiled, “The girl's van is running a little behind. Moxy told me to go ahead with you guys. They’ll wait for the other van.”

They all looked around at each other, skeptical of Jae's words. Kyungso could have sworn both girls weren’t even finished changing yet. 

Jae gestured to the open side door, “Well what are you waiting for? 빨리!” All the staff shared another look, them all thinking the same thing, I guess we’ll just trust his word. One by one, they took their seats in the van. Jae took the passenger seat and with one word the van set off to the hotel.

They were too late to see the other van drive off with nobody inside.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

“See you at home!!” “Bye!! Have fun in Paris!! Bring back those shoes so we can match.” “Have a safe flight.” “Don’t you dare eat good food without us.” All four members said their goodbye’s. Moxy and Aurora were finally done changing when they realized what time it was. What normally took thirty minutes tops, took almost two hours. 

Quickly, the two girls gathered their things and headed for the front door. Walking through the almost empty room, they noticed none of their staff was waiting around. The two members had apologies at the tip of their tongues that disappeared when they didn’t see anyone they recognized. One lone worker was packing up the last of the equipment when Moxy walked over tapping them on the shoulder. 

“Uhh Excuse me? Are any of our managers around. I’m afraid we made them wait too long.” Moxy asked with a sheepish smile on her face. 

The worker bowed immediately. Moxy tried to wave them off but it was no use. “Miss, You’re management team left hours ago.” 

All the leader could do was sigh. If all their management left early, it meant Jae was pissed at them for taking so long. But instead of being an adult and hurrying them along. He wanted to teach them a lesson. 

“Do you both need a ride home? It may take a car a while to get here.” The worker started to take out their phone when Moxy stopped them. 

“It’s okay. Fortunately our hotel is close by. We can just walk. Be safe getting home.” Moxy bowed quickly. She grabbed Aurora's hand and dragged the younger outside. 

“So? Where is everyone? What happened?” Aurora asked. Moxy turned onto the main street headed in the direction of the hotel. 

“Jae’s being an asshole that’s what.” Moxy huffed, stopping at the corner, “Jae and all the staff left hours ago without saying anything. Now we gotta find our way back to the hotel on foot.”

“I inputted the address before we left.” Aurora pulled up the maps app on her phone, turning the device around for Moxy to see. “My GPS says head right four blocks, turn left then keep going straight for six blocks. The hotel will be on our right.” The two started walking following the directions Aurora’s phone gave them. It was gonna be a long walk. 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

After a long day of doing the same pose for twenty minutes at a time, a thirty minute walk felt like hours. 

“Come on Eunji!! We’re only six blocks away.” Moxy tugged on Aurora limp arm. The younger one dragging her feet. 

“I’m so tired unnie!! I know you’re itching to give Jae a piece of your mind but why can we stop and eat something.” Aurora finally gave in, letting her leader pull her further down the street. 

“We can’t stop because neither of us know how to speak french. Come on, I promise we’ll eat whatever you want once we get to the hotel.” Aurora huffed but began lifting her feet keeping up with Moxy pace. The beautiful architecture around them were just regular building to the tired girls 

The two girls were crossing their third block when they heard it. 

“Hey! Where are you two ladies going all by your lonesome.” They both froze at the leering male voice to their right. Aurora almost turned to see who he was but Moxy’s hand gripping her own stopped her. Moxy suddenly started moving yanking Aurora along. 

Before the younger could say anything, Moxy practically hissed, “Keep your head down and keep walking. Don’t make any eye contact. Just keep walking.” 

“Oh come on now!! Why don't you stick around. I can show you both a real good time!” At the sound of heavy footfalls, Moxy picked up the pace.

“Hey! I’m talking to you two! It’s rude to ignore someone older than you.” The voice and its ensuing footsteps got closer. 

A foreign hand grabbed where the members' hands were intertwined. 

A foreign whine left Aurora's mouth at the unwanted touch. 

Moxy didn’t even register what happened until the man groaned in pain. His grip lost

Blood dripped from the man’s nose. Furious eyes met frightened ones. Moxy’s closed fist shaking between them.

“You little bit—” Moxy didn’t stick around for the rest of the sentence. 

The girls took off down the street. Street signs and Building passed them in a blur. They didn’t stop until the third set of footsteps faded further away, lost in the speed they ran through the streets. Up ahead, Aurora noticed an open door. They ducked into the door, hiding behind the wall when an angry male voice passed by. The two girls clutched at each other as their heartbeats slowed down, the rising panic settling. 

When a softer, kinder voice this time thankfully in thick accented English said, “Excuse me.” Both girls couldn’t help but jump. Their jittery nerves still not fully calm. 

“Sorry to startle. Do you…need help?” Moxy breathed a sigh of relief, “Yes please.” 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"Taeyong, you need to calm down."

"How can I calm down when two of my members are missing in Paris and need I remind you THEY DON'T SPEAK FRENCH!!!!!" Soonjae had to move the speaker away from her ear. Taeyong shouting could burst eardrums. Sounds of the phone tossed around were all the manager heard until a more level-headed voice spoke.

"Soonjae-noona, could you tell me what happened." Johnny asked but she could still hear Taeyong pacing in the background. Threats against Jae's jobs spilling from his mouth.

Soonjae shook her head, thanking the heavens Taeyong was still in Korea, "I called Jae as soon as Hannah and Juno finished boarding. I asked where Moxy and Aurora were. He said, verbatim, 'no idea'. Then fed me some BS about the girls telling them to go ahead to the hotel." Soonjae's uber finally arrived and pulled off after she closed the door.

"Moxy and Aurora know better than that. You don't actually believe him?" Doyoung's voice chimed in.

"Who do you take me for Doyoung-ah? I've been a manager at this company for years. Of course I didn't."

"We don't mean anything by that Soonjae-noona. We all just wanna find the girls." Johnny tone once again smoothed out the tension.

Soonjae was seething when she hung up with Jae earlier. Both she and Taeyong were skeptical of him when all the AG members had something to say about his behavior. Taeyong, being the leader, wanted him gone immediately. Nobody disrespected his members. Not on his watch.

Soonjae was the one who stopped him.

She'd known Jae for years now. He first became a manager right at the tail end of F(x)'s active days then he was moved to Red Velvet's team and he flourished. Within three years, he became one of their lead managers. The two regularly hanging to commiserate over the days events.

Then Soonjae was moved to NCT's management, specifically Moxy's. The company wanted her to have a personal manager that she could fully trust since they were adding the girl to an all male group. The Aurora debuted. Then Juno and Hannah came soon after. When AG became real, SM knew they wanted Soonjae to stay on as their lead manager, giving her the choice to choose who she wanted to bring on.

Jae was her first choice and now her girls were in possible danger.

and it was her fault.

"Noona....It's okay. None of this is your fault. You focus on getting in touch with the girls. I'll go to the company and handle this." Taeyong reassured her. Making sure the older woman knew in ire wasn't directed at her. After they hung up, minutes later, her phone rang again. Relief filled her at the familiar name.

"Moxy?!? Thank God, where are you??" Soonjae relayed the address to her uber driver, "Okay I'm heading your way. Do Not Move!!"

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The older lady introduced herself as Genevieve. The shop Moxy and Aurora ran into was her bakery. Genevieve, or Miss Eve as she asked them to call her, sat them down and told them they could stay while they waited for someone to pick them up. Before they could call, Soonjae's number flashed across Moxy’s screen. The manager demanded to know why the two weren’t at the hotel yet. After reassuring their rightfully pissed manager that they were okay, Soonjae told them she was leaving the hotel on the way to their location. 

When Miss Eve came back out, it was with a tray full of homemade french pastries. The elder proceeded to feed the girls while they waited for their manager to arrive. When asked Moxy told Miss Eve about what they had been up to and who they were. When Miss Eve found out they were celebrities, she got them to sign the wall of her store.

“That way when group get big, I can brag. Knew you before famous.” 

Miss Eve was packing up pastries for the girls to bring back to the hotel when Soonjae arrived. It was a tearful reunion finally seeing a familiar face after what happened earlier. Before they left, Moxy and Aurora signed a spare album and poster for Miss Eve to hang in her bakery. The two left with a promise to bring Hannah and Juno next time. 

The ride back was silent until Soonjae asked, “Was this Jae? And don’t lie.” Soonjae took the silence for their answer. The car sped up in response.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The girls couldn’t catch a break as they walked into the gorgeous lobby of their hotel. Jae was already headed their way with a fake concerned look on his face. 

“Girls, I am so sorry. I honestly thought you were–” “Save it Jae. Girls, go ahead upstairs. I’ll have Kyungso meet you up there.” Warily, Moxy looked at the two managers deciding as much as she wanted to see Soonjae unnie run down Jae her own tiredness won over. Moxy silently told Aurora to follow her to the elevators. 

Soonjae didn’t speak until the elevator doors closed. “Of all the low-down, dirty things I’ve ignored because I know who you really are–” 

“Noona, I said I’m sor—” “THAT'S NOT ENOUGH!!” Jae flinched at the harshness of the elders' tone. In all the time he’s known Soonjae, she’s never yelled. She didn’t really need to. If Soonjae asked for something, everything and everyone followed suit. 

Soonjae took a huge deep breath before continuing, “I know you hate SM for pulling you from Red Velvet to NCT but that is no excuse to take it out on those four girls. You’re suspended, effective immediately. Pack your stuff. You’re on the first plane back to Seoul in the morning.” 

Jae scoffed, “You don’t have the right to suspend me. Only upper management can.” He crossed his arm, looking smug. He faltered when Soonjae just smirked back.

Soonjae took out her phone flipping thru until she reached an email from the CEO himself, “Ehem, Soonjae-ssi, We can’t believe what Jae-ssi has done to idols in our agency. Rest assured we will take care of it as soon as possible. Until then, Inform Jae-ssi that he has been suspended and is expected to fly out early so we can discuss his behavior and attitude towards the idols under his watch.” Soonjae locked her phone with a satisfying click, “Well would you look at that. Seems like I do have the power.” Soonjae patted his shoulder, “I’d get to packing if I were you.” Getting into the elevator, Soonjae couldn’t help the wave of satisfaction that crashed over her seeing Jae seething in the middle of the lobby. 

Soonjae was finally able to breathe once she saw her girls eating, the stress of the day finally sliding away. In the car the head manager could tell something serious happened between the photo shoot location and the girls ending up at that bakery. Knowing they were safe was enough for now. Pushing them for an explanation may do more harm than good. She decided to leave those thoughts for another day. 

Right now, making Migyeong and Eunji comfortable was her top priority.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Here is the orignal request: Can I request an Aurora and Moxy angst, where they have a duo¿ schedule and they're both left out in a foreign country (you pick which) on purpose (shitty new manager) and they get hurt (they fall, get physically assaulted by a sasaeng, pass out from dehydration or idk, you pick 😭) and the members are NOT pleased with it? I've dreamt of this scenario and it was so realistic, so I've thought of making a request..

Thank you anon for your request!! I also wanted to say if any anon reader's want to give themselves an emoji so I can differentiate between you all, you're totally free to do so!! just shoot me a message 💚💚

Taglist: @alixnsuperstxr / @1-800-call-ria / @sophrodite / @sunflower-0180

[irinanonyme]

While I totally get the sentiment, I don't think this was the story's point at all.

Please read 👇 I promise this is just an analysis of what we've seen so far and NOT MEANT as hate towards the people who think that her character was ruined.

Makoto wants to be police commissioner not just a random "cop" which means she wants to lead the operations and oversee them. She has brought up in her confidant multiple times how she hates that the people who are in unfair situations always get taken advantage of, like the immigrants coming to Japan and getting tricked into shady jobs in Shibuya and so forth. (Pretty sure this was brought up in either rank 2 or 3?)

Part of the reason why she wants to join the police forces (aside from idolizing her father) is because she hates their lack of investement in issues that truly matter. For example, although Japan is considered to be one of the safest countries in the world, in truth, a lot of illegal practices are ignored because they are supervised by the yakuza who have now turned to markets, commerce and trading instead of the "gang violence" image we have of them in the west, they mostly trick people into paying huge sums or pushing young desperate girls to sex work. Which, from what we understand, is the type of thing her father was trying to stop and died while doing so.

Unfortunately, a lot of times the Japanese police will turn a blind eye to it or even go as far as blaming the victims (who are in big part also foreigners) telling them that it's their fault that they got scammed, that it was obvious because it's a dangerous area and that they should've been more careful, or even asking assaulted women exactly where and how they've been touched to be able to file a complaint. (I'm pretty sure until very recently, unless there wasn't penetration, they didn't even consider "assaults" as rape!!!) Makoto obviously doesn't want to particiapte in that sort of toxic culture as she calls it out multiple times, she wants to change the forces from the inside.

Now, is it a realistic endeavor? From our point of view, of course not. But this IS fiction. I mean, we've got Ann who is apparently a pretty successful model at only 16-17 years old and who went overseas for a couple of months for her career. Ryuji who's pretty much on his way to becoming an olympic athlete, Futaba who's a 15 year old genius hacker, Haru who's the daughter of a billionaire conglomerate, etc etc. This whole cast is made of incredibly extraordinary teenagers who all just so happened to come together so I don't see why it's so hard to imagine that Makoto, within this fictional world, will be able to realize her goal of clearing the police forces of corruption, or at least limit them as much as possible.

I've seen some people in the notes also bring up how she should've gone into politics instead but it's not like politics are much better than the police?? 💀 Like, you THINK that the political world is less corrupt than the police forces? No. It's just that the police are actually there on the field being either useless or aggravating while the politicians backing them up actively enable their actions comfortably from their seats.

Also, I'd like to add that although yes, Zenkichi didn't manage to effectively "change" the police forces, his boss who's a woman AND police COMMISSIONER (like Makoto wants to be) actually turns around in the end, showing that ultimately yes, she also wants "true justice" like he did, like Makoto does, like her father did. Miyako Kaburagi is a side character but she was put into the story for a reason that is clear as day, that reason being that she would ultimately turn Zenkichi's pessimistic view of the police onto his head by coming to his aid at the end. Showing that yes, the police forces are fucked but some people amongst the forces are working their asses off in hopes of fixing that.

I get that we all have a really fucked view of the police for completely valid and understandable reasons, but cherry picking particular scenes/conversations out of a 50 hours long game while ignoring what the narrative was actually trying to accomplish is a disservice to it and an intellectually lazy way of consuming media.

Strikers started off by showing us, the players, a Zenkichi who's been beaten down by reality, by his inability to change anything. But then he meets this young adult who's studying law, who wants to climb the ladder and help from a higher place, Zenkichi tries to dissuade her from it, telling her that once you join, even with the best intentions, in front of all the corruption you won't stand a chance. But then what happens? An older woman who's in the exact same position Makoto wants to reach actually comes around to help them showing to Zenkichi that not all hope is lost. If this woman can do that, then maybe this young woman who wants to reach that same spot one day will also make some change as well.

The story tried to show a more optimistic future, a future where more reasonable and competent people will eventually step up, not that "there's no hope, please never join the police, you'll never manage to reform society from the inside".

What Makoto wants to do is not serve the "law", it's to serve the people, the civilians, the weak, the ones who've been put in unfair situations because of fucked up circumstances.

So now, seeing so many people completely miss the message of the game and ACTUALLY understanding the exact opposite of what it was trying to convey annoys me a bit. Like. YES, seeing Makoto as a kick-ass vigilante on a bike would've been cool but she took the harder way in hopes of making lasting change. And like she said when she broke out of that prison cell in Royal:

"Victory against a single criminal is meaningless... The true enemy is society itself. And even against that foe, you still have to try to somehow emerge victorious. [...] Regardless, this isn't a situation with a straighforward answer... But even if there is no clear solution, I'll just have to make one... with my own two hands. [...] I... I will win. Even if it means going up against the entire world."

Makoto is still very much a strong character who broke out of her shell and stood up for others and herself! Everyone just invalidates everything she went through because she chose the hard path, one that many don't approve of because WE have already given up on society, not her though. Not Makoto. She poured her entire heart into what she decided, into what she wants to accomplish and yet everyone just dismissed her because she went down a difficult road we didn't want her to take, thinking that she's naive in trying to do better while the story has shown us time and time again that she is fully aware of how complicated this path will be. She just decided to take it anyway because she's driven.

IT MAKES ME SO MAD HOW BAD THEY FUCKED UP MAKOTOS CHARACTER BECAUSE HER AWAKENING IS ONE OF THE HARDEST IN THE SERIES ITS SO FUCKING AWESOME

[edgessunflower]

May I please request headcanons for Hotch, Reid, and Morgan falling for a rough female mechanic who did time in prison for a crime she didn't commit?

Omg omg yaaaaas 😊 hope you like them!

