#this isn’t a spoiler i wasn’t at one of those screening this came straight from my brain
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Angel Crowley angel Crowley angel Crowley angel Crow-
#this isn’t a spoiler i wasn’t at one of those screening this came straight from my brain#I rarely render anything and I have no idea how to do it there’s no rhyme or reason to the shadows I’m just winging it man#anyway#good omens has taken over my brain completely can you tell#good omens#good omens season two#good omens 2#crowley#anthony j crowley#anthony crowley#angel crowley#art#artwork#my art#fanart#digital art#drawing#david tennant
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Some Bunny Man Facts and Fun
Thought I’d throw my hat in the ring here since I prefer to use Twitter to browse funny stuff, save cool art, and look at news. It’s been 2 months since Tales of the Bunny Man released and from what I’ve seen, it was received very positively with the hope for a sequel of sorts coming sometime. The latter is happening, but not for a while since the team are sort of in recess to some extent. (We’re working when we can.)
Let me hit you with a big fact; did you know the game had to be remade because my PC died? The graphics for 90% of the modelling was done on a laptop, so it was ultimately a case of “it works, let’s move on” with that period of time. There won’t be a repeat of that this time. I’m actually in a mindset of remaking the models; keeping the designs the same, just improving and getting shit together. I’m glad my PC died because what we have now is better than what we could’ve had, and it would’ve been awful on my end.
Another fun fact is originally this wasn’t going to be a game. When we first thought of ideas for it. Zeriq proposed it to be analog horror at first, while I suggested we have an entry for a game somewhere. Suffice to say, it’s kind of both, minus the realistic monochrome eyes and the crappy vhs filter.
Sparky the dog is in the game somewhere. He exists and is very real.
If the sequel does come to fruition and releases, then this game will be the only one with a custom night. Since people only play for challenges, we’ve got you covered and there will be quite a variety.
At one point, a Weezer themed cheat screen existed during the old version’s development. It was designed to erase your data if you changed certain troll values in the saves.
The reason Poltergeist isn’t like the other Phantoms is because it’s more tangible than the others, meaning it is as close to a physical entity as they get. Phantom Fredbear, BB, or Puppet aren’t a thing because spoilers.
Vincent’s fate is unknown.
The main day segments didn’t have the markers to show your objectives, but they got added during testing. Thank goodness.
JJ was set to appear at one point during development, but it wouldn’t make sense to add another kid to the pile of possessed characters already.
Outside of the additional Mimic stuff, the story and plans have remained consistent for two years straight. Suffice to say, having a document to reference is a very good thing. We’re continuing to use these.
Originally, the gameplay was going to be free roaming with an At Dead of Night style to it. Since the building is so small and there are up to six roaming characters, it wouldn’t work logically. Post-night tasks were going to be a thing too, but those would mess with the pace of the story. This was before we had everything written down.
Development started with me setting a challenge to Zeriq. I said we weren’t allowed to have a phone guy at all and no other door in the office, so that the player feels cornered constantly. That’s where the comics and the idea of giving characters different behaviours came from. These may return in some ways.
Lastly, Tales of the Bunny Man is the game that’s sort of made me like FNaF again. At times, the boat was shaky and uncertain, but we locked in and made something that Dawko of all people took interest in. A project that for once, I know I’m happy with and one that outdoes anything I’ve done before on a serious level. Things are getting better going forward, so stay for the ride if you feel inclined.
That’s a lot of rambling, but I felt this was the best outlet to spill some beans, say some facts off the top of my head, and allude to the future. What comes next? You’ll have to bark up another tree for that answer.
See ya.
#DrCross Rambles#Tales of the bunny man#Fun facts#fnaf#fnaf fangame#Bunny Team#Spilling beans#Late night talk
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CD's Movie Poll #1 Winner
The Road to El Dorado
* fair warning: spoilers ahead *
Kicking off the start of my movie poll/movie watching series is Dreamworks’ The Road to El Dorado!
ngl this film has been on my watchlist for quite a while, and yet I never got around to actually watching it until now! (or rather, not until the other night lol) I’d heard so many great things about it before like the memorable characters, the kind of 2D animation that you really don’t see in Dreamworks films these days, and of course, the music!
I will say that I really enjoyed all three of those things in some ways and others 🤩
Right off the bat, Kevin Kline and Kenneth Branagh have really great chemistry! In fact, I loved their chemistry so much that I wanted to see footage of them recording their lines. so I legit looked up something like “road to el dorado behind the scenes” on youtube as soon as I finished watching the film and found that not only did they do ALL their voice recording sessions together in the same room but they also used plastic swords and playfully had it at each other!! AHHHHHH! so good!! 😂 ⚔️
but yeah they're hilarious! both on screen and behind it. I also just love the fact that both Kevin and Kenneth come from theater backgrounds cause I think that definitely added to how well they portrayed being con men 🎭
Ofc actors aside, some of you probably know this about me already, but I’m a BIG fan of dynamic duos when it comes to media...
I loved the straight man-ness that was Tulio, and he was probably my favorite of the two. I tend to like characters that find comfort in strategy, cause I tend to be that kinda person too. I know sometimes the logical and level-headed ones aren't always funny, entertaining, or the people to root for in the slightest. But Tulio definitely isn't one of them. I found myself chuckling at a good number of things he said and did like not believing in fate simply cause he relies on loaded dice for example, plus his sarcasm, and how much he tried to compose his patience as well
Miguel was great too! It was fun how much he loved the city of El Dorado and just wanted to take it all in, and his endless optimism of course! But he definitely needed more guitar playing scenes! idk there’s something about those characters who just have an instrument to play at the ready for dramatics that’s really humorous for me, it’s almost, if not totally, breaking the fourth wall in a way 😆
I also really enjoyed the Chief, I love how it’s implied that he knew all along Miguel and Tulio were humans and not gods and yet he still liked them and let them stay anyway. that said, it's kind of a shame that the pair didn't stay in el dorado cause there genuinely were people there who adored them when clearly the people of Spain didn’t…heck they didn't seem to have a problem that they weren't actually gods!
and you have to admit, Miguel and Tulio did match the stone art of the gods quite nicely, like the resemblance there was freaky 😳
Chel was great as well, her cleverness and way of sweet talking definitely stood out to me the most about her character, and I also really loved her voice! 😌
and Altivo the horse? I wanna say he was truly Miguel’s companion when compared to Tulio earning the heart of Chel. after all, Miguel was the one who wanted to rescue him and bring him along, and I was genuinely happy when they decided to bring him on their journey cause the horse wasn’t a bad guy, like he not only gave Tulio and Miguel the keys to escape the ship, but he wasn’t spiteful to them or anything. basically what I’m trying to say is he isn’t how Maximus treated Flynn Rider/Eugene Fitzherbert initially, horse to con man
As for the villain? well…this is the first of three times I’m gonna be saying, “I got some Aladdin vibes from this movie" 😅 👉👈 which isn’t completely a bad thing by any means!
But yeah…I immediately got Jafar vibes the minute Tzekel-Kan came on screen (also I had to look up this name cause I didn’t catch it very well while I was watching this film, I just kept calling him “Priest Guy”)
I mean…the fact that he can do sorcery, on top of serving a sweet kind-hearted ruler, tangling with not just one but two thieves, anybody picking up what I’m putting down? Yeah that’s really all I gotta say about that guy 🤷🏻♀️
also I swear to god that Jim Cummings is in literally everything that was 2D-animated in the 1990s-2000s! and he's always gotta play that big tough guy. Again, that also reminded me of Aladdin. but then again the conquistador didn’t really have that big of a role in this, at the very least I just hope he gave T-K what he got coming to him
I guess just to get it out of the way, I was admittedly humming "One Jump Ahead" in the beginning when Tulio and Miguel are getting chased through the city, but that’s all there is in terms of Aladdin similarities the way i see it
lastly in terms of the characters and cast, I gotta give credit to Elton John for being part of it too! I mean who doesn't love a singing narrator? and he and Tim Rice did an awesome job crafting the soundtrack for this film. every song was absolutely BEAUTIFUL 🎶 ✨
Needless to say, the animation was 👌 and the opening sequence was definitely one of my favorites throughout the whole film as well as the expressions and the solid movements of the characters, very well done no question there. oh! and how there were just gold objects of anything from butterflies to apples in el dorado! they didn’t call it the city of gold for nothing! ✨✨✨
but in the end, did it really have go the route of the overall goal is get all the gold by the end only to actually lose most, if not all, of it by the end? I just feel like that plot line is done a lot in movies. tho to be fair, this was made in the 2000s so heck, it probably began that trend. But I’ve found in recent years that when it comes to treasure hunting movies, this exact scenario happens just repeatedly and it’s nothing new. I’d say movies like The Goonies and Uncharted are two that come to mind for me that have this happen...
Now there’s no way I can conclude my thoughts here without saying how AMAZING the “It’s Tough to Be a God” sequence was! I LOVED the “It's Tough to Be a God" sequence from the singing of the two leads to the colors to the everything about it, it was all magnificent! I'd arguably say it was my favorite scene in the whole film! And I'd be lying if I said that Miguel and Tulio’s version hasn't been stuck in my head ever since I watched it, because so help me it HAS and STILL IS and why that version is not on Spotify, I have no clue, but it SHOULD be. Again, props to Elton and Tim for writing this song and the others!!
So overall, I thought El Dorado was a great movie! It was definitely worth the watch! It's not perfect by any means, I'm not even sure it's my favorite Dreamworks film, but it was still very fun and entertaining all the same and I'm really glad that I finally got to see it after all these years! 🤗
#the road to el dorado#miguel and tulio#it's tough to be a god#animation review#animated movies#cd's movie poll movies#cdmagic1408
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AAHHHH EPISODE NAGI!!! I need to know your thoughts!! You can put a spoiler warning for other ppl maybe? PLEASE I NEED TO KNOW 🙏🙏🙏
JQNSNWNSMS YES! When I reblogged my original post earlier, my brain was still kinda fuzzy- but I’m good now! I’ll be more than happy to share :D
Spoilers below the cut!
I think this goes without saying but I FREAKING LOVED IT!!! I loved seeing Nagi’s perspective on the events of season 1! From the opening where we learn a little bit of his life prior to meeting Reo to his thoughts during the various matches- all wrapped up on one big Nagi package! I was giggling the entire time whenever he was on screen: he’s just so CUTE!
“Nagi of the living dead” made me cackle so hard he is ADORABLE!!! And using the goal netting as a hammock until Reo was all “Hey don’t you want your phone back?” Cause his video games are his go to’s 🤣🤣🤣
Also can we talk about Zantetsu? I know his whole thing was brief but what we got of him was so good anznannsns they really introduced him putting his clothes on wrong like- my guy AHBXBSNXNSN I do like the moment in the baths with Nagi and him and all the feels that came with that; it was small but it made me really like our lovable idiot! 🤣🥰💖
Y’all- this movie made me love Reo! Listen- I wasn’t a hater, but I also wasn’t like; Reo’s biggest fan either? It’s complicated. But now I’m 100% down with Reo- he really grew on me this movie and I liked how we got his thoughts and feelings after Nagi left him. It really added a layer to his character and made him out more than just a guy who was feeling petty. (Which- we all knew wasn’t the case in the season but like, having that confirmation was so good??) Also seeing the post credits scene with him giving Nagi his gloves and being supportive- they made UP Y’ALL AHHH! 😭😭😭😭😭😭🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 I’m so happy I can’t even begin to explain it!
A lot of the movie though was rehashing the season: which isn’t a bad thing cause 1.) Nagi POV and 2.) I got to see Chigiri on the big screen and y’all don’t even know how happy that made me! Raichi was hilarious as ever- I loved his “straight out of your nightmares, pal” line; he sounds like Cartman and acts like Sanemi and he’s just the best! 🤣🤣🤣🥰🥰🥰🥰
Ugh god I loved this movie so much! I will admit; and this is my own fault really- but I was kinda disappointed we didn’t get the post Rin match fights with Barou and Chigiri. I thought the second half would be a continuation of when after Isagi left, but that didn’t happen. Again- it’s my own fault for assuming that was in it: it didn’t take away from my experience or joy watching the movie at all! I just wished we got this scene animated:
Who knows- maybe season 2 will have it??? I just really wanna see Chigiri and Barou being looney tunes anznannsns 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Again; not disappointed- the whole movie had me giggling and laughing and kicking my feet and excited from start to finish. I adored it very much!
Those are my thoughts! I probably have more but as of right now those are what comes to mind! When it comes to crunchyroll I’ll definitely be rewatching it again- Nagi’s faces alone are hilarious, and Reo is becoming a firm favorite! It was truly amazing!
Thanks for asking!
#squiggily speaks#ask#anon#spoilers#blue lock movie spoilers#episode nagi#movie chats#thoughts#I genuinely had such a good time#it was AMAZING!#my love for these characters has grown and now all I wanna do is yell about them anznannsns
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prompt | @ssoftlydreaming asked: nfjsja ok from sweet home can you do lee eun-hyeok and basically he has to decide if he should risk the danger of everyone in the apartment complex or save reader who is outside and struggling to survive.
warnings | female pronouns, angst, spoilers for episode one of the netflix adaptation of sweet home, if you haven’t watched episode one complete then this won’t make much sense, panic attacks, the general horror of sweet home, eun-hyuk being a logical pain in the ass, somewhat of an open-ending.
word count | 1.7K
author’s note | i hope this satisfies your masochistic desires! i’m honestly so happy to have angst as my first request, and that isn’t sarcasm at all.
The sound of his descending footsteps echoing throughout the concrete stairwell became background noise to Eun-Hyuk as he stared at the unanswered messages he had sent you well over an hour ago. This was strange behavior coming from you, considering you usually responded back within minutes. Not wanting to jump to conclusions, he tried to think of a logical explanation to calm his increasing worries. Perhaps your phone died on your walk home, or you had to work over-time without a chance to inform him.
He was certain some minor inconvenience caused your abrupt absence, although he couldn’t shake off the unnerving feeling settling like a burden of tense muscles upon his shoulders. Realizing there wasn’t much more he could do, especially since all the calls he gave you went straight to voice mail, he decided to wait patiently for a reply from you and try to keep his thoughts clear during the meantime.
Eun-Hyuk stuffed his phone into his pocket as he finally reached the half-open double doors that led out onto the first floor, his ears immediately picking up on the commotion before he looked over at the front entrance that was blocked by the shutters. A group of people stood dispersed nearby, talking amongst themselves and watching one resident in particular as he tried tugging on the metal bracing that barely budged. The man sighed, dropping his arm and admitting defeat as he walked away from the shutters, mumbling to himself.
‘First the elevators aren’t working, and now this?’ he thought to himself, unimpressed with the current situation, especially since he had work that night. He wasn’t the only one annoyed by the circumstances as the surrounding people openly expressed their vexation. Although, unlike most of them, he remained calm and simply observed the scene with his hands in his pockets. Multiple residents spoke loud enough for him to catch on to the fact that the security guard was missing, which made little sense considering this was an issue for him to resolve.
“Excuse me?” a feminine voice sounded from behind him, causing him to turn around and look at the woman. “Do you have any service on your cell?” Despite having just been on his phone, Eun-Hyuk was so preoccupied with his thoughts regarding your whereabouts that he didn’t notice the minor detail of whether he had any service.
Pulling out his phone and unlocking it, he immediately dialed your number, taking the possibility to hopefully connect with you and find out where you were. When his ear met with a high-pitched ringing, Eun-Hyuk lowered the phone, lost in thought for a second before looking at the woman.
“I guess not,” he said, watching as her face dropped in disappointment and she turned to walk away, but he stopped her with a question. “What’s going on here?”
The woman hesitated, wondering if anything was even worth sharing considering she would give him more questions than answers. She went on to explain how every main exit had been closed up, locking everyone inside. Although she speculated someone was behind this, she had no idea who it was and for what purpose it was done.
The explanation caused Eun-Hyuk to swallow thickly before turning his gaze towards the concealed entrance. He stared for a moment, silently wishing for your safety.
―――
A shrill ringing penetrated your ear, causing you to jerk your head away from your phone and hang up on your attempt at calling Eun-Hyuk. With a frustrated cry, you threw your cellphone upon the ground, hearing the shattering of the screen as it smacked face-first against the concrete.
On the verge of tears, you made yourself as small as possible in the alleyway's corner, pulling your knees up to your chest as you rested your forehead on top of them. Your breathing grew increasingly more labored as the sensation of dread and pure hopelessness consumed your mind.
Eun-Hyuk’s words repeated in your head during times like this, when you were at risk of having a panic attack. Stay still. Take slow breaths. Think of something nice.
You squeezed your eyes shut, allowing the gathering tears to flow freely down your cheeks as they gathered at the tip of your chin. Forcing yourself to take in deep breaths, your trembling body gradually stilled. Eventually, your thoughts morphed as you focused on your breathing, rather than the surrounding chaos.
Think of something nice.
Eun-Hyuk’s face filled your mind, the sight prompting a ghost of a smile. You recalled your first meeting which occurred almost a year ago, when you had just moved into Green Roof Apartments. Someone had suddenly removed the towering stack of boxes you were carrying from your hold, and just as you were about to thank the person for helping, you realized you recognized him.
It turns out that you both used to attend the same high school, although you weren’t in the same class, your friend group interacted with his friend group quite a lot. Seeing his face brought back all those times at lunch when you would sneakily try to steal glances at him without your friends noticing. They noticed, of course, and teased you relentlessly about your crush but they were nonetheless supportive. They even proposed setting you two up on a date, because a ‘little birdie’ told them he had been crushing on you too.
Unfortunately, you were in such denial that someone as handsome as him had feelings for you, and rejected the offer. He was simply unobtainable, the extent of your relationship never surpassing polite greetings and friendly smiles until you both graduated and never saw each other again. Or at least, that’s what you assumed would happen.
It seemed fate gave you two another chance, unsatisfied with your prior silent pining and not acting upon anything. Considering you both matured immensely, talking came easy, and it wasn’t long before a much deeper connection began blossoming between the both of you.
His sister reacted indifferently when she walked out into the hallway one day, only to witness the both of you moving suspiciously away from each other, as if trying to conceal something. She caught on immediately, especially since her brother had been mentioning you quite often.
“Seriously? He’s the best you can do?” She scoffed, eyeing her brother disapprovingly before pushing between the both of you and walking off. You stared at her retreating figure in shock, oblivious to the smile on Eun-Yoo’s face as she disappeared down the stairs.
Once his sister found out, Eun-Hyuk became increasingly more open in terms of your relationship. And eventually, after a long week of his sister degrading him for not moving to the next step, he asked you to be his girlfriend. It wasn’t the most romantic of set-up’s; he had knocked on your door and asked you so casually that you wondered if he was joking.
When he assured you he wasn’t, you almost knocked him off his feet from the abrupt hug you gave him, accepting his simple proposal.
The memory faded, and the realization hit you like a truck. Eun-Hyuk was waiting for you, and you couldn’t give up on him. Taking a deep breath, you got up from the ground, trying not to focus on the screams and sounds of destruction in the distance as you lightly jogged towards the entrance of the alleyway. You peered behind the wall and looked both ways. The coast was clear; it was now or never.
―――
You raced around the corner, narrowly dodging the attention of a nearby monster as its head popped up from one of the many dumpsters lining the brick wall of Green Roof Apartments, the location you had been trying to reach from when this all started.
The sound of metal creaking, which you quickly recognized to be the shutters descending, urged your aching legs to run faster as the darkness before you faded the closer you got to the entrance. That’s when you noticed Eun-Hyuk struggling to keep the shutters open as a distraught woman crawled towards him. He reached out a hand towards her, just as he looked up and made eye contact with you. His eyes widened at the sight, although bloodied and bruised, you were very much alive. You smiled at him, relieved, feeling safe already.
That was until you heard a rustling coming from your right, along with animalistic groans, as if something was just stirring back to life after being immobilized and ready to lash out again. A flurry of panicked voices came from the lobby of the apartment, everyone watching in horror as the hunched-over silhouette of the monster with a snake-like tongue began recovering to its full height.
Luckily for you, the monster disregarded your presence as it ambled towards the entrance. You stood frozen in fear as the shadow of its body passed over you, the sound of its languid steps lulling you into a trance as your body trembled lightly.
It was perceptible that trying to run past it would end in your demise, leaving you stuck on what to do. Your pleading eyes drifted towards Eun-Hyuk, hoping he would come up with a plan to distract the monster long enough so you could make a break for the gap underneath the shutters he had been holding open - a perfect enough size for you to slide under.
He stared you dead in the eyes as he dropped the shutters; the metal clanging loudly against the tiled floor. You blanched, staring back at him in disbelief. A semblance of guilt took over his features, and you shook your head in denial.
Your eyes stung with tears, and you wondered whether to cry and beg for him to help you or keep the remaining bit of dignity you had left. The monster suddenly shot its tongue within the gaps of the barred metal and Eun-Hyuk disappeared from sight as he dodged; the trance you were in instantly dissipating as you came to terms with the situation.
He left you to fend for yourself, surrounded by a horde of monsters. You weren’t sure whether to give up or keep going, considering nothing seemed worth fighting for at the moment.
Did he regret it? Of course. Would he do it again? Without question. Eun-Hyuk would sacrifice anyone to keep his sister safe, even you, and even himself.
#sweet home#sweet home x reader#eun-hyuk x reader#eun-hyeok x reader#sweet home imagines#sweet home netflix#sweet home x reader netflix#angst#sweet home angst
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too late || spencer reid
summary: Spencer and you never got closure after you broke up. But hidden feelings and confessions reveal themselves when you’ve been abducted. Now Spencer is forced to analyze a voicemail you left for him to try and save you before it’s too late. (spencer reid x fem!reader)
category: angst
warnings: s2 spoilers, kidnapping, knife and gun usage, slight mentions of blood and drugs, plot holes, probably incorrect medical info
word count: 4.4k
a/n: this is my very first cm fic, and I’m completely new to the fandom so I hope there are still people out there who read cm fics lol
MASTERLIST
(part one | part two)
Spencer’s POV
“Spencer?” Her voice breathed shakily through the voicemail.
Y/N. I recognized her voice immediately. For a split second I was filled with bliss just from the sound of her voice, but my heart dropped when I recognized the terror laced in her words.
She paused for a bit before continuing. “Hi, it’s me. I’m sorry, I know you don’t want to hear from me right now,” She choked on a sob, but little did she know that was furthest from the truth. “But I didn’t know who else to call.” Another pause.
I leaned forward in my seat, resting my arms on my desk while listening intently to the message.
“I... I’m in trouble Spencer. I don’t know who he is. He took me from my car and brought me here. He made me call you because he knows,” She took a deep breath before letting out a sob. “He knows you will never save me in time.” By now, her voice came out as a squeak. My breath caught in my throat as my worst nightmare came true.
“No, Spencer, wait, please listen to me.” I shut my eyes and exhaled. I pinched the bridge of my nose; she must have had to pretended I answered the phone, and I wasn’t there when she needed me most.
She sniffled on the phone and continued.
“I don’t know how much time I have left... So I guess this is goodbye Spencer...” I felt my heart shatter as tears pricked my eyes.
“When we met, I knew exactly where I was in life. But you, you changed that. You taught me so much, Spencer. I remember all the games we'd play when you were home.” Y/N paused as she left out a sigh. A sad smile crept on my face as I recalled our shared competitive nature and the countless games that sprung from it. I could only imagine her expression mirroring my own as she spoke. “You'd always win but I guess that's what happens when you play against Dr. Reid. I still think you forgot two dozen names just to let me win.” She let out a dry laugh.
