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intplayboy · 2 years ago

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TOUCH - MAFIA! BTS OT7 X F! READER [ TWO ]

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summary: yoongi gets stuck in an awkward situation. and the next day, the gang is confronted with startling evidence that makes them rethink all they've known about their world over the last two decades and drives them to set out to investigate the truth.

pairings: mafia bts ot7 x experimented human female reader

warnings: mentions of guns, explosions, bone breaking, swearing, and violence.

word count: 8,094 (combined two chapters again)

masterpost | one | three

tag list: @juju-227592, @drunkzseok, @yourgirlcin, @babybunli, @xanny91, @bibetsa, @borahae-reads, @lalavione1309, @luvsbngtn, @tetehearts, @singukieee, @serendididy, @quixoticbittersweet, @iriaachan, @jksisbunntboy, @missseoulite, @xjiminsthighsx, @just-vaaalll, @chim-possible, @passionandsuga, @deadrose287, @kalala22, @bangtanxberm, @scuzmunkie, @sunoosult, @germ2001, @lovelgirl22, @thvkives, @kourtney-fairy-blog, @linlinlily, @getinthetardissammy-sh, @prakriti-j, @paramedicnerd004, @cuteipat, @iamkookiesforyou (the tags that are strikethrough could not be tagged)

copyright © 2022 by kumiko. all rights reserved. my works or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without express written permission from me except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

"Here's the room." Yoongi huffs, as he opens the door, revealing another extravagant room. And it's conveniently the farthest away from the rest of us, so we don't have to deal with you, he thought.

You remain in your place, unsure of what to do, causing him to turn to face you. "What are you waiting for? Go in and take a look, you might be staying here for a while anyway."

You then enter the elegantly designed room and instinctively turn your head to study the area. "This... mine?"

"No, it's simply a place for you to sleep for the time being. It isn't yours." He spat, desperate to get out of this predicament that had been forced upon him.

30 minutes ago

"Why me! Ask Jimin, Jungkook, or even Taehyung! They're the ones who are most interested in this problem." He argues.

"You were being an asshole to her, that's why. I understand that this is a strange and unfamiliar circumstance for all of us, but she still managed to heal me." Namjoon reasoned, but Yoongi's agitated expression stayed the same. "Hobi-hyung, Jin-hyung? A little help here?"

"Leave Hobi out of this." The man with the scar hissed.

The blonde-haired man sighed. "Well, I did vote for her to stay. And this is because, after observing her, she didn't appear to be a threat."

"Not yet at least." He scoffs.

"How about looking at it this way, she could be a useful asset to us." Jin pitched in.

Yoongi's brows furrowed at him. "How?"

"She did heal Namjoon. Those kinds of injuries normally take days to completely heal, but she did it in an instant." He explains. "You can't tell me something like that isn't advantageous."

Namjoon nods. "Jin is right. Perhaps having her stay will benefit all of us."

"Or it might prove to be problematic for us. You're all being overoptimistic."

"And you're being overly pessimistic." The leader snaps back.

Oranyan clenches his jaw. "Well, I'm sorry if I want to protect all of us, and the years of blood, sweat, and tears we invested in."

"That is not anything you should be concerned about. That is not your job; it is mine." Namjoon narrows his gaze.

The words of the leader leave him slightly stunned, rendering him speechless as he takes a step back. How could he go against it, knowing how right he was?

"Fine. I'll take care of that measly girl for you." He scoffs as he walks out of the room, the tension in the air never dissipating.

back to present

"—ank you," Yoongi is snapped out of his thoughts by an innocent tiny voice belonging to the nameless girl.

"What did you say?" He asks, startled.

You glance at him warily. "T-thank you. R-room is nice."

When he notices your demeanor towards him, a small twinge of guilt rushes through him. But he immediately ignores it, remembering that you're the cause of his and Namjoon's disagreement.

"Uh- Sure? It's the smallest room out of all the rooms, I really don't see what's great about it." He mutters the last sentence.

For a few minutes, there was an awkward silence between the two of you before he clears his throat. "Well, um- Jin hyung is going to make dinner tonight, so just wait for his call in here till then."

You nod quietly, but Yoongi had already left the room.

A few hours later, Jin serves two large platters of freshly cooked Mandu and Bossam, as well as a sautee pot of Kimchi Jjigae. "Hey, everyone! Dinners ready, come down!"

Within a minute, multiple pairs of footsteps sounded, as the group comes towards the dining room. They all took their seats and began loading their plates and bowls before devouring the mouthwatering feast their hyung had prepared.

Minutes passed, and Jin felt as though something had been forgotten until it suddenly dawned on him. "Hey, where's the girl?"

Everyone shrugs silently, completely focused on their food, causing the eldest to sigh and then turn to face Yoongi. "Where is she?"

The addressed man knew he was being spoken to even without looking. He slurps his bowl and mumbles. "She's in the white room."

"The what-?" The hacker scrunched his brows.

"The white room." He repeated while Jin's eyes bulge in response. "Yoongi, that's a long way from our rooms! Why is she all the way over there?!"

"Hey, all you said was show her a room to stay in. You didn't say which room." He defended himself.

Namjoon merely shook his head and continued to eat. "Quit being a smartass, Yoongi."

The master manipulator smirks condescendingly at his leader. "I'm not wrong, am I though?"

"Watch it." The younger glares at him.

Jin, frustrated with the quarrel, lets out an exasperated sigh, cutting them off. "That's enough. I'll just deliver the food to her."

But, just as the eldest is about to rise from his seat, Namjoon stops him. "It's alright, hyung. Since Yoongi wants to act like the smartass he is, he should deliver the girl the dinner. You've worked hard enough already."

Jin leans back hesitantly as the tension comes back, and the other four men watch them silently. Namjoon's eyes never left Yoongi as did Yoongi's. The staredown lasts for what seems like hours before Oranyan huffs, rolling his eyes, and rises from his seat. "Fine. This is the last time I'm doing something for that girl."

Yoongi grudgingly walks along the lengthy corridor until arriving at the white room's door. He knocks on the door with one hand, holding the silver tray, but is met with silence.

He pinched his brows and twists the doorknob, pushing the door open. He then notices the girl dressed in his dongsaeng's clothes standing in front of the absurdly high window. He draws her attention with a clear throat. 007 turns to face him, then notices the meal tray he's carrying.

You blink. "What is that?"

"Jin hyung made dinner. He called all of us, but you didn't hear."

You remained still. That was what you were trained to do all your life. That's all you know: talk only when spoken to. And do as they say or face the consequences. Though you were allowed to ask a few innocent questions, you were smart enough to know that you needed to be cautious with your remarks.

"Well come over here and eat." He speaks.

"O-okay." You squeak as you crossed the room to Yoongi and stop in front of him.

He places the dinner tray on a little white coffee table and motions for you to take a seat next to it. You take your seat, finally seeing the warm meal in front of you.

With a blank face, he says. "Go, eat."

You plunged right into the meal, having forgotten how hungry you were. You ate with your bare hands, ignoring the spoon and chopsticks on either side of the tray. You had no idea what those were as you never had the luxury of having a delicious meal in such a humane manner.

The master manipulator stands a bit flabbergasted but doesn't show it, as you shove the contents into your mouth with your hands. For a bit, he doesn't do anything, waiting if you'll use the utensils that are plainly in front of you, but obviously, you don't.

He lets out an annoyed sigh and hesitantly crouches next to you, making you pause with a mouthful of food. "You do realize you don't have to use your hands?"

You tilt your head, as you usually do when they say something completely new to you. Yoongi takes a spoon in one hand and metal chopsticks in the other. "This is a spoon—" Then he waves the chopsticks. "And these are chopsticks."

"These are here to help you eat cleaner. I'll show you." He takes a spoonful of rice and dips half of it into the Kimchi Jjigae. He then takes the chopsticks and demonstrates by picking up a piece of pork and placing it on the rice, then bringing it to you. "You then bring it to your mouth and eat it."

You suddenly lean forward, clamping your mouth around the spoon that he is still holding. Your actions catch him off guard, causing his eyes to widen slightly and resulting in him dropping the spoon onto the tray.

He leaps away from you, feeling completely flustered. "Y-ya! What are you doing?!"

"When I brought to you, I meant for you to take it yourself! Not-" He exclaims, leaving no time for you to respond.

He exhales sharply. "I'm gonna grab napkins. You, just try to use the utensils like a normal person."

He pivots around and walks to the connected bathroom. Taking a few minutes to locate the roll of paper towels. He finally finds the paper towel and rips two out before exiting the restroom.

As he steps out, he hears metal clattering. He sets his eyes on the weird girl who is desperately trying to pick up a piece of food with chopsticks, just as he had earlier demonstrated for you.

He remained there silently observing you as you tried, again and again, to pick up the piece of pork that continued to fall pathetically every time you gripped it. And every time it falls, he notices your frustrated look.

The crease between your brows and the slight pout formed by the corners of your lips curving downward. His gaze never leaves you as he stands only a few feet away from you. How innocent, what if... What? You dare to complete that thought Min Yoongi, he muses.

Was it a faint spark he felt when he saw your childlike expression? No. It cannot or should not be. There is no room for such feelings anyway.

She won't get any food in her system at this rate. She's completely helpless... He mentally scoffs, unable to believe this is you, the girl referred to by his hyung as a "useful" asset for their infamous formidable gang. They must be joking, he discreetly clicks his tongue. How can this nameless girl be useful to them when she couldn't even eat properly?

Then he did what he does best: he pushed any soft feelings aside and approached your struggling figure abruptly. "Here— take this. Wipe your hands. I'll just do it for you because you're incompetent at it."

You couldn't help but gaze at him before grabbing the paper towel. You watch him as he takes a nearby stool to sit alongside you before noticing you haven't yet cleaned your hands. "Didn't I tell you to wipe your hands?"

He sighs grumpily. "How could I forget... You seem clueless to everything as Jungkook says." He then grabs your napkin and starts wiping the food crumbs from your hands.

He picked up the utensils and put chunks of food on the spoon before giving it to you. And, understanding his gestures, you leaned forward, latching your mouth around the spoon as you had done previously.

He couldn't help but feel hot on his cheeks as he continued to feed you. Why is he even doing this in the first place? Right. He did it because that scoundrel of a leader ordered him to. And only him, because he decided it was best to be wary around a girl they'd only just met, who miraculously healed their leader.

Once you finished your meal, thanks to the scarred-face man, a sudden knock erupted at the door. Yoongi instantly rose from his position, unwilling to risk being caught for such an intimate act on his case.

"Is everything okay in there-? Did she eat her food? You didn't do anything, right Yoongi?" Jin nags from the other side of the door.

The younger just rolled his eyes, disregarding the fact that his hyung couldn't see him. "No, I didn't do anything. But, yeah, she finished her food."

"You can come in, I'm leaving anyway." He hurriedly collects the meal tray, without looking at the girl, and walks towards the door.

Jin flings open the door, startled at Yoongi's appearance. "What's got you in such a rush-?"

The cold-hearted man simply brushes by him and strides out of the room, leaving the latter to huff. "Ya! If you know any better, you ought to drop that attitude!"

"Aish, what a kid." He mutters as he sees his dongsaeng quietly proceed down the hall.

Jin shifts his attention to the petite figure seated on the large chair and staring at him.

He approached her with a tight smile. "Hello."

"H-Hi." You reply softly.

"How did the food taste?" He asks.

"Good. W-was good." You respond, making the man grin, which makes you smile back.

He faintly chuckles at your reaction but then switches to a playful stern expression. "I hope Yoongi wasn't too patronizing— was he nice to you?"

You hummed politely. "He was..." Then you mimic his dongsaeng feeding you, using cute gestures.

"Oh..?" He lifts his brows, musing. "He did that?"

Jin crosses his arms, and you nod. "How interesting..."

"Well, I'm glad you enjoyed the food. I just came in to make sure you're okay." He clarifies.

Unlike the rest excluding Taehyung, Jin was arguably the one who exhibited more of a softer side for people; while being part of a merciless gang that might be regarded as heartless, he was still someone you could easily befriend. But the biggest warning anybody can provide about him is to never take advantage of his kindness; he's not the most forgiving person, and he'll show it to you.

Just as it is easy to be disgustingly greedy, the expert hacker will simply make you regret doing wrong. He'll make sure your sins come back to haunt you—and ruin you to the point where you're begging on your knees for that far-reaching forgiveness.

The next morning, at eight o'clock, a sudden pounding was heard as a sleeping cat lay dead still in his bed. "Min Yoongi, get your ass up! We have an emergency meeting now!"

As the banging continues, the second-oldest member groans and blinks his eyes open. "Alright! I'm awake!"

He sat up grudgingly, rubbing his eyes in annoyance and subconsciously plotting to kill the person who had dared to disrupt his precious sleep. But when an emergency meeting is called, he has no choice but to stop everything and hurry to meet the rest of the group.

After freshening up, he finally arrives at their conference room. He is greeted by the other six members, whilst their leader stands in the far front, with his back to them.

Namjoon turns around and faces them as soon as Yoongi takes a seat. "Good. Everyone is here."

"I'm sure you're wondering why I called this meeting so suddenly." He begins.

"And why so damn early too..." Mumbles the master manipulator.

The leader's gaze narrows on him. "Pardon?"

He responds with a sarcastic smile. "I said, why did you call so early?"

"Well, allow me to finish then, hm?" Namjoon grits his teeth.

The latter shrugged and he continued. "I gathered you today, and so early if you're bothered— because I received an anonymous tip, and it was a pretty major one."

