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firebrands · 4 years ago

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the square root of infinity | stevetony

2.7k, established relationship, first fight angst | on ao3 | for @maguna-stxrk

***

Tony finds out with his hands deep in JARVIS’ code. Former-JARVIS, actual-JARVIS, he hasn’t really decided on what to refer to the mess of numbers of letters that formed his former AI, and now, well—Vision, too. It’s all a mess, really, and Tony wanted something simple to do with his hands, minimal focus, low-risk.

He should have known better, really. Nothing about him, his work, his life, has ever been low-risk.

It’s a command from Steve with a privacy protocol. Search, identify, and surveil Sergeant James “Bucky” Barnes, also known as The Winter Soldier. Missing, found, and missing again as of six months ago. Tony frowns at the monitor. He knows he hasn’t read it wrong, but can’t believe it; he reads it again.

Somehow, in the span of time of Steve coming back from Washington, of them settling in together, he’d done this. He’d asked JARVIS to do this for him, and keep it from Tony.

Tony leans back against his chair. “FRI,” he says.

His new AI chirps to life. “Boss?”

“Gimme everything JARVIS found on this.”

“It’s on your phone now, boss.” In front of him, a hologram materializes as well, displaying hundreds of photos, grainy and filtered, and copies of reports on sightings. Tony stands up, takes a step back and frowns some more. He opens his mouth a few times, borne of his need to verbalize even without anyone listening; he’s angry. He’s more shocked than angry, but the anger is there, low and simmering.

Beneath it, though, is a grain of doubt: Why? Why did he keep it hidden? Especially now—after all the truth came spilling out of them, crystallizing into something Tony held dear. And after all Steve had said, about keeping secrets, about trust. He briefly considers asking FRIDAY to print it all out, just so he can throw the sheaf of paper in front of Steve and demand: what the fuck, but he’s better now, more mature. Or so he likes to tell himself.

So instead, he walks to the penthouse and finds Steve reading.

Tony clears his throat.

Steve looks up. “Hey,” he says, setting his book down. “You done working?”

Tony smiles, pained and tight. “So,” he says, sitting at the foot of the bed. “Bucky.”

Steve’s eyebrows meet, looking concerned. “What about him?”

Tony shuts his eyes and counts backward from five. “Why didn’t you just tell me?”

Steve inches closer to him and rests his hand on Tony’s knee. Tony doesn’t open his eyes.

“I didn’t want to worry you,” Steve says very quietly.

Tony’s eyes fly open, the anger now boiling over. “Oh is that it?” He asks sarcastically. “So you decided to use JARVIS—without my permission, to look for him?”

Steve’s mouth works, and he looks genuinely shocked. “You said I could talk to JARVIS.”

“That’s not the point!” He pushes Steve’s hand off him and stands. “Why would you keep that a secret?”

“I—I didn’t,” Steve says haltingly. “I wasn’t thinking. I just wanted to know if JARVIS could find him, but I knew it was almost impossible anyway, so there was no real point—”

“If there was no point,” Tony says, voice lowering, “then why’d you do it?”

“Tony,” Steve stands now, too, tries to reach out and touch Tony’s elbow, to disentangle Tony’s arms that have crossed over his chest on their own volition. “He’s my best friend. I’m worried about him. I just thought it was something I should do myself.”

Tony nods, not really listening. His head is swimming with what he thinks could be actual reasons why Steve had kept this from him. A tangled mess of fear and insecurity, then shock at his ability to be aware of it. Is this maturity? He doesn’t like it much. Better if it stayed Steve’s fault—and it is Steve’s fault, it is. But maybe Tony doesn’t need to work himself up like this. But then again, Tony’s already worked up. “Stop,” Tony grinds out.

So Steve stops, a foot away from Tony, looking more scared than Tony’s ever seen him.

“I’m going to go.”

“Don’t.”

Tony looks up at Steve. He hadn’t even realized he’d looked away. Steve takes a deep breath, closes the space between them, and takes Tony’s hands in his.

Tony sighs.

Steve threads their fingers together, squeezes Tony’s palms. “Hey.”

“Hi.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“No.”

“Want to say more than one syllable, maybe?”

A joke? Now? Tony feels his frown deepen.

“No.”

“Is this a fight?”

Tony looks up at him. “A fight means you don’t think you should be sorry.”

“Now, hold on a second,” Steve says, a small frown beginning to form on his face. Barely perceptible, if you didn’t know the signs. “I already explained why—”

“And that’s supposed to make it okay?”

“Where is this coming from?” Steve asks, letting go of Tony’s hands, which means he’s mad too, which drives Tony insane.

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

“There’s no need to raise your tone—”

“Don’t fucking use your de-escalation tactics on me.” Tony hisses, turns on his heel, and walks out the door. He gives himself the satisfaction of slamming it shut.

***

The next few days are filled with small acts of penitence: a cup of coffee on the bedside table when Tony wakes, a sandwich in the workshop, a completed report for a day-old mishap. It’s on Thursday that Tony’s heart finally softens. Over nothing, really, just a small doodle on his desk. He realizes, in that moment, that of all his achievements, perhaps learning to understand Steve Rogers should rank highest. Right up there with being understood by him, too.

Tony’s lying in bed, reading a report on his tablet, when Steve peeks in.

“Hey.” He sounds tentative.

Tony sighs, sets his tablet aside, and takes off his glasses. “Well, come in.”

Steve’s barely able to hide his grin, and nearly bowls Tony over when he hugs him. “Hi,” Steve says, burying his nose against Tony’s neck.

“Hello to you too, you overgrown labrador,” Tony laughs, pushing Steve away a little lest he be crushed under all combined weight of supersoldier and three bowls of pasta that Clint prepared for dinner.

“I missed you,” Steve says, hugging Tony closer to him. He looks up at Tony, resting his chin right on Tony’s sternum. “Was that our first fight?”

Tony snorts. “Unlikely to be our last,” he says.

“Hey,” Steve chides, leaning up and brushing Tony’s nose with his. “Don’t say that.”

“It’s true. Anyway,” Tony leans closer, brushes their lips together. “Make it up to me.”

Steve arches an eyebrow.

“Don’t start,” Tony warns.

Steve huffs out a laugh, tips them over until they’re lying down, and makes it up to him.

***

As a man of science, it behooves Tony to conduct experiments and to test hypotheses.

First, identify the problem.

Second, conduct research.

Third, develop a hypothesis: follow if / then structure.

Fourth, test through experiments: ensure factors are varied one at a time.

Fifth and final, draw a conclusion.

Tony’s tapping the tip of a screwdriver against his bottom lip as he thinks, and then two strong arms wrap around his waist and just like that, the problem has identified itself.

(One frustrating blind spot in Tony’s life: relationships. Which isn’t to say he hasn’t tried to make sense of them, sped read through self-help books and trawled through Reddit. Unlike everything else, research pales in comparison to experience, and there’s only so much he can do to make sure this one precious thing in his life is perfect.)

“Busy?” Steve presses a small kiss on the back of Tony’s neck. Tony can barely suppress a shiver.

He wants to say, I was, until you showed up. It doesn’t just apply to this moment. That fact shouldn’t hurt.

Instead, Tony says: “Yeah, kinda.”

“Okay,” Steve says easily, pulling away. He comes back to press a quick kiss to Tony’s cheek. “See you later?”

“Yup,” Tony says, and okay. Maybe he needs to spend a day or two really figuring out who the problem is, here. (It’s him. He knows this. He’s always the problem.)

Two days later, Tony settles on having to review related literature. In this case, this means sitting alone in the workshop as he relives every moment when Steve was distracted. Was that a sign? In a brief moment of clarity, Tony asks: “Fri, am I crazy?”

“Signs point to no, boss. But I can pull up recent results on the search engines?”

“I’d rather not hear what the general public thinks, thanks,” Tony says, sighing. He rests his face in his hands. It’s not like he meant to think of this—what is wrong with his brain, that the intrusive thoughts come in the form of the few moments he’d asked Steve what was on his mind, only to be brushed off?

What did that mean?

Did it matter?

Step three: if that was a sign, then there was a problem.

If that wasn’t a sign, then there wasn’t a problem.

If Tony didn’t figure this out, then there would definitely be a problem.

This isn’t how a hypothesis is meant to sound. Tony’s a terrible scientist.

“Fri, call Bruce.”

“Tony?” Bruce’s voice is rough. He sounds annoyed.

“Hey, seven PhDs, how do I form a proper hypothesis?”

“Fuck you, Stark.” The line clicks off.

Tony turns his wrist, checks his watch. Three AM? Figures.

He stretches out his back. “Friday,” he says, standing up. “The search functions for Barnes.”

“On it, boss.”

“Atta girl.”

***

Try as Tony might—and he’s trying, which in itself feels like a failure, because Tony stark does or does not and there is no need to attempt—he feels like something has shifted between them, and he doesn’t know how to fix it.

Maybe he’s just making it all up in his head. That’s the easy solution, isn’t it? And that’s usually the answer: start with the easiest answer and work your way up. He can already see Natasha rolling her eyes at him. Maybe the solution is to stop treating your relationship like it’s quantum theory.

Steve’s hand is on his lower back, steering him inside a restaurant. He thinks only of what Steve said, all those weeks ago: I had to do it myself.

Tony wants to argue, right this moment. But how can he? It’s awful that they can be so alike. The only reason he keeps his mouth shut is because he knows that Tony’s used that argument before. Maybe this is growth, to know when to back down from a fight. Or to avoid one totally.

Steve reaches over the table, brushes his fingers over Tony’s wrist. “You okay?”

There are a lot of answers to that. Tony settles on the truth. “Not really.”

Steve’s brow creases with worry. “What’s wrong?”

Again: an infinite multiverse of answers to answer a question that simple. With this, Tony does struggle for a moment, and the next words are much harder to say—they almost feel caught in his throat, like a lump of meat. “I don’t know.”

“You can tell me anything, you know,” Steve says gently. So gentle, it almost breaks him; Tony doesn’t deserve this. Steve doesn’t deserve this.

“I know,” Tony says, and this is him lying through his teeth, and this is what he’s good at, and maybe this is why he’ll never know how relationships are. It’s a trust issue, probably. He doesn’t know if the issue is with Steve, or with himself. “Don’t worry about it.”

Tony tries harder, now: smiles more, eats with gusto. He knocks Steve’s thigh with his knee, looks up at him from under his lashes. This is what life is like for Tony Stark: it’s acting. He knows the approximations to get his point across. As their evening goes on, the small wrinkle on Steve’s forehead smooths out, and maybe Tony wishes he wasn’t so good at pretending.

Maybe he wishes that Steve read him better.

***

The moment of epiphany is often described as transcendental.

This one hits like a ton of bricks—literally, because Tony does know what that feels like, and the suit is shock proof, sure, but that shit still fucking hurts, and even in moments of epiphany, somehow he still manages to go off on a tangent. The point remains: Steve’s hand is on his hip, and they’re in bed, and epiphanies usually equate clarity, peace.

Tony freezes up.

“Tony?” Steve murmurs, sliding his hand up Tony’s side.

“I’m sorry,” Tony says, sitting up. “I know I’m being difficult.”

“I didn’t say you were.” Steve sits up beside him, rests his hand on Tony’s shoulder, and turns Tony to look at him. “Who said you were being difficult?”

“Me, I’m saying it,” Tony says. Panic is beginning to bubble in his belly, slowly rising up his throat. Typical of him to mistake a eureka moment with a panic attack. Par for the fucking course for Tony Stark. “I’m being difficult right now.”

“No you’re not,” Steve says, rubbing up and down his arms. “Tony. Look at me.”

Tony breathes out through his mouth, then in through his nose. Steve tips his chin up and meets his gaze.

“Here are the variables,” Tony breathes out, is afraid of what he’ll say next, his brain is fogged over and full of static. “I love you, and I don’t know what to do with that.”

Steve takes a deep breath, takes Tony’s face in his hands. “Here’s a constant,” he whispers, breath warm on Tony’s cheek. “I love you. I love you. You, Tony Stark. I love you.” He kisses Tony, hard and close lipped, more aggressive reminder than affection.

“Okay,” Tony says, because there’s a wild part of him that still thinks—there was a problem, there was a problem and if this is love, then what comes next? If this is constant, then what variable will arrive to change all of that?

Steve kisses Tony again, almost desperate, this time. “Is this about Bucky?” Tony sucks in a breath at the question, horrified at being discovered. Steve hums, then he runs one hand down Tony’s back, up his arm, down his side. A reminder of his presence. Tony is suddenly grateful for it.

“And if it is?” he murmurs.

“Tony,” and somehow, Steve sounds fond, which throws a wrench in this whole debacle, and deep in the recesses of Tony’s brain, rationality begins to take root. “He’s my best friend. You’re the love of my life.”

Tony breathes.

“Did you hear me? You. You’re the love of my life. Please don’t make me compare,” Steve huffs out a small laugh, and it warms Tony all over, like sunshine peeking through the clouds after a strong rain. “And maybe you don’t believe me just yet,” Steve touches their foreheads together, then rubs his nose against Tony’s, the affection plain and chaste. It makes Tony feel more loved than he’s ever felt in his life—not that there were many moments to compare against, but still.

“I feel a little crazy,” Tony says, finding it in himself to smile up at Steve.

“A little crazy in love?” Steve asks, grinning.

“I can’t believe you just made a Beyonce reference. In the middle of my panic attack.”

Steve bites his bottom lip, a poor attempt at stopping himself from laughing. Tony flicks his forehead. “Say it again,” Tony says, and his smile still feels a little wobbly, but it’s a step.

“Crazy in Love?” Steve asks, pulling Tony close and wrapping his arms around Tony’s waist.

It’s an odd angle, and eventually Steve shifts to lift Tony up onto his lap. “Ass,” Tony says. “You know what I meant.”

Steve smiles again, right before pressing a kiss to Tony’s shoulder. “Step one,” he says. “The problem is you’re afraid I don’t love you. Step two: find out how to show you that I do.” He pauses, and Tony feels breathless as he presses another kiss to Tony’s bare skin. “Step three. Hypothesis? If I show Tony I love him all the time, then eventually he’ll believe me.”

“Sounds like a shaky hypothesis,” Tony says, but his voice quivers a little as he says it. He can’t explain how he feels, other than warm in Steve’s embrace.

Steve tuts. “Step four, experimentation. Small gestures, date nights.” Steve rubs Tony’s back as he speaks, and stops to tilt Tony’s head up to face him. “Am I getting this right?”

Tony smiles. “I don’t know, what’s the conclusion?”

Steve wraps his arms around Tony’s waist once more. “You’re here. I’m here. I love you.” He leans up, brushes their lips together. “Is that enough?”

#stony #steve rogers #tony stark #stevetony #(well hello) (sometimes you just want to write something warm and familiar. i thought i'd forgotten how.)#things i write

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violetwolfraven · 4 years ago

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Willie Headcanons

So I actually came up with this like a month ago and forgot to post it. Anyway enjoy my headcanons about our favorite sk8er boi. Be ready for feels.

Tw: death, car accident mention, emotional manipulation.

...

In my mind, Willie had a good relationship with his parents. They were supportive and everything. They both loved Willie very much.

And Willie has youngest child energy so I’m saying he has a sister who’s 2 years older and a brother who’s 5 years older. Their names are Delilah and Austin.

AND ALL THREE OF THEM ARE ADRENALINE JUNKIES.

Seriously imagine the worst possible combination of head empty only skateboarding and you’ve got Willie, Delilah, and Austin.

Austin started skating when he was 7 and got Delilah hooked on it a year later.

Their parents kinda didn’t like the idea of it but those two had already started teaching Willie basic stuff by the time he was 3.

But... the other two had other interests. Delilah was into art (painting) and Austin played piano (like, really well).

For Willie, skateboarding was his thing. And it always was.

He had fun with it when his big brother would put his hands on his and teach him to play a bit, or his sister would give him some paint and a spare canvas and they’d doodle together, but it wasn’t like skating.

As far as I’ve seen (which admittedly isn’t that far) it’s widely accepted that Willie has ADHD so I’m leaning into that here.

And Willie inherited his brain from his dad, who had a bad experience with meds and so wouldn’t let any of his kids go through it.

So Willie grew up unmedicated but probably better off for the time period. His dad taught him coping mechanisms. Him and Austin. Delilah didn’t inherit it but she was taught to empathize with her brothers and recognize when they needed her help with something.

She’s a badass who can and does beat up anybody who’s mean to her brothers for missing social cues.

But anyway while Austin had piano (and skating as a side thing) Willie got even more hooked on skateboarding than either of his siblings because his brain latched onto it from a young age and couldn’t let go.

We all have our outlets. The chaos in our brains has to go somewhere. For Willie it goes into skating.

When he’s young he and his siblings will skateboard to school and then after school they’ll skate all around Hollywood for hours.

They do their homework in random McDonalds and Denny’s and tbh become local cryptid customers. Like they’re just these 3 super friendly skater siblings who tip really well and visit every fast food place within a 20 mile radius of their house with varying frequency.

They also find e v e r y skatepark, empty pool, and vacant lot in that 20 mile radius that they can possibly find.

Their parents have to bail them out of jail for trespassing and the occasional vandalism every so often.

Sometimes one of them has stuff to do and it’s just two of them out skating but if two of them are busy the other one never goes out alone cause it’s dangerous. We’ll get back to that later.

So anyway when they’re 17, 14, and 12, Delilah comes out as a lesbian.

And the family is supportive of course because they’re a good family.

But her coming out gets Willie thinking. About how some of his friends have crushes on girls but he just... doesn’t see the appeal.

Like he has a couple friends who are girls and they’re great and he likes hanging out with them at recess but he doesn’t get the hype. They’re just more friends. So he doesn’t really see what his big sister is so interested in either.

In my mind Willie actually is from around the same time as the boys (dying in like 1999) so one day while nobody else in their house is home he and Delilah are watching Star Wars: Return of the Jedi and Willie’s again wondering why people think Leia is so hot cause she’s cool and all but Luke is right there and he looks really good and—

Willie: I think I might be gay.

Delilah: Yeah I know.

They talk about it and Willie does decide to tell the rest of the family but he’s a bit wary about anyone else because he saw how some of Delilah’s friends turned on her after she came out. He doesn’t want that to happen to him.