“The last time I saw you was on our anniversary, June 6. 9:30 on the dot. And then you abandoned me Spencer, you left me alone in the big, cold world.” She took a breath and I let out a small gasp when I heard the sound of a gun cocking in the background.
“I told myself I'd never forgive you, but the truth is I already have. I can't leave without you knowing that. Please save me, Spencer.” She whispered the last line before the phone was yanked out of her hands, evident by the small yelp and shuffling I heard, and the voicemail ended with a low growl saying, “You’ll never get here in time.”
The voicemail ended and the fear I felt from before melted into rage. I knew exactly what I had to do. Phone in hand, I marched straight into Hotch’s office.
Reader’s POV
The man snatched the phone out of my hands and quickly hung up on the call before redirecting his gun at me. He had it pointed at me the entire call and cocked it once he was getting impatient.
The worst part was he didn’t bother to hide his face. He had bound my arms and legs together, but never blinded me. I knew exactly where I was and who he was, which only meant one thing: I wasn’t getting out of here alive.
My abductor shot at the ground and I let out a scream. “That was a bit long now, wasn’t it?” He sneered.
“You’re gonna kill me! I had to say goodbye properly!” I sobbed.
It was partly true. What he didn’t know, however, was the fact that I had an FBI agent for an ex-boyfriend, and a genius one at that. I haven’t spoken to him in months, but I prayed that he would understand the hidden clues I left in the voicemail. I hated how this was our first interaction since our breakup, but I needed him now more than ever.
I’ve wanted to call him countless times; it’s almost ironic that it took a literal kidnapping for me to finally do so. In the wake of our breakup, I found myself completely miserable. I missed everything about him, and I caught myself staring at his phone number on my screen numerous times, contemplating if I should actually call him or not. I wanted to, I really wanted to. I wanted to tell him how much I missed his voice, his touch, his love. But every happy memory we had would then be overshadowed by stronger memories of him snapping at me, being repulsed by my touch, and his mood swings. So I never got the courage to push the dial button.
It was a never ending cycle. I’d want to call him; perhaps I wanted to try to fix things one more time. I knew something was wrong, maybe I could have done more to help him. But then I would realize I couldn’t help him unless he let me. So I’d always end up deleting the digits on my screen and hope he was doing okay. But days later I’d find myself punching in those exact digits once again, only to delete them minutes later. In time, I had memorized his number by heart, which is why it was almost instinctive to dial him today.
The fact that he was an FBI agent was the last thing on my mind when I pushed call. I just needed him, I needed Spencer. It felt wrong, after months without speaking I thought we had both moved on. But he was the first person I thought of when given an instrument to cry for help. And as soon as I heard his voicemail, as soon as I heard his voice, I realized I needed more than Dr. Reid. I needed Special Agent Reid.
I tried to remember everything I could from the few times Spencer would talk to me about his cases. If I could understand this unsub like he and his team could, maybe I could survive. But the more I remembered, the quicker I realized my chances of survival were slim. He’s way too confident for me to have been his first victim. He gave me the freedom to call whoever I wanted and say whatever I wanted, and he wouldn’t have done that if he knew he wouldn’t get caught. So the phone call must be part of his signature, but why? Why give that much freedom to his victims at all? Maybe he just likes to hear the pain in our voices when we say goodbye.
No, it has to be more than that. Right before I dialed Spencer, the man told me, “Make sure they answer.” And that’s when it hit me. He must take pleasure in knowing his victim’s loved ones are aware of what’s happening but can’t save them. He’s stripping them of their power to help, to save, their loved ones. I hope that isn’t the case for me. I didn’t want to call Spencer (okay, maybe deep down in my heart, I did), because he made it very clear he wanted nothing to do with me. But if anyone could save me, it was Spencer Reid.
I was pulled out of my thoughts when my abductor leaned in front of me, his putrid breath fanning over my face. I noticed his gun was now in his holster and one of his hands was behind his back. He slowly pulled it out to reveal a knife and he placed the blade against my arm. I winced as he put pressure against my skin, but not enough to draw blood.
“Now that... what was his name? Spencer?” He let out a low chuckle. “Now that Spencer knows you’re here, he’ll try to save you.” The unsub slowly dragged the knife up my arm, still not breaking the skin, and I let out a whimper.
“He’ll tell the police, but they’ll be too late.” He taunted. “They always are.”
The man now used his knife to push hair out of my face. “While we wait... Let’s have some fun.” He sunk the knife into my shoulder and I let out a scream.
Spencer’s POV
As the case was presented to the team, I was paralyzed in my seat with the voicemail replaying over and over again in my head.
It’s me. I’m sorry, I know you don’t want to hear from me right now.
I’ve been wanting to hear her voice for months, and when I finally do it’s because she was abducted. Even worse, she’s apologetic that she even has to call me. As if she’d ever have to apologize for speaking to me...
“Reid?” Hotch’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts.
I looked up at him and he repeated himself. “Will you analyze the voicemail for clues on Y/N’s location?”
I silently nodded. He turned to JJ and whispered to her to stay with me. Everyone then dispersed to do everything they could to bring Y/N back.
“Kid, who is this?” Morgan stayed behind and questioned me.
“Hm?” I questioned innocently.
“Look, she could have called anyone in the world, but she called you. And you obviously care for her or else you wouldn’t be so quiet right now. So who is she?” Derek displayed concern in his eyes.
I let out a sigh. JJ took a seat in front of me and Morgan leaned against the table. My eyes were fixated on my hands, which were in my lap. “Her name’s Y/N. She was the one who got away.” I heard my voice crack, but I didn’t care. JJ and Morgan looked at me with sorrow as they listened to me open up about the love of my life.
“I met her at the library. She saw I was checking out a book about physics and she gushed about how it was her favorite subject. We went on for 20 minutes talking about the subject, and then she asked me out for coffee.” I bit my lip.
“We started dating for a few months and everything was perfect. She didn’t mind my work schedule, and she listened to all my rambles. Sometimes she even had some facts of her own to add.” I recalled all the times Y/N would add to my fact spews instead of shutting me down, and I couldn’t stop the smile resulted from the memories. “She was perfect. In every way.”
I took a deep breath as my love story took a sour turn. “But then I... I started to push her away. After Tobias Hankel I pushed everyone away, but Y/N got it the worst. I was a horrible boyfriend, but she never gave up on me. She never knew why I was acting that way, but eventually I pushed her too far. We broke up because she thought I hated her. But I don’t. I never did.” I trailed off, remembering fragments of the last fight we had. I cringed as I remembered how broken her voice was, and how I continued to tear her down. I wasn’t in my right mind. If I could go back, I’d never let her leave that door. But in hindsight, I don’t blame her for leaving.
I quickly wiped the tears off my cheeks as Morgan rubbed my shoulder. JJ got up and hugged me. She lowered her face towards me and said, “We’re gonna save her, Spence. And when we do, you’re gonna tell her all of this.” She flashed me a kind smile.
“After I got off dilaudid, I realized I lost her, so I tried to get her back. I wanted to surprise her, so I went to the cafe we went to the day we met, and I saw her there. She was there with another guy... She had already moved on and I was too late. I never got to apologize to her.”
I didn't want to meddle in Y/N's new relationship. She had every right to move on. So I tried to as well. But it didn't hurt any less, especially since I never got to explain myself to her. I had accepted the fact that Y/N had moved on from me, but her voicemail gave me an ounce of hope. In the direst of circumstances I was the one she called. Perhaps it was because of my job, but I let myself hope that maybe I misread the situation. That man could have been a friend. And I could still have a chance.
But hope is a dangerous thing.
“Reid, I know this is hard. We all want to get Y/N back safe, but you’re the only one who can understand what she’s trying to tell us here. Think you can focus?” Morgan wanted to make sure my head was clear enough to analyze Y/N’s message. The truth was, I wasn’t sure.
But I nodded and played the voicemail again.
“June 6?” I repeated once the voicemail ended.
“Is that when the two of you met?” Morgan asked.
“No, that date doesn’t have any significance to us at all. June 6, 9:30? Why would she say that?” I wondered out loud as I wrote 6/6, 9:30 on the board.
“Can you play it again?” I asked JJ.
When we met, I knew exactly where I was in life.
“There right there, pause.” I knew that was a lie. “When we met, she was a graduate student but she didn’t know what to study. I helped her with that.”
“Okay, so she knows you can catch onto her lies. What is she trying to tell us?” JJ wondered out loud.
It was then that I realized what Y/N was doing. “This entire call is full of lies. She knew I’d catch onto them, but I don’t know what she’s saying.”
Morgan jumped in, “Okay, so if you catch all of her lies, we’ll decode the message.” I nodded as JJ pressed play and I wrote down all the lies in the voicemail.
By the end of the call, my board looked like this:
6/6, 9:30
“knew where I was in life”
winning game - 2 dozen names?
“Okay, so what does this all mean, Reid?” Morgan asked.
I stared at the board, trying to make a connection. “I don’t know...” I mumbled. I knew Y/N was trying to tell me something, and if I could figure it out I could save her. The thought gave me enough confidence to analyze her diction. “But did you hear the end of the call? She said I left her alone in the ‘big, cold world.’ It’s odd that she would describe it like that.”
“So she’s somewhere big and cold?” JJ chimed in.
“Probably...” I answered as I added to the board.
“What about abandoned? Is that describing where she is or is this actually about your relationship?” Morgan asked.
“I don’t think she would use 'abandoned' to describe our relationship...” I bit my lip. I wouldn’t say I abandoned her, but I couldn’t help but wonder if that was how she actually felt. I cleared my throat. “That’s probably where she is. Big, cold, and abandoned.”
“So what are we thinking, warehouse?” JJ inputted.
Morgan nodded. “Okay, we’re getting somewhere. So does that mean when she said she knew exactly where she was in life, she meant she actually knew exactly where she was taken?”
“What about the game she talked about? What does that mean?” JJ asked.
“I never let her win any games, she insisted we both play fair and square.” I tried to think back to all the games we played. “She mentioned names... There was only one where we used names,” I held back a smile. “We were trying to see who would be the first to name all the U.S. presidents.”
Morgan and JJ looked at each other. “Why am I not surprised.” Morgan let out a small chuckle.
“But you forgot two dozen names?” JJ questioned.
“Two dozen is specific... and Reid doesn’t forget.” Morgan thought out loud.
I tried to remember more about the game. “I won that game. I was the first to put down my pencil and she teased me for it. But she wanted to finish her list so I’d give her clues to who she forgot... But there was one name she just couldn’t remember.”
“Two dozen... Did it happen to be the 24th president?” JJ wondered.
I let out a small smile. Clever girl. “Yeah, it was Grover Cleveland. The 24th president.”
I now looked at my new board, filled with new information.
6/6, 9:30
“knew where I was in life” am
winning game - 2 dozen names? ➝ Cleveland!
big, cold
abandoned
warehouse?
My head was swirling, trying to make sense of what Y/N gave me. My eyes darted up and down the board, trying to see her message. She knew where she was. She gave me a name, numbers...
“I got it!” I yelled. “It’s an address. She knew exactly where she was and she was trying to tell us! June 6, 9:30? 66930. Where’s Garcia? I bet there’s an abandoned building at 66930 Cleveland Street.”
Morgan raced out of the room to grab Garcia. Moments later she rushed into the room with her laptop and I hurriedly asked her, “Garcia, what is at 66930 Cleveland Street?”
Her fingers blazed across the keyboard then she shook her head. “No, I can’t find that address.”
JJ leaned towards the monitor. “Try Cleveland Road?”
Garcia shook her head once again, “Sorry my sweets, there’s no 66930 Cleveland Road either.”
She continued to clack at her keyboard, and moments later she lit up and said, “Wait, I see an abandoned warehouse at 6693 Cleveland Road!”
“It was probably easier for Y/N to use time to disguise the numbers, even if it added another digit...” I thought out loud.
Morgan rushed over to her computer as I felt my body fill up with hope. “What can you tell us about it, baby girl?” He asked.
“It was previously owned by a man named Hubert Roffkins, but then the trail ends 2 months ago. It looks like it was abandoned then, and oh dear.”
“What is it?” Morgan pushed.
“Hotch asked me to look into similar abductions with phone calls ending with murder.”
I swallowed harshly. “And?” I asked.
“The dates coincide with the first kidnapping.”
“Let’s go.” Morgan commanded.
Third Person POV
Hubert Roffkins had stabbed Y/N for the seventh time by the time the FBI got to the scene. He was cornered and surrounded by agents, he knew there was no way out of this. As he reached for his gun, Agent Hotchner fired a single shot to the head and Roffkins was dead before he hit the ground.
Y/N was still conscious when the agents came. She was surrounded by her own blood and dizzy with pain, but she knew once she saw those FBI vests, she’d be okay. She wasn’t sure what was happening, but she heard a gunshot and saw a pair of converse running towards her. Her vision was blurring, but she didn’t need it to identify the figure who picked her up off the ground and held her face. He kept telling her to stay with him, but she couldn’t hear him. Her vision focused on his face for one second and she smiled at the familiar face. “Spencer,” she whispered, so faint he could barely hear her.
“I’m here, Y/N, I’m here.” He cried, holding her closer to him.
Her vision blurred once more and she let the darkness succumb her.
Spencer rode in the ambulance with her, and he would not let go of her hand the entire way to the hospital. He couldn’t take his eyes off her, wondering what could have been if he’d arrived just a few moments earlier.
Once in the hospital, it took an army of nurses to separate Spencer from Y/N. He couldn’t let her out of his sight, too scared of losing her again. So he settled on sitting outside her room while the doctors operated on her.
The rest of the BAU team met him at the hospital. They exchanged glances and sighs, unable to help their youngest teammate. No matter how they tried to comfort him, his mind was fixated on the well-being of his lost love.
The doctor emerged from Y/N’s room and Spencer immediately sat up.
“Her vitals are stable and he missed the major organs. She will be incredibly sore, but she’s gonna make it.” The doctor announced.
Spencer smiled. “Can I see her?” He asked.
The doctor nodded, warning him that she was still sleeping and she will be very tired.
Spencer walked into the room and sighed. He hated seeing her like this. She was pale, and she looked so fragile. He wanted nothing more than to wrap her in his arms and hold her forever.
He took a seat next to her bed and grabbed her hand. His thumb traced small circles on the back of her hand while he studied her face. Finally, after months of being apart, he was finally here with her. He was both relieved and terrified, knowing that once she woke up, she would have his entire heart in her hands.
“Hey, Y/N.” He whispered, his voice coming out broken. He cleared his throat and continued.
“I uh, I got your voicemail.” His voice cracked and he let out a sad smile. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there. But you did so good. I understood, Y/N. I remembered everything.” His voice cracked and tears were welling up in his eyes, but he continued. “You’re so strong. I’m so proud of you.” His voice was now barely above a whisper.
Spencer stopped for a moment to compose himself. It was the moment he had been waiting for. Y/N was right in front of him and all of his emotions were overwhelming. He had to tell her right now. Even if she couldn’t hear him; he needed the practice. Because the words have been bottled up for so long, and now that she was right in front of him, he felt like he was going to burst. But he just didn’t know where to start.
“Y/N, I don’t know if you can hear me, but I really need to tell you something, and I can’t wait any longer.” Spencer let out a sigh and stared at her hand in his. “I’ve been wanting to talk to you for months, and I-I need to let the words out before I lose my confidence.” Spencer swallowed thickly. “Or I don’t know, maybe you can hear me. Studies have shown that...” He trailed off. He was rambling.
Spencer let out a deep sigh and brought his eyes back to Y/N’s face. “Y/N... You were the best thing that has ever happened to me, and I can’t believe I let you go.” He gave her hand a squeeze. “You were right, you know. Something did happen to me on a case. But I didn’t want to bring you into the evil that corrupts my world, so I kept you in the dark. But then it got out of hand... It became less about shielding you and more about protecting myself.” Spencer licked his lips and lowered his eyes again. He felt ashamed. Had it not been for his own pride, perhaps Y/N would still be in his life. Maybe he could have even prevented this. But he let out a shaky breath and continued.
“I was abducted and tortured by a man named Tobias Hankel. He had multiple personalities. So when he wasn’t torturing me, he was giving me painkillers. It was dilaudid.” Spencer shook his head as the memories of his abduction came back to him.
“I... I became addicted, Y/N. I knew I needed help. But I wanted to prove I was strong. I wanted to prove that I could bounce back and show that I could handle it. But I couldn’t.” By now, the young doctor was crying. He continued through his sobs. “I guess I... I guess I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it on my own, so I pushed everyone away, Y/N. Not just you. And I know that doesn’t make it better, but you were never the problem, Y/N. It was me.”
Spencer looked at Y/N’s face and rubbed circles on her hand. “I know there’s no way you could have known that, but I don’t want you blaming yourself for what happened between us. And I know what you would say if you were awake right now. I know what I did was wrong. I realized that you would never see me as weak for this, but in that moment I've never felt so weak. I’m so sorry, Y/N.”
Hot tears streamed down the Spencer’s face as he continued. “I’ve been sober for half a year now. I’ve been sober ever since we broke up. And I know drugs don’t excuse how I acted towards you, but I just needed you to know,” Spencer held onto Y/N’s hand tighter. “I never stopped loving you.”
As the young doctor spilled his heart out to his love, the words he spoke never reached their recipient. Y/N laid in deep slumber, unaware of Spencer’s confession as he sat next to her. She would stay in her comatose-like condition until the next day, never to hear the truth behind the end of her and Spencer’s relationship.
Because when Y/N awoke, Spencer had gone to get his morning cup of coffee from the hospital’s cafeteria. He had spent the entire night sleeping by her side, desperate to be the first person she saw when she woke up. By the time he returned, fits of giggles were emerging from Y/N’s room.
Spencer’s heart fluttered as he heard her laughter echo in his ears. She was finally awake, and he could finally get his confession off his conscience. All he had to do was repeat the words he had said the night before, this time to active ears.
But the words were caught in his throat once more, because when Spencer entered Y/N’s room, he was met with two sets of eyes instead of one. Y/N had lit up and exclaimed, “There’s the man who saved my life!” Her excitement and smile still brought butterflies to Spencer’s stomach. But they quickly disappeared when she spoke her next sentence, confirming Spencer’s fears.
“Spencer, I want you to meet Connor. My boyfriend.” She gestured to the man sitting next to her. Spencer had recognized him immediately, he was the man he saw Y/N with at the cafe.
Spencer’s stomach dropped and his heart broke once again.
He was too late.
---
read part two here!
#spencer reid#spencer reid angst#spencer reid x reader#criminal minds#spencer reid imagine#criminal minds imagine#spencer reid fluff#spencer reid smut#spencer reid fanfic#spencer reid x you#spencer reid x y/n#aaron hotchner#derek morgan#jennifer jareau#emily prentiss#penelope garcia#bau#criminal minds fanfic#dr spencer reid#pbrfics#myfics
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I wanted to make myself like the ravine
— There are plenty of things that Hawks knows about, but there are few he knows none about. A journey of how Hawks navigates the meaning of the word love.
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pairing: hawks (takami keigo) x fem!reader
warnings: recent manga spoilers, future!au, alcohol consumption, fem!reader
word count: 6,819
a/n: this is for the pocuties valentines day collab! rhank you for letting me join! inspired by the poem to the title of this fic!
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A G A P E
—
Hawks is one of the fastest men in the world.
It’s not a brag; it’s the truth.
A cold, hard, damning truth.
Hawks is a Pro Hero with the power, skill, and finesse required to take the fall for the entire country. He is someone who is loved by all, who thrives off of the appreciation and the cheers, but he knows — he understands — he’s expendable. He’s a tool—an object seconds from being put to rest.
There are many things that Hawks knows; he’s been training to be a hero since he was in his very childhood. Blindfolded, tested and conditioned to be the ideal hero, the perfect pawn.
Hawks is no idiot, and he will never deny that often times that he isn’t sure what he is feeling.
Emotions are weird for him. Feelings are oversimplified in everything he was taught, yet disgustingly really and oddly interfering the second he had set foot into the spotlight. He was used to the cold, the people who would view him as a specimen, experiment 20493, codenamed: Fierce Winged Hawks. The only emotions he understood was apathy, seriousness, anger, resentment, bitterness, disappointment, and relief. When finally, finally, the Hero Commission broke his wings, his spine, and his mind, the small boy so eager to be a Hero ultimately nothing but a soldier, ready to follow commands to the T.
Hawks has only heard of love from the blurry, unclear memories of his childhood. His mother muttering how she had no love for him to be taking care of him as he did, or his father saying he could never love him. Love was foreign, strange, alien to him. Even when he was eighteen and finally given a bit of freedom from the chains the Hero Commission bound him in was expressed out of love. But he was put into the cage that granted him the ability to spread his stiff wings; love made no sense.
He saw lovers making out in alleyways, and he furrowed his eyebrows, wondering just why anyone would want to kiss in the smelly, dark, virus-infected areas. He saw his colleagues come in looking dazed, refreshed, reborn, yelling loudly, and singing poetry about their love for some other person they met just yesterday. He also couldn’t ignore the days, weeks, months later when they would rearrive with red-rimmed eyes, swollen eyes, and a tremor to their voice.
Love seemed… awful to Hawks.
Love was a deception of brain chemicals. Nothing more than your mind bending, flipping, and twisting to make something that made absolutely no sense make sense.
Hawks had expressed that one day to a sidekick of his, his barriers and walls crumbling away because he had been on a stakeout for five days straight now. The world that could never keep up with him was numbing his brain.
“Well, that’s romantic and flirtatious love for ya,” his sidekick explained with a halfhearted shrug. It seemed that he both agreed and disagreed with what Hawks had to say. “They’re amazing loves, don’t get it wrong, and they definitely don’t make sense, but they’re loves not meant to last.”
Hawks blinked.
“What?”
His sidekick chuckled, hands rubbing at his eyes as he peered out the window again, his sullen eyes looking even more tired.
“Have you never learned the different types of love before, Hawks?” the sidekick teased as much as he was curious. “I figured a pro as popular and smart as you are would know the different types of love.”
Hawks feathers fluttered in his inability to keep his lack of knowledge to himself.
“I don’t.”
“Wow, finally something Hawks isn’t aware of!” the sidekick laughed, and his hand opened his phone, fingers hitting the screen before shoving the device into Hawks’ chest. “I’m sure you’ll find that you can understand at least one love.”
Hawks grabbed the phone, head cocking to the side in his curiosity as he scrolled down through the phone.
There were eight different types.
Eight different ones that he could have experienced within his then twenty-one years, and he found himself unable to look away from one.
Agape: universal, selfless love
“Hawks, they’re moving!” the sidekick squawked, and Hawks handed over the phone, and with nothing on his mind, burst out the window, ready to take down this organization.
Hawks had to admit that later that night, when he was finally able to sleep in his own bed, he felt selfless love. It was for the people of Japan. The many citizens who needed his help and the heroes of the country who rose to the demands of the job. Maybe it wasn’t the type of love depicted in anything he’s ever read or watched before, but that was okay. It was love.
The love he has for the citizens is enough to keep his head afloat.
This is the only love he needs in his life right now, the only love that matters.
But he’s no longer twenty-one, he’s twenty-five, and the wings on his back that feel practically invisible to him, are hurting. His back is in pain, his quirk almost gone, save for the smallest, insignificant feathers perching from the stumps of what was his beginnings of a wingspan. It still burns, phantom singes and phantom heat whenever he thinks about his nearly gone, never to be grown again, wings.
“Well, Hawks, you already know that this is going to happen,” comes the cold voice of one of the board members of the Hero Commission. A man who had practically raised (see managed) him.
Today was the end of Hawks life, more or less.