Jin arches a brow. "A tip? That's the first- we've never gotten a tip before."

"Not to mention an anonymous one. It sounds suspicious." Hoseok adds.

Jimin leans forward, his hands folded on the table. "What exactly is the tip about?"

"Let me correct myself, I received two separate tips but was told they were linked." Namjoon replies.

"I'll start with the first one. The group that ambushed us is working on a large delivery today; I'm not sure what it is, but they want it done quickly and only today." He explains. "And I'm assuming whatever they're delivering must be very important and perhaps quite valuable."

"And the second tip I was given involves your guys' case." Namjoon points to Jungkook and Jimin.

"What do you mean?" Jungkook furrowed his brows.

"According to our source, that same gang was seen making a deal with a man dressed in a suit... In front of the medical facility you're both investigating." He answers.

"That's weird— why is a gang dealing with an owner of a medical building?" Taehyung inquires.

Namjoon shakes his head. "I'm not sure who that man is with whom they negotiated the deal, but it's certainly questionable."

"I think the greater question is, what is a man like him doing meeting with a gang of criminals for?" Yoongi voices out.

The leader merely shrugs. "I don't have an answer for that. Hoseok, what do you think?"

"Perhaps the package might contain useful equipment for the facility." He thinks with his jaw clenched. "But why would that man ask them? It makes no sense."

"Jimin and Jungkook, how about you? Were you both aware of this?" Namjoon addresses them.

Jimin shook his head. "No, we're just as confused as the rest of you."

"Maybe- Jimin might be right about this." Jungkook speculates.

"What do you mean?" Jin asks.

The youngest gives Jimin a brief glance before Jimin speaks for him. "I told him I had a bad feeling about the whole thing..."

"Is there something we should know about?" Namjoon crossed his arms.

"We only checked yesterday— but the medical supplies and equipment went missing so suddenly." Jimin elaborates.

Jin steps forward. "How much are we talking about?"

"Couple dozens... couple dozens of batches." Jungkook responded.

The eldest's eyes widen. "WHAT?!"

"Could that possibly be the delivery?" Taehyung proposes.

Namjoon unfolds his arms. "Given the timing of everything, that seems plausible. It seems to be perfectly aligned—"

"Almost too perfectly." Yoongi interrupts. "How do you know whether what this anonymous person says is true?"

"I received the evidence this morning in the mail."

"Let's see it."

The leader nods, pulling out a clasp envelope and takes a stack of photographs and a flash drive from it. "There is no return address on the mail."

"Obviously." Oranyan mutters.

Namjoon clears his throat audibly. "The package had images of the exchange in action, and the flash drive has data on all of the missing equipment and supplies that are allegedly being delivered today."

"Yes, these are photographs, but do you realize how easy it is these days to edit photos and print them out as if they are real?" Yoongi reacts cynically.

Jin examines the photos more closely and notices something that none of the others can see, which coincidentally contradicts Yoongi's claim. "But, you can't fabricate these types of photos."

Then everyone turned to look at him. "Look at the type of material these photos are. This is a type of camera film that can only be developed with diluted water."

"Which means, it can't be edited. When a photo is taken, it is taken at the exact moment it is intended to capture— So, to put your mind at ease, these are real, and that exchange did occur."

"How about the supplies and equipment on the flash drive." Jimin questioned.

"A separate note said that the data on the flash drive is encrypted. You can still access it right, Jin?" Namjoon refers to the eldest member.

Jin sneered arrogantly. "Do you really need to ask? Of course, I can."

The expert hacker takes the flash drive and sits down at the long table, bringing out his computer. He proceeds by inserting the drive on the side of the computer, and within the next second, his fingers begin hitting the keys at practically lightning speed, with his eyes never leaving the screen.

Soon after, a smug grin formed on his face. "I'll be honest—that was a tenacious firewall they installed, but don't worry, I bypassed it all."

Jin stood up and walked up to the front to connect his computer to the television. The television turns on and displays his computer screen. "All I have to do is press enter, and all the data will be shown to us."

Namjoon nods at him, and Jin returns his nod before hitting the enter key. And then the data is unleashed, with dozens of files popping in rapid sequence. As the electronic beeps of the files fill their ears continuously, the group remains dumbstruck. They were not expecting so much data containing missing supplies and equipment to be uncovered right in front of their eyes.

"Joon, I thought you said the flash drive only had supplies that were expected to be delivered today?" Jimin stares at the screen, baffled.

"These aren't just lists of missing supplies from yesterday; this is the entire history of it all." Jin comments. "Take a look at these dates; they go back almost nineteen years."

"So you're saying this covert operation has been going on all along right under our noses?" Yoongi implied.

Jin faces him. "It appears so."

"For an operation like this to last this long, someone higher must be pulling the strings." Hoseok says.

"Hoseok is right. Now that we have a fresh light—thanks to our anonymous tip—the agenda has been changed—rather than Jungkook and Jimin investigating the facility, it's going to be all hands on deck for this one." Namjoon places his palms on the table and turns to face Jin. "However, Jin, you will have an additional independent task."

Shadow hacker raises his brow, subconsciously urging his leader to carry on. "You need to get all of the information you can on the girl. Anything that can answer every question about her."

"But in the meantime, we have a delivery to catch." The leader smirks slyly.

≫ play track: yes boss - the revenge instrumental ≪

"So- the anonymous tip didn't happen to provide us the location of their base..." Yoongi jokes sarcastically.

"No, however, they did give us the route they're traveling on to the drop-off." Namjoon replies.

The master manipulator's face twisted in confusion. "The route? Why would they do that—" As it finally sinks in, he paused. "You can't be serious..."

Namjoon grins. "I see you caught on. And I am."

Taehyung shifts his eyes between the two. "Serious about what? What is your plan Namjoon?"

"Glad you asked, Taehyung. Here's the plan—" Namjoon types on the touchscreen table, which displays a grid map. "This is the route they intend to take-"

"It's a one-way road." Jungkook intercepts.

Namjoon nods. "Correct. I was initially confused as to why they would give me the route they were taking, but I now understand what they were attempting to convey."

Hoseok crosses his arms. "And just what is that?"

"We'll seize the delivery by striking them here." The leader expands on the touchscreen, zooming onto a selected spot on the map. "They'll be the most susceptible."

"Are you saying you want to stop them during the transport?" Jimin's mouth drops.

"Exactly. It's effective considering they won't expect it at all." The leader continues.

Jungkook exhales, leaning back in his chair. "First of all, why are they going that particular road?"

"Because no one, not even the cops, will be able to track them down there." Jin answers. "There are no cameras on the route, and computer GPS can't detect them. Even I won't be able to get visual— they're smart."

Namjoon tilts his head. "But there is another option. Radio satellite and thermal imaging."

"That may work, but..." Jin trails off.

Yoongi stares at his hyung. "But what?"

"I'd have to hack into the military mainframe." Jin mutters.

The younger scoffs. "That's crazy."

"But it is doable." Namjoon clarifies, and Jin begrudgingly nods.

"It is, but it will take some time if we don't want to be caught and traced."

"That's fine, and we won't." Their leader reassures.

Hoseok takes another look at the grid map of the marked route. "Alright, now that we have visual covered what's your plan on stopping the delivery there?"

"For starters, three trailer trucks will be on the road, one as backup protection and the first two carrying the cargo. So, we take out the third truck first." Namjoon begins. "We'll wait for them in the short tunnel right before the targeted spot. The only way this is going to work is if we all travel separately— which we will do via motorbikes."

He continues. "Jungkook, on the other hand, will be placed somewhere else. He'll serve as our element of surprise. Jungkook will be waiting on top of the tunnel for them to emerge. We won't be able to eliminate the third truck in the tunnel; Jungkook will have to do it."

"Hyung, I'm not sure how that will work." Jungkook comments.

He raises his finger. "I'll get to that— you'll fly the ultralight helicopter to the top of the tunnel, and Jin will act as your eyes and timer from there. Your objective is to set an explosive at the opposite end of the tunnel where they will exit. Before it explodes, you'll need to jump to the first truck. The idea is that the tunnel will collapse on the third truck, terminating it for us."

"What about the rest of us in the tunnel?" Yoongi questions.

"We'll follow them closely, in a single line, so we're out of their line of sight. Then, we'll split off and circle to the front and sides, surrounding the first two trucks." The fourth oldest member answers.

"And after Jungkook lands on the first truck, we'll have to help him in hijacking it, assuming they'll start a gunfight as they drive. Once he's in the truck, the one behind them will have no choice but to stop." He explains. "As soon as the men get out of the trucks, expect further gunplay. But I'm confident we'll all be fine."

"Any questions?" He glances around at his group for a moment before Hoseok starts chuckling.

"This might be one of the most daring plans you've ever conceived, Joonie."

Namjoon smiles cunningly as he shrugs. "We're the mafia, after all. Isn't it our job to be daring?"

"So are we all in agreement?"

Everyone nods and hums, prompting the leader to do the same. "Good, let's gear up then."

≫ stop track ≪

"Wait a minute—what about the girl?" Taehyung inquires.

Yoongi rolls his eyes. "What about her? As long as she stays put here, she'll be fine."

"I can attest to that; from what I've experienced, she's quite obedient." Jimin confirms.

"And, given that we live in the middle of nowhere, I don't believe there's anything to worry about." Adds Jungkook.

"Sun-Woo will be here, so he can keep an eye on her. So, at least she won't be completely alone." Jin pitches in.

Namjoon clapped his hands. "Are we done with the babysitting debate? We don't have much time."

Everyone then exits the meeting room and begins preparing for their hijacking mission.

"I never got the chance to ask, but where will Jin hyung be?" Jungkook inquires as they all load their gear in the garage.

"I'll be stationed close to the road. Don't be concerned about me; you'll see how I'll save your asses again."

The maknae rolls his eyes at his hyung's words, causing the hacker to shrug. "Sorry, can't help myself, I'm both attractive and extraordinarily smart."

"Can you get any more narcissistic?" Jungkook sighs, dejected.

"You're just upset that you can't outwit me." Jin poked out his tongue.

The younger smirks evilly. "Sure, but I can outmuscle you and immobilize you from the neck down."

"Well, I—" Jin attempts to respond but is cut off.

"All right, enough of this. We're wasting time." Irritation clearly heard in Namjoon's tone before he turns around.

With their leader's back to him, it was the maknae's turn to stick his tongue out at the oldest. "Jungkook stop being a child."

Jungkook's expression quickly changes, slightly startled by Namjoon's awareness of his immature behavior without looking. Whereas Jin tries to hold back his laughter as his dongsaeng gets scolded. The youngest narrows his eyes before rolling them and mumbling under his breath.

An hour and three minutes. That's how long it took the five men to travel up the one-way road and hide inside the tunnels, awaiting the three semi-trucks transporting the stolen medical equipment or whatever- certainly for selfish motives, given they didn't do it legally.

As for the other two, Jungkook flew to the opposite end of the tunnel with the ultralight helicopter as planned, while Jin was stationed at a nearby local underground club.

"Jin how's the progress?" Namjoon spoke using their long-range micro earpiece, which allowed them to communicate over extended distances.

As he frantically types along his sixteen-inch, heavily encrypted computer keyboard, the hacker lets out a frustrated sigh. "This is a stateful inspection firewall, which means tons of packets, and tons of packets means many malicious codes, and those malicious codes translate to SSL encryption, which makes it more complicated than most we've encountered. One wrong code entry, anyone and everyone who has immediate access to the satellite imaging systems will be alerted exactly thirty seconds af—"

"Jin, you're rambling. Just say you need more time." Yoongi huffed. "I was utterly exhausted from listening to all of that information. Everything you said went in one ear and out the other."

"It's called a learning moment Yoongi, something you need more of. And if you're going to address me like that, you ought to put honorifics after my name." Jin responds harshly.

Their leader mentally shakes his head. "If you're finished bickering, Jin hyung, what's the status? Who knows how close they are."

"These bastards have three fucking walls. THREE! Although I cracked two of them, so one more down, but it may take a few minutes longer." He answered.

"Damn you, Jin hyung." Taehyung mutters quietly, which the eldest still managed to hear.

"Ya-! Didn't I tell you all that this is a military-grade security wall! And if you don't want to be caught, I said it would take time!" He was profoundly fed up with their pestering. The things I do for you impatient brats, he grumbles in his head.

Minutes later, the expert hacker miraculously breached the third firewall, just in time to locate their target using military satellite imaging. "GUYS! I got in, I have visual on the three trucks."

"Excellent-" comments Namjoon.

"We knew we could count on you, Jin hyung. Never doubt a second." Jungkook commended him.

"Yeah, yeah. It was whatever- anyway, they're close by. They should arrive in two minutes." Jin notifies them.

"Okay, engines hot everyone!" Namjoon orders and the others nod sagely with their black helmets on. "Did you set the detonator, Jungkook?"

The addressed man hums. "Yes. It's ready under Jin hyung's command."

"They're entering in... three... two... go after those sons of bitches." Shadow Hacker smirks smugly as he informs his team members.

The three semi-truck-looking vehicles entered the tunnel precisely on Jin's countdown, and the five men instantly formed a straight line, trailing just behind the third truck, completely hidden from the driver's side view mirrors.

"We need a headcount in each truck."

"On it." As usual, his lightning-fast fingers went to work, controlling access to the thermal imaging to peer through the trucks' metal.

"All right, the truck Jungkook is going to hijack has a dozen people inside, including the driver and one on the passenger side."

