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astarion-obsessions · 2 years ago

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I think not enough people understand that Astarion doesn't want you to be his main or only source of blood. This even stands in direct contrast to what he really wants to achieve with biting Tav. Let me explain.

Why Astarion doesn't want you to be his blood bag

Let me start with explaining how I approached this topic. First of all, when I triggered the bite scene in my playthrough, I obviously let Astarion drink from my Tav. But then I got curious. What happens when I don't stop him? He's said I could trust him just a moment ago, didn't he? So I did just that, I trusted him literally with my life.

Aaaand... he killed me. Well. What did I expect from a vampire, really. But that he actually drained me dry broke my heart. I really wanted to trust him, to reach out and show him that I didn't judge him for what he was and so on. I was really disappointed in him and couldn't quite grasp why he would do this. Was it a conscious decision? Did he lose control? Surely he would apologise and explain everything to me once someone resurrected me, returning the trust I was giving him the night prior, right?... right?

Of course not. The dialogue after him killing Tav was... at least as disappointing as him killing Tav in the first place. He shows his usual attitude, apologises half-heartedly and then just keeps going on with talking about draining the occasional bandit. He even snaps when you mention the topic of him feeding after that with something like "I already apologised, what more do you want?".

There's no real regret, no emotions. He simply doesn't care.

We know that he didn't care in the beginning, he tells us as much when he confesses his unwanted, growing feelings towards Tav in act 2. But still the whole bite scene didn't sit right with me until…

The Nightmare

I randomly stumbled upon a clip of Astarion having a nightmare, so I researched about it and even started an Astarion run to experience it myself. So, if you play as Astarion, at the second long rest of act 1 he has a nightmare about Cazador, in which he recites the rules that defined how Astarion and the other spawn had to live:

First, thou shalt not drink of the blood of thinking creatures.

Second, thou shalt obey me in all things.

Third, thou shalt not leave my side unless directed.

Fourth, thou shalt know that thou art mine.

However Astarion reacts to this dream, he jolts awake afterwards and instinctively panics that he needs to find a way back to his master as soon as possible. His eyes set on his companions, who are sleeping / meditating peacefully around the fire, and then a thought passes his mind.

He could try to break one of Cazador's rules right then and there. He's able to stand in the sun, to bathe in running water, so maybe…

And that's why he decides to bite a companion. Astarion wakes up utterly terrified of what his master will do to him if he doesn't return to him in an instant - and he knows all too well what kind of horrors would await him if he so much as dares to think about rebelling again (read about that here) - so he is in desperate need of confirmation that he is now able to withstand and actively break the rules that have dominated his life for two centuries.

He needs to know that he is able to drink the blood of a thinking creature. And there they are. His clueless companions served on a silver platter. It's like an invitation to him, to test his boundaries. And who would be more fitting than the good hearted leader of the party Astarion wanted to (or already has) seduce(d) anyway?

This piece of information shed a whole new light on the bite scene. But let's look a bit closer at that.

The Bite Night

The very first thing Tav registers about what's going on with Astarion that night is him baring his fangs right above us, about to sink them into our flesh. He pulls back as soon as we open our eyes, retreating immediately until there's a safe distance between him and Tav.

This may be the first time Tav gets to know that Astarion is a vampire, so he gets defensive and tells us that he's never killed a person for food, only animals. But then, instead of letting the idea of feeding on Tav go, he insists that animals aren't enough.

But it's not enough. Not if I have to fight. I feel so weak.

If I just had a little blood, I could think clearer. Fight better. Please.

Then he goes on, literally pleading to get what he wants while putting on a sad expression in the end, even averting his gaze.

And if we now have in mind that he just woke up from a nightmare about Cazador, feeling powerless and in desperate need of even a glimpse of hope that he might escape Cazador's cruel grip, his lines make a lot of sense. He's veiling the truth, of course, but not all of what he says is a lie.

He indeed feels weak - powerless in fact - so drinking Tav's blood (the blood of a thinking creature) could prove that he may have regained a bit of power over himself, which had been exclusively reserved for Cazador the last 200 years. This would absolutely make him feel stronger, more confident than he's felt for a long, long time.

And he indeed could think clearer after tasting Tav's blood, because this would bring clarity to the question if he is now able to break Cazador's rules on purpose and therefore give him information to work with when he needs to think about what to do next.

Right after this, we get the chance to push into Astarion's mind, and if we do this, we can see what he thinks about.

His mind opens up, revealing cracked and quivering memories. At their heart, you see dark eyes, commanding you to feed.

You open your mouth and bite down. Not into a tender neck, but in the twisting body of a rat - the only thing your master lets you eat.

He recalls the memory of how his master used to force him to eat disgusting vermin. As his memory is told, we can clearly see how deeply this affects him, for he can't keep up his walls of defensiveness and detachment. They just crack, crumble and reveal his misery clearly for Tav to observe. When we ask him about it directly afterwards, he first seems to search for a way out - a witty remark, anything - but gives up almost immediately. And he looks and sounds just completely defeated and tired, confirming what Tav just saw in his mind.

He goes on with talking about trust. I think here he's seeing a chance to gain Tav's sympathy. If he already reveals such delicate information about his past, he can as well make use of it. So he appeals to Tav's understanding, offering us that this past is the reason for him only trusting Tav slowly. But then he immediately adds that now he trusts Tav, and that in return Tav can trust him, too.

What he does here is displaying himself as pitiful, gaining Tav's sympathy, then seemingly going out of his way and saying that despite all he does trust Tav, which puts Tav in the position to follow suit with returning the trust… which Astarion definitely lied about on his part. But that's what he does. Manipulating.

If we then respond with "You tried to bite me. How can I trust you?" instead of assuring us of his trustworthiness with more manipulation, he gets frustrated.

Because we don't have a choice! Not if we're going to save ourselves from these worms.

But he goes on with masking his reasons, even if he gave us a hint right in the beginning of act 1 when we picked him up, where he said that he would rather control the tadpole instead of removing it. If we play as Astarion, it gets clear pretty fast that he holds onto the tadpole, because it seems to be the only thing that had been able to "save" him from Cazador whilst no one and nothing else even attempted to help him for two centuries. Of course he would not want to get rid of the tadpole just like that. But he says so nonetheless to align with Tav's goals and display himself as useful.

And then he does something interesting.

I need you alive. You need me strong.

Please. Only be a taste, I swear. I'll be well, you'll be fine, and everything can go back to normal.

In the beginning of this conversation he mentioned he needed the blood to fight better. Now he takes up on this by saying that Tav needs him strong, hinting on him getting stronger after having a taste of Tav's blood. And then he promises that after this "everything can go back to normal", which right now means Astarion feeding on animals again.

A few things about this are odd.

Firstly, "only be a taste". Everyone, literally everyone has heard about the insatiable hunger of vampires. So how is it supposed to work that Astarion gets stronger from just a taste of Tav's blood? For how long? A few hours? Not nearly long enough to pose a real advantage, eh? For me this makes no sense. And if we think about his true intentions - wanting to find out if he can break Cazador's rule - just a taste would be absolutely enough. (And after he bites Tav without killing them, he even says that he needs something more filling!)

Secondly, if Astarion really wanted to become stronger with the help of Tav's blood, why would he promise to go back to normal afterwards? He just offered Tav a stronger companion but then immediately nullified this argument by literally saying that this will be a one time arrangement.

Thirdly, he subtly offers a bargain. "You give me your blood, I will be a stronger fighter for you." He did so in the beginning as well, repeating it with different words. And it fits his character very well to do so, because for all he knows everything comes with a price. He almost gets beaten to death and Cazador mercifully comes to his rescue? The price is a never ending life of torment and abuse. Astarion helps a potential victim for Cazador to flee? The price is a year of starvation, locked up in a dusty and dark tomb without knowing if it will ever find an end. Mindflayers rescued him from Cazador, (passively) granting him to possibly be free of him at last? The price is becoming a tentacled monster in the end.

If we then allow him to bite us, he's visibly surprised about our graciousness, but of course doesn't let this chance slip and suggests getting comfortable instantly. Then he finally gets to sink his teeth into Tav's neck. This part of the scene can more or less be viewed from both sides - Astarion's and Tav's.

He begins to feed on Tav and after a bit we can decide to interrupt him, but have to pass an ability check first. This repeats a second time when playing Tav, and even if it's only one AC when we play Astarion and decide to bite a companion, it still aligns, showing that Astarion seemingly loses himself in the taste of Tav's blood - which is very likely because (as he later tells us) we were the first humanoid he's ever fed on, so it's imaginable that Tav's blood must be tasting almost divine to him.

This theory is supported by his actions after we fail the first AC or just let him continue. He grabs the back of Tav's head to pull them towards himself, emphasising on how greedy he is sucking the blood out of Tav. The camera even uses the exact same angles before failing or skipping the first AC and after, so the comparison is easy and the difference is clear:

If we then fail or skip the next AC, Astarion just drains us dry… And it gets even better after the bite night.

The Morning After

When Tav gets revived and then talks to Astarion, he is visibly surprised to see us, after he left the dead body of Tav behind with saying "Oh no, something terrible has happened". Sure Astarion, something…

All of this happens when Astarion still doesn't care for Tav. He reacts with panic when we confront him with the fact that he literally killed us, and just manages to get his expression under control after a few seconds. I mean, just look at him:

'Killed' feels like a strong word. Not many corpses have your vigour.

He definitely knows what he's done, and that 'killed' is indeed the right word for it, he is just very very bad at coping with guilt (which is amazingly analysed by thelikesoffinn - definitely read this, you'll understand Astarion so much better after this).

He instantly lays the focus on our codependency again, that we need each other and so on. If we question why we should keep him around, he answers with:

A strong, well-fed vampire? I'm a powerful weapon - you'd be a fool to toss me aside now.

With mentioning this, he wants to make sure that Tav will let him stay by their side and therefore grant him protection.

But more importantly he continues:

Anyway, last night was an aberration. It will never happen again.

He doesn't even start with something like "Next time I'll be more careful" or anything similar. He straight up says that it will never happen again. Period. If we then ask who he will feed on next time he gets hungry, he presents the idea of feeding on villains and bandits "who need killing anyway". And this is exactly what he wants. This even shows in his reaction to Tav's response to his suggestion.

If we agree and therefore allow him to feed on our enemies ("Sounds good. Glad we could agree"), this is how he reacts:

As am I. I'm starting to feel a little peckish already.

This itself doesn't sound all too enthusiastic, but we get his approval up, which definitely shows that he very much likes that Tav agreed.

On the contrary, if we suggest he can feed on Tav, ignoring his will wish to feed on villains ("Look, I'm not against you feeding on me, but only if we talk about it first"), this is his reaction:

Of course! This sounds eminently reasonable.

I shall wait patiently until you suggest we… dine together.

Doesn't sound too bad either, eh? But we don't get his approval. He doesn't disapprove, of course, because this is still a thousand times better than what he had until then, but still not what he really wants…

So, what does all of this mean for the initial question?

Conclusion

The crucial point here is what it means for Astarion to feed on Tav. The only things he remembers since Cazador turned him, are being relentlessly dominated and horrifyingly abused. The things Astarion wants the most are to be safe and to finally have control over himself again.

He bit Tav for the sole purpose of finding out if he can be free of Cazador's rules. So why would he jump right into being dependent on Tav? He suggests to feed on villains, because then he is free of anyone's mercy. He doesn't need to rely on Tav to graciously allow him to get a drop of blood. He can do this himself now.

This is such an important step for his character growth, to find the way to his autonomy again, so if we only allow him to feed on Tav, it instantly sets him back into old habits of bowing to his masters words - or in this case Tav's. Because it's all hes been doing for the last two centuries of his life.

So, as much as the thought of the self-sacrificing offer to be his personal blood bag may seem romantic or whatever, it's actually the exact opposite, trapping Astarion in what he desperately tries to escape from. The restrictions that come with someone dominating him mentally and physically. And as I mentioned earlier, he doesn't believe in the goodness of people. For him every "kind" act has a price and he likes to know what he has to pay, so he wouldn't even want to just drink Tav's blood without Tav getting anything out of it. He would most certainly expect Tav one day to come around with something he doesn't want to give or do, so he wants to control such situations beforehand.

All he wants is to make his own decisions and be free in every way possible…

So please just let him drain some bandits, will ya?

#astarion #bg3 astarion #bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #baldur's gate 3 astarion #astarion meta #astarion analysis #sorry for that shitty thumbnail but i couldn't resist

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bunni-v1 · 2 years ago

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Can I please request a reader that has been so traumatised by what’s happened in the Scarabia book that they actively avoid the entire dorm and have Ace and Deuce as their guard dogs (I love those two and I really love how you wrote them as the readers protective besties during the Malleus break up fic). Like how would Kalim, Jamil and Adeuce react to that?

I find it really cathartic when I read fics that have the characters feeling guilty after what they put the reader through whilst the reader is getting support from their friends.

(Something I’m really salty about in twst is how no one ever holds the overblots accountable for what they’ve done. I full on agreed with Ace when he told Riddle that crying wasn’t going to erase all that he did before the overblot and I literally fell in love with him when he punched Riddle after he insulted us/Yuu/the player. I understand that those boys are traumatised and are in desperate need of therapy and overblotting was the only way for their problems to be solved but the treatment they inflicted on Yuu/us was downright hellish. Azul made us homeless and tore us away from the only family/comfort we had in twst (the ghosts) and then sent the tweels to terrorise us in our attempts to reclaim said home and free our friends from servitude; Jamil kidnapped us, hypnotised us, locked us up in a room against our will, isolated us from Adeuce and took away any contact we had with them, forced us on long marches in the dessert and turned a blind eye to our clear suffering during that time; Vil acted like a literal demon to not only us (and then almost made my Deucey cry) but everyone else as well and that was before he decided to try to murder an innocent teenager. Like why does no one understand just how much this can damage an actual child who has no magic and has been stripped from their home and family?)

Reader Terrified of Scarabia After Jamil’s Overblot

TW: PTSD; Mental Breakdown; Disassociation; Mentions of Abuse; Kalim and Jamil are tragic

Info: Ace, Deuce x Reader (platonic or romantic); Kalim, Grim x Reader (platonic); Jamil and Reader (neutral)

🍓I love requests like this tbh. My own OC sorta has her own grapplings with this stuff that I like to touch upon, and I’m excited I get the chance to talk about it here :) THIS IS LONG AS HELL BTW(like this intro here lol). I had a lot of fun writing it :))) I added a cute, shorter little grim part, because our little guy deserves more lovin’ than he gets. I also decided to do a cute little (read: long) intro, and then head cannons since you didn’t specify for either. I hope you enjoy this style, and I’m sorry for the wait <3

You had been through… a lot in your time at Night Raven College. Being thrown into a completely different world would’ve been enough, but it seems that the great seven thought you needed some extra troubles. You weren’t sure how you could’ve encored their wrath, but you were, and you were chugging along despite it all.

First was the attack from the phantom in the mines — something that should’ve been foreshadowing for what was to come. You didn’t even do anything to be in this position. It was Ace Grim and Deuce, but you got dragged into it all because you were “Grim’s keeper.” You managed to befriend Ace and Deuce though, so it wasn’t so bad.

Second was Riddle with his unending temper and strict rules. Despite everything telling you to just stay out of it, your good-natured heart just couldn’t stop you from helping Ace and Deuce. Nearly dying in the process, you managed to help Riddle and made newfound friends in Heartslabyul.

Third came Leona, the selfish, stuck-up, lazy no-good prince of the Savannah. You knew he was trouble from the start, and you wanted nothing to do with him or his little lackey Ruggie. Then he hurt Trey, and you couldn’t stand by while he reigned terror on the school. He was a favorable ally to gain in the end, so you could dismiss his actions so long as he kept in his lane.

Fourth was Azul, another student you figured would cause you trouble. With the extra scary Jade and Floyd always tailing him, and that too buttery sweet voice of his, you were determined to keep your distance. Again, however, your friends were in trouble and you couldn’t help but help them. Azul was a broken person, and you could sympathize with his struggles. He even gave you a job at the lounge to help with funding yourself, so he couldn’t be all that bad.

You’d come to dislike the other house wardens out of principle. A pattern had emerged among them, and you weren’t going to fall victim to another horrific overblot. You still had suction cup-shaped bruises on your arm from Azul’s breakdown. Leona had given you more than just a nasty burn from the scalding hot whirlwind of sand he conjured up. The scars Riddle left behind on your face and arms were healed, but they still ached when you touched them. All painful reminders that you could not truly trust anyone here, that anyone could lose control of themselves and hurt you. Yet…

When you met Jamil in the kitchen, he seemed so kind to both you and Grim. He seemed so genuine and honest. Maybe it was wishful thinking, or maybe it was you missing your friends, but you wanted to trust him despite your gut feeling to be distrustful. Could everyone here really be that bad? Certainly not. Ace Deuce and Jack went here as well… so surely… surely…

The alarm bells didn’t ring at all during the dinner, and Kalim — despite everything you’ve been through — seemed so nice, if not a little overbearing. You could see the tiredness on Jamil's face, and you had the kindness in your heart to express your sympathies. And oh, Jamil so humbly assured you that he was fine. Filling your head with little half-truths and ideas that Kalim had been overworking not only him but the other students. That he had been acting “off” as of late.

You saw Kalim’s sudden shifts in personality. How he would be so sweet, so kind and soft. How he made sure you were enjoying yourself, made sure you ate to your heart's content, made sure you were comfortable in your uniform and your sleeping quarters. Then he would be yelling at everyone, demanding unspeakable exercises and work.

If Ace were there with you, he would’ve called bullshit. Still, you trusted Jamil to start. You actually believed he was kind and had good intentions. You believed that Kalim was the real evil here.

Then he wouldn’t let you and Grim leave, and the students were suddenly so aggressive toward you. He took everything you had and stripped you of your dignity and pride until there was nothing left but fight.

Truly, you didn’t realize it was him that was the issue until he was over-blotting in front of your eyes. It wasn’t an unusual sight to you at that point, you’d defeated multiple overblots and befriended these people. You don’t know what it was. The way you’d trusted him. The fact that you felt truly alone without Ace and Deuce. This one broke you…

You just didn’t feel a damn thing after he was saved. You felt no pity, no joy, no relief. Absolutely nothing, an empty void in your chest. Even as everyone around you celebrated, there was nothing. You stood watching everyone parade around with glee blankly, unable to speak to anyone around you. Just listening to the voices that had begun to mesh together.

You didn’t show anything until Ace and Deuce showed up. Something about their faces, the way they were looking over you, the way they seemed so scared for your wellbeing… it made you cry. It made you cry and cry and cry until you couldn’t make any noise and then you cried some more. They had to drag you away from everyone because you just couldn’t quite stand upright when Deuce would try to get you to walk away with him…

The days after were blurry. You remained holed up in your dorm, unable to really move from your bed. Ace and Deuce stayed in their own separate room next to yours. You could hear them talking through the walls about how worried they were about you, how angry they were at Jamil, how angry they were at themselves for not getting there in time to help you. If you’d had the energy, you would’ve scolded them for being so hard on themselves, but you could hardly speak in the first place.

They cared for you as best as they could. Deuce attempted to cook the recipes Trey sent him over magicam, making sure you ate and stayed hydrated. Occasionally you’d hear Azul downstairs, and Deuce would give you something nice from the Monstrolounge — free of charge, he promised. You could tell that he wasn’t sleeping much in his worry over you.

Grim remained at your side as loyal as a dog and boasting that he’d keep you safe, but you knew he was scared too. He proclaimed that he would keep you safe, but you could feel him trembling at every sudden noise. You had to comfort him from the horrific nightmares he was having. That was okay, though, he was family and you were his.

Ace was the only one who really kicked your ass into gear. He’d tug you out of bed and into the shower as people began to return from winter break. Made you go on walks around campus to show you that you were completely safe. Eventually, he’d been able to get you to visit Azul to thank him directly for his kindness. He wasn’t soft or gentle with you, that wasn’t in his character at all, but he made sure you felt safe enough to return to classes before they started.

They both worked hard to help you recover, but you were still so afraid…

Ace

-Ace isn’t exactly the most comforting person, and he never claimed to be.

-He’s not good at reassuring people, but he’s good at being honest, and if he was being honest he knew that you were safe around him and Deuce.

-He walks you to and from classes, spends most of his nights in your dorm doing whatever the hell you’d like him to do without complaint, distracts you when you’re freaking out, and most importantly keeps that snake as far away from you as possible.

-If he was being honest with himself, which was his whole thing, he didn’t really get your reaction to everything.

-You’ve all been through this before, it's textbook at this point. A guy does some shady shit, a guy gets caught doing said shady shit, a guy overblots, and you defeat a guy with the power of friendship. Boom. Done.

-He’d get it more if you were completely alone, but grim and the octanivelle freaks were there! Kalim too, and he’s always seemed pretty nice. Not the best company, sure, but still you had people helping you out.

-When he looks at your face and sees how tired you are, he forgets the logical stuff. All he can hear are those horrific sobs you let out when you saw him and how you nearly ripped his uniform in half with how tightly you were holding him and Deuce.

-If that was too much for him, he can’t imagine how badly it must’ve felt for you. How bad it must still feel.

-So screw what he thinks, he’s gotta make sure you’re taking care of yourself.

-He doesn’t ask you how you’re feeling, he knows it's not good. He focuses on keeping your mind off of everything that might trigger you.

-Reroutes your paths to classes to avoid Jamil and Kalim completely. Sure it’s longer and more annoying, but it's better than you going dead silent and shutting him and everyone else out again.

-He does everything in his power and you’re doing so well… and then the VDC happens.

-You’re given the title of manager and you’re forced to be around these people who terrify you.

-Vil won’t budge on anything and sevens Ace wishes Rook would let him try out a little target practice with the (illegal) bow and arrows he’s got in his room.

-He keeps himself between you and Jamil at all costs. He won’t let Jamil bother you at all, not that he was trying in the first place.

-The real issue is Kalim, which sounds crazy, but it’s true.

-Kalim is so… forceful. A pretty strong word, but honestly the only one Ace can think to use.

-He’s really nice, really sweet, seriously such a good guy… but you’re still unsettled by him.

-There are several times during practices that Ace has to yell at him to just leave you alone.

-Sure, it gets him a pretty big scolding from Vil, but he couldn’t care less honestly. He doesn’t wanna risk you having a panic attack because Vil doesn’t wanna be a responsible leader.

-You confide in Ace a lot. How you really want to move past all this, but Crowley won’t provide you with any form of therapy, and you’re just not ready to forgive Jamil or Kalim for what happened.

-He won’t tell you this, but hearing you talk like this breaks his heart.

-You’re normally so strong, so brave, so confident… and now you’re absolutely broken.

-He’s proud of you for putting on a brave face to placate Vil, but he’s angry you have to.

-Surprisingly, though, you do begin to warm up to Kalim. Just a little.

-It's only when Ace, Deuce, or Grim is around, but it's a really big step forward in his eyes.

-You’re getting back to where you used to be little by little.

-He still won’t give you or Jamil the chance to reconcile, but you honestly couldn’t be more grateful for that.

Deuce

-Deuce is incredibly different from Ace in how he handles everything.

-He’s a delinquent, sure, but he’s a Mama’s boy at heart. Therefore, he’s much more equipped to help you emotionally through all this than Ace.

-Where Ace is the harsh pushing force to keep you going, Deuce is the calm where you can rest and cry your heart out for as long as you need.

-As I mentioned, he makes sure you’re eating and drinking and at least speaking to someone.