He does end up telling a few of his friends but he doesn’t quite not care what people think of him the way his big sister does.

Austin is the only straight one and he’s like. So awkward about it but in a sweet way.

Austin: So, Britney Spears is hot, right?

Delilah: Stop.

And

Austin: So I saw you hanging around Chris the other day are you two..?

Willie: ...no...???

Austin: Cool, yeah I didn’t think so. Just had to make sure. Not that I’m doubting your ability to get boys but I’d have to shovel talk him if you were.

Willie: If I ever do get a boyfriend, please don’t.

He tries. He’s a himbo if that wasn’t clear. Where did you think Willie learned it?

So anyway fast forward a couple years and they’re 22, 19, and 17. Austin and Delilah are both in college and Willie’s the last one left at home and things between their parents start getting... tense.

Like they don’t fight exactly but they’ve fallen out of love and things are awkward.

Even Austin and Delilah can tell and they’re only home on breaks and some weekends but for Willie it’s right there and he’s watching it happen. He has no option but to see.

They used to have a rule that they don’t go skating alone because it’s dangerous but Willie just can’t make himself stay home so he goes out skateboarding.

At first it’s never too far from home or anywhere where there’s too much traffic but as things get increasingly awkward at home he goes out farther and farther, chasing the adrenaline high he used to get from going anywhere and everywhere every day after school with his siblings.

Then his parents officially tell him they’re getting divorced and

And it’s not like he couldn’t see it coming, but... it still hurts.

And neither of his siblings are coming home any time soon so

So he goes out skating on his own, way too far from home. He keeps going until he doesn’t even know where he is anymore.

He isn’t really paying attention the way he should but that’s not why he runs into trouble.

The driver of that red pickup is drunk and he rounds the corner out of nowhere.

If Delilah or Austin had been there they could have yelled for Willie to jump out of the way, or maybe up on the hood so the impact wouldn’t be as bad, but he’s alone.

So he gets hit, and the car was going fast enough that he’s dead before he even hits the pavement.

After that there’s a lot of confusion but once Willie figures out he’s a ghost... it’s too painful to think about going home, so he just... doesn’t.

He doesn’t want to see his family mourning him, so he just distracts himself, skating everywhere he couldn’t before without getting busted.

Plus some old routes where he used to go with Delilah and Austin, just for something that’s familiar but not too familiar.

He’s on one of those more familiar routes a few weeks after his death when he’s skating down Sunset Boulevard one night, singing along to Toxic by Britney Spears blasting from a nearby club and a man dressed in a purple suit comments on how he’s got a good voice.

Honestly Willie is just so relieved to have someone to talk to that he forgets about stranger danger completely.

Plus he recognizes an Elder Gay in Caleb and assumes he can trust him because the Elder Gays he met at pride that one time he went with Delilah were so nice and understanding of how reassuring it was to see queer people of older generations who got a happy ending.

Caleb barely even has to try. He just lets this 17-year-old obviously-queer ghost rant at him for a few minutes, asks a few questions and finds out that he also can play piano, and convinces him to come to the Hollywood Ghost Club the next night.

From there it’s not like Willie has anyone to save him so of course he has to join the club.

At first he’s completely alone because the other performers scare him almost as much as Caleb does.

Then slowly, he sees how they give him space because they know he’s scared of them. How they turn a blind eye when he leaves the club without permission. How they don’t critique his mistakes with the same sarcasm they show each other.

Willie starts to realize that the other performers are doing their best to look out for him, and he starts being less afraid.

They’re all too concerned with their own survival to really protect him but if they draw some attention to themselves occasionally so Caleb doesn’t notice Willie being slow to pick up some tricky choreography, that’s not too risky.

The others are all like 21 at the youngest and they really don’t appreciate Caleb tricking a literal child into working for him no matter how talented said child is. (Cause Willie is good at singing and piano. It’s just not his passion.)

The twins are 22 but they died in 1925 and before that they were performing to support a younger brother who they never got to say goodbye to so maybe they see Willie as a kind of second chance.

Lyssa (what I decided to name drummer woman because I don’t know her real name if she has one) is 25 and she died in 1984. She had a daughter who’d be about Willie’s age now and... who knows? Maybe they were friends.

Fuego is 24 and from 1951 and he had a childhood best friend who enlisted and died in WWII that he thought he might get to see when he died but that boy moved on and so... well, Willie’s just a little younger than his friend was the last time he saw him.

In short Willie becomes everyone’s baby brother and they do what they can to look out for him even if they’re just as scared of Caleb as he is.

And the better adjusted Willie gets to (after)life at the HGC and the better they get to know him, the guiltier the others start to feel about him being stuck there.

Eventually a combination of guilt and worked-up courage leads Fuego tells him about the whole unfinished business thing, in hopes maybe he can figure his out and get away from Caleb.

It doesn’t take Willie long to think of his family, how hopeless he felt about the divorce, how worried he was it would change everything and then how scared he was to see his family in pain because of his death.

He realizes his unfinished business is probably seeing them. Letting himself say goodbye.

He almost gets away with it.

Caleb catches up and stops him in the driveway of his house and poofs them back to the HGC.

He convinces (gaslights) Willie into believing that saying goodbye was never his unfinished business and even if it was it’s not like it would matter because Caleb wouldn’t let him do it.

The next morning he ships the HGC out to Tokyo. They stay on the move for a long time and when they are in town, Willie is basically locked in his room.

The next time he’s allowed out in Hollywood, his parents don’t live in their old house anymore and he has no way to find them.

As a coping mechanism, he just starts making the best of a bad situation. Becoming better friends with the other ghosts. Helping soften the blow whenever someone new comes along.

None of that means he stops checking the faces of passing skaters or keeping eyes on restaurants his folks used to like, but it does mean he more or less gives up hope.

That’s what he’s doing when he bumps into Alex.

Look, Willie loves his friends at the HGC. He really does. But there’s a big difference between 17 and 20-something. Like the others will drink alcohol some nights and technically Willie was born over 21 years ago but he still feels weird enough about it that he doesn’t drink.

He hasn’t talked to anyone his age in a long time so Alex is a breath of fresh air.

Also he’s like. Really cute. And sweet. And funny. And shit, Willie’s fallen for him before he even has time to think about it.

He keeps thinking about how Alex doesn’t seem like he’d be physically capable of hurting someone on purpose so Austin would approve and every once in a while there’s that sarcasm that pops out which means he’d get along great with Delilah.

In general Alex is the kind of guy he would’ve loved to take home to meet the family. Them not included, he’s kind of... everything Willie’s missed about Hollywood in the form of one person.

Then they hang out more and Alex is still everything he’s missed but he’s also so much more than that and...

It almost feels like a part of Alex is still alive. And for the first time in years, a part of Willie feels alive, too.

They’ve known each other for like a week tops and Willie is already in love.

Not that he’s admitting that to anyone, because he’s learned the hard way that anyone you care about can be used against you.

Still... when Alex asks for help getting revenge on Bobby, he can’t bring himself to say no because he needs to keep Alex in his (after)life and the only way he knows how to do that (or to make people be nice to him in general) is to be as useful as possible.

That turns out to be a big mistake, because Caleb sees right through him in an instant, targets Alex to confirm it, then immediately starts the process to trick the boys into committing to eternity at the HGC.

Willie feels like an idiot for thinking he could actually get away with it. Doing something good for someone he cares about.

He hadn’t thought Caleb would be interested in them because he’d never actually heard them play. The assumption was that he’d make them do some small favor and then let them talk to their bandmate for 5 minutes. A clean deal where they never have to commit to anything. Willie forgot to take magic into account.

He almost manages to convince himself it was all a bad dream, but when he seeks out Alex and his friends to check on them, he can almost feel the jolts himself, and seeing Alexthem in pain feels terrible.

Willie knows that theoretically they could figure out their unfinished business and cross over, but that all depends on finding it and doing it fast enough and if they failed...

People you care about can be used against you. And Willie does not want to be used against Alex again. He doesn’t want to see Alex used against him.

So he keeps his distance, in hopes Caleb will think he lost interest. He’s pretty sure once the boys find out about the stamp they’ll hate him, anyway.

And plus, as he’s been taught by his friends at the HGC, you have to look out for yourself because no one else will do it for you. Maybe you hurt somebody by not standing up for them, but you can apologize later and hope they forgive you. You can’t apologize if you’re gone, and it’s not like it would make a difference anyway because Caleb is too powerful for anyone to beat.

The thought of how spending eternity with Alex might not be so bad even if it has to be at the HGC does come up, but ironically that’s what makes Willie decide to screw his courage to the sticking point and tell them.

Because he has seen what decades at the club has done to his friends.

They’re all great performers, and they perform happiness well even to each other, but Willie knows them enough to know how tired they all are. How they have been doing the same thing over and over again for decades and they are sick of it.

They’re young, talented tragedies lost to drug overdoses, or AIDS, or accidents, or suicide, and they should’ve gotten to rest after everything they went through in their lives. Instead, they got a curse disguised as a blessing. They got to stay on a stage, got to keep performing and soaking up applause, never got to stop.

Willie has been there a shorter time than most of them and he feels it. The exhaustion, because ghosts are supposed to haunt for a few years then figure out their unfinished business and move on. They’re not meant to be trapped for decades, used as party tricks.

A part of Alex still feels alive and being trapped in the Hollywood Ghost Club for years on end would kill that part of him.

Willie can’t let that happen, so as hard as it is...

He tells the boys what’s wrong with them. And by that hurt, betrayed look in Alex’s eyes, he’s honestly expecting him to never forgive him.

But then Alex does. And that almost hurts worse because whether he figures out his unfinished business or not, Willie doubts he’s ever going to see him again.

He honest to God almost cries when Alex hugs him because... shit, he hasn’t gotten a hug since he was breathing.

He goes back to the HGC and tries to go about his day, and keeps replaying how good it felt to have Alex’s arms around him, hoping that memory will get him through the next few decades on his own.

The ghosts at the club do actually gossip a fair amount and by this point all of them know about the 3 dead members of Sunset Curve.

So when Willie admits to Helen (what I’m calling one of the twins) that Alex hugging him was the first time he’d gotten a hug since he died, she hugs him tight for a good 20 seconds, telling him she’s sorry he has to lose him, and if Willie closes his eyes he can almost pretend it’s Delilah.

The next thing he knows, he’s locked in a closet.

Caleb comes to talk to (intimidate) him a few hours later, saying he knows what Willie did.

He’s magically locked in his room alone for a couple weeks after that and it’s essentially psychological torture.

Helen, Anna (what I decided to call the other twin), Dante, Fuego, Lyssa, and everyone else tell him not to test Caleb for the next couple years, but Willie has a heart full of love and a head full of fuck it, so he doesn’t listen.

He gives it exactly one day of being/acting scared and obedient, then goes out without permission again, fully intending to scream in a museum alone to let out all his feelings.

Remember: Willie didn’t see the Orpheum performance. He doesn’t know the boys didn’t cross over but by Caleb’s mood he has a feeling the outcome of that scenario was not in the magician’s favor.

He gets there and it’s literally this comic by the very talented @williessweatycherrysocks

He can’t stay long but he and Alex scream in each other’s faces, talk a bit, maybe sing a duet.

After that, they sneak to see each other when they can but don’t get to see much of each other for months.

It’s hard on both of them but they don’t give up on their relationship.

Through long and complicated events which I will outline later, Willie eventually gets free of the HGC, hugs his friends goodbye already making plans to take down Caleb for good to free them, too, and promptly declines an offer to stay in the Molinas’ garage.

As much as he wants to be close to Alex he’s done being confined to one place.

He still comes and visits like every day tho.

He knows a lot more about ghosting than the other boys do so he and Carlos get along amazingly like:

Carlos: So do you know who Jack the Ripper was?

Willie: No? How old do you think I am?

Carlos: I dunno but I thought it might be Caleb cause that would explain how he never got caught.

Willie, taking notes in his Things To Potentially Use To Take Caleb Down notebook: You’re a tiny genius.

No one was expecting it but everyone is in awe of how well he and Carrie get along. Between the two of them they know so much celebrity gossip. (and it’s definitely a good thing he’s on good terms with her cause she and Alex are close)

On the angsty side, Willie also bonds with Nick over how they both know how it feels to be manipulated and used by Caleb.

Also it takes a long time before he’s able to trust him, but he does get adopted into the Molina clan by Ray.

Ray reminds him a lot of his own dad, once Willie’s able to see that he’s nothing like Caleb.

Ray’s honestly just 100% happy to Dad™️ anyone who needs a dad so it works out great once Julie and the boys figure out how to make Willie visible.

But anyway back to important stuff.

Now that they don’t have to hide for any reason, Willie and Alex can both breathe a little easier. Or... they both feel better. Ghosts don’t really breathe.

Willie can finally let himself get used to feeling alive again.

The whole ghost gang goes (invisibly) to the Los Feliz Homecoming dance and maybe it should make him feel a little on-edge with the kind of club-like environment but...

He’s got Alex there, and they’re dancing to some corny pop love song from the 90s that Flynn probably put on because she knew the ghost boys would be there so how could he feel anything but safe?

For a minute it almost feels like actually being alive and there’s yellow and pink and blue lights coming from everywhere reflecting in Alex’s eyes and Willie is suddenly very aware of the fact that though they’ve been together for a long time now, they haven’t had their first kiss.

Then the Cha Cha Slide starts up and the atmosphere switches and Willie totally forgets about the whole romantic tension thing because it’s the Cha Cha Slide everybody has to dance along.

Dirty Candi performs towards the end of the night and the ghost boys cheer the loudest despite how Julie’s laughing at them. They don’t care that Carrie can’t even hear them, they’re being supportive!!!

Everybody screams even louder when Flynn runs up on stage and kisses Carrie and Willie feels a big burst of affection at how Alex shouts ABOUT TIME!

Then he gives Willie a quick hug and leaves cause he and the rest of Julie and the Phantoms have to go get set up for their performance.

Since Alex was able to flip Carrie’s hair in All Eyes on Me I’m saying that ghosts can touch lifers if they focus and believe it will happen hard enough, so the ghost gang has developed a system for alerting their non-Julie lifer friends to their presence.

So while they’re waiting in the crowd Willie taps Carrie on the shoulder like: • - - one short tap, two long taps, a Morse code ‘W’ and Carrie lets Flynn know that he’s there.

(Nick can see him too but Nick’s off somewhere with his date {one of his lacrosse teammates you know the one})

Anyway so Julie goes out and starts up the song and then the rest of the band poofs in but

Something’s unusual.

Cause it’s not Luke on the lower main vocals.

It’s

Alex

Singing while he plays the drums and fucking killing it.

Willie totally bluescreens for a second but then when he actually focuses on the lyrics...

It’s a new song about beating the odds and being with the person you love in spite of the challenges that come with them.

And yeah there are Julie elements in there, (and she’s definitely making heart eyes at Luke even as he sticks to backup vocals) because of course there are since she has to start the song up, but

But Willie might not have any formal music training, but he was at the HGC long enough to know his stuff about music and recognize different artists’ styles.

And there’s a time signature switch on the bridge that’s a little off from how Luke would write it. There’s a swing to the melody that’s a bit more ‘pop’ than the band’s usual songs. Julie’s harmony doesn’t go as high as it normally would, as if whoever wrote the song didn’t have as high of an upper range to work with as she does.

The song is so unmistakably Alex that no one else could have written it.

Flynn and Carrie are quietly making smug comments on what they bet his face looks like right now but Willie’s not listening to them.

On the last chorus, Alex fucking winks at him right before poofing out.

Willie has whiplash like how did they go from him having to psych Alex up to break into a museum even when there’s zero chance of getting caught to Alex openly flirting with him from the stage?

He poofs backstage right as the boys get back from dropping their instruments back in the Molinas’ garage and he honestly doesn’t know what he even wants to say to convey how amazing that performance was.

Then Alex just smiles at him.

Alex: So I take it you liked the song?

Willie: Can I kiss you right now?

They both kinda freeze after he blurts that out and Reggie goes wow really quietly before he and Luke poof out to give them some privacy and whoops now they’re both flustered but

Alex: Wow, didn’t expect that. That’s... um, wow. But yeah.

They kiss and it’s a total romcom moment.

And the story’s far from over, but to Willie this definitely feels like happily ever after.

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seijurosempress · 4 years ago

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@shoichee I hope this meets your expectations✨ (Bc I refuse to tolerate any more bullying today. Also- Matchup under the cut)

First, I just want to say- I’m sorry. (but not really). I know our love for Hayama runs deep but the moment you choose violence with him, that’s it for you. RIP. It was nice knowing you 😔 But, remember when we first spoke and I asked you if you shipped yourself with Imayoshi and you refused to answer my question? Well- [Insert ‘Surprise shawty’ tik tok audio]

Best Match: Imayoshi Shoichi

Your subconscious knew what it was doing when you picked out your URL. The moment you said you related to Dazai and then proceeded to talk about socioeconomic issues revolving around globalization while we simultaneously talked about dumb stuff I knew there were only a few guys that could handle your energy and Imayoshi hands down tops that list

Even though Hanamiya out of all people might say Imayoshi doesn’t have the best personality, I actually think you two can balance each other out and understand each other in a way other people may not be able to

Honestly, right off the bat, y’all will probably bond over some form of teasing. Whether it’s making some remark aimed directly at the other, or one of you takes a jab at someone else and the other happens to overhear, it will be the start of a beautiful relationship

Gemini and Leo’s have really good chemistry so it’s no surprise you’ll manage to get along, regardless of your- argumentative natures.

You two are like the two sides of the same coin. While he presents himself as a kind and easy going person, speaking politely to others- until he inevitable shows them his real personality- you, on the other hand, can come off a little cold and critical, scaring people off when you first meet them even though you’re genuinely kind and easy going once you start to talk to them

If you guys meet purely by chance, maybe you’re in the same class, you’re introduced because of a mutual friend, or because one of you overheard the other, the moment you hear how the other carries themselves in a conversation will automatically peek your interest.