"And seven in the second truck—it's the third truck that's the issue."

"Why?"

"With sixteen people in that metal rectangle, you're obviously going to be outnumbered." Jin replies. "So smart move proposing to immediately eliminate the third truck."

"Thank our anonymous tip." Namjoon corrects.

Jin then turns his camera angle to the trucks traveling through the tunnels. "Jungkook, prepare to jump at my signal."

Tightening the utility harness that was around his hips and right upper thigh, Jungkook stands on the edge of the concrete tunnel and listens for his hyung's signal.

He cracks his knuckles and joints briefly before focusing his attention on the road below him, where he hears the faint sound of approaching vehicles. The first truck then appears. "Jump now!"

He leaps from the concrete and lands with a grunt on the top of the metal attached to the truck, rolling up on one knee. He glances behind him, over his shoulder, expecting the bomb he set to explode over the third vehicle under Jin's command.

The third vehicle was ready to depart the tunnel when the device failed to detonate. As a result, Jungkook's face was filled with confusion. Even the rest of the gang was bewildered. The man with the circle lens spectacles, on the other hand, begins to panic.

"Why didn't it go off, Jin?" Jungkook questioned.

Jin presses a button on a separate controller repeatedly; the button that was designed to remotely trigger the explosion, but it never did. Frustrated, he returns to his computer, pulling up satellite imagery to inspect the device Jungkook planted.

That was the moment he realized...

"YA! Jungkook, you took the wrong one!" Jin screeched through his headset.

"What?! But I wasn't the one who loaded it into the helicopter. When I walked in, it was already there." He defends himself. "I assumed you put it there."

"No, I did not! Whoever it was grabbed the wrong one!" Jin states.

"Fuck-" Someone murmured, but everyone heard, as the five men took their assigned positions. "Who said that? Was that you Namjoon?"

The leader mentally facepalms himself. "Shit- yeah. I was the one who left it in the helicopter."

Yoongi turns his head to glare at Namjoon for a fraction of a second. "What do we do now?!"

"I mean, didn't Jin say there's at least sixteen in that damn truck? We're going to be outnumbered and outgunned; please tell me you've got a backup plan!"

"I'm thinking alright! Try to take out their tires, first!" Namjoon shouts back.

Suddenly, the sides of the truck's metal piece begin to move, and a machine emerges, displaying a mini machine gun. Taehyung and Jimin, the two men designated on the sides, widened their eyes at this.

"OH SHIT, THAT'S NOT HAPPENING-"

"THEY GOT FUCKING MACHINE GUNS!"

"ACTIVATE SHIELDS NOW!" Namjoon commands audibly.

Fortunately, the two members activated their shields barely a millisecond before shots were fired at them. "If you have a backup plan, I suggest you say something now!" yells Taehyung.

"Since when did these bastards get their hands on machine guns!" Hoseok exclaimed.

"Worry about that later! We've got bullets fired at us right now!" Jimin screams.

"Pull out, for now, take cover in the rear." Namjoon instructs, and they quickly comply, applying their brakes and retreating behind the third truck.

"Jin, any ideas?!" Yoongi calls to him.

"I'm on it right now." Looks like he's about to save their asses once again.

He switches the screen on his computer and brings up a coding system that is concurrently linked to the ultralight helicopter Jungkook was once in. "I've taken control of the helicopter and am heading it toward you."

"You can remotely control the helicopter?!" Jungkook hung his mouth apart slightly. "That means I didn't need to fly up there myself!"

"That's not entirely true, we needed someone to plant the bomb." Namjoon replied.

Jungkook crossed his arms. "Yeah, one that was the wrong one."

"SORRY, OKAY-"

"Will you be able to take out the third truck?" The fourth oldest of the gang asks the eldest.

Jin hums. "Yes, I got an idea."

"Good, Taehyung and Jimin hang in there."

"It's not like we can go anywhere." Jimin rolled his eyes.

As if things couldn't get any worse, the rear hatch of the truck unexpectedly opens, showing all fourteen men inside, pointing weapons at the two. "JIN, GET YOUR ASS HERE FAST, THEY'RE AIMING AT US!"

"That's it, I'm heading over." The maknae announces, fed up.

"No, Jungkook, stick to the plan!" But he never listened, thinking, the plan that just backfired? Sure.

≫ play track: i like the way you die - black honey (on loop) ≪

He silently tched to himself as he sprinted over to jump across to the second vehicle, then did the same to land on the last truck, filled with the fourteen armed men.

As he approaches the open door, he takes an electrocution grenade, snaps the metal key off, and quickly throws it inside. Within a short moment, the grenade detonates, electrocuting three guys within the five-foot radius and paralyzing them for the next few hours.

Jungkook then swings into the truck, confronting the remaining ten men head-on. "Let's dance shall we." He grins cunningly at the men who are startled by his abrupt entrance.

The men soon shook off their surprise and began firing at him. However, Jungkook's superhuman-like reflexes allow him to activate his energy shield, emitted from his wrist device, and deflect the bullets, just like the others. When he was close to one, he deactivated the shield and threw a punch at the first man, followed by a brutal knee strike to the gut.

Taking advantage of the vulnerable state, he tightly grips the poor man's wrist that held the gun and pins it around his back. With the man's gun, he starts shooting at another, killing them.

Now with five people left standing, he slides along the ground, avoiding the aimed weapons above him, without thinking. He instantly leaps up, catching them off guard as he gets ahold of the next target's arm and throws him over his shoulder. The man's shoulder is dislocated when he hits the ground, causing him to cry out in pain.

He reactivates his shield instinctively, just as the last four attempt to shoot at him again. Never pausing and depriving Jungkook of the chance to draw his own weapon. And unfortunately, he slowly finds himself backing up into the corner, pinned down. "Shit, Jin hyung, where are you?! I'm pinned down!"

With no reply, the sounds of a helicopter flying overhead filled their ears, and the fire ceased, and the men started pointing at the helicopter. "I'll handle it from here; get out of there right now."

Jungkook dashes towards the open hatch where the men were standing, withdrawing two of his guns from his hips and hitting their legs, immobilizing them. He then hastily climbs over to the top and races to the next moving truck.

Jin controls the helicopter by typing on the keyboard of his computer, dropping a distinct piece of machinery below it.

"Is that a fucking missile attached to the helicopter?!!" Jimin screams, his eyes widening at the sight.

"A FUCKING WHAT-?!" Yoongi screams in disbelief, momentarily gazing behind him.

"I suggest you, Jimin and Tae increase your distance from the truck." Jin advises.

"You don't need to tell me twice." Taehyung responded as the two pulled away from the truck.

Before hitting the enter key to launch the missile, the expert hacker makes a snide remark. "Enjoy the light show boys."

The missile is deployed, and the third truck explodes, demolishing it completely. The impact of the explosion drives Jungkook backward, but the youngest swiftly regains his balance on top of the truck.

"Bullseye!" Jin laughs cheerfully.

"Holy fuck, hyung, a goddamn missile? You're a fucking lunatic, man." Hoseok says.

"You should be thanking me; didn't I say I'd save your asses again?" He huffed.

"Great, the third truck is out. Proceed with the rest of the plan, everyone—hopefully the other two don't have machine guns on the side as well." Namjoon instructs once more. "Hyung, stay on standby in case we need another trick of yours."

"Copy."

As gunshots roared in the air, presumably from the between the two gangs, Jungkook dashed forward to the semi-truck's cab, where the driver and passenger sat. He swings over the passenger seat, breaking through the window and all at once kicking the man in the passenger seat in the head. As he swoops in effortlessly, he pulls out his combat knife and stabs the man in the neck, giving neither of them time to react and killing him quickly.

The driver panics and friskily reaches for his gun to shoot him. However, with another lethal brute power of Jungkook's kick, the man flies out of the moving truck before he could harm Jungkook.

The master combatant then hops into the driver's seat. "I've gained control of the first truck."

"Good. You know what to do, the others and I will be ready right after." Namjoon says.

Jungkook nods and slams on the brakes, turning the steering wheel sharply to block off the truck behind him.

The tires screeched as the truck behind Jungkook came to a halt, almost colliding with him. The maknae exits the cab and walks menacingly towards the truck, his hands wrapped around his two guns strapped to his hips.

The cab doors open as the two men attempt to eliminate Jungkook. But as soon as their heads poked out, they both dropped dead.

The rest of the members join Jungkook, facing the back of the truck with their weapons drawn.

"Jin cover the other truck, will you be able to target all of them?" Namjoon inquired.

"I might or might not have installed a mini MIRV." He smirked evilly as he hovered the helicopter over the truck Jungkook had earlier hijacked. (Multiple Independently-targetable Reentry Vehicles)

"All right, then, let's bring these treasures home." Namjoon comments. "And let's take one."

≫ track stop ≪

The sun had set and the Bangtan Boys had returned home, they unloaded the dozens of batches of stolen equipment and supplies into their storage house on their property.

The seven members step into the quiet house, sweaty, slightly bloodied, and bruised from the anticipated gunfight with the other people in the trucks.

They surveyed the area as they entered the living room. "At least everything seems in place and clean. Looks like we had nothing to worry about."

"Sun-Woo!" Hoseok calls out.

Moments later, shuffling can be softly heard, and soon a figure emerged from the kitchen door. "Good evening, sirs, how did the mission go?"

"Everything went as planned." Namjoon responded, but the others snorted, making the leader groan. "Hey, at least we accomplished what we needed to do."

Yoongi rolled his eyes. "Yeah, barely, because somebody believed he was confident enough to know which exact explosive to take."

He puts his hands up defensively. "Excuse me- everything looked the same to me!"

Sun-woo shifts his gaze awkwardly between the '93 and '94 members. He hadn't expected them to start bickering.

"Sun-woo, where's the girl?" Jin asked.

Their butler turns to the oldest. "Oh, she's been inside the room since you all left."

"It appears she refuses to leave her spot, claiming you told her to 'stay here.'"

"So she didn't come out at all?" Hoseok arched his brow.

Their butler nods, leaving the gang rather surprised except for Jimin and Jungkook. Which Sun-Woo notices. "You both don't seem as surprised as the rest."

Both of them shrugged their shoulders. "She'd been acting like that since we met her, so we kind of expected it."

He lets out an 'ah' of understanding. "Do you want to see her? Shall I fetch her?"

"No, I'll get her—" Hoseok returns eye contact with the six other pairs of eyes now on him. "I'd like to make further observations on her."

"All right, go ahead." Namjoon gives a nod.

Hoseok then walked up their extravagant modern stairs and down the long corridor to the familiar white room that had not been used in a long time. He knocks on the door, respecting your privacy given that you're a lady, but it doesn't mean he would immediately be overly buddy-buddy with the girl they barely met less than twenty-four hours earlier.

He waits for a response but does not receive one, so he proceeds to push the door open. His gaze was drawn to your body fast asleep soundly across the bed.

Was she waiting for us this entire time, he wondered.

He approaches you quietly, taking in your sleeping form. That's when he noticed the dark circles under your eyes, which were partially hidden by your fluttery thick lashes. Your plump and slightly chapped lips, and your sunken cheeks, that showed signs of malnourishment.

Starting to think about it, he feels a little guilty knowing he needs to wake up the peaceful sleeping female who clearly needed the rest.

But he wants to know more about you, whether you're a threat to his family or innocent all along, but can you honestly call oneself innocent in this forsaken world? And to determine this stranger's true motives, he must present himself as 'friendly' and 'caring' towards you.

Nonetheless, he reached for you and gently shook you awake. "H-hey, wake up."

It takes a few moments, but you jolt up, terror etched across your face, thinking you're back in your ten-by-ten box from before.

"Woah woah woah- ease up, it's just me." He takes a step back, giving you space while calming you down.

As soon as you hear those words, your eyes focused on the man in front of you. 'It's just me,' the words echoed in your head, and security filled your body.

"Hi there, good morning sunshine." Says the masculine melodic voice.

"H-hi." You finally recognize him as one of the members you met the night previously. Ho-seon? Hosan? Hobi?

"How long have you slept?"

"I-I don't know."

He frowns slightly. "Hopefully you can sleep later on, it is pretty late. It's sunset already."

You tilt your head. "Sunset?"

"Yeah, sunset. Have you ever heard or seen a sunset?"

You shake your head, causing the older man to draw his lips together and then smile. "Well, let's meet the rest of the guys outside and I'll show you your first sunset."

"Okay." You said.

The pair of you finally join the rest of the group in the living room along with Sun-woo.

"Wow, she really did not leave the room." Taehyung stares in amazement.

"I presume she understands obedience very well." Sun-woo's eyes linger on you.

"I suppose so..."

Taehyung then approaches you, his boxy smile on his face. "Hey, cutie. Good job following orders."

You look at him with doe eyes, perplexed by his antics. He chuckles at this and raises his hand to pat you on the head, but as soon as you see his hand lift, your eyes flood with panic, and you pressed your eyelids shut, evidently waiting for impact.

Your reaction causes him to freeze and pull back almost immediately. "O-oh! I-I'm sorry!"

Hoseok watched their interaction. "I suppose she is sensitive to such actions... Perhaps, she suffered abuse before."

"Just reassure her that you won't hurt her, and she'll let you touch her." Jimin states.

Taehyung nods and returns his attention to you. "Hey, I'm not going to hurt you. I-I was just commending you."

You carefully open your eyes, watching with caution as Taehyung repeats his earlier moves, but more slowly. He then gently pats your head while smiling, revealing his adorable bread cheeks.