Falling for Fem!Mechanic reader who went to prison for a false crime 🖤

Warning:Minor cussing,mentions of death,murder,and rape,plus emotions

Spencer

He was entranced the first time he saw you fixing one of your motorcycles wearing a tank top,jean shorts,toe heeled boots,black bandana wrapped around your head,rag in hand wiping oil off,and tattoos on your body 9 he counted

He talked to you for abit after he realized he was lost you giving him a ride to where he needed to go in your 2005 Honda Civic him thanking you quite a bit and you inviting him to lunch the next day

You met up at a soup kitchen and had lunch going back to your place where you showed him around your home and farm you helped your grandparents with rambling facts every so often making you smile

After keeping in contact with each other for months and meeting in person whenever you both could you moved to Quantico and started dating Spencer

After a couple months of being together he had found out while researching about your parents that you had spent 9 years in jail from the time you were 16 til you were 25 for Assault,Attempted Murder,And Child Endangerment immediately asking you about all of it when you got out of the shower from fixing both your cars and all three of your motorcycles

You told him everything trying to keep all your emotions and thoughts together but halfway through you broke down telling him the truth that you were visiting your sister and niece but while there your violent father broke in killing your sister,taking your niece,and torturing you eventually framing you for all that happened and keeping your niece for months

He had managed to get copies of all the files and paperwork bringing it to the team begging and emotionally asking them to look into what happened to you finding out that the police had done a very bad job investigating the case not taking into the fact the very clear evidence that you had been tortured and couldn't have done anything that you were charged for

The whole team went to the town and station very angered and clearly not backing down til they admit that they botched the investigation exposing alot of corrupt cops making statements about the truth leading to your father getting arrested and sentenced to life without parole and you finally got reunited with your niece who at the time was a year old was now 17 years old looking just like your sister

You hugged him tightly when you found out all he had done for the truth to come out and you to finally live the life you had always wanted

You both loved each other alot moving in with him after being together a year and on your two year anniversary he secretly went and got a tattoo of a book propped up on the chair of a Harley Davidson motorcycle with the quote on the page"You are my today and all of my tomorrows" by Leo Christopher

Derek

He was pretty intrigued not only how well versed and skilled with fixing up and making things you were but also how you always were working on something whether it was fixing your car's engine or the handles on your motorcycle he was starstruck by you

He had a tattoo on his arm but he had never seen that many tattoos that not only fit on someone's body the way all 6 of yours did but how each one fit something different about you

He had met you through a childhood friend of his when he came to the friend's house seeing the lower half of your body working on his car thinking you were just a smaller thin man but boy did it change when he came out to play basketball waiting on his friend when you roll out from under the car covered in oil

You couldn't deny how good looking and attractive he was as he stares at you wiping oil off your hands and little drops that had fallen on your face smiling sweetly at him as you turn the car on smiling bigger when the car worked unlike earlier

He was impressed with how you were able to look and immediately be able to tell what to do but you were still open to doing other things to fix it as well whether it was a car or motorcycle

After getting to know you for awhile you both realized you had feelings for each other taking things slow and him moving in with you 7 months later not only because your place was closer to the BAU but also because you had a open field behind your house making it feel like he was in a story with how much it made him think of fantasy stories

One time when you were asleep he noticed a scar going from your lower chest to just above your belly button making his heart hurt telling him what had happened making his heart and soul shatter at how vulnerable you were "I had gotten hurt when I was...in prison by inmates in my pod and I had to be taken to the hospital because I was bleeding internally and would have died in a couple of minutes had it not been for an inmate fighting them off me and taking me to a guard to be taken to a hospital" he was taken off guard when you mentioned prison but he waited not asking

He found out that you were in prison for 4 years after being charged with drug trafficking when you were actually drugged and kidnapped by drug traffickers originally planning on killing you but then decide to frame you for everything they did leaving you in hell until you finally got out of prison

He went straight to Hotch the next morning after you told him telling him everything and asking if anything could be done at all to have the case officially complete and in the honest way

Hotch immediately agreed bringing in the team and telling them that no other cases would be completed or looked at until yours was done looking every nook and cranny of evidence going down to your hometown and questioning the authorities who handle it and witnesses who found you in an alley

The truth was found out and immediately both people were found and arrested on the charges you were charged for and more being sentenced to life with no parole and the police department issuing a public apology to you for what they had done to you

You woke up turning on the TV immediately seeing the news showing your case and not only finding out the team knew and had found the people who ruined your life but also that the police felt true remorse and guilt for putting you in prison for something that wasn't your fault

As soon as he came home you ran into his arms crying tears of joy leading to not only him just holding you until you weren't crying anymore but also a sweet moment of two people showing in different ways that they loved each other

You both after 5 years of being together you got married in the open field behind the home you shared

Aaron

He had never thought that he would have been attracted to someone that had some of your qualities mainly the mechanic part but it never bothered or tiered him away either

You were a friend of Penelope's and you came over to her place to help fix her car that was having problems starting and moving

He had stopped by to tell her that they had the next bit off and to drop off homemade cookies to her that his girlfriend at the time beth had made and thought pen would like

He was talking to her when you came up covered in oil,wearing a tank top,tennis shoes,and jeans,showing most of the tattoos on your upper body and your bob length hair pulled back into a tiny ponytail "Hey pen your car's fixed! Turns out the battery was dying on ya and you gasket was fixing to blow up" she cheers and thanks you by not only a girl's night out the next weekend but also by letting you use her shower and nice smelling washes

He had lost the ability not only to breathe and think but also just exist by not how independent and strong willed you seemed but also how kind and giving you also seemed not knowing what to do if he ever saw you again

You ran into each other at the local coffee shop soon you were together and dating meeting his young jack who adored you always him asking you to help him and teach him to fix his bike

You moved in 8 months of being together even though he wanted you to move in at 3 months you decided to wait much longer not only because you wanted to not only bond with him more but also in order for him to think of having another person living with him in that way wince his wife passed

He had told you about his wife a bit not how she died or anything like that but what type of person and mother she was until later on in your relationship

He told you that she was murdered and how much it changed life for him and jack trying so hard not to just disappear somewhere else where no one knows him

He liked the way all 12 of your tattoos fit your body from your legs,arms,and shoulders to your hips,ribs,and back all of them having a different meaning to each of them but his personal favorite tattoo on you was the one on your back of a phoenix showing you no matter how hurt and scarred you were you still got up and fought back for yourself and the people you loved

But he felt anger and pure agony when you told him that you were not only falsely accused of a crime but sent to prison for years on charges of Evidence tampering, obstruction of justice,and murder not only when you were such a kind hearted person but also because you had lost half your life you can never get back and trying to make up for the time you missed by being in prison

He started looking into your case after working a case a lot similar putting other cases on hold and working all day and night finding that not only did they not have any evidence to charge you but they also contaminated the crime scene by other people still being in the house when they took pictures of the scene

He immediately traveled by himself to your hometown and demanded the case be reopened and thoroughly investigated by a different group of detectives along with the BAU team even threatening to charge all the people who worked the case for practically just putting the most innocent and affected person who had witnessed what happened in prison

You had also told them that it was your best friend who had died being killed by her own father while you hid under the bed and being assaulted by her brother who helped hide the crime with the dad

After a lot of work and fighting with the police letting them know that they would be on their asses for what they did to you

You knew he was in your hometown on a case but not that it was the case of what had happened to you finding out not only when you were watching the news seeing issue a public apology to you and your family but also when you sister and cousin called you telling you how they had met and talked to Aaron which surprised you greatly

You spent your time with jack doing different things when he wasn't at school from making snacks,coloring,and watching TV to playing with him,taking him to the park,letting him sleep with you whenever he had a nightmare while aaron was gone,and just having a great time bonding with the other

The day aaron came home showing you that your record was clean and expunged that you had ever been in prison making your heart grow big with warmth even more hugging him with tears of joy but it was also the same day he started thinking and wanting to marry you and jack ran in hugging his dad calling you mom for the very first time

A couple of years later the two of you got married on a beach and you adopted jack the very same day of your wedding becoming the family you and him both wanted for years finding it in each other as well as a person to spend and love for the rest of your lives

[beautifulpersonpeach]

It’s impossible to not love jikook.

Their chemistry is so natural, so effortless, so comfortable. Whatever brain cell Jungkook has you know Jimin shares it. They complement each other in their physical athleticism, in their easygoing / mischievous / crackhead personalities, in their competitiveness, in even how they relate to the other five members.

I’m yet to watch the full RUN episode, I’ve only seen some clips some friends have sent me while I run to a work lunch, but now I’ve got this silly smile on my face because two men I love, Jimin and Jungkook, exist on the same planet I do.

In other news, the latest HYBE financials confirm what I’ve said in my last few posts on HYBE’s corporate news i.e. HYBE not neglecting BTS and how BTS continues to be the primary revenue driver even on ‘hiatus’ (I think I recall @guacamoli-avocadorado sending an ask on this. HYBE’s latest filings are available on their website so you can confirm, but I’m sure there are also screengrabs all over Twitter at this point. Just FYI.) It’s also confirmed Jimin will release PJM1 in March.

For the other anon who just sent in an ask on the downside of this SM deal for HYBE - HYBE has already gotten their pound of flesh in terms of LSM’s stake (consensus view is the injunction is in his favour), a validation of the business model HYBE developed years ago that SM now wants to replicate in their SM 3.0 plan, and SM’s management has single-handedly done most of the damage to their brand already. But then again, they’d damaged their brand years ago when several of their own artists filed lawsuits detailing extreme physical abuse, when the company was fined for fraud several times, when the ceo wound up on Interpol’s most wanted list, when SM bought Woolim Entertainment to shelf Infinite and every other talent under that agency, etc. It didn’t stop the wider k-pop fandom/industry from developing selective blindness and amnesia to all this though, neither did it stop SM from continuing verifiably corrupt dealings. So despite this latest embarrassment only being more so because of international eyes on this mess, expect the status quo from the wider k-pop space to remain by year-end. HYBE will maintain a notable equity interest they can monetize later, and likely some influence on management decisions.

Back to jikook, I’m so excited for what they both will get up to this year. Jungkook said he isn’t working on anything right now, but that guy has been writing finished songs since 2016 at least, already has a vision for his solo debut (multiple MVs, possibly for each song on the album, choreography, possibly including drumming performances in videos or live, likely a new slew of collaborators, etc), plus it’s only February. As 2023 has shown us so far, a lot can change in very little time, so I’m not worried about JK at all. He’s taking a breather, something very necessary for creatives (much less introverted creatives), and he’s been working full time for 10 years.

Jimin will bring sauce and heat and tears in his new album. I have zero doubts. Prepare your bank accounts and stay hydrated. 💜

[neonbreath]

what’s up party people??? you can call me pink, and this is my movie addicted mess of a man, atlas! he is a shiny new muse for me, so i’m still figuring out a lot of his finer details, but i love to form characters through interactions in those cases so pls do throw all your babes at me! atlas had big dreams of becoming a film director, but things haven’t really panned out in any lasting way. he’s totally not a lil bitter or anything >.> the job of managing minseok sort of fell into his lap due to his father’s industry connections, as he owns a highly popular piano bar in seoul. (essentially his father was like you need to stop moping and do something with your life cbvbcxbv) he still performs to the best of his abilities as a manager and loves his client like family, thooo. i have a little more info and some desired connections below the cut, so if you’d like to plan out a thread or smth just shoot me a message or ask for my discord! 💕

𝙎𝙏𝘼𝙏𝙎 𝙋𝘼𝙂𝙀

atlas grew up primarily in the city of chicago, illinois. he lived with his mother full time after a very early divorce between his parents, while his father ran a successful piano bar back in seoul.

things weren’t overly toxic between them, thankfully. they didn’t like each other by any stretch of the imagination, but they kept up appearances for atlas, their only child.

atlas would visit with his father for a month out of every year, usually in the summertime when he was out of school. this was his first taste of the music industry, as his father had a lot of famous friends who would pop up at his bar. atlas wasn’t supposed to be in the bar per se, but he was well liked and protected among the staff and regulars. his father’s schedule didn’t allow for him to be home much, so he would tag along as his father made his way through the place carrying out his duties.

while atlas did enjoy music, his primary interest had always been film. the first time his mother plopped him down in front of ‘the wizard of oz’ and other child-appropriate classics, he was hooked. it was a high he’d never stop chasing.

he’d spend weeks on end working his way through the family’s vhs collection, would request movies almost exclusively for each birthday and even went through a little torrenting phase when he was looking for some harder to find stuff.

he could only dream of what it was like to bring such things to life — to be the one on the other side of the camera directing everyone to their places, making a piece of visual art with the potential to be remembered for eternities. he wanted it more than anything.

and yet, as he got older, there always seemed to be something standing in the way. in his senior year of high school, he was put in charge of documenting his graduating class for a special video presentation at the ceremony. he’d crafted something he was extremely proud of, a video he knew would blow everybody away. the night before graduation however, the file became corrupted as he was throwing a few finishing touches on it. he couldn’t access it or play it, and it resulted in him facing utter embarrassment at the ceremony.

this wasn’t the last of atlas’ pitfalls on his journey as an aspiring filmmaker. about a year into his higher education, specializing in directing at a small film school, the establishment burnt down with many of his academic works up until that point inside. after learning that his credits wouldn’t be transferred, he was sort of at a loss and disillusioned with it all. it was like the world was taking every opportunity to tell him he shouldn’t do the thing he loved the most.

his mother encouraged him to take some time off before attempting to go back to school and do some traveling, but all he ended up doing was heading back to south korea with his tail between his legs. he drowned his sorrows with his father for a couple of years before the latter became insistent that atlas get his life together somehow. he recommended him for a position being sought by a friend at a record label in seoul. they were in need of a manager for one of their new talents.

it was a bit overwhelming, as atlas hadn’t done anything of the sort up until then, but he strived to succeed for fear of his father’s reputation taking a hit for referring him. he put his directing dreams on hold indefinitely to fully take on the task on being minseok’s manager. he’s surprisingly good at the job, being so detail oriented, and he’s also always advocating for his client! if it’s not good for minseok’s wellbeing, he will tell the executives that he thinks so and do everything in his power to make sure it doesn’t happen.

𝘿𝙀𝙎𝙄𝙍𝙀𝘿 𝘾𝙊𝙉𝙉𝙀𝘾𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉𝙎

someone he can bond over a love of movies with pls

your muse was in a drama that he really loved

maybe he pretends that you get on his nerves but he actually has a soft spot for you

someone who grew up primarily stateside like he did

friends who chill together and listen to 80s music

someone who gets annoyed with his little corrections and perfectionism

idk i’m bad at these but we can always go on chemistry and all that so!!! 💕

[falcqns]

Over Again

Pairing: Henry Cavill x Reader, Sebastian Stan x Reader

Summary: Part two to To Be So Lonely. You work with Tom again, and is forced to face Henry.

Warnings:

A/N: Here’s part two! Hope you enjoy!

Said I'd never leave her

'Cause her hands fit like my t-shirt

Tongue-tied over three words, cursed

Running over thoughts that make my feet hurt

Bodies intertwined with her lips

The next few years with you and Sebastian went great. Both you and Sebastian had issued a statement discussing what had happened, as well as Henry. The media was all over it for a few weeks, but eventually, it died down. Henry was able to maintain his role on The Witcher, but you had heard that things between him and production were a little tense. He hadn’t made any more movies, and rarely appeared at public events, such as award shows. You felt bad for the way he was being treated, but Sebastian reassured you that its what he deserved.

You and Sebastian had gotten married, and had a 2 year old daughter named Lerae Georgeta Stan. You continued to work, doing big projects such as a few Marvel movies, and quite a few Tom Cruise movies. When Tom called you and asked if you wanted to be in the new Mission Impossible, you said yes. He had told you that Henry would be appearing well, but you insisted everything would be fine. Henry had seemed very remorseful the last few years, and you weren’t one to hold grudges. You’d have scenes with him, but Tom assured you there would always be another person in the scene with you at least.

Sebastian was happy for you, of course, but he was still nervous. You understood his nervousness, and when he asked if him and Lerae could come with you, you agreed. You hadn’t ever left your daughter, and you weren’t planning on it anytime soon. You didn’t want to be one of those ‘celebrity moms’ who never see their children.

You arrived in England a few weeks after getting the role, and you, Seb, and Lerae found an apartment which was close to the set, and planned to come to set whenever they could. Seb still wanted Lerae to experience a normal childhood, and explore London, so he planned on taking her out to do “Daddy - Daughter” activities in the city.

You had arrived on set the first day of shooting, without your husband and daughter. They were supposed to come, but Lerae threw a huge tantrum the night before out of pure exhaustion, so Sebastian decided it would be best to keep her home for the day, so you were on your own. You had worked with some of your co stars before, and the ones you hadn’t worked with, you had met previously. Working with Tom Cruise had its benefits. You didn’t see Henry, but everyone else was there.

Now she's feeling so low since she went solo

Hole in the middle of my heart like a polo

And it's no joke to me

So can we do it all over again?

Just as you were finishing up in Hair and Makeup, Henry walked through the door. Every one said hello to him, but you just gave him a nice smile, to which he didn’t return, his eyes averting to the ground. Everyone was finished a few minutes later, and then it was just you, Henry, and the hair and makeup artists. You were about to say hello to him, when your phone rang. You answered, and your heart dropped.

“I have to go back to the States today,” Sebastian said, and you heard him sniffle. Your eyebrows scrunched in confusion.

“What? Why?” You asked.

He sighed before talking. “Apparently a good 20 minutes of footage is unusable because the files on the camera card corrupted, so I have to go back to reshoot. I’m so sorry.” Sebastian said, and you heard him breaking down over the phone, and your daughter asking why her daddy was crying.

“Sweetheart,” You said gently, and noticed Henry’s face get even sadder. “It’s okay. Bring Lerae here, and you head back. I can manage her on my own for a few days, okay?” You said, and Sebastian calmed down.

“O-Okay. I’ll bring her in about an hour.” He said, and you nodded.

“Sounds good. How long will you be gone?”

“Only about a week. I’m just feeling bad because we just got here,a dan now I have to leave you alone to parent in a whole new country while shooting a movie.” He explained, and you chuckle. “We’ll survive. We’ve had weeks alone before, dont worry, okay?”

“Okay.” Sebastian said. “I’ll see you soon.”

“Okay. Te iubesc,” You said.

“Și eu te iubesc,” He responded, and he hung up.

Your hair and makeup was finished soon after, and you headed out of the trailer. Henry’s eyes followed you out, but didn’t say anything. You walked over to Tom and explained the situation, to which he was very understanding.

Not too much later, Sebastian sent you a text saying he was here, and you walked over to meet him at the entrance to set. His eyes were still red and puffy, and Lerae was clinging to him for dear life, obviously afraid of the big burly security guards.

“Hi sweetie,” You said, and your daughter reached out for you. “Hi, Mama,” She said, before she pressed a kiss to your cheek.