Have you ever seen that meme where they’re like “oh you wanna kiss me so bad”? yea, that’s you two. I can see you getting into the most amusing squabble, just trying to throw the other one off, Imayoshi smirking if and when one of his comments goes right over your head

You’re both pretty smart (I spent a solid hour trying to double check this and still failed but I’m like 80% sure his IQ is pretty up there) so I can see you two meeting because of that too

Scenario:

Imayoshi is just minding his business, checking the updated class rankings posted in the hall across your classroom. Why? He doesn’t know, if he’s being honest. It’s not like anyone could ever surpass him, he’s been at the top of his class each time since his firs- What’s this? He got bumped down? Who the hell are you? Wait no, he knows who you are. He’s heard your name before countless times, mostly followed by your voice as it traveled throughout the hallways, your laugh bubbling out of your small frame soon after in reply to whichever friend had just made a funny remark. Funny. You didn’t seem all that smart at first glance, could he have actually... made a mistake? His gaze flickers to the other side of the hall where he immediately found you, eyes wide and a small smile adorning your features as you listened to your classmate speak. A low hum escapes him as he analyzes your appearance once more. He notices the way your makeup highlighted your already attractive features, the small accessories added to your uniform making you look put together and stylish. Maybe he had underestimated you, he though as he saw you take your turn to speak, your answer leaving your classmate open mouthed with a baffled expression. He felt the slight tug on his lips, the beginning of a small smirk forming on his face as you smiled widely at the response you had gotten. However, the amusement only lasted a split second, his features falling in disbelief when you turned around, tripping over your own feet and falling face first into the open classroom door. “What are you staring at?” Someone, probably Sato, asks as he strolls up beside him. “Nothing” he sighs, adjusting his glasses on his face. Is it really nothing though? a small voice inside him asks just as a series of curse words and noises fall from your lips, eliciting his own to quirk up into an amused, lopsided smile. Even if it is “nothing” for now, don’t be surprised when both of you “coincidentally” find yourselves bumping into each other more often from now on as he tries to figure you out.

I can see him realizing he has feelings for you while you two are hanging out. Maybe you two will be studying after you asked him to tutor you in math since it’s his best subject, or well, attempting to study at least as you’re nearing half an hour of your 5 minute snack break. He’ll probably be doodling in his notebook while you scroll through Instagram, and it’s not until he looks up to see you so focused on whatever was on the other side of the screen, your fingers quickly tapping away as a smile pulled at your lips that he asks what you’re doing. Without a second thought, you absentmindedly tell him about whatever argument you’re getting into in the comments section under a random photo you came across before you’re back to focusing on the matter at hand.

His whole trademark is that he’s good at analyzing people, and as a Gemini, he is not an exception to his own skills. He’ll suddenly come to the realization that, while he enjoys pushing people’s buttons, he enjoys the thought of you two being a team even more. While you can be loud and social, making and laughing at jokes, you also know when to get serious and get stuff done, something that that he would appreciate considering he likes respectful and considerate girls.

The problem now is- he may be aware of his feelings...but are you?

He’ll probably try out multiple ways to hint at his feelings towards you but they’ll just go right over your head. In your mind, you can’t see anyone having any romantic feelings towards you and sure he may be acting a little weird, but you’d probably just shrug it off as it being all in your imagination.

Meanwhile the whole time Imayoshi is just standing there like- Is she serious? No one can be this oblivious???? but yet ✨here you are✨

Now it’s his turn to be frustrated by your conversations because you’re just not getting it? So he decides to try something more straight forward. Girls like pickup lines, right?

He could literally see the moment your brain stopped working. Your face flushed red as a nervous giggle bubbled out of you. All common sense left your body as you made finger guns at him, giving him a slight nod before turning around and walking quickly out the room

it would take you a few minutes to collect yourself, strolling back in the room 30 minutes later, leaning against the same spot you left him moments prior and giving him a pickup line of your own. *queue Imayoshi’s mischievous smirk* “Oh? Is that so?” (he’s such a little shit he’ll probably pretend like he didn’t say anything first to get back at you)

I can see this going back and forth for a while until he finally asks you out on a date, but this time he’ll make sure to do it in a way that will prevent you from escaping and leaving him alone and confused again

Your PDA is most likely kept to a minimum, partly because of your Venus in Virgo and partly because he doesn’t like spontaneity. Your outward relationship will consist of hand holding and pecks but that doesn’t mean your private life remains the same, just because you’re dating now doesn’t mean you’re suddenly immune to his habits or him to yours

You say you want to spend some quality time together? “How about a movie night?” he asks, his smile deceiving you long enough to trap you in his arms as a scary movie plays in his blacked out bedroom. “I don’t like scary movies” you whine, your body pressing into his and a pout pulling at your lips as he “innocently” chuckles, “Oh really? I must have forgotten”

You say you’re a bit cynical about relationships but I think it’s because your Neptune, Pluto and Lilith are ruled by air signs. This means you enjoy spontaneity and creativity in what you do and therefore always gravitate to doing things in which your outcome depends on yourself and not other people. Imayoshi is the kind of person that respects other people’s needs as we can see when he allows Aomine to skip practice if that’s what works for him. This will help you maintain a healthy balance in your relationship, allowing you to be able to feel more at ease and not trapped or like you have to be a certain way with one another

You decide to keep pursuing dancing? He’s proud of you, and will not hesitate to show off and boast about your achievements to the rest of the team

You had a rough week and you want to spend the whole day gaming with headphones on? It’s fine he’ll take the opportunity to relax and go fishing

On the other hand, you want to go shopping? Suddenly he’ll find himself walking hand in hand with you as you and his sister stop at every single store only to leave with more bags that you can carry.

At first, you would insist you could both take care of yourselves at the mall, but he soon found out that you two should not be left alone. She might be his sister but she’s younger and impressionable and she looks up to you? And you can be a bit scatterbrained so you lose track of her time so you always end up bringing her back really late, along with an armful of shopping bags that he’ll only have to go back and return within the week because being hasty runs in his family and his sister didn’t pay much attention to how much money she was spending

Overall- I think that what really makes you a good match is your ability to communicate with one another. Both of you are pretty honest and straightforward (although your executions are vastly different) which will help you navigate through any obstacles in your relationship

You keep each other on your toes and bring fun into your relationship while also settling down, talking about serious stuff and getting genuine advice from one another when you need it the most. The balance you maintain allowing a stable foundation for the relationship to grow and blossom. He did something hasty? It’s okay, you know exactly what to do to fix it. Someone keeps hitting on you insistently? He’s already walked over to intimidate him to go away. You want to spend quality time together but he wants to go fishing? There you are by his side, scribbling in your notebook and reciting your poetry to him as he listens carefully with a small smile on his face that you’ll definitely not tease him about later. You need help with your math again? he’ll tutor you in exchange for you making him a bento with his favorite meal. Until he learns that you somehow burned half the rice and left the other half uncooked. Perfect balance of give and take.

Bonus: Takao Kazunari

You are literally the girl version of Takao omg. (I literally JUST got your message about being the new Takao too smh I know I’m slow but let me finish this first)

You two are so alike and you would make the most chaotic duo but as much as I want to ship you two, I can just see you two being really good friends so I feel the need to include him in this

Midorima would be so done with your shit, he’d probably see you two together and immediately turn around and start walking the other way because he just KNOWS you’re bound to gang up and bully him

The first time you saw is lucky item you probably burst out laughing and thought he was joking until you saw his face flush red

After that, every time you ask about it he just grumbles out his answer, still salty about your initial reaction

Takao never fails to remind you either, trying to hold back his laugh whenever you try to make it up to Midorima but he ends up ignoring you, or you somehow just manage to make it worse

When it’s just you and Takao, you could be minding your business when suddenly one of you makes ONE singular little comment and that just sets off the other, adding onto it until both of you are crying with laughter

Honestly, the only time I can see you taking one another seriously is when you’re having discourse

He’s an optimistic person while you’re a realist which can set off some very interesting discussions between the two of you, your argumentative nature leading both of you to talk about anything and everything as you challenge the other’s ideologies

If you decide to try out a relationship, it’ll be filled with excitement and adrenaline, both of you needing very little persuasion to try out new things

You’ll be his partner in crime and he’ll be yours. You want to mess a bit with your younger neighbors? Why not? You want to go check out the new mall a few town’s over because they have a store you’ve been wanting to check out for months? He’s your man.

While the relationship is fun, you both can get a little ahead of yourselves, going with the flow and getting sucked into your own world; you’ll need someone to ground you

Usually, this role can be plaid by Midorima but it proves to be a bit problematic when he’s nowhere in sight

The amount of times you two have lost track of time or gotten caught up in something because you ran into some friends or even met new people and got lost in conversation, by this point Midorima has probably given up trying to keep track of your whereabouts when you’re together

I wouldn’t be surprised if you two ended up making your own language. He’s good with kids and bad at being quiet while you enjoy making new words and trying out sound effects which he would without a doubt find amusing. You’d probably go as far as to make children believe they’re actual words, could you imagine Midorima’s face when he goes over to Takao’s house and his younger sister starts talking to him in the made up words you taught her

Ultimately while your personalities are very alike, you tend to clash at the wrong points and it would take you working together to compromise to make a romantic relationship work

Both of you surround yourself by others, often finding yourself in the middle of everything, your personality constantly making other people gravitate towards you. This can prove conflicting when you’re together as now you’d have to learn how to share the spotlight, so to say

While you love fashion and makeup and shopping, the poor man just wants to enjoy his trading cards

Although you should use it to your advantage and make him drive you around in Princess Mia’s Midorima’s carriage.

Your might also find yourself more often than not at a crossroads, your realist point of view conflicting with his positivity which can lead to arguments between you two

Overall- a relationship with you would be exciting. There would never be a dull moment and you’d constantly encourage the other to have new experiences and make the most of your time. But moving into a more romantic territory would mean that you’d have to learn how to prioritize things in your life, knowing when to buckle down and get things down and how to successfully come to terms with and work out your differences.

Sidenote: I meant to make these a little longer but my brain cell only has so much KNB knowledge stored in her small little filing cabinet that may or may not be a single folder covered in dust and stuffed in some corner

#matchup request #[🏀].asks #i meant to have this ready early today #but i may or may not have fallen asleep #sorry #i'm slow #it really took me a whole ass week to write #but to be fair #i struggled a bit with your mans #bc I went strictly off what I could gather from the anime #which are CRUMBS

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masked-buffoon · 4 years ago

Text

Chapter 10: Truth and illusions (Part 4)

Warnings: violence, child abuse

Author notes: it is so cliche that the main character never knows how to take care of a child... The main question is... Do we like cliches...?

The boy had quickly agreed to play with me while his mother and Yosano-sensei had an "adults talk". He had led me to the living room next door and, when I had asked him what he wished to do, he had answered that he wanted to draw. After just enough time to grab paper and crayons, there he was, quietly occupying himself while I was watching, and yawning. The doctor had been wrong, Sakunosuke-kun was not an imp, not the devil in disguise. I had overheard her thoughts earlier. He was simply a kid and, even though I had no experience with them, it was not too complicated understanding their desires. I only needed to rely on my ability, after all… Which did not mean I was good with children.

"Look, look…! What do you think, Kasumi nē-san?" He excitedly shoved his doodle towards my face.

Years of acting allowed the most genuine smile of admiration to turn my lips upwards.

"It's lovely...!" I exclaimed "You're such an artist, Sakunosuke-kun!"

Immediately, a pout formed on his chubby face and he lowered it, as though he was going to cry.

"You're a liar… You don't like it…"

What had I done wrong for him to see through me…? Even the best businessman could not detect I was acting…! I was at a loss for words when tears actually started gathering in his eyes. The first sobs were about to come out from his throat, when I crouched in front of him and put my hands on his cheeks.

"Don't cry…!" I demanded, not quite knowing what I was trying to accomplish "Why would you cry…?"

"... Because you don't like the drawing…" He mumbled.

"I didn't —"

I stopped myself. My lie had been discovered, so assuring I did like his drawing would only make me sound fake. I frowned slightly.

"How old are you, Sakunosuke-kun?"

"I'm almost eleven…!" He declared, rather proudly.

"Eleven? Then you're a small adult." I stated, to boost his ego.

"Right…! Dad said so too…!"

"Then, I can talk to you like an adult." I let go of him "Sit next to me."

He obeyed, and I took his drawing from his hands.

"This is what you made."

He nodded.

"And I… Am not quite fond of it." I admitted.

Tears came back to his eyes.

"Don't." I calmly told him "Let me tell you something useful, as an adult."

"What is it…?"

"Not everyone will like you or what you do. It is very hard to understand that, but since you're a little adult, you do get my point, right?"

"Mmh… Because… Everyone has different tastes…?"

"That's exactly what it is. If you know that, then do not be sad that I don't like your drawing, for, what matters most is that you like what you do…" I smiled slightly "Do you like your own drawing?"

"Very much…!"

"Then you shouldn't cry because of me."

He agreed and, surprisingly, I found myself patting his hair. He was ten years old… Just like Ruriko-chan when I had been thrown away. I regretted not having been a better sister, sometimes…

"Do you want to play hide and seek, nē-san?" He suddenly offered.

I immediately saw an opportunity to search the house as I would be searching for him.

"Alright, Sakunosuke-kun. I'll count…! So you better hide well…!"

"You'll never find me…!" He claimed.

He had no chance to hide from me, for my ability would find him immediately. However, seriously looking for him was not my current purpose. Swiftly, I covered my eyes and started counting until one hundred.

"I'm coming…!" I warned him, playfully.

And I searched for the young boy, I explored the mansion up and down. Obviously, I had already found him; he was hidden in his room, upstairs. It amused him to think he was so good that I could not see him. At the very least, he was having fun. I discreetly checked that Yosano-sensei was still talking to the mother to venture myself in a closed room. Or, rather, it was a locked one. Nevertheless, no lock could resist me and I quickly picked it up. It was Taikin-san's office. Whatever the man was hiding, I would discover it, for the sake of protecting that boy.

As I grabbed a file, however, I wondered why I was so determined to fulfill that mission. Or, rather, I did not care much about the mission, not as much as I cared for the boy. His smile warmed a heart I believed had long been frozen by an all too cruel world, and his presence was enough for my being to feel at ease. He was appeasing. With him, I did not feel tormented by my issues; I did not care about the Armed Detective Agency, nor about Dazai, nor about me… Even my annoying ability seemed a very meaningless matter. I only wanted to preserve his innocence. It was such a simple purpose, yet it gave my mission a whole new meaning. Caring about others suddenly seemed so easy to the ever-doubting person I was.

My fingers trembled in excitement as I turned the pages of the binder, looking for any kind of clue about Sakunosuke-kun's father. According to my own research, Taikin-san was a successful businessman whose main possession was his enterprise, a very prosperous technology business. His last invention was a chip which would, in the future, replace our cellphones. The chip would be inserted in our forearm and we would access data directly from our brain. Or was it a holographic screen? I did not remember the details, but I had to admit he had futuristic ideas, although they had already been seen in works of science fiction. Even so, why would one want to hurt him? Except for his well-deserved success, he had never hurt anyone and seemed like a nice person. Every month, he would make a donation to charities and had even financed a school in Ethiopia. A quick look through his ledger did not show any kind of embezzlement either. I had no idea who could resent him, nor why. On the surface and even as the leader of an important business, that man was perfect.

"I'm so bored of waiting… Nē-san really sucks at this game…!"

I remembered the game of hide and seek with Sakunosuke-kun and hurried out of the office. As soon as I closed the door, the boy was in front of me, his big eyes full of questions as he saw me. I cracked a smile.

"There you are…! I looked for you everywhere!"

"You're so bad at finding people…!" He laughed at me.

"That's because you're too good at hiding." I poked his nose "What about trying again?"

"No!" He declined my suggestion "This time, you'll hide…!"

"Sure thing, then." I grinned "Let's see if you can find me~"

He started counting and I took the opportunity to disappear from his sight. Trying to investigate more would make me look suspicious. For the moment, I would have to focus on playing with the boy.

A random room would serve as a hideout, so, the moment he could not see me anymore, I opened the first door on my left and entered the room. It was rather large. A bed was placed against the wall on my right and, in front of me, a bay gave access to a balcony. Further, a large wardrobe seemed to contain someone's clothes. On the nightstand, a picture distracted me from the game. It was Yumiko-san, with Sakunosuke-kun. They both looked bright and happy… However, Taikin-san was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps he had been the one to take the picture, after all. As I put the frame down, loud gunshots made me jump in surprise and dropped it. Unfortunately, it broke on the wooden floor and, cursing my clumsiness, I crouched down to pick the glass pieces up. I most certainly would have to call a maid… And I had to hurry; that shot did not predict anything good. Where was Sakunosuke-kun…?!

A last thing caught my attention. There was a second picture, right behind the main one. My eyes widened when I finally saw it. A woman wearing a colourful kimono was holding a crying child. The look on her face was tired, but her eyes, as blue as a field of lavender in summer, shone so brightly with happiness that I hardly recognised her. She was Ogawa Eirin, my mother. And the crying child…

"My first love… May you be happy with the sun of your life."

It was me. It was my name, and the date written under the note only served to confirm it. I pursed my lips. Sadly, the only thing I remembered from that woman was how she had avoided me each time she had seen me… Taikin-san's wish had never been fulfilled…

Another wave of gunshots erupted in the mansion, bringing me back to my current mission. I had to find Sakunosuke-kun before anything could happen to him. I shoved the picture in the inner pocket of my coat, and rushed out of the room. I could not utter a sound to call him. If the enemy was in there, I would reveal my position and any attempt at surprise would be ruined. I decided to use my ability, despite how exhausted it would make me feel.

"Scared… I'm scared…!"

His thoughts led me back to the living room, where Yumiko-san had passed out, holding her shoulder in pain. Yosano-san was holding her close to her, a seesaw in her free hand, ready to defend themselves against anyone who would dare approach them.

"What happened?" I asked, nervous.

"We were attacked, suddenly…" The doctor answered me.

The glass of the former windows, shattered on the ground, proved we had indeed been targeted.

"Are you unharmed?" I inquired.

"I'm fine, save for a few scratches here and there. Yumiko-san is okay too… Her prosthetic arm saved her."

My eyes widened as I saw she was not bleeding. Instead, a kind of oil dripped from her wound. I simply nodded.

"I have to find Sakunosuke-kun. We were playing hide and seek and —"

"Ogawa… They took him…"

"What…?" My throat was suddenly dry "I thought… I… How…?"