“AFO, Shigaraki Tomura, and the well-known former members of the League of Villains were finally stopped,” Hawks speaks with a nod. He knows, even though he could not be a soldier, he had been around to see the young UA students, Endeavors Interns, bring them to justice.
The biggest names of evil were dead, and Hawks already knew he was over.
To be fair, he was glad it was over.
But still, it hurt to hear the indifference in his voice, the apathy, the tedium.
“Operation: Fierce Wings - Hawks is officially over.”
“I could’ve figured that one out pretty easily,” Hawks jests, unable to show the way his heart twisted and withered under the knowledge that he was no longer a hero. His love, his agape, for the people were still there. Still, just as he recognized in his colleagues who were experiencing the different forms of love, it didn’t matter how much love you held for someone, something, for the innocent, helpless people…
Life takes, it destroys, and love doesn’t seem to have a chance.
“Thank you for your twenty years of service. I hope you find the freedom you had been looking for.”
P H I L A U T I A
It’s been a week.
Seven days, twenty-one hours, sixteen minutes, and thirty-four seconds since Hawks was fired (see Honorably Discharged) as a Pro Hero.
Hawks has always felt that the world moved oh so slowly behind him. It had been his wish that heroes be able to relax, laze around because society had evolved enough that criminals knew better, were treated better, and could integrate into a truly peaceful society.
It had been his dream.
But right now, he was bored.
B o r e d.
“Fuck, I don’t care,” Hawks grumbled, face smooshing into a pillow as he watched the Netflix Series Bridgerton drone on the screen. “Dump his ass.”
His apartment, it was safe to say, was a mess. There were cups, bowls, plates, and chopsticks everywhere. His hair was ruffled, stringy, held back by a hair clip he had stolen from Miruko. His beard was nearly fully grown in, and there were bags under his eyes despite the fact he was sleeping for more hours of the day than staying awake. He was sore, tired, bored.
So bored.
He didn’t think being bored was going to suck this much, going to hurt him like this.
Fuck.
“Open the damn door, bird boy!” came a sharp scream and powerful kick from the front door.
Hawks glared at the door, the tiniest of feathers he had been able to regrow, trying to pathetically open the lock on the door. A sheen layer of sweat pushed against his forehead, and Hawks grunted, trying to lift the heavy lock.
BAM.
The door swung open, forcefully kicked open by none other than Pro Hero Miruko.
“Yo!” Miruko waved, lips pulled in a fierce grin as she entered through the broken doorway with nothing but a bag of unknown items. “I figured you were here!”
“...you broke my door,” Hawks pointed out, eyes narrowed as dust and destruction danced within the air.
“You took too long,” Miruko breezed, slamming her plastic bag on the kitchen island. “It’s a fucking rats nest in here, birdbrain; I thought you were somewhat organized?”
Hawks groaned loudly, sinking further into his couch as Miruko began reorganizing his kitchen area — dumping the dirty dishes into the sink and throwing things away in fast, practiced skill. “Life is too boring, and I’m too bored to do anything about all of the mess,” Hawks exaggerates partially, hand twisting and dancing as he speaks. “Thanks for cleaning up the mess.”
“I’m not cleaning up your damn mess, birdbrain,” Miruko barks out a laugh, her hands slamming against the now, somehow, clean surface. “I’m just making my life easier!”
Hawks looked over the top of the couch with a semi impressed, semi uncaring look and shrugged.
“You seem to have a great handle over those robot limbs now,” he points out.
Sure enough, Miruko had two bionic limbs, limbs that she had finally managed to work into a fighting career. After spending two years on the sideline, relearning how to walk and then fight, she was back on the field.
She was a hero again, despite it all, unlike him.
“Damn right, I’m amazing!” Miruko preened, chest puffed, and bunny tail wagging excitedly. “But anyway, I figured your dumbass would be depressed, so I brought you some shit.”
Hawks watched with a curious gaze as Miruko quickly hopped once from where she was in the kitchen to a place on his couch, landing on Hawks' legs unintentionally.
“OW!”
“Look at what Rumi brought you,” Miruko laughed, slapping Hawks on the back as he cradled his legs. “And yes, I just referred to myself in the third person, so shush.”
Hawks grumbled, lips in a half pout, half frown.
Taking the opaque bag from Miruko, Hawks pulled out the many items in the bag.
Carrots, a KFC gift card, Korean skincare products, a movie about Miruko’s recovery process, and a 1001 Things to Do (A Book on Finding Self Love).
Hawks stares at the book.
“The perfect items for a self-care, self-love spa day,” Miruko nods, once again slapping Hawks on the back. “Some old sidekick of yours told me that you don’t know what love is, so I figured that I would help teach you the most important one! Self-love! Truly the hardest one to master, in my opinion, but damn if it isn’t a good one.”
Hawks feels transfixed almost, unable to look away from the book as Miruko slaps him on the back yet again as she moves to leave. He hears her yelling about forwarding the bill to fix his door to her, her agency would pay for the damage, and how she’s off to train with some bunny hopping boy from UA.
Opening the book, Hawks looked at the number one thing to do on the book and sighed.
#1: Look in a mirror and name five things you LOVE about yourself.
Well, it’s not like he has anything better to do.
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Hawks is on number thirteen (Stand at a bridge and scream into the void about the things you love at dusk) when he realizes that maybe… he doesn’t love himself.
It is without saying that he loves people; agape, after all, is the only love type that made sense to him, but philautia, self-love, was way lost on him. Objectives 2 - 12 on the book were entertaining to do! They had Hawks going outside of his house much more than his week trapped indoors, and for the first time since the day his wings had been burnt off, his house was spotless.
But it was clear to Hawks that he didn’t feel love for himself.
Whenever he tried to convince himself that he should love himself, that there were terrific qualities in himself, he thought back to the dirty, burnt room.
“I still gotta protect their happiness!” the phantom in his mind screamed, the broken sob collected in his throat.
Hawks shivered, unable to let himself recognize the pain and hurt in the phantom's eyes, or the way that he now wished he had never done that… why had he done that?
What a mess…
The small chirping of Hawks phone interrupts his morose thoughts. He looks at the screen, eyebrows raising in slight mirth and caution as none other than his former intern was currently calling him.
“Tsukuyomi-kun!” Hawks laughs into the receiver, the weight of his past for a moment forgotten. “How are ya?!”
“Hello, Hawks-sensei,” Tokoyami’s calm tone fills Hawks' ears. “I was calling because I have a request to make.”
“Name it,” Hawks spoke immediately, slouching against the cold bars of the bridge, eyes closing as he tried to relax. “You need a letter of rec or something?”
“Nothing of the sort, actually,” Tokoyami says. “We third-year students are graduating in a few days; I was inquiring if you would attend on my behalf.”
“Wow, Tsukuyomi-kun, no need to be so formal with me!” Hawks laughed delightedly, his hands carting through his feather-like hair, “I’d love to come and watch you guys graduate! Is it true that the finger-smashing boy is the valedictorian?”
“That would be false, Midoriya-kun has nothing on Yaoyorozu-san.”
“What a bummer, you’d think he’d be first after how he helped win the war for us, huh?”
“You’ll find that Yaoyorozu-san is highly gifted and undeterred by most things,” Tokoyami sighed. For a moment, Hawks chuckled at the melancholy tone to his old intern's voice. It sounded as if he had been striving with great difficulty to reach the highest marks as well.
Hawks began speaking to his rather odd ex-intern with great curiosity with the blanket of the night surrounding him. His defenses and thoughts whittling away the more they spoke, the later it got in the morning.
“Ne, Tokoyami-kun, I have a question?”
“Concerning what?”
Hawks pauses, his brows furrowing as he looks up into the still dark sky, “Do you know how to love yourself?”
Silence.
Had it been anyone else, Hawks would have panicked at the lack of noise. Still, his already less than chatty intern typically took to not speaking much to begin with.
“Self-love is difficult,” Tokoyami finally spoke, his words slow, carefully chosen. “We humans are flawed; we all have demons. Most of the time, we only recognize and see our demons, oftentimes forgetting that being human also means being weak and at times immoral. Loving oneself is a hard task because we know ourselves better than any other. It’s a work in progress for everyone to love oneself, it's a type of love by the Ancient Greeks, but it’s not always everpresent. One must accept all flaws to love oneself, and remember that flaws don’t make you less, even if you believe otherwise.”
“...wow, I asked for a sentence answer, and you gave me a speech. Who would’ve known you were so in check with your emotions, Tokoyami!”
“You knew, I’ve already revealed this side of me before. You laughed last time too.”
Hawks finds himself home thirty minutes later, and he stares up at the ceiling, fingers drumming against his chest.
Self-love… it seems like an ever-evolving type of love, but it’s there. He knows that even if he has regrets and hardships and things he hates about himself, deep down, self-love exists and that it will exist.
Patience.
Even the fastest man in the world could demonstrate patience.
L U D U S
“What can I get for ya?”
“I have no idea honestly, do you have any recommendations?”
Hawks could say with complete honesty that he felt entirely out of place.
He was at a local bar. The bar was semi-busy today. Most young adults dressed in an arrangement of clothes, each on a different level of soberness as they cheered to this and that.
Why was he at a bar even though he was slightly uncomfortable? Well, you can blame #73 in the book for that.
(#73: Enter the first bar you find, order a drink, and flirt!)
“What type of liquor do you like? Hard or soft?”
Hawks blinked; he didn’t know.
“Hard?”
The bartender looked a bit unsure of him for a bit before nodding and turning his back to him.
Did hard liquor mean he was going to get an iced drink? He’s never consumed alcohol before.
“Here you go!” the bartender sang, slamming two shot glasses before him. “Two shots of Bacardi.”
“Oh, thank you?” Hawks tilted his head as a small cup of OJ was placed in front of him (“That’s your chaser,” the bartender had laughed). Bringing the small glass shot glass up, Hawks looked around at the throngs of people surrounding the bar and looked at you. You were cheering loudly as you raised your own shot glass in the air with a whoop and, in a fast, fluid motion, brought the shot glass to your mouth and took the liquid down easily. Hawks was definitely unimpressed now; that looked entirely too easy. “Here we go, cheers to me.”
Imitating your own actions, Hawks shot back the liquid in his shot glass, and immediately his entire body tensed.
EW.
NO.
EW.
OH GOD, NO!
Spitting out the sour, bitter, disgusting — dear god, how do you even describe this taste?! — liquid, Hawks, chugged the OJ, his lungs and throat and tongue burning from the shot.
“That was disgusting!” Hawks spat to absolutely no one, his hands covering his mouth as he stared at the other awaiting shot of ‘Bacardi.’ “Why would anyone drink that?!”
“Only madmen drink Bacardi while sober,” a voice joined in on Hawks' one-sided conversation. “Or bitches who are self-sabotagers. Never trust a hoe who says Bacardi is their favorite drink.”
Hawks turned around to see you, the girl he had regrettably underestimated for taking the shot, smiling at him with a not entirely sober look to your face.
“You look like neither. That and the way you took the shot obviously means that you had no idea what you were drinking.” Hawks continued to stare at you, completely perplexed by your casual conversation, the dress on your body that was twisted a bit, screaming wonders about your level of sobriety. You took to the empty barstool beside him with a grin and a calculating look, “You’re Hawks, right?”
“Yeah, Hawks,” he spoke, his tongue feeling weird in his mouth as he bowed stiffly in his chair. You were beautiful, fuck.
“I’m y/l/n, nice to meet you!” you speak easily, fingers grabbing at his other filled shot glass with a concerned look. “I have a feeling you shouldn’t try to take this other shot.”
“Dying of alcohol definitely isn’t in my vision of ways to go out,” Hawks grins. Pushing through his haze of awkwardness as you shift in the barstool so that you’re now facing him entirely, knees pressed to his thigh. “I’ve never actually drunk before?”
You inhale sharply, your eyes going wide as you break all levels of personal contact that’s acceptable of strangers in Japan and grab his cheeks.
“Alcohol virgin?!” you gasp, the sweet smell of some liquid drafting from your breath. “I’ll teach you everything that I know, don’t worry!”
You let go of his face, neck turning away from him, looking for the bartender to flag him down.
“Don’t you have—?”
“They can wait,” you wave at the bartender before turning back to Hawks with a confident grin on your face. “I have my favorite Pro Hero right beside me; I think they’ll understand.”
“Alright, what is it that I need to know?”
“My full name,” you breeze with a wink. “Y/l/n y/n.”
“A beautiful name.”
“I am a beautiful woman.”
Hawks chuckled good-naturedly, his head nodding in agreement, “I think we were talking about the alcohol, though, not your attraction as a female.”
“All in good time, all in good time,” you laugh, taking to the bartender and ordering two drinks, both of which were entirely foreign to Hawks.
Hawks would not consider himself to be an expert at flirting. He was attractive, a great conversationalist, and did have a type of edge to his words that often seemed playful or a warning, depending on how you looked at it. But it appeared that his natural way of speaking was more than enough to make him flirtatious enough to match the way you spoke to him.
You had introduced him to a single mixed drink, telling him that getting drunk by yourself at a bar typically wasn’t a smart thing, so keep to something with a low alcohol percentage. Just enough to make you loosen up, but not enough that you were incapable of getting home. Hawks liked the way your hand rested on his forearm. How you smiled and laughed at something to show your interest but not at everything to show that you weren’t faking your amusement at what he was saying.
You matched his every word, not backing down from his bluffs. Soon enough, Hawks felt his cheeks warm when he finally looked directly at your smiling face (he wasn’t sure if it was from the alcohol or not).
Eventually, though, the night ended, and you shimmied off the bar stool as your friends had come to collect you to leave.
“Can I get your number?” you ask, eyes mostly entirely sober as you handed him your phone. “I know you were the man who was just a bit too fast, but I think I can handle that.”
Hawks snorts, his eyes rolling in his amusement, “That was horrible.”
“I’m drunk, I have an excuse!” you exclaim with a pout that quickly turns into a giddy smile as Hawks enters his number to your phone. “Don’t worry though, once I’m sober, I’ll flirt your eyebrows clean off!”
“That sounds painful!” Hawks yells as you wave goodbye, your arms linked with a line of other girls as you leave the bar with teasing laughter and undecipherable words.
It was with you that Hawks realized that he had come to find a new type of love.
Ludus, the love of flirtation and playfulness.
Damn, who would’ve known.
P H I L I A
Hawks was having a pretty bad day.
It wasn’t anything super terrible happening, all things considered. It was a lovely day out; the sun was warm, the sky so blue, and the birds chirping. Nothing on the news to be concerned about and all his precious people were safe.
But it was still a bad day because instead of being out and about with you, his now borderline best friend/girlfriend, who he was stupidly having a crush on, he was stuck at home.
Hawks was sick.
Deliriously, stuffy nose, goopy eyed, chapped lips, and feverish sick.
You: Are you sure you’re fine????
Hawks: Im perfectly okay. Ill go with you to the park next time sorry
You: Thats not what im concerned about stupid!!!!!
Hawks: Bye have fun!
You: I knoW YOURE SICK ASSHOLE
Hawks chuckled, rereading his messages with you.
Blowing his nose for what felt like the umpteenth time, Hawks resumed the movie on the screen that you had recommended him to watch — Disney’s Chicken Little — because it reminded you of him, or something like that. The TV droned on with the movie, and Hawks found it hard to keep focused as the Sandman danced on his head and whispered in his ear.
He hadn’t noticed he had fallen asleep until a loud banging was heard on his door.
Shuffling towards the door, Hawks opened the still slightly broken door with bleary eyes and a stuffy nose.
In front of him was none other than you.
You… with a basket full of things.
“Hi!” you greeted him, pushing past Hawks easily and walking into his apartment. “You look worse than I thought you would be!”
“That's hurtful,” Hawks pouted, closing the door behind you, sneezing, then following after you. “Why are you here? I thought you w-were — achoo — going to the park?”
“I was, but we were supposed to go together to check off number 184, and I wasn’t about to go alone to complete a list meant for you!” you exclaimed, dumping the overfilled basket on the kitchen counter.
“Mm,” Hawks hummed, his voice dry and cracking as he pulled the blanket closer around him. “What’s this?”
“A get well care basket,” you say in an unmistakable like tone; you glance at him, smiling widely, and gesture dramatically to the basket. “Follow along, if you can.”
“Pfft.”
“So first, I have some sleepytime tea; I swear to the gods and back that this tea will cure you and knock you the fuck out,” you say, pulling out the thing on top of the basket and putting it to the side. “Next, we have some tissues because you obviously need them.”
“Hey!”
Hawks watched through red-rimmed eyes as you carefully and thoroughly explained what and why you had brought him. Fuzzy socks, a blanket, his favorite snacks and drinks, medicine, DVD’s to more movies you told him he had to watch, an embarrassing childhood picture of you that he had been wanting and swore he would never expose least he wants to die, more oils for his diffuser, and a signed Endeavor poster he had been wanting.
Safe to say that after he had been drugged up, eating some soup and drinking some tea on the couch, wrapped up in the blanket you had bought him, laying between your legs, Hawks was feeling much, much better. It had been hours since Hawks had coughed or sneezed, and he was talking with you about how Disney movies were being produced less and getting sort of worse with each one. The movie titan slowly losing its ground.
“Okay, it’s almost eleven pm; I have work tomorrow, you are still sick, let's pack it up!” you eventually say during a moment of comfortable silence.
“I can’t believe you have to work,” Hawks sniffled, standing up off the couch so that you could get up. “Seems like a crime.”
“It’s not so bad! Being a celebrity PR manager is a million times easier than a hero PR manager. At least we can help decide what's seen!” you laugh, helping to clean up his living room of the bags of chips and drinks.
“Sure, sure,” Hawks grins, keeping the trashcan open for you so that you could place the trash in. “Thank you.”
Walking you towards the front door, Hawks comes to the sudden and almost alarming realization that he doesn’t want you to leave. He wants you to stay. He thought this was a friendship, and it was one, a good one at that! For about a month now, he had known that there was a type of love he had for you, one of friendship.
It was called philia.
So why did he want to keep you wrapped up in a hug, to pull you close and press a gentle kiss to your forehead, to your cheek, to your lips?
“—I’ll be back tomorrow to check up on you during my lunch break,” you say, slipping on your shoes as you pull on your jacket. “If you need anything at all, call or text—”
The words on your tongue die immediately when Hawks still slightly chapped lips press against yours. The sick must that was present earlier on the day is no longer there, and you can feel heat and fire bursting from your cells as Hawks pulls away from you.
“I’m sorry,” Hawks breathes out, a small smile on his face, a daze in his eyes that tells you he definitely was not completely sorry. “I couldn’t resist anymore?”
“W-We will talk about that later!” your voice squeaks, your heart hammering in your throat because fucking Hawks kissed you. “If I-I get sick, I’ll rip out your eyebrows!”
“Will you go out with me? On a date?” Hawks continues on, leaning on the doorframe you’ve yet to pass.
“...I hate you, yes,” you warble, hands pressing against your burning face as Hawks grin grows.
“Perfect, I’ll text you,” he allows you to pass through the doorway where you feel both entirely light and giddy yet awkward and mechanical.
“Hawks, I swear, if your stupid kiss got me sick!”
“You’ll rip out my eyebrows,” Hawks laughs, waving a hand. “If you rip out my eyebrows, I demand a kiss for every hair you pluck out.”
He laughs at how he can basically see the heat rising from your ears as you squawk and run away.
Looking at #184 of his book, Hawks smiles as he crosses it out (#184: Ask out your crush!) and sighs. Philia was love between friends, but it was also, if he remembered correctly, one of affection. And it was without saying that he held a deep affection for you.
E R O S
As much as Hawks claimed he knew about the world, he was as clueless as a newborn baby when it came to the topic of love. Reasoning? Well, today marked a year of being together. It had been a year since Hawks had kissed you when he was snot-nosed kissed (you did get sick, by the way, and while you didn’t rip out his eyebrows, Hawks had kissed you plenty in apology), and then took you on a date where you went to a trampoline palace.
He was clumsily romantic. More often than not, he wasn’t actually romantic. Still, the sincere thought and emotions he put into it made his actions seem so thoughtful and sweet.
You’re not sure why you actually believed that on your year anniversary, he was going to plan something for the two of you. So the reaction he had when you showed up on the year anniversary, armed with a bouquet of flowers and a small personal gift for him, Hawks looked deeply confused.
“This is still not bad!” you exclaim, watching as Hawks attempts to redecorate his apartment from the messy bachelor vibe into something of romance. It was easier said than done, especially as your boyfriend had no decorations in his house that wasn’t fanboy or bird material.
“I didn’t realize that one year anniversaries were meant to be out and about!” Hawks yelled back, failing to nail the fairy lights onto the ceilings. “I knew you wanted to do something, but I thought it was going to be like ‘let’s go get some KFC!’ sort of thing!”
“Definitely not,” you laugh, sitting on his couch with the take out food sitting on the table. It had just arrived, and Hawks was still not accepting the lack of romance in his apartment. “But it’s okay, really Hawks! I didn’t tell you, which is entirely my fault! Come on, let's watch something together, eat, and relax!”
Hawks sighed and looked up at the ceiling.
He should have known that one year anniversaries were a big thing in dating too. They sure were in businesses; what a rookie mistake. Not satisfied with the lack of romance in his apartment but also unable to do anything more to it, Hawks sulked over to the couch and sat beside you, grabbing his dinner plate.
“Thanks, dove.”
“You’re most welcome, baby vulture. Thank you for the food!” you grin, breaking the chopsticks and digging in.
The food is eaten with a mirthful conversation, the TV playing the 100 Funniest Hero Fails playing on Youtube. Eventually, the purples and pinks of the sky became dark.
Night is here.
Hawks went from sitting right beside you to lying on the couch and having you snuggled into his stomach at some point in the night. YouTube is no longer playing Hero Compilation videos. Still, it is now instead showing a chef with a giraffe quirk demonstrating how to make your very own pancake treehouse, no clickbait!
Hawks is transfixed on you, watching the way your eyes sparkle and shine as you stare up at the screen, your lips moving as you give your side commentary, but he can’t hear a thing.
Five weeks ago, on this day, was the day that Hawks realized that the philia love he had for you had evolved once again. It had become one of eros. Romantic, passionate love. He loved you; he loves you. Anything you wanted or needed in the world, Hawks would do anything to give it to you. He had yet to tell you said realization; after all, he needed to make sure it wasn’t some fluke but found himself chickening out each time he wanted to confess.
Gliding his thumb against your cheekbone, Hawks stared adoringly at you, head tilted as you laughed at the video before glancing up at him. It was evident that you hadn’t been expecting him to be staring at you so intensely. As soon as you glanced back at the TV, you snapped right back, curiosity blazing off your gaze.
“What’s up?” you asked, hands pressing to his chest as you lift up a bit. “Do I have something on my face?”
“I love you,” Hawks whispered, the words coming out so much easier than he thought it would. “Y/l/n y/n, I love you.”
Your eyes widen significantly, your jaw dropping as your eyes grow just a bit watery.
Hawks smiles softly, knowing that for so long you had told him you loved him without a single moment where he returned the affection. It hadn’t bothered you. Obviously, you knew why he didn’t say it, but finally hearing him say it seemed to break you just a bit in the best of ways. He kisses you softly, fingers wiping away the single tear that fell.
“I love you,” he repeats.
“I love you too, Hawks,” you blubber, your smile so bright yet wobbling with your heartfelt emotions.
“Takami Keigo,” Hawks corrects. “My name is Takami Keigo.”
Hawks watches as you process his name, and a wet laugh bubbles from your throat as you nod your head, hands reaching behind his neck to pull him close for the first soul-consuming, fiery kiss of the night.