“Hi other sweetie,” You said as you turned to Sebastian, who smiled as well. “Hi baby,” he said. He gave you a sweet kiss, and handed you Lerae’s diaper bag. She was mostly potty trained, but did tend to have accidents sometimes, just like a normal two year old. Seb then wrapped his arms around you, and pulled you into his chest. Lerae giggled, and rested her head on his chest too.

“We’ll be okay, my love,” You whispered, and he nodded.

“I know. I just worry sometimes.” He said and you nodded. “It’s okay.”

He sniffled again and pulled you two closer. “I should go, or I’m going to miss my flight, but I’ll call you when I land, okay?” He promised, and drew your lips in for a kiss, which made Lerae gag. “Ew, Dada!” She exclaimed, hiding her face behind her Winter Soldier bear. Sebastian chuckled, and lifted her out of your arms.

“be good for mama, okay? Dada will be back on Sunday,” He said, and she nodded. “I pwomise Dada. I be good.” Sebastian smiled, and hugged her to his chest. He pressed kisses on her cheek, which she returned, and then she was handed back to you. The three of you said your goodbyes, and you two watched as Sebastian walked away.

“Okay, honey. We’re going to go to my trailer and play there until Mama has to go film.” You explained as she wiggled out of your embrace to walk on her own. “Otay Mama. I see Uncle Tom?” She asked, as she gripped your hand and you two made your journey to the trailers. “Yes honey, we can go see Uncle Tom in a little bit.” She nodded, and you watched as she gazed around at the buildings on set. She had been on set’s before, but she was always so interested. You and Sebastian had a suspicion that she is a star in the making.

You two passed the makeup trailer just as Henry was coming out, and you smiled at him. He gave you a sad smile in return and retreated to his trailer to wait to be called to set. You two walked inside your own trailer, and Lerae climbed up on the couch to take her shoes off.

The two of you were able to stay in the trailer for a few more hours, her colouring, and you rehearsing lines, before a PA knocked on your door and told you they needed you on set in 20 minutes. You got changed into your costume, and Lerae gasped as she saw what you were wearing. You had a yellow sundress with white flowers on it, with matching yellow ballet flats.

She scrambled up, and gave you a hug. “You so pwetty, Mama.” Your heart melted and you lifted up your little girl. “Thank you, baby. Let’s get out shoes on and head to set, okay? We get to see Uncle Tom!” Lerae giggled, and slid out of your grasp. She got her shoes on and gripped her “Bucky Bear” in her hands, and followed you out.

You were reminding her that when the cameras are rolling, she has to be quiet, and sit in your chair nicely, when she squealed. You looked up, and saw Henry. “Mama! Supaman!” She exclaimed, and your stomach flipped. “Yeah, baby, that is Superman. Maybe if you’re nice enough, he’ll say hi to you,” And she nodded with a determined look on her face.

Henry noticed you, and then his eyes drifted down to Lerae. He smiled, and gave her a wave. She then decided to take off running to go say hello to one of her favourite superhero’s. You followed after her, and smiled when Henry finally talked to you.

“Hi, Y/N,” He said, giving you a tentative smile.

“Hey. Listen, you don’t have to walk on eggshells around me. It’s been 3 years since then, and we’ve all moved on. I’m sorry for what my friends did to your career. I never wanted that to happen.” You said, and he smiled warmly.

“Thanks. And, you don’t have to apologize. What I did was horrible, and I deserved what happened. I don’t blame you, or anyone. I was actually hoping to a police to Sebastian about what happened, but I guess he left,” He said, glancing down at your daughter who had her face smushed against his leg, and gazing around the room.

“He’ll be back Sunday. He feels really bad too, so I think you two talking it out is the best thing.” Henry nodded, just before Tom came up and scooped up his niece.

“Hey, you two. We’re about to start. I’ll watch her.” He mentioned, while tickling her belly, and you thanked him, before moving to start filming.

If you're pretending from the start

Like this with a tight grip

Then my kiss can mend your broken heart

I might miss everything you said to me

The rest of the week went well, with Lerae glued to Henry. You two hadn’t had a moment alone to actually talk, but Michelle and Rebecca came into your trailer and insisted that they could watch your daughter so you could go talk to him.

You knocked on his trailer door, and heard a faint ‘come in!’, so you entered. He smiled at you as he was petting Kal, who ran up to you.

“I was hoping to actually talk to you about what happened.” You said and Henry nodded. “Me too.”

You sat down on the couch, and pet Kal, while Henry sat next to you. You took a deep breath before speaking. “I’m really sorry. If I had known how you were feeling, I wouldn’t have mentioned it, or at least brought it up in a different way. And I definitely wouldn’t have talked about him as much as I did. I was just in love, and wanted to tell everyone about him,” You said and Henry nodded.’

“It’s okay. I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did. I guess I built up how our first meeting would go in my head, and then I got angry when it went in a completely different way. Sebastian told me how excited you were to work with me, and on The Witcher, and I instantly felt bad. I wanted to come and apologize but you were gone, and the damage was already done.” He said, his eyes down cast.

You scrunched up your eyebrows. “How bad was it after?” You asked.

Henry looked up at you. “I got screamed at. By everyone. Anya, Freya, Joey, Lauren, and Director, everyone. Anya, Freya and Joey didn’t talk to me for a god two months afterwards, and everyone else was extremely harsh on me. My agent and manager said they had never seen someone act the way I did, and that they were considering dropping me. Thankfully, they didn’t, but it was very tense for a while. I’ve never seen my parents more angry at me. I honestly thought they were going to disown me. Once I had made my statement, I couldn’t find work. Until this movie, I was relying solely on The Witcher for income. Which, is okay while were filming, but the cheques aren’t as big after filming wraps. I thought for sure that I’d lose this role too when you found out, but I’m very thankful that I didn’t.”

You smiled sadly. “I don’t hold grudges. You’ve changed, I’ve changed, and everyone’s moved on. We’re all good. And don’t worry too much about talking to Sebastian. Knowing him, he’s going to try to apologize for getting me first,” You joked, and Henry laughed.

“You two seem happy. Sometimes I wonder if we could have been that happy,” he remarked sadly, and you nodded.

“Maybe in another life. But, we’ll never know.” You said, and Henry smiled.

“I’m just happy that we can be friends,” He said. “You’re daughter seems amazing. What’s her name?” He asked, as he gazed out the window where she was playing tag with Rebecca and Michelle.

“Her name’s Lerae. It means ‘strong and brave’, which she is. She was born two months premature, and she fought like hell the entire time.” You explained, your eyes drifting to her. She was running around, her blue eyes reflecting off the sun. You could see so much of Sebastian in her.

“She’s the real superhero. Not me,” Henry said and you chuckled.

“Sebastian says the same thing.”

You'll never know how to make it on your own

And you'll never show weakness for letting go

I guess it's still hard if the seed's sown

But, do you really want to be alone?

The film went smoothly after that. Sebastian arrived on Sunday, and him and Henry had a good talk, which resulted in them making plans to go to a Rugby game with some of Henry’s friends. After that game, they became really good friends. Chris and Anthony forgave him as well, and the four of them were great friends.

Lerae loved her Uncle Henry, and she loved Kal. Her daddy may be a Marvel hero, but she always had a soft spot for Superman. Henry remained involved in her life. He came to every birthday party, every dance recital, and eventually every movie premier when she grew up. He got her her first acting job at the age of 7, on The Witcher. After that, she was hooked.

You and Sebastian stayed together through everything. You gave him a son, named James Anthony Stan, when Lerae was 4. The two were inseparable, much like you and Sebastian.

Even though you and Henry remained friends, he always loved you. You’d notice it sometimes, wether it be in the way he looked at you when he thought you didn’t notice him looking, or the way he treated your children. Sometimes it wasn’t as noticeable, and you’d think it faded, but then you’d catch his eye in the right light and you saw it again.

The love.

If you're pretending from the start

Like this with a tight grip

Then my kiss can mend your broken heart

I might miss everything you said to me

And I can lend you broken parts

That might fit like this

And I will give you all my heart

So we can start it all over again

[xxwritemeastoryxx]

Chemical Reaction Chapter 1

Author: xxwritemeastoryxx

Pairings: No set parings in this one yet

Word Count: 2K

Warnings: Mentions of violence but that's canon.

Author’s Note: DO YOU KNOW HOW NERVOUS I AM FOR THIS?!? Even setting this up, I have anxiety building up. I'm ready for my debut into the Marvel fics. I do hope that if you guys enjoy this that you will leave some feedback. Anything helps! I absolutely love Tony and I hope this does him justice.

Feedback gives me life and motivation for future things. ♥

Y/N L/N knew that when she was recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D. that there would be moments where things would become chaotic. She knew that there would be moments where she would have to drop whatever it was she was working on to work on something that was being deemed top priority. Her multiple degrees from MIT had proved her to be an asset. Especially when they came across foreign objects that needed to be identified.

Over the last several years while Earth found out just how big the universe was, Y/N was behind the scenes hoping to help by making weapons to help protect the earth with what she was creating. Her projects were always kept under lock and key with the help of Director Nick Fury. He made sure her work was never interrupted and made sure she had everything she needed to create what he asked.

The sound of the lab door sliding open had caught her attention. Her eyes lifted only for a second to see Fury walking in before she looked back down at the computer screen in front of her. The program on the screen helping her to put the missing pieces she needed together.

“I’m expecting a box of my favorite cookies if you’re coming in here while I’m working.” She said, not taking her eyes off the coding. Every few moments she’d adjust the coding to adjust a few things or add coding where needed.

“Already delivered to your house.” Fury said as he walked further into the lab. “Even I know your bite is worse than your bark.”

That caused her to chuckle as her eyes flickering back and forth between him and the screen. Between Y/N and Fury, they had a softer relationship than most agents did with him. Maybe it was that her parents were friends with his family. But Y/N knew that when things meant business, the playful demeanor they had towards each other stopped.

“I’ve got an assignment for you.” He said as he came to a stop just in front of her desk.

“You mean besides this one?” She asked with a raised brow as her fingers typed along a keyboard. The new information she input caused the program to create a visual prototype of the weapon Fury had asked her for.

“For now this one is being put on hold.” Fury’s hands rested on the desk as he watched as Y/N looked up and at him. There was a slight frown on her face that caused Fury to chuckle. “Priorities change, Y/N/N. Including this one. What I need you to work on has been bumped up in priority.”

“This has to do with the mission the Avengers are on, isn’t it?” Y/N knew if she was right, that meant the Avengers had found an unknown source that needed to be identified. Usually, it was Y/N that got called in for those kinds of tasks.

“A Hydra base had a weapon on display, much like the scepter Loki had. But instead of an infinity stone at its center, it is something else. I need you and Stark to identify it.”

Y/N stilled at the name before she rolled her eyes. “We both know Stark and I don’t get along.”

“You two are the only ones that I want working on this.” He said as he stood up straight. “Between his brain and yours, it would save us a lot of time and expedite us destroying it.”

“You mean to study it before figuring out a way to utilize it?” Y/N knew better. She knew how Fury worked. His secret projects Y/N had been a part of from time to time. It was her design that was used for the prototype gun that had been created from pieces of the Destroyer when it came to Earth.

A knowing look formed on Fury’s face and it caused a smirk to pull at Y/N’s lips. He shook his head slightly. “It depends on if it can or cannot be utilized. I want to know why Hydra had it in the first place.”

“And that requires Stark’s help?” She asked as she crossed her arms over her chest.

“I get it.” He said as he tilted his head slightly. “You two have history. But I need the best minds I’ve got working on this.”

“What about Banner?” She asked, trying to get out of it one last time. “I don’t butt heads with Banner.” She was going to take whatever chances to avoid Tony Stark.

Fury eyed her before he turned to walk away from her. Y/N huffed out air as he had begun to do so. That was his answer to her question. He wasn’t going to let her out of this. Y/N should have known. For as many times as she tried to get out of work, Fury always got what he wanted.

“I want another batch!” She called out as she watched him leave. “Preferably the ones your mom makes.”

“Wheels up in an hour L/N.” Fury said as the sliding doors open. “I expect you to be on it.”

_____

“Alright, let's get this down to the lab.” Tony Stark said as he watched as S.H.I.E.L.D. agents began to pull the weapon off of the quinjet as he walked right behind them.

His hands slid against each other as he walked down the ramp, his eyes lingering on the case. The weapon was securely locked within a case to ensure that nothing would happen to it on its journey. He was eager to get started on figuring out what element was powering it. He had seen first hand the energy that came off of it in action.

“Perfect,” Natasha said as she exited out of the quinjet. “Fury just informed me that your new lab partner is already there and waiting for it's arrival."

Tony stopped in his tracks and turned towards Natasha. “Excuse me? There’s a what in my lab?”

“Fury sent someone over.” Natasha said as she came and stood in front of Tony. “Didn't give me a name though. He believes between the two of you, you’ll be able to identify the element faster and get it ready for transport."

Tony’s eyebrow raised. There was only one time he had opened his lab open to someone. And that had been to Bruce Banner. Why Fury decided it was a good time to send someone new in, Tony would never understand.

“J.A.R.V.I.S. who is currently in the lab?” He asked as he looked nowhere in particular. He wanted to know what he was about to walk into.

Miss Y/N L/N is, sir. The A.I said from overhead. She arrived minutes before you did.

“Shit,” Tony muttered under his breath as he looked back over at Natasha. The woman currently had a smirk pulling at her lips. “This is a joke right?”

Natasha laughed as she shrugged. "I'm only passing along the message."

Natasha knew enough about the relationship between Tony and Y/N. They butted heads when it came to almost anything and everything. She enjoyed watching the way Y/N had gotten under his skin any time they were in a room together. If there was one person that could put Tony in his place, it was Y/N.

Tony mumbled under his breath as he began making his way towards the elevator. He could probably avoid her for a few more hours. But knowing Y/N, she'd have things rearranged by the time he made it down there. It was better to face her now than later. It would definitely be worse later.

"Let Y/N know I'll call for backup when she needs it!" Natasha called out just as the elevator doors were closing.

_____

A frustrated sigh passed Y/N’s lips as she looked around the lab. With as many times as Y/N had been there, it had never ceased to amaze her that Tony would have things completely out of place. That included the perfectly neat station that she had left behind since she was becoming a frequent guest.

Pieces of junk had been carelessly tossed on the workstation, causing the items she had left on there to be scattered about. Stains from god knows what had been smeared on a majority of the files she left behind. No doubt things that Tony only looked at before tossing them aside.

They may have gotten on each other’s nerves, But Y/N had tried helping with some of the tech he was working on. While mostly suggestions, she knew that some of them would have upgraded things in a way that would help Tony. But with his stubbornness and ego, she wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t take any of it into account.

“J.A.R.V.I.S?” She called out as she walked around the workstation. “Does Tony actually need any of this or am I free to dispose of it?”

“Don’t answer that.” Tony said as he walked into the lab. The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents close behind him, bringing in the encased weapon. The moment it was placed on a workstation, they left just as quickly as they came. “It is after all my lab and I can place things where I want, and when I want.” He had come to stand a few feet away from Y/N.

Y/N’s eyebrow raised as she crossed her arms over her chest. Her eyes stayed on his before a small smirk slowly pulled at her lips. “J.A.R.V.I.S.?”

Mr. Stark is not intending to use the items he disposed of on your desk. I believe the term he used was ‘a junk table’.

Y/N watched as Tony’s mouth dropped at the A.I.’s words. He had never once had it work against him and yet, Y/N had managed to do so. “You turned him against me.”

“Not against,” She defended. “I just added a few things to ensure that I’d get the right information instead of you sabotaging me.”

“For the millionth time, that was not sabotage. I ensured everything was fair and square.” Tony rolled his eyes. “When did you even have time to hack into things?”

Y/N bit down on her tongue to keep her from speaking her mind. She should have known better. She should have known that he would simply deny it, just as he had plenty of times before. Instead, she let out a deep breath. “The last time I was here.” She said as she uncrossed her arms and began moving towards the case. “If I’m not mistaken, you were otherwise preoccupied with an overly bubbly blonde. Plus it wasn’t like I corrupted the system in any way. I just need someone on my side from time to time.”

Just as she reached the case and went to open it, Tony’s hand reached hers and stopped her from opening it. She turned to face him, her hand still on the latch. There was a slight glare on Tony’s face. Whether it was from her words or the fact she was attempting to open the case, she’d never know.

“You have no idea what this thing is and you want to just open it, like it’s nothing.” He said never taking his eyes off her.

“That’s what the point of this is.” She shook her head. “All the necessary protocols already came into play the moment the agents left.”

“I highly doubt that.” He said, taking a step back.

“Want to ask? Or should I?” Her fingers tapped on the latch as she watched him. It was a challenge.

The simple words enough to show how much they really trusted the other. While Tony had no idea about the rewrite that Y/N had included in his system, they hadn’t always agreed on things. If anything, they always disagreed with each other ninety-nine percent of the time. That one percent was a mix of giving in to what the other wanted or, Y/N getting her way.

It was as Tony let out a sigh that another smirk began to grow on Y/N’s lips. “J.A.R.V.I.S. are-”

Yeah, it was going to be a long week for the both of them.

All WorksTag (The tag to be notified for everything I write): @xoxo-nikki-xoxo @mrs-jackson-kenner @mizzzpink @amariaamaris

Excelsior Tag(All MCU fics): @hey-there-angels @hellotvshowtrash @dpaccione@taylordrunkonwhiskey​  @old-enough-to-know-better73​

Chemical Reaction (For only updates for this story): @frostay

Iron Man Tag (For any and all things Tony): @imgoingtofreakoutnow

If you would like to be added to, or taken off, the taglist, please do so here!

[lettrespromises]

PLAN À TROIS.— TODOROKI, BAKUGOU.