Jin clears his throat. "So... 007, you really just stayed in your room as we told you?"

You turn to face him, nodding in response. "Y-yes."

Jin was going to ask you another question about if you had eaten when you spoke up. "Someone hurt."

Everyone looks at you in confusion, then exchanges glance with each other. "Hurt? Well, I mean we kind of got into a fight but it's merely scratches, we're fine."

"No, someone hurt bad."

"Well, as you can see, we're perfectly standing up, so I think we're fine." Yoongi spits.

Jimin furrows his brows. "Yo, Yoongi, relax. She's just trying to help, maybe she's right."

"No one said anything on the way home, which usually means we all survived and are fine." Yoongi fired back.

You, on the other hand, are focused on the energy that alerts you of an injury emanating from a specific person. You follow your superhuman senses, and your feet move toward the man who shielded you the first time you met.

Your eyes trail up to his face. "You hurt, bad."

"Jungkook?" All eyes are now on him, making the maknae nervous and anxiously laughing. "No, no- I'm f-fine."

Jin raised a brow. "Are you really?"

He weakly nods. "Y-yeah, I really a—"

Suddenly, the dongsaeng dropped forward, his head and upper torso collapsing against you, causing everyone to exclaim. "Jungkook!"

masterpost | one | three

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tayloralisonswift · 20 days ago

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how the hell do elections work in the usa that you had to wait that long?!

we have so many polling stations compared to the overall population that if distributed equally, each station would get a little over 500 voters if everyone turned out

sure, there are stations with a few thousand votes, and i was a part of the organizing committee a few years ago that had 30ish people in total that could vote in that location so the numbers vary but there's never a long wait

every adult is assigned a single polling station where they vote according to the address on their id, there's no need to register like you guys do in the us (which has ended in a lot of voter fraud and jokes about it but that's a different topic) oh and the ballot is standardized, i recently learned that some us states have it randomized (for what reason?!)

i'll leave you with an incredibly popular voter fraud joke from here

A guy goes to a polling station all excited, casts his vote according to the regulations, and asks for a chair to sit down for a bit. One of the organizers notes that he's still sitting after 30 minutes and asks if he's feeling any better. The guy replies that he's feeling perfectly fine, just very excited. The organizer asks why he's excited and the guy responds that he's been looking forward to the meeting for a long time. Confused, the organizer asks "What meeting?" to which the guy says "My great grandfather of course, he's voting today." The organizer explains how the guy should have brought his great grandfather himself, since he sounds like he might be quite old. To this, the guy says "You're right, he's very old, he actually passed away decades ago." Even more confused, the organizer says "You must be joking, how could he vote if he has passed away?" - "Well how could he vote in the last elections without me getting a chance to see him? That's why I know he's bound to vote today before the stations close, I can't miss him this time around"

where are you from, anon? i’m curious!

part of it was an issue with the polling place. in the mail (this is just my state, idk in general), we get a voter registration card that tells us where our polling place is (it’s a school, typically.) but the school we usually vote at (calling it School A) was vandalized a few weeks ago, so the card we received said to go to School B instead. well, after waiting 1.5 hours (my city is slow at everything. More on that later), we showed our ids and were told we should’ve gone to School A. “School A isn’t a polling place this year,” we said. so in order to vote at School B, they had to give us provisional ballots instead of regular ones. i still don’t completely understand the difference, except that we then had to go through two more lines of waiting in order to fill out the paperwork and be certified to vote. then we stood in a fourth line (at this point) to actually vote, and then we stood in a fifth line so that they could put our provisional ballots in this weird suitcase with a tiny opening that you slide your ballot into.

in terms of what they told me about the provisional ballot, they said they won’t be counted right away. i live in a blue (aka democrat) state so it’s going to harris whether my vote is counted or not, but in swing states, provisional ballots really are ways to keep more people from voting, or to keep those votes from counting. it’s confusing, and it’s confusing ON PURPOSE. i saw several people being offered provisional ballots who said “what’s the point” and left.

re: my city. i live in a very poor & disenfranchised area of my city. in my district, we had a 14% voter turnout in 2020. i bring this up because there are a lot of things stopping someone in my district from voting and

i’m damn tired of people talking about low voter turnout as if people are just too lazy.

so i’m taking this moment to correct that, at least for my community. every community has different requirements that can discourage voting.

only recently (i think this year) have previously incarcerated people been allowed to vote. my city has a very high rate of previously incarcerated people. (so much so, that my and other families i know get summoned for jury duty all the time - because the pool of non-previously incarcerated people is significantly smaller than the city population. but i digress.) this means that most people with convictions or incarcerations on their record could’ve voted, but probably didn’t know that they could. it wasn’t advertised. i only found out about it at the polling place.

the polling place mix-up didn’t just happen to me and my dad. an entire community tried voting at School B. at one point, we saw five people leave the line to vote - we learned that people were being told to “go elsewhere” instead of doing the provisional ballot. so people just gave up. of course there is no “elsewhere” to go that wouldn’t give them a provisional ballot. this isn’t the fault of the volunteers, by the way. my city does not allocate funds to its poor areas. of course they would shrug off the School A vandalism and not provide a real solution.

long lines are hard for disabled people, people with children, and pregnant people. a woman came in with her two kids and was standing behind us for about ten minutes. the toddler in her arm was crying very loudly, and after waiting for a while she said “i give up! let’s go get you some lunch.” she never came back. the woman in front of us was nine months along in her pregnancy. eventually a volunteer noticed and found a chair for her to sit in while we waited. it was really hot in there and she was dressed for november, so she was fanning herself constantly. i was impressed she actually went all the way through with it.

my district is told that we do not vote. we have the 14% drilled into our heads. so why on earth would someone believe it mattered if it never has? i’ve worked a lot in my community and there are so many people who just do not believe they have a voice worth listening to.

and finally, financially poor areas are also informationally poor. informational poverty means that someone does not have the tools with which to process information (i.e., determine what is real and fake news, sift through conspiracy theories and understand how to search for the truth.) there are many rumors and myths about election fraud. not necessarily “trump won 2020” fraud, but more like “they throw all our ballots away because the government hates poor people and black people”. (which like. i live in the city where henrietta lacks was medically abused. there is reason to believe in these theories.) so because of these beliefs, people don’t bother to vote.

this was so long and you didn’t ask for basically any of it but I started typing and just never stopped. i’m not going to proofread. sorry and i love you

#I spent 40 minutes writing this oh my god #anyway gnight

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thornfield13713 · 2 years ago

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Okay, thinking about Deep Roads logistics. An infantryman can, according to A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry here, carry about ten days’ worth of food on their person. A waggon of food per company of 30 men doubles this distance, but this has diminishing return, as waggons have to be pulled by something, and whatever animal is being used for the purpose will also need to eat something, as will the waggon’s driver. Failing this, you can bring a pack animal - the Romans often had a mule for every six-to-eight men, and in Orzammar in particular it probably wouldn’t be hard to hire a bronto - but it, too, will consume food as you travel, and will also need to be led or otherwise controlled in a party where the prospect of attack is ever-present and every member of the group will need to be able to fight at a moment’s notice. Although, assuming it remains untainted, and you are willing to lose whatever it was carrying that you cannot take with you, the pack animal can then be slaughtered as an additional source of food once the utility of bringing it along is outweighed by how much of your resources it is consuming.

Within the Deep Roads, the main potential sources of food appear to be: deep mushrooms, deepstalkers, giant spiders and feral brontos. However, any food one finds in the Deep Roads carries the inherent risk of the darkspawn taint. For a company of already-Tainted Wardens, this may not pose much of a problem. For anyone else, you run the risk of ending up like poor Ruck.

So, let’s break down the likeliest logistical situations for the first two games’ expeditions into the Deep Roads (I have not played The Descent, as I find it very, very hard to play Inquisition for more than five minutes without wandering off to do something more enjoyable. Like cleaning the sink. Or doing laundry. Or even working on my thesis.)

A Paragon of Her Kind

The Wardens are explicitly the only group in Thedas that ventures into the Deep Roads without a company at their back, which may mean they habitually make shorter lunges, as we’re never given the option of bringing along a waggon with food. On the other hand, Paragon of Her Kind appears to take place over an extended period - I’d put it at at least a month below the surface. Branka and her people seem to have been there for quite a while, but also to have taken long enough getting there that Laryn’s transformation into a broodmother appears relatively recent and Hespith is not yet transformed, maybe because they were a much larger group and thus by necessity travelled far more slowly, and also maybe because they did not, at first, have any clear idea where they could find the Anvil. Then again, those are exceptional circumstances, so...could go either way. And Ortan Thaig and Caridin’s Cross both feature enough deepstalkers, deep mushrooms and uncorrupted giant spiders (eating the corrupted ones seems like a sure way to end up with Ruck problems) to maybe replenish the rations it took to get that far, even if the Warden members of the party can eat the darkspawn dead at need.

So, let’s start by examining the party. I , personally, tend to organise my party for the Deep Roads as follows: Shale and Oghren for plot-relevance reasons, and then one other. This one other is not usually Alistair, as most of my Wardens want to leave someone behind to deal with the new king of Orzammar if it comes to a vote before they return or if they are killed in the attempt to find Branka. In this case, limiting the size of the party makes sense - the larger the group, the more people there are to feed, the harder it will become to feed them, especially as opportunities for forage in the Deep Roads will be extremely limited, and success and survival are far from certain, adding an impetus to leave a force behind to complete the group’s objectives even if the party sent into the Deep Roads is lost. Bringing Shale along, in and of itself, changes the calculus marvellously, as Shale is immensely strong, made of rock, and thus can both carry far more food and water than anyone else could ever hope to and doesn’t need to eat or drink anything herself. Getting her to agree to carry supplies she personally does not need is another question entirely, but most of my Wardens get along with her well enough that they might be able to talk her into it. She probably cannot carry as much as a full waggon of food, but assuming she can carry as much as two ordinary people (and this may be lowballing my estimate) and does not need to eat any of it, that’s still another twenty days of food for one person - another six days divided up among three companions. So, already, we’ve got half that month covered, assuming nobody loses their supply. The Warden has an advantage neither of the remaining two companions have, in that they can eat things no matter how Tainted they are. They probably aren’t going to like it very much, but this means that their reliance on the rations the group is able to carry with them is much-reduced, and ideally they would be primarily subsisting on what forage can be found within the tunnels, thus freeing up most of their ten days’ worth of food for their remaining companions. So, in an ideal situation with plenty of deep mushrooms, deepstalkers, giant spiders, feral brontos and the occasional cheeky nibble on a darkspawn corpse, that means that Oghren and the remaining companion now have twenty-five days’ worth of food apiece in rations alone, just from their ten days’ worth of food they carry themselves, the twenty days’ worth carried by Shale, and splitting the Warden’s ten days of food carried between them.

Do we want to headcanon in a beast of burden, most probably a bronto? Now we’re in business - brontos appear to be loosely modelled after rhinos, and a rhino can carry 900lbs or more on its back without difficulty. Given that most of the guides I’ve found suggest you can get 4500 calories - just below the highest estimate for how much food was needed per day for soldiers in WWI - from two and a half pounds of food, this is just overkill, giving you a solid 360 days worth of food for one infantryman - 120 days spread across three. Better and better, brontos ‘require remarkably little sustenance, consuming organic material from water, fungus and even rocks’ according to Brother Genitivi. I am going to go out on a limb and say that they’re probably the principal beasts of burden used by the Legion of the Dead, who according to some of Sigrun’s lines live their whole lives in the Deep Roads after they join, only occasionally and briefly returning to Orzammar. Honestly, the biggest issue with bringing along a bronto would be the difficulty of keeping it from running or wandering off - or even outright charging - when attacked by darkspawn. This is a serious problem, as the group is small, and every member of it will need to fight whenever attacked by darkspawn, which happens a lot. Deputising someone to look after the bronto and prevent it from wandering off in Battle is a serious loss to the party, and one that may outweigh the utility of the bronto, given that, as per the first part of this discussion, the group is...actually pretty well set-up for extended Deep Roads travel without one. That said, as the Warden would not know how long the journey would take when leaving Orzammar, I could see a cautious Warden, or one with a good grounding in tactics and logistics - the sort of education either a Cousland or an Aeducan would probably have received - taking the extra precaution of securing one.

A Golem’s Memories

Once again, the logistics of the Deep Roads provide a good solid reason to have a small party, and having Shale along - as is actually obligatory in this case rather than just a good idea for plot-progression reasons - does relieve some of the burden of logistics. And this is a rather shorter journey, to boot - Cadash Thaig appears to be not very much past Ortan Thaig, which is...you know what, assuming a month underground for Paragon of Her Kind, I’m going to say that’s maybe a three-week round trip for the Warden and friends, who are, unlike Branka, travelling in a small unit, without more than maybe-one-if-you-want-to-headcanon-that beasts of burden, not being slowed down by all the many, many things that can lead to armies or large groups in the field moving slowly. Again, assuming ten days’ food apiece plus six days extra from Shale...that’s two-thirds of the trip covered even if the Warden eats all their own rations. If they are, once again, going for the ‘Wardens can eat anything they like no matter how tainted’ strategy, we rise once again to twenty-five days apiece - more than enough for everyone to be able to stay fed for the duration with minimal risk of contracting the Taint from bad food.