“I love you, Keigo.”
If this wasn’t eros, well, then, Hawks didn’t know what it was.
P R A G M A
two years later, valentines day
Keigo sits on the bed, fingers adjusting the tie around his neck as he stares at you doing your makeup in the bathroom. Your eyes intensely concentrated on your reflection as you painted dark red lips on yourself.
To sum up the last two years in a single, simple phrase, Keigo would say that love now made even less sense to him.
It wasn’t precisely that it made perfect sense before. Some days he still argued and wondered about how love could exist in specific scenarios. Or why, after you stole his final KFC chicken leg he was saving, he could always love you after such betrayal. It made no sense to him, but also made perfect sense, hence the complete confusion.
But it was without saying that as you twirled in your outfit in front of him, a grin plastered so large and lovingly on your features, that it made sense.
How could he not love when he had someone like you.
The walk to the restaurant was perfect; he had even taken a moment to slow dance with you when you came across some performers. Your sweet smile meant just for him made Keigo hum contently as he kissed you gently.
Dinner was amazing. The food rich and luscious, entirely to die for that had the both of you moaning about how great it was before laughing because the waitress definitely heard that. After dinner was over, you and Keigo were now waiting on desserts when he simply grabbed your left hand and slid a simple ring over a very important finger before placing a kiss on your palm.
“I know I was at one point too fast, and maybe I think I was too slow to ask this, but would you like to wake up and have chicken with me every day?” Keigo asked, watching as your face went through a million stages of understanding, processing, internalizing, accepting, and pure emotions.
The kiss was sloppy and wet, the tears streaming down your face beautifully, like diamonds in the dark sky.
It was today that Keigo unlocked the last love he ever thought he would have.
Pragma: committed, enduring love.
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Saeran’s Passport Package
I’ve been waiting since the 19th to get my hands on this baby and I’m glad that it got here today. It took me a little bit to sit down and go through everything cause I wanted to cry about it the entire time.
Spoilers Ahead, everyone. So, if you’re not interested in seeing what’s in the Passport set AFTER the events of Saeran’s After Ending, then do not click Read More, got it? I’ve made it clear to you. I will say that it’s worth the money if you’re debating buying it.
So, we can go over the contents in the box, first as an overview. You receive a letter stamped with a cute sticker as well as the passport itself which holds the notes that Saeran’s been taking and drawing since this all started. I just think that’s cute. My brain said don’t open that passport until we review the letter first so, why don’t we go over the letter first? The little details are really cute. There’s just so many stamps on this baby.
The little touches are what sell it. You’ve got this man putting his love all over it and there’s a CUTE NOTE of CATS. Sir, was that a touch to Saeyoung? I know you know that your brother is a dork. Homage to brother who is an idiot but too glaringly obvious. It got a chuckle out of me. I know this man, and it’s just getting to me.
The passport itself is also really cute. It has the art from the promo banner but instead of everyone hustling around together, there’s new poses and all of that jazz. Jaehee isn’t rushing around. Zen’s got a selfie stick, no surprise on that front. Jumin just chilling. Seven and Yoosung... doing what they do best and you know it. RUN, YOOSUNG, RUN.
Saeran and MC... being cute on the inside made me go, “Aw!” Ice cream. They can really just put ice cream and it’s going to make me cry, huh? Really? Is that how easy this is? Am I a joke to you, Cheritz? Is that what this is?
Now, if you want to talk about the contents in the letter, you get this sheet that is listed in three languages, surprised me, Korean, Spanish, and English, and it lets you tick off little things that you like to do. An itinerary sheet. I feel like this is purely Jumin crafting these. It asks about Cats. Literally. Cats. Wine? Yeah, this is on Jumin. You always come in flex, Jumin, but oh boy, I’m chuckling over here at these little touches.
You get 2 boarding passes. One with Saeran’s name and one with a blank to fill in your name. I thought that was cute. Tying in that with the CG of the passes in the game with this just makes it more real to me. I’m holding this in my hands and it just makes my immersion feel much more real than it did when I was holding my phone in my hand and playing this out.
I think merch like this just makes you feel more apart of the story then you do when you’re able to talk and chat, you know? If you really like feeling like you are involved with the game, this is how you do it. You wanna know how I know that Jumin is the one setting this up with Saeran? Flip over the fucking passport and you realize that Elizabeth is on the back.
I’m still laughing.
I’m trying to imagine this and now, like, I’m starting to see why Jaehee is so damn tired because Elizabeth really is on everything that he can get his hands on and she’s good too many files to sort through when it comes to whatever the photographers take of her. Jumin can’t take photos. He’s either got Jihyun to do this for him at some point, or he’s straight up hiring photographers for her cause he can’t do it.
I mean, we all know that Jumin will put Elizabeth everywhere but I just— It’s on the BOARDING PASSES? JUMIN!
There’s also a postcard within the letter that is once more, written in all three aforementioned languages. Saeran says that it feels like a dream when he is with you, like this is where he’s always meant to be. His promise of happiness is made truest when he’s with you. I teared up a little. I know that he means well when he does that but damn, does it take an arrow to the heart every single time he does it.
Saeran put a lot of thought into this in a very short amount of time. I know that he did this plan likely with the idea that he may not be able to go with us but he wanted us to be able to see the world for him. You know, how he implied that he wanted Saeyoung to see things for him? To live for him? Even if he was dead, he wanted Saeyoung and the player to be happy and free.
The blurred state on those... doesn’t have names. It doesn’t name Saeran in this photo.
The implication of his sacrifice with the boarding passes kind of hurts because this is a side note of the fact that Saeran Did Not Know If He Would Live To See This Through. He made it thinking maybe.. if things worked out, it would be an okay future, but this was... God. I just. I’m thinking about the weight of the AE and what that felt like. I almost glossed over the Boarding Pass because I was just so upset with him.
I’m the type to try to sacrifice myself for others, too. I have that in common with Saeyoung and Saeran.
I think that we’d argue over who should die for the others and while that’s macabre, it’s just the kind of people that we are. We love these people so much that we’re willing to die if they’re safe and sound. Knowing that, I understand what Saeran tried, and even what Saeyoung tries, but it’s hard cause I want to make sure they’re happy in comparison to myself.
This is where being selfless is a bad thing.
Does anyone know what a big deal it is for Saeran to have a passport? He’s never had an ID or paperwork in his entire life. If he did, he would’ve been killed, so would his brother. They’re both never had IDs. Unless you count the ones from the Agency and Mint Eye. They’ve got them in the Believer box with their names and faces, but that’s not official. That’s not paperwork that everyone else has. That’s just...
You know?
Seeing this tangible thing in my hands is a testament to Saeran Choi being alive and thriving. He’s not afraid of showing his face. He’s living. He’s a free man and nobody can kill him for existing. Does that not weigh on anyone here? It hit me and I wanted to cry. I might break down thinking about this later because I just take this too seriously. Look at him. Look at HIM. Okay? Did you look? Now, LOOK AGAIN.
Okay, I’m not going to share every single page inside of the passport but I will give you little snippets of the journey ahead and show you what he writes and draws. Yes, he’s drawing. I knew that he was talented because he is great at doodling and drawing, but he knows how to have such a cute style that I want to gush about and he probably has no clue about how cute it is because nobody’s ever told him!
Okay, so the trip is broken up over a few months and into segments. You know how I was surprised by the 3 languages? Yes, this passport is written in three languages and it stays that way. It implies that Saeran knows English and Spanish, or at the very least, he’s been studying them, I get that it’s kind of a neat tie in to make sure that all languages are included but I only English and I can only read Spanish, I suck at conversational Spanish, so I could only read the English and Spanish sections.
So, if anyone wants to throw in what the Korean segments say, please do. I have a rough idea, but it’d be nice to know. The first segment of the trip is spent traveling over Korea. You see the things that he packed in the bag!
I almost had a heart attack because I thought the vitamins were Caffeine Pills. I was about to beat my Husband and make him go to bed. Thin ice, Saeran. Thin ice, the Special Believer package implied you take more then ten and I want you to go the fuck to sleep at night.
He packed his hanbok! Look! You remember? From the title screen event? The blue shirt is the one that he matches with MC in. There’s so much I’m screaming about it.
It shows you things that you do. Like, biking, karaoke, gardens... is there a locket bridge in Korea? You know? If you put them together on a bridge, it’s said that your love lasts forever. I forget where that came from but I guess there must be one in South Korea, too. Oh, and food. Can you believe that he can eat whatever he wants now? I’m sobbing.
Please.
HE’S IN HANBOK. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.
Okay, here’s the thing. I only have one gripe with the Passport Package and I’m going to say this again at the end, but I really wish that they had included big photos for this because the Passport itself it rather small and I wish that I could have bigger photos of this. It’s my only complaint. Literally, it’s the only thing I have to say about the box that will affect my rating. Look, we’re doing cheesy couple stuff!
HE’S DOING THE HEART THING WITH HIS HANDS.
A KISS.
KISS.
GUSHING.
DYING. HELP. ME.
God, I wish I wasn’t broke. I would commission someone to do this for my MC.
The second and third portion of the trip are spent in the U.S.A. and Mexico, I was so surprised by that! New York and Hawaii specifically are what they name and I was. Well, those are really far apart, huh. I mean, those are very popular spots. I’m not surprised. I’m chuckling because he’s got matching outfits.
Saeran Choi, you really want the embarrassing couple look, don’t you? Well, if it’s for you, I’d do it. Did... Saeyoung or Jumin set us up, are we fucking loaded? There’s mad bank here.
Saeran and MC basically are living per Jumin and Saeyoung, to be honest, because Saeran’s never had a job and MC is... your MC literally agrees to go and test a game in the woods, how good can our lives be? I’m broke, boy. I ain’t got nothing. So, I like to think that those two are offering to let Saeran be as happy and free as he wants. No expense. Like, kindness. The RFA is too damn much, I’m gonna cry. I’m starting to understand why the RFA didn’t hear from us for months.
The final Check-In with the RFA is set 6 Months after the events that take place when we save Saeran. The events of this Passport cover 3 months. So, we go back to Korea after this adventure and met up with Saeyoung, because we know that we’re hanging out with him in the conclusion. So, if they haven’t really heard from us, that means that we’ve been traveling more with him.
I kind of like that.
We’re spending time with Saeran alone and time with the brothers together, and that’s sweet! I love that. I need to write more about it.
I’m trying not to laugh about this Mexico portion but it looks like he passed out from an ice tea... lemonade...? It’s surely not alcohol. Maybe too much sugar, I know that crash can hurt. I’ve been there. I just know that you’re not implying the man with alcohol trauma is gonna drink. Nope. Neither he nor Saeyoung ever will do that. I stand by that statement and I’ll die by that statement. Bite me my tongue if I’m wrong, but I stand by that.
Saeran is at least mindful of the sun. He’s also made notes that the perfect time for sunset is 18:34. Cute. He notes that it’s time for the Day of the Dead as well, so that’s fun!
IS THAT A FUCKING V CACTUS—
TWO V CACTUS—
There’s actually a portion in here where he asks you certain questions and you have the space to fill in it. I like that it’s interactive.
Do you have favorites sweets? Are there things about yourself that you hide? Did you make sure to ask Santa what you wanted? I’m wheezing. The food doodles are one thing, and the Christmas photo is one thing, but he really drew himself as a butterfly and the MC as a bug catcher.
“CATCH ME, MC.”
Help me.
I’m laughing so hard.
Saeran, you fucking goofball.
And, the last page of the passport is us assumedly returning home with all kinds of trinkets and gifts. Flower crown, snow globe, cactus, hats, listen, there’s a lot of details in this photos that I really wish I could have it blown up.
That’s really my only complaint about the Passport Package. I really want to have bigger photos that are shared. I wouldn’t have minded if it was the photo of the final CG in the game, or the Christmas photo, I really would have enjoyed getting that to have for myself.
You know? The passport itself is roughly like 5 x 7 or so, so while it’s not big, it’s still like. I would love to see the details blown up. It’s smaller then the diary, that I know for sure. I think it’s the only thing stopping from giving Cheritz a 10/10 on this item.
I’m going to have to give them a 9.8/10 simply because it feels like we are lacking one big photo.
I guess I’ll print my favorite CGs and decorate my room like that. But, all and all, I really enjoyed reading this and it made it feel like I was there and I was able to reflect on Saeran’s vacation with the player. Like, he was doing this as we were going using his little doodles... I’m in love with this fucking sap. I’d say that this is worth the money.
For sure.
My only gripe aside. That’s a personal problem, not really a content problem. I love this bastard.
Look at him, he’s GOT A PLUSHIE. I have so many things that I want to write about now thanks to this. Saeran, darling, sweetie, my love, I am dying. Either way, I’m glad this arrived when it did. I needed this. I justified getting this for myself because I don’t expect to get anything for my birthday in early February but I’m happy I have him.
It’s been five years since I found this game in August 2016. I’m happy that it’s been here with me.
#SaeranAfterEnding#saeran ae#saeran after ending#mm#mysme#mysticmessenger#mystic messenger#mystic messenger saeran#saeran mysme#saeran mystic messenger#saeran mm#mm saeran#mysme saeran#saeran#saeran choi#choi saeran#saeray#ge saeran#mod kait#spoilers#spoiler#long post
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Kiro’s Victory and Defeat Date Translation [CN]
Hi, y’all! I just have a couple notes just before you begin reading. I don’t actually know any Chinese so this translation was done through the power of Google Translate. Also, thanks to @cheesy09 and @keliosyfan for looking it over! ありがとう!💛
The translation below contains spoilers for a date that hasn’t been released in the ENG server yet so please don’t look below the cut if you don’t want to be spoiled.
You can read the call that comes with this date here!
Hope you enjoy!~
*Spoilers for future content below!*
On a rare sunny day, I opened all the windows in the house for some fresh air.
The wind gently fluttered the curtains, bringing in a hint of the coolness of spring.
Looking at the two tickets sitting on the table, I walked over and put them in my wallet one by one.
Just recently, Kiro and I learned that an expert street dancer from abroad was coming to Loveland City to have a “strength exchange” in an underground workshop.
The moment our eyes met, Kiro and I smiled in harmony and immediately booked two tickets.
Suddenly, there was a familiar-sounding knock on the door that interrupted my thoughts.
Before the answer was completely formed in my heart, I had already made up my mind.
As soon as I opened the door, a dazzling golden colour appeared before my eyes.
Kiro: Miss Chips!
The person standing in front of me flashed me a bright and brilliant smile which made me laugh to myself.
MC: Why did you come so early? Didn’t you say that I will see you at night?
Kiro pouted his lips, pretending to be dissatisfied, and patted my face quickly.
Kiro: Well, that’s a simple question to answer.
Kiro: Of course it was because I missed you. So, I showed up in advance.
That bright, smiling face made me lose my train of thought for a moment.
Suddenly, his eyes glanced behind me, showing an unexpected expression.
Kiro: But, behind you, Miss Chips….
Before he finished speaking, I seemed to remember something and hurriedly rushed to the living room to put away the game controllers scattered on the floor.
MC: It’s nothing. You didn’t see anything!
Kiro: I clearly saw everything!
Kiro: The messy living room, the controllers on the floor, and the dark circles under Miss Chips’ eyes….
Kiro pushed up his non-existent glasses with a serious face, analyzing every “clue” in front of him.
Kiro: So, according to my speculation, the truth is that--
Kiro: Miss Chips pulled an all-nighter last night playing games.
Hearing Kiro figure out the answer, I couldn’t help but whisper to myself.
MC: I didn’t mean to stay up that late but this game was kicking my butt.
Seeing Kiro’s confused face, I sighed and decided to confess the truth.
MC: Actually, last night, I was practising the fighting game we played together last time.
MC: Last time, I hadn’t played much and the experience wasn’t the best.
MC: So, I thought about practicing in secret. I thought it would be a lot more interesting when we played together next time.
Kiro’s eyes were surprised. He stared at the controller on the ground.
Kiro: Practicing by yourself isn’t as effective as playing with another person.
As soon as he stopped talking, he stepped forward, holding my gaze firmly in his.
Kiro: So, let me join in.
Kiro: My cute and hard-working Miss Chips~
[Second Part]
As soon as I brought over the fully charged controller, Kiro sat down on the couch with me in his arms.
MC: Eh, do you want to play like this?
I turned my head to meet Kiro’s eyes but didn’t expect to be held even tighter.
Kiro: Don’t we always play like this?
Kiro: Is Miss Chips still not used to it?
MC: But we are playing as opponents in this fighting game….
MC: It’s too hard to play this close!
Kiro: Is this too close?
Kiro: What about this?
As he asked this, he nuzzled his head lightly into my neck, his face pressed against mine.
When he became even closer, the tips of my ears began to burn uncontrollably.
MC: This is even closer than before!
The next second, he leaned back contentedly on the couch with a satisfied smile, his arms still encircling me.
Kiro: Are you ready?
Kiro: Remember, I don’t show mercy to my subordinates!
After Kiro pressed the start button, the TV entered the countdown phase.
3, 2, 1--
The living room was silent for a bit aside from the sounds of the game from the TV and the mashing of buttons.
Although I couldn’t see Kiro’s expression behind me, his state seemed to match those of the characters on screen.
The perfectly-executed combo and roundhouse kick instantly reduced my health bar by a lot.
I couldn’t help but hold my breath, hold the controller tightly and get more serious.
Although I may be at a disadvantage, probably because of all the practice the past few days, I didn’t panic.
At the same time, the combo moves that I had been waiting to use also swiftly responded at the same time.
Soon, our health bars were equal. The drawn-out battle made me want to win even more.
MC: Look at me!
Kiro: Miss Chips, be careful~
Suddenly, Kiro’s character shot up into the sky, a precursor to an even bigger move.
I immediately sounded the alarm in my head and quickly hid the moment his character fell.
Kiro: Nice!
Although I enjoyed hearing his praise, I didn’t dare take it lightly.
I held my breath and walked towards Kiro’s character, like a cheetah lurking quietly before hunting.
Suddenly, Kiro’s moves finally showed a small opening, and I quickly followed the moves that I had practiced hard over the past few days.
After triggering a series of critical strikes, his character instantly fell to the ground. A big “WIN” flashed on the screen.
I raised my hands happily but Kiro turned my body to face him and pitched my cheeks lightly. His eyes were full of joy.
MC: Yay!!!
Kiro: Miss Chips is amazing!
MC: Phew, if it weren’t for all those “make-up classes” every day recently, I’m afraid today would be another miserable defeat~
Kiro: MC’s desire to win is very strong!
MC: So is yours! You are on so many leaderboards for so many games!
Kiro held his chin pretentiously and blinked.
Kiro: This can’t be compared with the desire to win!
Kiro: As for me, I was just adhering to the principle of “perfect clearance”. So naturally, I ranked first.
MC: What you said just now….Makes me wonder if you just let me win.
I squinted my eyes and slowly approached him. He waved his hand quickly.
Kiro: I didn’t. If you lose, you lose, but….
Kiro: If I only lose to you, I will be willing.
He looked straight at me, his blue eyes gleaming.
And in such gleaming eyes, only me is reflected in them at this moment.
I nestled my body in his arms again and shook the controller.
MC: Well, should we play another round?
Kiro: Yeah, let’s play some more before we go out!
I pressed the start button excitedly and we both sat up slightly, looking at the game screen with full concentration.
When night fell, we reluctantly put down our controllers, took the tickets and prepared to go out.
(Cut to the warehouse)
After nearly an hour’s drive, we came to a warehouse in a remote suburb.
I looked back at Kiro, who was already wearing a baseball cap and helped him to lower the brim of his hat with worry.
Kiro: Don’t worry, I won’t be recognized.
Kiro: Let’s go in.
[Third Part]
Unexpectedly, there are some warehouse buildings outside. But, there is something special when you walk in.
The graffiti all over the wall shows the unique atmosphere here. The young people’s swaying to the rhythm synced perfectly with the beat.
Looking around, dozens of circles surrounded by people are scattered in various places of the warehouse. Cheers and chants also oscillated in it.
Looking around, I saw a passerby who was about to bump into me….
Kiro quickly stretched out his hand in front of me and blocked me. The passerby paused after bumping into Kiro’s arm and then walked past us.
MC: There are a lot of people here, and it seems that the expert street dancer isn’t here yet….
Kiro: Then let’s go to the side and wait for a while, alright?
I nodded and followed him to a place with fewer people.
After sitting for a bit, I didn’t expect to see several young women looking at Kiro.
I was shocked. No one would recognize Kiro, right?
Seeing the gazes of the young women continuously cast towards Kiro, I silently stepped forward and blocked his figure.
While I was thinking about countermeasures quickly, one of the men with dreadlocks had already walked in front of Kiro.
Man with dreadlocks: Hey, buddy. Seeing you up closer, is this your first time coming?
The brim of the hat blocked most of Kiro’s face, his blue eyes were also hidden in the darkness.
The brief silence made the man with dreadlocks frown. He twisted his neck and it cracked.
Man with dreadlocks: There are a lot of people who bought tickets just to have fun here. It’s really unpleasant.
Man with dreadlocks: If I’m wrong, you’re welcome to use your strength to let a few of our brothers have fun.
As the man with dreadlocks said this, his companions quietly surrounded us in a circle.
Just when I thought I was ready to stay silent again, Kiro raised his chin and said,
Kiro: These words don’t sound very inviting.
I don’t know if he was deliberately concealing his identity but Kiro’s voice was much deeper than usual.
Man with dreadlocks: Oh, I have seen people like you a lot, you are just afraid of losing~
Man with dreadlocks: After all, your girlfriend is watching. Wouldn’t your image in her heart be greatly damaged if you lose?
MC: You….
I couldn’t help but prepare to fight back and Kiro gave out a soft laugh beside me.
Kiro: It seems you didn’t understand what I said.
Man with dreadlocks: What?
Kiro’s lips raised up to make a shallow arc and slowly walked in front of the man.
Kiro: In this case, I also have my own rules.
Kiro: If you really want to “communicate”, should we place a bet?
The flickering neon lights made Kiro’s face light up. He gave off a dangerous aura.
I don’t know if they noticed Kiro’s faint provocation. The faces of the group of people became a little timid.
Man with dreadlocks: Hmph, that’s crazy!
Before he could finish speaking, one of them leaned close towards his ear while looking at Kiro at the same time.
Man: Brother, why do I feel like the more I look at this person’s face, the more he looks like Kiro?
As soon as he asked, the man with dreadlocks suddenly raised his head and laughed.
Man with dreadlocks: Him? You should go to the hospital to see the eye doctor.
Man: ….
Man with dreadlocks: Besides, even if it is, how strong can a star be? All that praise is for nothing.
Those harsh words kept echoing in my ears. My worries were gradually replaced with anger.
I can’t help but think back to the way Kiro was immersed in practice and creation for countless days and nights.
The work is polished over and over again. He only wants to show the best side of himself to everyone.
Thinking of this, I took a deep breath and couldn’t help refuting it.
MC: Do you think you can wipe out all their efforts with just one sentence?
I had been silent this whole time. I couldn’t help but stun the people around me.
MC: They will never be defeated by prejudice.
The man with dreadlocks suddenly laughed and shook his head helplessly.
Man with dreadlocks: Another girl who’s been brainwashed by celebrities….
He wanted to say something more when a cold voice sounded in the air.
Kiro: Enough nonsense.
I followed the voice and found that Kiro had reached the center of the open space. He raised his chin and ignored the person in front of him.
Kiro: What are you waiting for?
[Fourth Part]
The rules for the dance battle are simpler than I imagined. There are no restrictions for either party. The people around the scene will be the “judges”, and the side with the louder voices wins the game.