-He asks Trey for recipes without leading on to what’s going on and asks Cater for advice on helping someone feel safe after a traumatic experience.

-It’s not subtle, but it helps.

-He handles making all your meals, even though he isn’t the best cook, he absolutely puts all his heart and soul into everything he makes.

-A good portion of his days are dedicated to cooking for you, and he gets pretty damn good at it by the time classes start up again!

-With Sam’s shop closed, he has to go into town to get the ingredients he needs, and then he has to spend hours preparing and serving the food.

-He watches you eat, encouraging you that everything is safe and that he made it all by himself by hand.

-He doesn’t question why things ended up this way for you, he wonders how can I help?

-And he does help, a lot, more than just with food.

-Sometimes, late at night, he hears you crying alone in your room. He gets up from his own bed, quietly enters your room, and holds you and grim while you both tremble in fear.

-It makes him so mad. Mad that this happened to you. Mad that Jamil did this in the first place. Mad that he couldn’t help more than he already is.

-Like Ace, he accompanies you to all your classes and makes sure to stay close to your side if any Scarabia students are around.

-He’ll go anywhere you need him to, and if you’re not comfortable being alone and he’s got plans, you’re invited to join him. No matter what anyone else thinks.

-Things get better little by little. You make strides in your ability to be independent again and you’re smiling and joking around like you used to. You even agreed to try out for the VDC with him and Ace… a big mistake.

-He didn’t expect to actually get in, let alone get in with Jamil and Kalim. If it were just that he could’ve been civil, but no, you had to be dragged in too… because that’s always how it works out.

-He has to hold himself from getting in Jamil’s face more than once because just him looking at you is enough to send you into a clear panic attack.

-Deuce does his best to comfort you between all of this, though. Being your shoulder to cry on and trying his best to be your protector… it's just hard. Hard to see you like that, and hard to keep his cool for your sake.

-It's worse with Kalim because both you and Deuce know he means well. You both know he wants to reconcile, but you’re not quite ready.

-Deuce helps the confrontation with the two feel a bit easier though. He acts as a mediator between you and Kalim, and eventually, he’s proud to say he helped you trust Kalim just a little bit.

-Jamil… both of you could use some work, but Deuce is more willing to hear you out on him than Ace is.

Grim

-Grim was there with you the whole time. He understands the fear you’re feeling deeper than anyone else.

-He could just tell something was wrong the second he saw your face. Despite all the celebrations, he was focused on making sure you were at least a little okay.

-He tried to talk to you, tried to make you feel okay, but the only comfort he could offer you was letting you hold him while you cried.

-He could still hear your cries, and they made him want to cry too. He almost did, but he was your guard cat — he had to be strong for you.

-Unlike Ace and Deuce, he never left your side. Not a second. He was there with you from the moment you were unwittingly kidnapped to the sleepless nights in your dorm to the horror of finding out you’d have to work closely with Jamil for the VDC.

-He made his distaste for him very known, sure to make a snarky comment at least once every time he saw him.

-It was so bad, at one point, that Vil had to give him a stern talking to. He didn’t stop regardless.

-You are Grim’s best friend, the only family he has, and Jamil hurt you in unspeakable ways. He couldn’t just sit back and be okay with that.

-He’s really such a good guy.

Kalim

-Kalim means well. With his whole heart, he has the best intentions… just not the best execution.

-See, he didn’t notice initially that anything was really wrong the whole time.

-He didn’t suspect Jamil at all. In fact, he thought that you were really enjoying your stay in Scarabia, you seemed so happy and chatty up until Jamil flipped things on their head.

-Call him air-headed, but he was caught up in his own whirlwind of emotions at the time. You know, the whole betrayal of his supposed best friend took a toll on him too.

-It wasn’t until you were sobbing your throat raw that he realized something was really wrong.

-The look of sheer terror on your face when you made eye contact with him sent shivers up his spine.

-He knew that look. He’d worn that look on his own face too many times as a young child.

-Believe it or not, without Jamil’s intervention, he knew to keep his distance. He knew he had to give you time to adjust.

-Then a few days turned into weeks and weeks turned into a little over a month, and he had hardly seen you around campus.

-You are avoiding your normal route to class, and when he did see you he was also greeted by the harsh glares of your good friends.

-He understood if you’d never want to talk to him ever again, honestly. He couldn’t blame you. You were more headstrong than him, after all.

-Still, when the VDC came around… he was hopeful. Truly he was hoping that something would give.

-He would talk to you in hopes of showing you that he meant no harm, but Ace or Deuce or even Grim would shove their way between the two of you.

-Several times Jamil had to tell him to knock it off because “It’s not worth forcing.”

-Still, he wanted you to know he felt bad. He felt horrible.

-In a very un-Kalim-like move, he quietly asks you if you can speak with him. Alone. But in a crowded enough area that you wouldn’t feel threatened.

-He didn’t expect you to accept it, he wouldn’t have blamed you at all. But you said yes.

-You showed up, with Grim by your side, which was fine. He earned some apologies too.

-He poured his heart out to you, apologizing for things that he couldn’t even control. In turn, he listened to you rant about how scared you were, how angry you were, how you wished you were any of these things.

-And after that, things improved. Slowly, but surely. You became more comfortable around him, and you spoke to him again.

-Sure, you wouldn’t be caught dead at one of Scarabia’s parties, but you considered him a friend.

-That’s all he could ask for.

Jamil

-Jamil is the monster in your story.

-He’s the evil guy who kidnapped, manipulated and lied to you.

-He’s the one who used his misplaced anger as an excuse to hurt others.

-He’s the boogyman who made you endure days of long and hard training, just because he could.

-Of course, he felt bad. What he did was unspeakable, but he was more concerned with how his reputation would last after the overblot.

-More concerned with it not getting out for the safety of his family.

-Even with you sobbing, he just thought you were being dramatic in all honesty. You have a reputation already, he knew you’d been through this whole thing before.

-It didn’t really strike him how badly it affected you.

-He didn’t notice how you switched paths, how you were never in the same area as him for long, and the glares of your friends never once phased him.

-Even Ace’s snarky comments during basketball didn’t bother him for a second.

It wasn’t until he accidentally bumped into you in the hallway, and he saw the look on your face that he realized.

-The terror in your eyes, the way you shrunk back as if he would strike you. It was the same way his parents acted around the Asim’s.

-If he were a more insane man, he might’ve found it liberating, but it wasn’t.

-He had become what he hated to you, he had done what he hated to you.

-Jamil was not only your monster, but he was his own.

-He steers clear of you and keeps as much distance as possible for both your sakes.

-He couldn’t handle someone looking at him like that, and he was sure you couldn’t handle the sight of him after what he did.

-Still, this is NRC, and luck is never on anyone's side here.

-Both of you are forced into a position where you cannot escape the other, you have to learn to live with the awful pits in your stomachs.

-He keeps Kalim away until you both are on good terms, then he simply watches quietly.

-He won’t apologize, he won’t antagonize, he won’t speak unless spoken to.

-You two never truly recover your small lasting friendship, but you do make amends with each other.

-During the trip to the scalding sands, you get to meet Najma, whom he’s confided in about ‘accidentally upsetting a classmate’.

-You get to have a good talk with her, and it makes you really realize some things about Jamil.

-You realize he’s just as broken as you, just as tired as you, and that he feels the most immense amount of guilt for hurting you.

-You, being you, find it in your soul to forgive him.

-Nothing really changes between you. The guilt is still there, and the fear still shakes you to your core, but you both have closure.

-In a situation like this, closure is the best grace a person can ever have.

#twst #twisted wonderland #bunni's treats 🧁#twst x reader #twisted wonderland x reader #x reader #jamil viper #kalim al asim #ace trappola #deuce spade #grim twst #deuce spade x reader #ace trapolla x reader #jamil viper x reader #kalim al asim x reader #kalim x reader

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dailymanners · 4 months ago

Text

For this week's Off Topic Tuesday, I am going to touch on a sensitive topic that I generally try to steer clear from on this blog: politics.

I will make an attempt to stay as non-partisan as possible while making this post, because I want to use my platform to raise awareness about an issue (or more accurately a solution to an issue) to as many people as possible.

So here's the thing: maybe I'm biased, but I live in a country that currently has 17 active political parties, and 10 of these have seats in parliament. Personally, I think this is a good system. We have much higher voter participation than places with only 2 or 3 active political parties with seats in parliament / congress, and for obvious reasons. With more choices, people are more likely to find a political party that matches what they really think and feel, rather than feeling bitter at how much they hate both / all candidates and just sitting out elections.

You might be wondering why I care if your country only has 2, maybe 3 political parties. It's because, to avoid naming names, there are some big and powerful countries out there who have a lot of power and influence not just over my country but over the entire delicate system of international politics as a whole. When their economy tanks, ours tanks. When they rile up tensions in the global sphere, we are scared out of our wits because we are tiny and without a military. So when things get bad and scary elsewhere, they tend to get bad and scary here too. Not only that, but in general our policies and talking points tend to be influenced quite a lot by bigger countries nearby. (I know I said I wouldn't name names, but Europeans don't get all smug about this, I am talking about some of the bigger countries in Europe here too. Some of you only have 2 or 3 parties and cause problems for other countries too FYI).

Now I can't help but notice in these big countries that have frankly too much power and influence over the state of things in my own country that, they have this horrible habit of electing people that nobody actually likes. And I really think a lot of that is tied into being locked into the 2 party system. You have lower voter participation because not a lot of people actually feel enthusiastic or happy about the two or three big parties. And a lot of people are justifiably unhappy that every time they vote they're essentially holding their nose while they tick that ballot box. I think things could really change for you, as in getting more voter participation and getting in candidates that people actually like if you actually managed to break out of the 2 (or 3) party system.

But how could you possibly break out of your 2/3 party system and get more political parties into the government, you might be wondering? If you haven't heard about it already, let me introduce you to ranked choice voting, or also known as Alternative Voting in the U.k. The genius of ranked choice voting is that it allows you to vote for a candidate you like and feel represented by without feeling like you're tossing out your ballot by voting third (or fourth) party.

If you'd like to get involved with bringing ranked choice voting to your country, here's a few sources:

If you're in the U.S., check out fairvote.org.

If you're in the U.K., check out the electoral reform society.

Anywhere else, you're probably better suited to find resources for your country than I am.

As a disclaimer, of course I am not a political expert. I simply see a problem and want to use my platform to make more people aware of what I see as a possible solution.

#off topic tuesday #off topic #not blog related #not blog theme #politics cw

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pankowcrumbs · 2 months ago

Note

HEYYYYY I’ve been thinking about something so cute!! Just so you know I sent this request to another writer but she said that she sadly can’t write it because she doesn’t know the choreography of how it would go as a fic so I asked her if it was okay if I sent this request to another writer and she said yes so her we gooo :)

Okay so I keep hearing the song pretty little baby from Connie Francis I think?? And every time I hear this song I keep thinking about reader having a private account on instagram or TikTok where she only accept her family and friends and post things about her life with Will and their baby girl… and she do a video with their baby with this song and reader lip sink to the song while holding their daughter and she is just so cute smiling at the camera and giggling at reader who just make funny faces at her and boop her nose 🥹 and when the family and friends see that they’re just like AWWWW SO CUTEEEE AND WILL IS LIKE AAAAAHH MY TWO PRINCESSES !!

(Idk if you write for Luca from The Bear but if you do, could you write if with Luca instead of Will please?)

AN: I hope this is what you were asking for! I did it with Luca for you as well 🩵

MasterList

Will Poulter Masterlist

Somewhere between a nappy change and reheating my tea for the fourth time that morning, I caught my reflection in the living room mirror hair hastily tied up, one sock on, spit-up on my jumper and smiled. It wasn’t glamorous. In fact, it was borderline chaotic. But it was mine. It was ours.

Luca was at work. He’d left early, the way he always did, kissing the crown of my head while I groggily tried to sit up in bed with our daughter snuggled against my chest. He’d whispered, “Back by dinner. You two better save me a cuddle.” Then he was gone, off to the world of open flames and plating perfection.

And I was here. Mum mode activated. Fully immersed in it.

Our daughter Isla was five months old now. All pink cheeks and tufts of wispy hair, eyes wide with wonder and the best little gummy smile I’d ever seen. She was my tiny shadow, my favourite audience, and my full-time alarm clock.

I’d created a private TikTok account shortly after she was born. I needed somewhere to document it all the silly moments, the sleepy cuddles, the chaos. I didn’t want the world watching, so I kept it close. Family, close friends, that was it. No influencers or perfect pastel nurseries in sight. Just us. Raw and real.

That afternoon, Isla had been in one of her rare moods where everything was funny. Every time I pulled a face, she squealed with laughter like I’d just performed stand-up at the Apollo. It was too precious not to film.

I propped the phone up on the windowsill, letting the soft afternoon light spill across the sofa. I tucked Isla onto my lap, her tiny body nestled into mine as I scrolled for a sound. And then I found it“Pretty Little Baby” by Connie Francis.

It was dreamy and vintage, a bit of old-school charm. The lyrics wrapped around me like a hug. It was perfect.

I hit record.

"Pretty little baby, you say that maybe, your heart’s been broken... "

I lip-synced as dramatically as I could, big eyes and exaggerated expressions, while Isla looked up at me, entirely enchanted. Her eyes sparkled, and when I gently tapped the tip of her nose and whispered, “boop,” she giggled loud enough to melt anyone’s heart.

We did a few takes, but honestly, the first one was perfect. Her giggles, the way she grabbed at my face halfway through, my off-tune humming at the end it was all so us.

I uploaded it to my private TikTok with the caption:

Just me and my best girl vibing #mumlife #prettylittlebaby

I didn’t think much more of it. I kissed her forehead, laid her down for her nap, and finally, drank a cup of tea that hadn’t gone cold.

Later that evening, I was in the middle of trying to get spaghetti sauce out of a muslin cloth, when I heard the front door open.

“Hello, loves!” Luca’s voice echoed through the flat, all warm and gravelly with a hint of exhaustion.

“In here,” I called out, wiping my hands on a towel.

He appeared in the doorway a moment later hair slightly messy, chef whites untucked beneath his coat, and the biggest smile spreading across his face.

“She asleep?” he asked, dropping a kiss onto my cheek as he passed.

“Out cold. She wore herself out laughing at me earlier.”

“Oh yeah?” he smirked. “You tellin’ your jokes again?”

“Worse,” I grinned. “I made a TikTok.”

Luca stopped mid-unbutton of his coat. “You what?”

I reached for my phone and handed it to him. “It’s on my private one. Just family and friends. Promise.”

He watched the video silently, his face softening the longer it played. When the music ended, he looked up at me, misty-eyed.

“That’s... That’s my whole heart, that is.”

I smiled, cheeks warm. “She’s the star, clearly.”

“No,” he said firmly, setting the phone down. “You both are. My two princesses.”

My heart did that fluttery thing it always did when he got like this completely sincere, completely mine.

“Did you read the comments?” I asked, already giggling.

He pulled the phone back up, scrolling as he read aloud:

“Mum’s got pipes! That’s from your cousin Anna.” “That baby laugh is serotonin.” “She’s your clone, Y/N, it’s scary.” “Oh here’s my mum: I’m coming over tomorrow, I need to squeeze those cheeks. And the baby’s too.” He barked a laugh and shook his head. “Christ. She thinks she’s funny.”

Then he paused and added, “Okay but this one’s the best,” and read: “LUCA YOU BETTER KNOW YOU’RE THE LUCKIEST MAN ALIVE.”

I blushed furiously. “Ignore that one.”

“Absolutely not,” he grinned. “I agree with it. I’m the luckiest man on earth.”

He came closer then, slipping his arms around my waist and pulling me in. “You have no idea how much I love seeing you with her. You're everything, Y/N. Everything I ever wanted.”

I leaned into him, forehead resting against his. “She’s pretty perfect.”

“So are you,” he murmured, brushing his lips against mine.

We sat down on the sofa later, Isla awake again and nestled between us, holding tightly to one of Luca’s fingers with her tiny fist. He made a ridiculous face at her, and she burst into another round of giggles.

“I’ve been thinking,” he said after a moment, glancing at me. “We should film more. Not for TikTok, not even for anyone else. Just for us. Little memories. A life scrapbook.”

I nodded, heart full. “I’d love that.”

Because as much as I loved documenting things, nothing compared to living them. To these quiet evenings with my family, the gentle moments where everything slowed down. Where love wasn’t loud or flashy it was steady. Safe.

Luca bent to kiss the top of Isla’s head, then mine. “My two girls. My two princesses.”

I smiled, looking down at our daughter, her sleepy eyes blinking up at me.

“She’s going to have a good life,” I whispered.

Luca wrapped an arm around me, holding us both close. “She already does.”

Later that night I uploaded one more video to my private TikTok. It was just a short clip of Luca bouncing Isla on his knee, humming some soft melody under his breath, her arms flailing in delight.

The caption read:

I’m so lucky it’s ridiculous. My whole world in one frame.

The comments rolled in within minutes.

This baby is literally always smiling!! Luca’s dad era is my favourite era. You three are goals. That laugh! That SMILE! This is love. Real, beautiful love.

#fanfiction #reader #x reader #one shot #requested #will poulter imagine #will poulter one shot #will poulter fanfic #will poulter x reader #will poulter #will #poulter #bear #the bear #Luca the bear

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andromeda-nova-writing · 5 months ago

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What Makes a Compliment

Fem!Reader Words: 1242

AN: Clearly, this is turning into a series. The last parts are here. I do find these two quite a wreak as they navigate how new this is for them lol

“For someone who claims to be bad at math, you’re quite adept at fractions.” It was neither a compliment nor an insult from Veritas. Just an observation he had picked up as he watched how Y/N had moved around her studio working on a garment replication.

“You must be in a good mood if you’re making jokes.” She spoke as she carefully counted the threads in the fabric's weave, trying to keep an even number as she worked on the embroidery details that had to be placed on the pocket's exterior. “I’m just adding seam allowances together. Nothing compared to the numbers you work with.”

“Three-eighths plus two-thirds.”

“One and one twenty fourths. I thought you were here to avoid listening to construction work not quiz me.”

“You did that faster than entering it into a calculator.”

She worked on sewing a knot into the back of the fabric. “And your point is?”

“You could give yourself a little credit instead of belittling yourself constantly.”

“It’s not belittling myself, it’s acknowledging something I’ve never been good at.” She looked over at her couch where he sat reading over something for the Intelligentsia Guild. “Why are you even bringing this up?”

“I would say you are decent at math.”

“I thought you would be quieter. You said that you would just be focused on your work.” Taking steps back, she was able to better get a view of the jacket that hung on the dress form in the center of the room.

“I was. I only bring it up since you can do fractions better than whoever put this report together. The data here is a mess.”

She frowned. “How much of a mess?”

He tapped the seat of the couch motioning for her to join. A simple request that she didn’t mind fulfilling. On the tablet’s screen lay the data chart Veritas had been referring to.

“How did they get basic multipliers wrong?” The more she looked over the report the more anger she felt. “Even I could do this. This ruins the rest of the report with how it’s supposed to correlate with the data. This was either lazy, sent off too early, or poorly done.”

“Exactly what I thought.”

“I don’t see why you needed to show me as well then. This is your field, not mine. The only fractions I know are related to measurements. I doubt anything I say would add value.” She stood up getting ready to move back to her work.

“That university has truly done a number on you.”

“Excuse me?”

“Yes.”

“What do you even mean by that?” She blinked in confusion trying to wrap her head around that sentence and even the beginning of their conversation. “What are you going on about today?”

“You have shown an odd lack of self-confidence in our conversations and debates. Am I wrong to say it was due to something being said to you at the university?”

“Nothing was said to me there.” She returned to her seat from before. “I think half the people there are scared to have me lay into them and the other half are now leaving me alone just due to me being involved with you.”

“Involved is an interesting way to label a relationship.”

“Unless someone caught us that one time,” the one time being when they had first made out against a whiteboard in a classroom, “I don't think people know. To be fair, I don't think we even had a chance to talk about that. We've been too focused on work.” It had been the first time he had come to her home. Any meetings outside of work hours, they were still discussing work not even taking a second to talk about what had happened.

“I didn't think there would be much to discuss. We clearly enjoy conversing with one another and find each other attractive. I doubt you are the kind to do those sorts of activities on a whim with anyone. I would assume that we were on the same page when you invited me to your home.”

“Of course but I would like to discuss it. You’re crazy if you think I wouldn't want to discuss it. Or do you forget how much you can get on my nerves? Why would I want a relationship built off of only giving critiques?”

“You’re mistaken if you think I only value you for critique.” He placed the tablet down on an end table that had been filled with fabrics. “It’s indeed a thing I enjoy about you but not the only thing.”

She looked away from him. “Well forgive me for being concerned with such when I doubt our abilities even to offer a straightforward compliment.”

“It’s not like I’m known for doing such. You are the only person I know who regularly greets me with an insult while having the confidence and intelligence to face me in a battle of wit. Even so, I did offer a compliment earlier.”

“That was comparing me to others. It's not a compliment.” This was becoming unproductive. Y/N stood up once more heading towards the dress form. “First you don't know how to use critiques properly and now I find out you are horrible at compliments. Maybe I just had a lapse in judgment that day.” She was only half teasing.

“I think your colorwork is impeccable. Something I wish others would take notice of but I wish their discovery of it remains different from my own.”

“You aren’t even making sense. I’m working with black fabric and gold thread. You don’t have to be an expert at colorwork to get that right.”

“I wasn’t talking about your sewing work.” His hand gently trailed from the top of her shoulder towards her hand. She hadn’t even heard him moving away from her couch.

“I know you aren't talking about my clothes and I doubt you have seen any work I've done in the past.”

“I see your work every time you talk.”

She did her best not to lean into his touch when she turned her head to the side to look at him out of the corner of her eye. “You make no sense.”

“What makes no sense is that I willingly listen to insults and critique spoken by someone who has impeccable skills when it comes to color theory being used in makeup.”

Her nose scrunched up. “You know I only wear lipsticks and glosses.” Her words slowed as she thought over what he had said. “Did you just say you like it when I insult you when I’m wearing lipgloss?”

“I said nothing of the sort!”

Her laughter had caused her to fall back against his chest. “I can’t believe it! I have the Veritas Ratio weak over lipsticks and insults. Who could have guessed?”

“I do not understand why you are making me repeat myself. I enjoy that you think for yourself instead of being quick to praise me for what should be the bare minimum. Nowhere did I say I enjoy being insulted. I was trying to complement your use of color.”

“Just say you like my lipstick. It didn’t need to be any more complicated than that.” It was hard not to smile.

“It's not often I compliment a person’s appearance. At least beyond the expected pleasantries.”

“Just say it. Maybe I’ll find myself enjoying your voice more if you say sweet things to me.”

#dr ratio #dr ratio x reader #veritas ratio #veritas ratio x reader #hsr x reader

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benispunk · 8 months ago

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Who's that girl?

Chapter 4: Before We Speak

Logan always has to be the strong figure, even when everything wants to fall apart.

logan howlett x reader

TW: language, D&W, mentions of dark backgrounds.

A/N: hello lovelies!! fourth chapter is up whoop whoop🎉. this one is entirely focused on Logan because why not? this is a day in our little honey badger's life and I'm not sorry for anything. it could have been way worse. thanks for all the support on this series!! enjoy this part <3

→ this fic is inspired by the TV Show New Girl, Wade and Logan aren't Deadpool and Wolverine (no powers/mutant gene etc) but I did take most of their character traits and storyline!!