Last of the Legion

So, logistically, this one is starting off from a very different place. In Paragon of Her Kind, the Wardens are planning on an extended delve into the Deep Roads with no clear idea of how long it’ll take or even, really, where they are meant to be going beyond Ortan Thaig. And they were doing it with the backing of a powerful lord, one of the two candidates to become King of Orzammar, which meant that they could probably get a bit of extra support in getting provisioned for the Deep Roads. For this one, the Wardens only really know that there’s a weird chasm full of darkspawn that might be their breeding ground, and it’s an open question how long they were expecting it to take. A cautious commander might decide to have everyone carry full packs anyway, so everyone has the standard ten days’ worth of rations that an infantryman can carry (and if Justice is brought along, we also have one party member who does not need to eat, but can carry the standard ten days’ rations, to be split three ways among his companions), but a more impulsive, less cautious Warden might well decide to prioritise speed or assume that they’ll be able to forage for extra food in the field. Furthermore, it’s a much, much shorter trip. The lack of a camp mechanic in Awakening leads me to suspect that nowhere in Amaranthine is more than a day’s journey from the Vigil, and none of the main quests take more than...maybe a couple of days at a stretch. I’d say Last of the Legion has the most justification to be an extended period, as they are exploring an entire lost dwarven thaig, but even then, ‘extended period’ in this case means ‘maybe a week at a stretch’ and more probably not more than three or four days. Added to which, everyone on this mission except, at this point, Sigrun is a Grey Warden, and can thus eat darkspawn dead or corrupted spiders if they need to.

...honestly, unless someone loses their pack somehow, I’m going to say this one isn’t even a challenge logistically. The biggest issue is if Sigrun has lost her supplies and, if so, how far this is going to cut into the Wardens’ own supplies, and that is very much going to come down to the Warden-Commander’s own preparations - if everyone has their ten days’ supply, feeding Sigrun should fit in without much difficulty. My Wardens all tend towards the more prepared side, either because they just went through a whole entire Blight and are thus very used to things taking a lot longer than they should, or in the case of Warden-Commander Andras because she’s spent most of her career in the Deep Roads and is very used to preparing for every contingency. However, other people’s Wardens might prepare differently.

Golems of Amgarrak

...this one drives me up the wall. We don’t know how deep Amgarrak lies! How far from Orzammar is it - far enough they had to spend an entire expedition looking for it, but given how dangerous the Deep Roads are, that could be anything from a week to a year! I tend to give it a month or so, similar to Paragon of Her Kind, since it’s a similar lost research lab, and because that gives enough time, between travelling to Orzammar, doing a few diplomatic errands for the Wardens there (this is, for instance, probably when that feast is held in memory of the defenders of Kal’Hirol), travelling to Amgarrak, completing the DLC and then getting back, for whoever you left in charge back at the Vigil to carry out the campaign of fuck-ups that end with Anders and Justice fleeing to Kirkwall. The actual DLC itself...I would put as taking place over...not more than a day or so. Amgarrak isn’t actually that big - it’s a research laboratory, not a full thaig. I am a little bewildered about where the researchers were sleeping back when this place was active, but then, it seems to be in a larger thaig patterned after the Ortan thaig we saw in Origins, so...apparently the researchers did not live on-site. Probably a good call. Furthermore, the place is incredibly dangerous, and I’m pretty sure if the party had stopped to sleep even once, they’d have been in for it, because the Harvester can clearly be seen wandering about outside the forge at various points throughout the DLC. Sure, it’s not attacking yet, but...it probably would’ve done the moment any invaders were vulnerable to it.

There’s no sign that Jerrik and the Warden are travelling with a larger party at the start of the DLC, so only the two of them need to be provisioned - really, only Jerrik, since the Warden can still eat tainted food. And this time, we don’t need to headcanon in a bronto, because there’s one there already in Snug, Jerrik’s bronto companion. So, see my previous calculations for the fact that...actually, these two are doing fine logistically. Snug can probably carry enough food to feed the pair of them with no need for darkspawn semi-cannibalism, and enough left over to get them and Brogan home at the end of the DLC. And given how marvellously efficient the bronto species is about food - seriously, how the fuck the Shaperate managed to selectively breed a rhino-sized species to need that little food is a question and a half all on its own - Snug’s own food requirements are going to be pretty minimal. All told, logistically this holds up all ‘round.

I am a little bewildered about the previous Amgarrak expedition, which...one would expect to be a bit larger, and have brontos of their own who are now either dead or have turned feral...but eh, not like we see much of it except the bloody, ruined corpses of those involved, so...let’s just assume a reasonable-sized company with a few brontos to carry supplies.

The Deep Roads Expedition

...oh, boy.

Origins was relatively straightforward, logistics-wise. This one...is less so.

Let’s start with the size of the group. Now, Origins tells us that the Wardens are the only people who’ll enter the Deep Roads without a company behind them. Bartrand’s expedition has...well, in-game, we’re shown a total of ten people - Bartrand, Varric, Hawke, two more of Hawke’s companions, Bodahn and Sandal, a pair of background NPC hired muscle and a single advance scout who gets beaten up by Bartrand. No pack animals, no waggons, no supplies of any kind. The Primeval Thaig is, according to Bartrand’s dialogue, ‘a week below the surface’. So, assume maybe a two-week round trip, plus or minus a few days on the site itself collecting whatever treasures might remain. Three weeks, if you want to round up. Added to which, everyone on this expedition is vulnerable to the Taint except Anders, and that’s only if you bring him along, so no darkspawn-cannibalism for anyone except perhaps him.

Thankfully, DA2 gives us an out in the form of Varric’s narration: we are not witnessing the events as they happened, but hearing a retelling of the events by a man with no real interest in the rest of the expedition beyond his brother’s betrayal, and for whom this was some years ago, filtered through the perceptions of a Chantry Seeker who...also isn’t overwhelmingly interested in anyone on this expedition outside Hawke and their companions. So, what would be a more plausible makeup for Bartrand’s expedition?

Assuming that that thing about only the Wardens going into the Deep Roads without a company behind them still holds true...you need a company. In military terms, a company is defined as between eighty and two hundred and fifty soldiers according to Wikipedia. The National Army Museum defines this rather more narrowly as between a hundred and a hundred and fifty men, but this is specific to the modern British army, and is not a universal rule. In this case, I’d skew towards the lower number - maybe 80-100 men including Bartrand, Varric, Hawke, and Hawke’s remaining two companions. Maybe also assume three bronto-drawn waggons for additional food - that is, roughly one for each thirty men - that were presumably left behind under guard from some of the remaining men when the Deep Roads were blocked, as getting waggons through the side-passages would be difficult work, and this diversion doesn’t appear to take much more than a day. The waggons, once what food was in them was consumed, could also be used to transport treasure up to the surface, although there is no mention made in-game of Bartrand retrieving anything but the red lyrium idol. Precisely what happened to the remaining members of the Expedition is...probably best not thought of. Bodahn and Sandal appear to have survived and made it back to Kirkwall, at the very least. My assumption, since Bartrand talks about not splitting the rewards of the expedition three ways, is that everyone except Hawke and Varric is here for a set wage per day, with the profits of the expedition being split between the partners who funded the expedition. As such, he might not have thought it was worth his time to kill off wage workers who couldn’t claim a share in the proceeds from the sale of the idol.

Now, onto the tricky part - survival in the deeps for Hawke and company after Varric has abandoned them to die. Assuming everyone at the start of all this had their ten days’ worth of food being transported on their person, it has taken them a week to reach the Primeval Thaig, so that leaves them with three days of food apiece - assuming that they were carrying that food when they were trapped within the vault, which may or may not have been the case - a soldier’s pack is heavy, and once a base camp was established they may well have chosen to leave their packs there until the retreat. According to Varric, it takes five days after being sealed in the vault to get back to where they started, by which I think he means where they found the passage that got them to the Primeval Thaig, given his next words are that it should take maybe a week to reach the surface. And, if Hawke’s sibling is present, Varric makes a joking reference to ‘those deep mushrooms we found’, indicating they’ve been able to find or been forced to find some sort of forage along the way. If the latter, this doesn’t really help with ‘did they have food supplies with them at the start’, given that it’s been a five-day journey and they wouldn’t have had more than three days’ worth of provisions on them at the start. So, yeah, food is going to have been very nearly a constant concern during this part of the journey, particularly if Hawke’s sibling and Anders are both present, and thus we need to add a day or two for them to find the Wardens and save their sibling’s life. Food could be stretched out longer through careful rationing, but that will also likely lead to tempers fraying and arguments, which are an excellent source of drama, and even once they’ve got back to where they started, there’s still a week left before they return to the surface with constant worries about starvation and Tainted food or water. An excellent survival horror narrative, if anyone wants to write it.

Legacy

Logistically, this one is much more like Last of the Legion - nobody is actually planning on a trip into the Deep Roads, nobody is expecting it, and this isn’t a group of trained and prepared Wardens, it’s Hawke and friends, so there’s no guarantee they’re carrying any great quantity of food. In fact, they probably aren’t - they were here to rough up some Carta dwarves until they quit with the murder attempts, not deal with all this bullshit. So, yeah, this is another one where food is going to be a worry. However, also like Last of the Legion, it’s a lot shorter than the previous Deep Roads trip - maybe three days? Don’t think you could do it in one, but two or three sounds reasonable. Added to which, there are plenty of deepstalkers, deep mushrooms and uncorrupted spiders. Nobody is going to be having a very nice time...but foraging is at least a reasonable option, and you can have up to two Grey Wardens in your immediate party, which also broadens foraging options.

#dragon age #the deep roads #logistics

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kuiperblog · 2 years ago

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Reviewing four small Knizia card games

I love Reiner Knizia’s small, simple board game designs that are “easy to learn, hard to master.” And I love the fact that many of the games he’s designed have Japanese editions which are made by companies that 1) care more about component quality than their western counterparts, and 2) are made for customers in tiny Tokyo apartments, where shelf space is at a premium.

They’re the perfect games to stuff into a backpack (or suitcase) and bring out to share with people who “enjoy playing games, but aren’t into the board game hobby.” They’re something for the people who don’t want to play a 1+ hour long euro engine builder, but would like to be treated to something of a higher class than Uno or Monopoly.

Thus it came to be that when visiting my family for Christmas this (er, last) year, I took four Reiner Knizia card games with me. They were such a big hit that the family won’t let me take them back with me. (Okay, actually, leaving the games behind was my suggestion after they expressed interest in acquiring copies for themselves; given the economics of importing items from Japan, it makes more sense for me to just order replacement copies of the games for myself the next time I place an order from Amazon JP, which is something I now do fairly often since learning that they will let you pay in USD with a US credit card and ship directly to the US.) The following list is assorted roughly in descending order of how much I liked them:

High Society (3-5 players, 15-30 minutes)

This was immediately my favorite, and a poll of the family revealed it to be a unanimous favorite (excluding the non-vote from my sister, who refused to pick a favorite). It also happens to be the one game in the pile that wasn’t a Japanese import. (There is a Japanese version; I just like the art from the 2018 US version published by Osprey better.)

I love this game. It’s an incredibly mean game consisting entirely of auctions to win cards that are worth points (and “reverse auctions” where you bid money to not receive the cards that are worth negative points), with the stipulation that whoever has the least money at the end of the game loses.

Furthermore, you are bidding with fixed denominations of money: you have a single card of each denomination of $1, $2, $4, $6, $8, $10, $12, $15, $20, or $25 (Actually, the “currency” in the game is francs, and you’re bidding thousands of francs, but denoting them with a dollar sign is easier.) Critically, you can only increase your bid by adding a card to your previous bid; the auction house does not make change. What you very quickly realize is that lower denominations are a precious commodity: you’d much rather spend a single $10 card than a $4 + a $6. If you spend all of your “low” cards early, you quickly lose the ability to incrementally increase bids.

This is an auction game that is mean, where you frequently use your money to bully other people at the table into paying more for cards that you had no intention of buying (but that they desperately need), or by baiting them into bidding wars that bait out their low cards, removing their ability to strategically bid later in the game. There are all sort of subtle asymmetries that crop up in ways that affect the bidding in interesting ways: for example, one of the negative cards (which triggers a reverse auction where you bid not to take it) causes you to lose one of your point cards. If you’re sitting across the table from someone whose only card is a 9 or a 10, they’ll be desperate to avoid that card, whereas you might be more willing to take it if you’re just going to be losing a 2-point card. That gives you leverage. Ditto for situations when you’re in the final turns of the game, sitting across from someone who has a handful of money but with a point total that is nowhere near winning -- or the reverse, when you’ve got a handful of money, and are staring at someone who is at risk of being sent to the poorhouse and has precious little money to spend when a negative point card comes up.

It’s incredibly simple and takes about 2 minutes to teach the rules, but it’s highly interactive, and extremely cutthroat. It’s the opposite of what you get from most modern “euro” board games (which are often made to feel like “multiplayer solitaire”), and everything you want from a Knizia game.

Kariba (2-4 players, 15 minutes)

(The above photo is of the Japanese version of the game, which has slightly different art from the latest US release; as you can surmise, there’s no language component.)

Kariba game with simple rules and simple artwork/theming that you could play with a child, but as with most Knizia games, it hides a certain amount of depth behind its simple decision-making. (It also has an optional “expert” mode, where you draft cards from a market rather than drawing blindly off the top of the deck, which is highly recommended once everyone at the table understands how to play.)