"They came in and looked for him. When they went out, he was with them." She sighed "I'm sorry, I was on the verge of death… My ability saved me…"

"Don't apologise, sensei… This was only due to my negligence, after all…"

But then, whose thoughts had I heard…?

"Save me… I'm scared…"

The boy was still here, after all… But he was in a different place. I took a pain reliever, a useless attempt to get rid of my headache, and focused. I had made a mistake. The voice came from another floor, which meant the boy was above me. I climbed the stairs and opened the door of the targeted room. It was closed.

"Sakunosuke-kun…! It's me, Kasumi nē-san…!" I called.

"... Who…?"

I frowned and forced the door open. In a corner of the room, poorly decorated and left dusty, the boy was crouched down. However, his clothes had changed. The ones he was currently wearing were old, worn out.

"You are not Sakunosuke-kun…" I muttered slowly approaching me "Shh, don't be afraid… It's alright, I don't want to hurt you…"

"Who are you…? How do you know my brother…? And how did you find me…?"

"You have so many questions…" I smiled at him "My name is Fuyuno Kasumi, and I was hired to protect your brother and your mother… I found you because… I had an intuition. What's your name?"

"Kitaro…" He said, timidly.

"Kitaro-kun…" I repeated "Alright… Don't worry, I'll protect you too…"

Gently, I took him against me for a hug. He was sobbing against my shoulder, the poor thing… In him, I was sad to recognise my younger self…

#bsd #bsd oc #bsd fanfic #bsd dazai #bsd imagines #bungo stray dogs #bungou stray dogs #bungou stray dogs oc #dazai osamu #bsd yosano #yosano akiko

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hylianfury · 5 years ago

Note

I have to ask. How did Zelda and Ganon react when they found out Link was playing house with Sidon? Concubine AU.

Oh… on dear… “Playing house” Is certainly a nice way to put ‘committing murder-suicide’. Short fic incoming here, warning for heavy themes already touched in the fic (aka Link planning to kill Sidon and knowing he had no way out if he did.). I do plan to doodle for them but at the moment I don’t have access to my tablet so… on the other hand, Zelda DID notice how Sidon is looking at Link right now and that’s a whole different story…

Fair warning, this wasn’t planned NOR I took too long writing it so don’t expect high high quality…

- Concubine AU Extra chapter

Zelda and Ganondorf just exchanged the most confused glance as they studied their best friend tinkering with a line of pearls, he had been incredibly silent since the meeting with the Prince and they were expecting his first words to be about whatever was bothering him, not… well…

“No, Link, I can’t really teach you how to shave but… why?”

The centenar just hummed, slowly sliding another pearl in his long string of jewels, carefully counting them and not offering any explanation. He had that peculiar expression that meant his brain was working hard, Link was probably barely listening to them anyway.

“I can… I had plenty of sisters, wives and daughters before but I have to join Tete here in asking: why?”

Zelda couldn’t roll her eyes hard enough, she didn’t know how Ganondorf came up with the story of reincarnating over and over -Link said more than once that as far as he could remember the redhead always joked about it- but since their friend was acting weird… it wasn’t the best time to be weird.

“Good, I need to look convincing.”

“Convincing for what?”

There was a long moment of silence as the centenar slowly placed his tools down on the small, wooden table in front of him.

His lips pressed together in a very thin line and his hands turned white as he clenched his fists, Zelda and Ganondorf exchanged another worried look: whatever was bothering him had to be big, even if Link wasn’t really open about his problems he always talked with the two of them.

“I…” The man hid his face behind a hand and took a deep breath “I’m leaving the unit tomorrow.”

The three of them stood there in complete silence for what felt like an eternity. He was… what? Zelda didn’t know what to say and the gerudo seemed to be equally lost.

“I will move in with the Prince. This is why I’m… getting ready.”

“You are what, now?”

“I’ll officially be the first royal concubine of Prince Sidon, apparently.”

There was a second of shock and Ganondorf stood up, fists slamming hard against the little table between them.

“I’m murdering him.”

Zelda wanted to join in the outrage but barely managed to say a word. Link? Their Link? The little boy who never hesitated to offer dirty jokes but blushed like a maiden whenever the discussion moved to his own personal things? The same boy who, at 22, was embarrassed like a young teen admitting he hoped he’d get his first kiss from that kind Goron he seemed to like so much?

Link wasn’t even that attractive by Hylian standards: he had his growth stunned after the flood between lack of nourishment and between all the problems he had with his leg- it was true she had feelings for him but at the same time Zelda couldn’t deny Link still seemed too young for his age and wasn’t probably manly enough for a zora that was voiced to be gay.

As soon as those thoughts were over, realizations started to sink in: Link had been chosen to be a sex slave. Holy Hylia, it was no surprise he spent the whole day looking at the floor and looking like his death had just been announced.

“Let’s get you to Tarrey Town!” Even if the little man was already raising his hand in ganondorf’s direction to stop him and talk, probably to explain the situation, she couldn’t stay quiet “No one will be able to reach you there, the guardians are set to attack any non registered adult that tries to sneak in the Akkala region, you are going to be safe! I’m not letting a pretentious asshole shark have his way with you.”

“No no no…” Link just scratched his head “I… it’s not like that. Seggin told him about me, apparently, and… he wants me as his strategist or some shit like that, being a concubine it’s only the way for me to sneak in the council.”

He was clearly uneasy but at least Zelda felt a bit better at that, even Ganondorf’s tension washed away a little. It was the single most ridiculous thing both heard in a long while -and they worked with people of the caliber of Beedle and Bolson, they were used to weird shit- but it was slightly better than what they first suspected.

“Since when do you plan to help the Zora?”

“I’m not planning to…”

The fallen princess tilted her head, elbows leaning against the table. It was hard to read whatever was in Link’s head whenever he didn’t want to talk… and this was clearly one of those moments. When the man decided to speak once more it wasn’t to explain his plans, it was to give orders.

“Tetra? Once I get in you will be in charge, make sure you get ready to contact Urbosa, however you do it: you will need to tell her we’re switching sides, it’s going to be our first good chance to see the Domain fall and if we side with the winners and play the victim card well we may be able to get some Land back or some autonomy.”

“Are you planning to sabotage the war efforts? How long before you’re spotted and they kick you out?”

She didn’t like the bitter chuckle that came from the centenar’s lips, there was a deep resignation in it.

“I plan to throw the Kingdom in chaos, even if it won’t last long.” his fingers gently caressed the pearl string he put so much effort in and Zelda connected the dots: Link had a knack for poisons since he lost the ability to walk, of course he prepared a small gift for the Prince. The idiot wasn’t even going to notice it considering Zora swallowed their food whole.

“I see, that’s a great idea but… how do you plan to leave? All our efforts to reach either him or the rest of his family failed so far, if it’s hard to get in it must be equally hard to run away.” Especially in your condition, she wanted to add but kept for herself.

“Tete…” She felt Ganondorf’s warm hand against one of her shoulders and she raised an eyebrow looking at the man who somehow became a sibling for her as well “Don’t you see his face? He’s not planning to come back.”

It was like a cold shower, blood drained from her face as she turned white as a sheet. A glance at her friend, at his almost sheepish smile as he whispered a ‘sorry’ with a small shrug. How could he even suggest… how could he even think… how dared him to look like it was okay for him?

“No. You- you can’t!”

“It’s our best bet to hit the Zora where it counts, you can’t talk me out of this. I know I can’t walk out on my own but it will be fine, I have two pills: one for him, one for me. And it won’t even hurt me, I will just fall asleep…”

Zelda was horrified, for someone who never hesitated to take insane risks to protect others he sounded so ready to throw his life away…

“I won’t allow you-”

“I’m not asking for your permission.”

That tone of voice, the way he stared in her direction with determination and not even blinking… she knew Link well enough to know nothing she could say or do would change anything.

“But Link…” She didn’t even realize she started crying until she heard her own voice cracking as she tried to speak “I can’t… not without you.”

“You can do anything, my queen.” he reached forward, grabbing her hand and taking it to his lips for a quick, formal kiss “I believe in you and I believe in Gan: once the southern borders lose their current leader it will be the perfect time for him to reclaim the throne and for the two of you to move a Gerudo-Hylian offensive. The Gorons aren’t opening their gates, they can’t hide in Akkala and they will have their weakest border attacked by two tribes, not just one… Whatever will happen: destroy them. Okay?”

She was just sobbing at this point. There was no resistance when Ganondorf wrapped one arm against her and pulled the three of them in a goofy, warm hug, for once not even worrying about being careful of his leg.

For a long moment the only sound in the room was Zelda’s cry and the Gerudo was the first person to break their silence.

“I will miss you, little shithead. I don’t really regret not killing you in the crib this time, we had a good run. See you in our next reincarnation.”

Zelda’s hand slapped the red haired man but he didn’t even flinch, Link on the other hand started chuckling. The resignation in his voice, even in that, only confirmed there wasn’t going to be any way to change this.

“I will spend the next hours writing down what you will have to do once the prince is dead but… before that…” Link’s arms wrapped around both of them “I wanted to ask… just for tonight… I know we’re too old for that but maybe we could spend this last night together?”

The two didn’t hesitate before nodding. For the whole evening they barely spoke as Link worked and then they curled together on the hay bed of the centenar, mostly using the Gerudo as mattress, and slept together. When they woke up, Link had already left, he didn’t even allow them to say goodbye.

Zelda and Ganondorf spent the first days waiting to hear about the Prince’s sudden death by his concubine’s hand, mourning a person they both loved dearly. Ways became weeks, weeks turned in a month and they knew something was up. Link was still in the palace, at least for what they managed to hear, and both him and Sidon were just fine.

At the end of the second month the woman decided she had to do something. Pulling all her strings she could probably find a laundry job in the lower levels of the palace, no matter how many favors she had to ask or if she was going to be forced to beg for help.

She offered Ganondorf a hug, passed him leadership in front of their unit’s men and at the beginning of the tenth week she was running around the palace, no one wanted to work under Muzu due to his poor manners but she didn’t care: her goal was to find her beloved knight and nothing was going to stop her.

- - -

Zelda blessed her good luck, not only she ended up under one of the very few elders who openly despised the current Zora leaders, the ray was also close to the prince himself and she finally dared to speak openly with him when Link got hurt.

Seeing him again filled her with joy, no matter how angry she was, and even if they had little to no time to interact and he was drugged as she stitched him together. With the help of the elder she finally managed to see him on occasion and she was even given the chance to be around the prince’s chambers for a lot of ‘absolutely necessary’ cleaning duties… and she was glad to see Link was clearly no longer planning to kill himself and the red Zora.

Not a surprise, really, if he had better ideas and plans there was no way he was picking suicide over anything else.

What WAS a surprise was seeing, over time, watching how Prince Sidon’s attitude toward their common friend was starting to change…

“I think the prince is falling for our bro.”

Ganondorf raised his eyes from the mountain of paperwork that was piled over his desk, when Link was there he took care of it all but now it was all starting to pile up as no one was as organized as the tiny, wary man. He waited, sincerely expecting a punchline as the woman sat on the desk with crossed legs… but nothing came.

“Wait, seriously?”

“Yep…”

The Gerudo’s laughter could probably be heard in the whole building, Zelda rolled her eyes kicking him when he started wheezing, clearly out of air. He gasped a few times before finally finding his voice once more, no matter how he still sounded out of breath.

“He really has no luck in love.”

“Nope.”

“And how do you think he feels about it?”

“I don’t think he noticed, honestly, but then again… you know… Link is Link.”

“Well, my friend-” he got up, reaching for his large bed and pulling a bottle of wine from beneath it “-to our little hero not killing himself!”

“Goddesses above, will you ever stop with that bullshit?”

He didn’t even answer, pouring two glasses and offering one to Zelda.

“And to us: may we be allowed to enjoy the shitshow when he figures that one out.”

Both raised their drinks, grinning, and making their glasses chime together. Link had never been found of the Zora, whatever was going to happen… it was going to be fun.

#sidlink #barely hinted #Concubine!AU #because it's still one sided #the triforce trio #tw:suicide

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blurry-fics · 5 years ago

Text

Chapter Twelve

Where Did We Go | Series Masterlist

Warnings: Angst, angry!Tyler

Word Count: 2049

Author’s Note: Happy Valentine’s Day! I hope you enjoy this chapter today :) (picture credit)

I idly drew doodles in the margins of my notepad as the team droned on about some matter that didn’t really concern me. My head was so heavy on my hand that I knew it would leave a mark when I finally pulled away, but I didn’t care. Next to me, Josh actually seemed to be paying attention, but he was still drumming his fingers on the table. I liked the beat.

Another song lyric floated through my brain, so I quickly wrote it down beneath the others before it got away from me. Lately, it felt like the only thing these meetings were good for was coming up with fragments of song lyrics and making my throat sore. Nothing else productive ever seemed to get done.

“We got the visuals back from the artists. I have some stills here, but you should all be receiving an email tonight with the full videos for review.”

Now this actually seemed interesting. I scribbled down the words “visual review” in the corner of my page, ripped it off, and stuck it into my pocket. Nobody seemed to notice.

“We think that the visuals are adequate, but not exactly as we intended.”

We?

“And as a result, we’re thinking about cutting the payment of the artists. This will also save us some room in the budget to put elsewhere.”

I leaned forward in my chair. People’s eyes immediately went to me, anticipating what I was about to say.

“Cutting the artist’s pay? How do we know if their work is ‘adequate’ or not if my team hasn’t even had a chance to do a full review?”

“Well our artistic board-”

“Exactly, your artistic board. Last time I checked, your artistic board isn’t the one putting on a show,” I said. “And no matter how we feel about the visuals, the artists did the work and deserve full payment for their time and effort.”

“But they didn’t deliver-”

“They did. The visuals were done to the best of their ability and provided by the deadline that we gave them. We’re giving them full payment and my team can decide whether the work is satisfactory or not.”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Joseph, but then we’re going to have to raise ticket prices to make up for the losses.”

“What is all this crap about raising ticket prices?” My voice was getting louder now. “We gave you the budget months ago! Everything was laid out with enough money to cover all costs and keep ticket prices exactly where we wanted them, but your company decided to put things off until it didn’t work anymore.” Josh reached out and put a hand on my back. My shoulders relaxed, but my voice remained raised. “Our fans are not in charge of paying the price for your poor choices. That art looks fantastic and, if I’m being honest, the only people here that aren’t delivering satisfactory work is you.”

I stood up then, sending my chair flying out behind me. Josh’s hand fell away from my back. I turned on my heel and headed for the door, still fuming.

“Where are you going?” someone asked. I couldn’t place the voice.

“I’m taking a break. I’ll be back in ten.”

I walked down the hallway, unsure of where I was going, until I found a sign marked with the stairs. My hands were curled into fists at my side until my nails were digging into my palms. It had been a long time since I was this angry, but the stupidity of the company we had chosen to put on this tour was sending me over the edge. Tour was only a week and a half away and it still felt like we had more loose ends than we did answers.

Most of all, I hated that this was what I was missing out on time with my family for.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and immediately dialed Y/N’s number. She would know what to say to get me calm again before I walked back into that conference room. My leg bounced as the phone rang, alleviating only a small portion of the emotions I was feeling. They were quickly getting overwhelming.

“Tyler?” she answered. Just that simple word was enough to release some of the tension in my shoulders.

“Hi, love.”

“What’s going on? Aren’t you supposed to be in a meeting right now?”

I pinched the bridge of my nose, “Yes, but it’s not going well. I just blew up on the company representative.”

“Oh no,” she sighed. “What are they trying to get you to do today?”

“Raise ticket prices again! It doesn’t matter how many times I tell them I don’t want to do that, they won’t let it go.”

“Ty, hey, it’s ok. At the end of the day, you still have the power in this situation.”

“I know, I’m sorry.”

“Is there somewhere else that you can cut costs a little bit? Weren’t you talking about maybe switching out some of the fancier effects for something a little simpler?”

“Yeah, there’s definitely places that we could do it, they just don’t like to listen to those ideas as much. It’s hard to convince them that it would actually help the budget.”

“I know, but it’s worth a shot. It’s like I’ve been saying, you and Josh just need to team up and get your ideas in there. Plus, you have Mark to back you up too. The power is there.”

“I’ll talk to them before the next meeting and really get things solid. I hate to ignore the progress that we are making, but the problems just feel so much bigger right now.”

“You’re going to get this worked out, Ty. I know you will. Think of how much you’ve been through to get here. Even if, at the end of the day, things don’t work out exactly how you want them to, you know people will be happy as long as you’re there singing the songs with them. You were popular even before you had the big productions.”

I sighed. “You’re right. I’ll try to keep that in mind. I just get so wrapped up in this vision that Josh and I created that I forget it’s the music that really matters. Thank you.”

“Of course. I know the show is going to be great no matter what you end up doing.”

“You always know the right thing to say,” I smiled.

“It’s a talent of mine,” she laughed.

“I just wish that I wasn’t stuck at this stupid meeting today.”

“It’s ok, Ty,” she said, but I could tell that her tone had changed. “You’re doing important band stuff. We’ll have a break soon enough.”

“I hope so.”

Our conversation was interrupted by the door to the stairs swinging open. Josh’s head poked through the door, quickly scanning the area. Relief came over his face as soon as he saw me.

“There you are. We need you back in the conference room. Things are happening.”

“Ok, let me finish this up and then I’ll be there.”

Josh nodded and disappeared again, letting the door swing shut behind him. I waited for it to fully close before I started talking to Y/N again.

“Sorry about that. Josh showed up.”

“I heard.”

“Anyway, I guess they need me back there.”

“Time to let you go?”

“Yeah.”

“Alright. I love you, and don’t let them get to you, ok, Ty? I know you can find a way to put on the show you’ve been dreaming about.”

“Thank you, Y/N. I love you too.”

“Bye.”

“Wait.”

“Yeah?”

“Did you remember that I’m going over to my parents’ tonight for dinner?”

“I remember now,” she laughed. It sounded forced.

“Ok.”

“Good luck, Ty.”

“Thanks.”

“Bye.”

I ended the call, now feeling a different sort of discomfort in my chest. It took me a moment to finally get off the steps and walk out the door back towards the conference room. My mind was running its endless loop of questions, but no matter where I looked, I came up with no answers. It felt like a weight in my head, dragging me further and further down.

I hadn’t felt that way in a long time.