A.N:

❝ dear reader,

why hello it is i, nikki, back at it again. this post was specifically written thanks to @sasukelore’s big brain, meaning that this one is for the boys with the booming system, top down, AC with the cooler system😔✊🏻. it’s my first attempt at writing smut (which means it’s a direct ticket to hell) so please bare with me, i hope you’ll like it! if you have any feedback, please feel free to send it to me! also, my requests are open for business hehe.

sincerely yours,

nikki.

P.S: “plan à trois” has a double meaning— it means “threesome” in french but it also literally means “a plan involving three people” which is the core of the story, both literally and figuratively. ❞

Genre: Smut. (All three of the characters have been aged up.)

Warnings: Cursing, mentions of drugs (but no actual use of drugs), unprotected sex (please use a condom), nudity, spanking, choking, cunnilingus, blow-job, temperature play, threesome, dirty things.

Word count: 6.5k (she’s a big girl, don’t be shy.)

Letter object: One hotel. One gala. One mission. One person to take down. Three heroes. You and Shoto have to play the perfect fake couple to gain your enemy’s trust, the only thing is, Shoto has no clue how to behave as a couple. The unexpected help comes from Ground Zero who seems a bit too impatient and eager to show Shoto how to really treat a lady.

Metaphorically speaking, the heroes are seen as the predators and the villains as the preys, it’s always been that way— an eternal game of hide and seek, which only ends in binary results, either victory or loss. The latest news concerning the hero world had put this little game to a halt: the hushed rise of the anti-quirks drugs were concerning. The enemy was everywhere and nowhere, it was all whispers, a thread of ‘who said what’, mere illusions replaced authentic clues. The rules of the game had been changed into a paradox where the villains became the predators and the heroes were deemed as the preys.

The rule of silence, which could have easily been personified as the ringleader of this dystopic scenario, was cruel— anyone could be suspected of being a link of the drug chain. But fret not, if you were suspected and voices started to echo around louder and louder, a little bit of hush money was the price to pay to reinstate the rule of silence. Anyone could be a culprit, even (or mostly) into the highest spheres of society. Those who are worshipped in an agnostic way, they were on top of the social food chain and, perhaps even, on top of the drug chain. These elites have been very vocal about their will to suppress the almighty authority pro-heroes possess— feeling threatened for their own sake and their own inferiority complex, they were willing to play dirty to be able to rule the country with an iron fist.

The corrupted elites still remained as elites and enjoyed their mondane occupations— galas being one of them. It was a dream opportunity for you as a pro-hero, a room crowded with highly potential culprits served on a silver plate with a cup of champagne to serve as the cherry on the cake.

Stealth missions were highly dangerous if you didn’t have a cover good enough, and treading on the playground of influential people could possibly cost you your career as a pro-hero, but if you managed to succeed, you were bound to bask in glory. Keeping a realistic cover is the number one check on the list entitled “how not to blow up your whole mission and be hated by the rest of the country.” Luckily enough, your agence had already done all the dirty work for you and sent you everything you needed— a flawlessly cut evening attire, a shockingly well-done fake ID and a full file regarding the background of your character, all down to the tiniest details. And I cannot emphasize enough “all” the details...

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me…” Amongst the myriad of details (and some of them were completely unnecessary, I mean, was your favorite fruit really important?), one of them was impossible to ignore. “Shoto Todoroki, really?” His name rolled off your tongue for a reason, you were supposed to play his pseudo fiancée for the night. Your thumb brushed the surface inked with his name, unconsciously wishing that if you were brushing hard enough, his name would disappear and so would your almost wilted high school crush on him.

Your silent complains were cut short, the sound of someone knocking on your door stirred you from the invasion of your thoughts. Then the knocking sound echoed once more. “Just a second!” Has anyone heard of the concept of patience? Waiting a few seconds for someone to open the door isn’t a inhuman task. Eventually (although it could’ve have been funny to let this mysterious person fume because you purposefully took too long), you opened the door to your hotel room and it just felt like you had welcomed a storm in. Much to your surprise, there were two surprise guests, two U.A alumnis just like you— Shoto and Ground Zero.

“Well, shit, were you planning on letting us fucking die in the hallways, woman?! What the fuck took you so goddamn long, ha?” When I mentioned a storm earlier on today, I meant Bakugou Katuski— his annoyance was transcripted upon his face through the frowning of his eyebrows and the wrinkle sitting between them. “It’s good to see you too Bakugou, glad to see you missed me after all this time.” His hands were shoved in his pockets, clearly not keen on listening to your sarcastic remarks nor wearing a tuxedo for the night. “Tch. Keep your smart ass talk to yourself, dumbass.”

You had indeed let a storm invade your hotel room. But unbeknownst to you, you had also welcomed a hypotizing breeze, the polar opposite of Bakugou, and apparently future fiancé for the night: Shoto Todoroki. His facial expression reflected nothing but pure serinity, a signature stoic face which radically clashed with Bakugo’s scowl. Todoroki was so discreet, almost blending his presence with the newfound silence. He was wearing an evening suit of his own, aquamarine was his color after all, it was a known fact since your high school years.

“Y/N, as you may be aware, I am here for the stealth mission. Bakugou is going to accompany us just in case something goes wrong. It was a last minute change, but considering the household names who are going to attend this gala, too much precaution is better than not enough.” Ohh, so that was the reason why the angry gremlin was here. Although, you wondered how Shoto felt about the two of you acting as a fake engaged couple, was he still serene about that? “Yeah, while you two fake lovebirds will be busy eating each other’s faces off, I’m gonna be around to check if there is any intell on these anti-quirk selling bastards.” Each of his word was accompanied by a hand gesture pivoting between you and Shoto and, of course, the same old look of annoyance plastered upon his face. You and Shoto, on the other one hand, appeared a bit surprised at the use of “fake lovebirds”, it just hasn’t sunk in yet... Denial, perhaps?

“Speaking of kissing and shit— you, half and half bastard, do you still have a fucking stick up your ass or do you know how to act in a relationship?!” His interrogation was accompanied with a daring glance thrown in Todoroki’s direction and an eyebrow lifted just to emphasize the characteristic of his question a bit more. A bold question which immediately found its answer from the mouth of Todoroki, needless to say, you felt this remark coming. “Bakugou, you’re the last person here who could pretend having the knowledge necessary to provide relationship advices.” You couldn’t help but let a laugh escape at Todoroki’s remark highlighted by its bluntness, although you quickly changed your mind once you felt Bakugou’s stare landing on you with such rage causing you to hush your laugh by biting your thumb.

“Ha?! What the fuck did you just say, half and half bastard? Use that fucking mouth for yours for good measure and let’s see if you can kiss Y/N correctly. I won’t let this mission be blown up by your stupid ass.” This time, there was a hint of amusement in Bakugou’s voice, it was hard to distinct if he asked that because he truly cared about the mission or if he just wanted to push Todoroki out of his comfort zone. But the ghost of a smirk drawn upon his face seemed to support the second hypothesis.

“Guys, just a second here. I understand why we have to take care of our cover but it’s not like Todoroki and I are going to kiss all night long.” Your gaze alterned between Todoroki and Bakugou, it became impossible to hold your gaze on a fix structure due to how flustered you felt, and soon enough, your cheeks were quick to adopt a rosy tone. “Y/N, are you scared of kissing me by any chance?” You secretly hated the obvious tone of concern in Todoroki’s voice, he was willing to do anything to make this mission a success but also make sure you were comfortable around him. “N-No! It’s just… I don’t mind it.” What a miracle, you finally managed to look at him in the eyes but the blush on your cheeks was as lively as ever. “Then damn, if you don’t mind it just fucking kiss already we don’t have all night, dumbass.” You could tell by Bakugou’s body language that he was growing more and more impatient by the second, his arms were crossed over his chest— he was getting pissed.

Todoroki captured your attention once more when his index brushed the surface of your skin right below your chin while his thumb was carefully set upon your jawline. His orbs shone by their gleam of reassureance, his eyes met yours, as a silent way to ask your for permission and you fluttered your lids shut as an answer. As if it was some kind of second nature to him, his other arm compassed your waist in order to bring you close to him. His lips finally touched yours. Each one of his actions was so soft, you could barely feel them yet, you felt like you were floating on a cloud. His lips were melting ever so perfectly with yours, as if your lips were the sole one which could fit is, you couldn’t help but to hum as the carefulness of his lips overwhelmed you. The kiss was shy, experimental, and yet so agonizing. He was temptingly and agonizingly slow, which only made you crave for more. However, given the lack of oxygen, you had no choice but to (relanctutly) break the kiss. You opened your eyes and basked in Todoroki’s beauty, still in awe at what just happ—… “Oi! Have you ever kissed anyone before, Icyhot? Fucking hell, what was that?!”

Of course this was bound to be expected— the angry gremlin in his natural behavior. You and Todoroki exchanged a look which held a thousand questions before you felt your wrist being caught by a much warmer palm, and eventually, you were yanked straight into Bakugou’s chest (not that you were complaining.) “Open your damn eyes and look, this how you fucking kiss a woman, dipshit.” The sound of his voice roaring against your eardrum made you flinch in the nicest way possible. Bakugou naturally made himself at ease all while maintaining his gaze upon Todoroki who was looking at him in return with a noticeable disdain in his eyes.

Bakugou was challenging him in a way, he perfectly knew that Todoroki was observing his every move, hence why he took the liberty to let his palm roam over the curve of your derrière as a way to taunt him. However, the taunt didn’t last too long not to make you feel uncomfortable. He quickly settled one of his hand on the small of your back (to maintain you as close to him as humanly possible) whilst his other hand was set upon your neck. He didn’t waste any more time and went straight to business.

Bakugou’s kiss was, as expected, a vivid contrast compared to Todoroki’s kiss. While Todoroki’s felt hesitant, caring, sweet… Bakugou’s kiss was rough around the edges and his sole purpose was to make your knees weak. Once he crashed his lips upon yours, he immediately swiped his tongue over the surface of your bottom lip, demanding immediate access to your mouth. You knew better than to upset Bakugou so you pleased and allowed his tongue to explore your mouth— your tongue was at his mercy for a few instants before finding a steady rhythm for you two. His presence was overwhelming— his smell, how close you were to him with nowhere to escape, his mouth, his tongue, everything caused you to rightfully let a moan escape into the kiss. At the sound of it, Todoroki’s eyes widened while Bakugou smirked into the kiss, he knew he made a point. You, in return, started to tug at his blonde hair— the rough atmosphere of the kiss affected your actions as well. Just prior to breaking the kiss, Bakugou’s teeth dug into your bottom lip and applied a few pressures while you were looking at him with pleading eyes to continue. Once he got what we wanted, he ended the kiss with a surprisingly soft peck upon your lips.

With his hand still settled on the small of your back, Bakugou turned to Todoroki’s direction and offered him his biggest smirk to show his secret victory. You were left breathless by the kiss, a series of uneven hot breaths crashed down onto Bakugou’s skin. 

If anyone were to walk in your hotel room, they would be able to feel and even touch the graduating tension in the air which almost felt agonizing. The tension was mostly radiating off of the two men, a silent battle for dominance had been declared through glances, holders of pure will to outbest the other. 

Todoroki observed the scene on his chair, and unbeknownst to him, Bakugou had indirectly offered him the best seat in the room to watch the manifestation of his talents. An almost inaudible sigh left Todoroki’s lips which translated into a sign of discontentment. “Y/N, come here.” The tone was strict, cold even, and you felt obligated to do as told. 

Detaching yourself from Bakugou’s embrace (you could tell he didn’t want to let you go judging from how his palm lingered on your back), you stepped away and made your way to Todoroki, a quizzical look noticeable in the reflect of your eyes. “What now?” You asked. Todoroki gestured to his lap and you knew what it meant, it was a speech without any word necessary. 

Paradoxically enough, Bakugou stared at the scenery in front of him in pure silence, and although it was very unlike him, he was mimicking Todoroki’s actions earlier on- he wanted to witness how Shoto was going to respond to his own deeds. 

You placed your hands over Todoroki’s shoulders to gain stability before sitting on his lap, it was a foreign feeling, but goodness, it was already addicting as hell and you were not interested in finding a cure. Both of Shoto’s hands crawled on the same spot where Bakugou’s hands used to linger just a few moments ago, you understood rather quickly that he was using his own methods against him. You were the center of Todoroki’s attention, his gaze graced your frame and he was loving the sound of your uneven breath, he wondered if he could make your respiration even more irregular.

He paid no mind to mind to the silent Bakugou who was already fuming in his corner as Shoto delivered a succession of pecks on the delicate flesh of your neck, and you tilted your head just enough to let him play on a wider surface. He traded the pecks for a few daring bites on certain areas, he needed to find your weak spot. “A-Ah... Shoto!” the sound of his name rolling off your tongue coated in such bliss was enough for him to curve his lips into a smirk. 

It was a brief moment of peace before he dug his teeth on the same spot and you failed to prevent any whimpers from coming out by biting your lower lip. He knew you were restricting yourself, prisoning these beautiful sounds of ecstasy, and he didn’t like any of it. He focused on your lower lip and rubbed the oh so soft surface with the pad of his thumb to prevent your from biting it, and thus, keeping your sounds of pleasure to yourself. 

“Don’t be shy, love. I’m pretty sure both Bakugou and I can agree on the fact that the little sounds you’re making are too divine to be hushed. Will you be a good girl and let us hear the sounds you’re making?” It was as if his voice was coated with honey, just his voice alone was enough to make you feel weak, and if you paid enough attention, you were pretty sure he purposefully blew a fit of cold air onto the skin of your neck. “Yes, please... I’ll be good, so good.” From that moment you knew you were at his mercy and he enjoyed every second of it. “You’re such a good girl for us.”

And so he continued, but it was rougher this time, a harsh contrast compared to his hesitant kiss from just a few moments ago. His teeth dug into the flesh of your skin harder this time, the sole purpose of leaving a mark on your crimson colored flesh was haunting his mind. To accomplish said purpose, Todoroki alternated between biting motions and a few swipes of his tongue on the newly bruised skin. The whimpers coming out of your mouth shamelessly only added fuel to his fire. He knew what he was doing, and you knew just how sensitive this particular area could get. 

Once he judged it was enough, he delivered a few pecks on the love bites, a way to kiss his art into your skin. “You’re so perfect, love, so perfect with my name written over your skin.” He whispered between kisses. Your head was thrown back, fingers grasping at the roots of his hair, your mouth agape- your whole body language testified of the addictive effect he had on you.

Such bliss couldn’t last for long, and quickly enough, another voice was being heard, a roar even. “Oi, oi, oi! Don’t even think for a single fucking second that you can have her all to yourself, half and half bastard.” It was almost a miracle that Bakugou had observed you in silence, but as expected, patience was nowhere near his forte. He had already crossed his limit long before you sat on Todoroki’s laps. Bakugou’s eyes were strictly focused on your frame, he was completely under your spell after observing how your chest would rise and fall unevenly to grasp any ounce of oxygen. 

Your knees felt weak already, you could only stare at Bakugou and silently ask him to continue, to make you feel even weaker, to make you experience pure bliss. You wanted to say his name, it was right on the tip of your tongue, but as you observed his figure reducing more and more the space between the two of you, you just admired him in silence. 

“Hah? What’re you looking at, brat? You want more? Is that it? You want fucking more? Say no more.” You should’ve known that the wicked smirk plastered upon his face was a pre-indicator of what was bound to happen. He lifted you off of Todoroki’s lap, the latter frowned a bit at the lack of your presence on him, and carried you to the bed before dropping you on the mattress. Todoroki was quick to follow from behind and stood right next to Bakugou, his hands already busy taking off his jacket and unbuttoning the first button of his evening shirt. “I’m sure that Bakugou and I can find a little agreement. After all, we can share, correct?” Todoroki’s rhetorical question found its answer once Bakugou let a discreet chuckle escape from his mouth after throwing his jacket God knows where and messily undoing his tie. “We’re gonna take real fucking good take care of you, baby girl.”

You were refraining yourself from already touching you, it took all the strength in the world not to give in to the most passionate temptations. But deep down, you already knew you were bound to be overwhelmed by pure bliss judging by how they were looking at you. You could only hum in response, unsure of how your voice would have sounded under the heavy influence of desire. 

Bakugou made the first move, after all, his poor soul felt left alone when Todoroki overwhelmed you with pecks and bites. He crawled over you, his knees were on each side of your waist, his hands however, assured total domination- his right hand clutched your wrists now pinned above your hand while his left palm settled by force on your throat, needless to say, the pressure was already applied on your windpipe. “You wanna’ play that game with me, hah?! Let Icyhot have all of you to himself and I got fucking nothing in return? Babygirl, I don’t watch, I fucking play.” It was too ferocious to be qualified as a whisper, and yet, when Bakugou pronounced the last bits of his sentence right in the shell of your ear, you felt like you were floating in pure bliss. “Answer me.” His grip on your throat felt a bit tighter. “P-Please... Ju-Just do whatever you want... With my body.” The lack of oxygen felt agonizing, you were deprived of fresh air and you were laying on the bed while Bakugou exuded pure confidence and domination, an aura so thick, you wished you could’ve touched it. “That’s my babygirl.” 

As Bakugou’s lips crashed onto yours, forcing its tongue into your mouth while maintaining the right amount of pressure on your throat to offer you a panorama of new sensations, Todoroki had already gotten rid of his shirt. If you paid close attention, you could see shy flames on his shoulders, he was absolutely adoring the scenery unfolding before him. Everything about you filled his senses, the sight of you giving in to Bakugou was nothing short of divine, the whimpers leaving your mouth in cascade whether the reason was the lack of air or the fierceness of Bakugou’s intentions was the sweetest melody he had ever heard. Everything was perfect. 

You felt the oxygen become one with your body again once Bakugou broke the kiss and allowed his hand to travel from your neck down to your chest, but his eyes were never leaving yours. He wanted to watch you come undone under his touch, he swore it to himself.