Masterlist / Previous Part / Next Part

Beep Beep Beep Be—

Sometimes Logan wondered how he still hadn’t destroyed that damn alarm clock. He woke up slowly, his body heavy from the comfort of sleep. Finally glancing at his worst enemy of his every morning, he read: 5:30 AM. Time to start the day.

He got up and opened the blinds, though the sun wasn’t up yet, and except for some other people in other buildings, nobody was up yet either.

After a quick shower and pulling on some shirt and jeans, Logan grabbed his keys and backpack, trying not to make too much noise for his roommates that were probably still sleeping deeply.

You’ll sleep later, Logan.

As he stepped outside of the building, the cool morning air hit his face, waking him up fully.

Logan was the one in charge of opening the center and he preferred going there way earlier than everyone else just to get a moment of peace and calm before the chaos started. He checked every room and classes, making sure everything was ready for the day and once this was done, he sat down and served himself one well-deserved cup of (disgusting) coffee.

The center was a large, well-worn building. It wasn't much to look at from the outside—just a faded brick structure with narrow windows—but inside, it was full of life. Colorful posters lined the walls, some painted by the kids themselves, and inspirational quotes were scattered around, the kind that Logan never really cared for but knew meant something to someone.

The lounge area where he sat was small but cozy, with mismatched chairs and a sagging couch that had seen better days. A few shelves were filled with books and board games, and the corner had a coffee station that barely worked. Yet, this was his place— a refuge in the chaos.

Beyond the lounge, the rest of the center sprawled out: classrooms where kids of all ages learned in their own ways, sensory rooms with soft lights and calming music, a large gym where activities were held, and a garden out back where they often took the kids for fresh air. It was more than just a special school; it was a sanctuary for those who needed it.

As Logan scanned the room, his thoughts drifted. He wasn’t one to reflect much, but opening the center every day before anyone else arrived had become his ritual, a moment to prepare for the storm of the day ahead. Today would be like any other— he’d make sure the supplies were ready, the classrooms set, and his mind focused.

He was pulled out of his thoughts by the hum of the automatic doors opening.

“Good morning, Logan.”

Logan’s daydream was interrupted by the familiar voice of Charles. The older man entered the lounge in his wheelchair, his presence as steady as ever. Charles had been the head of the center for as long as Logan could remember.

Logan nodded, setting down his coffee. “Morning, Charles.”

Charles wheeled himself closer, pausing just in front of Logan. “Early, as always. You know, you don’t have to get here before the sun’s up every day.”

Logan grunted in response, though there was a faint smile pulling at the corner of his lips. “Old habits die hard.”

Charles chuckled. “Well, I appreciate it. Keeps the place running smoothly.” He paused, glancing around the lounge, his expression softening. “How’s everything looking for today?”

Logan leaned back, arms crossed over his chest. “Classes are prepped, gym’s ready. Couple new kids starting this week, so I’ll be keeping an eye on them. Should be a normal day.”

Charles nodded thoughtfully, though there was something in his eyes that made Logan pause. “What?” Logan asked.

“Just thinking,” Charles said, his voice dropping a bit. “It’s a shame, isn’t it? All this work, and now…” He trailed off, and Logan knew exactly what he meant. The center was struggling. Funding cuts, low enrollment— there had been rumors for months now that they might not last much longer. It wasn’t the first time Charles had hinted at it, but hearing it out loud still hit Logan in the gut every time.

“We’ll figure it out,” Logan said, though even he wasn’t sure how much he believed it.

Charles nodded again, but there was a heaviness to the gesture. “I hope you’re right, Logan. For their sake.” he said, gesturing vaguely towards the classrooms, where the kids would soon arrive, full of energy and life.

Logan didn’t respond. He wasn’t one for long conversations, especially not ones that reminded him of things he couldn’t fix. Instead, he stood up and grabbed his coffee, raising it towards Charles in a silent gesture. “I’ll be in the gym.”

Charles watched him go, his expression unreadable.

The gym was Logan’s favorite part of the center. High ceilings, wide-open spaces, and the kind of place where he could let the kids run wild. He liked the controlled chaos of it all—kids bouncing off the walls, their laughter echoing, and the satisfaction of seeing them engage in a world that often felt too overwhelming for them. Here, they were free. Here, they were just kids.

As he stepped inside, Logan could already hear the hum of the day beginning. Soon the first teachers would trickle in. He checked the schedule on the clipboard hanging by the door, making mental notes of the day’s activities. But even as he planned, his thoughts lingered on Charles' words.

What if the center shut down? What would happen to the kids? What would he do?

He shoved the thought away for now, focusing on the present. There were kids to be taken care of today, and that's what mattered.

A sharp sound of footsteps echoed through the hallway, pulling Logan's attention to the door. The first wave of staff was arriving.

The first few kids arrived not long after them. Logan could hear their familiar voices echoing down the hallway, some excited, some grumpy from early wake-ups, but all of them ready to start their day. As they trickled in, Logan stood by the entrance to greet them.

"Morning, Bobby," Logan said as a boy with dark, tousled hair bounded through the door, his backpack almost as big as he was.

"Morning, Mr. Howlett!" Bobby called back with a wide grin, not slowing down as he headed straight for the gym.

Next was Kitty, one of the quieter students, who gave him a shy wave as she walked in, hugging her notebook to her chest.

"Morning, Kitty," Logan said softly, offering her a small smile. She nodded without a word, as always, but Logan could see the relief in her eyes. She always felt safe here.

The rest of the group trickled in—about a dozen kids in all, each with their own unique personalities and quirks. Logan knew them well, better than most. He could read their moods just by the way they walked in, and today seemed to be a good day. No tantrums, no meltdowns. Yet.

Once everyone was inside, Logan led them to the first class of the day. History wasn’t always the easiest subject to teach, but Logan had a way of making it work. He kept things simple, focusing on the stories behind the facts— because that’s what kids understood best, the stories.

As they settled into their seats, Logan stood at the front of the small classroom, a whiteboard behind him and a map of the world pinned to the wall.

"Alright, who remembers what we talked about last week?" Logan asked, his deep voice quiet but commanding enough to capture the attention of the room.

A few hands shot up— Bobby’s was the first, as always.

Logan nodded to him. "Go ahead, Bobby."

"We talked about Ancient Egypt! You said they had these huge tombs for their kings and queens, and they put all their treasures inside."

"That’s right," Logan said, crossing his arms and leaning against his desk. "The pyramids. But they didn’t just put treasures inside. What else?"

Kitty, who was usually too shy to speak up, raised her hand cautiously. Logan gave her an encouraging nod.

"Um, they put their pets inside too?" she said softly.

"Exactly. Sometimes pets, sometimes even servants." Logan smiled at her, watching her shoulders relax slightly. "Why do you think they did that?"

Bobby’s hand shot up again, but Logan pointed to a girl in the back who rarely spoke— Laura. The girl was staring at the map, lost in thought, but when Logan called her name, she blinked and looked around.

"Uh… because they thought they’d need them in the afterlife?" Laura said hesitantly.

"Right again," Logan replied. "They believed the afterlife was just another version of this life, so they wanted to bring everything with them that they’d need. It’s like packing for a trip, but instead of clothes, you’re bringing your pets and gold." He gave a small smile, which earned a few giggles from the class.

Logan continued the lesson, writing down some words on the board and telling stories of ancient rulers and their grand tombs. He kept the pace slow, knowing some of the kids needed extra time to process, and he made sure to check in with everyone throughout the lesson, gauging their engagement.

As the lesson wrapped up, the bell rang for the morning break, and the kids shuffled out of the classroom, excited to stretch their legs. Logan watched them go, making a mental note of who seemed engaged and who might need extra help later.

He was about to head out for a quick break himself when he noticed someone lingering by the door— Laura, the girl from earlier. She stood there, clutching the straps of her backpack, staring at the floor.

She had joined the center about a year ago, a girl with sharp eyes and a sharper tongue, quick to push people away before they could get too close. Her file said she’d been in and out of foster homes, and she had a history of acting out, of disappearing for days at a time. But Logan saw through it. She wasn’t just acting out for the sake of rebellion. It was survival for her. Trust didn’t come easy.

Each of these kids had been through so much stuff, things they didn’t deserve, things they weren’t even supposed to know at their age, and yet here they were, because the regular system wouldn’t take the risk of taking them in. That’s why this center existed, to help those kids and teenagers society had already rejected.

They were only children. It broke his heart every single day.

Laura was always on edge, always watching. Logan noticed the way she sized people up, the way her eyes darted around the room like she was waiting for something bad to happen.

When she first started at the center, they had clashed. Logan’s patience and calm demeanor only seemed to irritate her more. She didn’t talk unless she had to, and even then, it was usually a one-word answer.

Today, Laura had been quiet. Too quiet.

Logan had learned to read her tells, and something was off.

As the bell rang for the break, she didn’t move. The other kids bolted out of the classroom like they always did, but Laura stayed behind, her eyes still fixed on the window, her jaw clenched.

Logan leaned against his desk, waiting until the room was empty before speaking. "You’re gonna miss your break if you sit there all day."

She didn’t respond. Typical Laura.

Logan watched her for a moment before crossing the room and sitting down in the chair next to her, his body turned toward her but giving her space.

"You alright, kid?" he asked, his voice low and calm, like he was talking to a wild animal he didn’t want to spook.

Laura’s gaze didn’t shift, but her grip on the edge of her chair tightened.

"I know you," she muttered after a long silence, her voice rough. "You’re just waiting for me to screw up again."

Logan sighed softly, shaking his head. "Not here to wait for you to screw up. I’m here to help you."

Laura scoffed. "Yeah, right."

Logan leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "You think I’m doing this for fun? Waking up at 5:30 every morning to come here because I got nothing better to do?"

She finally turned her head to look at him, her eyes narrowing like she was trying to figure out his angle.

"You don’t get it," she said, her voice harsh. "You don’t know what it’s like."

Logan met her gaze, unflinching. "Maybe I don’t know your exact story, but I’ve seen enough, and I know enough to get the picture. And I know you’re not alone, even if it feels like it."

Her eyes flickered for a second, something passing over her face before the hardened mask came back. She looked away, her jaw tightening again, and for a moment, Logan thought the conversation was over. But then she spoke again, quieter this time.

"I don’t wanna be here anymore," she whispered, her voice barely audible.

Logan frowned. "What do you mean?"

Laura’s shoulders tensed, and she gripped the chair so hard her knuckles went white. "This place. This... stupid center. I don’t belong here. I can’t—" She cut herself off, shaking her head in frustration, as if the words were too much to get out.

Logan let out a slow breath. He’d seen this before— the tipping point where a kid was ready to run, because staying still felt too risky.

"You don’t have to do this alone," Logan said gently. "If it feels like too much, we can work on that. Together. But you gotta tell me what's really going on, Laura. Or Professor Xavier. Anybody, really.»

For the first time, Laura’s mask cracked. Her eyes filled with frustration, but behind it, Logan could see the fear. The vulnerability she never let anyone see.

"I don’t belong anywhere," she muttered, her voice shaking. "No one gives a damn. Everyone leaves."

Logan stayed silent for a beat, letting her words sink into the space between them.

"That’s not true," Logan said softly. "You’re here. You’re fighting. You show up every day, even when it’s hard. That says a lot about you, more than you think."

Laura’s eyes flickered toward him, suspicious, but something about his tone made her stay.

"You know what I think?" Logan continued. "I think you’re stronger than you think. And if you want to talk, if you want to work through this... We’re all here. You don’t have to run."

Laura didn’t respond right away, but her shoulders slumped just a bit. The tension that had been coiling inside her all day seemed to ease, if only slightly.

"I don’t know if I can," she muttered.

Logan nodded, standing up slowly and giving her space. "You don’t have to decide today. Just know that the door’s open whenever you’re ready."

He started walking toward the door, expecting her to stay where she was, but then he heard her voice again, small and uncertain.

"Logan?" she asked, and for the first time, she used his name instead of calling him "Mr. Howlett."

"My name is Logan but for some legal reason you have to call me Mr.Howlett," he would say on the first day of school every year.

He turned around, his brows raised.

"Thanks," she said quietly, her gaze dropping back to her hands.

Logan nodded, a faint smile tugging at the corner of his lips. "Anytime, kid."

As he left the room, he felt a familiar heaviness settle in his chest, one that always came after a conversation like that. The weight of seeing a kid like Laura— someone who was so close to falling through the cracks, struggling to keep her head above water.

But for now, at least, she was still fighting. And Logan would be there to help her keep going, one step at a time.

As Logan left the classroom, the conversation with Laura replayed in his mind, lingering like a heavy weight on his chest. It was the kind of talk that always stuck with him, reminders of the pain these kids carried, the damage they fought to keep hidden.

He walked down the empty hallway, each step feeling slower, heavier. His usual routine of checking on classrooms and prepping for the next lesson seemed far away. All he could think about was Laura’s words, her quiet admission that she didn’t think she belonged anywhere, and how familiar that feeling was.

Logan knew that weight all too well.

He pushed open the door to the staff lounge, needing a moment to collect himself. The clock on the wall told him there were still ten minutes before the next class. It wasn’t enough time to shake this feeling, but he’d take what he could get.

Sinking into one of the chairs, Logan rubbed his hands over his face, trying to push the conversation out of his mind. But it wouldn’t leave him. It never did. It wasn’t just Laura. Every kid at the center carried a similar burden. They all had their demons, their scars. And each one of those conversations weighed him down, little by little.

It was part of the job, but that didn’t make it any easier.

The faint sound of a bell rang out in the hallway, signaling the start of the next class. Logan stood up slowly, taking a deep breath before heading out to meet his students. He had to pull it together. For them.

But as he walked back into the classroom, the weight of the conversation with Laura still clung to him like a dark cloud.

The day dragged on, and no matter how hard Logan tried to focus, his mind kept drifting back to the look on Laura’s face— the fear and vulnerability hidden beneath her tough exterior. He kept thinking about how much these kids reminded him of his own past, his own battles.

By the time the final bell rang, Logan was exhausted. Not from the physical strain, but from the emotional toll the day had taken on him.

Just as he was packing up to leave, he spotted Wade through the classroom window. He was standing there with a goofy grin on his face, holding up a small box of donuts and a coffee.

But something felt... off. Wade’s smile didn’t reach his eyes like it usually did. He looked tense, distracted. Logan frowned but said nothing at first.

Wade sauntered into the classroom, his usual bravado on full display. “Hey, I come bearing gifts. You looked like you could use a sugar rush.”

Logan took the coffee, eyeing Wade carefully. “Thanks, man. You okay?”

Wade waved off the question with a laugh that sounded a little too loud. “Me? Of course! I’m always okay. What’re you talking about?”

Logan didn’t press further, but he wasn’t convinced. Wade’s humor had always been a shield, something to hide behind when things got too real. He knew that well enough by now.

"Alright," Logan said quietly, breaking off a piece of the donut and offering it to Wade. "If you say so."

Wade took the donut with a shrug, as if nothing was wrong, but Logan could see the tension in his shoulders. They sat there in silence for a while, chewing slowly. Wade broke the silence first, launching into one of his stories—something about a weird couple at last night’s gig and how he had to improvise a joke to get out of an awkward heckling situation.

Logan just nodded along, smirking occasionally at Wade’s antics. He wasn’t much of a talker, especially compared to Wade, but they had their dynamic down by now. Wade talked, Logan listened. That was how it worked. It wasn’t until Wade’s voice grew a little more strained that Logan felt the crack in his friend’s usual confidence.

As they walked out of the center, Wade was still rattling off his story, his words slightly more rushed than usual.

“I swear, man, if this one guy hadn’t backed off, I would’ve—"

“You sure you’re okay?” Logan asked again, cutting him off, his voice quieter this time, more concerned.

Wade immediately put his mask back on, laughing a little too loudly again. “Of course! Stop worrying about me, peanut. You’ve got your own crap to deal with. Speaking of which, how’s it going with Y/N, huh? Been hanging out together without me, yet?”

Logan rolled his eyes, though Wade’s obvious attempt to change the subject didn’t go unnoticed. “She’s our roommate, Wade.”

“Sure, sure,” Wade said with a wink. “Got it.”

Logan let it go. Pushing Wade wouldn’t get him anywhere. They’d been through this before. He’d talk when he was ready, and when that time came, Logan would be there.

Back at the apartment, the scent of something delicious greeted them as soon as they walked in the door. Y/N was in the kitchen, apron on, stirring a pot of what looked like some kind of stew.

“Hey, perfect timing,” she called over her shoulder. “Dinner’s almost ready.”

Logan grunted a small thank you, setting his bag down by the door, but Wade was, as always, much more dramatic.

“Y/N, you absolute angel,” Wade gushed, dramatically placing a hand over his heart. “I don’t deserve this! But I’ll take it.”

Y/N chuckled, glancing up at them both. “Long day?”

“You could say that,” Wade replied, but his usual humor seemed thinner, more like a front than ever before. He shot Logan a quick look, as if daring him to say anything. Logan just gave a subtle shake of his head and headed into the living room.

The shadows of the day lingered, tightening around him. He settled onto the couch, his mind racing back to Laura’s quiet admission. It was hard to shake the feeling that he was somehow failing her, as if his own past could offer her a lifeline he wasn’t made to provide.

Wade followed him in, his usual bravado on display but lacking its usual spark. “Hey, did you hear me? I was talking about the heckler,” Wade said, attempting to recapture the lightness that had slipped away from him.

“Yeah, I heard you,” Logan replied, trying to match Wade's tone. He could feel the edges of his own thoughts creeping in, threatening to overshadow their banter. “Sounds like you handled it well.”

“Of course! I’m the best,” Wade said with a grin, though it faltered slightly as he caught Logan’s gaze. “Seriously though, what’s up? You’ve been quiet. Did your kids hit you with one of those heavy questions again?”

Logan opened his mouth to respond, but the words stuck in his throat. He didn’t want to drag Wade into his emotional turmoil, especially when his friend was clearly wrestling with something of his own. Instead, he forced a small smile. “Just a long day.”

Wade nodded, his gaze scrutinizing. “You know, you could talk about it, right? We’re here for you.”

Logan shrugged, the weight of Wade’s words hitting harder than expected. He appreciated Wade’s willingness to listen, but he also felt that familiar instinct to shield his friend from the darkness that came with his memories. “I’m good, really.”

Just then, Y/N emerged from the kitchen, carrying a pot. “Dinner’s ready!” she announced, her smile brightening the room. It smelled delicious. He loved that she was settling so well into their dynamic.

“Thanks, Y/N. You’re the best,” Logan said, feeling a warmth spread through him at her kindness.

Wade leaned back on the couch, crossing his arms with a playful smirk. “You’re amazing,” he gushed, placing a hand dramatically over his heart. “You might be my favorite roommate I’ve ever had.”

Y/N chuckled, glancing between them. “Just trying to make something nice. Hope it’s okay!”

“Looks great,” Logan assured her, though he could see the uncertainty flickering in her eyes. She was still getting used to their routine, just as he was getting used to having her around.

As they gathered around the table, Logan focused on the meal, the rich aromas helping to distract him from his thoughts. Wade filled the silence with jokes and stories. Logan nodded along, trying to engage, but he could feel the tension in Wade’s shoulders, just as he sensed it in his own.

After dinner, as Y/N began to clear the table, Logan stood up to help her. “Let me take those,” he offered, reaching for the plates.

“Thanks,” she replied, her eyes meeting his briefly. He appreciated her easy smile, the way she brought a sense of warmth to their home, but he was still aware of how new everything felt.

Wade lingered at the table, looking at both of them with an unreadable expression. “You two sure seem cozy over there,” he teased, but there was a hint of something more serious in his tone.

Logan glared at him from the kitchen as the man just winked.

Bastard.

Once the table was cleared, they settled onto the couch. Logan leaned back, taking a moment to breathe. He felt the weight of the day settle in once more, but he was grateful for the distraction of Y/N and Wade. No matter how heavy the conversations, he knew he wasn’t alone in this.

“Alright, what’s next? Movie night?” Wade suggested, a little too brightly.

“Sounds good to me,” Y/N replied.

Logan nodded, grateful for the opportunity to escape, even if just for a little while. They flicked through the channels, laughter and light banter filling the room, but a part of Logan couldn’t shake the feeling that the shadows were still lurking just beyond the surface. Still, for now, he had this moment— this family —and it was enough.

XXX

103 notes · View notes

spicyveggiesub · 7 days ago

Text

[ENG] Revue Starlight -The STAGE Junior High- Rerise Pamphlet Interview

The pamphlet for Junior High's 4th (and for now, climactic and final) stage play, Rerise, included an interview with the whole cast, as well as handwritten messages from the Junior High cast to their roles. The images up there are the messages, the interview is just a wall of text you don't need to see that (and sorry for the ugly scans).

By the way, this pamphlet is ridiculously beautiful, and I don't say this lightly, I went through every pamphlet I own so that I could say this with confidence: I think it's the prettiest one so far in the history of Starlight!!!! If you like the Junior High/Romana or even just like any of the cast member's faces at all I think it is very much worth buying and a great way to show support (you can still get it here)

Translation under the cut!

HINA AOKI

Looking back on the activities for "The STAGE Junior High", what left the strongest impression on you?

During the third play, Remains, the five of us in the Junior High were all so braindead when we were done with rehearsal, we laid down on the stage and just talked about a ton of stupid things with each other. That's what I remember the most. It's a really small and mundane thing, but the time we spent laughing with each other like that felt really precious to me.

The title of this play is Rerise. Do you do anything special to boost your mood and make yourself Rerise?

When I'm feeling anxious or frustrated, I start writing on paper or on my phone, and try to visualize the emotions in my head at that moment. If I don't know the root cause of why I feel a certain way, I'll keep thinking about it forever, so I try to calm myself down by visualizing it and making it easier to understand.

What does shining on stage mean to you?

I think rather than standing on stage while thinking "I'll shine!", enjoying the stage myself first and foremost will lead to shining on stage. Acting together with my friends, the lighting, the audio, and embellishments like that, when all of those factors align and I feel so incredibly good—sometimes I think that might be when I shine.

This is a segment where we give thanks in a relay format. What do you want to say "thank you" for?

TO YURIA SATO

Thank you for always being exactly who you are, I guess (lol). When I'm in front of you, Satoyuri, I can be myself as well, and having someone like that by my side really helps me be less stressed. You laze around when you need to, but when it's time to get to work you can get into it easily, so you're a dependable member.

Please say a word to everyone who came to the theater.

Thank you for coming to watch. The Junior High stage play series has finally reached its fourth work as well. We hesitate, fight, and grow. We'll try our absolute best to polish the raw gems each of us hold, and show you all the best stage, and a dazzling brilliance!

KANON MATSUZAWA

Looking back on the activities for "The STAGE Junior High", what left the strongest impression on you?

There are so many memories, but it has to be when we were so tired after rehearsal that we all laid down and talked for almost an hour straight. No one tried to get up, and we just talked about stupid things and laughed.

The title of this play is Rerise. Do you do anything special to boost your mood and make yourself Rerise?

I play with and sniff my dog.

He smells like the sun and is so cute he could save the world.

What does shining on stage mean to you?

I think it's the ability to make people feel like the character is alive on stage. I think people who can make the audience forget about reality and feel like they're totally inside of their world are amazing. And, I think that people who can make the audience smile are people who shine on stage.

This is a segment where we give thanks in a relay format. What do you want to say "thank you" for?

TO HINA AOKI

Thank you for always listening to me talk, even when it's about something stupid. You're like an older sister to me, and I love how you're always so clear and decisive about everything (lol).