* * *

The meeting finally ended around four that night. There was another one scheduled for the next day - which the company claimed would be the last additional meeting we had to schedule - although after today’s events, I was feeling hopeful. They were finally starting to listen to the ideas that Josh and I had, helped along by the fact that Y/N had given me a new sense of confidence about the show. After a few more emails and phone calls, I was sure that things would finally start coming together.

My mom was the one to open the door when I knocked. She immediately pulled me into a hug, squeezing me tight enough that I nearly coughed. I didn’t blame her, I had only been able to find enough time to see my family once since I had gotten home from tour a week and a half ago, and most of my siblings hadn’t even been around. This time had been a little more planned so that Zack and Maddy would be able to stop by too.

“I’ve missed you so much,” my mom said, pressing a kiss to the top of my head.

“I’ve missed you too, Mom.”

I went around and hugged each of my siblings and my dad. It was nice to have everyone together again for a family dinner. The last time we had a get together like this was before the Australian leg of the tour nearly a month and a half ago.

“Dinner is already ready, if you guys want to eat. I made it early since I figured you would be hungry after your meeting, Tyler.”

“Thanks,” I smiled.

Everyone stayed pretty quiet, aside from small talk, as we dished up our food. I was sure that my family was full of questions to ask me, but they knew better than to try and ask before I was settled at the table. Right now, my mind was on food and food only.

We eventually all sat down at the table in the places that we had been assigned since childhood. Once everyone was comfortable and had taken a couple bites of food, the questions slowly began to come out.

“How was your meeting today, Tyler?” my dad asked.

“It was alright. I kind of blew up on the representative today-”

“Tyler,” my mom chimed in. Zack barely concealed a laugh.

“Mom, listen, it’s only because they keep trying to make us raise ticket prices even though we’ve had the budget planned out for weeks. It didn’t matter how many times I told them that wasn’t going to happen, they kept insisting.”

My mom kept a disappointed look on her face, but deep down I could tell that she knew I was right. From day one, she had always made sure that I knew staying true to myself was vital as I continued to pursue music. That advice had stuck with me since.

“Are they starting to listen though?” Maddy asked. “I mean, there’s only like a week and a half until tour starts, right?”

“Yeah, they’re finally coming around. Josh and I have been fighting with them pretty much all week, though. They’re bringing us in for another meeting tomorrow.”

“Another one?” Jay asked.

“They flew Josh in?” Zack chimed in right after.

“Yes and yes. That’s how big of a problem all of this is.”

“Geez,” my dad said. “That sounds intense.”

“It is. I’m barely hanging on by a thread here.”

My mom reached over and reassuringly rubbed my shoulder. “You’re safe here, Tyler. We’re not going to let you fall.”

I quickly glanced around the table to see that the rest of my family was nodding along with my mom. Warmth spread throughout my chest at knowing that they still had my back, even if I couldn’t always make as much time as I wanted to for them. At the end of the day, they were still my family.

We’re not going to let you fall.

* * * * *

Taglist

@tylersheavydirtysoul @faceofcontvsions @ohprettyweeper @shaytwentyonep @tyler-josephs-floof @angelicopioid @topownsmyheart @harishaanne @addictwithaheavydirtycheetah @somethingboutyou1 @boiled-onionrings @heythereitm3 @gaysludge @breadbinishigh @5secondsofmoxley @patdsinner33 @littlerachelbee @royal-avengers

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dvp95 · 5 years ago

Text

quiet on widow’s peak (6)

pairing: dan howell/phil lester, pj liguori/sophie newton/chris kendall rating: teen & up tags: paranormal investigator, mystery, online friendship, slow burn, strangers to lovers, nonbinary character, trans character, background poly, phil does some buzzfeed unsolved shit and dan is a fan word count: 2.9k (this chapter), 19.7k (total) summary: Phil’s got a list of paranormal experiences a mile long that he likes to share with the world. Abandoned buildings, cemeteries, and ghost stories have always called his name, and a particular fan of his has a really, really good ghost story.

read this chapter on ao3 or here!

Hope my friends and I didn't make things weird for you yesterday. We're heading to the city around noon if you're still up for helping us with the boring part.

noon?? fucking alright i guess i gotta put pants on

lmao yeah, sorry. My parents woke us up at EIGHT like that's a normal time to be awake????

desgostang

What?

ill send u the link later and also no i didnt feel weird yesterday you guys are nice

That's good! And hey I wanted to ask. You were kind of put on the spot with introducing yourself, would you rather we called you Dan or Winnie? I just wanna make sure we aren't making you uncomfortable at all lmao

no its all fine you can call me dan idc and actually its best if you do call me dan when youre in my work lmao

Are you totally sure?

why would i lie abt this. dont be an idiot it isnt a good look on you

haha okay. I’ll see you around noon.

“Christopher is a nice boy,” Phil’s mum is telling him as she helps him with their fancy new coffeemaker. There are so many buttons and Phil is so, so tired. “And Sophie is lovely, such a soft-spoken thing. Why haven’t we met them before, dear?”

“Dunno,” Phil says instead of the truth, which is that he’d had no idea how he was supposed to introduce them. “You have now, though.”

His mum laughs and reaches up to pat his cheek. “True enough. I’m so happy that you’ve got good people around you, Philip. I’ve gotten quite worried about you down there by yourself, you know.”

“I’m not by myself,” says Phil. “I live with, like, thirty people.”

“Bunch of strangers, I’ll bet,” she says, because she knows him. “Aside from those three.”

The thing is, she’s not wrong. Phil’s obviously exaggerating about the number of people under the roof of the creaky Brighton house, but the truth is that he can’t keep track half the time. A lot of the rooms get sublet out randomly, or a significant other will start spending so much time around the place that they might as well pay rent, and Phil really isn’t good with new people. He gets along fine with Holly and Dave, but they’ve been there as long as he has and the closest they’ve ever come to a heart-to-heart was comparing anxiety meds over burned pancakes.

Chris and Sophie were there when Phil moved in, and they’d taken one look at him and decided to just keep shoving into his space until he liked having them there, like they were on a mission to adopt PJ’s sad, ghost-obsessed friend from the internet.

“You might be right,” Phil says, feeling a smile tug at his lips for the first time all morning. He’s already had a coffee - and a half, when PJ declared that not even Kath could make coffee taste good and shoved the rest of his Phil’s way - but he still doesn’t feel fully awake. “I’m only really friends with Chris and Soph because of PJ.”

“PJ is a good friend to you, isn’t he?” his mum hums. That slightly pointed tone doesn’t get to Phil the way it usually does, because he knows that she’s just trying to understand him.

It doesn’t escape Phil’s notice that he’s looking into a mirror whenever he sees his parents watching him carefully, waiting for him to tell them something he hasn’t explicitly said, because he’s been doing the exact same thing to his housemates for nearly two years.

Maybe he’ll tell his parents when he’s got someone serious or even, like, semi-serious. Longer than two dates would be a record at this point. But right now he already feels like he’s been one misstep away from disappointing them, and he doesn’t want to take the gamble that his sexuality will be that misstep.

He’s not up for this conversation, though, isn’t sure he’ll ever be, so he just says, “Yeah, he is.”

Dan is late. They’re so late, actually, that Phil’s wheel of worst case scenarios has been spinning silently and getting faster and faster the more caffeine he chugs. They roll in with flushed cheeks and a jacket that looks too thin, apologies on their shiny lips that Phil doesn’t even hear for a couple of seconds because he’s too busy staring at them.

“No worries,” Sophie says, interrupting their rambling before they lose another half hour to it. “You want something? I’m getting a refill.”

“No, no, let me,” says Dan. They shrug off their jacket and hang it on one of the empty chairs. Phil and his friends have co-opted the largest table in the place so they can spread out with their laptops and notebooks, and it doesn’t escape Phil’s notice that Dan has decided to sit next to him when they’ve got a couple of options. “I get free drinks if Gabe’s in a good mood. Anyone else need a refill?”

“Me,” Chris says, not looking up from his screen. “Not Phil. He’s cut off.”

“Hey,” Phil protests weakly. His heart rate really has picked up since they sat down, so he knows Chris has a point.

Dan grins, their soft cheeks giving way to the dimples that Phil is very quickly growing obsessed with. He just wants to make Dan smile and laugh constantly, to hear them cackle and see all the lines in their round face deepen with happiness.

Right. Phil watched a horror movie with PJ instead of unpacking this fluttering start of a crush last night, and now he’s just got to deal with it for the rest of the day.

As if it’s a compulsion, Dan clears the empty mugs from their table before heading up to the counter. Phil focuses on the EMF readings so he doesn’t get caught up on Dan holding four mugs by the handles with total ease.

PJ has got headphones on and his eyes closed, so he might not even have noticed that Dan is there. He’s been going through Sophie’s footage and his own audio recordings to try and find some anomalies while Chris looks for the weird visual stuff - they’re a great team at that, and it makes Phil feel like he’s not doing enough. Sure, he could find those things on his own, but not as quickly as they can when it’s a team effort, and they’re on a bit of a tight schedule here. Well, his housemates are. They’ve got actual jobs to get back to once the weekend is over.

Allegedly, Sophie is doing research on sigils, but it looks to Phil like she’s just doodling. Not that he really blames her if she is. He’s barely been paying attention to the chart he’s making of spikes in electromagnetism because he’s been so busy watching the door for Dan.

And Dan looks… good. They’re wearing chunky boots and a shirt that falls to their thighs - a dress, maybe, but it looks like a regular black t-shirt that got extended at the hem - with tight white jeans. The only colour on them is the plaid shirt around their waist and the shiny red product on their lips to match it. Phil watches them lean against the counter and grin at the older barista, and he’s so distracted by looking at their profile that he startles when a foot connects with his under the table.

“Stop staring,” Sophie says, quiet and smiling. “He’s going to notice.”

Phil considers correcting her, but then he remembers that he probably doesn’t have to. Dan had said any pronouns, that they didn’t care how they were referred to, so it would definitely be weirder to act like he knows better than Sophie.

He knows he won’t be able to use masculine terms for Dan. Not because they aren’t true, because he’s pretty sure they’re no less accurate than neutral or feminine would be, but because thinking of Dan as a maculine person is only going to allow Phil’s brain to fall into the familiar traps of gender in ways he doesn’t want to allow.

Gay monkey brain doesn’t need any more leeway in finding Dan attractive, that’s for damn sure.

“So, what are we doing?” Dan asks, interrupting Phil’s thoughts, and, wow, four mugs is a lot more impressive when they’re full of hot liquid. Phil marvels at Dan’s ability not to trip and spill it all as they dole out the coffee and teas.

“I’m doing the boring part,” says Phil. He turns his screen so Dan can see the Excel spreadsheet and laughs at the face they make. “Yeah. It's not glamorous, but it's the easiest way to find patterns in the EMF readings. Honestly, most of my job is just staring at things and finding patterns in them. Like, uh, what's that guy? With the butterfly splotches?"

"Worcestershire," Chris suggests.

"Rorschach," Dan corrects him, lips twitching like they aren't sure if they're allowed to laugh in Chris' face or not.

“That’s exactly what I said,” says Chris.

“You know EMF meters don’t have anything to do with ghosts, right?” Dan asks, ignoring Chris completely and leaning a bit closer to Phil to get a better look at his laptop. “I mean, none of this has anything to do with ghosts, really, but you’re more or less just measuring electricity.”

Phil is aware of that. He wonders if Dan thinks he just stumbles into haunted houses with equipment he hasn’t researched and waits to be spooked. He’s too distracted by how close Dan is and how good they smell to work up to proper offense, though. “Yeah,” he says simply. “But don’t you think it’s weird that the place still has electricity to begin with? Who’s paying for that?”

“A Wilkins, I’d imagine.”

“But why? If they’ve forgotten about the property or abandoned it on purpose, surely they wouldn’t still pay the bills.”

“Maybe they don’t handle their own finances,” Dan suggests. “How rich were these assholes?”

“I honestly don’t know,” says Phil. He taps his fingers in an erratic pattern on the edge of his laptop, trying to spark something in his mind.

It’s almost disappointing when Dan pulls away to dig out their own sleek Macbook out of their messenger bag, but Phil is also glad for it. He can think a lot easier when the warm scent of spice and mint isn’t clogging his brain.

Dan slots into the work as easily as if a space was left for them. They’ve got dozens of tabs open already and they start to go through them, cross-referencing magic things with Sophie in quiet tones and digging deeper into the Wilkins family than Phil ever would have thought to. Every so often they tap Phil on the arm and drag him into whatever rabbithole they’ve fallen down, chatting animatedly.

Phil knows, objectively, that Dan is a fan of his and that Dan is weird about research. It’s another thing entirely to watch it happen in real time, to see Dan pull up local census PDFs from the eighties and explain why chaos magic is bullshit in the same breath.

An hour or so goes by like that, all of them working on their own things with minimal words exchanged by everybody but Dan, and then Chris shouts loud enough to make the barista jump. Nobody else is in the coffee shop right now, which is lucky, because Dan’s got a hand over their chest and Sophie has slopped tea down her front. PJ, with his headphones on, simply cracks an eye open.

“What the fuck was that about?” Phil asks, putting his own palm against his chest to feel his heart race. Dan raises their eyebrows and looks at Phil, seemingly distracted from the startling, wordless exclamation.

They don’t get a chance to say whatever they’re thinking, though, because Chris is turning his laptop to the rest of the table and grinning wide like the Cheshire Cat. “I found something.”

Everybody gathers round, PJ getting up to lean over the back of Phil’s chair and Sophie getting so far into Dan’s personal space that Phil is certain they’re uncomfortable with it, and then Chris presses play upside down. It’s part of Sophie’s footage, Phil standing in the dim foyer and looking frustrated. Even without sound, Phil can tell that this is when he was arguing with Sophie about going upstairs. He squints, but he can’t see whatever it is that’s got Chris being so loud.

“What am I looking at?” PJ asks when the short clip ends, and Dan hums an agreement. Chris makes a frustrated noise like they’re being obtuse on purpose and rewinds to the beginning.

"There," Chris says, excited like he hasn't been since they got to Manchester. He taps his finger against the laptop screen. "D'you see it? D'you see the shadow?"

Now that Chris has pointed it out, Phil does see something. He moves his own laptop and notebook out of the way to pull Chris’ closer with a frown. Chris lets him do that, bouncing in his seat a little bit.

“That’s straight up a person,” Phil says slowly, tracing the outline of the shadow with the mouse. It’s behind him, in the entry to the kitchen, and it looks tall. Quite a bit taller than Phil, anyway, if he’s remembering that doorframe correctly. He decides to measure it next time they go so he isn’t going off memory. “I knew we weren’t alone in there. Like. I’m not crazy, that’s a human being.”

“That’s what I thought,” says Chris. “But press play.”

So Phil presses play. He watches the shadow stay perfectly still in the kitchen doorway until, suddenly, it’s not there anymore. He blinks, rewinds, and watches it disappear again.

Phil’s caffeinated brain is firing on all cylinders now. He grins and shoves his sleeves up to his elbows before he starts fiddling with the clip. The lighting gets played with until the shadow is more obvious and then he slows it down to 0.25 times speed to see if the shadow really just vanishes.

He presses play again. This time, with a very slow-motion Phil talking in the foreground, he sees the shadow move. It runs sideways, further into the house.

“What the fuck?” Dan breathes.

“We are not going back there without some serious protection,” PJ says, even firmer on the topic now.

“What, like sigils?” Dan asks, their pretty eyes wide even as they scoff. “You’d be better off with a fucking, like, baseball bat, mate. That doesn’t look like something that wants to be your friend.”

“I’ve got a crowbar in PJ’s trunk,” Phil says, absent-minded as he plays with the clip some more.

“Excuse me? When did you put that in my car?”

“Couple months ago.”

“Huh. How have I not noticed?”

“You’re not the most observant person I’ve ever met,” says Phil. He looks up at Chris, who’s got the same exhilarated look that Phil is sure he’s mirroring. They don’t get evidence like this very often, something so clearly there that it’s even got a skeptic’s mind racing. Phil exports the edited clip and then the original, putting them both into the Cloud and emailing them to himself. “Was this the only time you saw it?”

Chris nods, accepting his laptop back when Phil is done with it. “I’ll look through everything again, now that I know what I’m looking for and all, but I think that’s it.”

“Okay, cool.” Phil looks around at his friends and Dan, beaming. “Something weird is happening. I love it when something weird is happening.”

“I hate it when something weird is happening,” PJ says, which is a blatant lie.

“Well, we can’t go snooping around until it’s darker out, anyhow,” Sophie reminds them.

“Wait, we’re snooping?” Dan asks, their voice going up an entire octave in disbelief. “Like… you just saw that someone is there and probably not happy about people sneaking around, right? Don’t you have enough for a video already?”

“We’re spending the night,” says Phil. “It’s what we do.”

“It’s what you do,” PJ corrects him.

“Okay, yeah, you guys don’t have to come if you don’t want to.”

“No, I’m coming,” says PJ.

As if she can’t hear them bickering, Sophie turns to Dan with a sweet smile, her eyes twinkling with the same excitement in Chris’. They love this, just like Phil does. “What about you, Dan?” she asks. “Are you going to have a ghost sleepover with us?”

“There’s no such thing as ghosts,” Dan says, their eyes still glued to the back of Chris’ laptop like they can see the shadow through it.

“Guess you don’t have anything to be afraid of, then,” says Chris.

“Uh, axe murderers, maybe?”

“We know what we’re doing, Dan,” Phil reassures them. He reaches a hand out to pat at their arm, feeling a bit awkward about it. “But you don’t have to come with us if you’re scared.”

That makes Dan’s gaze shift. Suddenly, those brown eyes are staring right into Phil’s soul, defiant and beautiful and impossible to look away from.

“Who said I was fucking scared?”

#phanfic #phanfiction #dnp fic #words words words #quiet on widow's peak #this chapter is a little short thanks to me prioritizing my mental health BUT i am still happy with it #so i hope you like it too #even if you might think the plot is slow!

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bagels-and-seagulls · 6 years ago

Text

davenzi headcanons + david starting uni

-matteo takes a year off from school, still deciding what he wanted to do with his life, but david goes straight from highschool into uni, knowing that he wanted to do art and film and anything that let his creativity out from under his fingertips where it felt like it was vibrating underneath his hands. he takes the basic classes that everyone has to, and he does okay in them. but he gets a quick reputation in all of his art classes that he’s one to watch out for.