“I’ll take the bottom half. Icyhot, I don’t give a damn about what you do, just don’t fucking interrupt me.” His eyes were already set on the prize, your heat in all its glory. Shoto said nothing in response, you were the holder of all his undivided attention. As Bakugou took a firm grasp of your thighs, opening the way to his newfound purpose, Todoroki took over the top half of your body- he started by planting a succession of pecks from your lips down to your collarbone, passing by your neck, and each kiss was amplified by the cold air he was blowing on the surface of your skin. The contrast in temperature cause you to allow a few whimpers to escape, you already knew you craved for more, it was a way of manifesting it.

 “You won’t need that, will you, love?”  He said while pointing at your shirt, as his index was already hooking the fabric. It was a rhetorical question of course, you simply answered by humming. Your silent response was the only thing necessary for Shoto to send your shirt flying somewhere in the room. He continued his trail of kisses down to the valley of your breasts, the same cold air following him as he went.

Bakugou, on the other one hand, had already gotten rid off your skirt, but not before letting his palms explore the generous cheeks hidden underneath it, and eventually, leaving a slap right on this area which caused you to yelp in surprise. The pad of his thumb was already brushing against the surface of the fabric, oh what a pleasure it was when he felt the sensation of humidity coming through your underwear. A sensation so good, so addicting, so divine that it brought a sly grin to his face. “Already so wet for us, babygirl? You’re not wasting your damn time, hah?” Your skin was burning under his touch, you could already feel the chills running down your spine and he hadn’t even taken off your underwear yet. 

Todoroki took the strap of your bra between his thumb and index, and much to your suprise, he used the right amount of his quirk to burn the fabric and applied the same treatment to the other strap. Before you could even protest about the poor outcome of your bra, he planted his lips on your own to keep you quiet. Now, he focused his attention to your breasts and the bits of clothing left which prevented the upper half of your body from being fully exposed. He took the opportunity given by Bakugou who had gotten rid of your underwear which made you arch your back to unclip your bra. There was nothing stopping him now. He let his gaze fell on you, so full of adoration, while he leaned down and caught the last piece of fabric remaining of your bra between his teeth. His eyes held so much envy, so much desires which reciprocated in the reflect of your own orbs. 

Shoto threw your bra out of his mouth, and there you were- your body bare in all its glory. “Fuck, you’re so perfect...” He whispered right against your chest, causing you to let out a sigh you didn’t even know you were holding. He used his mother’s inherited side to trace the contour of your breasts, he knew he was going to earn a moan in return and he was so please to hear such a sinful melody at the clash of his cold fingers against your burning skin. His thumb and his index worked in harmony to twist the bud of your nipple and overwhelm it by Shoto’s cold touch while his tongue delivering hot saliva on your skin was already doing wonders on your other breast, a perfect balance between cold and hot which made your arousal erupt even more and someone was quick to notice...

“Oi, doll face, focus on me, not on this goddamn fucker. Don’t you feel so fucking good when I touch you like that, hah?” His burning jealousy amplified the voracity of his deeds. Every single one of his touch served the purpose of pleasuring you, but also outdo Todoroki’s touches. He needed to be the best at everything, including making you melt under his touch. You struggled to keep your eyes open, the desire to close your eyes and let your body attract all the attention while basking in pure bliss was too strong and yet, Bakugou’s voice roared into your mind, you couldn’t help but lay your eyes on him through half-closed lids. 

Once he knew he was the bearer of all your attention, he put his body and mind to work. Both of his hands planted your thighs on each side of his body, you felt too weak to move under his touch and did not dare resist the pressure. You whined in advance because you knew what was coming- and boy, did he look good with his face buried between your thighs. 

One long, sharp, vertical lick was all it took to let yet another moan escape your lips once more, and to Bakugou, it was the best reward. The heat of his tongue responded to the heat of your core, it was pure harmony. He licked the your core over and over again, tasting you, loving you, worshipping you even. One time he left lingering kisses to the side of your core, another time he was left licking motions all over your folds because your taste was the best thing he had ever felt. His motions echoed to your whines and moans, he was sure of hearing a sinful melody each time his tongue entered in contact with your skin.

“Keep making these noises for me, don’t be fucking shy.” His hot breath on the center of your heat embraced perfectly the succession of his actions, “Y-Yes... P-Please, I want... I need more.” Bakugou couldn’t help but let a low chuckle leave his lips, in response to your needy attitude, he left a harsh slap on the surface of your butt, to which you whined loudly in response. “Such a fucking filthy mouth you have there, hah?” He smiled to himself, knowing perfectly that what he was about to do was bound to leave you as a whimpering mess. Without any warning, he slid two of his fingers inside your core, and fuck, you were tight. His thumb was brushing against your sweet bundle of nerves which had already been cherished by Bakugou’s tongue earlier. 

You clutched the sheets of the bed to release some of the buildup pressure inside, it was as if a tornado, a volcano and a firework were exploding at the same time in your stomach, each of them resulting in a series of whimpers and moans at the overstimulation. Your lids were shut close already, yet, they kept fluttering over the invisible crimson touches left by both Todoroki and Bakugou.

Speaking over Todoroki, he was tasting you in such a different way as he started to get the grip of Bakugou’s mechanic. His mind kept roaming and roaming, he knew that just one mark on your neck was not quite enough and he needed to beat Bakugou at his own game- he positioned himself right over your right breast and blew a fit of fresh air, causing him to smile at himself for being the reason of such a reaction, and dug his teeth into your flesh. Motivated by the the way you kept tugging at his hair, he kept biting the same area over and over again until sucking your flesh just enough to create yet another love bite over your breast, such an intimate area, isn’t it? And now his whole name was written on it. 

“B-Bakugou... I can’t take it... Ahh! Anymore, please, please...” His fingers weren’t enough anymore, you were pleading his name, begging him to become one with you because you were unsure as to how you were going to keep the unleashed pressure within you ruin you. “So eager for my fucking cock, aren’t you?! You’re gonna count with me each inch entering your fucking cunt, got it?” You were willing to do anything at this point- Todoroki’s bites and his cold touch, Bakugou’s fingers and tongue, it made you fill dizzy but you knew, deep down, you were slowly approaching a pure state of bliss. “Yes... Yes I will.”

For his own purpose, Bakugou took his fingers off your core and flipped you on your stomach so you could be on all fours. You were giving him the view of worthy of a masterpiece: the crimson colored marks on your butt cheeks, the vivid rosy tone of your dripping core, oh he wanted all of you. “Love, don’t you forget that I’m here too, right? Open your pretty mouth for me.” You did as Todoroki preached, opening your mouth for him to stick his index in there. “Suck.” he commanded, to which you obliged by creating hollows in your cheeks and embrace his finger around your tongue, this feeling was beyond perfect, beyond the wildest fantasies his imagination had to offer. He could only let his subconsciousness roam about how his cock would feel around your perfectly pouted lips.

Bakugou’s hands gripped your hips tightly, his fingers turning white in the process while your flesh adopted a reddish tone in response. With the use of the pad of his thumb, he spread the pre-cum leaking all over his length, and so it began: the first inch. “One.”, it sounded more like an order than a statement, “...One.” you echoed, your response didn’t come quick enough to Bakugou’s liking, making you earn a harsh slap on your cheeks in return. Then another inch “Two.” , another faint sound coming from your lips “T-Two...”, yet another slap on your abused flesh. And so it went on, the process remained the same- another inch, another whisper escaping your mouth between sobs, another spank. 

On the other side of the bed, Todoroki was stroking his own length at the sight before him. You were on the brim of tears, and Bakugou didn’t show any mercy regarding your current state. “I’m sorry, her mouth is going to be full soon, she won’t have room to count out for you.” Bakugou grunted in response to Todoroki’s taunt. His strokes became gradually faster, like a crescendo if you will. His other hand, however, was placed right underneath your jaw to give you some support and your mouth was already open in anticipation for what was bound to happen. 

With his hand to keep your jaw steady, you welcomed Todoroki’s lenght into your mouth and he automatically let a groan as the tip of your tongue caressed his sensitive tip. You imagined how rewarding it must have felt for them to hear your own moans and whimpers because hearing Todoroki’s moan felt like a blessing to your eardrums.

Your tongue circled around his cock, your hand was pumping his length, and Todoroki wondered if this is what heaven looked and felt like. Your whimpers were hushed by the presence of his member in your mouth, but somehow, even these half silenced sounds of pleasure sounded even better to his ears. He felt his lids shut close under the miracle work of your tongue while his hand lingered in your hair to motivate you to keep going.

Bakugou, frustrated by this change of plans due to Todoroki’s own personal pleasure, slid the entirety of his phallus into you abruptly. The shock caused you to remove Shoto’s member from your mouth momentarily to catch your breath and release yet another whine before pleasuring Todoroki again. That came as a surprise to no one, not even Shoto himself, but Bakugou’s pace was rough and almost animalistic. 

The sound of his testicles clapping against your flesh testified of the pace and yet, it felt so enticing. Bakugou was not so vocal, but he did leave his fair share of grunts as he buried himself into you more and more until reaching your cervix. It was too much, your core was burning, hell your whole body was on fire. The tears that threatened to fall had put their threat to execution, you knew you were close, the overstimulation was getting the best of you leaving you in a whimpering, trembling mess. 

You continued to stroke Shoto’s length with your tongue, but his need to take control took over him. The same hand that rested in your hair suddenly took a firm grasp of your hair and he thrusted himself into your mouth and from there, his grunts became more repetitive. Truthfully, it was the only push he needed to bring him over the edge, the previous work of your tongue had put him under a spell. A spell he never wanted to wake up from. He knew what was coming, you felt it too but how the tip of his phallus was tickling your throat deeper and deeper. 

Shoto didn’t even notice the small flames making their apparition on the blades of his collarbone, meaning that it was finally time for him to cum. He set your mouth free and hinted his length towards your chest, letting the drips of cum color your skin, and allowed the most magical moan to leave his already parted lips in satisfaction. “Love, look what you fucking did to me. You’re so beautiful, so beautiful with my cum all over you.” Your first instinct was to fill your lungs with oxygen, something so common yet it was cruelly needed. You looked through your lashes at Shoto with pleading eyes while he looked at you with a glimpse of adoration in his. His digit was carefully wiping the excess of cum leaking down your chin to place it right into your mouth. He could only stare in awe at the sight of you tasting him. He felt so full, and fulfilled. He was finally at peace, soaking in pure bliss.  

The grasp Bakugou was holding over your hips became even harsher, which you though was impossible just a few seconds before. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.” He grunted, trying to keep his volume at bay by digging his teeth into his lower lip but it was all too much to be contained. He knew his climax was close, so close that he could picture it if he closed his eyes just for a second. Bakugou’s name fell on your lips like a forbidden prayer, his name had turned into the only thing you were able to say. “I-...Ah! Inside, inside, fuck, please...”, you felt a wave of pleasure taking over your body, a pleasure so intense, no word could have done it justice. Oh well, that was the sole indication he needed to hear before digging his nails into your sides, causing you to arch your back and bite the sheets, already preventing the cascade of whimpers from echoing in the room. “Fucking hell... Cum with me, now.”

 With one last thrust, Bakugou came within you, his face was facing the ceiling as he came undone with you. His cum slid within you and in return, your body thanked him by letting your own juice flow all over his length. 

Silence invaded the room. No more grunts, no more moans, no more cries. Pure silence inhabited by the uneven breaths of three protagonists who had just touched heaven by the tip of their fingers. Three victims of passion.

Bakugou pulled out of you, earning a whimper in return at the sudden feeling of vacuity. Your legs were shaking, and you secretly thanked every God for allowing you to stay relatively steady on all fours for this long and be able to endure the bestial-like pace of Bakugou. Needless to say, you were panting, you mouth was agape and you were crying for air. Your body immediately crashed onto the mattress, the soft feeling of the sheets enveloping your skin after reaching heaven made you feel as if you were floating on a cloud.

Bakugou and Todoroki shared a look, a small grin even, before crashing down onto the mattress next to you. You were unable to move, your mind was comparable to a wild blur as a result of your orgasm. A rush of words flew through your air but absolutely none of them was powerful and meaningful enough to qualify how you were feeling. At peace? No, not strong enough. Full? Nope, did not carry enough meaning. It was a unique feeling, worthy of all the praises in the world. 

Todoroki draped an arm over your waist and left a trail of kisses upon the flesh of your shoulder, a silent way to thank you for allowing him to experience heaven in a rush. Bakugou, on the other one hand, was facing your back and allowed his index to draw invisible patterns on the skin of your back. Paradoxically enough, the silence carried more words and emotions than an actual speech. Until...

“So... Um, about the mission?”

[sophfandoms53]

I love that you’re planning to discuss topics that society has deemed unacceptable and/or awkward like sexualities because I feel that it brings a new, lifelike, relatable layer to each character! I know not everyone is going to agree with what you’re doing, so I admire your bravery. I’m curious though, since Chase has been stated to be dyslexic, does that mean that any other characters have disorders? I hate using that word but I don’t know how else to phrase it. Sorry if I’m being too awkward!

Aw thank you! And yeah based off the previous ask, there are gonna ppl who disagree with this, unfortunately. But I’m really glad I’m able to give each character different layers and have so many of you support that, it means so much!

I think maybe another word you could’ve been looking for is disabilities? I may have that wrong but this is a really interesting question!

Like you mentioned, Chase deals with dyslexia but he’s also occasionally deals with an abnormal heart condition from time to time, it was really bad when he was a baby but things have gotten better with it as he got older and with treatment, but that doesn’t mean it’s gone. This was something I introduced in my original story and it’ll stay for the rewrite.

Troy struggles with asthma, although his really bad attacks are few and far between, and he keeps an inhaler with him often.

Once Dewey’s home he’ll be struggling with PTSD and nightmares about his experience Mars and this creates a constant fear he’ll always let his family down. While I do plan to have Dewey say some “gotta cope with jokes” moments, there’s only so much a person can go through and joke about without someone raising an eyebrow and wanting to push them to get help, so after the breaking point (a scene I’ve been planning for awhile) that’s when Dewey seeks help with a therapist and then with doctors for his physical injuries. I think Dewey is also ADHD coded, at least he’s presented that way a lot of the time, hence his constant impulsive behaviors and hyperactivity, so that’s something of his that has remained too, in a different way since he’s older.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned this before but Webby has been actively seeing a therapist for a few years and struggles with anxiety but her therapy has helped her in how to deal with it and manage it.

Canonically Huey deals with anger issues and (admittedly this one is more fanon than canon but the coding is there) is heavily implied to be autistic, so his McDuck temper and all his little stimming and comfort actions will be referenced throughout the AU.

Shelly, although much better than her teenage-young adult years, still sometimes struggles with an eating disorder but that only becomes really bad when she’s filled to the brim with stress and anxiety over things and she’ll continually skip meals and not take care of herself. And while not as bad as Huey’s, Shelly’s got her own anger issues too. There is also another aspect about Shelly that I really wanna say but I can’t, because if I do it’ll raise a lot of questions and spoil something I have planned to explore down the line so for now that’ll remain as the good ol’ spoilers file.

Even Emily has somethings she’ll be dealing with it, but again, that’s also a spoiler and we shall talk about that another time.

Oh and Lena also struggles with PTSD and anger about Magica and still lowkey disliking her own magic which becomes worse when she comes back to normal after her corruption and realizes what that magic has done to Aurora. Lena can’t catch a break, forgive me Lena.

Louie also deals with an anxiety disorder and he deals with in a different way than both Huey and Webby do.

Rt the whole duck family has anxiety, it would seem.

[cordria]

Corruption

Danny had a strange home life. He knew that. He accepted it. At some point over the last two years, he’d decided it was a Defining Personality Trait and just rolled with it, incorporating it into just about everything he did and each joke he made. 

When he got home after a long day of school, Danny always had a wide range of expectations from his parents. He expected to be hugged and given a warm welcome along with a fudgy snack. Or perhaps to be doomed and threatened with dissection. Or perhaps to be dragged off to hunt a ‘ghost’ that only had a 25% chance of existing in the name of ‘family time’. Or perhaps to be hunted himself, captured, and stuck in a containment device. 

One would think, with that sort of mindset, that Danny couldn’t possibly be surprised when he walked through his back door. 

One would be very, very wrong.

“Tech-”, Danny cut off the blurted name at the sight of his mother sitting at the kitchen table with (of all the ghosts) Technus, freezing halfway into the kitchen. “Ghost!” 

“Hello child,” Technus greeted.

“Danny,” his mother said, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye, apparently unwilling to take her eyes off the ghost. “This is Technus. We’re having a chat.”

Danny stood, mouth open, trying desperately to figure out what was going on. Technus seemed relaxed, more lounging in the air than sitting in a chair. His mother was attentive, a rather large weapon sitting next to her hand, but it was off and she wasn’t holding it. She didn’t appear to be afraid, or being held against her will. They appeared to be having a conversation. Based on the cup in Technus’s hand, they almost appeared to be having a chat over coffee. “What’s going on?” he finally asked.

“Technus was possessing our server,” Maddie said pleasantly. “I removed him, and in the course of beginning to dissect him, he managed to give me a few reasons to leave him in one piece.”

“He is good at talking,” Danny muttered and took a few steps in the kitchen, letting the door fall shut behind him. He dropped his backpack on the ground and mentally apologized to Sam for not getting his homework done as he had promised. She’d understand. Probably.

Technus waved his cup. “And she offered me this wonderful drink while we talked! It is, how you say, the bees knees.”

Danny arched an eyebrow. “Sure,” he said, walking over to the table. It was covered in glowing paper. The glowing was odd, even for paper from FentonWorks. “What are you talking about?”

“Technus supposedly ran away from the ghost zone because of a glitch. A bug in the system.” Maddie tapped the paper, still keeping an eye on Technus. “It’s honestly quite interesting, looking at the ghost zone through the senses of a computer ghost.”