Man with dreadlocks: Brother, it’s not too late to admit defeat, you know?
Kiro shrugged indifferently as if he didn’t care about the mockery of the other party.
Kiro: Before we start, let’s decide on the “trophies” for both sides.
Man with dreadlocks: Raise the stakes all you want, you can’t win anyway.
Kiro: In that case….
Kiro stopped in the middle of speaking as if thinking of some interesting idea. He slightly raised the corners of his mouth.
Kiro: After I get the CALL, you’re gonna have to admit really loudly that you love Kiro so that everyone in the building can hear you. How about it?
The man with dreadlocks was stunned as if he hadn’t expected it. I quickly smirked and asked,
MC: Isn’t that a little much?
Man with dreadlocks: How can I do that! I don’t know how to CALL. We need to change one thing.
Kiro ignored his opponent, lowered his head, and leaned towards me.
Kiro: Could I ask Miss Chips to do a demonstration of CALL?
Kiro: It’s also considered cheering for me.
His voice is as soft as a feather, slowly brushing my ears.
My body temperature rose uncontrollably and I blushed as I met his gaze.
There was a little bit of starlight hidden in those blue eyes and the corners of his lips rose slightly to form a little devilish smile.
Kiro winked, my mind trembled, and I nodded subconsciously.
MC: The friend who doesn’t know how to CALL, let me teach you.
I glanced at the man with dreadlocks, took a deep breath, shaped my hands into a horn, and shouted out loudly.
MC: Kiro, I will love you my whole life! And I will not regret it!!
My heart beats like a drum with every word.
Those shouts that had been hidden in my heart for a long time had finally poured out at this moment.
This is what I’ve always wanted to do. But, I rarely seem to be able to do it in public….
My voice caused many people to look sideways. I gradually recovered and hid behind Kiro.
Kiro: Thank you, Miss Chips. I can hear you clearly.
Kiro’s words floated past my ears and were soon drowned out by the surrounding music.
The man with dreadlocks walked to the center and made a provocative gesture to the sky to indicate the beginning of the dance battle.
He immediately began to move, and after a series of smooth waves, he drew a lot of voices from the surrounding crowd.
The rhythm became faster and faster and he finally landed on the ground with a somersault, raising his eyebrows at us with disdain.
Kiro glanced disapprovingly and then turned to face me.
Kiro: Look after this hat for me.
Before I could respond, he pulled up his sweater and hat and walked towards the center stage step-by-step, with an unclear look.
The surrounding lights are still flickering and dimming, adding a little mystery to the atmosphere at this moment.
Kiro stood in the middle of the crowd with his head down. He raised his head when the music in the background dropped the bass.
In the next second, Kiro fell straight to one side and just when I thought he was about to lose his center of gravity….
He steadily caught himself with one hand on the ground. He took advantage of the momentum to lift his feet in the air to cross and freeze, his flying necklace also crossing a beautiful parabola.
I couldn’t help holding my breath, my eyes swept across the smooth body lines and messy golden hair subconsciously.
In the end, I couldn’t look away from those azure blue eyes. They were a very determined pair of eyes.
He, at this moment, is completely different from when I was nestled in his arms that morning, making it hard to concentrate.
Suddenly, the music seemed to make things difficult for Kiro on purpose, and the rhythm suddenly became crazy and rapid.
He didn’t look the slightest bit worried. He followed the variation of the beat to improvise one brilliant move after another.
Every movement is sonorous and powerful but light at the same time. There was no sense of heaviness.
The atmosphere on the scene became more and more intense. The force of the crowd kept pushing me out until I was gradually pushed out altogether.
As I tried to squeeze back in, cheers sounded around me.
I jumped up anxiously, vaguely seeing a familiar pair of arms raised high.
The result of the dance battle seems to be obvious and I can’t help but want to eagerly witness the moment of his victory.
MC: Let me in!
My voice was instantly overwhelmed and there were many voices in my ears that wanted to compete with Kiro.
Just when I was getting a little anxious, someone held my hand tightly and the noise around me stopped instantly.
Kiro: It’s okay to compete with me, one by one.
Kiro: But, my person should have the best viewing position, right?
A cold voice sounded in the crowd. At the same time, my vision gradually widened.
Kiro: Miss Chips, keep looking at me.
MC: OK!
Even though I was a little shy to be watched by everyone, I stood not far away from him, a warm feeling filling my heart.
People who wanted to compete came up one after another and then slipped away amidst the sounds of the crowd.
Until the end, no one dared to step up, only the undulating admiration remained.
As time passed, the crowd didn’t seem to be as crowded as before. They were quietly spreading out.
Seeing that Kiro’s hair was stuck to his forehead because of sweat, I took out a tissue and wiped it.
MC: Obviously you are a person with a strong desire to win, But this morning, you pretended to be a pig and eat a tiger in front of me.*
*So I had to google this phrase here and it’s an idiom. It’s basically saying that Kiro acted weaker than he actually is in order for his opponent to lower their defense against him.
Kiro: Because the situation is different.
Although Kiro tried his best to cover it, he was still slightly out of breath.
MC: Different?
Kiro: Well, because in front of MC, I don’t need to strive for perfection in everything.
Kiro: Being with you makes me happy and helps me relax.
Kiro: But just now, everyone was looking at us. I had only one thought at that time.
Kiro looked at me seriously, his eyes brighter than ever.
Kiro: In front of the person I like, I don’t want to lose.
Kiro: I can’t lose.
As soon as his voice fell, my heart skipped a beat, my hand that was gradually moving stopped.
The sweetness and emotion in my heart were repeatedly intertwined. I looked at him and couldn’t speak for a moment.
Kiro leaned over, his line of sight aimed right towards my lips.
Kiro: Since I won, will I be rewarded by Miss Chips?
Kiro: Such as….
Without waiting for him to finish, I quickly gave him a peck on the lips, blushed and “escaped from the scene”.
Kiro: Wait, just that? Is that it?
Kiro’s voice came from behind. I snickered and continued to run forward.
I didn’t tell him, in fact, that I didn’t care about winning or losing.
Because in my heart, Kiro will always be the best and irreplaceable person.
But seeing him win the game for me, I secretly smiled in my heart and just let him have this moment.
He’s always handsome no matter what. *Phrasing was a little weird here so I hope I interpreted this right lol*
[End]
#mlqc#mlqc kiro#mlqc spoilers#mr love queen's choice#mr love game#mr love#mr love kiro#mr love dream date#date translation#kira#I'm so proud of you MC!!#SHOW YOUR MAN SOME LOVE!!#HE DESERVES IT!!!
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My Thoughts on True Colors (Amphibia Spoilers)
I just got finished watching the finale, and I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised! I’ve always enjoyed this show. More and more with every plot-heavy episode, but I feel like a lot of the choices the characters have made up until the point have been largely predictable. That is until this episode.
We knew Sasha was planning on betraying Anne and the Plantars. We knew that was coming. What I didn’t see coming was the revelation that Marcy intentionally got her friends trapped in Amphibia. What’s more, it actually makes sense to her character! She’s the oddball, not just in her friend group, but in her community. She much prefers to indulge herself in puzzles and research than conform to social expectations. And she has shown time and time again how much she loves living in Amphibia. How she’s in her element and grown into herself. Even before this episode I had the thought that she might not want to leave. And the revelation was brilliantly executed, because while audience all saw Sasha’s betrayal coming, we had no idea about Marcy’s secret - which made it even more shocking for us.
Then there’s the matter of the Calamity Box. When Anne removed the blue stone before it was fully charged, I thought it would simply result in the box not working. What we got instead we so much better. Instead of Anne and the others being punished because she was worried about her family (the Plantars), she was rewarded for it with her new Calamity power. And it’s awesome how that power came out when she thought she lost one of those family members.
As for that scene as a whole, as far as kids’ shows go, it was pretty well done. An unfortunate limitation with kids’ shows is that you know they can’t go too far. Especially in Disney shows. So we knew even as Sprig was falling that he wasn’t going to die. Which does take away from the emotional aspect of it. However, the scene made up for it through Anne’s memories with Sprig, and “Spranne against the world”. Even though we knew that Sprig wasn’t going to die, the fact that Anne thought her best friend was gone gave that moment more weight and more power. It was very well done.
Then there was what happened to Marcy. The day a modern Disney cartoon actually kills off a main character - no resurrections or close calls. A straight up, on screen death of a protagonist (villains don’t count) - will be the most daring thing they’ve ever done with a plot-driven show directed toward kids. This comes pretty close.
In my mind, if they were going to kill a character, it would have been Marcy. She would have been the perfect character to kill off. She’s likable, so it would have had emotional impact for the audience. It was at the last second before she was able to a. Escape with her friends and b. Fully atone for her mistake. And finally, it would have made a great consequence for her choices. So when the flaming sword struck through her, for a moment I actually thought she might be dead.
Then came what happened immediately after. Anne and the Plantars arriving to the human world. Thus ending Part 2.
I thought this was a perfect ending. When earlier in the episode Anne said to Sprig she wanted him to try fast food, it made me want to see that. Which was the point. Because they made us want to see the Plantars end up in the human world, it actually happening made the finale so much more exciting.
This isn’t the first show where the main character is forced to live in a strange new world, and then two seasons later, all the friends they meet are somehow forced to live in their world. If you’ve read my blog about why a writer should ignore what the audience wants from a story, then you know how I feel about Star vs. the Forces of Evil. It started out well enough, but when the plot was moved to Mewni, it pretty much went down hill.
But. I don’t think Bradley is going to make the same mistake Nefcy did. I think he’s going to stick to the story he wants to tell, and it’s clear he has an end goal in mind. “It is only just the beginning.”
I know why they showed the new opening at the end of the finale. Because it begins a kid show, they needed the audience to see that despite the intensity of the last few scenes, the story isn’t over. Marcy is still alive. Anne is still going on adventures with the Plantars, and we’re about to meet a bunch of new characters.
And for those of you who are thinking, “The season 2 finale of Star vs. didn’t show the new opening.” To that I say, the advent of a main character being stabbed is a lot more intense than a character revealing their feelings for another. The season 2 finale of Star could end without the new opening because nothing too shocking occurred.
But us seeing the new opening didn’t just ease our worries after certain scenes. It also made us excited for what comes next. And that is what I love most about this finale. It made me want more.
I surely hope Disney lets Bradley finish the story he wants to tell. I know they’ve screwed over Dana Terrace by giving The Owl House only three seasons, the last of which only containing three 44 minute long episodes (and yet they gave Star vs. four full seasons). So I hope Bradley gets to finish the story he wants to tell with Amphibia. It would be a shame for him not to be able to since the new opening looks so promising.
This post ended up being a lot longer than I intended, but there was a lot to say about True Colors. I am ecstatic to see where the story takes us next.
#amphibia#true colors#amphibia season finale#amphibia season 2#amphibia true colors#amphibia spoilers
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Finally finishing Loki and I just... I'm disappointed. Putting opinions under the cut.
Like, I've seen the criticism, I got spoilered, and I won't lie, it definitely influenced my further viewing. But even so, it disappointed me. I don't think the whole "Loki not even being the main character of his own show" is as egregious as Tumblr made it out to be for me, though yes, a LOT of focus was put on Sylvie - her revenge narrative, Loki just being along for the ride ("a flea on a dragon's back". Thanks for being self-aware, show). To me, there are other frustrating factors.
"Glorious purpose" seems the catch-phrase of this show. Which seems... stupid, to be honest. When Loki uttered it in the Avengers film, there was a clear madness to him. Marvel claimed officially that Loki was under the influence of the mind stone by then, but the show still thinks that was genuinely Loki talking - and it is something all Lokis seem to agree on.
Then there's the whole throne thing. Loki mentions near the end that he doesn't want a throne. He says it like he's finally had a realisation, like this is his emotional growth. But it ISN'T. This show is set after Thor 1, in which Loki very clearly says to Thor: "I never wanted the throne. I only ever wanted to be your equal." So this is not some grand revelation. This has always been the case, and something he was fiercely aware of. He's never wanted to be a ruler.
"Don't you want to win in New York? Kill Thanos?" This is more of a headcanon, but one shared by much of the fandom - a headcanon marvel can't have missed, since they saw our collective outcries that Loki was brainwashed and claimed it canon years after The Avengers, just because they couldn't ignore it anymore if they were making a show about Loki. Anyway, the collective headcanon is this: Loki didn't want to win in New York. His plan was doomed to fail from the start. Earth is unruleable, a space army coming through one wormhole and the gate has a built-in self-destruct button. He scattered the Avengers, but he also got them together. The headcanon was that he planned it all, in a way that seemed good to Thanos, but was meant to make him fail.
As to killing Thanos, yeah, he deserves that. In fact, Retro Loki says it beautifully - the knives look cool but are fucking useless, something Loki should know without getting his neck snapped by the Mad Titan. Thanks for spelling out something obvious, again something the fandom has been yelling about since Infinity War came out! Did the writers steal Retro Loki's survival tactic off a Tumblr post? Because it feels a little like it, almost in an attempt to soft-retcon that film. "We can't fix that dumb plot point, but we can show that we understand Loki better, that we you came up with a better idea of what could have been." Again, thanks.
This show is just full of the writers showing us things we already knew. They make Loki a bumbling idiot - and I get it, conflict is the heart of western storytelling, but he doesn't need to be incompetent to struggle. The thing is, were they to make him as formidable and clever as we once felt he was, they would have needed to make his adversaries even cleverer. And much as I enjoy certain bits of the story (croki my beloved)... I just don't think they were quite up to that task. It all feels like a fanfic, which on the one hand, can be fan service. But on the other hand, it feels like a Frankenstein fanfic. A puzzle of stolen tropes from fics the writers have read and put together, none of it quite their own. I'm making assumptions and not being very forgiving, but this is just how I feel.
And that brings me to my next and almost final point. What really hammers the fanfiction feeling home for me is all the self-reflection. It can be done and it can be done well, but this show didn't do it well. The self-reflection felt out of character, disingenuous, inaccurate, and clunky.
The writing is clunky, and at times rushed. And it's just... almost bad at times. There wasn't a single moment where I went "oh this is revolutionary" or "this quote will haunt me". Most of it was incredibly mediocre. This absolutely includes the quote where Loki canonically notes that he's bi/pan/not straight. Russel T Davies said it spectacularly; marvel/Disney pats itself on the back with each weak nod to the LGBTQ+ community. If they want to be ground-breaking, they'll have to do better than a queer on-screen kiss.
And speaking of kisses: I just... No. I don't have anything against selfcest in fics, I'm not afraid to admit I've read it before, and in canon media it can be utilised in fascinating and clever ways. This show did not do that. To have Loki berate himself, only to romantically fall for another version of himself that is, let's be real, very different from him, is not some deep representation of growth and self-love to me. It is once again clunky. You want growth? Stick to those self-reflections and do better, or become more metaphorical. Either way, write more cleverly.
I'm sorry, my standards are high, and this just didn't meet it. I appreciate the effort! I'm glad someone with love for this character tried to make something of it! But it fell on its ass, and came out as a butchering of a beloved character only to make space for a hopeful replacement. That to me is a massive failure, and not one I can forgive easily. Your show is called Loki. Act like it. And if making it a love letter to him and us was your intention, do better.
#i still have points i haven't even mentioned in this#like sylvie being a loki#i guess it's an interesting idea but it's a failed attempt at trans/nb rep if it even was an attempt#but other people on tumblr have gone into that much better than i ever can#and loki IS genderfluid! the original god was!! and it's shown in the comics too!!#she was basically amora the enchantress but they slapped a loki sticker on it and called it a day#which is just incredibly boring#honestly this entire show was beyond uninspiring#i liked the twist that the time agents were all variants and sylvie could access their original memories that was nice#and the loki variants were fun until they started betraying each other#god every character was just so incredibly 2D#and the visuals quite frankly were beyond uninspiring too#hated the 70s vibe and the space colours were objectively pretty but just not interesting to me#like the character assassination is one thing ive come to expect that by now and feared it before it even started#but for writers to just create something so basic and not that original or fresh? for writers to create something uninspiring??#that is a crime against the craft and as a fellow writer im just disappointed in them#i hoped they'd be better than the rest of marvel but they really bent the knee to the mouse#anyway i guess that's all i have to say for now#anne speaks#marvel#loki series#loki wank
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Baby
The rest of the cast isn’t ready to see you all grown up, so when you end up having to do an adult scene on set, you keep it from them as long as you possibly can.
-
“Why are you being so secretive?” Tom asked you. “Actually, why is everyone being so secretive? I normally don’t get scripts, but…”
“They didn’t even give me one this time,” Chris added, crossing his arms. You, Chris, Tom, and Sebastian were sitting outside of the studio in the parking lot, where there was a fire pit and enough alcohol to go around. You were the only one that was actually needed on set for the rest of the day, but they all decided to stay. You were sitting sideways in the fold-out chair, a beer in the cup holder, your legs extended and your feet resting on Sebastian’s lap. You were being so secretive because you were doing an adult scene. Marvel didn’t have many, but this was essential to your character or something like that.
“I’m not telling you,” you said.
“Babe, come on,” Sebastian cut in. They all called you baby, babe, kid… all of those things because to them you were a kid. You were twenty-one, and the night that you ordered your first beer at a dinner Chris almost spit his out. They’d known you since you were nineteen and they all called you the baby, even though you were only a year and a half younger than Tom. Your own family lived pretty far away from where you filmed, so Chris, Sebastian, and Tom were like your overprotective brothers who wouldn’t let you get gas at night without calling at least one of them while you were doing it. And that was exactly why you didn’t want them to know about the scene you were doing.
You’d made the directors call a closed set because you really didn’t want everyone involved to see you half naked, so unless they had explicit permission to be on the set, it was empty. No one got that scene in the script, mostly because it was a plot point and they didn’t want spoilers. And you’d told nobody – you didn’t want them to freak out and say you were just a baby or try to tell you that you couldn’t do it. The only person that knew was Scarlett, and she had left earlier in the day after your last few shots together. You had ten minutes before you needed to be back on set so you could strip down and go for it, but you wanted to stay out there as long as you could. Your beer was helping you relax at least a little bit, but you were still nervous. You’d never done a scene like that before.
“Oh, gotta go,” you said when your phone chimed.
“I’ll walk you in,” Chris said, standing up.
“No, it’s fine. I’ll see you guys later?” They all nodded and watched you leave.
“What the hell?” Chris asked, turning toward them. “Why doesn’t she want us walking her in?” As soon as you disappeared into the big doors, a bright red sign said closed set.
“No idea. Probably just some plot point they don’t want us to spoil. Oh, I mean Tom to spoil.” Tom sat up and glared at Sebastian.
“I’ve really gotten a lot better,” he insisted.
“Mmhm, sure. Maybe she’ll tell us after,” Chris sighed as he sat back down. “Oh, Seb, how’d that audition go for the, uh, rom-com thing?” They continued their conversation, completely unaware of what you were doing inside. The only other person in the scene with you kept you covered when he could. They made sure you were comfortable, and you were. You were freezing, but you were comfortable. And you tried to hide the heat on your face when you changed back into your clothes and walked back out to where they were all sitting.
“Dinner?” You asked them. “I’ll buy if everyone stops asking what we just filmed.” They rolled their eyes, but went along with it, and didn’t bring it up. You caught Tom looking at his script a few days later trying to figure out what it was. And you caught Chris trying to gt the directors to reveal their secrets, but they wouldn’t budge. Nobody would budge. You just kept saying they’d have to see when the movie came out.
Finally, the night of the premiere came. You were nervous, to say the least, because of how many people were about to see you half naked, especially the ones that you considered big brothers. You went as Sebastian’s date and he didn’t try to ask you once what the scene was. Honestly, he’d forgotten about it. But a few months ago he’d had to show his bare ass for a movie, so if anyone understood why you were keeping it secret it was him.
“You ready to see the movie?” Sebastian asked you as you sat down. You’d been greeting fans and people who were invited for two hours, finally ready to sit down and watch the movie.
“Yeah,” you responded. “I’m glad it’s going out there. But I’m nervous, because…” The lights cut off as you spoke, so you shut up. Chris took a seat right beside you, Scarlett beside him, and Tom on her other side. Scarlett gave you a nod that said everything was fine, so you tried to relax. You honestly didn’t even know what part your scene came in, but you were holding onto your seat the entire time. And then, finally, it was time.
Sebastian and Chris could tell you were nervous for some reason and at separate points grabbed your hand, squeezing it before letting it go. The scene came on just as Sebastian was letting go of your hand. There it was. Your body. Up on screen. Having fake sex with another co-star. All to further the plot because you were saying some very important pieces of information, to be fair, and you tried to make yourself smaller and smaller. Finally it was revealed that it was you and all of the boys’ eyes went straight to you, wide and out. You slumped back into your seat, not wanting to see the looks on their faces when you kept having fake sex with someone.
The movie was over about an hour later and as the lights came out, you were prepared to answer a million questions. People came up to you, saying congratulations on being a part of the movie, and you graciously accepted. Nobody said anything about the scene. Not until the boys walked back over, all of them in their suits, arms crossed like you were in big trouble.
“Guys,” you started, rolling your eyes.
“Is that what you didn’t want to tell us?” Chris asked you. You sighed.
“I need a beer. So if you want to talk about this, can we go to that bar down the street?” you all grabbed a car and went down there, getting your servings and sitting down at a table in the back where no one could tell it was all of you. You sighed. The table was absolutely silent. None of them wanted to bring it up, so they just sat there.
“Guys,” you said again. “It’s really not that big of a deal.”
“You-” Tom stuttered, hand in the air as if to describe it, but he put it back down.
“Why didn’t you tell us, Y/n?” Sebastian asked. You took a swig of beer before answering.
“Because. You all see me as a baby.”
“What?” Chris asked. “We-”
“Chris, you called me baby two hours ago. Seb, my name in your phone is literally Baby Y/n. Tom, you’re… one of my best friends. So forgive me if I didn’t want to tell you that my tits were going to be out in the movie.”
“That’s why there was a closed set that night?” Chris asked, raising an eyebrow. You nodded.
“Were you at least comfortable?” Sebastian asked. “Because if you weren’t, you should really talk to someone about it.”
“It was fine. Really. It wasn’t bad at all. It wasn’t traumatizing or anything. I mean, it was weird, but they covered me up as soon as the cameras stopped and they didn’t let anyone in except people who had to be there. It was fine,” you said softly. “You guys just see me as a baby and I didn’t want to tell you what you were going to have to see.” Chris sighed and put a hand on your back, rubbing it up and down to try and make you feel a little better.
“I’m sorry if we made you feel like you couldn’t tell us,” he said quietly. “We just love you and care about you and… yeah, you are kind of the baby on set. But I’m sorry if we made you feel weird.”
“I just didn’t want you to think anything different of me.”
“It’s going to take a lot more than one scene without your shirt to make us think of you any differently,” Sebastian cut in. You took another swig of beer.
“Our baby’s growing up, I guess.” You rolled your eyes at Chris’s statement. “We’re kidding.” He gave you a hug from the side, and then Sebastian did too. Tom just smiled at you. He would probably talk to you about it when you were at home later.
“I can’t lie, though, it really makes me want to drink to get that image out of my head,” Sebastian muttered as he started chugging his beer. You joined, chugging yours, and then you were on round two and round three. You were definitely still a baby to them, but at least you could keep up with their drinking habits.