The rules are simple: all the animals want to visit the watering hole, and so every turn you play a card from your hand in one of the eight slots around the board. Animals are allowed to bring friends of the same species: you may play multiples of a matching card. And when three (or more) animals of the same species are present at the watering hole, they chase away the next-smallest animal: three rhinos (7) will chase away any number of leopards (6), allowing the player who played the rhino(s) to add the leopards to their scoring pile. And if there are no leopards presents, the rhinos will instead scare away the ostriches (5), and if that slot is also empty they’ll chase away the giraffes (4)... The elephants (8) of course are big enough to chase anyone away.

The mice (1) are too small to chase away any of the other animals -- except for the fact that, as everyone knows, elephants are afraid of mice, so a group of mice can chase away any number of elephants -- but only elephants.

The game often begins in a sort of “cold war,” with everyone playing conservatively, trying to sculpt their hand without adding too much scoring materiel to the board, until more and more points have been deployed, and finally someone is forced to act -- which creates a bigger stack for someone else to either grow, or to take for themselves. It gives the game a wonderful sense of tempo: there’s a slow build-up, followed by a series of high-scoring turns where you try to cash in as much as possible while hoping that you won’t be the first player at the board to “fizzle out.” And if you do fizzle out, then you get to play “defense,” creating small stacks to create buffers and “play defense” and limit the scoring opportunities for other players.

Circus Flohcati (2-5 players, 15-20 minutes)

Rethemed in Japan as なつのたからもの (Treasures of Summer), featuring the many beautiful cards shown above which depict the various joys of summer, including fireworks, eating watermelon, visiting the beach, and so on. (The English versions of Circus Flohcati are themed around a flea circus, and the various versions range from annoyingly cartoonish, to the debatably offputting illustrations of the 2016 English 2nd edition where all the members of the flea circus have human bodies and insect heads, like something out of a Cronenberg movie.) Also, the Japanese cards have much better quality/texture.

Circus Flohcati is a game that is much more fun in practice than I would have expected from reading the rulebook before my first playthrough. Technically speaking, there’s not much in the way of interaction, which is often how you get games with a “multiplayer solitaire” feel, where people feel at liberty to get up from the table and get a drink (or otherwise not pay attention to the game) when it’s not their turn. However, in practice, that rarely happens in Flohcati. Part of it comes from the fact that you need to pay attention to what cards other people are picking up -- at the end of the game, you only score the highest card for each suit, and seeing someone else pick up a white 6 might clue you in as to how likely they might be willing to pass on a white 5. There’s also 9 cards in the 89 card deck that allow for direct interaction, allowing you to do things like force another player to give you a card of their choosing or at random, so if you see someone take a card that you wanted, you should (and will) remember that fact for later. (This is the only form of direct player interaction.) Players also can get points for completing sets, so you want to be aware of what other people are taking. (If you see someone else going after all the 3′s, maybe you don’t want to veer into their lane and compete with them for 3′s. Or maybe, if you’re seated to their right, you do want to compete with them and deny them the last one that they need to complete their set.)

But, more fundamentally, everyone pays attention during each other player’s turn because each turn feels exciting, because it’s a press-your-luck game: you can pick a face-up card from the table, but if you don’t like what you can see, you can flip over a new card -- with the stipulation that if you flip over a new card that matches a suit that’s already on the board, you “bust” and forfeit your turn. There are 10 suits, so flipping over a new card when there’s 2 suits visible gives you a ~20% chance of busting (fairly safe), but the danger quickly increases...each card flip feels tense, and it’s fun to watch as other people at the table get greedy and either get rewarded or punished for their greed.

When reading the rulebook for the first time, the level of decision-making in this game didn’t strike me as something that would be all that interesting, but when playing, it strikes a good balance: the decisions are simple, but they’re fast and often quickly lead to other decisions as you ratchet up the risk and tension. As Knizia titles go, it’s not the deepest game, but every turn (including your opponents’) feels exciting and engaging.

Trendy (2-5 players, 20 minutes)

If you want to get your hands on a copy of this game, the 2021 Japanese version might actually be the easiest to find, as the only other versions are the original 2000 German release, and the 2004 version which was released in English.

The rules are simple: on your turn, you play out a numbered card face up. Once the table has collectively assembled a “complete set,” everyone who played cards as part of that set gets to score them, and all other cards that don’t match the trend get discarded. (A “complete set” requires a number of cards equal to the face value of the cards: three 3′s is a complete set, as is four 4′s, five 5′s, six 6′s, or seven 7′s.) Each card scores equal to its face value, so making higher numbers trend is harder, but more rewarding if you can pull it off. Mixing things up are a few cards that count as two cards, and a few “out” cards that will discard all cards of a specific number from play.

Out of all of the games, it’s the one I feel the least compelled to go back and replay, as it lends itself to somewhat repetitive play patterns. And yet, as game designer, I kind of love this game for achieving what few games do, and that is perfectly communicating its theme through its gameplay.

In Trendy, you are often left in a quandary like this one: the table has just been cleared, and the player to your right has just played a 7. You also have a 7 -- so maybe you want to hop on that trend so that when the 7′s score, you won’t be left out. On the other hand, the person who played the first 7 probably has multiple 7′s in hand. If you play your own 7, you’ll be scoring 7 points for yourself, but you might be helping that opponent score 14 or even 21 points! Better to go under them with a low card like a 3 or a 4 -- you’ll score fewer points, but you’ll punish the player who played a 7.

So you play the 3. And then you watch in horror as the next two players also play 7′s, followed by the original player, playing a fourth 7. Now, 7′s are very close to trending -- will you stubbornly try to undercut them with a 3 and try to make 3′s trend first? Or will you accept the inevitable, hop on the bandwagon, and add your 7 to the pile so you can at least walk away with 7 points (knowing that your opponents will probably be walking away with more)? But what if the table doesn’t collectively have seven 7′s -- what if your opponents don’t have that final 7, and by hopping on the trend, you’re actually helping them score cards that might have otherwise been dead in their hand?

That, in a nutshell, is Trendy -- like the name (and artwork/theme suggests), it is a game about watching as trends catch on, and being left in the tension of getting peer pressured into hopping on a trend out of fear of getting left behind, versus the decision to break from the crowd and try to start a new trend that catches on faster. And, of course, with each person who hops on the bandwagon, the trend only grows stronger and harder to buck. You don’t want to be left out, but the later you join a trend, the less cred you get for being part of the “in” group. The person who starts the trend often collects bigger rewards than all of the followers, so it’s better to be the king of the 3′s than the fourth person to jump on the 6 train. And because higher numbers are worth more points, the more unlikely a trend is, the more you get rewarded for starting it. The gameplay is such a perfect encapsulation of the game’s theme that I’m kind of left in awe.

And yet, there’s only so many times you can watch those stories play out before you start to get a “been there, done that” feel. Having played over a dozen hands of this game, I’ve enjoyed the time I’ve spent playing Trendy, and I’m happy to recommend of for the reasons above, but I’m not sure it’s a game that I’m sad to see leave my collection. (On the other hand, my sister loves this game and will probably be introducing many more people to it.) It’s a great game to introduce to new people who can play it for 15-60 minutes, then get to say goodbye to the game before they have a chance to grow tired of it -- and in a way, isn’t that exactly what you want out of a “gateway” game?

#reiner knizia #board games #game design

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mystic-sky · 4 years ago

Note

A fan fic of Gojo Satoru inspired by the song Heaven by Julia Michaels 😭 I enjoyed your writings 🥰🥰🥰

The moment you met him was ingrained into your brain, even years after you both parted. It had been raining that day, possibly 7:30pm, and you were held up in a cafe for shelter. You had been dosing off a bit after your classmates left you an hour or so prior. You regretted staying up so late to watch that sit-com the night before. But it was a Friday, and you didn’t have class the next day. The paper was finally finished and you proudly packed your things together. You kept fantasizing about how your efforts during the week were soon to be rewarded by slumber.

The sound of thunder brought you back to reality within the quiet coffee space.

“I guess I should sit back down,” you said to yourself. You were standing by the glass doors and ready to leave, bag over your shoulder. You held your book in one arm before fisting the sleeves of your sweater. The one time I forget my umbrella, you thought.

There was something soothing about watching the busy streets of Tokyo while rain hit the window screen. You felt yourself unwinding, relaxing in place. Sometimes your school and work life felt so hectic. It was nice to slow down from time to time and breathe.

“Man, you don’t have an umbrella? That sucks.” An incredibly tall, white haired male spoke beside you, snapping you out of your zen moment.

You turned your head towards him, and he wasn’t even looking at you. He wore a thick black sweatshirt, black jeans and dark boots. He had thick black shades on, and surely an umbrella in his hands. He had a gorgeous profile, and his jawline was extremely defined. Was he some sort of supermodel, you thought.

“Yeah, I know.” You say, sighing to yourself. You were partially offended, but mostly tired. He was handsome, but you didn’t have time for flirting. You just wanted to go home and run a hot bath. He looked like he was going to break your heart anyways.

“It says the rain is going to stop within the hour on the weather app.” He said, scrolling and tapping away at his phone. “You goin’ to the train station?”

“Oh, yeah.” You say shyly. You nervously tucked some hair behind your ears before looking straight ahead. Why the fuck was this supermodel speaking to you?

Granted, it was hard for you to stop looking at him every so often.

“Like what you see?”

You blinked at him repeatedly, earning a cocky chuckle from him.

“Wanna walk with me?” He asked, peering down at you. You looked at him, pondering if he was seriously trying to hit on you right now. Surely if you had known him, maybe walking to the station with him solely for the use of his umbrella would’ve been fine. You don’t know if it was the sleep deprivation or the fact that he truly did seem a little arrogant that stemmed your next response as you spoke.

“I don’t even know you.” You said bluntly, and you meant it disrespectfully.

“Not yet.” He said slyly. “But I’ve seen you around campus a lot.”

You stood still, pondering again if you had actually seen him before. Wait- wasn’t he in your political science class? You put a finger to your chin before finally igniting the imaginary, anxious little light bulb above your head.

“Professor Edamura’s class right?” You were such a lecture worm in that class, and the professor had yet to start group assignments. You had absolutely no need to befriend anyone in that class yet. Nonetheless, it was your largest lecture class this semester, and you only met once a week.

“Bingo.” He grinned.

“There’s like 120 people in that lecture.”

“Yeah. But I think you’re the cutest.” You stared at him, dumbfounded and blush stuck on your cheeks.

“Thank you,” you say, squeezing your arms around your book and pressing it towards your chest.

“Oh look, the rain is stopping.” He says, leaning forward and intently staring out the window.

“Well, see you Wednesday.” He smiled a cheeky smile.

You felt like a child, blushing foolishly whilst you watched him walk out and down the street.

You almost wish you hadn’t met him.

Days would go by until you saw him again. He made his appearance on Wednesday, at 2pm in Professor Edamura’s class. He sat beside you, offering you a wink before taking out his own computer beside you and your own. Aside from a greeting, he didn’t say a word until the lecture ended. You really had spoken too soon about not befriending anyone, because you had gotten slurped up into a group project with 4 other people.

“So, Friday night, we could all go to my place. I don’t live too far from here.” You wanted to meet at the library instead. Why did he want to go to his house? However, it seemed he was a rather popular guy and everyone loved him. You learned his name was Gojo Satoru. And then you lost the vote 4 to 1.

You couldn’t help but roll your eyes as the women in your group swooned at him as he talked. This sucks.

All of you created a group chat in which you sparked ideas for the project’s format. You honestly think the other girls in your group were just more excited they had his number.

Thursday night came, and you were in your robe and face mask when your phone went off. You blinked repeatedly, realizing Satoru had texted you directly and not the group chat.

Heyy

Hey, Is everything okay?

Yeah, I honestly just can’t wait to see you tomorrow.

You stared at the message, absolutely not having time for his shit. You didn’t respond. Rather, you went in your settings and purposely turned on read receipts and went to bed.

You wished you could’ve left him on read in real life too as you sat on the floor pillow in his living room the next evening. The other three group mates bailed, texting the chat just 20 minutes after you got there.

“Guess it’s just the two of us,” he chuckled.

“Don’t look so happy about it.” You rolled your eyes. This project was 30 percent of your grade, you wanted to punch someone.

“I can’t help it,” he says, sitting across from you on a different floor pillow. “I won’t lie. I had been thinking of asking you on a date. I didn’t think I’d get so lucky.”

“And did you text the other girls in our group the same thing the night before?” You say, nonchalantly opening your book. You didn’t even look his way.

“No, they’re incredibly annoying.” He sighed genuinely. You finally looked at him. They were pretty annoying. Because of them, you were sitting across from him with nothing separating you but an extremely expensive coffee table. The library would’ve been better.

“You’re pretty cool though. Kind of bummed you didn’t text me back.”

“Because I know what you’re up to.” You say, scribbling away in your notes.

“And what might that be?” He takes off his shades, putting them on the glass coffee table. You’d never forget the way he stared at you with his mesmerizing blue shells.

“I’m not going to fall in love with you. I don’t have time for that.” You firmly set your pencil down, looking at him.

“I don’t exactly want you to.” He chuckled. You looked at him before speaking again.

“So what do you want from me?” You say, placing your face in your palm and leaning forward a bit to look at him directly. The intense stare you had was sure to ring out the truth from his lips.

“I said I wanted to take you on a date.” He laughs. “Get to know you a bit, but ultimately take you to bed at the end of the night, if you don’t mind. You can decline, I just wanted to show you a good time.”

He just blatantly asked you to sleep with him. Somehow, you admired that. You hated people that wasted your time. At least this way, you felt like you had some power in the situation. You could decline him or not, and you knew exactly what would become of your situation-ship if you started something.