I love your face when you laugh to your heart's content, so I'll keep on making you laugh, Hinapiyo. Let's keep laughing forever 😊

Please say a word to everyone who came to the theater.

Thank you for coming to watch. This is the fourth play, and first of all, I never even imagined that the Junior High-focused plays would continue this far, so I'm full of gratitude. While chewing on that feeling, I'll try my best acting with Shiro and my friends to show you how much I've grown. Finally, I hope that everyone will be able to reach the final performance with smiles on their faces✨

RUKA FUKAGAWA

Looking back on the activities for "The STAGE Junior High", what left the strongest impression on you?

Starlight stage plays have acting and fighting and singing and dancing. Every time I faced this work with so many things in one package, I ended up at my wit's end with so many different parts of it. But the Junior High are five! The five of us all have different strengths, weaknesses, feelings, and things to offer. I'm grateful that we were able to put on plays and concerts and the like every year, and every time I gain new memories. That's what I remember the most!

The title of this play is Rerise. Do you do anything special to boost your mood and make yourself Rerise?

I just sleep! When I'm at an impasse, no matter how much I think about it, if my brain is tired, I can't come up with a good answer, and if I keep making my tired body move it could lead to something unexpected, so even if it's just a nap, I sleep and give my brain a rest! It's simple, but we are humans! We have to give in to the workings of our bodies!

What does shining on stage mean to you?

I think it's when I feel the flow and atmosphere of things and feel satisfied with my own acting and I feel like I'm having so much fun that I can't handle it, but that's just me feeling good and it might not reach the audience fully. I think that if I could make myself, the audience, and even my co-stars who play my opponents feel the same way, if I could capture the gazes of everyone from atop the stage, then I would be shining the brightest.

This is a segment where we give thanks in a relay format. What do you want to say "thank you" for?

TO KANON MATSUZAWA

Zawa (Matsuzawa) is maybe the person who understands me the most, or rather a great person to ask for advice. I often talk to her about things from my private life to work related things, and she thinks differently from me, so she always gives me a fresh perspective, or I feel better because she listened to me, she's truly always helping me out…

Thank you Zawa…

Please say a word to everyone who came to the theater.

After watching Remains, you must have thought, what will happen to Ryoko, and the discord between Siegfeld and Romana…! All of you in the Stage Production Department who were on the edge of your seats for about a year… we're finally here! In this production, Ryoko fights to find her own brilliance, and everyone else faces their own worries and feelings. Enjoy it to the fullest!

KOKORO KUGE

Looking back on the activities for "The STAGE Junior High", what left the strongest impression on you?

The "Revue of the First Star" with Kuina in Remains. Satoyuri and I ran around the practice room while singing in order to build up our stamina! It was the first time in the Junior High that only two people sang a Revue song together, and an important scene that lead to a big change and moment of growth for Minku-chan, and I'm thankful to Satoyuri for rehearsing it with me so much.

The title of this play is Rerise. Do you do anything special to boost your mood and make yourself Rerise?

During the play's run, I just made sure to sleep properly! Sleeping puts your brain in order and is the most important thing for helping your body recover. I don't really have a routine that I have to do before a performance starts. I'd become anxious if I couldn't do something like that, so instead I just keep going as usual and start feeling like "It's time to shine!". Maybe it's about the same for Minku-chan too~

What does shining on stage mean to you?

As Minku-chan and as Kuge myself, it's to stand on stage while thinking "I love the stage!". I put that feeling of love into my voice and body, and I believe that it'll reach the audience in the form of brilliance. To borrow a line that's been in Starlight, sometimes I really believe that "the stage is responding". I think that I'm probably shining in those moments☆

This is a segment where we give thanks in a relay format. What do you want to say "thank you" for?

TO RUKA FUKAGAWA

Ruka-chan♡♡ You're always with us with your casual and carefree attitude and you're like a cute little sister to all of us in the Junior High. I'm always healed by your cuteness~. Thank youu!! I love you just as you are!! Please keep being you, Ruka-chan.

Please say a word to everyone who came to the theater.

It's already the fourth production where I've been able to shine together with the Junior High and Minku-chan. Having the chance to be watched over by so many people for such a long time really makes me happy as a Stage Girl. I still want to shine more as Minku, in her casual and carefree way☆ The five of us will try our hardest to take on challenges with one heart. Please watch over us from your seats in the audience.

YURIA SATO

Looking back on the activities for "The STAGE Junior High", what left the strongest impression on you?

This question just made me jump because it makes it sound like this is the last play, but it can't be the end… right?! My answer is pretty unremarkable, but I think it's going home or going out to eat with all five of the Junior High after practice. We're always going at our own pace in our own different ways (lol). Personally, I think it's amazing how much we've changed through working together, to this point where the five of us can do individual things collectively like that.

The title of this play is Rerise. Do you do anything special to boost your mood and make yourself Rerise?

For some reason, I listen to a lot of radio shows. When you're worried and feeling down, don't the words from a completely unrelated party hit you the hardest? When I listen to episodes where they give advice and stuff, it makes me think, wow, there are a lot of people in different places in this world working really hard to live in their own ways. And then I think, maybe other people see me as someone who works hard too..? And it's pretty nice.

What does shining on stage mean to you?

Maintaining the awareness that I'm a Stage Girl. The time when I studied so hard at my desk as a student, and the time when I swayed in a fully packed train every morning as a new grad OL. While embracing those as part of my past, I stand on stage with the determination to no longer be that person I was, and to be someone who lives on stage, where I'm being watched by others. That honest and direct feeling shines, I'm sure!

This is a segment where we give thanks in a relay format. What do you want to say "thank you" for?

TO KOKORO KUGE

When I didn't know my left from my right when it came to acting, and I thought for the first time in the first Junior High play, "Giving and receiving lines on stage is fun!", I'm sure it was because you were my partner, and you love acting so much, Kokoro-chan. We're the only ones who can be Minkuina. Thank you for being the best Minku-chan! Let's keep working hard together!

Please say a word to everyone who came to the theater.

Thank you very much for coming to watch this production! I started my life as an actor together with Kuina, and I've slowly encountered various roles since then. But in the end, her honesty and strong feelings always move my heart, and she always brings me back to how I felt at the beginning, so she's a special role to me. As always, I'll try to play her with the utmost care. Please look forward to it!

YUI KANARI

Looking back on the activities for "The STAGE Junior High", what left the strongest impression on you?

During rehearsals and the play period, we the five of us in Romana had review meetings about our dancing. In order to make sure our lines of sight, the height of our hips, how sharp our moves were, and everything else you could possibly think of felt in sync, we rewatched our videos over and over again and tried out different solutions together. Thinking back on it now, it felt like a really Romana-like conversation.

The title of this play is Rerise. Do you do anything special to boost your mood and make yourself Rerise?

I make some time for myself to do absolutely nothing and think about absolutely nothing. When I'm worried about something, I end up only being able to think about it from a very biased point of view, so I try to divorce myself from the thing that I'm thinking about for a bit so I can think about it objectively. I do different things depending on what's going on, but to be specific, I slept for 18 hours before.

What does shining on stage mean to you?

I think that someone working hard or trying to overcome something shines. I don't just mean the brilliance you can feel watching a character in a story work hard and grow. As an actor, I'm always facing the stage and acting to the best of my ability, and I think that gives birth to brilliance that reaches the audience.

This is a segment where we give thanks in a relay format. What do you want to say "thank you" for?

TO REI SONODA

Thank you for being my comrade in crying too easily. We were both taking part in our first play, and we both cried in rehearsals because we were too nervous about various things. But I could tell that you were crying so that you could move forward, Sono-chan, so seeing you like that helped motivate me to work hard as well. You're so human, and I love it. Let's keep on working hard together!

Please say a word to everyone who came to the theater.

Thank you for coming to watch! A play wouldn't be able to exist if it weren't for you who come to watch it. I'd be happy if you would continue to create the stage together with us.

KANON NAKAZAKI

Looking back on the activities for "The STAGE Junior High", what left the strongest impression on you?

It was the first time I'd experienced this full combo of fighting, singing, dancing, and acting. It was packed full of expressions that I love, so I was happy. Also, when we practiced singing Remains, one time all of Romana faced the Junior High while singing, and the energy in front of me and beside me was amazing, and it really hit me that we were creating one production all together, and it left a deep impression on me.

The title of this play is Rerise. Do you do anything special to boost your mood and make yourself Rerise?

I jam out to the music I love on full blast. I move around and work out. But I don't know if I'm doing the exercises properly… Satoyuri-san, please teach me!!! Let me join the workout club!

What does shining on stage mean to you?

Looking confident even if I'm not. If I do that, I slowly grow more confident, and before I can even realize it, I'm not Kanon Nakazaki anymore. I think that if I can have fun, then the people who watch me will have fun too, so I try my best to resolve all the things I'm worried about with everyone's help in rehearsals, and when it's time for the real show, I just try to enjoy and live as the role. That's what I try to keep in mind.

This is a segment where we give thanks in a relay format. What do you want to say "thank you" for?

TO YUI KANARI

Kanarin, I receive a lot of things from the Mikoto you play. Even when you're not in character, sometimes I think that you're pretty similar to her, and it makes me happy (lol). Thank you for always giving me motivation!! Let's keep working hard together✊

Please say a word to everyone who came to the theater.

Thank you for coming to watch! Continuing from last year, I'm really happy that I can stand in front of you all as Naoe Haruka from Romana Scuola d'Arte Drammatica once again. I'll sweep through all the performances at full power so that all of you can bathe in tons of brilliance!

CHIKANA ANDO

Looking back on the activities for "The STAGE Junior High", what left the strongest impression on you?

The first play.

If not for the Junior High, Romana wouldn't have come into existence, and when I think about that, I feel grateful to the Junior High members, staff, and all of you fans who have built up their story thus far. When you watch them from the first play, you can see how much they grow over time, and I think that's amazing. It makes me think that I need to work hard too.

The title of this play is Rerise. Do you do anything special to boost your mood and make yourself Rerise?

I don't really have a set routine, but when I'm nervous, or right before a scene starts, I hit my face and chest as much as I want. It helps me feel less nervous and gets me pumped up.

What does shining on stage mean to you?

I try to get whatever I'm trying to act out as that role 100% across to the audience. It's the character who stands on stage, not me, so if the audience can feel that fully, I think that's when I shine, and if there's an actor like that I find myself captivated by them.

This is a segment where we give thanks in a relay format. What do you want to say "thank you" for?

TO KANON NAKAZAKI

What a fun idea!! I'm thankful to Nakachi for giving so much energy to everyone in the Romana group! And, I think she's amazing for being able to say such difficult phrases so smoothly. The role she plays is so cool, but she herself is always so silly, and it's so cute and lovable (lol). Thank you for everything!

Please say a word to everyone who came to the theater.

Thank you for coming to watch! I'm very happy that I can appear as part of Romana again. I'll do my best so this can become a production that remains in your memory!

MEINA HAMAKAWA

Looking back on the activities for "The STAGE Junior High", what left the strongest impression on you?

They're all such precious memories, but I think it would have to be when we got a standing ovation for the final performance… No, it's when I saw everyone in the audience for the first time on the first day… No, but when we went into the audience during the concert part for the first time too… I can't choose, but all of the moments when I met eyes with the audience members who received our brilliance made me so happy, and I'll never forget them.

The title of this play is Rerise. Do you do anything special to boost your mood and make yourself Rerise?

When I'm feeling down, I sleep or eat something sweet! Also, before a performance starts, I always listen to Kukugumi-san's songs!! It helps me become a shining stage girl, and soothes the stomachache I get from being nervous… I always listen to "Butai Shoujo Kokoroe", "Watashitachi wa Mou Butai no Ue", "Hoshi no Dialogue", and "Star Parade" when I'm on my way there too!

What does shining on stage mean to you?

Enjoying the moments of living out the story on stage desperately, from the bottom of my heart. Right now at least, I think that's what it means to shine. But I think there must be other answers, too… Brilliance is kind of like, when you keep searching for your own answer, and stand on stage with a strong desire to shine, it's something born through that process. I think maybe that's brilliance too.

This is a segment where we give thanks in a relay format. What do you want to say "thank you" for?

TO CHIKANA ANDO

Naso-chan-sensei!! Thank you so much for teaching me things about dancing and stage fighting!! You're the strongest boss in Romana behind the scenes!!! You're always so cool!!!!! I love you!!!!!!

Please say a word to everyone who came to the theater.

I'm so happy and grateful that we at Romana Scuola d'Arte Drammatica, who only just joined in last year's play, Remains, received so many warm words of support. I turned those feelings into my driving force and worked hard in rehearsals, so I'd be happy if you all bathed in our powered up brilliance to your heart's content…!

REI SONODA

Looking back on the activities for "The STAGE Junior High", what left the strongest impression on you?

When I did special training on how to run. Until the play, I didn't know that the way I ran was different from everyone else's… Maybe that's why I was always so slow. I'm greatly indebted to Coach Chikanaso and Master Satoyuri. Thank you very much. I'll [she used ore here] take first place in track and field. (No I won't)

The title of this play is Rerise. Do you do anything special to boost your mood and make yourself Rerise?

If I'm in a space where I'm alone, saying something like "I'M GONNA MOVE!" or "I'M GONNA START WORKING NOW!!" helps my brain switch up and start moving. If I'm around others, chanting "everything has an end once you start it" in my head makes me feel like I'm the strongest no matter what situation I'm in.

What does shining on stage mean to you?

Going in pursuit of the role's life at full speed, and trying to be that role endlessly, is what I think it means to shine! I think that desperation is dazzling, and I want to be that desperate myself.

This is a segment where we give thanks in a relay format. What do you want to say "thank you" for?

TO MEINA HAMAKAWA

Meina, thank you for gifting me macarons for my birthday♡ There were orange and purple macarons, and we talked about it like "It's Jurina and Nadeshiko's colors~", too. They were so yummy! Thank you for the meal! Look forward to your present in return, too~!

Please say a word to everyone who came to the theater.

Thank you so much! For coming to watch! I'll devote my whole body and soul to living as Jurina, and try my best to make your hearts Rerise with Jurina's brilliance! 奴樽出! 釜死樽出! (I'll get it done! I'll kill it!) Thank you. [to explain this, she wrote yattarude and kamashitarude, which are Kansai-ben, and then wrote them as fake kanji, for the yankee manga vibes, I guess]

ARISA SHINOHARA AS KUROMI SAIKAWA

Looking back on the activities for "The STAGE Junior High", what left the strongest impression on you?

There's a lot… it's hard to pick just one (lol). The more recent things come to me first, so… In that case, it's the intermissions for the 13 performances of Remains, I guess. I've been asked to do them since the first play, and for the first and second, there were other ensemble members included, but for the third we couldn't do that… So I thought really hard about what I should do to entertain the audience, and that's what I remember most. It was fun.

The title of this play is Rerise. Do you do anything special to boost your mood and make yourself Rerise?

I'm pretty good at convincing myself of things to begin with…

(If I say "It doesn't hurt!!" when my stomach hurts, it stops hurting). So, when I need to snap myself out of it, say "Ah… Enough already! Yeah!! It's fine!!" and make myself listen, and then I feel better pretty quickly. If that doesn't work, then I beat my chest a ton. It's really loud. It's pretty wild, huh (lol).

What does shining on stage mean to you?

For me, I think it's "eyes and gaze". When I was in school, I was once told, "walk while thinking that someone else is watching you". When you do that, it makes you picture a circle of energy surrounding you. And when dancing and acting too, when my eyes "LOCK ON!!!" to my target, it feels like, I'm shining~!!! (lol).

MESSAGES

To Ryoko

I think your tendency to give in to those around you and your humble nature are good things,

but your exceptionally strong feelings for the stage are the most dazzling to me, and I really respect them.

Find the the brilliance you have within yourself, and make sure you never lose it.

From Ruka

To Shiro

At first, you felt really distant from me,

but since we've grown so much together, I feel like we've gotten a little closer now.

Your perfectionist, unyielding, tall back is always shining, Shiro.

But in truth, you have more love in you than anyone else, and I love you for that.

Let's keep aiming for greater heights.

From Kanon

To Stella

Your strength and weakness and kindness, all of it is so lovable to me.

You're filled to the brim with love, and I love you!

Let's keep seeing various kinds of brilliance together!

From Hina☆

Dear Kuina ♡♡♡

I love the down to earth and hardworking you!

You're the greatest Stage Girl, being able to turn your weakness of self-centeredness into your strength.

Hard work and muscles won't betray you, am I right😊💪

In the end, the person who's built up the most over time is the strongest!!!! Let's keep on running straight ahead.

From Satoyuri

To Minku-chan

Thank you for letting me meet so many roles and Stage Girls!

Your ability to smile and give others energy

has helped me so much. You're my brightest star☆

I hope we'll be able to see more exciting views together in the future.

I love you!

From Kokoro♡

Script and Lyrics

Ohine Ezaki

Hello, I'm Ohine Ezaki. It's been a year since "Remains". You've all waited a long time. Finally, the second chapter of the Junior High's story is complete.

The Junior High stage plays can only be performed thanks to the support of many people. I put my gratitude towards the cast, staff, and all of you in the Stage Production Department who have helped us up until this point, into the script and lyrics. You could even say this is a culmination of everything we've done until now.

Please watch until the end to see what "answer" Siegfeld Institute of Music Junior High and Romana Scuola d'Arte Drammatica arrive at.

I hope that after you watch the play, a rainbow hangs in the sky after the rain.

PROFILE

He has written many scripts for theater troupes and units, and is known for writing plays with dense dialogue. From music readers theaters which combine live band music with live reading; to theater that combines ballet, Japanese dance, orchestra, and reading; he has staged many productions related to "sound".

He works not only in theater, but also on anime projects, and in Shoujo☆Kageki Revue Starlight, he's in charge of the script and direction of the Starira readers theaters.

Direction

Takehiro Yoshida

I'm very happy to be able to direct for a series I personally love, and I also feel the responsibility that comes with that. I'd like to make this production soar to great heights with the brilliance of the play, the cast, the staff, and everyone involved.

I hope you enjoy it to the fullest until the end.

PROFILE

Having worked on scripts and directing for many productions in various genres, he's reputed for constructing flashy and beautiful worlds with the theme of "a view that can only be seen on stage".

In Shoujo☆Kageki Revue Starlight, he was in charge of -Edel Bühne- ~Readers Theater Elysion - Chapter of Gods~.

(JP text)

#revue starlight #shoujo kageki revue starlight #interviews #siegfeld junior high #romana drama school #rerise #text #i used romana's official italian name in this for fun lol

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snowfieldstories · 4 months ago

Text

In Life and Death [Chapter 6]

Kim Dokja x Reader/Original female character

<< Series masterlist

Warnings: violence and language

AN: I finished this, posted it on ao3...then forgot to post here SORRY!

Summary:

In which a reader finds herself tossed into the pages of her favorite web novel after her untimely death. A novel of a novel within reality. It's a reader's dream, right? Well, this reader vows to bring the right epilogue to her beloved character, Kim Dokja. She will give him the happiest of endings. Or she will die trying.

⚠️MAJOR SPOILERS FOR ORV WEB NOVEL AND MANHWA!!!!⚠️

Episode V. Chapter 6 — Reapers and Revelations

Three messages taunted us soon after defeating the theater master.

[Main Scenario #3 — Emergency Defense has ended.]

[You have obtained 1,000 coins as compensation.]

[The fourth main scenario is about to begin!]

"It hasn't even been ten minutes," groaned Jihye. "Can't we get a break?"

Dokja stretched his arm that had taken the brunt of the fall when he was punched earlier. "Actually, Jihye, I need you to watch Yoo Joonghyuk. Stay here with him until he wakes. And please inform me when he wakes up...I want to give him a few more hits."

His eyes slid to me at his last words, then back to Jihye. She nodded and took up a position watching over Joonghyuk. I picked up Gilyoung, who had fallen into a deep sleep soon after wishing on the meteor shower. He curled against my chest, murmuring.

Dokja, Heewon, Namwoon, and I made our way down. The dungeon had become a regular theater once again.

No one felt like speaking. Heewon twisted her loose locks aimlessly around her finger as she was lost in thought; Dokja lugged the shield for Hyunsung, tapping along the rim; Namwoon, I watched the closest, seemed to be dragging his feet, a slight droop to his shoulders.

Dokja's steps faltered, then his face flipped between reactions, like he was having a conversation. Bihyung was talking to him. This, I knew, because I had reread that part only yesterday.

I nudged into Dokja to catch his attention. "You can say anything about that novel and it should filter, even for Bihyung," I said in a soft voice.

The dokkaebi in question immediately popped into existence, right in front of my face. I heard Heewon yell and unsheathe her new sword.

[I've had enough. What the hell are you?]

Though he was rather cute in his still-small size, the force of his voice overwhelmed my senses at such a close distance. I had to activate my rationality skill to quell my fighting instincts.

I looked to my three companions, equally alert and tense beside me. "It's fine. Go down to the platform, and I'll catch up."

Dokja's hard expression turned from Bihyung to me. "No way."

"You need to be there for the next scenario, Dokja." His face cracked with the hesitation, so I pushed. "Take Chungmuro. Gong Pildu is under contract, yes? Then the station is yours. You can follow the King's Road before Joonghyuk."

At Heewon's concerned glance at the sleeping boy in my arms, I set him gently by the wall. "Gilyoung will be safer up here for the time being."

Dokja made a noise somewhere between frustration and acceptance.

"...Fine. Come on, Heewon-ssi, Namwoon." Dokja's eyes flitted between me and Bihyung, and I knew what his meaningful glance was telling me:

Be careful.

We seemed to be making the phrase into a new habit.

I stopped Namwoon with a hand on his shoulder. The other two had gone on downstairs, but I still whispered.

"There will be a flag, and Dokja must take it. He should have things handled with Gong Pildu, but if anyone else gets dangerously close—I want you to kill them."

Namwoon nodded, his head hung low as he wouldn't meet my eyes. Then he left.

[You...what are you?]

I looked at Bihyung. We had not yet spoken directly like this in the current turn. "I am an incarnation."

[You're not normal.]

"What do you think I am?"

[Ha. I don't know what to think. That's why I asked.]

Bihyung shook. Whether it was in fury or fear was yet to be determined, but neither one was very good for me. His red eyes were twin pools of magma eager to burn me.

I tried a different track. "I could tell you. But the constellations will anger with you if this conversation is also filtered."

His teeth bared in a horrific grin.

[Luckily, there are more exciting things happening down below. I've closed off this part of the channel.]

My face was carefully neutral, but inside I was reeling. Could he do that in the novel? Not for the first time, I cursed not having the crazy ability to recall minute details of a novel like Kim Dokja. The only things I could remember were times when Bihyung used ads to block conversations with Dokja; but it made sense that he could control the channel video feed as well. I tucked away this important information to use in the future.

For now, I was alone.

"Let's speak freely then. This is my second turn at life." I crossed my arms.

[A returner?]

Bihyung's eyes popped. Whatever he had expected, it must not have been that.

[Shit. That's good, right? More excitement to stir up entertainment. No...she could ruin my growing channel with her knowledge, shit. What to do, what to do...]

I snapped my fingers at the mumbling dokkaebi. "Hey. Listen. Kill me and you will have the wrath of certain powerful constellations down your toga. I think you know who."

[...]

"And," I said, arching my brow. "In my last turn your channel was weak. Uninteresting. Already in this turn, you've exploded in growth more than in nearly twenty scenarios before. You need variables like me."