#chris evans fluff#chris evans imagine#chris evans x reader#sebastian stan fuff#sebastian stan x reader#Sebastian stan imagine#tom holland fluff#tom holland imagine#tom holland x reader
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Never Seems to Be Enough Time (Part 1)
A/N: A Peter Maximoff and Dadneto fic! There will likely be hints of Cherik in here, because I can’t help myself. But I wanted to write a fic on Peter Maximoff, dig into his character a little bit more, y’know? I’ve only watched X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-men: Apocalypse, as well as WandaVision, but that one isn’t an X-men film. So, have some Peter Maximoff with a side of daddy issues. And a dash of historical inaccuracies. The first Walkman was created in 1979, yet Peter uses one in DOFP, which takes place in (mainly) 1973.
Genre: Angst (sorta?)
Warnings: Cursing, daddy issues, hurt and no comfort, anxiety, derogatory thinking, other things of that nature spoilers for X-men: DOFP and Apocalypse
Word Count: 3.7K
Peter Maximoff never really had some place to call his own. It never really bothered him much either. He’d run around, ending up wherever his body decided to take him, only to return to his mom’s basement.
It was never his room. He’d always been the loser who lived in his mom’s basement. The freakishly fast kid with kleptomania. The kid with no dad. The mutant. The fuck-up. And he always would be.
Up until 1973.
The hollow noises of the ping pong ball hitting the table over and over as he rushed from side to side almost drowned out his mother yelling down to him. He just heard the word cops. He paused, but only for a moment.
He left his paddle in the air as he went upstairs, seeing three men beginning to walk into the house.
After a quick pickpocket or two, he found a folded up paper. Unfolding it, he found the car that sat in front of his house was not a cop car, but a rental car from out of town.
Somewhat peculiar for cops to be driving a rental car, right? Especially if it’s from out of town.
He made his way back to his ping pong game, grabbing the significantly lower in the air paddle and continuing to play by himself.
As the three men came down the stairs, he didn’t bother to stop.
“What do you guys want?”
He noticed the first man who had entered the basement was attempting to follow him around, seemingly astonished. He snickered under his breath, but it was short lived as the ball almost bounced a second time on one side.
“I didn’t do anything!”
The other two men who trailed behind the first quickly followed suit, trying to keep their eyes on him. Not like they could.
Peter dropped the paddle and let the ball bounce off the table as he stretched across his couch.
“Been here all day,”
“Just... relax, Peter. We’re not cops,” the first man said, approaching the silver haired teen a bit.
“Course you’re not cops, if you were cops, you wouldn’t be driving a rental car,” Peter said, his hands resting on the back of his head.
“How’d you know we got a rental car?” the man with long hair asked, his accent making any “T” he said almost non-existent.
“I checked your registration as you were walking through the door,” Peter replied quickly, almost interrupting the second man. “I also had some time, so I went through your rental agreement and saw you’re from out of town. Are you FBI?”
He stood up, stealing the second man’s wallet out of his pocket and flicking it open.
“Nope, you’re not cops. Hey, what’s with this gifted youngster’s place?”
Just as quickly as he picked up the wallet, he dropped it only to grab a popsicle.
“That’s an... old card,” the second man grumbled, replacing his wallet in his pocket.
“He’s fascinating,” the third man said with a small smile.
“He’s a pain in the arse,” the second man scowled.
Ouch.
Not the first time Peter had been called that. Not by a longshot. But time doesn’t make things hurt any less, now does it?
“What, a teleporter?” the third man asked, looking at the first man.
Peter looked at the first man, who just seemed exasperated.
“No, he’s just fast,” the first man sighed. “When I knew him, he wasn’t so... young,”
Peter sat back down on his couch, the half eaten popsicle quickly disappearing into almost nothing as he spoke, mouth still full.
“Young? You’re just old,”
“So you’re not afraid to show your powers?” the third man spoke, his tone sounding off.
Peter couldn’t say why it sounded wrong, it just felt out of place.
“Powers? What powers, what are you talking about?” Peter asked sarcastically. “You see something strange here?”
The second and third man shared a glance before looking back at him. Peter’s eyes met theirs, almost like a challenge.
“Nothing anybody’d believe if you told them?”
The first man gave Peter a look that made him downright uncomfortable. Once again, a look he’d get from a lot of people. Teachers, the cops, his mother. That slight head tilt to the left, that frown with pursed lips, that furrowed brow. The look he’d grown used to. The look he associated with disappointment, annoyance, exasperation.
To avoid looking at any of the men, he sped off to his Pong machine, playing through the game at a rapid fire pace, the bare popsicle stick dumped in a nearby trash can.
“So, who are you? What do you want?” he asked, his dead expression staring back at him among the ball that danced between the sides of the screen.
“We need your help, Peter,” the first man said.
“With what?”
“To break into a highly secured facility. And to get someone out.”
“Prison break?” he asked with a smirk. “That’s illegal, you know.”
After a brief pause, the first man spoke up again.
“Well, only if you get caught.”
“So what’s in it for me?”
“You,” the second guy began. “You kleptomaniac, get to break into the Pentagon.”
Peter paused, the game frozen with the score at 3 to 2. 5 balls he let slip past himself. He turned to see the three men, glancing at them all again.
The look had disappeared from the first man’s face, all of them looking at him expectantly.
“How do I know I can trust you?” Peter asked carefully.
“Because we’re just like you.”
Peter’s eyes bounced around the three men, none of them looking to have any sort of mutation or remarkable thing about them or their appearance. If all three of them were mutants, why didn’t they at least look the part like he somewhat did?
“Show him,” the second man said to the first man.
Peter looked to the first man, who made a fist and clenched it.
A sickening noise that sounded somewhat like a squelch began a series of bone-chilling sounds as a trio of boney claws sprouted from the clenched fist.
Peter’s breath caught in his throat, looking at the bone sticking out of the man’s fists before meeting his eyes.
“It’s cool, but it’s disgusting.”
Okay, don’t fuck it up, Peter. Don’t fuck this up.
Peter continued to walk through the hallway in stolen garb from one of the guards, holding a lunch tray. A plastic gun stayed attached to his hip as he entered the area with the holding cell.
He looked down through the glass ceiling of the cell, seeing the prisoner asleep on what could barely qualify as a bed, looking a lot more like some sort of folded up blanket.
Peter placed a slip of paper on top of the lunch tray, and slid it through a chute on the floor to give it to the prisoner.
The tray slid down, waking up the prisoner who read the note. He looked up, and Peter gave a grin in response.
Kneeling down by the edge of the cell, he placed his hands on the glass, taking a deep breath. He began to move his hands up and down at an unrealistic pace, the glass shaking underneath his fingertips.
Peter’s grin grew massively as the glass shattered, the prisoner shielding himself before pulling himself up out of his cell.
“In three seconds, those doors are going to open. And 20 guards will be here to shoot us,” the prisoner said, looking straight ahead.
Peter quickly ran behind the prisoner, the guard’s hat falling off, placing his hand on the prisoner’s back and head. “I know, that’s what I’m waiting for.”
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“I’m holding your neck so you don’t get whiplash,”
“What?”
Shit, he must’ve spoken too fast.
“Whiplaaaaaaaaaaaash,” Peter drew the word out before turning his eyes back to the door.
The doors opened, several guards appearing with plastic guns. “Don’t move!”
Peter’s grin grew massively as they rushed into a closing elevator. The guard he had left in there still nicely stuck to the wall by duct tape.
The prisoner wobbled a bit, but he was ignored for the moment as Peter got out of the stiff, stolen uniform and back into his stiff, leather outfit.
“You’re good, it’ll pass,” Peter reassured as the prisoner leaned against the wall of the elevator. “It happens with everyone,”
That single beat of silence between the two was too much for the silver haired teen, what with all the questions swirling in his head.
“Must’ve done something pretty serious... what’d you do, man?”
The lack of response from the prisoner only helped Peter gain a more playful attitude toward the whole situation. “What’d you do? What’d you doooooo?~ Why’d they have you in there?”
Before Peter could ask his question yet again, the prisoner spoke up. “For killing the president,”
Peter’s jaw couldn’t decide whether to drop or snap shut, so he just opted to nod.
Wow... shit!
“Everything I’m guilty of is fighting for people like us.”
“You take karate? You know karate, man?” Peter asked, wanting to hop off the subject.
“I don’t know karate. But I know crazy,” the prisoner sighed.
Peter, still hyped up on adrenaline, could only smile and look down at is feet, ignoring the feeling of anxiety beginning to bloom in his chest.
After a while in the elevator, Peter piped up again. “They told me you control metal,”
“They?” the prisoner asked.
“You know, my mom once knew a guy who could do that,” Peter snickered to himself, the elevator rising steadily before coming to a halt.
As the elevator opened, Peter saw the men he learned were Charles and Logan, standing in a kitchen area, absolutely fucking drenched. The sprinklers were going off.
“Charles?” the prisoner asked quietly.
Charles’ face twisted in anger and quickly threw a punch at the prisoner’s face with little to no remorse. The prisoner fell to the ground from the force, Peter backing up.
Why was he punching the guy they were breaking out?! He could kill all of them if he wanted to!
“Good to see you too, old friend,” the prisoner said, moving his hand from his jaw. “And walking.”
“No thanks to you,” Charles spat.
The prisoner stood up, staring Charles down. Peter had no clue what to do, just standing by idly, waiting to see if he or Logan would need to separate the two.
“You’re the last person in the world I expected to see today,” the prisoner said.
“Believe me, I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have to,” Charles voice was stern, like that of a scolding parent. “If we’re getting you out of here, we’re doing it my way: no killing,”
“No helmet,” the prisoner said with a smirk. “I couldn’t disobey you, even if I wanted,”
“I’m never getting inside that head again,” Charles said coldly.
Peter shared a quick glance with the guard taped to the wall before looking between the two men.
“I need your word, Erik,”
The sexual tension in the room is rising faster than I can run, holy shit.
The prisoner nodded before guards burst into the kitchen.
“NOBODY MOVE!”
“HOLD IT, RIGHT THERE!”
Peter followed behind the prisoner and left the elevator, hearing him murmur “Charles,”
“DON’T MOVE! HANDS UP, OR WE WILL SHOOT!”
“Freeze them, Charles,” the prisoner said firmly.
“I can’t,” Charles muttered quietly.
“HEADS UP!”
Items in the kitchen rattled before things flew up into the air.
“NO!” Charles yelled as he placed a hand in front of the prisoner.
Things that were toppling mid air slowed to a near halt, as did the sprinkles and the people.
All except for Peter.
Turning on his walkman and putting on his headphones, he took a deep breath.
A quick crack of the knuckles, and he went off running, going up onto the walls.
If I could save time in a bottle
Wall running was always such an exhilarating experience. One that always got the blood pumping. It never failed to make Peter smile.
But running on a wall and running through droplets of water? That was something else.
The first thing that I’d like to do
A nearby pot was flying through the air, whatever sort of stew in the pot spilling ever so slowly.
Without thinking, he brought a finger up for a taste, water still splashing onto his goggles.
Hm. It could probably use some more salt.
Is to save everyday ‘til eternity passes away
As he continued along the walls, he flicked off the cap from one of the guards, and poked another in the face.
The slowness of everything else around him combined with the speed of the poke was going to make him go fucking flying.
Just to spend them with you
Peter grinned just thinking about it. This was the most amazing experiences he’d ever had in his nearly two decades of life on this Earth.
If I could make days last forever
Peter hopped off the wall, literally dodging a bullet and throwing a plate at the nearest officer.
The plate slowly glided through the air, not even close to making an impact yet. That was going to leave an egg on the guard’s head for sure, probably shatter as well.
Okay, maybe that was a bit overkill.
But then again, he didn’t care. He was having the time of his fucking life!
If words could make wishes come true
Bullets continued to slowly soar through the air as Peter continued fucking with the guards.
He never once thought he’d get into the Pentagon, let alone to absolutely obliterate anyone who was in there!
I’d save every day like a treasure and then
The next guard he saw, he decided to have a little bit more fun.
He took the gun from his hands, and curled his hand into a fist, making it meet his cheek. He wishes he brought a camera with him so he could take pictures of these moments.
Again, I would spend them with you
Two guards who stood next to each other had their arms cross so their guns were in each others faces. And for a extra oomph, he decided to steal a hat.
At least he’d get some sort of souvenir from this event.
But there never seems to be enough time
The guards were all going to be met with a peculiar fate, but there was one thing left in the equation to fix.
The bullets.
To do the things you wanna do once you find them
Peter ran toward the bullets, taking a look at them for a moment.
Maybe if I moved one over there... no, that’d end up nicking him in the neck. Oh, wait, that’ll work.
I’ve looked around enough to know
He lightly nudged the bullets around, making sure that they’d all avoid the three men in the kitchen.
Their aim was absolute horse shit. One or two of those bullets would’ve easily hit Charles if he weren’t there to move them.
If they were aiming for him, that’s one thing. But if they just wanted to hit the prisoner, they would’ve failed miserably.
That you’re the one I wanna go through time with
Peter ran to the other side of the kitchen and stopped entirely.
Time went back to a normal pace around him as guards and food went flying, and the men flinched as the bullets hit the elevator doors behind them.
Peter turned off his walkman and took out his headphones, looking at the astonished trio.
The prisoner and Logan shared a glance, all of them leaving the kitchen slowly
A mere mumble of a “Thanks, kid.” came from Logan as he walked past him, but that was all.
He was too hopped up on adrenaline to care, frankly. At least, for now.
Peter didn’t know.
He didn’t know.
She didn’t tell him.
He should’ve figured it out.
Who else could he have been?
The news said it all, though he really wish it hadn’t.
“Leaders from all communities are urging their citizens to remain calm as police and armed forces are mobilizing to find Lehnsherr before he can strike again. If anyone has information about Lehnsherr or, as he is also known, Magneto, contact your local authorities immediately and proceed with caution as he is considered highly--”
“Peter?”
His mother’s voice calling his name snapped him out of the trance the television had put him in, flicking it to the next channel and going to the Ms. Pac-Man machine in his room.
“‘Sup?” he asked as his mom came down the stairs.
“Just checking on you,” she said calmly, an empty glass in her hands.
How could she be calm about all of this?
Peter’s mind was anything but calm as his wrists flicked the joy stick much more harshly than he usually would, as if it’d release all of the tension building up inside of him.
“I’m good. Playing Pac-Man,” he internally cringed at the way his voice broke when he spoke. He couldn’t play it off as puberty, obviously. He was 27.
He heard whatever bullshit movie was playing on his TV switch back to the news he both did and didn’t want to hear.
“Sure you weren’t watching this?”
He dropped a near silent profanity from his mouth before glancing at the screen.
A picture of Magneto in the top right corner as the news anchor continued reading off of his script. Something about it being ten years since mutants and humankind had reached peace.
He helped out with that, and he realized it after the event had taken place.
And it took him ten years to come to a second realization about his break-in at the Pentagon.
“You’re going after him, aren’t you?” his mother asked tiredly.
“You wanted me to get out of the house more, right?” he asked semi-sarcastically, the flicking of the joystick having calmed slightly.
“I can’t stop you,” his mother sighed. “Nobody can. But trust me, this won’t end well. Nothing does, with him.”
Peter stopped, looking back at his mother. His poor, tired mother, who had to deal with him and his sister. His sister wasn’t the problem in the family. No, that was him.
“I’m not afraid of him,” he said genuinely.
“You should be,”
His mother’s voice barely reached above a whisper, seeming to grow more and more tired of him by the minute.
And with that, she left. She just dropped that final bomb on him, and left.
Was that going to stop Peter from what was likely to be a not-so-perfect reunion? Of course it wasn’t. Like his mother said, nobody could stop him. Especially not himself.
He pulled out the card from Charles, old and worn from years of being put in his pockets or wallet.
Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters
Charles Xavier
Professor
Beneath the name sat the address, only being a few states over. He could get there in absolutely no time at all.
But, today wasn’t the day to do it.
Peter placed the card back, laying on his bed as the news droned on and on. It had moved off the topic of Erik Lehnsherr, which was as much of a blessing as it was a curse.
He needed to know more about him, but it was going to drive him fucking crazy if he heard that man’s name again.
“Fuck,” he hissed, swallowing the steadily growing lump in his throat.
The topic never made him cry when he was a kid. So why was he crying over this now?
He knew crying wasn’t a weakness. He knew it, he heard it, he told that to others when they felt like shit for crying. But whenever he did it, it made him feel vulnerable.
That’s why he always did it alone.
He didn’t want anyone to see how vulnerable he truly was. It was much more of an anxiety issue than anything else. He’d been told things like the usual “boys don’t cry!” sort of stuff.
But things he was told never helped him with keeping true to that statement. And time didn’t make him more mature or calm. He still acted like a child, which he never heard the fucking end of. He was still a disappointment, especially to the Maximoff family name.
His mom worked her ass off to take care of him and his sister, only for him to fuck it all up by stealing and not getting off of his lazy ass and getting a damn job.
“Fuck!”
His nails dug into his palms painfully as he smacked himself in the head with the heel of his palm. He needed to stop thinking like that. He needed to stop thinking. He needed to stop.
A deep breath in.
A heavy, shaky sigh out.
Grabbing his walkman, a hoodie, and his headphones, he left his room.
“Ma, I’m going for a run,” he nearly spat the words out so his voice wouldn’t crack.
He just got a noise of acknowledgment before he left the house.
He needed to get away.
So he ran. He ran nearly across the entire country, landing in Glasgow, Montana.
Most secluded area in the States.
What did he do?
He flipped up his hood and sprinted behind the cemetery. The small town had so much space for him to run around.
Instead, he screamed.
He screamed long and hard until his lungs were begging for him to stop. Until his throat ached. Until he couldn’t hear his brain anymore.
It was stupid. The fact that just hearing his name made him spiral.
His brain wasn’t even thinking about him anymore, all set on insulting the place it was kept.
Bastard.
Mistake.
Fuck-up.
The words that would just repeat over and over until he started screaming again. He wasn’t built to handle that mental pain. He wasn’t built to deal with anxiety. Hell, he wasn’t even supposed to be built.
His father left his mother before he was born because it was an affair. There was no fucking love involved. Just a quick fuck and gone. He wasn’t supposed to happen.
And it was obvious that no one had told his father who he was or showed him what he looked like.
Because when he saved Erik Lehnsherr from the Pentagon, Peter Maximoff didn’t get any recognition from his father.
A/N: Part one has been finished! So, I hope you enjoyed it, because there’s going to be a second and possibly third part to this. There will be more movie based stuff, but once we finish scenes from X-men Apocalypse, we’re ignoring Dark Phoenix and just making shit up. So, for now, have angst. I don’t necessarily have a tag list for my X-men stuff yet, so I’m just gonna tag my beta reader! If you find that you’re interested on being on here, just tell me somehow! I hope you have a good day/night!
Tag list: @siivermoon
#peter maximoff#peter maximoff (x-men)#x-men days of future past#x-men days of future past spoilers#x-men dofp#x-men dofp spoilers#x-men apocalypse#x-men apocalypse spoilers#anxiety#anxiety mention#anxiety tw#daddy issues#daddy issues mention#daddy issues tw#cursing#cursing tw
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When Universes Collide - The AU Mini Series
The Lotus Inn is a place we all know well; and a place where all universes collide in a small ripple of the time space continuum. It’s the spot for characters of alternate universes to meet and interact – even those who are from vastly different worlds and timelines. In this one-shot, the characters from the universes of this blog gather for lunch at the Lotus Inn restaurant and discuss their similarities and differences.
Warning: This does contain spoilers to any and all fics on my blog so read with caution if you haven’t read all of them!
A/N This obviously isn’t part of any timeline and is just something I wrote for fun with a bit of help from T-Anon and @randomlimelightxxx! To tell each Daniel apart, they will be called by their fic name as their formal title…it might be a bit awkward at first but it would be the only way to not confuse the heck out of you since there are five nearly identical looking Daniel’s sitting around one table. (Also, I see this play out like a stage performance in my head which is weird).
A/N2 Let’s see how many times the word ‘Daniel’ is used in this story
The Lotus Inn – 11:54am
A table for five sat empty in the corner of the restaurant. The room was trimmed in purple neon lights and decorated in floral pictures with an old brick wall supporting the large bar along the back. It wasn’t busy as the crowd usually came in for the daily after-dinner partying and the quietness of the restaurant was only filled with the bar tender wiping down the glasses to stock.
The door to the restaurant opened and a stream of bright light pooled into the room from the outside, nearly brightening the space more than what the large paned windows along the from wall allowed. In stepped a young man, his hesitation obvious as he stepped over the threshold and his blue eyes scanned his surroundings. He wore a military uniform that was ironed to perfection, donned in two well dressed medals on his left breast, and he took off his matching cap when he stepped inside, offering a stiff nod in greeting to the bartender.
Passchendaele Daniel
Age 22
He was the first to arrive and he made his way over to the reserved table in the corner, sitting on the chair closest to the door. Habit. Made for an easy getaway if it was ever needed. He held his hands together on his lap, back straight, and his flat expression starting to fall into space.
The restaurant stayed silent. The bartender kept to himself and the few other patrons sat on the far side of the room, minding their own business.
The door opened again and a voice fell inside along with another pool of light.
“She’s a one-year-old, Jack, give her a cookie and sing her a song and she’ll go right to sleep. Ask the other two for help; they’re great with her. I can’t come back now, my meeting has barely even started. I’ll be an hour, tops. I think you can survive that long.”
The slightly older man who just came in had his cellphone pressed to his ear and closed the door calmly behind him. He looked a bit flustered and definitely tired; his dyed blonde hair was faded to mostly its natural brown tones again and he shoved his car keys in his pocket messily as he listened to whatever his friend was saying through the line.
Anything But Mine Daniel
Age 25
His blue eyes landed on the young man already at the table and he paused in spot for a moment before saying much quieter into his cell phone, “I gotta go. I’ll call you after.”
He hung the phone and headed slowly over to the table, holding out his hand to the man in front of him.
“Hey. Nice to meet you. I’m Daniel.”
Passchendaele Daniel glanced up at him and then to his out stretched hand and pulled a tight smile before taking his handshake, “Myself as well.”
They shared soft smiles as Anything But Mine Daniel sat down in the chair on his other side. They fell into a momentary silence, not quite knowing what to say at first. It was a strange situation to be in: staring at yourself from another universe and entirely different timeline.
Gentle music filled the restaurant and the two young men glanced across the room to the jukebox. A third stood in front of it, having just slid in a quarter to select a record, and the gentle voice of Elvis brought liveliness to the restaurant. He turned with a pleasant smile, his hair slicked back in a soft wave, and startled slightly by the older two staring back at him.
Heartbreak Hotel Daniel
Age 18
He offered them a crooked smile and headed over to join them, “Hi.”
They shared their introductions – being easy since they all shared the same name and nearly the same face – and Heartbreak Hotel Daniel took his spot across from Anything But Mine Daniel. He glanced over at the man in his old military uniform beside the oldest but looked away against before he could be caught staring. He adjusted the collar of his button-up shirt and dropped his shy gaze to the wood table top.
“What desserts do you offer here?”
The three men all looked towards the bar where another was stood on the bottom brass foot rest of the bar counter to stand higher, holding himself up on the marble top as he spoke to the bartender. He wore a Georgian style suit, dressed poshly down to the puffed tie in the collar of his pale blue jacket and shiny black shoes, his soft brown hair brushed pristinely over his forehead.
Amoureux Daniel
Age 17
The bartender eyed the young prince for a moment and then simply gestured to the menu hung on the brick wall behind him.
“I’ll just take the lot of it.”
He slid a few paper bills across the counter before heading over to the reserved table. His smile was wide and infectious and he offered firm handshakes around the table.
“Pleased to meet you. I’m Prince Daniel of York. Second in line to the British throne.”
“Royalty at our table? That’s unbelievable.” ABM Daniel gaped, eyeing the youngest’s clothes as he plopped himself down in the free chair across from Passchendaele Daniel.