“What’s interesting about it?” Danny didn’t need to use his eyes to keep track of Technus; the ghost was a spot of cold in his brain. He picked up a piece of paper and studied it. It… was gibberish. Definitely English, because he could see words he understood. His forehead wrinkled.

“He sees his world as a sort of computer, complete with codes and an operating system.” Her smile was thin and stressed, but Danny could see the interest sparkling in her eyes. “Technus was able to provide me a copy of some of that coding.”

Danny nodded, the gibberish making more sense. It did look something like he imagined computer code would look. “Neat, I guess.”

“Very,” Maddie said. “Unfortunately, I don’t know much about computer coding.”

“Tucker does,” Danny said before he thought through the response, then froze. 

Technus’s eyes lit up. “That’s true! The child with the hat. He would be able to help! Locate him for us,” he demanded.

“No,” Maddie cut in. “I’m not involving children in-”

Danny reached over and rested his hand on his mother’s shoulder, sending a tendril of energy through her. The woman froze in place, hands halfway through a gesture. He was relatively sure she wouldn’t be able to see or hear what was going on, half-possessed like this. He glared at the ghost. “What’s really going on, Technus?”

“A glitch,” the ghost said, setting down his cup. “A file has gotten corrupted.”

“The ghost zone,” Danny said flatly, “has a glitch.”

Technus leaned forwards, his eyes narrowing. “I am a master of technology, child. I know a glitch when I see one.”

Danny leaned forwards too, careful to keep his hand on his mother’s shoulder. “Prove it. Prove this isn’t just some stupid scheme.”

Technus seemed to fluff up like an angry chicken, his form growing slightly. “I… I…” he hesitated. Then deflated. “I cannot. It is not something you would see.”

“And so you just want me to believe you.”

The ghost shifted through the papers. “It is here,” he said, sounding almost manic. “I know it’s here. It will spread if we don’t catch it. It will infect other systems. It will bring down the whole world-”

“This sounds like a great way to avoid being dissected,” Danny said, “but the ghost zone doesn’t really have a code-”

“Not for you!” Technus snapped. Electricity zapped between the ghost’s flyaway hairs. “To you, the ghost world is a place full of heroes and villains, of adventures to be undertaken, of mysteries to be solved. That is you. And I do not tell you otherwise, because it is true for you. To me, the ghost world is the most complex and beautiful piece of coding, a computer of incredible power, so intricate…” He trailed off, slowly picking up the papers and sorting them into a stack. “To see it broken this way... I know it’s here. I know it’s here,” he whispered. “But you would never see it.”

Danny was quiet, letting Technus collect the papers, wondering if he should believe the ghost or not. “You’ve tried to hurt us too many times, Technus. I’m not involving Tucker unless you can prove to me what you’re talking about.”

“You’ll doom both our worlds because I’m a villain and can’t be trusted,” Technus said. 

“I’m not the one that’s tried to take over the human world eight times,” Danny shot back. “Excuse me for noticing the pattern.”

The ghost’s odd black eyes gleamed. “I… Yes.” He fell silent.

Danny let the silence settle in the kitchen for a long minute. “Well?”

“I am thinking.” Technus picked up a few more pages, running his fingers along the edges. Then he scowled and shook his head. “I cannot. I cannot show you a computer glitch!” 

“Then you belong back in the ghost zone,” Danny said. Light cascaded around him as he switched to Phantom, still keeping his grasp on his mother’s shoulder. “You want to go yourself, or should I escort you?”

“Always the hero,” Technus shot back, snatching the rest of his papers and holding them to his chest. “Always… the…” he trailed off, eyes narrowing, head tipping to the side and a smile appearing on his face.

“What?” Danny asked.

Technus very slowly set down the stack of glowing papers, flicking the top gently to remove a wrinkle. Then he pushed back from the table and raised his hands. Energy flickered around him, his attitude suddenly changing. “You have caught me, halfing. I, Technus, master of all things mechanical and beeping, was planning to destroy this world!” 

Danny tensed.

The ghost dove forwards, snagged Maddie from her seat, and dragged her through the floor. Danny was a beat too slow to stop him. “Hey!” he yelled, more than a little bit relieved that Technus was finally showing his true colors, and followed. He caught a glimpse of them disappearing through the portal, the echo of his mother’s shout of surprise as she came out of the semi-possession to find herself in Technus’s grasp.

The ghost zone flickered into view as Danny dove through the portal as well, chasing them. “Give her back!” he shouted, putting on some extra speed as the energy of this world started to course through him. 

“I will not!” Technus shouted over his shoulder. Then a loud, “Ouch!” as one of Maddie’s feet landed a hard kick. “Stop that!”

Danny couldn’t risk blasting Technus - at this speed and with their erratic flight patterns, he’d hit his mother just as often as he’d hit the ghost. He clenched his fingers, scowled, and kicked up the speed again. He was gaining. 

Of course, once he’d gotten his mother back, he had no idea how he’d get her home again without some serious injury to himself. Perhaps he could possess her, like he’d done to Valerie, and get her home that way.

Technus suddenly drew up short.

Danny’s teeth ground together and he formed a blast in his hands. With the ghost holding still, his aim was good enough that- 

He stopped. “What the hell?” he whispered, drawing up next to Technus and his mother - who was kicking and swearing up a storm, dangling from Technus’s arms. Ahead of them, the ghost zone was crawling in glowing red bugs. The bugs seemed to be eating everything they could touch. Danny let the blast fade away.

“The glitch,” Technus said. “What do you see, hero? A quest to complete? A villain to be defeated?” Then he yelped in pain. 

Danny glanced down to see his mother dropping like a stone. He dove after her.

“She bit me!” Technus screamed above him. 

He rather quickly caught up to her, but instead of instantly grabbing her, he fell alongside her for a moment. The last few times they’d met on a ghost hunt, she’d refrained from shooting him on sight. Perhaps he was winning the personality battle. “Need some help?” he asked, going for a cheeky grin.

She scowled at him.

“I can give you a lift home,” he offered, reaching for her hand.

She jerked it out of his grasp. “I don’t trust ghosts,” she snapped.

Danny shrugged, not letting the smile fade. “You can just keep falling, then. No skin off my back.” He rolled onto his back and put his hands behind his head, still keeping pace with her. “I think your son’d like you to come home, though. He looked a bit distraught when I passed by.”

He watched Maddie’s scowl twitch. “How did you follow me so fast, anyways? Were you spying on me?” she demanded.

“You were offering an evil ghost coffee at your kitchen table,” Danny shot back. “I wasn’t spying so much as paying attention.” He waited a beat. “Ride home?”

She slowly held out a hand. 

Danny snagged it and brought her fall to a stop, then pulled her back upwards. Coming to a stop next to Technus and letting his mother dangle from his hands, Danny studied the bugs that were infesting this section of the zone. Everything they touched turned that same color of toxic red. “That doesn’t look like a computer glitch,” Danny said after a moment.

“Not to you, of course,” Technus said with a dramatic roll of his eyes, still studying his bitten hand. “Do you believe me now?”

“I believe there’s something wrong, but I’m not convinced it’s a computer glitch,” Danny muttered. He started to drift closer to the bugs, wanting to see them a bit better.

Technus grabbed his shoulder. “Don’t get too close. It will corrupt you too.”

“It’s just a bug,” Danny argued, shaking off the hand. But he stayed back. 

“Watch,” Technus said, grabbing a floating rock and tossing it towards the bugs. When it was several feet away, the bugs swarmed upwards, attacking the rock. “It’s like a virus.”

Danny was quiet. Then he glanced down at his mother, who was staring at the bugs in wide-eyed fascination. He turned back to Technus. “I’m still not sure why I should care.”

“It’ll keep spreading,” Technus said, “until it infects everything in this world. And when our world goes, so does the human world.” 

Danny narrowed his eyes, still not sure he trusted the ghost. But the ghost could certainly be counted on to act in his own self interest. “Yeah,” Danny said. “Perhaps we should stop it then.” He studied the bugs. “Any idea how?”

“I might have an idea,” Maddie said, looking up at them. Her eyes were narrowed, clearly not trusting the two of them. “Bring me back to my house.”

Danny headed back towards the portal, Technus close behind, and shook his head. Of all the things he expected when he walked in the door after school today, creating a world-saving team out of himself, his mother, and one of the ghost zone’s most annoying ghosts would not have been on the list.

[letsloveimagines]

Title: One kiss or your soul

Pairing: Modern AU! Ivar the Boneless x female!demon!reader

Prompt: Where Ivar decides to my a deal with a demon.

Word Count: 4520

Warnings: a little swearing, satanic rituals, mention of monsters and death

Note: The images doesn’t belong to me, all the credits go to the respective creators. I only made the collage. Also,the rituals were based on Supernatural.

                                                          ♦⋅☆⋅♦ 

He tried to take a short walk that day, for the first time in months... His skin was now bone white, and Ivar knew he needed at least about ten minutes of vitamin D.

What he did not expect was the huge crowd that was on the street that blessed day; families gathered to talk animatedly, children playing with each other to discuss the disguises they would wear and all the sweets they would eat. The city appeared to be decorated with bats, cobwebs, scarecrows and zombies, lanterns and pumpkins. It was then, while he was surrounded by people everywhere and feeling his heart thundering, that he remembered it was October, Halloween more precisely, and the whole community was getting ready for the fun of that night.

The pain in his legs was already characteristic, his gait was sloppy and lame, and crutches were his longtime companions. But that never failed to attract attention as always, and that happened at that moment. The children who played looked at him laughing and pointing, talking to each other, the adults whispered and looked at him with pity.

Ivar hated pity.

And he hated even more how the attention of those shitty people made him feel, even though he was already used to it.

With a strong desire to vomit, feeling the sweat running down every corner of his body and trying to breathe, Ivar looked for any corner where he could take shelter. The small library across the street that seemed to be the only establishment without the festive theme appeared to be the best option. He was quick to cross the street - as fast as it was possible for him - to enter the establishment, greet the lady with the half-moon glasses behind the counter (who chewed blue bubblegum while filing her nails), and hid in the most distant place possible, among several decrepit shelves almost falling with the weight of dozens of books.

Ivar had sat on the floor, his back against the books and shelves, his head hidden in his arms and knees drawn up just trying to remember how to breathe. He was at the beginning of a panic attack, and being aware of it only made him even more distressed. He hated that it happened because of his useless legs and because of people he didn't care about. Why couldn't he have been born healthy like his brothers? The air did not seem to reach his lungs fast enough, leaving him almost choked and trembling all around, and with the world spinning around him over and over again.

It took a while, but it ended up after a few minutes of breathing exercises. The frustration remained, however, leaving him so enraged with himself and the world, that he punched the bookshelf behind him in an abrupt gesture. This hasty action caused so much noise that he was sure that the children across the street had been able to hear. In silence, swallowing hard and fearing he would be expelled to face the crowd outside, Ivar peered slightly at the librarian trying to see if she had heard it too. This one, however, had her back to him with the phone between her ear and shoulder, talking animatedly while continuing to take care of her nails, without paying attention to what was happening around her.

"No..." she exclaimed, certainly wanting to sound shocked, but looking completely delighted by what she had just heard. "Don't tell me that she really said that to you?"

More relieved, the boy leaned back against the bookshelf perhaps with more force than was necessary, as he immediately felt the wood behind him creak and the piece of furniture rocked from side to side. The dark-haired boy was quick to grab it, managing to keep it from tipping over, but not without a few books falling to the floor raising so much dust that it left his black pants almost gray. One of those books, due to fate, had not joined the others on the wooden floor eaten by the termites immediately, but had fallen on top of him, the hardcover hitting his head hard. Thankfully, the boy had been born with a head full of rich black hair capable of supporting the impact, or he could now have a bruise to take care of later.

Curiously, still rubbing his head with the free hand of his clutch, he looked at the cursed object. It was a book with a brown cover and black insignia and broken in the corners. In large and dark letters, in a font that looked like a victorian one he could read 'Monsters in the Darkness'. Interesting title, Ivar thought, quickly putting the other books on the shelf and flipping through the one that had caught his eye.

Looking at the watch on his phone that said it was still 2PM, and listening to the conversations outside, he thought why not.

He found himself a chair, shook off the dust with the back of his hand and began to read. The pages were turned quickly while Ivar, frowning, realized what the book was really about.

"What the fuck?" He asked in a low voice, amazed.

His hands held the book tightly, his eyes skimming over the yellowed and gnawed pages. Or maybe it was the mice, this place seems to be full of them, Ivar thought. It was true. That library was old, smelled of mold and looked like it hadn't been cleaned in years. But that was a good thing, at least for him, because it meant it was almost always empty. Whoever wrote this must be on drugs.

But he still didn't stop.

The more he read the more confused he became. The names and notes changed as well as the images, but they were all on the same theme: dark creatures and reports of sightings. Vampires, werewolves, spirits... creatures with claws and fangs, ferocious and with the ability to kill as easily as breathing.

The younger Lothbrok was confused but immensely interested. He didn't believe any of that, but it helped to pass the time. The boy always liked scary things, but he liked the real ones better, and those creatures that the book addressed had no way of being real. However, he was unable to drop the book.

His fingerprints passed smoothly through the written words and the drawn figures, feeling the depth of the ink on the paper. The words registered in his mind quickly as he read page by page, practically devouring the book in what seemed to him mere minutes, but in fact it was already three hours straight sitting in a corner of the moldy library, with a weak lamp beside him illuminating his reading.

He read so much until his blue eyes got tired and he was forced to rest for a few minutes, and until he was at the end of the book. The last theme was demons, but as soon as he turned the page to continue reading, he found… nothing, just the back cover of the book indicating that it was over.

Strange, he thought absently. And that page was even stranger, a few millimeters thicker than the others... almost as if it were glued.

He should? Looking again at the librarian who, admirably, was still distracted on the phone after three hours, Ivar grabbed the knife he always carried with him, opened it and carefully took it to the paper, making a small cut. As he suspected, the previous page was actually many more, and Ivar was eager to find out what it was about and why those pages seemed to be a secret.

> Of all the inhuman creatures that walk the earth, demons are the most evil. They desire nothing more than death and destruction, and not out of desperation or need as is the case with vampires who need blood to survive ... Demons kill and torture simply because they want and can, because they love the pleasure that the chaos of humanity brings them. There are those who say that they were also mortal once, but that their souls were corrupted so perversely in the depths of hell that they ended up becoming what tortured them. Blood, pain and death are all that are left behind when they pass.

> They are faster, more beautiful and stronger than should be possible. They are attractive and charming, in a way that hypnotizes a human. But they are evil, above all. Demons are separated into different sections depending on their personal power, or at least that is what we think. They are able to make a deal with a mortal, give us what we want for a while, but take away something they want afterwards. They are deadly dangerous… She, above all.

Ivar didn't even realize he was reading aloud until his voice started to crack, and he had to clear his throat so much that it looked like his throat was scratched. He wanted water, but he didn't have it, and he was not going to stop reading his interesting book now to fetch it. Frowning, he looked back at the page.

> It is not really known who she is or when she was created. Some say that she is Lilith, the first demon known by men and the mother of monsters... Others say that she is even older and her real name is lost, or forgotten by those who fear her. Now, she is known as Y/N, and as her there is no equal. Dark and deadly, she is Lucifer's right hand. But she is the most qualified to make a deal with, if they are brave enough to do so, and if they have something she wants.

Deal? What kind of deal? Ivar asked himself, and at that moment his cell phone vibrated in his pants pocket. When he pulled it out and unlocked it, a message from Alfred appeared on the display.

Alfred: Hey man, are you sure you don't want to join a horror movie marathon? It was going to be fun.

Oh, Ivar had completely forgotten about that. Alfred had already invited him a few days ago, but the long-haired boy hadn't given him the right answer since he was working on one of the chapters in his new book. He made a point of ignoring his family's thousands of missed messages and calls, however.

Ivar: Nah bro, I still haven't finished the chapter and I have until Thursday to deliver. I will probably be busy working on it for the next few hours. Sorry…

That was what I had to do as soon as I got home. It didn't take long to receive an answer.

Alfred: There is no problem, but you will have to compensate me. The marathon is next Saturday, okay?

Ivar: Yeah, sounds good to me!

He received a "Cool" as an answer and returned the phone to his pocket.

> Generally summoning a demon requires several ingredients: a devil's trap, fire (white, black or red candles), bowl with red-hot charcoal, salt, summoner's blood and the summoning words.

Ivar then proceeded to read what the ritual was like, along with the necessary Latin words.

> However, it is not advisable to do this. Once a demon is summoned and on the human floor, they are freed from the restrictions of hell. There is nothing to stop them from doing what they want. And if you try to summon her... Well, may God have mercy on your soul.

And so the book ended, with a phrase that at that moment seemed so scary.

His throat was dry, his hands were shaking again and for some strange reason he felt the sweat on his forehead and neck, the fat drops escaping the hairline running down his neck and back.

Should I? He thought, confused, it's freaking stupid, I know.

Ivar was a man of science, he believed in the real facts. Yes, he liked scary stories and mythologies - after all, one of his books dealt with Norse mythology - but he didn't really believe in it. And everything in that accursed book that had fallen on his head addressed unreal things, fictional things... Monsters created by the human imagination, by humans who wanted to blame their own evil on creatures that could not exist.

He was already closing the book and getting up to replace it, when he stopped and looked at his left hand, opened his palm and saw the half-moon wounds he had done with his nails in one of his attacks of anger.

He sat down again, staring at the yellowed pages. The dark, sharp letters and monstrous figures, with horns and cat-like eyes were everything he could see... that and his hands, always injured.

The earlier panic attack came back to him, his mind working at full speed. Frustrated, he ran his hands through his dark hair making a mess of locks fall onto his forehead and into his eyes, and he felt like pulling out each one.