Bihyung watched me for a long time. Then he let out a screech like a rusty bike tire—his laugh.

[You and Kim Dokja are one and the same. Is he a returner, too?]

I shrugged.

[...I didn't expect you to tell me anyways. So, I suppose you want to make a deal with me?]

"No. Just leave me be."

At that, Bihyung crackled with energy. Definitely fury this time.

[How arrogant. A mere incarnation, giving ME a demand.]

"You said it yourself. I'm not a normal incarnation."

[The exclusive skill 'Sacred Light Lv. 6' has been activated!]

I had leveled up after the fight with the theater master.

In a flash, ribbons of light slithered towards Bihyung. He shouted as they suspended him in place, wrapping around his body in pretty gold stripes.

"I killed plenty of constellations in my last turn. If I could kill a constellation, then how easy would it be to kill a low-level dokkaebi?"

Level six wasn't the best, but it was sufficiently strong for a lower dokkaebi like Bihyung. My mana was the real hurdle.

"But I don't want to kill you. In fact, I quite like you, Bihyung. I think you'll be a great help to us in the future; perhaps even a friend."

My light twisted, tightening and shaping around the seething dokkaebi. I wanted to take advantage of this private conversation.

"This sacred light was given to me by Mother. Do you know who my Mother is? My sponsor?"

[...No.]

Interesting. So she was still a mystery to him in this world-turn, too. "I want to keep it that way. Please redirect any comments or questions about her from other constellations, and send them to me. Actually, scrub out her name, while you're at it."

[I thought you didn't want a deal.]

"I don't. Think of this as a friendly exchange."

Bihyung scoffed. It sounded ridiculous, but I was confident. Even more so as I used fifty accumulated luck from my skill, 'Bank of Lady Fortune.'

[Withdrawal successful. You now have: 47/500 luck.]

"In return, I'll do my best to avoid talking about my status as a returner. Then there will be no censoring, no outraged constellations down your throat."

Gilyoung snored loudly in the silence that followed.

[I...keuuk...okay. I'll do it. Can you release the bindings now?]

"They're not bindings."

Bihyung looked down to find a giant golden bow atop his stomach. Two more adorned each of his little horns. It was terribly cute.

I couldn't help a small chuckle as I released my skill. "You make a lovely present."

[You really—huh?! Oh, nothing to worry—apologies, dear constellations—ah, yes, I've fixed the issue now. It's back on. Ahaha. See?]

Bihyung gave me one last, inscrutable glance before he zapped away. I picked Gilyoung back up and continued down.

"Hm, maybe I was too harsh with him..."

I wanted Bihyung to think well of me. I wasn't lying when I said I liked him; I did, very much so. But it was a bit early in the story to befriend a dokkaebi.

Though I had used luck, it really only worked in this situation because Bihyung was waffling between decisions to begin with. Had he been hellbent on killing me, or refusing the favor, my luck would have been powerless.

Well, it worked out in the end. Hopefully my sponsor would be satisfied.

The Mother of Divine Desire.

The reality was...I didn't know much more about her than Bihyung. What little we had communicated in the last round was mainly about me and my development as an incarnation. She always brushed off any questions about herself.

In fact, I didn't know if Mother would approve of my actions just now. Perhaps she would be furious. But I had to trust in her—she had chosen me, so she must believe in my judgment and methods.

Blind faith was not something I excelled at. But she had proven a faith in me, so for that, I must try.

Just as I reached the bottom of the stairs, a ping alerted me to the latest development.

['Kim Dokja' has claimed the 'white' flag!]

I smiled.

"Take the flag! There's only five minutes!"

Hyunsung grabbed his new shield and protected Dokja and the others from the Landlord Alliance. I kicked a rock in between the two sides.

"Gong Pildu-ssi, Kim Dokja will be our representative."

All eyes swiveled to me. Sangah called out my name, and I entrusted her with the still-sleeping Gilyoung.

"Yeona," Gong Pildu said. "Where have you been? Do you know what this sly bastard and his accomplices—?!"

As Gong Pildu struggled to get up, I caught the dirty imprint of a boot on his back. I turned to Dokja just as he ordered Gong Pildu to stay down. "Keep your head to the floor and your mouth shut until I tell you otherwise."

"Dokja! You didn't need to step on him."

His lips thinned, annoyed. "I didn't see him down there."

"Sure you didn't." I rolled my eyes.

"What, not happy I beat up your father?" he said with a touch too much snark.

Hyunsung lowered his shield as I approached. "Father?" I heard Heewon ask from the back. My finger poked the hard bulletproof vest on Dokja's chest.

"You have the command," I spoke quietly. "Now it's time to gather more people to your side...pretending to be cruel won't help your case."

Dokja seemed to really consider my words. He nodded once, then ordered Gong Pildu to get up and move freely—but still unable to take the flag.

I was satisfied and went over to help Gong Pildu to his feet.

"You're a lovesick fool, girl," he muttered, and my ears felt hot. What was with these people and their bloodhound abilities to sniff out my emotions? Or was I truly that transparent?

"You don't approve?" I tried teasing, but it came out a bit weak.

He scowled. "Certainly not. He's trouble; you can do far better."

"Don't worry, it's one-sided, anyways."

Gong Pildu gave me a scrutinizing look, almost like he was trying to figure out if I was joking, then he brushed his clothes free of dust and walked away. He mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like "if only."

Before I could call him back to ask, my attention was drawn back to the current sub-scenario.

"Choose whether you'll stay here, under me, or leave Chungmuro," said Dokja, his voice ringing out.

The other people of Chungmuro station, Alliance members and random strangers alike, began shouting their doubts and questions at Dokja. He answered each one calmly and with ease. "...Oh, don't mind Gong Pildu. That guy belongs to me, now!"

At a sharp look from me, he amended the statement. "I just mean he's under strict control."

[The sub-scenario has ended.]

In the end, only three men left Chungmuro station. Twenty-eight remained.

Based on Dokja's click of the tongue as he read Star Stream messages, I summarised that he still didn't have enough credibility to earn the "king" title.

[Well then, let's begin the main game.]

Bihyung zeroed in on me as he snapped his fingers.

[The fourth main scenario has been activated!]

I read the clear conditions for capture the flag. It was the exact same as in the novel; I had been worried Bihyung might change up the details of this one, as revenge for my bold...threats. Yeah, I was kind of threatening towards him.

But Bihyung wished us luck and vanished from the room as fast as he came.

The group broke into discussion about the main scenario, and I saw Dokja go talk to Gong Pildu. I went over to sit by Namwoon, who was staring off at the grimy wall opposite him.

"Thank you for keeping watch earlier," I told Namwoon.

His expression only clouded over more. "I didn't do anything. I didn't help."

I sensed his turmoil and put a hesitant hand on his shoulder. "Namwoon, was it too much of me to ask for you to possibly kill those people?"

"No," he said quickly. "I don't care about that."

"Then what...?"

"Noona." I was alarmed as his red eyes became wobbly with unshed tears.

I wrapped my arm around him as he clutched his knees. "No 'angel'?" I tried.

"I don't deserve to call you that," he choked out. "I attacked you—you got hurt because of me—"

So it was that. My hand moved to pet his hair; it was surprisingly soft for how spiky it appeared. "If you want forgiveness, then of course I forgive you. But you don't need it. The theater master was controlling your mind—you did nothing wrong."

"But I wanted to hurt you." His voice was rough. Troubled. "I felt it."

[The constellation 'Abyssal Black Flame Dragon' looks upon his incarnation with sorrow.]

I pushed his head back to look him directly in the eye. "Kim Namwoon. The theater master twists minds. Sure, you're a violent kid, sometimes to the extreme, and maybe you're a delusional demon...and you're most definitely a chuunibyou and otaku. But none of that makes you a villain who likes hurting his companions." I flicked his forehead lightly. "Plus, I like all those things about you."

"Y—you do?"

"Of course. Why do you think I took you in that day on the train?" I smiled. "I wanted that badass, nerdy kid on my team."

Namwoon nuzzled against my hand, eyes closed, almost purring with content. "I'm not a nerd, though," he mumbled.

There was a cough nearby.

Dokja looked rather unimpressed. I gestured from him to the younger boy, and mouthed, say something nice.

With a pained grimace, he said, reluctantly, "Kim Namwoon, you fight well."

...Are you serious? My thoughts flattened in disbelief, and it must have shown on my face because Dokja heaved a great sigh and said, "And it's good that you're with us."

Despite the questionable quality (and sincerity) of the compliments, they made Namwoon perk up. "I am insanely strong, aren't I? And I'll grow even stronger with a dragon as my sire." It was such a chuuni thing to say that I had to cough to hide my laugh. "Stronger than you, too, ahjussi, just you wait."

Then Namwoon tore away from my side and raced down the hall, cackling with a newfound determination.

"I—I am not that old!"

I hid my smile at the offense on Dokja's face. "He's been spending too much time around Lee Jihye, it seems."

"These damn kids," said Dokja without any real ire, but sounding very much like an old ahjussi.

This time I let my laughter ring out freely.

"I don't understand why you like him so much," said Dokja. There was a pinch between his brows, a contempt that seemed directed inwards, and perhaps he was thinking of how similar the two of them were. A sear went through my chest. I knew of his self-loathing, but it was heartbreaking to witness for real. I didn't know what to say without revealing my intimate knowledge of him.

"I think he's worthy of being our companion," I finally responded. "And he has a good heart. Uh...even with his craziness."

Dokja stared at me, a peculiar expression on his face.

VROOM! VROOM, VROOOM!

We leapt down onto the train tracks in time to see a group of men and women hop off their motorbikes. Dokja raised his sword.

"Stop there. Put down your weapons."

A gentle-looking man stepped into the light, hands raised. "We didn't come for a fight."

"Then why did you come?"

"Well, first I should introduce myself. I'm Kang Ilhun from the Dongdaemun Group."

Dokja was sharp, calculating, as he studied Kang Ilhun. "Kim Dokja."

"Kim Dokja-ssi..." Something flashed in Kang Ilhun's face. "We are here to offer an alliance."

After more back and forth with the Dongdaemun Group, Dokja, Heewon, Sangah, Hyunsung, and I broke away to form a quick plan. "...and Hyunsung-ssi will stay here with Gong Pildu to protect—"

"No," I interjected, remembering what was to come. "I'll stay, and Hyunsung will join you all."

They moved to leave, but I sought Dokja's attention one last time.

"Come back quickly." The gravity in my voice drew a furrow to his brows, but I urged him on ahead.

I then went to Gong Pildu after they had left. "Set up your private property on this floor. As wide as you can make it. We're going to need your turrets soon."

He did as I asked. In the meantime, I moved Gilyoung to a better-shielded corner to continue sleeping. Namwoon was still off somewhere, but I figured the sound of fighting would draw him back eventually.

That was when the Myeongdong Group attacked.

[Someone has invaded private property!]

"What are these bastards—!" Gong Pildu raged as his skills activated.

"Gain control later! I just need to put the flag in and it will be over," shouted a man with a red 'Myeongdong' flag tied around his head. He buffed his teammates with the power of the red flag.

I killed a few that attacked me, as bullets from Gong Pildu's turrets streamed past my head.

"Hahahaha look at these weaklings?!"

Namwoon had returned in full glory, and now hacked away at the nearest intruders. I sent an arrow to pierce the back of one that swung too close to Namwoon while he was turned.

He looked at the arrow with renewed interest. "Angel-noona, when I steal their flag...can I have my kiss on the cheek?"

As he spoke, Gong Pildu's turrets blasted at the Myeongdong Group. I wasn't given the chance to respond.

"RETREAT!" someone shouted.

Their leader jumped down to the train tracks, his men following, and before Namwoon could leap after them a great flame erupted. Screams were drowned out by the firing of Gong Pildu's turrets gunning them down.

The smoke cleared, and a red flag floated to the ground.

"It's mine!" Namwoon raced past Gong Pildu, arm outstretched, but before he could grab the flag it was snatched away.

Kim Dokja hopped onto the platform. "Oh, did you want this?"

Namwoon's mouth twisted sourly, and Gong Pildu mumbled, "Son of a bitch."

There was no one left of Myeongdong besides Kang Ilhun, who was now tied with Sangah's threads and carried back by Lee Hyunsung. Dokja gathered us around Kang Ilhun and demanded the source of his information. Kang Ilhun panicked at the first mention of torture; he broke entirely when threatened with death.

"The prophets! The prophets are in Dongmyo Station!" Then Kang Ilhun's eyes widened as his mouth foamed.

I sent a clamp of sacred light between his teeth before he could bite off his own tongue.

Eventually, Dokja left to check on Joonghyuk, and I helped clear away the bodies with the others. Gilyoung had woken up at some point and latched onto my side as we worked.

[The constellation 'Demon-like Judge of Fire' warns you!!]

What? What was happening?!

[The constellation 'Prisoner of the Golden Headband' is confused.]

[The constellation 'Abyssal Black Flame Dragon' wants to blast 'Kim Dokja' to pieces!]

[The constellation 'Abyssal Black Flame Dragon' reaffirms that his incarnation is the better choice.]

[The constellation 'Secretive Plotter' thinks that 'Kim Dokja' is a bastard philanderer.]

[Many constellations are shocked by the truth of the filtered conversation and 'Kim Dokja's' affections.]

Excuse me? Before my feet could carry me back to the Theater Dungeon, Dokja reappeared at the bottom of the stairs, slightly out of breath.

"Lee Jihye spews nothing but bullshit. And everyone is an idiot," said Dokja loudly.

[The constellation 'Demon-like Judge of Fire' looks at you mournfully, because 'Kim Dokja's' heart is pulled in many directions.]

...I think I understood. "It's fine, Uriel. Don't pay it any mind."

She sent me five hundred pity coins, anyways.

Dokja, after stalling for a few minutes in front of me and the stream of constellation messages in front of him, had his mind drawn back to the issue of prophets, and he tucked away to search for the answer on his phone.

I rejoined our companions.

"So that bastard and his group tried to attack us?" Sangah and I were catching Gilyoung up on what he had missed, and the new main scenario. I nodded, and Gilyoung gripped Thor's hammer. "We should kill him."

Sangah startled, but I placed a hand on his knee. "He can help us find the person that sent them to us, so, for now, let's wait."

[Oho, but you might find another use for him.]

Bihyung sneered down at us, a gleam in his darkened, red eyes. I had a bad feeling about this. Maaaybe I shouldn't have antagonized a dokkaebi so early in the scenarios.

[We're going to spice things up around here. Life's no fun when it's easy, eh?]

He called out to everyone gathered in Chungmuro Station.

[Enjoy the games.]

...Games?

[A hidden scenario has arrived.]

[Hidden Scenario — Angels vs. Reaper] Category: Hidden Difficulty: B+ Clear Conditions: 1. The Angel of Judgement must uncover the identity of the Reaper and input their name before the time limit runs out. 2. The Guardian Angel can input two names per day, including themselves if they so choose, to protect against death from being named. These two people must change each day. 3. The Reaper must input one name per day to die. They must not be caught by the Angel of Judgement. 4. At the end of the time limit, if the Reaper has killed a sufficient number of people and escaped judgement, they win; if the Angels catch the Reaper and escape death, they win. There can only be one winning side. Time Limit: 4 days Compensation: 4,000 coins to each victor Failure: For the two Angels, the loss of one captured-station rank for your group. For the Reaper, death.

Damn it. God fucking damn it. How did Bihyung even have the plausibility for this sort of trick? He must have insane backing from a higher-dokkaebi or some bloodthirsty, conniving constellations. Perhaps both.

Even before it popped up in front of me, I knew.

[You are the Reaper.]

[You have 23:59:58 to kill someone.]

[Input name here: __________]

All the luck in the world wouldn't get me out of this one.

Next part ->

#omniscient reader's viewpoint #orv #kim dokja #orv x reader #kim dokja x reader #orv fanfic #kim dokja x original character #omniscient reader novel #omniscient reader webtoon #snowfieldstories #In Life and Death

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august-anon · 1 month ago

Note

I have been slowly devouring your fic list! You are a literal angel!!!

I wanted to share some as well that I think are kinda in the same vein

First is gonna be a series by KagSeshLove called Grade School (https://archiveofourown.org/series/423136 ) - there’s 13 parts I think and they are all fantastic.

-Essentially ‘What if Damian had to go to normal school’ and A LOT of batfam chaos ensues lol.

-The fourth part in the series has a very small tickling moment but other than that it’s just good ol’ bat family fun.

-The last part is AMAZING the whole series is great but the almost the whole family is in the last one and it’s just funny as hell I can’t lie

All Things to All Men by motleyfam (https://archiveofourown.org/works/42862545/chapters/107680602#workskin)

-This one is basically a sick fic, Jason is kind of a prick when he doesn’t feel well, Tim takes most things personally, and Dick is the only one that know how to deal with Jason.

-This fic is part of a series that I’ve read most of, they’re all fantastic!

- every chapter that gets added explores a side quest you didn’t know you needed I swear

Things that make it warm by one_step_closer_to_death (https://archiveofourown.org/works/43766437)

-A little angsty/ mostly fluff about Jason being touch starved since being back. There is a little bit of tickling in this one as well!

-Super, super cute fic!

I know you had one from dangerouscoffeetheorist on your list, I need somebody to tell me it will be just fine is another good one! (https://archiveofourown.org/works/33597463)

-There’s a little bit of tickling, but mostly just Dick trying to get angry black cat (pre dying) Jason to open up a little with Bruce. Very fluffy and cute!

Here’s another one by the same author called 5 Times Jason was Embarrassed by his Family (https://archiveofourown.org/works/23605972)

- The title is pretty self explanatory, but this one ALSO had a bit of ticking in it lol.

-the tickling is at the very end

Best Served Wet by RandomReader13 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/22483846)

-THIS ONE IS ADORABLE! No tickling but little Jason learns to swim and hijinks ensue of course lol.

-I go back to it all the time because it’s so cute

- moody :)

Don't worry, you were on anon!

And omg Moody thank you so much i love getting fic recs skdjfhdsjf I am looking forward to these!!! We def have similar taste because there are some I've read before skjdfh (the Settle Our Bones series by motleyfam and Best Served Wet by RandomReader13). And you are RIGHT on the money with my interests giving me a touch starved fic skdjfhdf every fandom i join, i always wind up in the touch starved tags sdjfkhdf i havent done it super in depth with the batfam stuff just yet but i had been starting to before i started building the fic rec list and therefore was focusing on that lol

i am so eager to read these!!!! I have like 200 tabs worth of fics open in my phone rn (not all batfam, some of them go back SEVERAL years tbh lol, i've had this one like 400-500K mchanzo one open since i was in high school and still into overwatch on the off chance it updates someday because i keep forgetting to subscribe to it lol), but these will be my slacking-off-during-work activities tomorrow instead of any of those sdkjfhdsf

#ask #anon #moody anon #fic recs #batfam fic recs

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gallusrostromegalus · 2 years ago

Note

So, how exactly was the Gotei 13 formed in AEIWAM?

(The original gotei-13 captains might have canon genders but I'm going off vibes tbh.) (Here's a collection of Kubo's art of the original 13 so you can see what everyone looks like)

-----

It had started with the Clans.

Actually, it had started when Shigekuni Yamamoto was mugged for the fourth time in as many days, by agents of The Great Noble Houses, trying to influence the tide of their endless petty wars. You could hardly blame him for reacting as he did, somewhat literally blowing up with rage, and upon his return to his home office, rallying his fellow distraught men into a fighting force to stand up to the clans.

It had been quite a popular manuver for him, with the equally distraught and downtrodden citizens of the central rukongai threw their support behind him in short order. He was already well-known to them, and respected for his work. In a few short years, his meager forces had grown to rival the clans in power.

Then the Quincies had invaded the Spirit World, lead by some horrible creature known as Yhwach, seemingly Hell-Bent on conquest- which is where all of them would end up if The Archery Bastards kept shooting everything that moved and upended the balance between the worlds.

Now-General Shigekuni Yamamoto, the unfortunate bastard to whom the task of defending the largest city in the Spirit world from invasion had fallen, needed some muscle.

Why me, of all people? Surely there were others more qualified? He wondered, staring at the latest round of reports from the meager handful of his men that remained. Or perhaps everyone smart enough to actually do this is also smart enough to realize it was a lost cause and had thrown their lot in with one of the Noble Houses, and I am on a fool's errand.

Even just a handful of warriors with sufficient strength could break the leading edge of the Quincy line, and let the small army that remained slip behind them in to cut the Quincies off from their supply lines. It was just that breaking the wall of archers required at least a dozen of him.

"Word from lieutenant Sasakibe!" Shouted one of his soldiers, sprinting in the door and thrusting a letter at him. "Sorry sir I just remembered how important it was that you heard from him as soon as possible."

"You did as I asked." Yamamoto nodded, opening the letter. He had needed to stay- both to recover from his injuries and because if the Quincy got much closer, using Ryujin jakka to create a wall of fire around the city might be the only way to hold them off- and he had tasked Chojiro Sasakibe, his Longest and Dearest friend, with finding him the strongest warriors in Soul Society.

He took the scroll and opened it, reading the neat but excitably slanted handwriting within-

Dearest Shigekuni,

I am relieved to report I have found a dozen extremely powerful warriors per your request! I went on a hunch a friend of mine had, and found a concentration of MANY powerful warriors that would be willing to aid our cause, but twelve among them are particularly standout candidates. Given the rapid advance of the Quincy Army, I have included a teleportation spell to their location at the end of this scroll so you may meet them immediately.

"Incredible!" Yamamoto laughed. "Is there nothing this man cannot do?"

I do beg of you though- Please, reserve your judgement of them until you have seen their capacity.

"Ah." Yamamoto sighed. "...of course there's a catch."

Their circumstances are... complex, and this has made many of them rough and peculiar to speak to, but I swear we will not find better warriors, at least not before the Quincy advance reaches Seireitei.

I await your arrival, Chojiro

Yamamoto unfurled the scroll a bit more to see the edge of the teleportation spell that would activate when exposed to sunlight. "Sir?" asked the young soldier.

"It seems Sasakibe was successful in finding me the assistance we need, but they are apparently a queer lot." Yamamoto rumbled, thinking. "There is a teleportation spell- How close did you say the Advance was?"

"Not more than a week out, sir."

"Hopefully less than two hours then." he grunted, standing up and carrying the scroll to the courtyard of the building he operated from- it was a place used to the many comings and goings of a large and complex organization, though the little Shrine to the God of Messages and messengers had been somewhat neglected of late. Yamamoto took a moment to sweep the leaves out of the shrine and bowed to the statue within, thanking it for delivering Sasakibe's message and asking for help delivering him to his friend.

"Any orders while you're away, Sir?" The soldier asked.

"Someone clean out that shrine and make it a proper offering. The last thing we need is for communications to go down." The General nodded.

"Yes Sir!" the soldier saluted.

Yamamoto unfurled the scroll and with a flash, vanished from the courtyard.

---

With the same flash, he appeared somewhere... foggy.

"Shigekuni?" a familiarly crisp voice asked somewhere in the ether.

"Chojiro?" Yamamoto called back, and the vague shape that might have been a rock in front of him stood up, arms open. He laughed, and embraced his friend. "Good job! How did you find them so fast?"

Sasakibe's warm smile suddenly stiffened into a grimace. "...Promise you will not be angry?"

"Chojiro?" Yamamoto frowned.

"See, I was asking my friends- only the most trusted of them, I swear- how to even go about finding warriors with everything scattered to the wind of late, and well- One of them suggested that only things that are powerful are widely feared, so look where fearsome things are to find powerful ones."