“Forget Royalty. I’m going to be a composer.” Amoureux Daniel tisked as he leaned back and loosened his tie around his neck to let himself breathe before rolling up his sleeves too.
“A composer? I’m in music professionally. What do you play? Piano?” ABM Daniel asked.
“Piano and cello. Piano’s my favourite though.” Amoureux Daniel grinned.
“Mine as well.” Passchendaele Daniel smiled shyly.
“You as well? Oh, splendid.” Amoureux Daniel clapped excitedly. “I was worried you lot would be as lame as my older brother honestly.”
Passchendaele Daniel’s smile fell as fast as it was formed and he dropped his head down. The other three easily saw this change and the youngest two from across the table habitually looked the eldest for guidance. ABM Daniel’s eyes were wide with surprise and he set a gentle hand on Passchendaele Daniel’s shoulder.
He spoke softly, “Are you okay?”
“I…” Passchendaele Daniel took a moment to compose himself before looking up into the friendly eyes of his older counterpart, “I lost my brother in the war. He was my best friend.”
“Shit.” Amoureux Daniel breathed from across from him.
Heartbreak Hotel Daniel slowly pressed his hand to his mouth in shock.
ABM Daniel hesitated a moment but gave his shoulder a friendly squeeze, “I’m really sorry.”
Passchendaele Daniel only shrugged lightly, “It is what it is, I suppose.”
“What war were you in? The First World War or the Second?” Heartbreak Hotel Daniel asked as gently as he could around the obviously traumatised man.
Passchendaele Daniel’s eyes went wide in fear suddenly and he looked between the other three guys, “There is a second?!”
“I didn’t even know there was one in the first place.” Amoureux Daniel said in defence as he reached for one of the desserts before the bartender could even set the plate down at their table.
ABM Daniel and HH Daniel exchanged wide eyed glances before looking back at the frightened soldier. ABM Daniel rubbed his hand over his back soothingly, offering the best reassurance he could, “Not in your time, don’t worry. But I think we need a new topic to talk about now.”
“Please.” Passchendaele Daniel mumbled thankfully.
“Isn’t there supposed to be a fifth one of us here too?” HH Daniel asked.
“I thought so too.” ABM Daniel pulled out his cell phone to check the time.
“What is that?” the other three young men asked him at the same time.
ABM Daniel glanced up at them and looked between their mirrored confused expressions like he was sitting at a table with triplets. Different brunette hair styles and different clothing but all with the same light blue eyes and youthful faces. He looked back down at his iPhone and held it up slightly, “This?”
They all nodded.
“It’s my cell phone.”
“It’s a telephone? Where’s the chord?” HH Daniel asked, leaning over the table to lift it up as if to look for the chord that should have somehow attached him to the wall.
“Where is the handset?” Passchendaele Daniel added. “If there is no handset, how do you hear your friends?”
“I have no bloody clue what the hell any of you are talking about.” Amoureux Daniel laughed through a mouthful of cake.
ABM Daniel smiled and looked between the other three, “I guess that’s right since you are all from the past, huh? Well in my time they make telephones that can go in your pocket. They don’t need chords.”
“That’s brilliant.” Passchendaele Daniel breathed. “And you can talk to your friends into that little box?”
“Yeah. Wanna hold it?” ABM Daniel offered.
HH Daniel leaned over the table to get a look as Passchendaele Daniel carefully took the iPhone from ABM Daniel and cradled it in his two hands like it would break if the wind blew too hard. The screen lit up as a text message came through and Passchendaele Daniel gasped in surprise, staring down at the lit-up screen and the little box that read words.
ABM Daniel reached over to swipe away the notification, revealing his lockscreen wallpaper: a photograph of his family from the day his youngest was born, all cuddled up together on the couch.
“Is that your family?” HH Daniel asked, still leaning over the table.
“Yeah. It is.” ABM Daniel smiled widely, taking his phone to set it on the table for all of them to see, “That’s my wife, Florence, and our girls; Clementine, Penelope, and Lucy.”
“That’s so sweet.” Amoureux Daniel said, “I just had a son a few months back.”
“You have a child?” HH Daniel gaped over at him. “How old are you?”
“Seventeen.”
“You have a kid at seventeen?”
“Yes. Ran off and got married young. He’s just born so no need to have a fit.” Amoureux Daniel snickered teasingly. He picked up the plate of desserts and held it out to him. HH Daniel stared down at the desserts for a beat but then shook his head politely.
“My wife is expecting our first child.” Passchendaele Daniel spoke gently.
“Oh, congratulations!” ABM Daniel said, helping himself to a dessert from the spread.
“Yes, thank you.” Passchendaele Daniel mumbled. “I am a bit frightened; I must admit.”
“Parenthood is a scary thing but it’s also the most amazing thing you could ever experience.” ABM Daniel assured him as he slid his phone back into his pocket. “I am sure you will be a great dad.”
Before anyone else could speak, loud muffled music could be heard from outside the restaurant and they all turned to looked out the large front windows; watching as a shiny white Tesla pulled up to the curb. The music cut off as the drivers side door opened and their fifth guest stepped out. His hair was dyed blonde and hair sprayed to messy perfection and the sunglasses perched on his nose were designer, his whole outfit dripping in expensive pieces, down to his leather pants and black boots and silver chain hung around his neck.
He came inside the restaurant and everyone’s eyes were on him – even the bar tender – as he slid off his sunglasses and offered a cool smile to the room.
Qui Totum Vult Totum Perdit Daniel
Age 23
He caught the glance of the other four young men at the table in the corner and he sauntered over to greet them. He offered a handshake to all of them before sitting at the far head of the table, “Sorry I’m so late. Promo ran later than expected.”
He glanced around the table at the four pairs of wide blue eyes staring back at him. There was a beat of silence.
“Wow, this is sick. It’s like I’m looking in four mirrors.” QTVTP Daniel chuckled. He set his sunglasses on the table. The other four pairs of eyes followed the action but they didn’t speak. “You’re right. Need to at least make up for my lateness. Hey, bartender?”
The man looked over to the table as QTVTP Daniel raised his hand up to get his attention, “Pitcher of water, round of beers, and let’s get some appetizers? Give us your top…six sellers. All on my card.”
“You don’t have to pay for all of us.” ABM Daniel said.
“Let me. It’s the least I could do. You come all the way out here to this shabby hotel and I’m thirty minutes late.”
The bartender brought over the pitcher of water, five glasses, and five bottles of beer, setting them all on the table. QTVTP Daniel took out his OffWhite wallet and pulled out his credit card, passing it over to the man with a smooth thanks.
“Let’s drink, boys.” he smiled, rubbing his hands together before reaching for one of the bottles.
“I’m not of age.” HH Daniel mumbled.
“Neither am I.” Amoureux Daniel added.
“I don’t drink anymore.” Passchendaele Daniel said.
“I have to pick up my daughters after this so no alcohol for me either, thanks.” ABM Daniel finished.
QTVTP Daniel looked between the four sitting around him, “Wow. Alright. More for me then.”
ABM Daniel took the initiative to pour the others their glasses of water as he offered a casual question to the late arrival, “What promo were you at?”
“For my record company.”
All four heads snapped back up to look at him.
“You work at a record company?” HH Daniel gaped.
“Own it. Yeah.” QTVTP Daniel chuckled. “My best friend and I have owned our own company for the last…two or so years? We’ve travelled the world together. Made some music. Made a name for ourselves. It’s amazing.”
“Wow. It’s always been my dream to be a signed artist but my parents convinced me to go to university instead.” ABM Daniel said.
“It’s pretty sick.” QTVTP Daniel smirked. “You meet a lot of cool people.”
“Are you well known?” Amoureux Daniel asked. “Do you work with people such as Bach? Or Mozart?”
“Bach or Mozart? Nah. Not yet at least. But we just signed a band that dropped their second album and it went number one worldwide.”
“Good God.” HH Daniel gasped. “You’re like Elvis.”
“I guess.” QTVTP Daniel laughed lightly, taking a sip of his drink as he leaned back in his chair.
“Do you produce too?” ABM Daniel asked.
“Yeah. We do most of the producing but we write and manage too. I have an eye for the industry.”
“That’s so cool. I’m working at a production studio myself. I’d love to run some demos by you…get your professional opinion…bounce some ideas around.”
“Yeah, for sure, bro! That’d be awesome. We can do that later.”
The other three young men stayed in momentary silence, sipping their water with Amoureux Daniel nursing the plate of desserts. He glanced over at HH Daniel on his right, staring at him for a moment, especially the remanence of a bruise that was colouring just under his left eye.
“Did you get in a fight?” Amoureux Daniel asked bluntly.
HH Daniel looked over at him, watching the youngest bite into a truffle, “Yeah. Corbyn beat me up.”
That caught the table’s attention and they all looked at him in surprise.
“Corbyn hit you?” ABM Daniel gaped.
“Mhm.” HH Daniel nodded shyly. “I was trying to stick up for my soulmate and he didn’t like that I was trying to take her from him so he beat me up.”
He stood up and lifted up the bottom of his shirt to show off the fading bruise over his stomach as well. The men groaned pitifully at how obviously it must have hurt.
“My Corbyn is so nice.” Passchendaele Daniel frowned.
“Mine too.” ABM Daniel added.
“Mine’s kind of lame. Everyone in my life is lame.” Amoureux Daniel tisked.
“What? You think you’re better than everyone?” QTVTP Daniel chuckled, taking a sip from his glass bottle.
“Not necessarily. I just don’t want to have to live the same boring life that they think I need to.”
“I’ll drink to that.” QTVTP Daniel agreed.
“Here, here.” Passchendaele Daniel raised his water cup and they all held out their glasses into the middle of the table to cheers through soft laughter.
Their conversation paused a moment as they drank. HH Daniel shifted in his seat slightly, tossing back the rest of his glass of water is he had been deprived for days and set the empty glass back on the table with a loud clunk. QTVTP Daniel slid over a bottle of beer and none of them spoke as they watched him unscrew the cap and take a long sip. The eighteen-year-old grimaced through the drink and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
“You’re really going through it, bro.” QTVTP Daniel stated.
“Yeah, I suppose.” HH Daniel grumbled, pushing a hand through his hair.
“Well obviously since he got punched in the face.” Amoureux Daniel added.
“I just…” HH Daniel sighed, staring at the table top, “We have soulmates in my universe and even though I found mine…she doesn’t want me so I’m suck tasting everything she tastes and it being a constant brutal reminder of her.”
“Why doesn’t she want you?” ABM Daniel frowned.
“I’m a loser? Hell if I know.” HH Daniel scoffed, he took another long sip of the beer no matter how disgusting he thought it tasted. At least it overpowered the taste of tea that was grazing his tongue.
“There’s a girl you’re in love with who has a trashy boyfriend? Well, take it from me who has literally been in your shoes,” ABM Daniel reached across the table to grab the beer from the eighteen-year-old, “You get nowhere from drinking away the pain or hating yourself.”
“You had this happen too?” HH Daniel asked softly, hopefully.
“Yeah; was best friends with this girl I was hopelessly in love with and I had to see her go from boyfriend to boyfriend no matter how often I was there for her.”
“So what happened?”
“She became my wife eventually.” ABM Daniel smiled softly, “Just give it time. Don’t push her because she’ll just feel suffocated. Let her come to you. She’ll see what she’s missing.”
Amoureux Daniel held out the half empty plate of desserts to HH Daniel and he finally took a small pastry as the youngest said, “In addition, you are in a universe where you can taste what she tastes and, from my experience, the way to a woman’s heart – and up her skirt – is through her stomach.”
Passchendaele Daniel choked on his water while laughter rose over the rest of the table.
“What do you know about ‘going up skirts’? You’re, like, barely fifteen.” QTVTP Daniel scoffed through his disbelieving laughter.
“I am seventeen, thank you very much, and I have a baby.” Amoureux Daniel corrected, nearly boastfully. “I know just plenty about going up skirts.”
Of course, that was right when the bartender came over with their food and his confused expression had the five young men smothering back their nervous laughter. ABM Daniel and Passchendaele Daniel cleared a space on the table for the food to be set down and all five of them thanked the man before he headed back behind the bar. With a full spread in front of them, they all dug in and piled up a small plate each to start to eat. It was quiet for a moment as they got settled and started to eat, passing the salt and pepper and various plates to each other when asked. It was comfortable.
“So,” ABM Daniel broke their silence first, directing his question to Amoureux Daniel, “how did you and your wife meet?”
Amoureux Daniel cracked a cheeky smile, “Well, she came to England to marry my older brother, but she liked me better, to be blunt. We would sneak around the castle and a few times at night…you know…”
There were two ‘oo’s from ABM Daniel and QTVTP Daniel, while Passchendaele Daniel looked between them all with wide eyes.
“You…You were involved with her before you were married?” he stammered.
“While she was engaged to my brother too.” Amoureux Daniel hid his smirk behind a bite of a mozzarella stick. “My most thrilling and incredible few months, I must say.”
“Oh my gosh.” Passchendaele Daniel’s cheeks flushed a slight pink and he tugged at the collar of his uniform. “That’s…ahem…”
“Did you not go near your wife before your wedding night?” Amoureux Daniel asked bluntly.
“Let’s not go nosing into everyone’s private business.” ABM Daniel said strongly.
“Wait, I’m still confused. Where did you sneak off to?” HH Daniel asked shyly.
The table chuckled lightly – even Passchendaele Daniel cracked a nervous smile – and HH Daniel looked between all of them, waiting for an answer.
“To bed.” Amoureux Daniel laughed, patting him on the shoulder. “You’ll understand one day.”
“I…you…I-I understand perfectly well.” HH Daniel blushed furiously, turning quickly down to his plate and shoveled a nacho in his mouth to avoid continuing the conversation.
“To answer your question,” Passchendaele Daniel continued, trying to keep himself a bit brave and a bit interesting to the four other men, “No, I did not go to bed with Elizabeth until our wedding night. It did not feel right to deflower her until our union was official.”
“Deflower her.” QTVTP Daniel repeated slowly, biting back his smile as he took a sip of his beer.
“Well that’s what it is, is it not?” Passchendaele Daniel said sternly, narrowing his eyes at him. “I like to think that making love is the most sacred act and shouldn’t be just thrown around to anyone.”
“I agree.” HH Daniel mumbled, earning a thankful smile from the soldier.
“Jeez, then I’m quite the sinner.” QTVTP Daniel chuckled to himself. “I slept with my girlfriend on our first date.”
Passchendaele Daniel huffed softly and turned down to his plate. Amoureux Daniel and HH Daniel glanced at each other through the awkward tension that seemed to settle.
ABM Daniel cleared his throat, “Let’s maybe change the topic. This isn’t really lunch appropriate.”
“Wow…you are such a dad.” QTVTP Daniel snorted, shaking his head in near disbelief.
“What’s wrong with that?” ABM Daniel frowned at him. He couldn’t get much of an argument out before his phone was ringing in his pocket and he pulled it out, sighing when he read the caller ID, “Sorry, I gotta take this.”
The other four watched him get up from the table and head across the restaurant as he answered the call,
“What is it now, Jack?”
The table fell into a momentary silence.
Passchendaele Daniel broke it first with a mumble of, “Jack in my universe is dead.”
The other three looked between themselves nervously. They didn’t answer, ducking their heads down to their plates to focus on eating their lunches. No one spoke until ABM Daniel returned and he sat back down with a heavy exhale.
“Sorry, being a dad is a job that is never done. What did I miss?”
Amoureux Daniel, HH Daniel, and QTVTP Daniel just looked at him and shook their heads ever so slightly. Passchendaele Daniel sniffled, keeping his head down, and took a sip of his water.
“Everything alright back home?” HH Daniel asked softly over to ABM Daniel.
“Oh, yeah. My youngest just hates when I’m not within arm’s reach so she’s been giving Jack some trouble. She’s only one so…doesn’t know much better.” ABM Daniel smiled at only the mention of his daughters. “I have pictures…if you want to see.”
“Of course.” HH Daniel beamed.
ABM Daniel took out his phone again and opened up his photos app to swipe through a few and he passed the phone across the table. Amoureux Daniel and HH Daniel shifted closer together to see and QTVTP Daniel leaned over the side of the table to look at the pictures too. QTVTP Daniel took control of the swiping since he was the only one who knew how cell phones worked and they all smiled at the pictures on the screen, ‘awe’ing at the cutest ones.
“The baby looks just like you.” HH Daniel said. “Well…like us, I suppose.”
“Yeah.” ABM Daniel chuckled. “I get that a lot.”
Passchendaele Daniel stayed quiet on his right, eating in silence, and unbothered. He sat as if he didn’t want to draw any more attention to himself. ABM Daniel looked over at him as the other three kept scrolling through his pictures and he reached a hand onto the table to gently get his attention. Passchendaele Daniel looked up at him with a flat expression and almost tearful eyes.
“Are you alright?” ABM Daniel asked softly.
“I don’t do well without my Elizabeth.” Passchendaele Daniel whispered for only him to hear. ABM Daniel was always the best listener and the easiest to talk to and it was obvious to the struggling soldier that he was someone he could trust.
“Do you have a picture of her?” ABM Daniel offered, as some way to keep his mind busy but happy.
A small smile perked at the side of Passchendaele Daniel’s lips and he nodded, reaching into his uniform jacket and he pulled out a small sepia photograph and held it out to his new acquaintance. ABM Daniel smiled thankfully at him and took the photograph, looking down at the old fashion photograph of the gentle young blonde woman.
“She’s beautiful.” ABM Daniel said politely.
“She is. I’m the luckiest man in the whole world to have her. She saves my life every day.” Passchendaele Daniel breathed, his gentle smile grazing his lips ever so delicately as if he was in deep thought.
Three teasing exclaims from across the table caught their attention and ABM Daniel quickly reached over to snatch his phone back. The picture they had swiped to was of Florence in nothing but a small towel blow-drying her hair in the bathroom mirror; a simple moment that ABM Daniel couldn’t help but capture with her in all her natural beauty.
“No more of that.” he blushed furiously as he pocketed his phone again.
Passchendaele Daniel offered his photograph of Elizabeth to the table and the three young men on the other side gladly took it. She was effortlessly beautiful and the three youngest at the table stared at her for a bit longer than was honestly necessary. Passchendaele Daniel bit back a proud grin at their obvious interest.
“I don’t have a photograph of Loretta.” HH Daniel mumbled. “If I did, that would be considered extremely creepy on my part.”
The photograph was passed back to Passchendaele Daniel who pocketed it again and HH Daniel reached to grab another serving from the platters in the middle of the table. A small corner of paper poking out under the dish caught his attention and he wiped his hand on his jeans before pulling it out from under the plate. His eyes went wide at the photograph of Loretta that stared back at him from his hand.
“What’s that?” Amoureux Daniel asked, leaning over his shoulder to take a look.
Surprised, HH Daniel couldn’t find his words for a moment, “I-It’s Loretta.”
The Lotus Inn works in almost magical ways through this ripple in the time space continuum. HH Daniel pulled the picture closer, his heart only aching slightly at simply the sight of her.
“She is hot.” QTVTP Daniel broke the momentary silence.
The four other Daniel’s glared at his bluntness and he put his hands up in defence as he sat back in his chair.
“You can’t have her so don’t even try.” HH Daniel scolded softly before turning back to the photograph.
“I don’t want her. I have my own girlfriend.”
HH Daniel glared warningly at him as he passed the photograph across the table to ABM Daniel and Passchendaele Daniel to take a look at too.
Amoureux Daniel shifted in his chair and reached into his pocket, sure enough to pull out his own picture of Louisa and their brand-new baby son. He stayed perfectly quiet for a moment as he stared at the image himself, disbelieving.
“Oh wow.” he breathed. “It looks so real.”
HH Daniel looked over his shoulder and smiled at the sweet photograph of the young mother holding her baby, “That’s adorable.”
Amoureux Daniel smiled over at him, “That’s my Louisa. And our little prince.”
“Let’s see!” ABM Daniel excitedly held his hand out to take a look at the photograph.
QTVTP Daniel and Passchendaele Daniel glanced over his shoulder with mirrored smiles.
“Damn,” QTVTP Daniel said as he sat down again, “Glad to know we have taste.”
Their pictures were passed around and stories were shared – QTVTP Daniel offering up his phone to show off pictures of his girlfriend and he shared his excited plans to propose to her.
The five young men seemed to find their comfort with each other. Laughter soon filled their table between words of advice and guidance and comfort and soon the food was gone and the drinks were finished and they were all resting back in their chairs through their conversation.
“Is your hair naturally that colour?” Amoureux Daniel asked QTVTP Daniel.
QTVTP Daniel habitually ran his hand through it, fluffing it up a little at the sides, “No, it’s dyed. I kinda like it like this though so I might keep it.”
“It looks cool. Maybe I should go blonde too. Loretta seems to like blondes better anyway.” HH Daniel said.
“No!” The other three at the table said quickly.
HH Daniel looked between all of them in confusion, “Why not?”
“Florence cried her eyes out when I went blonde.” ABM Daniel said. “I swear she was ready to divorce me. It’s not worth it.”
“You look just fine the way you are.” Passchendaele Daniel agreed. “Don’t change just because her boyfriend looks a certain way.”
“Yeah. You’ll regret that.” ABM Daniel nodded.
“I dunno. I don’t regret it.” QTVTP Daniel said coolly.
“You’re not helping.” ABM Daniel snapped lightly, making the rest of the table laugh.
A momentary silence fell over the group, all of them staring into space with content smiles and full stomachs, most topics of conversation well used. The bartender came over to clear the empty plates and they all thanked him once more. ABM Daniel took out his phone to check the time again.
“Well, it’s been over an hour. Maybe we should say our goodbyes. I have little ones to pick up.”
“Yeah.” HH Daniel sighed, setting his napkin back on the tabletop. “I have to pack for college.”
“I have a meeting...” QTVTP checked his watch, “5 minutes ago. Shit. Jonah’s gonna kill me.”
He got up quickly from the table and put his sunglasses back on before taking one last sip of his beer. They all stood up after him and started to gather their things to go.
“Can we take a selfie before we leave?” ABM Daniel offered.
“A what?” HH Daniel laughed.
“A selfie.” Amoureux Daniel breathed. “That’s a ridiculous word.”
“A picture of yourself.” QTVTP Daniel explained.
“Yeah! Come over here.” ABM Daniel took out his phone again and opened up the camera.
“You can take photographs on your telephone? Incredible…” Passcehndaele Daniel breathed as the group gathered behind ABM Daniel and they all leaned in close.
The picture was taken, framing five exact smiles, five exact pairs of light blue eyes, and yet five slightly different hair styles and fashion choices. All their own individual but yet all one in the same.
They shared handshakes that turned into friendly embraces with pats on the back, well wishes, and final goodbyes as they headed their own ways home to once again be seperated by the division of space and time between alternate universes.
ABM Daniel lingered back in the restaurant for a moment, grazing his finger over the table he stood beside with a calm smile. He approached the bartender and ordered a plate of desserts to go – he didn’t get much since Amoureux Daniel seemed to hog them all for himself – and he wanted to bring home his girls a treat. He paid for the cakes and thanked the bar tender before heading out of the restaurant and into the bright sunlit street. His car was parked farther down and he waited in the drivers seat for Florence.
She came quickly out of the Lotus Inn as well, the heavy wind blowing urging her to hold her jacket closed as she rushed down the sidewalk, her dark blonde hair billowing around her head messily and she helped herself into the passenger seat of their car. With the door closed and the wind kept out, she sighed deeply with a content smile and smoothed her messy hair down.
“Hey, baby.”
“Hi, sweetheart.”