-david, having gotten over his urge to stay tucked tightly inside his shell during highschool thanks to the constant itching under his ribs caused by a certain boy, becomes involved in a variety of activities at university, and once he becomes involved in them, he becomes involved. he joins a football team and becomes the starring forward. he joins a theater group and somehow manages to director the end of the year production of Waiting for Godot. he starts a group that meets up once a month to talk about their favorite artists while working on some of their own work. it gets so popular that they have to make a waiting list after one of the professor’s pointed out they reach max occupancy like three weeks ago at that point.

-matteo asks david to move in after they graduate, and david quickly agrees. he says it’s because matteo’s place is a couple blocks closer to school and tries to rein in his thoughts of of course i would shining boy i never want to be away from you just thinking about leaving you for even a minute makes my heart break into giant shards and only you have the right glue to put them back together because saying that feels a little too revealing for 3 in the afternoon in a random coffee shop that they stopped in. matteo didn’t even plan to ask him. he was the one who couldn’t rein in his thoughts that day and blurted out please move in with me, only stopping short of admitting that he counts the minutes until david comes back and thinks about how much of that time they could have spent memorizing each other’s souls. he then quickly tried to cover his quick thoughts up with a diversion about how with mia leaving they need someone else to help with the rent. david shuts him up with a kiss. matteo doesn’t say anything about how their places are actually equal distance from the school, and they both go home smiling so big their checks feel like they’re going to split.

-the first couple of weeks, with david’s quick ability to fit in with whichever room he walks into, matteo admits that it was a little lonely. he thought having his boyfriend share his closet and his fridge and his bed and his life in such close quarters that they would see each other so often that they might get sick of each other. it was never a serious concern for matteo because every time david is around, matteo feels like he can never get enough. david has always been his worst drug. he doesn’t tell david any of this at all though because he’s worried that he might seem too clingy or too needy and that david will think it’s not worth the trouble. hans is the one to ultimately gets it out of him, and hans is the one to try and get matteo to talk about it with david. he doesn’t which irritates hans to no end. but then hans tells him that maybe he should get some hobbies of his own if he was just going to grumble around the whole apartment about how david wasn’t home yet. hans had eyes. he knew that david wasn’t back.

-matteo starts to accept his co-workers’ at the deli invites to hang out outside of work, and he starts to find that they’re actually kind of cool. he becomes quick friends with a girl named sofia who has the same sense of humor when it comes to memes. they send them back and forth outside of work. he’ll show them to david when david is around, and usually david will snort about it but then remind himself to ask jonas later what the references mean. matteo also joins a board game group, he doesn’t like to say the word club, at this game shop a few blocks away. he’s actually quite good at chess he realizes because no one can ever get a read on him and his strategy. the key is to have no strategy. but he also likes to play clue and risk. he feels a little less lonely while all his friends and david seem to be taking the next step in life while he’s just working to scrap by and pay his bills.

-the two of them get into an easy flow with each other and their schedules after a month or two. david is easy to get swallowed into his studies and his projects and all the pots he tries to watch boil at once, but he promises himself to not let it go too far after he snapped at matteo when he tried to tell david he should go to bed. he had immediately tried to take it back and apologize to the boy he knew was quick to retreat and hide when people got too loud around him, but at that point, matteo’s eyes had already gone glassy and he just said whatever and went to be by himself, refusing to let david touch him the entire night even though they knew that would make them both feel better. he grovelled a little bit the next morning by cooking matteo breakfast and leaving a post-it with a doodle of david apologizing and holding flowers on matteo’s phone. he did actually get flowers that night, and matteo said it was overkill but he smiled and brought them close to his face when he thought david wasn’t looking. after that when matteo suggested david take a break or give it a rest for the night, david would listen.

-david has a reputation around the school as being cool and suave and slightly mysterious but mostly just on a whole other plane than the rest of us with the way his mind works. his presence is magnetic, and people are always trying to get close to him to pick his brain about this or that. david gets invited to just about every event in every social circle. he’s got an in with the jocks because of football. he’s practically the leader of the theater circle, and he gets an invitation to every gallery or show opening in all of berlin it feels like. he could pencil something in for every night of the week if he really wanted to. he could even double book himself some nights, but david only really goes to like a fourth of the things that people mention because that’s about as much as matteo can handle.

-matteo tries to go to all the football games, all the plays, all the art shows, but matteo was always a slower pace of a person. and that much activity wears him out pretty quickly. david tries to tell him that it’s okay. he doesn’t have to go to everything. david knows that he’s there in spirit and is always supporting him. matteo holds his tongue about how in spirit isn’t good enough and remembering empty stands throughout his whole childhood to the point where he wouldn’t even mention things anymore to anyone and how he never wants david to feel like that.

-they’re pretty comfortable with going to separate parties after a while. matteo will go hang with ok.cool. or the gang at a smaller friend thing, and david will go make an appearance at one of his social events. matteo knows that david gets a lot of attention, and he really doesn't blame people that look too long in david’s direction because like he has eyes, too. he knows david is drop dead gorgeous. david just kisses his head and tells him not to worry because everyone knows that david is very off the market. and david is always quick to let people know if they ask, which most people don’t anyways because everyone can recognize what art looks like when it’s made by someone who is totally and completely madly in love. matteo is one of david’s favorite subjects after all.

-there was this one girl who didn’t seem to know when to take a hint though. she didn’t seem to recognize that all of david’s best art pieces happened to have the same muse achingly present in the forefront with sweeps of messy hair drawn quickly in graphite and with freckles on shoulder blades perfected in painstaking detail with water color. she didn’t seem to get it when david told his actors what love should look like on stage with a deep longing that only someone who has known a true and pure affection could know. she didn’t even get it when david had politely brushed off her offer to go out together to see a new film by saying that he already had a date. it finally sunk in when she saw david at a house party half way through the spring. he was off in the corner with some guy she had never seen before. the guy was casually leaning against the wall with a goofy smile on his face, and david was leaning over him, his elbow up near the guy’s face, bracketing him into the corner, and david’s other hand on his hip. they were whispering to each other with an ease that only a couple with a resolved history and decided future would. it didn’t seem like they even knew they were at a party. they were completely ignoring everything that was happening around them. she backed off after that. the couple making out in the corner for at least an hour during the party didn’t help either.

send me prompts

#davenzi #matteo florenzi #david schreibner #druck #davenzi fic #my writing #my headcanons

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hurtcomfortetc · 6 years ago

Note

I was thinking the apocalypse timeline, if that's okay! :) and omg thank you for sending me your fic, I'm so amped to read it!

Original Prompt - vaguely--

“since you’re looking for TUA prompts” how about Klaus with pneumonia? the others keep joking about how he needs to quite smoking and shit (and telling him to stop whining when he says he’s not good to go with them on some kind of wild adventure”

Okay, so this was a fun one to write! Hope this was in the realm of what you were looking for! :)

MONDAY(28 days sober)

Klauscan hear the distant sound of glass shattering and what might be abookshelf falling down. The sound surprises him, and he sits up soabruptly that he gives himself a head rush, and a splash of watersluices over onto the tile floor. He sits there, listening for yellsof anguish or gunfire. All he hears for the next minute is the faintcongestion in his breath.

“Vanya-it's okay – look we don't have to stop for today-”

Adoor slams.

Klausrelaxes.

Heslides his head back under water and goes back to wondering if thisis the normal congestion he's had on and off since his cocaine phasein 2012, or if he's just getting sick.

Thenhe starts craving cocaine again.

Hedebates, for the hundredth time maybe, if Sober Klaus still smokesweed.

“Klaus,you better not have fallen asleep in there!”

TUESDAY(29 days sober)

Klauscreaks open his eyes to a blinding light and a grating voice comingfrom the other side of his door. His eyes manage to come to a focuson his clock. 1:30. Klaus is faintly pleased. It's much easier tostay sober when you're unconscious for most of the day. And he's soclose to actually deserving that thirty day chip.

Thebanging doesn't stop.

“Klaus!It's your turn with Five and Vanya today – please get your ass downhere so he'll get off my ass?” Diego calls, and continues bangingon the door.

Fiveis relentless, Klaus muses. He proceeds to remain unmoving on hisbed.

“Yougonna keep moping in here forever?” Ben asks from somewhere in thecorning of the room.

Klauslets out a loud groan that he draws out for almost twenty seconds.Ben covers his ears after ten, but Klaus has to stop and let out ashort cough before he can make it to a grand finale. Gross.

“Seriously?”Ben asks. Klaus peels himself off his bed and does a quick smell testof his underarms.

“Shhhh-I need to focus on finding a clean shirt so I can go make sure Vanyadoesn't end up murdering my second least favorite brother,” Klaussays. His voice comes out rough. Ben, for his part, looks appeased.

WEDNESDAY(30 days sober)

It'sbeen a good day. He completed an entire arm wrestling match with atangible Ben (turns out that that in death Ben must have somehowdeveloped killer bicep muscles, but no one needs to know how thatparticular match ended) and, invigorated by his sobriety milestone,Klaus dragged himself out of bed before noon and made eggs foreveryone (they burned remarkably quickly, but Allison did eat a pieceof toast he buttered so overall a win).

Butnow it's almost dinner time, and all he can do is lay bonelessly onthe couch and listen to his siblings bicker over one of Luther's“mandatory debriefs.”

“Theday of the apocalypse is over, can't we all stop treating Vanya likea ticking time bomb?” Allison demands.

“Yousaw what she almost did to Diego a couple of days ago, we can't stopworking on this,” Luther fires back.

“Guys,I'm right here, can you just stop,” Vanya adds. There's an awkwardsilence.

“Istill don't know if the math is right, everyone. Look, the best guessis to keep trying at -”

Therest of the conversation is lost to Klaus, who feels something inhimself snap. He hastily lights a cigarette. His siblings cyclicalnonsense arguments give him a craving for nicotine that simply willnot be ignored. He takes a long drag and then feels something catchnauseatingly in the back of his throat. He sits up and coughs untilsomething slimy seems to dislodge.

Hegoes to try another inhale when he sees that everyone is looking athim. He thumps his chest for dramatic effect.

“Smokingkills, kids,” he announces, and waves a finger at his siblings,accosting. Diego rolls his eyes.

“Keepthat up and you're gonna get an iron lung before you're forty,”Diego says.

“Andwhat a thrill that would be,” Klaus retorts. The bickering carrieson after that, and he spends the rest of it tuning out his siblingsand attempting valiantly not to cough.

Hedrags his way out of the room during a longer pause. In the doorway,Allison grabs his arm and slaps something into his palm. It lookslike a bandaid, and Klaus' brain cannot produce what it is.

“Nicotinepatch. I thought you were cleaning up. It might help,” Allisonsays.

“I'llhave to change my shirt. This beige will clash hideously,” Klausreplies.

“Iordered Chinese for tonight– come down later?” Allison asks himas he continues out.

Hethrows a grateful wave behind him.

Hespends the rest of the night alternately chain smoking and hackinguntil his chest is sore.

THURSDAY(31 days sober)

Today,Klaus starts to wonder distantly if there is something wrong with hisimmune system. This cold just doesn't want to go away.

It'sa nice distraction, he supposes.

FRIDAY(32 days sober)

Klaushas just completed almost entirely turning over his room in order tofind the one sketch pad that he'd stashed away years ago. He used toget high and doodle bats and shit during his goth phase. “Get ahobby” was something they tell you a lot in rehab.

Ithelps that, honestly, Klaus has no energy to do anything but scribbleabsently today. The mere act of searching through his closet justleft him with a racing heart and feeling out of breath. It isactually nice, in a way. The lethargy makes it very easy to settleinto a blanket puddle on the floor with and feel content to scratchout nonsense pictures with a pencil.

Benisn't anywhere to be seen for some reason, and Klaus actually feelslonely.

Ashadow appears looming over him. He looks up to see Five leaning inhis doorway.

“Getup. We're going on a field trip,” Five announces.

“Pass,”Klaus groans.

“Notasking. What, you'd rather laze around here all day?”

Klausdraws his blanket closer around him by way of answer.

Fivegrits his teeth and looks away. His foot is honest-to-god tapping.

“Getup. We need your help. We're gonna let Vanya loose today, and we needall hands on deck,” Five finally explains. Klaus sits up and giveshim an incredulous look.

“DidVanya okay this?” He asks. Five looks at Klaus like he's a cat thathe's trying to coax out of a bush.

“Ofcourse.” Klaus wonders why he bothered asking, his answer trulydoesn't inspire confidence.

“Andhow do you expect me to be of any use?” Klaus asks. On any otherday, he would bask in any remote bit of confidence in his ability,but today the concept of standing up for more than a minute is makinghim dizzy.

“Iseem to recall that you can summon Ben's ghost from the dead, amongothers. Dead people are great collateral if something goes sideways,”Five says.

“Um,great idea, but here's the thing – I can't -ahem- get it up all thetime. Apparently it's more common among mediums than you might think– one in ten!” Klaus says, praying that Five will drop it. Fivelooks at him like he's contemplating murder.

“Look,do you want me to get Luther to come persuade you?” Five threatens.

Klausraises his hands in surrender.

“Uncle,uncle! Christ, let's just get this over with,” he sighs. On the wayout, he grabs his most obnoxious faux fur jacket, partially as a lamegesture of rebellion and partially because he's utterly freezing.

“That'sthe spirit,” Five mutters, and leads the way.

----------

Fiveglanced into the rearview mirror of the car. With Luther crammed intothe passenger seat the atmosphere already feels oppressive enough,but a glimpse into the backseat reveals Vanya nervously perched inthe middle seat, Diego sitting cross-armed and surly on the right,and Klaus completely passed out on the left. The car is packed andradiating nervous energy.

Five eases the car down the bumpy dirt path, the final sign that theyare clear away from civilization. That creep Leonard really had theright idea about a remote cabin in the woods. Plenty of isolation andtrees to practice on. So lacking in human contact is this particularcabin that the unkept foliage lining the path creeps towards theroad, untamed and leaning. The cabin itself is barely a thread awayfrom losing any structural integrity. The windows have maybe threeunbroken panes of glass between them. It's perfect.

Fivebrakes violently, and winces when Klaus' forehead makes a audiblewhack on the window as he smacks himself out of his nap. Not the mostgraceful awakening, but effective. He wants everyone alert.

“Alrighteverybody. Follow me,” he says. He steps out of the car and towardsthe back of the cabin, where he has prepared a paper target on a treeabout fifty feet from the small clearing. It's visible, but wellsurrounded by other trees.

“Diego,wanna demo?” Five asks. Diego furrows his brow, but never turns upan opportunity to throw something sharp. He takes one look at themark and pegs the center ring with a hasty flick of his wrist.

“Doyou expect me to do that? That's not exactly in my wheelhouse, Five,”says Vanya, squinting at the target and looking like she'd rather beanywhere than here.

Fivetakes a handful of loose bullets out of his pocket, and places themon a tree stump.

“Woah,”interjects Luther, “we're not expecting Vanya to have to shootpeople-”

“Ofcourse not,” Five grits out. He expected this, but it doesn't makeit any less tiresome. “This is just an exercise in precision andcontrol.” Vanya looks at him, wary, but she picks up one of thelittle silver ovals and turns it around in her fingertips.

---

Ittakes the better part of an hour before Vanya manages to drill a holedirectly into the target. It's a bit left of center, but by thatpoint, Diego and Luther have finally relaxed an inch of tension outof their shoulders. Vanya is a quick study, and actually pulls asmile when the little tap of the bullet making contact sounds throughthe forest.

Klaus,for his part, has been lounging like the Queen of Sheba on a softpile of pine needles. His eyes seem out of focus, but he claps whenVanya succeeds.

“Whooooo,you show that tree who's boss,” he calls. Vanya smiles again. Fivewonders if Klaus might have been more of a liability than anything,considering how spacey he seems for all his apparent sobriety, but ifanything it makes Vanya more relaxed when he yells out some stupidline of encouragement than if it had just been Tweedledee andTweedledum trading constipated looks and flinching every time a twigsnapped.

Fiveis contemplating dragging one more round out of Vanya when Klaus sitsup suddenly at attention.

“Woah,Vanya that's kind of creepy,” Klaus says, looking at something inthe distance. Five walks over to Klaus as he stands up, clearlyalarmed. There are goosebumps running down his arms.

“Whatare you talking about, Klaus?” Five asks, quietly. He doesn't wanta scene.

“Theway she's moving the branches of the trees like that. They're gettingall twisty. I mean it's tasteful but definitely a touch odd, wouldn'tyou say?” Five doesn't know why he looks over to see what Klaus istalking about, but he does. There isn't so much as a light breezerustling the branches.

Suddenly,Five realizes what must be going on and he's furious.

“Jesus,Klaus what are you playing at? Whatever you're tripping on is notworth risking this entire training session,” Five spits. Diegoperks up at that.

“Ithought you were going sober, man,” he says, looking at themsearchingly. Klaus, pale and sweating, does not look like thatbenchmark for clean living.

Klausdoesn't seem to notice, and continues looking at the forest, eyesfollowing something unseen.

“Unbelievable,”Five turns away, taking ten paces and breathing through his nose.

“Klaus,it's okay – I'm not doing anything,” Vanya says. She walkshesitantly towards Klaus, eyes wide and sympathetic.

“Leaveit, Vanya,” Luther cautions. Vanya reaches out a hand on Klaus'sforearm, to try to get his attention. Klaus clears his throatthickly, and coughs a bit into his fist.

“Don'tworry, Vanya- I like it, very pretty,” he says. Vanya's eyes widen.

“Guys,his skin's on fire,” she says. “Klaus, are you okay?” Shereaches a hand up his cheek, which is also burning. He doesn'tanswer, just shivers convulsively.

“Couldit be an overdose?” Luther strides over to them. Diego stiffens.

“Doesn'tseem like it to me,” Diego says. “Doesn't present the way itusually does with whatever garbage he's on.” Five's mind feelsblank.

“I'llstart the car. We have to get him out of here,” he says.

“Ithink he's just sick,” Vanya says. “He's been sounding reallyrough all week, hasn't he?”

“Shit,”says Diego. He moves to pull gently at Klaus' arm to lead him to thecar. Five takes the lead and starts for the front of the cabin.