Yamamoto squinted at his friend, then around them at the dense fog, the strange rocky cliff beside them, and the distant sound of angry voices.

"Chojiro." Yamamoto asked, hands on his shoulders. "Where are we?"

Sasakibe pointed up behind Yamamoto where characters had been carved into the stone cliff.

The Nest Of Maggots

"Chojiro."

"Yes, sir?"

"This is a prison."

"Yes, sir."

"This is a prison for the kind of filth that even the most bitterly factious clans agree is a danger to have wandering around. The kind that they already tried and failed to weaponize against each other. This is a prison for Monsters."

"...Yes, sir." Sasakibe sighed. "-But, is is not monsters we need?"

Yamamoto was silent for a time, thinking of the swathes of pointless destruction- salted fields and burnt villages- of the senseless loss of life- slaughtering soldier and civilian alike down to the last man, woman and child- of the cruel and twisted powers of the chosen favorites of Yhwach.

"Monsters to fight monsters." He shook his head. "What is this world coming to?" Yamamoto sighed.

Sasakibe looked away, unable to meet his friend's gaze. "Still, beggars can't be choosers." Yamamoto nodded. "Show them to me."

--- All twelve "Most Dangerous" of The Nest's prisoners had been herded together into something approximating a straight line in the middle of the rocky cavern that housed the prisoners here, though some of them were already beginning to meander, and one woman near the end of the line had, rather rudely, decided to remain seated in Yamamoto's presence. The lineup was... less than impressive. Two of the women looked like they belonged on pinup posters rather than death row. One of the men looked like a washed-up Sumo, another like an ashtray that had been cursed to roam the afterlife as a human. On one end of the line was an ancient and decrepit old man, and on the other was a- Yamamoto wasn't actually sure if they were a man or a woman, but in another life, they had definitely been a cat.

"These are the most powerful fighters in the Spirit World?" He muttered to Chojiro.

"These are the most still-alive-est fighters in the Spirit World." Chojiro clarified.

"...Fuck it. " Yamamoto sighed under his breath, before stepping forward and addressing them properly.

"I am General Shigekuni Yamamoto of The Seireitei. I don't know how long you've been in this hole-" Yamamoto paused, sensing that something was off.

None of the Prisoners were looking at him. In fact, the all seemed very dedicated to looking everywhere but at him. Some were inspecting the stalactites, others were examining the grit on the cave floor, or staring into the metaphysical abyss somewhere just over his shoulder, and one man had pulled his very silly straw hat down in front of his face.

"-Alright, what the hell is going on?" Yamamoto growled.

There was a general unenthusiastic sort of shuffling and a distinct lack of answers.

"Remember everyone!" The man next to the cat-in-human-form spoke up while examining his fingernails. He looked more like an accountant than someone who belonged on Death Row, but the others perked up and paid attention. "-We are not to speak to any guards of visitors until our representative arrives and has given us permission to do so." The others nodded and resumed looking anywhere but at Yamamoto.

"...Representative?" Sasakibe lightly growled at a guard, whose complexion went from 'ashen' to 'deathly'.

"They um. Well. They've gotten rather close to one of the other prisoners, but she's no good in a fight, so we left her-" The Guard sputtered under Sasakibe's withering glare.

"-Miss Tsubaki was waiting at the Primary gate last I saw her." continued the man who looked like an accountant and that Yamamoto was becoming increasingly sure was armed, despite allegedly having been searched and denied any tools in his confinement. "...I say to no-one in particular." He added.

There was a moment of silence.

Yamamoto struck the tired-looking, gray-haired young woman beside the accountant, sending her stumbling back, but the accountant and the sturdily-built blonde man beside her stepped in to catch her, the rest of the line snapping to attention, eyes fixed on him with utter rage.

"Now that I have your attention-" Yamamoto started again, the gray-haired woman coughing as the sturdy blonde helped her back to her feet. "-As I was saying, the Spirit World is being invaded, and you're all being conscripted to-"

"Yachiru!" Snapped a young woman behind them.

Yamamoto turned to glare at the interloper, but instead found that the gaunt-looking woman that had remained seated had somehow apparently teleported and tackled Sasakibe to the wall behind them, one arm pressed to his throat, slowly choking him. Apparently-Yachiru's other hand had put some substantial holes in his abdomen and she paused from where she was about to stark licking Sasakibe's blood off her fingers to look at who had spoken.

"Don't eat that! You don't know where it's been!" Said a waifish young woman in threadbare prisoner's robes who could not have been taller than 4'10". She was quite striking, with large, dark eyes, sharp cheekbones, and a long aquiline nose. She took Yachiru's bloodied hand and dragged her back to the group. Yamamoto tried to keep his pace even as he walked over to check on Sasakibe, who immediately sat up and waved him off.

"...Thirsty." Grunted Yachiru- She might also have been beautiful, with her pale, round face and smooth black hair, were it not for the haunted, carnivorous look in her eye and her apparently literal bloodthirst. She stopped halfway back to the group to give a wet, hacking cough that made Yamamoto's skin crawl, and spat out a gob of bloody phlegm on the floor.

"You'll feel better when you get Minazuki back." the young woman reassured her, helping Yachiru sit back down, the others taking seats on the stone floor as well, in two neat lines behind her, the Human Cat behind one shoulder, the Accountant behind the other. "Is everyone else alright?"

"Kinroku definitely did not tell the guards to go get you." announced the man from behind his straw hat. "Also the mean old man hit Chigiri."

"I understand. Do you need assistance, Chigiri?

"The Old Goat has a sucker-punch like a rocket but I'll live." grunted Chigri, rubbing her abdomen and waving her hand interrogatively at Yachiru, who shrugged in reply.

"Despicable Behavior, hitting a medic." the human ashtray sniffed disapprovingly. Yamamoto could feel the Reiatsu of the group now, previously held in check, now starting to unfurl and growl and snarl at him.

"You BASTARDS-!" Yamamoto snarled, lunging towards the young woman, who instinctively made a fist in front of her chest, grabbed it with her other hand, and swung her whole body around, slamming her elbow into his eye socket and nose, and he stumbled, falling to his knees. It wasn't that hard a hit, not compared to what he was used to, but there was genuine killing intent behind it, much like the heel she struck into the side of his head, knocking him over the rest of the way in surprise. Miss Tsubaki's large, dark eyes were full of rage as she glared down at him, grinding his head into the floor under her toes. "Ah." He said, finally recognizing her from images in the intermittent news bulletins. Tsubaki was a middle daughter of one of the most powerful of the Noble Houses who had suddenly vanished from public view the year before. The rumor was that she had been imprisoned by her father for dangerous activities like 'Going Places' and 'Writing Letters' or even 'Having Opinions'. It was apparently true, but if she'd managed to organize the dirtiest dozen of the Maggot's Nest, he was beginning to understand her father's choice of internment. "Miss Tsunayashiro, I presume."

"I am her, and I am here in my capacity as their Union Representative. This means you do not talk to them. You talk to me." She lightly snarled, removing her surprisingly sharp-heeled foot from his temple and sitting seiza in front of the group. "Now what is it that you have brought us here to discuss?"

"Your friends are getting conscripted." he glared, slowly getting up and standing to address her. Returning the blow to a civilan, no matter who her family was or how hard she hit, was beneath either of their dignity, but a little looming was alright.

"We're getting hired." She corrected him. "With proper contracts and compensation."

"Shut up or else." He snarled, reconsidering the value of his dignity.

"...Or else what, exactly?" She asked.

Yamamoto bristled, and slowly drew his sword. Tsunayashiro's gaze flicked to the blade, following it's gleam as he brought it up to her throat, tipping her chin up with the point. "-Or you will all die right here." Tsubaki closed her eyes, sighed deeply and opened them again, gaze fixed on his. He could feel her pulse through Ryujin Jakka's blade.

...Steady as a rock.

"Alright." She spoke evenly. "Strike me down."

Yamamoto blinked.

"We are already on Death Row, General." She explained slowly as though speaking to an idiot. "None of us have families to speak of, or to speak to, for you to threaten. We're already cold and barely allowed to sleep and starving and in constant pain from broken bones or missing organs or untreated injuries. We are all already doomed to die or suffer gross abasement. You, however-"

She slowly stood up, neck sliding a bit on Ryujin Jakka's blade, drawing a trickle of blood.

"-I've been in here for the better part of a year, I believe, but news trickles in. Guards leave to replace soldiers fallen on the battlefield. Rations dwindle as farmland is overrun or destroyed. Political prisoners are freed and returned home as more popular heirs and scions are killed. You, General Shigekuini Yamamoto, need help with this war, and need it badly, to come here for it." Tsubaki continued, stepping forward and pressing a bit more into the blade, the trickle running more strongly, down her throat and into the folds of her thin Yukakta, staining the fabric bright red.

"So go on. Strike us down." She spoke softly. "Spare us the Humiliation of a Public execution or the horrors of a lobotomy, and doom yourself."

Yamamoto, quite possibly for the first time in his life, hesitated.

"If you cannot do that, sit down and negotiate like a civilized person." She said. The blood stained her entire breast now, but she did not flinch or waver.

Slowly, glaring and refusing to break eye contact, he withdrew his blade, wiped it down and sheathed it. Teeth gritted and heart unexpectedly racing, he sat. Lady Tsunayashiro followed, head still held high, though that may have been so Chigiri could lean forward and press a pad of torn robe to her throat, stemming the bleeding as she bandaged it, muttering curses.

"We're being invaded by an army of mutant humans called "Quincy" who can shoot arrows made of pure reishi, which can obliterate a soul entirely. They're lead by some monster called Yhwach, who seems hell-bent on conquering the entirety of the Living and Spirit worlds, and is apparently capable of killing small gods and Kami." Yamamoto explained, trying to stress the depth of the situation. He'd never been in a labor negotiation before, and was hoping they'd be more reasonable if he made an emotional appeal. "Kill enough of the archery bastards and live, and I'll have all your crimes pardoned."

"What a shame, what a shame." clucked the old man at the far end of the lines. "You young people just don't know how to handle things..."

"Hmmm..." The person who was definitely at least spiritually a cat pursed their lips. "Oh, uh- Chika Shihon." the bowed their head. "-It's a good start, but I'm gonna need a hell of a payday, seeing as nobody will hire an ex-criminal, even a pardoned one, and about forty more people need to die before my family will consider taking me back in."

"As well as some form of protection from political reprisals, or there won't be an opportunity to spend any of that payday." said Kinroku the Accountant, rubbing his nose like he was going to push up a pair of glasses he wasn't wearing.

"Paying criminals? Surely, you can't be serious!" Sasakibe scoffed.

"I am serious, and my name is Tsubaki, not Shirley." The representative quietly smirked at him. "Well, General? What price are you willing to offer for the salvation of all of Soul Society?"

"I want to see some proof before we talk price." Yamamoto glared at the Death Row From The Dumpster before him.

"Fair enough." Nodded Tsubaki, turning her head to address the group. "After me, who would you all say is the weakest fighter?"

The group considered this for a moment.

"Strongest is easy, its Yachiru, even with the missing lung." waved the pinup girl with the eyepatch and pigtails.

"Give Uhin some credit!" Protested the other pinup girl with the tits that were individually larger than her head.

"That's sweet of you to say Batsu-" Uhin the Giant in the back row laughed, patting the second girl's head. "-But also holy shit, no. Yachiru could disembowel me and strangle me with my own intestines before I could get off the mark! No offense little man, but I think it's Furuoki." He said, patting the straw hat of the man in front of him.

"Really?" Tits McGee pondered. "I was going to say Nobutsuna."

"I was gonna say me too." announced the human ashtray with a rough and reedy voice. "I hate fighting." "Yeah, but you hit like a fuckin' rockslide. Yeah, it's Furuoki." Agreed eyepatch.

"Mr. Otogawa-" Tsubaki addressed Furuoki the hat man. "-It's rather dark in here, would you please let in some light?"

Furuoki blinked at her, confused.

"Show the old man you can punch a hole in the ceiling." Yachiru translated for him, wetly.

"Okay!" Furuoki chirped happily, getting up and walking a few feet away.

"MORE!" yelled the group.

"Over by the guard tower!" Encouraged the large and rather jolly looking man, save for how he seemed to have lost both his lips and most of the front of his mouth, but had only bothered to replace his missing teeth with gold ones, giving him a permanent lipless grin.

Furuoki walked over towards the guard tower until the guards approached him and told him to back up, paced a bit until he found a suitable middle ground, and squinted up at the ceiling.

"Sir-" Sighed the head guard walking towards Furuoki as frowned at the ceiling. "Sir that's half a mile of solid rock and twelve different magical wards above you. It's not gonna work."

Furuoki instead dropped down on one knee, aimed, and-

A dazzling blue-green light and a noise like the roaring fires of Hell Itself erupted from his fist as he punched up towards the ceiling, vaporizing the stone above him and making all 12 wards chime and tinkle like glass as he broke through them. As the mushroom cloud of dust dispersed, sunlight began to filter in through the hole, at least 100 feet in diameter. The top third of the Guard tower seemed to have evaporated as well, and the guards were scrambling to try to control the panic.

"Is that enough?" Furuoki called.

"...Is it, General?" miss Tsubaki asked.

"...Ten Thousand Kan?" Yamamoto tried.

"That's fine dear, please come sit back down." Tsubaki waved.

"I am surprised, general." She smiled at Yamamoto in a way that reminded him uncomfortably of they way the post office cat would smile at the mice. "Ten Thousand Kan annually per individual is a very reasonable offer."

"A one-time payment of Ten thousand Kan to be split between the group." he growled.

"No." She shook he head. "You're offering us annual salaries, individually."

"The hell I am."

"Then we will enjoy watching the collapse of civilization through the new Skylight Furuoki made us." She replied, unconcerned. "You may have noticed, General, that there is a war on, and this is an exceptionally safe and secure place to be. Make it worth leaving."

"-Two minutes ago this was a frozen hellhole you were all starving in." he glared.

"Ah, but the view and property value has improved substantially in the last two minutes!" She smiled, unconcerned with his complaints. "There is no punishment you could mete out that is worse than remaining here, General, but you are not an advancing army of superhuman mutants, and there are MANY things the Quincy can do to us that are worse than remaining here. You are in a most unenviable position."

Yamamoto grimaced. "You're sure this is the best there is?" he muttered to Sasakibe.

"We could also try swearing loyalty to one noble house and hoping the other four don't try to kill us before the Quincy do." Sasakibe grunted, hand over the puncture wounds in his guts. "I don't like it either. but I like our other options even less."

Yamamoto sighed. "...Five thousand Kan Annually per individual."

"Ten thousand." replied Tsubaki.

"Seven thousand."

"Ten thousand."

"That's not how this is supposed to go." Yamamoto grumbled.

"And yet, this is how it's going." She smirked. "There is also the matter of the political protections!"

"DAMMIT!"

---

Half an hour later, terms had been reached.

Full pardons, Ten Thousand Kan, annually per individual (plus expenses), and political protections in the form of employing them as commanding officers on the condition that they "-Don't get killed, and prove you're smarter than a sack of hammers and at least half as useful."

"No for real, I'll forgive the old man the gut punch, lemme do something so you're not bleedin' all over my contract?" Chigiri sighed, watching Sasakibe write up the contracts.

"I'll trust my body to keep my guts on the right side of my skin over someone's dirty socks." he sighed. "Or do you have something else on hand?"

"Minazuki." Muttered Yachiru, leaning heavily on Chigiri.

"Oh right! I keep forgetting she does the fish thing." Chigiri perked up. "Yeah tell the guards to go get her sword, it turns into a... fuckin' whatsit, the big flat fish? Turns into one of those that can heal anything."

"Again, I trust my own faculties over any sort of Healing Halibut." Chojiro groaned.

"Stingray." Yachiru muttered, wheezing a bit. "Minazuki is a stingray."

"Alright, back in line everyone- I need you all to confirm your identities and what crimes you need pardoned, and to sign your contracts." Sasakibe sighed, standing up with the contracts and handing the first to Yamamoto.

"Shigekuni Yamamoto, Dereliction of duty and Mail-tampering, among other assorted sins." He said, smirking a bit at his own joke as he took the contract.

"Thank you sir." Sasakibe sighed, shuffling the pile of folders containing the files of the dozen criminals, and stepping up to the first one.

"Chika Shihon-" He read off, matching the drawn portrait to the person in front of him- Chika was a rather handsome young thing, with warm bronze skin and short, soft white hair. It was the gleam in their yellow eyes that made Sasakibe worry. "- Sentenced to lifetime imprisonment or death for staging a clan coup, twelve counts of fratricide and... dabbling in forbidden Kido?"

"Oh, like you've never had a family dinner that got out of control!" Chika huffed, indignant.

"I'm more curious about the Kido, actually." Yamamoto said, peering over his file.

Chika beamed and Sasakibe got as far as a choked "NOT HERE-!" before they vanished in a cloud of smoke. When it cleared, they were still wearing the same excited expression, but now as a small white house cat.

Sasakibe and Yamamoto stared at the cat for a moment, then at each other in a mutual expression of I can't believe we've been reduced to asking these freaks for help.

"Well, when you've got thumbs again, please read your contract, then sign and initial all the indicated areas, and swipe your blood across the bottom." Sasakibe sighed, bending over to hand the kitty their contract. "Remember, these contracts are legally and magically binding. Betray us, and die immediately."

"Next is- Kinroku Izuhara-" Sasakibe was interrupted by one of guards appearing with the confiscated personal belongings of the prisoners, including an entire bundle of swords under his arm.

"I understand not giving us our weapons until the contracts are signed and the seal is placed upon us, but may I have my glasses back?" Kinroku asked, voice crisp and arch. He was certainly the least ragged-looking of the group, his graying hair still neatly trimmed and face clean-shaven.

Yamamoto held out a hand and the guard placed the appropriate glasses in his palm. "Trade you for whatever you have that's kept you so clean-shaven it's making my mustache itch." Yamamoto glared.

Kinroku smirked, and produced a piece of bone that had been exquisitely sharpened into a razor's edge.

"This is a human bone." Yamamoto observed.

"Unfortunately, poorer quality than the bones of pigs or cattle in terms of holding an edge, but it's done it's job." Kinrku nodded.

"...This says you're on death row for ...Tax Evasion?" Sasakibe glared at the file as the blade was traded for the glasses.

"Yes. I made an unfortunate miscalculation regarding the loyalty of my men, so I am glad you are taking adequate precautions." Kinroku muttered, cleaning his glasses on his robe, holding them up to the dim sunlight filtering through the hole, and frowning, disappointed.

"Men?" Yamamoto asked. "You've had experience commanding armed forces before?"

"After a fashion." he said, signing the contract and biting into his thumb to finish the deal. "You've heard of The Vipers of the southern reaches?"

"The decentralized bandit gang that disbanded a few years back? I thought their leader had died?" Sasakibe frowned.

Kinroku smirked at him.

"...Oh, for fuckssake." Sasakibe groaned.

"Chigiri Shijima." Yamamoto read off, having already moved on. "...What the hell kind of charge is Aggravated Medical Research?"

"Can't make an emergency field medicine manual omlette without breaking a few bones. And causing a few disembowelments. And poking out a few eyes." She explained.

Yamamoto slowly arched an eyebrow at her.

"I PUT 'EM ALL BACK!" Chigiri protested. "...Eventually."

"Read. Sign. Blood." Yamamoto sighed, handing her the contract.

"For real though, your man okay? I can have those stitched in under a minute." Chigiri pointed her thumb at Sasakibe.

"That's some fast-acting painkillers." Sasakibe noted.

"What painkillers?" Chigiri asked, genuinely confused.

"...I'll take my chances with the halibut." Sasakibe winced, turning to the next man in line. "Danjiro Obana?"

"Yeah!" Grinned the sturdy-looking blonde man, all smiles and friendliness now that an agreement had been reached. "Lookin' forward to workin' with you guys!"

"...Imprisoned for cannibalism?" Sasakibe asked, horrified.

"IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!" Danjiro hollered, voice echoing around the cavern.

"How do you accidentally consume human flesh?" Yamamoto glared.

"Well- okay it wasn't an 'accident' per se, but look, that Ise Clan guy locked me in the family mausoleum to die, and understandably, I got the munches, and the coffins were fulla, eh... post-sapient jerky?" Danjiro explained. "I really don't know what he expected to happen. Really surprised when he opened up the door a month later and I gut punched his spine out though. I don't regret that one bit."

"You know? That's fair." decided Sasakibe, handing him a contract. "Read, sign, blood."

"Yessir!" Danjiro saluted happily.

"Furufoshi Saito?" Yamamoto asked the young woman with the purple pigtails and eyepatch that was next in line.

"I DID NOT 'KIDNAP' HIM, HE'S MY HUSBAND AND THEY'RE ALL A BUNCH OF PRICKS!" She roared.

Yamamoto blinked at her, then leaned over to read "Accused of Abducting and 'Deflowering' the eldest son of the Kuchiki clan' on her file. "...Care to elaborate on that?"

"I found poor Kyoga-kun half-dead on my doortstep after the battle of River Bo- he still had spears in him, the poor thing! So like a sane and reasonable person I took him in and nursed the sweet thing back to heath and- well, a beautiful man in my bed, grateful to me for saving his life and offering me his eternal love and gratitude- How could a girl resist?" She sighed, hearts in her remaining eye.

"-and since I'd carried him over the threshold into my home we were basically married already, so it wasn't wrong of me to ride him like a pony or violate his warranty like that! He loved it! He loves ME! AND I LOVE HIM! It's just that the rest of the Kuchiki clan are a bunch of snobs with no sense of romance." She sighed, melancholy, then looked up at him, chewing her lip in nervousness. "...You haven't. heard anything about him?"

Yamamoto considered her story, and the few times he'd met Kyoga Kuchiki- a delicate young man with a sense of romantic grandeur and when he'd seen the boy recently, he had been lying facedown on the floor and sobbing, in quite some distress over being separated from his beloved-

"...Daddy Bear?" Yamamoto asked, bewildered.

"MY LITTLE BABY BEAR REMEMBERS ME!" She shrieked with joy, "Is he alright? I've been so worried, he still wasn't over that septic infection and the war keeps getting closer-" She demanded, grabbing Yamamoto by his Kosode and shaking him for answers.

"-As of last month, he was distraught over your absence, but otherwise hale. The sooner the Quincy are dead, the sooner you can see him again. Read, sign, blood." Yamamoto said, detangling himself from her and putting the contract between them.

"Ah, Ever-turbulent but true runs the course of Love." sighed the charred man beside her. "Nobotsuna Shigyo, at your service." he introduced himself, bowing politely.

"I'm Batsu'unsai Katori- We were arrested and imprisoned for roughly the same incident and it may help to be introduced at the same time." Said the woman with the exceptionally large breasts beside him. "Um, I'll need my glasses back too- Oh, thank you!"

"The sight of sunlight is so strange after such time." Mused Nobotsuna. "Even before our imprisonment, the Lady Katori and I were leaders of a secret underground society!"

"It was less of a society and more of a Polycule that got out of control-" Explained Batsu'unsai. "Once I discovered by spiritual powers, I moved in with the great sage Shou Dokutsu, and began hanging out with and then dating other people with spiritual powers and they started bringing their partners to my district and pretty soon there were so many of us that the easiest way to house everyone was to start developing the extensive underground cave systems in the area."

"We manufactured many fine magical artifacts, so called ourselves The Under-Wares!" Said Nobotsuna.