They both leaned in for a quick kiss.
“How was lunch?” she asked.
ABM Daniel thought for a moment as he took the car out of park and pulled out onto the street, “It was strange at first but really nice. How was yours?”
“Super fun.” Florence giggled.
“Great! Oh! We took a selfie. I wanted to show you how similar we all looked.” Daniel pulled his phone from his pocket and blindly passed it over to her as he drove through the streets of their city.
Florence took it and typed in his passcode with an excited smile. She opened up his pictures and tapped the most recent one, her smile falling, “Dani, this is only a picture of you.”
“I know!” Daniel laughed. “We looked like quintuplets or something!”
“No���I mean you are the only person in this picture.”
Daniel stopped the car at a red light and glanced over at his phone in her hand. His smile fell as well as he stared at the selfie he had taken before they all parted ways, only his own face captured in the frame, his four new friends missing as if they never existed in the first place.
#anything but mine#🍓#✉#👑#🔪#daniel seavey#daniel seavey x5#LOL#why dont we#wdw#why dont we fanfic#au#lotus inn#daniel seavey fanfic#btw i typed 'daniel' 207 times
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Mystery Skulls -The Future
Alright, now that I’ve watched “Mystery Skulls Animated -The Future” and am now done screaming into a pillow because I never could have predicted THAT ending in a million years, let me get some initial thoughts down…
*Whenever I listen to “Enemy” I always think how perfectly this fits with not only Arthur and Lewis’s situation but Mystery and Shiromori’s as well so cue a pleased, “Oh!” from me that a snippet of “Enemy” made its way into the beginning of this video. Very nice!
*I’ve completely been expecting for two years that, as soon as doubt crept over Lewis’s skull, that the cave would disappear and Arthur would simply land back in the truck unharmed so that wasn’t a surprise. What WAS a surprise is that, I admit, I had fully convinced myself that the gunshot sound at the end of “Hellbent” was Lance shooting Shiromori so the reveal that it was Lewis all along that was the target really made me dramatically gasp!
*Gunshots obviously don’t affect a ghost… except for the one that went through Lewis’s chest aka his death wound which is one of those details that make you go, “Actually that DOES make a kind of sense. Ghosts WOULD be sensitive in the area that killed them.”
It also shows that Lewis isn’t entirely in control of his actions. Ghosts are beings of pure emotion and it doesn’t take much for him to go right back to irrational anger and rough up Lance which is… not cool, man. He’s going to be sorry later when he can think straight!
*The bit with the changing photograph… At this moment in time, my early thoughts are that with the first photo being only of Lewis and Vivi, it symbolises that Lewis has kept only Vivi in his heart.
Arthur is a green-eyed demon who Lewis must get Vivi away from before it is too late and Mystery is just a dog. He’s irrelevant.
However, when Arthur touches the locket, it reactivates another memory, one in which they were all a solid group and that they were happy. Lewis is clearly shocked to see this new image and when focus is also brought to Lewis’ eye(s) being visible in this photo (I’m going to set aside that they were visible in “Ghost” as well until the photo was redrawn for “Freaking Out” as I think this is pretty much a last minute idea in-between videos) it also serves to remind him of who he used to be. Eyes are a window to the soul after all and I think a small truth just broke through Lewis’ anger there enough to make him drop to his knees and weep black tears. Very effective especially when this is paired with the line, “I’m worried ‘bout the future… and fucking with the past.”
And then of course the truck blows up before they can dwell on this any longer! I love Arthur and Lewis’ dazed, “What just happened?” faces!
*Vivi takes the fact that her dog is actually a fox very well but then again she also has a ghost, a plant lady and her own ancestor connecting with her across the centuries to mentally process as well so that’s understandable.
She’s also a surprisingly effective badass (granted she is getting some help from Mushi) which was brilliantly displayed in the animation, the camera movement, the angles, the special effects… everything on screen! Not bad for someone who has spent most of this series either running from things or being unconscious! A certain Vine though, wouldn’t get out of my head -“Don’t fuck with me! I have the power of God AND anime on my side!!”
*Heh. Shiromori had a manicure in-between videos. ;)
*I really didn’t have any solid ideas as to how the Shiromori problem would be resolved but I still wasn’t expecting that! I actually shrieked out loud and I’m usually so quiet on first viewings! The horror and regret over both her and Mystery’s faces though (those are definitely, -“I didn’t want things to end like this”- tears in Shiro’s eyes) tell me that she doesn’t deserve this. She’s just a plant that let jealousy and a blood-addiction get out of control!
The only thing that gives me hope is that her heart wasn’t actually destroyed; it’s just flown off somewhere across the parking lot. She can still be regrown and start anew!
*The ending. The very definition of a, “Well, I didn’t see THAT one coming!” ending. I guess that confirms a thought that the Green Spirit can only really possess a heart that is in turmoil, one that has its guard down so to speak.
I presume it’s easy for it to grab onto “simple things” such as small animals and severed arms but when it comes to complicated living humans and magical creatures it has to wait for the right circumstances and Mystery’s heart breaking over Shiromori’s fate is just what it was looking for.
Of course there is still the question of why it is doing this. Yes, Mystery is the biggest threat so it’s taking him out of the equation but is its murderous target the whole of Mystery Skulls or just Lewis? The fact that Lewis is adopted and doesn’t know where he came from is really significant to me. It raises the possibility that the Green Spirit killed Lewis as part of a blood vendetta against his birth family that he is not even aware of. I’ll have to wait and see whether the Green Spirit and Lewis’ true backstory is even something that can be told in music video form but I really don’t think it’s causing all this death and chaos simply because it’s bored and doing this would be funny.
*I do notice that Mystery has two plasters on his heart which have to refer to his two missing tails that the Ancestor has to be responsible for. They both appear to grow back though, both as a reaction to Vivi and Shiromori getting really hurt and to the Green Spirit’s possession; it’s not only taking him over but restoring him back to his prime… just with some added decoration (love the collar changing from a ‘?’ to a ‘!?’).
I’m not sure what to think that Vivi’s shade of blue and Shiromori’s white comes pouring out of the plastered areas when they are injured nor of all the liquid seeping out of Mystery’s heart that matches several characters’ colour scheme… and then his mouth turns green… Possibly it is just meant to represent all the different thoughts and feelings that Mystery is going through right now; all the emotions concerning everyone in his life and the mistakes he’s made with them that the Green Spirit is able to latch on to and corrupt from within.
Possibly when Mystery removed the Green Spirit in the first place, a piece of it remained inside him that the arm can connect with… because I don’t think a zombified arm literally crawled inside Mystery’s wounds and grabbed his heart at the end there!
*For most of the video, I was gasping, shrieking and letting off the occasional distressed whimper… but I really had to clap a hand over my mouth hard to stop myself from screaming with laughter at the end credit scene! Vivi and Arthur just spoke for us all, didn’t they…!?
*Final thoughts: I’ve been really hoping that the song “Magic” will be picked for the last part; it just sounds like a finale song, it speaks to me of happy endings and I have seen posts by Mystery Ben from a few years ago that he would really like to use “Magic” at some point in this story… but with this cliff-hanger, I’m having a hard time picturing the finale going cheerfully right into this peppy tune!
They could of course begin with a sample of a completely different darker song at first and then go into “Magic” but still! I’m not sure now… Wait… a few years ago, an artist named Yuramec posted an animatic of “Magic” on Youtube featuring their own character, Leopold being chased by a demonic spirit (that also has three eyes!) until the spirit is battered down with good magic and turns back into an innocent little ghost girl. Mystery Ben made a comment (Which must be on his Tumblr as I can’t find it on YouTube but I KNOW I’m not making this up!) saying that it was a funny coincidence that this video contains some ideas that he also wanted to implement for MSA but of course, he couldn’t say which ideas due to spoilers… Baring in mind as to what has happened to Mystery and his corruption, is this… is this what Ben was talking about…?
#mystery skulls#mystery skulls the future#mystery skulls animated#Lewis pepper#arthur kingsmen#Vivi Yukino#mystery the kitsune#shiromori#mystery looks like something out of soul eater#i am both excited and terrified
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The Commander - Part 12 (Arkham Knight x Reader)
We’ve reached the point where the events take place in the Arkham Knight video game!!! I found these more difficult since I wanted to stay true to the source material. The timing isn’t perfect but I HOPE YOU ALL ENJOY.
WORDS: 3239 WARNINGS: BATMAN ARKHAM KNIGHT SPOILERS, ARKHAM KNIGHT AUDIO LOGS SPOILERS, VIOLENCE, JASON FLUFF, AND A LIL ASS GRAB
Masterlist
THE COMMANDER - MASTERLIST
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The Arkham Knight to Ace Chemicals.
Deathstroke to Stagg Airships.
And Deadshot, the Militia Commander, to the abandoned Killinger’s Department Store. The Arkham Knight Headquarters.
Five trucks and two choppers surround the building. Crates for the weapons were being unloaded, drones being dropped off by the helicopters, some driving off into the tunnels and the rest through the main entrance.
The Commander held a gun to a police officer’s forehead, who was on his knees, his hands behind his head, and was trembling. Five others lined up beside him. They were found in the mall before any of the soldiers got there.
“Call off your reinforcements. Now.”
They looked up at the Commander’s chilling white mask, at the red gun optics where an eye hole was supposed to be. She looked positively terrifying. The police officer gulped, then lowered his hands to pick up his radio.
“What kind of army are you?” the officer beside him asked. The Commander pointed the gun at him. “You be quiet.”
He saw this as a chance. Instead of a radio, the officer quickly pulled out his pistol and fired at the Commander. Everyone else flinched at the gunshot.
The officer dropped his gun, then his whole body fell to the floor. His blood leaked out of the bullet hole right out where his nose was supposed to be, and smoke came out of the second pistol the Commander quickly pulled out before the officer had even moved.
She pointed the two guns at the remaining cops.
“Any of you want to do it?”
The one in the middle swallowed hard, finally thinking it right to pick up his radio.
“Commissioner, this is Officer Chang.”
A ball of sweat poured out when the commander clicked the trigger.
“Call off reinforcements to Killinger’s Department Store.”
He turned the radio off, then threw it to the ground.
“All your weapons. On the ground,” the commander ordered. All of them did as told. “Sergeant. Make sure they don’t escape. Anyone see us?”
“None so far. We’re good to go.”
“Get all the trucks out of here. Make sure no one finds us.”
Cameras. They should be here. Somewhere.
Even with the building abandoned, she could feel some where staring at her.
At the far end, on a street light. Deadshot raised her arm and pulled on the gun on her wrist. The optics on her eye flashed its signature. The camera exploded and the lights flashed red, yellow, and green at the same time.
There was another one. By the building across them. Her optics picked up the movement and she fired at it before it could fully turn at her direction.
The last one could be ignored. It was ten stories up, by a skyscraper. It only barely got a glimpse of the entrance to the shopping mall.
But she wasn’t taking the chance.
From such a distance, Deadshot raised her arm and fired from ten stories down, right at the almost microscopic security camera installed at an office ceiling.
The glass window blew up and there was a flash of light coming from the building, until her optics detected nothing more than just ceiling bulbs.
Done. It was safe.
She watched the officer’s dead body being taken away. He had a family. A daughter like Zoe. A niece like Y/N. They were waiting for him to come home.
The Commander walked over to the entrance. Sentry guns were being placed, her men marched to the elevators and some passed through the tunnels. She pressed the communicator on her ear.
“Knight. We have the base.”
“Batman is in Ace Chemicals. He’s about to go after Crane. Did they get Barbara Gordon?”
She looked over to the final truck unloading by the entrance. A red-haired woman confined to a wheelchair was being wheeled down to the elevators. She was gagged, laying unconscious while she was taken to the undergrounds.
“Arrived just now. What do we do with her?”
“Just keep her in the base. Crane and I will get there as soon as we can.”
“Copy.” The gates were being pulled down and the lights switched off. The Commander walked into the elevator with the captive.
He said Barbara Gordon worked for Batman, that she was a crucial part in his operations, and that he used to know her when he was still working with Batman.
“Keep her alive,” she said, as the elevator pried open and Barbara was wheeled into the underground base, into a secluded room which she thought used to be a large clothing store. Its window was overlooking most of the base, and she could see what went on outside.
How many innocent people has she hurt? How much guilt did she have to push back her whole life?
“Clear everything. This will be the control room for the drones and the communicators. Take Gordon to the back.”
She went with them to the offices, and just then, the generators turned on. They left Barbara in one of the rooms.
“Knight. Are you here?”
“I’ll come up in a few minutes.”
She told Lieutenant Whitman to wait in front of the closed door, walking back outside where the computers were being set up just outside.
Scarecrow walked in, just as her eyes adjusted to the dim lighting. He looked at her, head to toe.
“Commander…”
“Crane…” she snarled. She took a seat at the center of the long table and pulled up the camera footage of outside the mall.
No one was outside, and the entrance remained dark. The tunnels were closed, and the Batman was nowhere to be seen. She sees Jason pull up in his motorcycle by the entrance, hiding it behind a dumpster.
“Commander,” she heard her comms buffer while watching the Knight with his hand up to his ear. “I’m at the base.”
“Just walk in to the elevator. What happened at Ace Chemicals?”
“Batman blew the whole place down. But we got what we needed.”
“Good job,” she smirked. “I’m looking at you right now from the control room. I’ve destroyed every other camera and installed new ones from all over the command points and watchtowers going online.”
Jason looked around, finding the camera and looking straight at it.
“Everything looking good?”
“Yes,” she said. “Looking good indeed. That ass looks phenomenal.”
The Knight chuckled under his visor as she watched him walk into the mall. “I’m coming down.”
“You know where to find us.”
She turned her communicators off, then glared at the sergeant looking at her funny. He quickly looked away.
Finally, this was where it all came to be. The bases were all online. On the screen newly set up in front of her, she brought up the live footage from the serpent drones flying above the three islands. Everything was in place.
But one of their bomb mines in Miagani set off an alert.
“A bomb has been hacked, Lieutenant. Send the drones to the coordinates.”
“Yes sir,” her comms spoke into her ear. Tapping onto the controls, she sent a serpent drone to hover above the scene.
And fucking hell, was it something she didn’t expect.
It wasn’t a car. Batman had a fucking tank. Bigger than any of their drones, and so much more than any of them expected.
She sent every drone close to the location to ambush the Batmobile. “Open fire.”
The drones fired their missiles. Rattlers, Diamondbacks, Mambas, and even a Boa, all firing at him. One by one, a drone went offline, and she wanted to rip her hair out from her scalp. “Why did no one tell me about his fucking tank?”
The Batmobile just went on and on, and it fired a 60mm canon right at a Boa, blowing it up after just two shots. She could only watch on, locking onto five different drones and clearing the ambush without so much as a dent. When every drone went offline, the bomb mine hacked, the Commander fell back to her chair.
She suddenly didn’t feel so good.
The Knight came up to the control rooms. He took more time down the elevator than Batman did blowing up all those drones. “Commander.”
“Knight.” She stood up. “Gordon’s in that room.”
He didn’t say anything, and the Commander realized he was looking at her new suit. “Nice job with the HQ.” Jason walked over to the back. “Where’s Crane?”
“He went in there with Barbara.”
“That son of a- Get the hell away from her!” He screamed at Scarecrow just as he swung the door open. Crane shot up, but he took his time.
“Soon, you won't be able to choose who lives or dies from your own doings, Knight.”
“I said get out.”
“Crane,” the Commander said. She walked over and grabbed him by the arm, but Scarecrow shook it off. “Remember what we talked about, Commander…”
He left the room. Commander Y/N looked over to Jason.
“Commander. Can you leave us?”
She looked at him, then at Barbara. Nodding, she left the room, but kept her ear close to the door.
“He’s gone. Did he hurt you?”
“Spare me the good cop, bad cop routine.”
So he cares about her. Fair enough.
He talked about Batman, the same things she’s already known about how he was betrayed, how he kept talking to the Joker hoping it would give him enough time to come rescue him. How he never did.
But then she heard his visor turn up, then it was Jason’s unfiltered voice, screaming at the captive.
The Commander kept at the door.
“Jason, we can fix it.”
“I can fix it! I know now what to do. I take all this pain. All this blackness. And I put it all in a bullet. And I put it right between Bruce’s eyes.”
His voice was breaking as he spoke. She wanted to go after him. But Scarecrow’s boney hand touched her shoulder. She flinched away.
“She’s ready. Be at the undergrounds in fifteen minutes.”
The Commander just watched Crane barge into the door, calling for the Knight to prepare the Cloudburst.
“Someone put a gag on her. Anyone hurts her, they’re a dead man.”
She was the only one nearby. The Commander walked in, took a gag from her pockets and placed it on Barbara’s mouth.
“You’ll be okay,” she whispered to her. Gordon stopped struggling, and a soldier came in bearing a gun.
“Watch over her,” the Knight ordered. At the control center, Scarecrow took a seat. And he brought the camera logged into the Cloudburst up on the screen. “Ten minutes, Knight.”
He nodded at Scarecrow, and the Commander trailed behind him as they headed for the elevators to the undergrounds. The one that lead to a tunnel up to the streets in Founder’s.
The cop’s blood was still probably spilling on the streets. How many people did she hurt by killing him?
Jason pressed the button, and the elevator roared in a twitching buzz.
His silence only pained her. She wanted to hold him tight, but if he wanted that, he would’ve pulled her close himself. Jason inched himself to the corner, his arms shielding his chest. He didn’t want to be bothered.
Nothing has meant more to him than putting an end to Batman’s reign over Gotham.
But what happens then?
What happens to Jason after he’s done what he wanted? When he has Gotham under his feet, when all else has been destroyed?
Y/N watched the walls outside the elevator move up, until suddenly there was a loud crash and the whole thing stopped moving, the lights dimmed out and the noise from the gears came to a halt.
Jason cursed every swear word he knew. “These fucking generators. They’re all over the place.”
“It should be fixed in a few minutes. Don’t worry.” The Commander leaned against the wall. “Are you alright?”
No. He wasn’t. Since they arrived at Gotham the dark cloud over his head just grew darker and stronger, knowing his path to kill the Bat was coming to a close. The Commander stood right beside him and brushed her arm against his larger one.
“Take that thing off. It’s only me.”
Jason pushed the button, then his hand immediately wiped the tears that had been sitting on his cheek. Y/N fell ill, taking off her own mask and pushing her shoulder against Jason’s.
“Talk to me.”
He faced her. “You already know everything.”
“But you’ve never told me yourself. I only had to find out.”
“I’ve told you enough.”
“No,” she said, taking his face. “I don’t think you have.”
He no longer flinched when she did that. Instead, the corners of his mouth curved up, taking her hand and squeezing it. He pulled it away from his face, but kept running his thumb over her fingers.
“I waited for him to come for me. Even after so many months. I never lost hope. But Joker…” he choked. “He just kept beating that hope out of me. He kept me in an abandoned wing at Arkham. No one ever found me. He paid one of the guards to let him in, beat me with a crowbar, tied me to the ceiling, strapped me to a chair, called all his friends to help torture me, did this to my face..”
She laid her head on his shoulder. “I went in there a boy with so much wonder to look at in the world. And when I came out, I was nothing. Emptied out. I only knew anger. I hated everyone around me. And there was nothing I wanted more than to kill him.”
The Commander looked up at him, and he craned his head down so his face was nearer to hers.
“I think I would’ve gone clinically insane without you.”
A kiss to the lips. Already he’d calmed.
“How ‘bout you? How are you holding up?” he asked.
“I’m trying not to think about him. For tonight, at least.”
“You know you can just sit back if you like-“
“I’m fine. I can rest after I take out the Cloudburst.”
He shuffled his arms and took his hand away from hers. “I was meaning to talk to you about that.”
“What about?
“I should be the one to go out there. I want to take him by myself.”
“We talked about this,” she said. “I can blow a tank.”
“And I know you're going to say you’re so much better than me at it.”
“I’m not saying that.”
“With what just happened, with you, your uncle, it’s better if you stay upstairs.”
She just looked annoyed by then. “Jason, I’m taking the Cloudburst.” Jason didn’t answer and kept his head craned down. The Commander scoffed. “You’re not paying me more than a million dollars tonight just to stay behind at the control room.”
“Fine,” he stood in front of her. “Five Cobra drones will be at your escort and I’ll come along in a Serpent when the time comes, or if you need any help. Also, I forgot to give you these.”
He pulled out an earpiece. “This communicator only links to mine. It’s a second one. We have our main, which Batman probably has access to. And this. He wouldn’t be looking for it. Not even Crane knows about it.”
She took it and placed it on her ear. “I’ll be fine.”
“Be careful out there.” His voice was soft.
He wasn’t talking to the Commander. He was talking to Y/N.
Jason slowly held her hips, pulled her close and finally managed a small smile. He kissed her, harder as if saying goodbye. She hugged his neck and leaned in even closer.
At the midst of a city wide apocalypse, she was his only light. And it was true. If not for her, he’d be so engulfed in his own darkness, there’d be no escape, not even if he wanted to climb out of it.
After he kills Batman, he’ll need her more than anything else. He’ll need something to level his ground, to bring out the humanity still left in him.
She knew first hand what it was like killing someone she had a terrible grudge on. It wasn’t the same as killing someone you never knew. It ruins you, drags you to every circle of hell until there’s no where else to go. She had to climb out of that deep pit by herself. And it wasn’t an easy task.
It was partly the reason why she couldn’t bring herself to go to Arkham.
When you thought your life would be a much lighter weight to carry, it only adds to the pain. Jason didn’t need to be told that.
The elevator finally started up, then the lights turned on. He slightly pulled away, leaning his forehead against hers for as long as he could. The Commander held the side of his face and closed her eyes.
“By the way,” he whispered. “I love the new suit.”
His hand grabbed her ass. She jumped up, playfully pushing his arm away. Her laughter was the last thing he heard when the doors pushed open and they pulled away.
The Knight flashed his visor back on. It was there.
She was ready.
The Cloudburst. The beautiful monstrosity that was Scarecrow’s most beloved weapon. The Nimbus Tech was in place right at the front, and it had the much of the toxin, enough to drown a person before they’d even get a glimpse of their fear. The front flashed a dark blue, much like the eyes on the Arkham Knight’s visor, and the gun optics, the Commander couldn’t help but revel in it.
It was the best tank she’ll ever get to man in her life. And she’s been through quite a number.
The gates slowly rolled up, and a soldier stepped out the hatch. It was time. She took one look at Jason, even through the visor.
She wasn’t afraid. She knew she wasn’t going to die tonight.
But she should’ve told him she loved him. Even for the just the slightest chance she might not come back. He deserved to know.
So she had to come back. For him. She still had so much to look forward to. A life outside the militia. A life with Jason. And she had to make sure he’ll be okay. That he wouldn’t have to claw himself out of the darkness, that she’d be there to hold him up. He needed her. Just as much as she needed him.
‘Breathe in. Breathe out.’
She closed her eyes, then climbed up to the hatch.
The gate was fully open, and the five Cobra Drones have been driven out the tunnels. The Commander closed the hatch, settled herself in, and pulled on the lever.
‘Always breathe. Don’t let the world touch your focus, Deadshot.’
Y/N looked onto her scope, still after so many tries. Floyd kneeled down next to her, and brought her hand further out closer to the muzzle. She knew she should have just hit the birds.
At the pull of the trigger, her eyes closed shut. She didn’t want to look. She waited for Floyd’s hand on her shoulder again, or another piece of advice that only did so much to help.
‘Bullseye,’ her uncle said. And she shot up in the air and cried in joy.
It was steak night, tonight. That was what Floyd promised.
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THE COMMANDER - MASTERLIST
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