The librarian was still talking on the phone, the children outside were playing, but all Ivar could think about was how hard it had been to breathe, and how much the walls felt like they were going to close and crush him in that moment when he was curled up on the floor hours ago, with useless legs at his side and that characteristic pain.

Why couldn't he just be normal?

"Fuck it." He grunted then, tearing up the page that contained the details of the ritual while making sure he was not seen, folding the paper and putting it in his pocket. He closed the book, got up, grabbed his crutch and went to put the book in a random place on the shelf where it belonged.

Without further ado, he passed the librarian who looked at him strangely again, still in that conversation (what kind of work allowed her to be on the phone for hours with no end?), And left the place that had been his hiding place in the last hours.

It was night when he returned home. The full moon shone overhead, and the children and their companions were already spotted in all kinds of disguises ringing the bells and knocking on the doors.

Upon entering his practically empty apartment, with only the minimalist decor here and there, he placed the bag from the convenience store on the couch, and pushed it away. The feet of the couch squeaked as they were dragged across the wooden floor and left a prominent mark.

He turned on the TV on a random channel and turned the sound down, just to feel a presence and have a light to illuminate, and closed the curtains on the window that was always closed too. He would never again make the mistake of leaving it open, the last time that Mrs.Rose's cat on the third floor entered the house in search of food, and left a mess of scratched furniture and broken cushions.

Taking a deep breath he took the materials he bought, and prepared himself.

Even though Ivar didn't believe it was going to work, he was still willing to try it, at this point he was desperate… The prices of medicines were high, the hospital bills were even higher, and even with his writing career going well, he continued to lose hundreds of dollars a month. Ivar was too proud to join his father's company, contrary to what his brothers had done. He wanted a job that was his own, and guaranteed on his own merit and not because it was in the family.

And he wanted to go outside and not worry about people seeing him because of his disability and dragging legs... he wanted to be able to live, not just survive.

For once in his life Ivar wanted normalcy.

He opened the box of chalk, took the page he still had in his pocket, and with the red chalk he drew the pentagram shown on the paper on the floor. The lines were more crooked than they were supposed to, but it should be enough to work.

He took the black candles, placed one on each of the five ends of the star, and lit them with a lighter. Then he put the charcoal in a bowl, lit it and watched it burn for a while.

He took the knife in his pocket, took the sharp blade to the index finger of his left hand and pressed hard, breaking the skin. Ivar saw the red drops begin to fall into the bowl, the blood sizzling as it came in contact with the burning coal.

And then he did nothing more than take a deep breath for a few good minutes.

Before being too afraid to continue - he wasted too much time and energy to stop now - he spoke, pronouncing each word slowly and correctly, in a calm tone.

"Daemon, esto subjecto voluntati maea. Te invoco apro funus inferni, Y/N." 

For a moment nothing happened it was just him there, in the middle of the living room, with a number of absurd things around him that if anyone saw him, he would be immediately sent to a hospital.

But suddenly he shivered. The floor shook, the walls shook, everything shook. TV and appliances, furniture, lamps, everything. The plates and glass bottles on the kitchen table rattled, toppled and broke into a thousand pieces as it fell to the floor. The windows seemed to want to open with the force of the wind outside that wanted to enter, whistling furiously. Ivar had to hold on to something when the earthquake suddenly got stronger.

And then…

The flames went out, leaving the wax to melt and hit the floor, he wasn't sure how he was going to explain it to the owner, the shaking stopped and the wind calmed down.

Ivar was left in darkness and silence, with blood dripping from his index finger to his pants, and breathing so fast that he had to open his mouth and inhale as deeply as his lungs could take to try to breathe.

Blood was pumping through his veins and hitting his ears, preventing him from hearing.

"You are such an idiot." The man said frustrated with himself. It was just an earthquake, which came just in time to almost make me believe. Later, when I turn on the TV, I’m going to see that all over the news.

He shook his head, and looked once again at the destruction in the kitchen and confusion in the living room. He was getting ready to go clean up the mess when the candles lit again - alone this time - they went up so high that they looked like they were going to reach the ceiling, beautiful dancers in red, orange, and yellow dresses. The firelight created strange shadows in every corner, tall and small, thin and wide.

And there, in the middle of the chalk-drawn pentagram, was a woman.

Ivar gasped in shock, stepping back several steps, almost falling into the sack of coal left there. The woman looked at him and he looked at the mysterious woman.

"Mortals." She almost spat, full of disdain. "Always so bold and wishing for more than they are due."

He didn't know what to say or how to react. He had hoped it would work but at the same time he didn't really expect it to actually work!

"So what do you want, human?" She said disinterestedly, looking at the chalk-drawn pentagram that held her in disgust.

"I want to make a deal."

"Oh really?" The way she spoke suggested that she thought the boy was stupid. "What is your name, mortal?"

"Ivar Lothbrok." He replied proudly, because as much as he hated his life, he could not hate his name.

"Cute." Y/N commented with an eyebrow raised in clear disdain. "Now tell me what you really want."

Ivar tried to swallow his anger, tried not to let it show on his face and mannerisms, but he couldn't. His eyes and jaw narrowed, his nostrils flared in fury, and his hands gripped the clutch so tightly that for a moment he was afraid to break it. "Look at me and tell me what you think I want!"

And she looked. She looked from head to toe, passing through his long dark hair, blue eyes and facial features, over his body and legs... those damn legs.

"I don't see anything too much."

If it were possible, Ivar would now be smoking his ears. The veins in his neck swelled and bulged, and his cheeks flushed with anger.

“All my life I have always been different from everyone else. If we still lived in ancient times, my parents would leave me in the forest for the wolves when I was born. My whole life has been a struggle, I am the youngest son and the one who had the misfortune of being like this. I'm not normal, I'm not like my brothers, and as much as everyone tells me that it doesn't matter… I can't help being angry all the time.” Ivar confessed, forcing his grip on his clutch. “I was born with broken legs, I spent my entire life in hospitals and being inspected by the doctors. And now they said they think that I will get worse and stop walking completely. Being healthy is what I want.”

There was silence for a long time, while the human and demon looked at each other.

"Yes, that is possible."

"Then give it to me!"

The demon's laugh was loud, hoarse and cold, and her face was full of disdain. But then it changed in front of him, becoming something out of a horror movie. The beautiful woman was gone and now there was something much worse. It was an almost grotesque sight in his human eyes. A dark and without beauty female figure. A pale face and half cadaverous; black lips and sharp teeth like a dagger blade. Completely red eyes shining with hunger and malice. Two long horns protruded from between the hair with something sticky like blood.

Ivar's extremely blue eyes widened, he backed away almost falling again in that damn night.

“Honey, this is not how it works. Do you really know who you are talking to? Do you think you can boss me around? Do you expect me to do something to you without giving me something in return?” She said in an ugly, guttural and chilling voice, smiling devilishly revealing a long, almost snake-like tongue.

"As long as you're in that trap, you'll have to do what I want." He tried as hard as possible not to let his voice falter, but he still couldn't.

"Oh really?"

And as if just to prove her point, she took a step forward, approaching and crossing the crooked lines that formed the pentagram leaving the trap completely.

“Deary, you should have done your research better. With a normal demon, perhaps this lowly trap could have worked, but with me? I am something much worse than a simple demon, and by invoking me you have left me completely free to do what I want. ”

"I'm not afraid of you."

"You should be."

Ivar's heart was pounding in his chest, almost as if it was about to explode at any moment, and his fragile legs were shaking so much that he didn't even know how he was still standing.

"I want to be able to walk freely, run, jump... Do everything I can't right now. Please..." She seemed to want him to beg, but Ivar didn't. He could put aside some of his pride, but not that much.

They stayed close to each other, he deathly pale looking in amazement at the bottomless red pits that were her eyes, her sharp teeth, her black lips full of darkness... Until she opened a toothy and devilish smile, and little by little her demonic features retreated, disappearing into her skin again and making her look like a human woman again… and a beautiful one.

She walked away still smiling amused, letting out a little laugh. "Usually I give you what you want and you have ten years to enjoy it."

Ivar's heart gave a huge leap in his chest. "What happens at the end of the ten years?"

"I keep your soul…” Y/N shrugged, assessing her sharp nails before looking at him and raising her left eyebrow, still with the crooked smile on her lips. “Which means that at the end of these years, you die. "

Ten years, thought Ivar. I always knew that I wouldn't live long, anyway. But...

"Usually?" He gave voice to his thoughts.

“I liked you, you seem to have courage... You were brave in trying to challenge me, stupid, but brave. I'll give you what you want, in exchange for... ”The woman seemed to think for a while. “… a kiss.”

"A kiss?" The young man thought surprised and in other words, extremely incredulous. With everything she could ask of him, she just wanted a kiss? The book should have been mistaken, it was impossible for this demon to be so dangerous if Ivar is the one that actually wins with the agreement between them.

"A simple and small kiss." She repeated, seeing his puzzled expression. "It's one kiss or your soul, you choose."

"We have an agreement, then." Ivar said.

"Great." Y/N smiled, making her eyes blood-red again.

She came over, put her hand on his neck and pulled him forward until their lips were timidly shocking at first, but quickly turning into a fleeting and toothy kiss, with their lips moving in sync and their tongues caressing one another. She tasted like danger... And it was a good taste.

When they pulled away, Y/N still had the smirk on her mouth when she snapped her fingers, causing him to make a huge cry.

He felt excruciating pain like never before, his legs seemed to be on fire, they burned so much, the pain was horrible. It felt like all of his fragile bones were breaking and growing, only to break again. Ivar fell to the ground screaming so loudly that his neighbors probably thought he was being murdered and would be ready to call the police at any moment.

It hurt, but it passed. Sweat ran down his face, his hands were shaking, his body was shaking. But when he got up again without the help of a crutch, he had never felt better, his legs were… healthy, normal, complete… healed.

"I- I can't believe this..."

"You have what you want, and I got what I want. "

Something about her facial expression seemed wrong, Y/N seemed too delighted just for the simple reward she had won.

"The kiss wasn't the only thing you wanted, was it?"

"No, it was not."

"We had an agreement! What do you-"

"Has anyone ever told you not to mess with things you don't understand?" She stroked his face, with a smirk on her lips. "Honey, you belong to me now."

[lo-55]

Tilt the Hourglass Ch. 14

Feemor stood before a small gathering of the Council in his mission attire. 

It was an unassuming body suit, with patches of thick insulated armor over each hip that went down his legs and a lined tunic that made it difficult to see the weapons he hid under his clothes. His cloak fell from his shoulders, and his hood was down. His lightsaber was tucked out of sight against the small of his back. 

His pale hair was cut shaggy but short enough to be out of his way. He looked at best like a civilian with odd taste, and at worse like an inexperienced bounty hunter. 

So. 

Exactly the way he wanted when he was about to go out into the field. 

Master Windu and Tyvokka sat before him, calm as could be. 

Looking at the holo projection of Obi Wan Kenobi and the blurry one of both the Mandalorian and the child he kept with him Feemor couldn’t say that he shared their sense of calm. 

There was a child at stake, one of their own and one that they had no information of except his height and the fact that he had cut down a Dark Jedi without breaking a sweat. That wasn’t a lot, but it was alarming. 

“Master Jinn suggested that we bring the other child in for… safekeeping,” Tyvokka growled. Feemor had to listen carefully. He hadn’t brushed up on his shyriiwook in a while. 

“Safekeeping,” Feemor repeated flatly. He’d been given the details of Jinn’s last mission, both what his former Master (and oh how that still hurt) and that of witnesses that had been interviewed after the fact. 

“Yes,” Master Windu said, his voice carefully level. His little Padawan, who wasn’t so little anymore, was sitting behind him as she tended to. It would be odd to see him without her when she passed her Trials of Knighthood. “He was of the opinion that a child that dangerous should be minded, by whatever means we might see necessary.” 

Feemor breathed through his nose. 

“I suppose he didn’t have time to wonder what could have made a child so filled with Darkness in the first place?” 

Master Windu grimaced and Tyvokka growled. 

“He believed the boy to be trained by a Darksider, though he didn’t know the origin or spend much time with the boy. He responds to ‘Maul’.” 

Maul. 

Feemor filed the information away carefully. 

“I see.” 

That sounded like Master Jinn. He had always been very self assured, and when Xanatos failed he somehow managed to keep that self assurance but also twist it together in a complicated knot of insecurity and self doubt. He was bundle of contradictory emotions that Feemor couldn’t puzzle out, and hadn’t been close enough to try in… years. 

Not since he’d denounced Feemor publicly in front of the entire council and several other Masters. In front of Feemor himself. 

Feemor breathed out carefully. 

There was a child who was missing, at part because Master Jinn had made his typical mess of the situation and called it the ‘Will of the Force’ and a ‘Test of Perseverance and Honor’, or something. 

Feemor needed to find him, and he needed to save him. And figure out what to do about the other boy. If he was truly capable of such actions at such a young age then Master Jinn was probably right about him being trained, but tails of what Darksiders considered training were still horror stories told by Padawan in the dark of the night. 

As a Shadow Feemor had seen more than his fair share of evidence of their ‘training’, and what he knew did not bode well for the youngling. 

He would help him too, if he could. 

The Mandalorian could be a problem. 

He could see the sign of the True Mandalorians on his armor, and while he didn’t have all the details of Galidraan he had heard that Master Dooku had been badly wounded during the conflict, and Komari couldn’t be pried from his side no matter what Master Che told her about attachments. 

Feemor should have gone to see her. But he wasn’t part of their lineage anymore, Dooku was no longer his Grand Master and- 

“I will see to it that the boy is safely returned to the temple,” Feemor said firmly, nodding towards the two Masters. 

“Good. Try to contact us every fortnight,” Master Windu instructed. Both of them knew that with Shadow assignments the check in might not be exact, and that no news was not necessarily a sign that he was dead in a ditch somewhere. 

“Yes, Master. I will leave at once,” he bowed to the pair and left the room. 

He sent a message to Nari, a friend of his who worked in the EduCorps, asking for any information she could find on the Mandalorian’s and their civil war. He didn’t know much as it was. He knew there were three factions, and that the senate supported the pacifists lead by a human man named ‘Kryze’. He knew that the True Mandalorians had been involved in Galidraan and had done a lot of damage to a lot of Jedi, though thankfully no one in the taskforce was dead. 

That wasn’t enough information to go off of. 

Certainly not enough to have if he had to approach the Mandalorian in his pursuit of Obi Wan. 

Feemor sighed quietly and turned his feet towards the hanger bay, where his nondescript ship should still be. 

“Once more, it looks like I’m picking up Master Jinn’s mess,” he murmured to himself. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Maul watched hyperspace pass them by with barely concealed impatience. He’d started pacing half an hour ago, and driven Kenobi and Jango both up to the cockpit while his vornskr trailed after him in a long line, until they too got tired and went off to hunt whatever poor mouse droid had caught their attention. 

The fact that Siolo had denied Kenobi was irritating. The fact that he had given them no realy information on where a more suitable teacher might be found was more so. 

There were, as it happened, a number of Jedi who made their home in the outer rim, travelling from one planet to next and following only the Force to where they were needed most. A handful that Siolo knew personally, and another small dozen that he’d heard of. 

He’d contacted one for them, a human named Diath, but he was rearing his own nephew, who would one day be his Padawan, and coudln’t do much for them. 

Siolo had entrusted them with the location of a few Outer Rim temples that had more average teachers they could meet with, but he admitted that those Jedi were not as strong in the Force as even Kenobi was. 

His hope for Knighthood was growing thin. 

Maul would have tried to teach him himself, but Kenobi was far to Light for it. It was disgusting. Maul had seen him at his lowest and he had had no more darkness in him then than he did today. His soul had ached and his heart had shattered, but no Darkness dwelt inside of him. 

To much a Jedi and too little of one at once. He couldn’t learn the Darkside if he tried.

“He who learns the dark way will become infected with darkness. His judgment will become clouded and he will forget the good things he learned. If a Jedi persists in this attempt to bridge the two ways, he will be torn apart in his very being.”

“Yes, that’s very helpful, but I’m already as Dark as they come, and he won’t be corrupted. Unless you’re going to spit out coordinates for his teacher, shut the kriff up!” Maul finally snapped at whatever irritating source the voices had. 

It was another woman, but this one felt warm and golden, like a yellow sun humming in space. 

He got the vague impression of amusement before the words cut off again. 

They did that. They said something that was sometimes only somewhat applicable, gave him annoying advice, and then disappeared. Thus far he’d tracked four voices total, and the woman who somehow managed to feel purple was the chattiest of all. 

None of them offered a name, but they felt old. 

They were getting one Maul’s last nerve. He had to go to Malachor to find some answer soon, or he might truly go mad again. 

They were not bound for Malachor now, nor even one of the Jedi temples Siolo had mentioned. 

No. 

They were bound of Dathomir, and after that they would go to Concord Dawn, where Jango had people waiting for him. He didn’t say much about it, but apparently he had some responsibilities to tend to, and the looming threat of the Death Watch was still there. Maul still hadn’t figured out how he was going to get Rook Kast and Gar Saxxon back on his side. He’d have to take over the Death Watch again, but they lacked a common enemy this time, and the Haat Mando’ade still lived. And they were children still. 

Maul scowled at the blurred blue light and turned on his heel once more. 

There was so much to do, and while he had time to do it he was very tired of being patience. He was tired of waiting and watching. He longed for the freedom of a good fight, face to face and simple. 

Xanatos had hardly been a challenge, and he left Maul more irritated than anything else. He should have fought Siolo while he could. He already had the Jedi’s attention through Jinn and Kenobi, where would the harm have been? 

Probably mostly physical. 

Likely on Siolo’s side. Maul still fought dirty, after all. 

The ship shuddered and they dropped out of hyperspace above Dathomir. Kenobi came down to join Maul while Jango guided them towards the planet proper. 

Maul stopped in front of the window to look down at the planet of his birth. It was a strange place, strong in both the Light and the Dark in equal, changing turns. When he’d gone through the old scriptures and studied what little the Nightsisters had left behind during his stint living there he found that oddly enough they worshipped both. 