"We actually called ourselves The Kido Union, because in addition to the magical tools, we formed a united labor front to keep the clans from exploiting us." She explained, and Yamamoto began to understand her interruption.

"I am the wise Loremaster of our people!" Said Nobutsuna.

"He's a stablehand." Batsu'unsai smiled.

"But the clans did not like that they were no longer able to exploit and abuse us now that we had allied in great numbers, and war came to our peaceful nation of Shou's Hole!" he said, with genuine sadness.

Yamamoto and Sasakibe looked back at Batsu'unsai.

"It actually is called Shou's Hole." she sighed. "He just wanted it so badly."

"I wore them down!" Notbotsuna grinned.

"Still, the clans did not like that they now had to pay to have magical labor done and that we would outright refuse their more barbaric requests, and eventually I think it was the Shibas that mounted an all-out assault on us. Last I heard, most of the Union made it out through the other exits from the caves, but Dokutsu-san and most of our heavy hitters stayed at the primary entrance to buy time. Nobotsuna and I were the only ones to survive the assault, and Hiraku Shiba had us thrown in here." Batsu'unsai sighed.

"Prick." Spat Nobotsuna. "Oh sure, when a head of one of the so-called 'Noble' houses goes around decapitating people and burning them alive it's considered 'honorable combat' and 'keeping the peace', but when I, a man whose family tree isn't a fucking wreath of incest, retaliates in a decidedly less lethal fashion suddenly its 'treason' and 'making up a spell called Penis Blast is a war crime'!!"

"-What kind of blast?" asked Sasakibe.

"He can demonstrate it for us on The Archery Bastards. Read, sign, blood." Yamamoto said, thrusting contracts at them.

"Entetsu Kumoi." Read off Sasakibe as they came to the bald man who was nearly as wide as he was tall, with the exposed gold teeth. Entetsu looked up from where he'd finished putting his glasses back on and arranged his hairless brows into something that indicated that he'd be smiling politely if he had lips. "Imprisoned for your participation in the riot at the Windroad House, where you..." Sasakibe frowned at the file. "-Attacked and killed one hudred fifty-seven town guards with a brick, and mounted an assault on the local Dyamo?"

"Always morally correct, hittin' cops with bricks." Nodded Entetsu. "-Specially ones comin' t' kill just because some people are out havin' a good time, doin' no harm to no-one."

"The Windroad House is a Bar in the 3rd district famous for it's ah. Exotic. Cabaret performances." Sasakibe explained to Yamamoto, who didn't get out much.

"You were. At one of these performances?' Yamamoto asked.

"Ah, nah- just gotten off the job and had nipped down to the pub across th'way for a pint when I saw the pigs kick in the door an' start dragggin' the ladies out and I thought 'well that ain't right', so I started throwin' bricks until I were on me last brick and then I hunted them down wit' that last brick until there were none left." he explained. "Then I thinks, 'well, there's only none left until more come from the station', so's I made me way up the road to the station wit' me brick and had me a little hogslaughter up there too, see?"

"...And you just. kept going?" Sasakiba asked.

"So's I did! Right up to the head hog's trough, though by then it were well early in the mornin' and I were tired an' had some dozen spears in me back and me brick had fallen apart, so's I dinna get hims haunches fer ham." Entetsu sighed.

"Persistence! Very good quality in a captain!" Grinned Yamamoto, handing him the contract. "You know what to do by now."

They turned to the rather comely young man with the straw hat. "Furuoki, was it?" Yamamoto asked, feeling something that wasn't hopeful, per se, but these were strong people, and deeply insane and they were agreeing to help him, something that made his heart race with a delirious sort of mania.

"Yes. I am Furuoki Otogawa." he nodded.

"-And you're imprisoned here for- ecological terrorism, defiling holy a holy site and creating a dangerous magical device?" Sasakibe asked.

"What?" asked Yachiru, getting back to her feet and leaning heavily on him. "You told me you were in here for Jaywalking?"

"I thought I was?" Said Furuoki, frowning and tipping his head with confusion.

"It says here you constructed a device over the Tenjo no Ganbo waterfalls to, ah- 'suck up the carp in the pool at the base of the waterfall and launch them, at speed, up and over the waterfall'." Sasakibe read off and looked up to see Furuoki staring into the distance, eyes watering.

"They wanted to get to the lake at the top so badly they were swimming up the waterfall, but they kept falling down and getting hurt!" he sobbed, overcome with emotion. "I just made a chute to safely carry them to the top and gently toss them in the lake! how is that a crime?"

"-because when a carp makes it to the top of Tenjo no Ganbo falls, IT TURNS INTO A DRAGON! YOU MADE HUNDREDS OF DRAGONS SUDDENLY APPEAR! THOUSANDS BEFORE THEY COULD DISMANTLE THE DAMN THING!!" Sasakibe shouted.

"Ohhh." Furuoki said, nodding. "-I'd wondered where all the dragons had come from. I still don't see why that's a crime though?"

"Gods help us." Groaned Yamamoto.

"Dragons tend to be. Kinda destructive." Yachiru spoke slowly, her voice still rough and hollow-sounding. " 'specially to little villages."

"Oh." Furuoki said quietly, horrified.

"Don't worry, I'll deal with them once I get my lung back and bust outta this joint." Yachiru reassured him as Sasakibe handed Furuoki his contract.

"You wont be 'busting out' of anywhere, miss-" Sasakibe suffled the papers to open her file. "-Yachiru Unohana! You're obligated to serve General Yamamoto in exchange for your freedom, seeing as you're imprisoned for- for-"

Sasakibe froze, staring at the file. "-That has to be a Mistake."

"What?" Grunted Yamamoto, sizing the woman up. According to the group, if Furuoki who could rip this heavily fortified prison open like an ant's nest was their weakest fighter, this sickly-looking woman was their strongest.

"The file says she's imprisoned for killing ten thousand people!" babbled Sasakibe.

"Oh, no, that isn't right." grunted Yachiru, and Sasakibe sighed with relief.

"-Should be closer to twelve or fifteen thousand." She clarified, and Sasakibe went white.

"Read, sign, mark with your blood at the bottom." Yamamoto sighed, thrusting the contract at her.

"Uhhh... can't." She said, staring blankly at the contract, then slowly looking up at Yamamoto.

"What do you mean 'can't'?" he growled.

"I can't read." she said.

Sasakibe hid his face in his hands, groaning with pain, while Yamamoto turned on his heel and threw his hands in the air, silently beseeching any available Gods for help.

"You get what you pay for, General." Called Chika, having changed back into the clothes they'd arrived in- garish red-orange and black ninja garb of the Shihon clan- and tying their sword back onto their gaudy belt.

"I am paying all of you a frankly OBSCENE amount of money, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect basic literacy!" Yamamoto snapped.

"It's okay girl, I'll read it to you and then you can have Minazuki back, okay?" Chigiri volunteered, wrapping an arm around her illiterate compatriot and walking her back to some seat-height rocks.

"Let's just get this over with." Yamamoto sighed, glaring at Tsubaki, who only smiled serenely back at him. "Uhin Zenjoji?"

"Present, sir." Beamed the enormous man who looked like a professional Sumo wrestler- there was fat, lots of it, but underneath, an unsettlingly steady grace and power to his movements.

"Your file says you're imprisoned for Smuggling, Murder, Bootlegging, Murder, Trafficking, Murder, More murder and... one hundred seventy two violations of The Migratory Bird Act?"

"The only two I will dispute are the trafficking and migratory bird charges-" he said, delicately holding up two fingers. "-firstly, it's not trafficking to move refugees from the clan wars out of danger without giving the aforementioned clans a cut. I'm no pimp."

"And the birds?" Yamamoto glared, intrigued more than anything.

"A man may have his hobbies and his charitable works!" Uhin said, touching his hand to his chest in faux-impassioned speech. "I collect and breed rare and endangered birds- the world would a sadder place without their songs. So I have- well, had- an aviary up in the mountains where they could be propagated in peace." Uhin sighed.

"Huh. Something nearly bordering on sanity." said Sasakibe said, offering Uhin his contract.

"Got any of them- whatsit- the big kicky bitches?" Danjiro asked.

"Cassowaries?" Uhin asked. "But of course! Delightful little creatures."

Yamamoto decided he didn't hear that, actually, and turned his attention to the final member of the dirty dozen.

"Hello young man!" the decrepit old man creaked cheerfully. "I am Saizo Sakahone." he was bald, liver-spotted, missing teeth and had a spine that bowed like a fishing rod with something much too large for the boat on the end of the line.

"Sakahone like the province?" asked Yamamoto, remembering the western area he'd traveled through recently.

"...In a manner of speaking, I suppose?" Saizo grinned. "Though it's rather the other way around- my lovely wife, may she rest in peace, managed to bear me no less than sixteen beautiful daughters, and they bore at least a dozen granddaughters and so on- Why, by my one thousand one hundred and eleventy-eth birthday, I had somewhere over fifty thousand descendants! So I am not so much named after the province, as the province is named after me!" he chucked.

"...by the Gods." marveled Sasakibe.

"Look, I love my sword too but at least I take it out of the scabbard sometimes." sighed Yamamoto. "What're you in for, family man?"

"O-ho! Now that was quite rash of me, I'm afraid. Yes-" Saizo nodded, rubbing his gnarled-oak hands. "-but as you say, I am a family man and there is nothing I despise so much as someone who does violence to children. No, no, nothing more vile in the world than that..."

Yamamoto felt Sasakibe go stiff beside him, and glanced over. Sasakibe tipped the file closer for his friend to read.

"-The total annihilation of the Uchimaki clan?" Yamamoto asked.

"I was born a shepherd, my boy. My people have been herding cattle over the hills of my province since there were cattle and hills to herd them over. When rot and madness like that turns up in a line- you need to cull backwards at least three generations or it'll set root and spread through your whole herd." he sighed. "What a shame, what a shame, but it had to be done, or they would have learned to turn a profit, treating children like that, and then we'd never be rid of it."

"I saw the crater. Half a mile deep and three times as wide." Said Yamamoto, mustache trembling. "I thought the wrath of the Gods themselves had descended upon them."

"Hm." Saizo nodded, jaw trembling a bit with palsy. "Hm, yes. That's what it felt like."

"Would you like to feel it again?" Yamamoto asked.

"No." Saizo shook his head, but slowly straightened up as much as he could- he must have been close to seven feet tall before the scoliosis set in- flexing his hands and rolling his neck, the power held withing that body starting to come off him in shimmering golden steam. "-but if that's what it takes for me to go home again, then I will be the tool of the Gods once more."

Yamamoto offered him the contract, and did not need to give him instructions.

Behind them, there was a quiet but extremely invasive wet noise and Yamamoto turned to see Unohana unsheath her... well, it lived in a scabbard but it was a muddy green and unusually gooey for a sword. Minazuki bubbled forth from her scabbard, trilling faintly as she solidified and formed into a mottled green cyclopean stingray, large enough to swallow a man, nuzzling at her human affectionately.

"Huh. She does seem to have an exceptionally intimate bond with her Zanpaktou..." Sasakibe noted, then flinched as Minazuki's mouth opened to reveal a fleshy interior of writhing tentacles and strange glands. Without hesitation, Unohana shed her prisoner's robe, which was apparently the and stepped inside to be swallowed with a sigh of relief.

"Very intimate!" grinned Chigiri at Sasakibe's shoulder. "My offer to stitch you up is still on the table, unless you want to develop a similarly intimate relationship with a fish."

"Never did care for seafood..." Sasakibe muttered.

"What about Tsubaki-san?" Furofushi frowned. "Where's her contract?"

"I came here for fighters." Yamamoto shook his head, turning to Tsubaki. "But you are right that The Maggot's Nest is a secure fortress in it's own right. The war is no place for a pri-"

He stopped, staring. Tsubaki had sat down and was rubbing her feet, fingers laced between her toes. She glanced up at him, then down at her feet, smirked, and sat back, wiggling her toes. "No, I agree, the front is no place for a Princess, but it is very much a place for a Diplomat, isn't it?" she asked.

Yamamoto blinked. "I have been thoroughly disinherited from any political position I may have inherited, so I am no princess." She explained, rolling her ankle with a smirk. "-and you are, if I may make an estimation based on my training as a Lady Of Society and now that all of our contracts are signed and bonded, terrible at negotiations."

Yamamoto shook himself, trying to pretend he hadn't been staring at her arches. "...I thought it went fine? Nobody lost a hand."

She smiled, and walked up beside him, lacing her arm with his and gently patting his hand. "My dear. If bookies had been allowed to lay bets on this encounter, the odds of me losing my head would have been considered a sure thing, and the odds on my being able to convince you to properly hire us and pay us, I agree, an 'obscene' amount of money so slim that anyone who took my side would now be a very rich idiot."

Yamamoto squinted at her, trying to translate that in his head.

"...You've conned me." He glared.

"Quite badly, I'm afraid." She smiled.

"You've conned me, but you can con say, that idiot that runs the Omeda clan or the obnoxious boy with the cock's comb that follows Yhwach around even worse." He tried.

Miss Tsubaki smiled, and laced her fingers with his.

"I'm going to have someone much smarter than me write up your contract." he nodded. "Sasakibe? Can you get us home in a-"

Yamamoto turned to see his friend, standing with his robe open while Chigiri knelt before him. Yamamoto blinked in bewilderment, and then realized the woman was stitching his wounds up at speed, her face close to his navel to focus on her work.

"...Hurry?" Yamamoto asked.

"Boss if I go any faster I'm gonna sew his bellybutton shut." Chirigi replied, not looking up.

"She is almost done, sir." Sasakibe winced. "Please don't interrupt her work?"

--- It took a good half hour to get everyone together to leave- clothes changed, signed out of the Maggot's nest and their custody turned over to Yamamoto, Nobotsuna trying to smuggle his "pet" Salamander out, several other prisoners saying tearful goodbyes to Tsubaki and her taking their information down 'for later', Minazuki trying to eat the salamander, and further mayhem while Sasakibe finished drawing the teleportation circle but soon they were lined up, and as the spell activated, Tsubaki gripped Yamamoto's arm rather firmly.

But in a flash, they were returned to Headquarters, Tsubaki blinking from the bright sun.

"General!" the soldier saluted. "Good to see you again! No news from the front, but we have received word the Shihon clan has made an alliance with the Fon clan as the advance approaches their homeland."

"HAH!" Shouted Chika. "Either cousin Genki pulled his head out of his ass or whatever cousin they're on now has good taste! Mingyan is a BABE and a half."

"Nice digs, very nice." Nodded Danjiro, looking around the courtyard. "...Looks really familiar for some reason. Never been to Seireitei, but I swear I've been in a building just like this?"

The other criminals looked around the courtyard, frowning and muttering about how it DID look familiar, and not at all like barracks.

There was a distressing hurgling sort of noise behind them and Minazuki spat out Yachiru Unohana, who tumbled out, nude and covered in slime. She rolled to the foot of the shrine, and sat up, blinking at the statue inside.

"Hey-" She called, voice still low and a rough but the hollow wetness had gone. "-Why's the military got a shrine to Yatagarasu?"

The others looked at the shrine and then around the building again. The orderly layout, the way the men were fit and professional but not precisely military, the extensive filing and sorting system visible through the open doors, Yamamoto's confession to Mail-tampering, the shrine to the Messenger of the Gods...

"You know, I did think it was rather strange that you were able to rally a small but apparently quite fast and very loyal army without the aid of any major clans." Tsubaki sighed. "How very industrious of you, Postmaster-General Yamamoto!"

#AEIWAM #an elephant is warm and mushy #Bleach #Bleach fanfic #genryusai shigekuni yamamoto #chojiro sasakibe #yachiru unohana #Original Gotei-13 captains

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spicyspiders · 1 year ago

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heey! so what about a fic where m!reader and leon are known each other (thanks to their jobs), but never really interacted but they always felt really attracted about each other. and one day they randomly meet again because they had the same mission, and they just finally do the deed?🤔 (and just a some extra lol -big age gap between them- and i hope ada is jealous haha) i hope i explained well, english is not my first language😭😭

I changed some stuff about your request as I wrote it, I hope you don’t mind. There isn’t really an age gap in this fic as I didn’t specify the reader’s age, but I was thinking of Leon from the fourth game as I wrote this, and he’s 27. Warning for smut of course, as well as a light description of an injury the reader gets.

“Leon?”

In your doorway, Leon turns around to face you, a grocery bag in one hand. Out of uniform, he doesn’t look all that different in his dark shirt and pants. It’s topped off with an expensive-looking leather jacket on his broad shoulders.

“Brought you something,” he says, holding up the bag with a smile. “Can I come in?”

“Yeah,” you respond quickly before you ask him a dumb question, like how he’s able to afford that jacket on the salary you both make. You step to the side and press your back to the wall to make sure he can fit through the doorway, “come in.”

You end up asking one anyway once he’s through the door and you’ve shut it, “can I take your jacket?”

Leon laughs softly as he places the bag on your couch, “I’ve got it. You should be resting anyway,” he responds as he pulls his coat off. You watch with careful eyes as his skin becomes more exposed. His arm brushes yours when he steps past you to place it on your coat rack. It was one of your first big-boy purchases with your new paycheck, so you were happy to see it be put to use.

“Someone had to answer the door,” you say, trying to cross your arms to look cool and sexy for your cool and sexy guest, but you flinch when the action pulls at your bruised side.

“I would’ve gotten in eventually,” he says with a smirk.

“Yes because you just had to bring me,” you try glancing down into the bag, seeing something cylindrical, “soup?”

One of the first things you learned about Leon was how quick he was on his feet, so when you try to open the bag to see what else is in it, he quickly snatches it away. “Take off your shirt.”

“What?” You ask, your heartbeat quickening in your chest.

“Let me check your injuries,” Leon responds, pulling out a roll of bandages and a container of ointment. His face leaves no room for protest, especially when he puts on the stern face he makes all the time at work.

You roll your eyes, but slowly begin pulling your shirt off. On the day you came home with your injuries, you were nearly sweating by the time you got out of your uniform from the pain of being thrown to the concrete while chasing down a criminal, and a day later, taking off and putting on your clothes was now a strenuous activity.

“Easy,” Leon says softly, “let me help you.” One of his hands goes up the back of your shirt, while the other meets the bunched-up fabric at the back of your neck after he pushes it up.

“Thanks,” you whisper when your shirt is over your head and down your arms. Your fingers brush his when you take the shirt and toss it over onto your loveseat.

“Sit,” Leon pats down to the spot beside him after he sits down.

You sit down slowly, but not close enough for Leon’s liking, which he fixes with a warm hand on your uninjured left side. “Come here,” he says softly into your ear before he pulls you closer until your thigh is nearly touching his.

“You didn’t have to come to check on me,” you say as Leon gets to work.

“You’re our rookie, of course I’m going to make sure you’re okay.”

You turn your head so Leon can’t see how hard you roll your eyes, “I don’t need a reminder,” you say bitterly.

“We were all like you once,” Leon says as he grabs the ointment and takes the cap off, “have you washed this?”

“Three times now: once when I got back to the station, once at home last night, and once this morning.”

“Good boy,” Leon responds, the words filling your stomach with warmth, “it’ll heal nicely if you keep it clean.” You gasp when the cold gel touches your side, and when you look back over, you can only see the top of Leon’s head, but are easily able to hear the smirk in his voice when he speaks, “cold?”

“A little,” you respond through gritted teeth when your side starts to sting.

“I know, baby,” Leon murmurs as his other hand goes to your cheek to wipe away the tear you hadn't realized fell, “I’m almost done.”

The pet name has your cock chubbing up in your pants. You bring your legs tight together to hide, but the friction only makes it worse.

“Shh,” Leon mistakenly coos, thinking the noise you make at the feeling is one of pain and not of pleasure. His fingers move from your side to start getting the bandage on your side. By the time he’s done, your side feels wet and warm. It’s nearly uncomfortable, but not as uncomfortable when you feel a glob of precum leak from the head of your cock. Of course it’s on one of the days you decide to go commando.

“You must be tired, let’s lay down,” Leon says, already grabbing one of the pillows beside him to get you comfortable. You hear the crinkle of the bag too, but you assume it’s from him putting the ointment and bandages away. Really, you’re just too worried about lying down while not letting Leon see the bulge in your pants.

He knows though. Of course, he fucking knows. He knows everything, it feels like. Leon settles tightly behind your body once you’ve laid down. The space is tight, leaving no room between your bodies, letting you feel exactly just how hard he is in his pants.

You aren’t sure if you should grind your ass back into Leon’s cock or reach between your legs for your own. Leon makes the decision for you, or rather he pleads for you to let him, “let me take care of you,” he says into the back of your neck.

It takes a few moments to get your pants down and Leon’s open enough to get your cocks free. Leon’s cock is much more wet than you expect when he pushes it in between your thighs, and his fingers are just as wet when they wrap around your cock.

“Is that something else you bought?”

Leon chuckles, his lips brushing the skin of your neck, “you have no idea how long I’ve wanted you, wanted this,” he says as he strokes your cock just as he also thrusts his cock between your legs.

You had an idea of how much he did. You didn’t know how long it was for Leon, but for you, it wasn’t long after you joined Racoon City’s police department that you started wanting him. At first, it had started with lustful looks that became full of longing. It wasn't like you could see your face, but from how Ada and Claire would try to hide their laughter, you guessed it was pretty intense to cause such a reaction.

Leon caught you a few times, but you would always look away quickly before you could embarrass yourself even further. It was only a few weeks ago that when you mustered up the courage to look back at Leon, he would still be looking at you.

“That was such a good morning meeting, wasn’t it, Ada?” Claire asked when you all were in the breakroom.

”It was!” She answered before turning her sights to Leon who stood near the microwave, “what was your favorite part, Leon?” She asked.

Chris answered for Leon instead, “I think his favorite part was who was in the meeting, not what was said.

The three erupt into a fit of laughter as you glare at them from where they sit at the table. It was then that you decided going out for lunch would be a better idea than to eat what you packed the night before. You almost wanted to ask Leon that day if he wanted to join you, but didn’t want to give the others the satisfaction of knowing that they’re right.

“I’ve wanted you,” your voice breaks off into a moan, “practically since I started.” You try to move in Leon’s grip to get more of the pleasure he’s giving you, but Leon throws an arm around you to stop the movements you make.

“I’ve got you,” Leon says, “let me take care of you,” he says once more.

“I can,” your voice falls to a groan, “take care of myself,” you say after trying again, but Leon is just too strong. Him and his stupidly muscular body. You could admit that you were still learning when it came to your job, but you didn’t want Leon to use that against you in the bedroom too.

“I know you can,” Leon says before he maneuvers you onto your back while he holds himself above you on his forearms. “Can you blame me for wanting to?” He asks before swooping down to press his lips to yours, any thought that you have of responding leaves your brain when Leon’s tongue enters your mouth.

“It drives me crazy. I can’t even watch you do your job without wanting to kill anyone who tries to hurt you,” Leon says after pulling away, “please just let me-”

Not that you didn’t want to hear Leon beg, you decide to take mercy on him by pulling him into another kiss with a hand at the back of his neck.

“Please,” you whisper against his mouth when the kiss ends. You bring your hips up to press your hard cock to his, the both of you moaning at the feel.

Leon nods before he brings on his hands between your bodies to wrap his fingers around your cocks. They’re wet and warm around your cock, and you can already tell that it won’t take you long to cum, that and also the sight and sound of Leon above you.