“Sure,” you say calmly, to his surprise. You shift yourself around the table, right beside his body.

“Seriously?”

“Seriously,” you took hold of his jaw, delicately planting a kiss. He had no idea you were so confident. He only had a girl initiate the kiss once before. Your lips were incredibly soft and pillowy. He was already hard, wondering just what your sex was like if you kissed him like this. The semester’s stress had gotten to you. You were only hoping he could help you unwind.

You shifted over his body, straddling him against the bottom of the sofa. You’d give him exactly what he wanted.

“You better be good at this, or don’t even bother looking at me after we finish this project.” You break from his lips.

“Oh princess, I don’t ever disappoint.” He smirked. You were alarmed at his strength when he lifted both your bodies off the ground. He sucked in your lips, kissing you firmly as he brought you to his bedroom.

That night, he gave you the best sex of your entire life. He wasn’t lying about not disappointing you.

You remember the day you guys finally had to present your project, which didn’t come out too bad. Satoru had seduced the girls who didn’t show up on Friday into doing majority of the work. You remember him telling you that they deserved it after you attempted to nag him for messing with them like that.

“You and me worked hard last Friday night, right princess? So what’s the big deal?” He whispered into your ear while you all gathered in front of the lecture. You presented your part that you did on your own with constant red hues plaguing your face. You wish he waited to say that after the presentation. Now, you were worked up again. The events of skin touching skin had been stuck in your mind.

You couldn’t get his extremely large hands and hot body out of your head. For something that was supposed to be a stress reliever, the thought of his sex lived on within you and it was getting annoying. He caught up with you after you rushed out the room as soon as class ended.

“You have time before your next class?” He peered down at you, grinning a sexy and devilish smile.

“Why?” You ask.

“Let’s go grab a bite to eat, on me. I promise really do work harder than I like to show off. The thing I did for the project isn’t really my character. I just didn’t like how the other girls were going to push all the work on you.”

He sounded genuinely sorry for the situation.

“It’s fine. They deserved it anyway. They never replied to me when I texted them. If it wasn’t for you using your ‘sexiness’ to make them get busy, we would’ve gotten a shitty grade for sure.” You used air quotes around the word ‘sexiness’.

“You think I’m sexy?” He said smugly.

“Of course that’s all you picked up from the entirety of what I said.” You rolled your eyes, and he laughed a hearty laugh.

“Obviously,” you say quietly, he almost didn’t hear you.

“You’re so fucking cute,” he said, laughter dying down. You had this annoyed blush on your face as the both of you walked. You did end up going out to eat with him. But somehow, you also ended up fucking him in the restaurant bathroom right after.

His hands squeezed your hips as you pressed you ass closer against him. You never realized you could feel so full. He slammed his length into you, while you shamelessly watched yourself pant beneath him in front of the mirror.

“You’re such a pretty girl, look how pretty you are. I wanna see your face again when you cum.” He coaxed you whilst gripping your neck.

“Don’t be so loud though, then we’ll get caught. You don’t want this to end do you?”

Your juices were running down your weak legs, and you were holding back pleasure filled squeals while he rammed himself into you. It had been a while since you had been fucked so well aside from last Friday. And something about the thrill of someone knocking on the door, which wasn’t even locked, helped you find your climax during that 10 minute session.

You called out his name as you clenched around his length, causing him to throw his hand over your hot mouth.

“Shhh,” he shushed you as he lifted your body towards his own.

“We won’t be able to do stuff like this in the future if you’re so loud.” His hot breath poured into your ear. Your knees were burning, but the pleasure in your core was enough to over shadow it. You were ashamed to admit it, but you were cumming again onto his dick.

“Satoru, my legs...” you muffled against his hand.

“I’ve got you sweetheart, don’t worry.” His thrusts were quickening and you felt him twitch inside you. He released himself into the rubber he wore before removing his member from you. You collapsed your upper body onto the sink for support.

He was incredibly sweet somehow, sliding your jeans and panties up for you.

“Can you walk?” He asked.

“I can manage.” You say, stumbling back against his chest. He caught you whilst you buttoned your jeans.

“The look on your face is priceless.” He said, looking at you in the mirror. You were a disheveled blushing mess, but somehow you were scowling at him for making you cum in such a short time.

“You can hold my arm for support,” he watched as you fixed what you could of your top and hair.

“Shut up.” You said, wrapping yourself onto his arm and exiting the bathroom.

Sex with him was filled with plentiful moments like this. He would spontaneously show up around you, asking to hang out. It helped out a lot, considering you were less stressed and chirpier, your friends noticed. A little bit of dick does everyone good sometimes.

You did your best to keep it strictly sex related, and you felt like he was casually following whatever you wanted to do. He was a decent friend, listening to your qualms about school and your other friendships. He took in a lot of stories and life situations from you, but he rarely ever talked about himself. You had slept with him countless times by then, but you really knew nothing about him. The thing that made it worse is that he started to sex you more passionately, stirring your feelings in a bunch.

He towered above your body in the dark moonlit room. It was another Friday, and you were lost in his sex yet again. He was so close, kissing and sucking your lips til they were sore and bruised. He dragged his mouth against your neck and down to your chest. You didn’t know what had gotten into him, but he was keen to keep the space between you as close as possible. You hadn’t see him all week, and you both didn’t have any classes together this season. The spontaneous adventures became more planned due to your busy schedules.

He inserted himself into your warmth, making you arch your back and press your breasts to his chest.

“Fuck, I missed you.”

Your entire head was hot from the whisper he made into your ear. You wished he wouldn’t say things like that. It was starting to fuck with you. You let out a moan as he filled you up completely, grinding your sex towards him from underneath.

“It looks like you missed me too,” he chuckled. Your sex was loud and wet. You couldn’t lie to him even if you tried— your body wouldn’t let you.

You found yourself moaning how much you missed him as he rolled into you endlessly throughout the evening.

“I know baby,” he placed sweet kisses against your face and neck, “I know.”

You chose to block this specific memory out whenever you told your friends this story. He had sexed you like he loved you that night and you had too many orgasms to count.

You awoke in the morning with him clinging to your naked body. It really wasn’t the first time something romantic like this had happened but it was the first time you felt provoked to say something.

“Satoru...” You said against his hair. He grumbled a groggy hum into your neck. You didn’t know if this was the right time to say it, but you were tired of the subtle hints of affection he had been mixing in with all the lust.

“It’s getting hard for me to keep this relationship strictly sex based,” you begin.

“I really do want to get to know you more. But sometimes you throw me these mixed signals and I get confused.”

He sat up, bringing his blue gaze towards yours.

“Then we should stop.” He said bluntly. He wasn’t asking you either.

“We should,” you sort of agree, confusedly.

“I had a feeling this was going to happen.” He said, tearing himself from you.

“But it’s cool. I’ve got somewhere to be. You need a ride home?” He asked. You nodded. That morning for the first time in a long time, you both got dressed together in solitude. There was no banter, no joking around and none of the occasional compliment or kiss.

He drove you home, in comfortable silence on his part. When you both of reached in front of your house he finally spoke.

“Don’t look so down, honey. At the end of the day, you were just a warm body to me. Cheer up though, you served your purpose.”

You could’ve cried but you knew exactly what this was from the beginning. Was it possible he was starting to feel something? And this was his way of running from it? You stared at your lap. There was no point of trying to read too hard into it now.

“Thanks for the ride.” You say, shutting the door. He watched you walk into your house. He hadn’t known you were so sensitive considering the persona you’d been giving him since the very beginning. He would never be able to apologize to you for it either— he had too much pride.

He never texted or called you after that. Not that you were surprised, you knew he wasn’t the one for you. He was too secretive despite his outgoing nature. An experience it was, you thought it was fun. You did your best to look at the situation as optimistically as possible.

Whenever you saw him on campus, you didn’t even bother looking at him. You walked right by him. He knew better than to speak to you. One day you were sitting in the cafe you first met him in. It was raining just like it was last year. You knew he saw you scribbling away through the glass window. He entered anyway, with a brunette attached to his arm. She laughed loudly as she pressed her breasts to his bicep. You casually sipped your iced coffee, eying him briefly before returning to your work.

He was pretty ballsy.

“You okay babe?” Suguru slid his large hand over yours, breaking you out of your thoughts.

You hummed in delight, watching him take hold of your hand and press your knuckles to his lips.

“When you’re done, how about we go to that Hibachi place you like?”

You held back an excited squeal at the dark haired male in front of you.

“I’d like that a lot.”

part 2

#gojo satoru #gojo satoru x reader #gojo smut #gojo sensei #jujutsu kaisen #jjk angst #jjk #jjk smut #im sorry but just because they're your fav does not mean im gonna write the relationship all lovey dovey #fictional characters are not exempt to toxicity #but I love the song so much I couldn't write it any other way

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mewberii · 4 years ago

Text

Streamer!Scaramouche AU

i feel like he’d be one of the biggest streamers on his platform- probably one of those that everyone has heard of even if they’re not into watching livestreams and all

but between those who do know who he is, they either love him or hate him. no in-between

it’s kind of understandable because his attitude is not suited/can be handled by anyone

he’s brutally honest even when his opinion may be seen as rude (to him he’s just saying the truth so he doesn’t mind if people get offended)

of course he doesn’t try to be rude on purpose but i mean it as in he’ll say what he thinks

imagine he’s playing a game and he doesn’t like a certain mechanic, or he isn’t enjoying the story;

he won’t say the game is bad but he’ll openly say he doesn’t like it/it’s not for him. it makes him seem strict but tbh he’s not that hard to please and even when he complains about one or two things he still enjoys the game

he usually gives every game a chance even when from what he’s seen it doesn’t sound like a game he’ll like. if he turns out to be right he just won’t play it again and if he’s wrong he’s a little too prideful to admit he spoke a little too fast but in the end he will admit the game is good or he’s having fun

probably the kind that just knows so much about all games and all the creators and all the game-making engines and is up to date with every single news of everything video-game + streaming-related,,, how does he do it, i don’t know,,,,

and also since he’s so popular he probably gets packages from game developers with limited edition stuff or merch from different games soooo often

and he placed the ones from his favorite games in his setup room and it looks INCREDIBLE he has so much stuff

he did a room tour stream once talking about all he has, where he got everything, from his monitor to every complement of his computer and like,,,,, the cost of his setup,,,,,,, some people already know they’ll never be able to afford that in their entire life

and he already had a great setup before he even became big as a streamer so people can already guess he’s fairly rich

also i feel like he would have started his career as a streamer without using a facecam and even like that, he already managed to get very popular because of his professional commentary of game dynamics/playability + you can tell that he’s passionate about this and also he’s very funny without even trying??

he says some stuff so casually that he doesn’t realise how funny it is

probs showed his face after he hit a very important milestone

he never considered showing his face that important but he understood why people would want to see his reactions when playing games (even tho he warned them he’s not the most expressive/dramatique person in the world and they know by now) and would want to put a face to the person who entertains them so much with his streams

and when he does show his face people go absolutely cRAZY BECAUSE he is crazy good looking (if you don’t think he’s good looking i’m sorry for your eyesight. jk i’m sorry in general i just really love him)

some people who didn’t watch his streams will even check them out because of that but literally if you come for the visuals only you won’t stay for long because as i said not anyone can handle his personality

if he sees people being superficial about him too much instead of paying attention to what’s happening in the stream, he will immediately turn the subs mode on in the chat (if he didn’t have it on already)

being rude, being disrespectful/saying discriminating stuff or anything of that sort won’t be tolerated and anyone who does it will be banned instantly

without even interrupting what he was saying before he saw the comment, he’ll just type the ban to whoever said that and go on

and his mods do the exact same. they are just as strict as him

if it ever got too much of course he wouldn’t be afraid to speak up about it and tell his chat to stop that behaviour or else, as they should already know, he won’t be afraid of banning them even if they’ve been subscribed for months or years

ANYWAYS

why do i feel like he has a super organised chat— as in instead of spamming 5 emotes per comment they all send just one and it looks so tidy and perfect

literally other streamers would be jealous of how not-messy his chat is even when he has thousands and thousands and thousands of viewers all the time

also i have this idea that maybe any of his fans would have designed him as a genshin character (which would be the design of the scaramouche we know (?))

and the little pop-ups (i don’t know the name in english rIP) thingies that show up to notify when someone subscribed or donated would be lil chibi art of that design

it’d be really cool

and since i also doodled what a stream of his could look like (i’ll show it in the future when i’m done!!) i thought that way it’d be more recognisable that the streamer is scaramouche

99% of the people who have seen him irl found him too intimidating to go ask him for a picture or tell him anything

he’s not a huge fan of taking pictures anyway + is more on the introverted/reserved side but he wouldn’t mind if someone went up to him (if he’s not busy with something) to tell him something or say they enjoy his streams

i feel like in a couple occasions he would have played a game with some subscribers and he’d like to tease them speaking with his usual tone and face (in case they’re watching the stream as they talk) so they think he’s serious

“did you watch my 12 hour stream the other day?” -scaramouche

“ah,,,, i-” -the sub

“think well of what you’re going to answer.” -scaramouche

“i-i couldn’t watch the whole thing,,,” -the sub

“ah, is that so…?” -scaramouche

he’ll pretend to sound disappointed but at one point he just can’t help but smirk and hold in a chuckle before telling them he’s not serious