The Nightsisters used the Darkside, yes, but their worshiped the Winged Goddess and Fanged God both. The Ashla and the Bogen. It was strange, Maul thought. 

He still thought as much. The Darkness of the planet swelled to welcome him when they came down from orbit, just as it reached curious tendrils of Force towards Kenobi. The Dark moved around him but Light caressed, gently, against his skin. 

Kenobi gasped faintly. Maul shot him a crooked grin. He remembered the first time he’d felt Dathomir’s Force before. It felt like stepping in from the rain for the first time in years. Not like home, but there was a familiarity to it he’d never known before. 

They floated to the planets surface, several klicks away from a Nightbrother village.  

Once they touched down Maul felt something different. Not the vaguely playful welcoming of the planet that he’d come to known, and one that recognized him in turn. It was the familiar feeling of the Force warning him something was amiss. 

Maul grabbed his poncho and pulled it firmly up over his head before he holstered his blaster and waited impatiently for Jango to come join them from the cockpit. He might be useful. Maul didn’t know exactly what was happening yet, but his gaze was drawn to the crooked forest that grew around the settlement. 

He lead the way to the Nightbrother village. 

The buildings were angular and primitive. They were made to be sturdy, not elegant or pretty. When Maul had come last it had been decimated by droids, and all that remained were bones littering the ground and buildings destroyed long ago. 

Now it was teaming with life. 

Dozens of Nightbrothers were working in the village, constructing new buildings, repairing old one, trading and training in the streets. Young boys, their tattoos not yet finished, raced each other through alleys and around wells that stuck up rhythmically. A strange shadow seemed to hang over the adults, one that the children were free of. 

Life swirled around them. Everyone carried weapons, primitive as they may have been. These men were warriors, trained their entire lives for combat. Even if they rarely saw open battlefields, or only fought for the pleasure of the Nightsisters. 

Maul had seen all the Nightbrothers of this village fight at one point, when Talzin sent him startling aid against Dooku towards the end of the Clone Wars. Most of them died, but they had won the day nonetheless when the rest of the Shadow Collective launched their attack. 

Maul rubbed his temple, under one of his horns. His head was starting to ache whenever he thought too much about the time that had come before, and the time that would never be again. 

When they reached edge of the village a ripple seemed to go through it. 

The young boys vanished and the work didn’t come to a halt but it slowed. Eyes locked on them. Hands hovered close to weapons. 

Kenobi and Jango tensed beside him, but Maul paid them little mind. He knew who he was looking for. 

There. 

Bother Viscus appeared at the edge of the street, his hands empty. Maul knew him to be a powerful hand to hand combatant. That didn’t stop Maul from leaving Jango’s shadow to approach him, his arms deceptively loose at his side. The Nightbrother’s tensed as he passed, and he heard whispers when someone caught sight of his lower face and the tattoos that marked him as one their own. 

He stopped in front of Viscus. 

“I seek Savage Oppress, and his brother,” Maul said clearly. He’d never met the younger brother, and speaking of him pained Savage. Maul knew that he should have pressed him, and pushed him, and forced him to relive to pain to make him stronger in the Darkside, but he hadn’t been able to. 

A failing on his own part. 

When his words registered the shadow on the elder Nightbrothers seemed to increase. Maul felt a swell of sorrow and rage in the Force. Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong. Maul recalled the feeling when he’d stepped off the ship. Something in the woods. 

Savage in the woods? 

“Where is he?” Maul demanded, taking a step closer to Viscus. Viscus didn’t back down. His gaze darted to the markings on Maul’s face and his eyes widened minutely. 

“You’re a Son of Dathomir,” he realized, his eyes going wide. Maul scowled. He carefully pulled his hood back, revealing the rest of his face and his small, nubby horns that crowned his skull. 

“Savage is my brother,” he snapped. “You will tell me where he is!” The urgency in the air pushed him to abandon his usual caution. He couldn’t afford it now. Savage was in danger, and likely their other brother as well. 

Viscus’ gaze went from shocked to sad, even sympathetic, and Maul bristled at the pity. He bared his teeth at the adult, and barely felt it when Jango came to his side, with Kenobi in tow. 

“We came to fetch his brothers,” Jango explained, pulling Maul back to his side. “He said they were in danger here.” 

Not his exact words, but good enough. Nightbrothers were born slaves, and Jango had nearly flipped a table when Maul had told him as much. Mandalorian’s and their children. 

Viscus bowed his head. 

“I’m afraid you’ve come too late, stranger. Savage and Feral were fetched by a pair of Nightsisters not an hour ago. Mother Talzin had need of them.” 

“So young?!” rage roiled through Maul’s chest. No, surely not. Surely the Nightsisters had not touched his brother when he was barely a teenager! He wasn’t a man and they would- 

“She bleeds some early,” Viscus said, dispelling only some of Maul’s fear. “Or buys the cooperation of other planets with them. We live to serve the Nightsister’s, young one.” 

“They don’t,” Maul snarled. “I will not allow it! Where have they gone?!” 

Viscus’ eyes darted towards the woods before they settled again on Maul. 

“There is nothing to be done about it now, little one. You are Savage’s brother without question. I know your horn pattern. The same ones adorned your father, Barbarous. Yet we have not seen you before. The Nightsisters must have taken you before you were ever given to us.” 

Maul barely heard what else he said. The wood. Where he’d felt the disturbance. 

Maul pulled from Jango’s hand and bolted for the forest, ignoring the shouts that came from behind him. Viscus yelled and Jango tried to grab his poncho, but Maul was too far gone. The Force twisted around him and filled his body, making him faster, and stronger. 

More, more, more. 

He shot through the trees. Now that he was closer he could find Savage in the woods. His Force signature was so much smaller, and so much less Dark and dense than Maul knew it to be. It was like it had been at the very end of his life, unadjusted by the Nightsisters. 

Maul heard a child cry and sped up. Something had changed. They had not taken Savage until he was already grown before, what was different now?! 

He shot out of the woods. 

Two Nightsisters stood before his two brothers. Savage stood protectively in front of a Nightbrother half his size, his teeth bared and his eyes huge and terrified. Fear and anger radiated off of him while the child cowering behind him cried and clutching his cheek. 

One of the Nightsisters had a hand on the other’s raised wrist, her face twisted in a grimace, but Maul had seen everything he needed. 

He launched himself off the ground and caught the second Nightsister around the throat. With one hand behind her head he reached around, grabbed her jaw, and twisted her neck until it snapped cleanly. The first Nightsister leapt away from them, drawing a weapon from her hip, while Maul landed in front of his two brothers defensively. Savage was a good head taller than he but that did nothing to stop him from placing himself between his young brother and the threats. 

The Nightsister froze. His hood was still down, revealing his small horns and his tattooed skin. 

“Maul... “ she breathed, her eyes growing wide. Maul tensed. She knew him? Did she work for Sidious? 

“Mother,” Savage hissed from behind Maul. “You know him?” 

“Mother?” Maul repeated, daring to look back over his shoulder at Savage. 

The trees shifted and Jango and Kenobi came stumbling out of their branches just in time for the woman to drop to one knee in front of Maul, holding her hands up to show she meant no harm. Maul twitched away from them. He didn’t trust her. 

Her smile was crooked and familiar. 

“I had thought to never see you again,” she said quietly. Her gaze darted to the two humans before they returned to Maul, her smile growing wide. “Not that I am adverse to it. You were a unique child. Not many Nightbrother’s are your shade. It was an omen, a blessing from the Fanged God himself. If Mother Talzin had known about you, you would have been her personal slave, a warrior meant only to serve her. I couldln’t allow it. Is Sidious no longer your guardian?” 

His guardian? Maul eyed her wearily. 

“...No. I have left him now.” 

“I see. You have attracted interesting company. It is good to see you well. I knew I couldn't’ do anything for Savage, Talzin already knew about him, but when I found myself with child again, just after your sire died, I knew I couldn’t subject a second son to the life of a Nightbrother,” her voice was soft and the Force sang with her truth. 

Maul never looked away from her. 

“I kept you a secret, and when you were born I waited until an Offoworlder came. Sidious. He was strong with the Force, as you were even as a babe. I begged him to take you away, to give you a life you deserved. One that you would never have on Dathomir. Would that I could I would have done the same with all my son’s but… to fool Talzin even once is a great stroke of chance. I could not repeat it for Feral,” she sounded genuinely sad. 

Maul struggled to put together what she was saying but- 

It was true. 

The Force whispered that it was true, that this woman shared his blood. He could see it, if he squinted. Her crooked smile matched his. The shape of her eyes was just as Savage’s, even if they had the Zabrak look of Nightbrothers and she the humanesque look of Nightsisters. 

“You are… my mother.” 

“Kycina.” 

“Kycina,” he tasted the name curiously.  

Kycina watched them with shadowed, pale eyes.  

He glanced back at his brothers. Savage clutched Feral to his hip protectively. He eyed the woman warily, but it was not true fear. She was not the one who had struck the youngest Oppress. 

Maul had thought that Talzin was his mother. She certainly spoke like she was. Yet, the Force resonated with the truth. 

This was his mother. 

She had given him to Sidious. She had- 

She had tried to save him of all things. A near hysterical laugh clawed at the back of his throat. She wanted to bring him salvation from slavery, but she had sold him to a fate on par with the Nightbrothers. 

Well. 

Maul eyed the twisted neck of the nightsister he had killed dispassionately. The one taking the boys away to be reared to be bred and bled. 

Perhaps not quite on par. He had never been expected to breed and then die under Sidious’ care. 

“I am taking the other two,” he said firmly. “You cannot stop me.” 

“I would not try,” her voice softened. Around Maul, his vornskr prowled restlessly. The Force was so strong on this planet it had their short fur standing on edge. She approached, slowly. Maul put himself between her and his brothers but did not draw his weapon, even when she pulled out a short, serrated blade. 

“I felt I should carry it with me,” she said with a despairing twist of her mouth. “Your brother’s each have their own. It’s meant to be given to a Nightbrother after their first hunt by the clan leader. I had yours made in secret, in case… Well. It is yours.” 

Maul picked it up carefully. It felt wrong in his hands. 

He still turned it carefully over and over. He could recognize some of the markings engraved in the hilt. 

“Come with us,” Jango said quietly, his voice muffled by the helmet. He’d come closer while they talked. “We can help you.” 

“I cannot. This is my home. I am bound to Dathomir, to live and die on her soil,” Kycina unclasped her arm guard to show a carefully carved tattoo of the darkest green. “I cannot leave her. I am a Guardian, bound to my home.” Maul could feel thick threads of power sealing Kycina to the ground. 

“Talzin will know what happened,” he said slowly, “When she finds you, you will be punished terribly.” 

Kycina inclined her head. “I know.” 

Cold certainty coiled in his small chest. Maul peered over his shoulder at the other’s. His brothers and his- his whatever. He locked eyes with Kenobi and Jango. 

“You should take them back to the ship,” he said quietly. “I’ll be along soon.” 

Jango touched Kenobi’s shoulder and nodded towards the path they had taken to get there. Kenobi hesitated, but gently guided the other Nightbrothers away. Jango hesitated a moment longer before he went after them. Good. A look at Kycina showed her watching him with sharp, pale eyes. She seemed to know where this was going. 

Just as Maul did. 

“You showed me a mercy,” however it might have failed. “I will do the same for you.” 

Maul shoved the blade into her chest. 

Kycina touched his shoulders. Her smile was strained. “You have become strong, Maul. You have found your freedom.” 

“My chains are broken,” he recited quietly. He tilted the blade up and punched it through her heart. Kycina gasped faintly, and fell limp. 

Maul lay her on the forest floor. He felt like he should do something. Bury her. Honor her, for what she’d tried to do, but it was not to be. 

If he did it would take too much time and give Talzin too much to go on, should she try to pursue them. 

Maul cleaned the blade carefully and tucked it inside his cloak before he made his way back to the ship. His mother lay dead in the forests of Dathomir, and his family waited for him on a borrowed Mandalorian ship. 

[wrathandgreed]

Hi! Hope you're having a good day.

For your ask game may I ask 🎨& ⚡?

Okay, so Tumblr ate my first response when I was alt-tabbing between this and Docs. Thanks, Tumblr! But thank you for the prompt, @evierena !

🎨 - Show us a WIP

From “Horn Maintenance” (short fic, fluff, Asmo x reader)

“Hey!” You boop him on the nose with the flat end of the file. “Let me work here.”

A great sigh. “But darling, you’re right here in front of me, and you’re cute enough to nibble on!”

You almost give in. But you want to see if you can bring Other Asmo back. So you settle yourself down in his lap and give him a kiss - not one of passion, but one of gentleness. Then you kiss the tip of his nose and smile right into his eyes. “Azzy, just let me just be affectionate for awhile. Let me take care of you a little.”

“Affec -“ For the briefest of moments, Asmo looks confused and it makes you really sad. You wonder if anyone’s ever asked to ‘take care of him’ without it being a sexual reference. You give him another kiss simply because you can’t stand seeing that look on his face. And then, without looking at him again, you turn back to his horn splinter and get to work.

From “The Seven Brothers Detective Agency” ( I did some googling into the “hard boiled detective” genre, and it’s fascinating. Apparently, in the early 1900s, it’s not that there was a lot of police corruption, it’s that the basic job of the police was enforcing things FOR the mob and/or politicians (basically the same thing back then). In the 1920’s, thanks to Prohibition, the mob began having so much money and power on their own that they didn’t need the cops anymore, and the alliance began to fracture. Enter, now, stories about this schism - people wanted justice, and they wanted stories about people to defend them from organized crime - AND from the cops (again, basically the same thing). So we wind up with the noir detective, usually a cop who disagreed with corruption, and is now jaded and cynical about their fall from the organization. Usually also dealing with shell-shock from WWI. )

(These are currently more like notes than full-on HCs)

Lucifer (The Boss)

Son of Old Money

Served in the Great War, very much against his father’s wishes. Men of their status do not sit in trenches and eat canned muck and get shot by German snipers.

Almost died more than once, saw some Major Shit.

Had a lot of trouble adjusting when he came home. Beds were too soft, everything glittered and sparkled and was too wide-open.

Also too boring. He spent two years facing life and death, and sitting back at his father’s desk with a cigar felt too simple.

So he decided to become a policeman. One of the **good** ones. He truly wanted to make a difference.

The day he enrolled, his father disowned him. Lucifer still had money left to him by his mother, but everything from his old man, including controlling interest in the company, was given to….someone else.

And for the first time, Lucifer felt free.

Rose in the ranks, thanks to charisma and intelligence.

Knew about the corruption, refused to participate, but felt he was too junior still to do anything about it.

By the time he was a senior detective, he’d gotten used to it. He wasn’t tempted by bribes himself, since he had more money than he would ever need. 

If he was actually going to help people, he needed to stay on the force. To stay on the force, he had to turn a blind eye.

At least until the murder.

A young Black singer, the daughter of one of his father’s servants. 

He’d grown up with her, their servant’s kids were as much his siblings as his actual sister. 

This girl was younger than him by a few years, but her voice had been heavenly. 

She sang in speakeasies, throaty voice singing the blues.

And now she was dead - brutalized and strangled for telling a rich white kid “no”.

The bastard was caught with blood quite literally on his hands. He fucking confessed.

But the boy’s father was a major contributor of the Chief’s - so her death was ruled an unsolved homicide.

Enraged, Lucifer did what he swore he would never do - he fought the system.

And lost.

And those who supported him - whatever their reasons - were kicked out of the force right alongside him.

So, with too much money on his hands, too much grief in his heart, and too many junior officers looking to him for leadership, Lucifer starts the Seven Brothers Detective Agency.

He saw his juniors - his friends, his **brothers** - and realized that, for most of them, they hadn’t just lost a job, they’d lost a reason to get up in the morning. So he gave them one.

He’ll never admit that he needed a reason to get up even more than they did.

At this point, he’s low key a functioning alcoholic.

He uses big-money cases in order to fund helping the disenfranchised.

Will always help people in real trouble, even if they can’t pay at all.

He spends most of his time on paperwork in the office, and occasionally bailing his juniors out of jail. 

Or paying off their mob debts.

Kind of the same thing, anyway.

When he does go out into the field, though, he’s formidable. 

He seems to have this otherworldly charm, and people find themselves talking to him, telling him things they maybe shouldn’t.

He’s an expert at questioning someone around in circles until they don’t even know what they’re saying.

He’s also an expert at asking such direct questions that people become uncomfortable. You can learn a lot from someone’s discomfort.

⚡️ - Biggest fear

What really scares me is uncertainty and insecurity. I grew up pretty poor. Not like super poverty, but the type of poor where you start working off the books at 11 and you eat dinner at your grandparents house for a few weeks because your own parents can’t afford groceries because something happened that sucked up available funds. Also, my mom was sick most of my childhood, so I wound up being her caretaker and between that and the whole getting-a-job-at-11 thing, I didn’t really have a childhood or teenage-hood. I’m a lot older now, and I’m in a pretty secure financial place, but I’m still desperately afraid of that one accident or emergency that will send me back into eating at other people’s houses or having to borrow money from my parents to afford to fix my car.

I’ve also got some of my mom’s conditions - plus a few mental illnesses - so part of my fear of uncertainty is what’s going to happen to me in the future. By the time she was my age, my mom was going blind and suffering mini-strokes. I’ve managed to avoid all of that, but for how long? We survive on my salary, so if I become unable to work, we’re screwed. Not to mention I can only be as healthy as I am because my job provides top-tier health insurance. What happens if I lose it? I’m not having children, so how will I be looked after if I actually live to be old?

So, short answer, I guess, is just “the future” - I’m always afraid of things taking a sharp downturn, because my childhood was nothing BUT thinking things were fine and then everything exploding in your face.