Though you spent much more time than you wanted to admit imagining the sounds Leon would make, hearing them in person just didn’t compare to your imagination. “Such a good boy,” Leon moans, a sound that goes straight to your cock, “letting me take care of you,” he says as the pace of his strokes speeds up.

“Thank you,” you moan, “it feels so good,” you say as your head falls to the pillow beneath it and you feel your orgasm build.

“Are you close?” He asks.

You’re almost too distracted as your eyes track a bead of sweat that runs down the side of Leon’s forehead, but when you open your mouth to respond, your orgasm takes you by surprise. The feeling of it runs through your veins as hot ropes of cum shoot from your cock onto your stomach, you just hoped it didn’t land on your bandages.

Above you, Leon groans as he goes even faster. Just moments after yours, Leon joins you in orgasmic bliss. The sight and sound of Leon’s orgasm only lasts a few minutes, but you can tell it’s something you won’t forget for a long time.

“Does that answer your question?” You ask as Leon lays himself down onto your chest, careful to not try and jostle your injury.

“Hm?” Leon rumbles, too out of it to answer the question, “did you ask if you wanted to go lay in your bed for the rest of the day together?”

It takes a few days for you to feel well enough to go back to work, and on your drive to the station, you can’t help but wonder if it would have taken even longer if Leon hadn’t come to see you.

Still too early to be fully competent, Ada greets you as you’re placing your lunch in the fridge. You had to quickly wipe the smile from your face as you remembered the night before in your kitchen with Leon packing your lunch while stealing kisses from each other as you went along. Before he left your place, you practically had to push him out the door for him to leave, while you had to keep yourself locked in place to keep from following.

“I am a little jealous, you know,” she says, leaning against the counter next to you.

“Jealous?” You ask, unsure if you heard her correctly from being too tired.

“You’re way too cute for old man Leon.”

Your brows furrow as you close the door to the fridge, “aren’t you older than Leon?”

#leon kennedy #leon kennedy x male reader #leon kennedy x male reader smut #leon kennedy x reader #leon kennedy x reader smut

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wu-sisyphus-gang · 1 year ago

Text

9 Days of Lancaster: First Time

It was after the fourth day of tracking that it finally rained. We’d known it was going to happen, too. After the first crack of thunder, Ruby let out a low whine.

“No,” she just pleaded. It would still be hours before the rain came and washed most of our tracks away.

She was tired and wet and cold. And I really wanted to get her into the tent and into her sleeping bag.

I didn’t know what to do or say. We could both see the storm coming, feel the wind pick up and the humidity increase. I could do nothing but start to look for a good place to set up a tent.

Ruby and I had done some light training, but you really didn't push yourself or work out too much when you were trying to catch up to something like this. For my sake it was time to take watch and just to top my night off I had to be especially on guard tonight.

It was unusual for me to stay focused on watch, but I had to. I could feel something. It didn't feel like a person or anyone I knew so it was probably not nothing but the equivalent.

Grimm.

I waited until it got close enough that I was sure I could destroy it without letting my senses drift from where Ruby slept.

I was sitting out waiting for the creature to stop nagging at my range and actually enter. It was just pacing around the edge of my senses and eventually I'd had enough.

I kept my body low and my limbs out, but stealth wasn't my strong suite. It jumped through the bracket at me rather than I at it.

I moved in a burst, sweeping the long blade between us to stop its approach. It pushed me back a step and my ankle caught something.

I tripped and it fell on me. My armor held out its claws but its teeth snapped at my aura. I grunted and threw it off of me.

It was an Ursa. a different bone structure for a different part of the world but that seemed to be all the difference between those here and those in Vale.

It landed but rolled towards me quickly with a snarl but as I stood, I held my ground. I already knew how to deal with these. I swept Crocea Mors downwards over my head and cut its face diagonally and deep enough that I'd opened up large sections of its ribcage.

It fell and began to dissolve. I stepped back warily. I felt nothing.

Nothing.

I listened and heard no song of Grimm. The animals had gone quiet, too. Fearing a battle between two distant predators might involve them, but it was already over.

Then, distinct in the cold night distant, the zip of the tent.

I sighed.

"Jaune! Jaune, what was that." She was in thick socks that probably didn't feel good in the wet, icy, muck.

She had Crescent Rose ready though. Her biceps and triceps stood out in her shirt. She had nothing on but her simple ‘T’ and some long bottoms in the night.

I stared at her white clothes in the sleet before coming to my senses. “It was just a small Grimm. Everything’s fine.”

She breathed hard. “You're supposed to wake me up.”

You needed sleep and it was nothing I couldn't handle.

I looked her up and down. There was brisk and then there was being in PJs, in negative ten, with a wind chill, and at ninety-five percent humidity.

I walked over and dragged her into the tent. I flicked the flap open, but the inside was frigid. Just a few moments of being open had sapped whatever warmth was inside. “You can't act like this was my fault. You're supposed to wake me.”

I nodded and rubbed her hands in mine. I pulled her wet socks off too. Her feet were just chilled to the absolute bone. I was considering trying to start a fire.

“Say something!”

“Huh what? You're right. I should have woken you up. Come on get some new socks on and get warm.”

“I feel like I need a can opener with you; you’re just so it's like -ugh. Aren't you frustrated?”

“No, I am.” I assured her.

“Well why aren't you showing it?” Ruby wrapped her arms around her knees under her covers. “And your semblance too, you’re not excited at all when it activates when we train.”

“It only activates when I’m losing, doesn’t last long, and doesn’t do anything but make me glow.” I shook my head and laughed a little.

It was fitting though, if I’d had this power at Beacon I would have been just as able to help Pyrrha.

She hit me hard, enough sting. I gasped, my hand going to my chest where her hand hit my side, through some gap in all my armor she’d casually exploited to jab at just one of my ribs past a strap.

“You were thinking you were useless again. Weren’t you, Jaune?”

Fuck.

“I’m sure it does more than make you look good.”

Whiplash.

I waited.

“Well?” She wondered.

“Well to what in all of that?”

“All of it!”

“I was trying to keep up the pace and find it and be on our way to Haven.”

“So, it’s because I need to get to Haven.”

“Well that is your plan.” I laughed and turned to look at her.

“Ugh.” She murmured and looked down.

Huh?

“What is it? Is it something I said?”

She didn't look impressed by that. She crossed her arms confidently and set herself sideways. “Then what's it like? I forced you out here. To come with me to Haven and trek all the way across the world with me. Even though I had no idea how far that was.”

"Ruby, I did know how far it was. And I did know that if you hadn't…"

If she hadn't what, exactly? I was trying to fight but it was hard. It was a little like Weiss had rubbed off on Ruby, in some of her best ways. I'd found that confidence and authority attractive before but when it was directed at me it was hard to fight.

What could I possibly tell her? That I needed her to tell me what to do and give my life direction?

She just told me how stressed she was. I couldn't add to that. I clicked my jaw in thought.

My teeth clacked together audibly.

She looked from my eyes to my jaw. Like I'd just bit her hard. “You shouldn't do that to yourself.”

I laughed. “That's what I mean. What would I do if I didn't have you right now? If you hadn't taken me in, I don't know where I would have gone.”

“You would have found something.”

No. My family. I stole this from them. I can't go back. And Nora and Ren they got in with like a scholarship for orphan hunters-to-be or something. They were homeless again. I think they thought I'd abandon them.

“No. So, when you asked me to come it was just-it was a no-brainer. What would I have done? What alternatives would I have had? And if I hadn't gone with you, would I have found Pyrrha’s armor, even? Would I know for sure what happened? It was like destiny. And this is too.”

“You really think so?” I watched her hands fidget through her hair, somehow plucking at the red tips even out of the corner of her eye.

“Well no, it’s more like I need to make this the timeline where I succeed, but we can. You know?”

She shook her head. “You think if we're smart and hardworking enough, it'll be enough? That's not like you.”

“Ruby, this is just a setback. Even if it takes months. We have no timetable for getting to Haven. No tournament. No obvious target beyond the school and city which should be in a state of high alert.”

Supplies still got traded as far as here so we know the blackout-panic hadn't destroyed the place.

Haven was probably still there, Just waiting for her, even if it didn’t know it.

“But what about your semblance?” She pressed me. “You and me. Are we making progress there?”

“We’ll have time to figure out how to use it.” If it had a use.

“Tss” I let out as I clutched a rib. She jabbed me again.

“You and me,” she went on. “You butt.”

“Us?” I wondered stupidly.

“What are we, Jaune?” She glanced at me. “What am I to you?”

Good question.

I thought about it. It wasn't like I could just say she was my partner because that had connotations to huntsmen. If I just blurted out, she was my new partner it would hurt everyone.

Besides, she had made it clear that Weiss was her best friend. Whatever that meant to her.

"You're my oldest friend for sure." I told her. I knew that much. Who was there before Pyrrha? Family didn't count. "Things are rough for me right now but it wasn't like I didn't think about you before, too.”

“That's not fair,” she whispered. “Pyrrha was…She made it clear she liked you a lot.”

Ouch. But…

“You were so nice and sweet to me when I didn't deserve it. I could always count on you for advice and it was always good. “

“I don't know…” she trailed off. She pinched her lower lip between her index and thumb. She was listening close, her eyes intense on my every word.

“Even if it wasn't what I wanted to hear. So, it sounds dumb to say something like boyfriend, but you can if you want.”

“We're a couple.” Ruby translated listening closely. “You make things so complicated.”

“The thing about that is-“

“Do you love me?”

“Uh, yeah.”

She smiled, flushing, but she managed to roll her eyes and look right at me. For a moment I could hear nothing but the rain against the tent.

"Jaune I need you to better than 'uh yeah.'" she smiled adorably. It took me a second to realize she was teasing me. By the time I did so, my eyes flicked down to her lips and back up to her eyes. It was too late. Her smile roared across her face.

“You really want to kiss me, don't you? You can. You know. Maybe not all the time but you can kiss me.”

I did. I pushed her back against her thin mattress. I could feel her hip bone against my abdomen and the smooth curve of her sides. I put my hands around her back and pulled her in close to me and she let out a tiny sigh.

Her mouth opened in the slightest way and I couldn't help myself. My tongue went forward at the same time I rolled us more forward, pinning her more beneath me.

She groaned into it, smiling into the kiss as I sucked on her tongue, then lip, then pulled away.

Or tried to.

I drew back slightly but she had a tight grip on my shirt with her left hand. I hadn't even noticed. And her other hand became nestled in my hair.

She just… giggled at me, and, without so much as opening her eyes, dragged me down again.

She rolled her hips up into mine and wrapped her legs tightly around my waist. She pulled me into her and I could feel her pulse beat between her legs. I bit down on her bottom lip. And she moaned and through her thin pajama bottoms I felt her against me. I mean I felt her core against my own. She ground herself hard against me in a bold and inexperienced fashion and I let out a moan that she devoured.

She whined a little up at me when I pulled back but she gave me a pleased sigh when I just took my shirt off. She reached out and ran a palm down my chest to my sides and kept her other hand buried in my hair and pulled me close to her.

Our teeth clicked together a little as I ran my tongue against her molars. She tried to push against my tongue with hers but I overpowered the wet muscle. She drew back with my tongue in her mouth and sucked on it gently but firmly. I throbbed in my pants at that. I imagined what it would feel like to have her mouth around a different piece of my anatomy and I groaned and grew harder at the thought. I reached a hand down to cup her little breasts through her sleeping tee. She moaned into my mouth as I did. I found her nipple and started to toy with it until it grew firm and erect through her shirt.

I pulled away briefly but it was only to help her pull her pj shirt over her head. She wasn't wearing a bra. Her milky breasts plopped down to my sight with little pink nipples and areola. I stared at her body in earnest and I felt a pulse from between my legs at the sight of her body. I wanted to be inside her so badly it hurt. I was so lonely and incomplete.

I pushed her back down and let my mouth stray down her body. I started at her lips then kissed my way over to her left ear and down around her jaw where I sucked softly and she let out a light gasp and bucked her hips up at me helplessly. I savored the power I had over her in that moment and I tasted her aura. Flowery but sweet like cinnamon. She was so tasty as I moved my way down to her chest and sucked on her right nipple. She let out an adorable little squeak and bobbed her hips. I ran one hand down her pants, down her leg and rubbed at the inside of her thigh as I sucked. Then I twisted my hand into her pants and over her panties. My fingers splayed out over the last garment covering her little flower and I stroked easily down her slit where she was soiling the fabric of her panties.

"Jaune!" She cried out my name in a way that made me feel like a man.

I slipped a finger beside her panties and into the gash of her body. I rubbed my way up and down and she reached down and grabbed my face and yanked me up to kiss her while I stroked her little rose. It felt so small. My erection rubbed against her side as we kissed deeply and I rubbed her folds.

"Don't stop," she panted breathlessly. I found a nub at the top of her flower that made her writhe and shout out. I rubbed it again hard and she bit my lip firmly. "R-right there," she breathed out.

I had no intention of slowing down or giving her any sense of quarter. I wanted her writhing and she was. She was rolling her hips into my finger desperately. She wanted so badly to finish and I had the power to give that to her.

I rolled little circles around her clitoris. I would occasionally flick it and I would toy with her folds to tease her and build her up before she came crashing down. She tried to reciprocate and reach a hand down to my own pants but I was merciless in my attempt to distract her and make her cum.

"I'm s-so clo-ose. Please Jaune. Oh please let me. Just let me…"

I started really rubbing her clit. I pinched it and rubbed it hard. I made her break off into stammers and moans.

"Oh-h I-I-I'm-m… Oh y-yes. Ah-hah-ah-ah." Then her whole body tensed up in what was almost a frightening fashion and she thrust her hips wildly into my finger. Fluid gushed out of her and got the tent wet between her legs. She lay there and just breathed hard for a long minute. She struggled desperately against the successive waves that poured down over her. I had done this to her with a single finger. Me.

She was shaking a little as I sat her up and gave her a drink of water. "I want to do that again to you so badly," I murmured close to her ear and she shuddered.

I put my hand back between her legs and flipped my finger inside her little tunnel. She moaned and gripped me hard like a Mistrali finger trap.

"Wait… it's too sensitive for you to-ah- for you to… for you."

"But you're bucking your hips into my finger. Doesn't that mean you like it?" I wondered. I pressed harder against her right little walls and I ran my finger up to her clit again and gave it a rub.

"Ah-hah. Please… I can't help it. Please…" I wasn't sure what she was begging me for. More or less. I gave her more and I ran my finger down her body and into her once more. I rubbed against those squeezing walls and made her grasp me tightly like she was scared of drifting away if she didn't latch onto me. She dug her nails into my back but I hardly registered it. "Stop… wait…"

"Why? You like it," I pointed out. I felt so powerful. I had so much control over her whole form like this.

"I want to touch you," she pleaded. I brought my finger up to her clit and brushed it and she gasped and leaned forward.

"Then do it. I'm not stopping you." I played with her.

"I can't like this. You're… it's too much. Please Jaune. Oh please. I'll let you touch me again afterwards but please let me touch you."

"Fine." I drew back and relinquished the quivering power I held over her. She pushed me back and went straight for my pants after I released her.

She wrestled with my belt for a long time with her hands brushing over me. Eventually she worked me free from my pants and once she had it in her hands she just stared at it in incredulity. It was unusual. She stared at me with my pants down the same way I looked at her without her shirt. She took me in both her hands and gave me a tentative stroke with her tiny hands. I groaned a little in the quiet of the tent with the rain splattering down around us. She crawled until her head was nearly in my lap and gave me a curious lick. My cock twitched and my hips rose up a little.

She wrapped her little lips around my head and gave a tiny suck. I felt myself quiver with precum straight into her little mouth. She swallowed it immediately. Her throat bobbed as she took it down. Then she slowly wrapped more of her mouth around me and ran the tip of her tongue around my head. My hands went to her hair and I moaned. It was a noise and action she seemed eager for more of because she bobbed her head up and down on my shaft.

"It tastes odd. But I can grow to like it if you want," she murmured in the dark of the tent.

"Yes please," I managed.

"Who would have thought sucking your dick would make me so wet," she went on. Then she took me back into her mouth. She made an attempt to swallow the whole thing and pushed herself down on the base but she only got up to a mouthful. So she brought her hand up and wrapped it around the parts she couldn't swallow and when she rose up she took that hand with her and then she would lower herself back down and wrap that tiny hand around the base of me. She used her hand on what she couldn't fit into her mouth as she bobbed her head up and down. She always gave the head of my dick a little suck at the top. A tight squeeze of pleasant pressure.

She spun her tongue around the whole of me and made my cock twitch into her mouth with yet more precum. I felt my balls tightening and a weight in the pit of my stomach which implied that an inevitability was arriving. I was going to cum in little Ruby Rose's mouth. The sheer audacity and lewdness of it could drive a man to orgasm on its own. But she kept thrusting her body down and away at me as well. Her tongue coiled around me and she applied suction to make it so deliciously tight. Her hand gripped me firmly near the base and was getting wet from her spit. She offered no complaint when I thrust my hips up into her waiting mouth in time with her bobbing head. I couldn:t help myself.

"Ruby, I'm going to finish if you keep that up."

She attacked me with renewed vigor and let out a quiet satisfied hum in the back of her throat which vibrated me and sent me to the edge. I reached down and grabbed the fistfulls of her hair and gave three mighty thrusts that left her unsure of what to do with her hands and at my mercy.

I groaned as I deposited my seed in her mouth and she started swallowing and tightening her lips and tongue around me and that only intensified my orgasm.

I had just defiled her pretty lips. She got up in the tent after swallowing. She let out a satisfied little noise as she did. I couldn't be sure whether she liked the taste or she just liked what came with it. She pulled off her pants and soiled panties. It had been true. She had gotten so unbelievably wet. Her thighs were slicked a little with it. She was drop dead gorgeous in the quiet light of the moon. her breasts were modest but full and perky. And the way her pelvis ran down to her little flower was something you had to see to believe. She had a rocking hourglass figure from all the combat and training.

She positioned my wavering cock at her apex and straddled me. I didn't dare ask something like 'are you sure?' She had my dick in her hands and was longing herself up. She was sure.

"Is this your first time?" She asked me. She was really only asking about Pyrrha.

"I know the basics. But I've never done anything with them."

"A first time for both of us then," she decided that that was enough and she slid my head into her. She let out a quiet squeak between pain and pleasure as she lowered herself. I felt her walls wrap around me and squeeze me tight. Their soft velvety wetness was superior to my hand by miles and even to her mouth. Dare I even think that after the heights of pleasure brought to me by her pale lips and what lies behind.

She let out the full groan and she moaned my name. "It's so big. It hurts like… like something good."

"It hurts?" I asked.

"Fuck yeah it hurts. But it's a good stretching kind of hurt. Just give me a minute."

I could barely contain myself from moving as her tight walls hiccupped around me. It was all so tight everywhere and it felt like she was pulling me deeper in even as she didn't move.

She put a hand down on my chest and rocked her hips so I barely moved within her. She seemed to like that motion so she kept it up. She was grinding her wetness hard against my pelvis. I reached down with one hand and thumbed that extra special nub at the top of her slit. She called out and moved her hips a little more. She was almost glaring at me for that. She hadn't expected it. I did it again.

"Hah-ha-ah. Tease me a little, Jaune."

I decided that I would. I flicked my fingers through her folds down to where I was embedded in her. Then I rotated slowly back up to her clitoris and squeezed. She let out a little squeal and she lifted her butt and brought it back down on me. Whenever I touched her clit she would squeeze my dick with her insides in a convulsive fashion. It was delectably on point.

She rode me with lifts and rocks of her hips and I tasted her body as best as I was able until she let out a call in the night and collapsed on me with her insides pulsing almost violently around me. Lubricant flushed forward from her flower. She laid on my chest and I kissed her softly. Then I started to slowly thrust up into her insides. They were so soft and they squeezed me but they parted around my rigidity so easily. The texture of them was like nothing I had ever felt and I kissed her deeply and drank in her sweet sugary aura. Red rose petals floated down around us as she lit up crimson. That mixed with my own blue and flecks of gold. I pushed her back until she was upright. She just looked at me dazed and confused. She was still riding out the high of her last orgasm. I wanted to keep her there always.

I pushed her until she was chest down in the tent bedding and I was behind her. I pushed my way inside and bent over her body. She pushed back back in time with my thrusts into her from behind but it was weak and almost, dare I say it, pathetic. I slipped my body down onto her and compressed her hard into the bedding by laying on her. Then I slipped one hand between her legs and over her thigh and I started to play with her petals and nub again.

"Fpuh-uh-gsh-oh-'' her moans became completely incoherent. The angle I thrust into her met hard with a spot two inches inside and towards the front that I could already tell that she liked when I hit and rubbed against it. Then I started to fondle her folds. First I would grace along one side then the other then I would meet at her apex and rub her clit tightly. This new angle was good for me too. She was so tight and the angle I was thrusting in would occasionally poke against something hard which I knew was her cervix. It would kiss back at me ever so gently as I really started to give it to her. I abandoned teasing her and strummed her clit like a guitar.

"Keep going. Don't stop. Ooh-ah. Don't stop, please."

I had no intention of stopping and I bent low to nibble on the back of her ear and suckle on her neck. I ran kisses down her back and her body became confused. She wasn't sure whether to grind down onto my hand or push back against me and so she settled for a mixture of both.

I felt her walls tighten around me and I knew that it was just a matter of time for us both. I squeezed her clit and she arrived again with loud moans and the whisper of my name. Her body went into spasms and her thighs began to quiver from all the stimulation she had received that night. A few more thrusts and I had finished as well. I launched myself as deep inside of her as I could reach and departed my seed directly into her waiting womb and love canal.

We both lay breathing hard and sweaty in the tent.

She rolled over to me with a little smile and kissed me on the lips. She giggled happily along and snuggled her hot naked body against mine. I was exhausted from expending myself twice. Usually alone I could only ever do it once. So this has been a lot for me. It had been a lot for her too. We drifted off to sleep together. Thoughts of clothes abandoned in the hot tent. Tomorrow will come and I may have to deal with some consequences of tonight but they could wait.

pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq

I got down off the back of the animal before Ruby.

She was already waiting for me there.

She called its name and it came when called. She didn’t even need to pull her hair back as she rode, either, she somehow looked relaxed and focused. To be honest I was just so amazed to even watch her move above me.

She slung her legs up and over it and gently held the pommel in one of her small hands. The tips of her fingers just enough to reassure. She hardly needed it for balance; she was so graceful.

Her other hand was firmly in the mane of the stallion’s mane. After the night in the rain, we’d returned to Higanbana where they’d offered us horses. They’d already been made aware of our affairs and the local Dono was not to be out done by GaiLong, evidently.

I’d explained to them that unless they had an awakened horse, they would not be able to carry me, let alone the both of us. Mei-Chi had smiled at me and I knew I would regret it.

“Who taught you how to ride?” I wondered.

“Oh, my mother showed me how when I was young. It’s easy if you know how to care for it.” Or you’re a Nisdy Princess. I watched how easily she controlled it and made it calm. Sure, it was trained but when I’d been encouraged to take the lead on the animal it had given me nothing but contempt.

“Do you know how?” She wondered. “You’ve somehow expertly dodged climbing on the back of one.” She stroked it gently with her hands. Enjoying the sensation.

“I… know the basics,” I hedged. “I have ridden before.”

“Yikes, that bad, huh.” she teased me, and I groaned. “But not in a while and with someone else.”

I shook my head, “this’ll be a first for us.”

#rwby #rwby incorrect quotes #jaune arc #ruby rose #lancaster #9daysoflancaster #motion sickness #smut #lemon

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