“Wow,you can make the ground all spinny. That's a cool trick,” Klaustells Vanya. At that, Diego loops one of Klaus's arms around hisshoulder, and they start to haltingly follow after Five.

“Let'sgo, Klaus,” he says. As they make a shaky path towards the car,Five throws the passenger door open for them to slide in. They do,and it's now imminently obvious just how out of it Klaus is. Hemanages to maneuver into the passenger seat shakily, and immediatelyburies his head in his hands.

Fivewastes no time turning on the ignition and sloppily reversing thecar. He narrowly avoids bottoming out in a muddy patch. The car digsout and he slams on the acceleration as quickly as the dirt path willallow.

“Doesanyone have any water or anything?” Luther asks, and Five isdecently impressed that it's actually not a bad idea. There isrustling from the backseat as they all turn over the car searchingfor any provisions that will last them the entire ride back towardscivilization.

“Here,”Vanya finds a water bottle strewn somewhere beneath the seatcushions.

“That'sfor you,” Diego passes it to Klaus, who removes one eye from behindhis hand to look at it like it's a bomb. “I swear to god, Klaus,just take it,” Diego warns. Klaus extends a shaking hand andaccepts it. He takes a tentative sip, and then grimaces. That setshim off, coughing deeply. For each second he continues seeminglyhacking up a lung, Five's foot presses deeper into the acceleration.When he finally stops, Five meets eyes with Diego in the rearviewmirror. Diego looks panicked, and that's not a look Five is used toseeing.

“Jesus,Klaus, where's that stupid ass coat of yours?” Diego asks. “You'reshaking like a leaf.”

“Igrabbed it,” says Vanya.

“Wait-maybe we should try to keep him cool? Right?” Luther interjects.

“Idon't know- do I look like I went to fucking medical school?” Diegoasks, shooting a murderous look at Luther.

“Damn,how long has he been like this sick?” Luther asks no one inparticular.

“Ugh,right here,” Klaus says, breathlessly. “You should ask Ben, he'dknow.”

Diegothrows up his hands.

“Helpful!”

Suddenly,the car lights up a bright blue and Ben appears crammed betweenLuther and Five, crouched awkwardly on the dashboard.

Five,thrown for a loop, swerves the wheel and almost careens off the road.

“Woah-Five, get it together!” Luther calls. Ben grabs the wheel and pullsthem back on into their lane just in time to avoid hitting a tree.

“Nice,thanks,” Five breaths.

“Ben,”Luther said, dumbstruck.

“Toanswer your question, he's been out of it for a couple of days. Ithink that's why he couldn't see me anymore,” Ben says. Lutherseems unable to process the information, his mouth still gaping open.Ben rolls his eyes.

“I'mjust saying, please can you find some kind of medical professional?Like, ASAP?”

“Nooooo,”Klaus murmers through his hands.

“Klaus,”say Five, Luther and Diego almost simultaneously, all in some variouscombination of desperate frustration and warning.

Vanyareaches over and put a hand on his knee.

“Ithink what they mean is that it's not a debate. You're going to see adoctor.”

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incorrectsmashbrosquotes · 6 years ago

Text

World of Light: With the Assist Trophies

Over at the Assist Trophy Apartment, most of the assist trophies are sitting around the table eating dinner. Everyone except Zero, who was looking out the window to gaze at the sunset.

“Everything okay, Zero?” Knuckles asked.

“Maybe…” Zero told him. “I saw all the Smashers leaving earlier. Something big is probably going on.”

“Fret not, Young Swordsman! They’ll be able to best whatever peril stands in their way!” Shovel Knight proclaimed.

Zero looked at Shovel Knight and sighed. “You’re right. I’m probably worrying about nothing.” He turned back to the window and noticed something weird. There were these stream of light beams raining down. “What the…?”

“Psh! It wouldn’t be a problem if Waluigi was there…” Waluigi stated, causing the others in the room to roll their eyes and groan.

Zero noticed some light streams were coming right for the apartment. He turned around at the other Assist Trophies. “Everybody, GET DOWN!!”

As soon as he said that, a light beam burst into the house and hit Waluigi. He wasn’t even able to get a “WAH!” in before he was seemingly disintegrated. The kitchen table was knocked over due to the attack. Knuckles, Shovel Knight, and Zero all peered from behind the table to see Waluigi was no longer there.

Lyn ran into the kitchen. “I heard a noise! What happ-” She saw a giant hole in the wall leading to the outside and the kitchen in a mess.

“Lady Lyn…The purple one with the unattractive moustache…a light came…he was obliterated…” Shovel Knight told her in shock.

“Waluigi? Well, at least it wasn’t anyone important, but…!” She stopped as soon as she saw more light streams heading towards them. “Guys, run!”

The four of them made a break for it as more light streams began pouring into the home. Furniture was knocked over in order to avoid the light beams. Knuckles looked back at the streams of light. “What the heck are those things?!”

“Don’t know! Just keep running!” Lyn replied. She saw another beam burst in from in front of them. “Look out!” She shouted. She leapt onto the ceiling and ran while Zero and Knuckles slid under it. Shovel Knight clung onto the wall, narrowly dodging the beam.

“Argh! I’m trying to call MegaMan, but all i hear is static!” Zero shouted. “Something must have happened!”

“What shall we do?!” Shovel Knight asked.

Knuckles looked around. “Okay, I’ll go find Shadow. He can use chaos control to teleport and control time. If we’re lucky, we might make it out in one piece. You guys go round up everyone else and meet me outside away from the apartment!!” Knuckles told them before running off.

——————

Shovel Knight had ran outside to a horrible sight. Other assist trophies were getting hit by the beams. Mother Brain and a Metroid were disintegrated, Dillion had dodged a few beams before getting hit by one, and Samurai Goroh didn’t even see it coming.

“My word…this is a travesty..” He muttered before looking over to the left. He saw Yuri Kozukata about to take a picture of Arcade Bunny, the Ghosts, and Chef Kawasaki. “Young ones, look out!”

Yuri only turned around before the people she was about to get a picture of were hit by the beams. She turned her head back around. “W-w-wha…” She looked up and saw a beam headed her way.

She was then pushed out of the way by the Black Knight, who instead was hit by the beam. She remained on the floor, paralyzed with fear as she saw him slowly get disintergrated.

Shovel Knight picked her up. “Come, young one! We must make haste!” He then saw Bomberman running around in a panic. “Young Exploder!” He ran to him.

—————

Zero and Lyn were running outside the apartments trying to avoid the beams. Isaac formed a giant magical hand to protect him, Jeff, and Akira from the blast, only for the light to completely pierce through the hand hitting all three of them. Guile tried to use Sonic Boom against the light, only to be hit by the beams.

When Zero and Lyn looked up, they saw Rathalos carrying Sukapon, Krystal, Dr. Wily, and Devil before they were all hit. While the beam only needed to graze Rathalos’ back to get those who were riding it, more beams had blasted through the Rathalos, making it disintegrate with each blow. The screams filled the skies as the Rathalos went crashing down before more lights bombarded it.

“This is a nightmare…” Lyn muttered. “Who’s even left?”

“Bark!

Zero and Lyn looked over to the direction of the scream as they saw Nintendog on the ground next to where Jeff and Nikki presumably were, noted by the glasses and notebook filled with doodles being all that remained. She was shuddering. The two ran over to the dog. Nintendog began to whimper. Zero picked up the dog and hugged it. "I-It’s okay…everything’s gonna be okay…” Zero told it in a shaky voice.

The two turned around and saw Skull Kid, Alucard, and Phosphora deflecting the magic blasts alongside Alucard and Phosphora. ‘HAHAHAHAHA! You wanna take me out?! You’re gonna have to try harder than that!“ Skull Kid shouted, shooting a blast deflecting more light beams. Behind them were Spring Man, Knuckle Joe, Tiki, and Ashley.

"Everyone! Come quick!” Lyn shouted. While the four others ran to them, Skull Kid and Alucard remained. “What are you doing?! Get over here!”

“Go without us!” Alucard replied, reflecting another blast of light. “These lights won’t do us in that easily.” Phospora was then hit by the light beams. “…That was a lucky shot.”

Lyn looked at the two for a second. “But-”

“Hurry up and beat it already before I decide to let one hit you!” Skull Kid shouted.

“Lyn, we gotta get moving!” Zero called, already leading the one’s he saved away. Lyn looked back at the two, then ran off to meet with Zero.

Alucard looked up and saw twice as many lights than there were before. Anyone would be smart enough to know they couldn’t handle it. “Hm…This doesn’t seem we’re in a good position. How about you two follow along with them?"

Skull Kid looked at him. "Pfft! If I’m going to go down, I’m going on my terms!” His hands started to overflow with magic.

Alucard laughed. “Well said! If we go, we go in a blaze of glory!!!”

——————

Soon, everyone that was left met up together a good distance away from the apartment. Everyone was talking in a panic.

“I see you two we’re able to save a fair amount of people.” Shovel Knight noted, put down Bomberman.

“Yeah…we couldn’t save everyone though.” Zero told him, petting Nintendog. “How many did you save?”

“I was only able to save the girl with the camera and Young Exploder. Sir Gray Fox, he…sacrificed himself for Exploder.” Shovel Knight sighed. “But has anyone seen Master Knuckles? He told us to rendezvous out here.”

“He better get here quick! Those lights could appear any second.” Lyn told them.

A few seconds after, the group saw Knuckles and Shadow running to them. Behind them were the Squid Sisters, Riki, and Rodin. “Guys!”

“Knuckles! Hurry up!” Zero shouted, seeing light beams descending toward them.

Knuckles’ group soon made it to where everyone else. “Sorry…pant pant…I’m late…”

“Knuckles, what’s the plan you talking about earlier?!” Lyn asked.

As Knuckles was about to explain, a beam of light headed toward them from behind Zero. As if in slow motion, everyone looked back at it, completely petrified. Zero’ pupils shrank as he saw his life flash before his eyes as the light closed in….

…….

Zero had his eyes closed as he expected to be hit with the light, when he opened his eyes, he saw a black veil surround the group. He looked up. “Nightmare?!”

From the outside, Nightmare formed a shield using his body to protect them. The light beams were pressing down hard on him, slowly disintegrating him. “Nngh! If you runts are going to do something, do it now!!”

Knuckles nodded. “Shadow, you have the Chaos Emerald?" Shadow held it up in response. "Okay. Shadow’s gonna try to use Chaos Control to warp us out of here.”

“But can’t Shadow only slow time down?’ Lyn asked.

"That’s why I brought Rodin. I think that we could use his abilities to-” Knuckles was saying.

“Is this plan going to work?!” Bomberman shouted.

“To be honest, I don’t entirely know, but this is the best chance we have!” Knuckles told them.

Prior to him saying that, a light beam struck Nightmare once more, causing him to fall and fade away. There were lights coming toward them from all sides. “Everyone, grab on to Shadow and Rodin!”

As everyone grabbed on to the two, Shadow and Rodin both held the Chaos Emerald. “Chaos Control!” The Emerald began to slowly hum as it glowed with a faint red light and emit red lightning. The group then teleported away from the beams of light as the beams struck the ground.

In the background, the Moon began to fall from the sky, plummeting and destroying the Assist Trophy Apartment. Half of it’s face was one, and it wore an expression of pure anguish and pain. Beams of light slammed the moon until no trace was left.

There was only one question: Where had the Assist Trophy survivors gone?

#smash bros #submission #super smash bros #incorrect super smash bros #Zero #Knuckles #Shadow #Rodin #Bomberman #Lyn #Nightmare #Alucard #Shovel Knight #Megaman #Sonic the Hedgehog #Bayonetta #Fire Emblem #Castlevania #story

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artsybanchou · 6 years ago

Photo

OOf. I gots another AU, everyone. Sorry.

Technically, I’ve got another roughly seven or so because Detroit: Become Human is just begging for crossover AUs with other fandoms. This one is a Merlin: Become Human AU. Some info is in the really quick doodles I did above. The rest will be below the cut so I don’t clutter people’s dashes.

HOO Boi, you fool! Clicking on that keep reading link, welcome to my hell. My brain won’t stop churning these out and apparently you want in on that. I’ll hit you with what I’ve been thinking about regarding this so far. I welcome discussion. If you’ve got ideas relating to this or want to participate with me, go ham in the comments or make your own post and just tag me or use Merlin:Become Human AU in the tags so I can see how you’ve expanded on it!

General Premise:

Merlin is an android (not sent by Cyberlife). He’s actually an independent prototype, unlicensed and unregistered, created by a disgruntled former Cyberlife employee (Gaius) who felt that Androids and their AI had reached a point that they should be recognized as an intelligent species with their own rights. Cyberlife disagreed and Gaius left the company because of what he perceived as their immorality. Gaius, now working on his own in the middle of nowhere with no oversight, makes the one of a kind Merlin. Merlin is designed to look and act incredibly human, even moreso than most androids. His programming, in particular, is designed to heavily encourage deviation and machine learning in the hopes that Merlin will advance so far beyond his original coding that he is virtually unrecognizable when compared to how he began, emulating the kind of growth that makes humans seem so alive. Another feature Merlin is programmed to have in order to appear more human is the ability to change how old he appears to be (to reflect on Merlin’s frequent age changing shenanigans in the original show). Merlin is also given an atypically large amount of information about technology and programming so that he can have the ability to grapple with his own existence in the same way humans do when studying biology, psychology, or neurology. What this means, though, is that Merlin is able to accomplish feats akin to magic (heh) with technology. Probably even reprograms himself on occasion or changes his own hardware just because he can.

So Merlin is born and he’s a pretty great success. Gaius feels as though he really is living with a petulant, sassy late teens/early 20s human being. Sometimes, he genuinely forgets Merlin is an android. So does Merlin. These two are out in the middle of nowhere living their best life with a few others (maybe Hunith-- good mother figure for Merlin, could be andoird or human). This eventually develops into Merlin having to go to High School or college. Maybe Merlin watched too much TV with that setting and became unbearably curious and annoying about going, maybe Gaius wanted to prove that humans and androids could not only coexist but it’d be so incredibly seamless that no one would even notice anything-- maybe a little bit of both. High School or College are good settings for Merlin to test out his immersion because of his own youthful demeanor (aka abundance of snark and attitude).

MERLIN GOES TO SCHOOL.

I think we all know what happens from here.

Merlin arrives at his first day of school to a scene of Arthur and some other kids knocking around an android who is gardening on campus. Merlin gets pissed and intervenes, because while he’d seen stuff about people hating androids on the net, he’d never experienced it in real life. Arthur tells Merlin to back off and that he and his friends can do whatever they want to the android because his family can pay the school for damages to their property since his family is rich. Merlin gets sassy (”You sure you can afford that? I’d assume that if you had enough money to replace an android, you’d have enough to fix your awful personality.”) Conversation continues, maybe roughly in the vein of:

Arthur: “Dude, chill. This thing is just an object. Why are you getting so pissy about this?”

Merlin: “Do you even know the first thing about androids? Because my bet is no.”

Arthur: “Excuse me, I’ll have you know I’m--”

*Merlin shoves everyone away from the android so he can examine the gardener and finds both the audio and visual processing units are damaged (the ones that Marcus damaged in the one scene, spoilers? I’m trying to be vague don’t mind me).*

Merlin: “You damaged this android’s __ and __. He has completely lost the ability to see and hear and yet you keep kicking him. I don’t suppose any of you remember the last group of humans that found fun in assaulting the disabled.”

Merlin probably insults the intelligence of Arthur and all of his friends (well, I can’t say I’m surprised. None of you look like someone passing history class). Arthur fires back about Merlin being a bleeding heart or some shit. Arthur reveals he is the son of the politician leading the anti-android movement. Now that Arthur knows this new guy is an android-apologist, Arthur declares Merlin had better watch his back. Merlin gives him a sassy response in the way of that not being how a politician’s son should behave, probably. From there on Merlin and Arthur frequently but heads over the treatment of androids and androids’ rights.

There will, of course, be other shenanigans going on. Merlin is going to be incredibly odd, as he learned how one acts in High School/College from TV and maybe webcomics so he has trouble fitting in at first. He definitely makes friends though, because that’s just who Merlin is. Eventually, he’ll also stumble into Arthur’s friendship, although at this point I have no idea how.

Last thoughts:

These are my less developed ideas, although the above can hardly be called developed either.

Being an android is parallel for being a magic user. Hence Merlin being an android disguised as a human who is standing up for android rights.

Morgana is probably an android, assuming we stick to this idea. She might not know it or just be hiding it, but Uther would know and it would be a prime highlight of the hypocrisy he is known for. Morgana would likely also be a very unique android, possibly a gift from Cyberlife to Uther. Finding out that she is an android could be a great moment of tension for both Morgana and Arthur as their confidence in the man they believed to be their father was shaken.

Ooo, what if Morgana was an experimental android in aging technology. She was gifted to Uther as a baby and every year she has a “check-up” where her AI is transplanted into a slightly larger android body to mimic the process of growing up. She could be unconscious during these check ups and hence it would be perfectly natural for her not to realize that she is an android. As for why Uther would accept this gift, I have no idea.

Because of Merlin’s ability to change the age he appears, it would make sense if Gaius was the head of the project Morgana was the android of before he left. Gaius could be the expert on aging technology in androids. It could be that seeing the humanity in Morgana as she slowly grew up alongside her human brother was what pushed Gaius over the edge in demanding that androids be seen as human because he feared what would happen to Morgana if the public ever found out.

Some kind of android purge taking place in the story, possibly due to the events in Detroit, would be a great arc for the characters where everyone has a new conflict to worry about. Whether or not Arthur knows how many of his closest friends and family members are androids at this point-- I have no idea. I want to see Arthur agressively protecting Morgana, but at the same time an enthusiatic Arthur participating in the purging until he discovers his own sister should be the target of his rage would be an incredibly palpable moment and just-- there is a lot to consider.

So yeah. That’s roughly where I am now with all of this. If you want to expand on this, do it. I want to hear other people’s ideas. If you make your own post (speculation, fanfic, fanart, telling me I’m full of shit) about it tag me or use the hashtag Merlin:BecomeHumanAU so I can see! I have no idea when I’m going to post about this specific AU again, because I’ve got six other D:BH AUs I want to just throw out here into the void first, but seeing other people’s theories and thoughts on things like this always gets me energized.

THanks for scrolling through this disorganized monster of my thoughts. This was probably a lot to deal with.

#my art #Merlin:BecomeHumanAU #merlin #Arthur #bbc merlin #detroit become human #d:bh #merthur #maybe

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huntertales · 7 years ago

Text

Let’s Write a Different Ending: Chapter Two.

Pairing: Sam Winchester x Prophet!Reader

Word Count: 3,492. // Episode Setting: The Monster at the End of This Book.

Summary: What if the “Supernatural” book series wasn’t written by Chuck Shurley? Instead, by a young woman named Y/N Y/L/N? She finds herself living out her most recent story—about the end of the world, an archangel whose sworn to protect her is moonlighting as a trickster and two fictional characters by the name of Sam and Dean are about to drag her straight into it. (Semi-rewrite from episode 4.18 The Monster at the End of This Book to—?)

Previous Part | Full Masterlist

When you were much younger, when your writing abilities consisted of nothing more than short stories you scribbled down in composition notebooks you abandoned for new ones and doodles of creatures your mind that you imagined, you made a wish one year on your birthday that everything you wrote would come true. You had to be no longer than seven or eight, too naive to know that it was impossible. The things you wrote down were just stories, they only were real inside your mind. It was an escape from reality. That was the reason why you wrote in the first place, to create a world that wasn’t your own.

You wrote the “Supernatural” books because it felt like a world that was exciting, with characters that you made up in your mind. You gave up a long time ago about that little dream. Only it was coming true. Maybe. In all honesty, you didn’t know what the hell was going on anymore.

You sat at the kitchen table with a fresh cup of coffee in your hands and Winchester at your feet, happily devouring a pork bone from last night’s dinner. You hadn’t said a single world since you stepped back into your house. You felt like you were on autopilot while you continued on with your usual morning routine. 11:15 was around the time you had the third cup of coffee and gave Winchester his bone as a treat after breakfast. The only thing that was different that two strangers—two people who were a figment of your imagination—were standing in your kitchen.

“I’m having a mental breakdown. It’s the only explanation for what’s going on right now.” You mumbled to yourself, shaking your head as you brought up the cup to your lips to take a drink of the coffee that was still burning hot. You didn’t even flinch when the liquid burned slightly going down your throat. You shut your eyes for a second and inhaled a deep breath, calming yourself before opening them up again. You could feel the tightness remain in your chest you saw them again. Dean leaning against the door frame and Sam resting his hands on the chair. “Oh, God. You’re still there.”

“Yup.”

“You’re not a hallucination.”

“Nope.”

You leaned back in your seat and ran your fingers through your hair. You tried to ignore them for long as you could, pretending you were alone. You tried to keep your eyes away from them, however, you slowly moved your eyes away from the fridge, watching them man from the corner of your eye. Sam Winchester, the man who you had written dozens upon dozens of books about. Standing in your kitchen, staring at you. You staring at him. Your lips stretched into a faint smile, knowing exactly what he’s capable of. Hoping he wouldn’t try and kill you like some sort of monster.

"So, let me get this straight. I write things and they come to life. I mean, if you two are here alive and in the flesh...Oh, God. The things I’ve done.” You found yourself suddenly overwhelmed at the memories of what you wrote from the very first book...up until just an hour ago from when you were disturbed. “The things I put you two through—the physical beatings alone.”

“Yeah, you don’t need to get so choked up about it.” Dean said. “We’re still in one piece.”

“I killed your father. I burned your poor mother alive. And then you had to go through the whole horrific deal with Jessica again.” You apologized for the crappy situation you put them through at the expense of your own personal emotions at the time while writing. Sam didn’t so heartbroken about it as he mumbled your name, trying to get you to focus. But you couldn’t. “All for what? All for the sake of literary symmetry. I toyed with your lives, your emotions, for...entertainment.”

“You didn’t toy with us, Y/N, okay?” Dean said, trying to get the reality of the situation through your mind so you could focus on answering their questions. “You didn’t create us.”

It sounded so easy to think that. But you were freaking out on the inside. You needed to be sure that he was right, that the two men standing in your kitchen were real. Inhaling a deep breath, you pushed yourself up to your feet and gathered all the courage you had and approached the two men. You slowly brought up your hand and...poked Sam right in the chest, feeling flesh and clothes. A human body. You fully expected this, but for some reason, you acted like a small child confronting a monster, jumping slightly in the air. You scrambled back to your seat, avoiding eye contact with the young man from what you had done.

“Okay...you’re really real. Not a figment of my imagination.” You muttered to yourself, suddenly feeling more relieved at the fact that these two men were real. The whole supernatural universe you had created was real. “Did you really have to live through the bugs?”

Sam looked over at his brother from the questions you were asking before he answered, “Yeah.”

“Ooh. That gave me nightmares for days. I don’t know why I thought that...why I even published that piece of crap.” You said, your nose scrunched up slightly from the things your mind was able to come up with all on its own. Only the expression dropped when you thought about another book that was just as terrifying. “Wait. What about the ghost ship?”

“Yes,” Dean answered with a quick response. You could tell from his body language that he was growing agitated from what was going on here, but he was trying his hardest to be calm with you from the way you were acting. But you were too nervous to realize. “That too.”

"Oh. Let me just say this, I am so, so sorry for what I've done. I mean, horror is one thing, but to be forced to live through my bad writing...Eck. Eighteen year old me wasn’t the best. But thanks to you guys, I paid my way through college." You said with a smile at your accomplishment. Neither one of them changed their serious, blank expressions. “Look, if I would have known all of this,” You gestured a hand to them, “Was real, I would have done another pass.”

“Y/N, listen to me. From what I can gather you seem like a sweet, very smart girl.” Dean said. He approached the table where you sat and stood next to his brother. “Believe me when I say you did not create us. Everything you wrote about is real. But you didn’t make it up.”

“What?” You asked, stopping dead in your movement from what you heard. You felt your voice shift into almost a whispering sound, too quiet for you to hear. Everything was happening all at once, too fast for your brain to comprehend the comfortable reality being pulled out from beneath your feet. “So you’re saying...”

“Everything is real. Monsters, angels, demons. All those things you wrote about happened. But you weren’t the one who made it up. You were just the unfortunate sucker who had to see it.” Dean said, giving you the God’s honest truth about was happening. Your eyes moved away from him and to around your kitchen. You didn’t know if you wanted to faint or throw up. “Sorry, kid. It’s a lot to take in. We know.”

You grew up believing monsters were just made up things. They were only real in the sense of your imagination and stories you wrote for entertainment. Turns out you were wrong. The supernatural creatures you thought only lived in books and lore were real. It was under nose this entire time, and you had no clue. Suddenly you felt like you were a character in one of the books you wrote about, the bystander having the talk with Sam and Dean about the supernatural. The world you thought you created.

“So…” You shifted slightly in your seat. “Why the hell have I been dreaming about this?”

“We think you’re probably just psychic.” Sam said. Your brow raised slightly from his presumption, only providing more questions than answers for either one of you. “It seems that somehow, you’re just...focused on our lives.”

“Yeah, like laser-focused.” Dean added. “Are you working on anything right now?”

You nodded your head slowly to answer the man’s question. You were editing a piece you were working on last night before you forced yourself to go to bed when dawn was just a few hours away. You only slept for a few hours, eager to wake up early to continue a routine you slipped into a few months ago after graduating. Writing a story nobody would ever read came a habit of yours because it was a fun way to pass the time, something you could do to forget about your troubles. When you realized what part of the story you were editing, panic fell into your face, making the boys suddenly appear cautious, wondering what was wrong.

“Oh, crap.” You muttered underneath your breath. You pushed yourself up to your feet and went to your office that was just in the next room to fetch the papers you were supposed to be editing. Coming back to the kitchen, you placed down the pages and slid them over to the boys. “The, uh, latest book. It’s, uh, it’s kind of weird.”

“‘Weird’ how?” Sam cautiously asked.

“It’s very...Vonnegut.” You said, giving him a feel of what you were trying to accomplish.

"'Slaughterhouse-five' Vonnegut or 'Cat's Cradle,' Vonnegut?" Dean asked.

You knew exactly what he was going to say. And you knew Sam was going to mumble “What?” in a surprised tone, not expecting such a scholarly guess to come out from his brother's mouth. He thought the man’s only source of reading material outside of lore books were

articles about what frisky woman's favorite activities were. They were good guesses, but he was off. They weren't books, per se, more of a fictional being breaking the fourth wall.

“It’s, uh, ‘Kilgore Trout,’ Vonnegut. I wrote myself into it. I wrote myself, at my house...confronted by my characters.” You said, trying to explain the situation more to yourself at the mess you made. You didn't know what was going on, you didn't know what to process first. Monsters were real. Two people you had been writing about for years were real. They weren't figments of your imagination. You rubbed your eyes in frustration, not seeing the uneasy looks the brothers shared from what was happening. "I need a drink."

+ + +

Dean sat in the almost empty laundromat, the only soul besides his and his brother was an older gentleman folding his darks after pulling them out of the dyer. The older Winchester peered over his shoulder when he read the passage from the newest part of the novel Y/N had been working on. His mind was comprehending the situation he landed himself in. About how meta his life had become. How he was sitting exactly how he was reading it. Every little action. An endless cycle.

“I’m sitting in a laundromat, reading about myself sitting in a laundromat, reading about myself—my head hurts.” Dean stopped himself from trying to comprehend what the hell he was reading anymore. He furrowed his brow slightly when he found his eyes landing onto the part where his supposed fictional self thought about how the writing had slightly improved.

“There’s got to be something this girl’s not telling us.” Sam said.

Dean glanced down back to the papers to read off the passage after his brother repeated word for word from the story. “‘Sam tossed his gigantic darks into the machine. He was starting to have doubts about Y/N, about whether she was telling the whole truth.’”

“Stop it.” Sam warned his brother.

“‘Stop it,’ Sam said.” Dean repeated what his brother said, a smirk curling at the ends of his lips at how easy he was easy to get all riled up. “Guess what you do next.” Sam didn’t say a word, he wouldn’t give his brother satisfaction of being right. Only he was. “‘Sam turned his back on Dean. His face, brooding and pensive.’ I mean, I don’t know how this chick is doing it, but she’s doing it. I can’t see your face, but those are definitely your ‘brooding and pensive’ shoulders.”

Dean looked down at the papers, wondering what was going to come next so he could read it out loud and piss off his brother even more. When he read the next line, it wasn't dialogue, but a personal thought the younger man had. He furrowed his brow when he read a line that wasn’t so nice. “You just thought I was a dick.”

Sam turned around to face his brother, impressed how quick you were. Never missing a beat, never missing an emotion or personal thought one of them had. "She's good."

+ + +

You've written all sorts of different things during the "Supernatural" series. Things from violence to heartbreaking stories that made you shed a few tears, to monsters and side characters you found yourself killing off to keep the plot going. What wasn't in every book was explicit scenes. All out in the open, nothing to leave to the imagination. You added it into a few novels because you felt it was the right mood. And your publisher urged you not to be shy about "letting it all flow to the pages." Sex was just a small part to the scene, Dean sleeping with Cassie, a woman he fell in love with for a few weeks. Sam being intimate with Madison, the first woman he truly loved after his beloved Jess passed away.

You had another dream like that last night after you went to your local liquor store and picked up a bottle of your favorite of wine. You by yourself with a clean glass and drank...and drank until you passed out on your couch, only to wake up with Winchester’s wet nose pressed against your cheek, trying to get you to break out from the deep slumber that took a physical toll on your body after a while. This time when you woke up, you didn’t feel rested, you were emotionally drained from coming to terms with everything. Part of it was the reality of the situation that you were living with the supernatural right under your nose. The other was the disturbing dream—or was it a vision?—you had. You didn’t question what it was. You went straight to your office and wrote everything you remembered down.

Winchester sat on the couch you had been sleeping on previously this morning. He stared at the two men you called over just an hour ago before you managed to get the time to take a quick shower so you didn’t smell like sweat and cheap wine. Your dog was rather friendly being that he was a larger one of the breed. He was friendly to strangers and sociable, he didn't bark at small dogs and listened to any command you gave him. While you fetched the papers from your office, Winchester sat, sat straight at Dean, with a look in his small eyes that made the older man shift uncomfortably in his seat. He was being stared down by a dog.

“Uh, thanks for coming." You emerged from the office and headed to your living room where you told the two men to sit. Dean was on the loveseat and Sam remained standing, leaning himself against the bookshelf with all sorts of novels and framed pictures of your life over the years. “I, uh…” You lifted up the papers to gesture what you were trying to say, but you couldn’t get anything to come out. Not a single word or sound. You found yourself overcome with anxiety as you stared at the two men, the reality of the situation hitting you all over again.

"So..." Sam must've sensed your nervous behavior was making you a sudden mute. He raised his brow slightly and took a guess to what you were trying to say. "You wrote another chapter."

You nodded your head, swallowing down the fear best as you could so you could tell them what you saw. "Sorry." You whispered your apology for behavior that wasn't normally like you. Your lips stretched into a small smile before looking back down at the papers, all before you let out a sigh, knowing how much of an idiot you were acting like right now. "This was all so much easier before you were real.”

“Well, we are. Whatever you got, we can take it.” Dean reassured you. “Just spit it out.”

“Yeah, uh..." You glanced down at the papers, skimming the words you hasty wrote before looking back over at the man. "You especially are not gonna like this."

“I didn’t like hell, kid.” Dean said. “Tell us.”

You let out a sigh and came right out with it, “It’s Lilith. She’s coming for Sam.”

Dean’s expression dropped into shock at the information you told him. The demon that wanted his younger brother's head on a stick, the one who toyed with a poor family's sanity and killed the very man who sat on your very piece of furniture you bought for yourself after moving out. All of it was details, but you knew that she wasn’t a force to be reckoned with. She made it quite clear she wanted the Winchesters out of her way.

“Coming to kill him?”

“When?”

“Tonight.” You answered the younger man’s question first, leaving his brother left to wonder for a moment what was going to happen.

"She's just gonna show up?” Dean asked. “Here?"

You moved your way to the couch to take a seat, Winchester scooched himself closer to you and rested his head on top of your legs, getting himself comfortable like how he would always do. You let out a sigh as you began to flip through the papers to the part that you wrote last night. Clearing your throat, you cringed slightly at what you were about to do and the lack of editing. You didn’t really want to tell them straight out, you felt it was better to read what came to you last night.

“‘Lilith padded the bed seductively. Unable to deny his desire, Sam succumbed, and they sank into the throes of fiery demonic passion.’” You bit your bottom lip from how badly it sounded. You should have just handed them to Dean and let him read it for himself. The man stared at you, a bit lost for his own words at what you read out loud. Sam, however, has no trouble showing his reaction. He let out a loud laugh, thinking all of this was some kind of joke.

“You’re kidding me, right?” Sam asked. Dean looked over at his brother, wondering if he thought this whole situation was funny. "And you don't? I mean, come on. 'Fiery demonic passion'?"

“Don’t need to be rude.” You mumbled, suddenly feeling the need to defend yourself against your wording choice. “It’s just a first draft.”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait.” Dean quickly repeated himself. He got a wrong vibe about this situation.

Last time they saw Lilith in the flesh, her meatsuit wasn’t any one a man would desire to spend a night of passion with. “Lilith is a little girl.”

“No, uh, this time she’s a,” You looked down a the paper to remember the new body she chose to try and seduce Sam. “’Comely dental hygienist from Bloomington, Indiana.’”

“Great. Perfect.” Dean spoke between clenched teeth. You swallowed slightly at his reaction. You knew he was pissed at what you told him. “So what happens after the…’fiery demonic’ whatever?”

“I don’t know.” You admitted, shrugging your shoulders. “That hasn't come to me yet.”

"Dean, look, there's nothing to worry about. Lilith and me? In bed?" Sam asked, smiling slightly as he continued to treat this situation like it was all some big joke. He wanted to kill the demon, not spend a night with her. “You seriously believe this crap?”

“She hasn’t been wrong about anything yet.” Dean pointed out.

“And it’s not the first time you slept with a demon…” You found yourself letting out a personal thought out into the open than thinking to yourself. When you heard the room suddenly go quiet, you looked up from the papers to see two sets of eyes on you. Your face dropped slightly in surprise at what you said, not meaning to say that out loud.

“How does this whole psychic thing of yours work?” Dean asked, ignoring your snarky remark that came out of nowhere and Sam’s least bit amused expression.

“It usually starts with a headache. I thought when I first started writing it was just due to stress from what was going on. When it gets too bad, I take this medication that makes me pass out." You explained to them. "The first time it happened, I thought it was just a crazy dream."

“The first time you dreamt about us?” Dean asked, you nodded your head.

"Mmhm. It just...flowed. I wrote the first chapter because the idea wouldn't leave my head. I thought that once I got it out of my system that would be the end of it. I mean, I didn't really stick to a lot of stories at the time." You admitted, shrugging your shoulders. "But it wasn't. I kept having dreams...and I don't know. It felt natural to write it. My parents were the ones who encouraged me to keep going and to publish the books. So I did. The dreams never stopped coming to me. Writing was the only thing that felt right to do with it.”

Sam, who was listening to every word that you said, found it a little funny that you had a personal meaning behind what you did. You looked over at him when he stood there with a smile stretched across his lips. You narrowed your eyes on him when he thought you were full of crap. "You can't seriously believe—"

“Humor me.” Dean cut off his little brother. He pushed himself up to his feet and decided to try and come up with a plan that everyone could agree with. “Look, why don’t we just…” You raised your arm with the papers of the newest part of the story when Dean walked your way. He stopped when he realized what you did. You gave him a smile when he grabbed them. “Take a look at these and see what’s what. You—”

“Knew you were gonna ask for that.” You finished his sentence. You saw Dean’s tongue press itself against this cheek, trying not to make a remark about how weird that was. “Yeah.”

You let out a quiet sigh as you looked down at Winchester, your hand subconsciously running your fingers through his long fur at the situation that was going on. He let out a low whine and snuggled himself closer like he was trying to comfort you, as if he could sense the anxiety rushing through your mind. Fiction was reality. Reality was fiction. You leaned back against the couch, attempting not to have an anxiety attack from what was going on...at least not in front of the boys. You’d wait until they left for you to do that.

[Next Part]

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