(he literally doesn’t know how the hell he survived that stream himself because he isn’t one to stream for that long)

i feel like deep inside people who know him would know he wouldn’t say such things seriously/wouldn’t be disappointed in anyone for not watching every single minute of his streams or not even all his streams

but he says all that so seriously that it’s,,, intimidating and they’re lowkey like “god but what if he’s not joking-”

he’d play games with the other streamers sometimes but i feel like most of the type he’d play more single-player games

it’d be so funny if he plays among us with others and for example one of those others it’s childe

both of them would always be suspecting of the other first/bickering, especially scaramouche

and if one game turns out they’re both the impostors… people would know right away

like, if any of them tried to defend the other, everyone else would be like “!?! what is this? scaramouche and childe defending each other? scary”

they’d vote one of them (maybe scaramouche) out because they started guessing + saying proof of how both of them could be the impostors (but the biggest proof is them not coming for each other’s throats sNKJFNGKJS)

scaramouche would have to resist the urge to S C R E A M

needless to say he doesn’t like when he has to be impostor with childe

and unfortunately for him, fate makes it happen considerably often

i feel like at least one time scaramouche would kill next to childe and then report it and literally blame childe

and childe would be like ?!?!?!?!?? WHAT- NO- (struggles bc his brain instinct is to say ‘it was you!’ but they’re both the impostors??? how-)

and then they’d eject childe,,, and then people wouldn’t suspect of scaramouche for most of the game because ? why would he- blame his partner---

well he did it with no regrets and at the end when they all found out they found it very funny (except for childe, but even he ended up laughing in the end because what a mean strategy sjkfhdsgkj)

i have this feeling that even though they bicker so much and for any strangers it’d seem like they hate each other, when scaramouche does play online games, many times it’d be with childe?

ik they aren’t supposed to get along but for the sake of it being a modern au i don’t want bad vibes between any of the characters pls-

and everyone enjoys their dynamic and those streams always get a ton of viewers sjfhdsgkj and i’m sure both their chats would be good friends (most likely one’s fans would also be a fan of the other too)

very very very rarely (because he prefers just playing and talking while playing) he’d do streams where he doesn’t play anything but just talks with the chat, watches videos that they send him, looks at the fanart they make, just talks about games,,,,

it’d be super chill and the perfect streams for people to be doing homework/work/play games/draw or do basically anything while they listen to his stream in the background

he’d also be answering some of people’s questions about him or about his favorite games, or if he’s playing this new game that came out earlier this week,,,

“will you play ‘it takes two’ with childe?” -someone in the chat

“absolutely not. i won’t play a co-op game with him”

not even 5 days later, tweet from childe saying “streaming in 30 minutes! Scaramouche and I will be playing It Takes Two on my ch---”

anyways this will be all!! (for now?) i obviously knew genshin before this but, yesterday i could finally start playing it myself! so i feel like if not now, soon i will also write headcanons of him playing genshin! i don’t take requests but if you guys have any ideas or anything you want to say about this AU, send me an ask!! i’d love to talk about this and about genshin in general!

also, i was very inspired to write this by @baeshijima ! so thank you very much to her for her wonderful streamer AUs and if anyone reading this hasn’t read hers already, go check them out!! they’re amazing!!

#genshin impact #genshin impact scenarios #genshin impact headcanons #genshin impact scaramouche #genshin impact x reader #scaramouche headcanons #scaramouche scenarios

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qqueenofhades · 4 years ago

Note

Did Ivan and Fedyor ever have, like, one of those big first fights where there is this uncertainty of "are we over now?" ? I mean, they would be alright in the end, but between Fedyor's overthinking and Ivan probably not having a lot of experience with relationships, there would be room for them worrying for a time after it.

Sequel to this and prequel to this. Set, as usual, in Phantom!Verse.

Moscow, 2013

June 30, 2013, is not a good day. In fact, it might be the worst of all the days of Fedyor Kaminsky’s life to date, and it is made absolutely no better by the fact that he’s long known it was coming – he just hoped, however vainly, that it wouldn’t. Three weeks ago, on June eleventh, the Duma unanimously passed the law formally entitled “For the Purpose of Protecting Children from Information Advocating For a Denial of Traditional Family Values,” with only one abstention and no dissenting votes, and President Putin is going to ceremoniously sign it into law today. It’s more pithily known as the “anti-gay law,” and it basically prohibits anything related to acknowledging that homosexuals exist in Russia. Fedyor has been anxiously following its progress with his activist friends in their group chats, all of them praying for some last-minute miracle to swoop in and knock it off course. Now that’s not going to happen. He has no idea what is going to happen, but to say the least, it won’t be good. He’s taken some body blows before, but this one sucks.

Fedyor vacillates wildly between wanting to watch the signing ceremony just to scream obscenities at it, and wanting to hide under the covers with the pillows over his head and cry. He texts frenetically with his friend Lyosha, who lost his position at Perm State University a few months ago for daring to do research about LGBTQ people, and is already planning to head into exile abroad. Does he have to do that too? Fedyor has lived in Russia his entire life, even if he has traveled internationally and has lots of foreign friends. He could stay. He could try to fight this thing somehow. He could do more. He should do more.

But how?

When Ivan gets home from work at six o’clock that night, that’s where he finds Fedyor: sitting on the living room floor under a quilt and neurotically eating chocolate biscuits, texting and crying. He drops his backpack and rushes over. “Fedya? Fedya! What’s wrong?”

“He signed it,” Fedyor says flatly. No more elaboration is necessary. “So now we’re fucked.”

Ivan looks troubled. He rocks back on his heels next to Fedyor and searches for the words. Then he says, clearly trying to be helpful, “Maybe not. Nobody has to know about us. If we just keep on like before, go about our daily lives, it will be all right. We are not important people. Why would they bother with us?”

“What?” Fedyor wipes his eyes with the back of his hand and lurches upright, shedding the quilt and a shower of cookie crumbs. “What are you talking about? Just – deny ourselves and go back in the closet and pretend we’re not here, that those assholes won? Go out, but make sure I never hold your hand walking down the street or dare to pretend that we are together? I don’t want to be afraid every second we’re out in public, Vanya! I don’t want to be wondering if maybe they’ll look at my emails or cook up some other reason to come after us! Lyosha already got fired before this even officially passed, and – ”

“Lyosha was a radical beforehand,” Ivan says dismissively. “It wasn’t because of this, I’m sure. So what? He’ll get a fancy position somewhere else. The West will love to take in the gay Russian, persecuted by the barbaric Putin regime, to show off how humane and enlightened they think they are. He will be fine.”

Fedyor looks at him as if he has two heads. “That’s how you’re reacting to this?”

“What am I supposed to do about it?” Ivan shrugs. “We have to make the best. What else are we going to do? Leave Russia?”

“Maybe we have to. What other choice do we have?”

“Stay?” Now it’s Ivan’s turn to sound like he’s talking nonsense. “Russia is our home!”

“Look, Vanya. I know you and I think differently about things, and we’ve gotten used to that. But I can’t – I physically cannot – stay in a place where I am criminalized for existing, for loving you, for being afraid that something will happen to us. We have to go.”

“No.” Ivan’s voice is colder than Fedyor has ever heard it. He sounds like a stranger. “No, we don’t. That’s crazy talk. Where would we go? America?”

“At least America doesn’t have this law!”

“America has no law that is helpful for us!” Ivan shouts. “And I’m not going there. The end! You make that choice, Fedya. Exile, or me?”

There’s a horrible silence in the wake of that pronouncement, as they stare at each other and Ivan instantly looks like he wants to bite it back, but it’s too late. Fedyor turns on his heel and marches away in frozen silence, refusing to utter a single word to Ivan for the rest of the night, even as Ivan tries to apologize and coax him into speaking again. Finally, taking the hint, he takes his things and silently goes to sleep on the couch, and Fedyor lies in their bed, staring at the ceiling and tossing and turning. Ivan didn’t mean that, right? Or maybe he did? Flee Russia, start a new life somewhere across the sea, but leave his boyfriend behind? Until recently, he thought Ivan Sakharov was the love of his life. Maybe he isn’t. Or even more terrifyingly, he is, and Fedyor will have to give him up anyway.

The rest of the week is just as bad. Ivan leaves early for work and keeps to himself when he gets home, while Fedyor starts Googling the U.S. asylum-claim process and reaching out to North American-based friends who can help with logistics. He spends hours on the computer, takes reams of notes, and doesn’t feel any better. Is he planning this for them or for him? He needs to answer that question like, now, and yet the prospect fills him with sickening dread. He cries himself to sleep with the bedroom door shut, and hears awkward shuffling in the corridor outside, like Ivan is listening and desperately wants to come in, but doesn’t think Fedyor wants him there. That’s even worse.

Finally, on Saturday night, Fedyor decides that they can’t go on like this. He drags himself out of his cave of blankets and cooks a nice supper, while Ivan goes for his usual afternoon workout at the gym, and when he comes back, he blinks. “Fedya? What’s this about?”

“We need…” Fedyor’s throat is a desert. “We need to talk about us.”

Those six little words are usually the kiss of death in any relationship, and he has no idea what’s about to happen next, but Ivan’s face wrenches in half like a torn piece of paper. He opens his mouth, shuts it, shakes his head furiously, and comes to a sudden and unassailable decision. With that, still in his gym clothes, he drops his bag and goes to one knee on the creaky wooden floor of their kitchen, in this humble sixth-floor Moscow flat that is the first place Fedyor ever knew pure and perfect happiness. “Okay,” he says. “How is this for a start. Fedyor Mikhailovich Kaminsky, will you marry me?”

Fedyor stares at him, utterly blankly, seized with the horrible fear that Ivan is making fun of him. “Have you – are you – are you serious?”

“Yes.” Ivan reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small box. “I wanted to do this in a different way, but maybe this is better. Fedya, I don’t – I can’t – I don’t want to live without you. I’ll even move to America if you want to. I’m no good without you. I can’t. Please.”

Fedyor continues to stare at him. Then finally he moves closer, as Ivan holds out the ring with a look of utter, silent entreaty, his heart wrung out and raw in his eyes. “Are you – ” Fedyor’s voice is a whisper. “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” Ivan says again, strong and steady. “More than I have ever been about anything.”

Fedyor starts to answer, and simply can’t. He starts to shake from head to toe, and Ivan scoots forward, still on his knees, and wraps both arms around Fedyor’s waist, burying his face in Fedyor’s stomach. Fedyor clutches hold of him and sinks down, the two of them barely making a sound. Finally, he whispers, “You hate America.”

“I don’t,” Ivan says. “Not really. But either way, I love you, Fedya. And I’m choosing that.”

Fedyor grips Ivan’s face in his hands and kisses him thoroughly, then remembers that he still technically hasn’t accepted his proposal, and he should do that. He holds out his right hand so Ivan can slip on the plain band, with the promise to buy him a nicer one once they get to wherever they’re going. He’ll help with arrangements, he promises. Whatever Fedyor needs him to do.

They board an Aeroflot flight, Moscow Sheremetyevo–New York JFK, on the evening of August 3, 2013, with all their worldly belongings either in the cargo hold or waiting to be shipped over by Fedyor’s parents. They hold hands in the terminal, unobtrusively, and when they get on the plane. And even as the jet engines roar into takeoff and the lights of his homeland fall away into the clouds for what might be the last time in who knows how long, Fedyor Kaminsky can’t help but feeling, once again, ready to start anew.

#ivan x fedyor #heartrender husbands #fivan #a phantom in enchanting light #pel asks #anonymous #ask #fivan ff

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silvercrystalwhump · 3 years ago

Text

Little thing based on an idea for Ash

@ashintheairlikesnow owns all of these characters I just an idea one day and decided- Hey I'ma write this. Enjoy

TW: implied noncon, noncon photo taking, general bbu warning, Owen Grant exists

Vincent drums his fingers across the wood with nails bitten to near bleeding. A hard drive sits on the table in front of him, almost eating at his eyes by simply existing. It’s red, and the word Memories is written on the side. His eyes bore into the table, wanting the hard drive to combust and leave his life.

“You know I could always see what's on there?”

James, the only person other than his therapist to know about Owen, leans by an open window. The sound of Blue Jays singing outside dances through his words like background music on set. The only reason he had the displeasure of knowing about that migraine-inducing part of his life was that Vincent forgot to watch his liquor intake at an event and vomited out his entire life story to James in one night. Needless to say, he woke up the next morning with a hangover that could kill god and a very concerned James who knew too much.

Vincent shakes his head, “I am fairly certain I know what's on this, I don’t want you seeing that.”

James doesn’t respond, “I have an incinerator at home. You can just get rid of it there.”

“If it’s not I’ll be destroying something I actually like.”

Vincent did not even know why he had him come over. After he saw the handwriting he just went on autopilot. “Could you drive down about five minutes down, there’s this small coffee place that makes pecan pie flavored coffee, can you go get me some?”

“Sure,” James says, “Do you want me to go so you can do this alone and I can come back later or?”

“No, I just need you out of the house for maybe 15 minutes, it’s not like you probably have already figured out what I think is on this hard drive.”

James shrugs, “You want something to eat too?”

“I’m not hungry.”

Vincent hears James’ keys jungle quietly and the door opens. He can hear his footsteps walk down his porch. As he listens to James’ car start, Vincent puts his head in his hands. His finger knit into his hair and closes, threatening to rip the follicles right from his skull. I really don’t want to see this. He exhales as he hears the car pull out of the driveway and his gate slide closed.

Inhale, he closes his eyes and fumbles the hard drive into the laptop. Then, exhaling, he opens his eyes.

USP Pot In-Use. Transfer 486 GB of data onto this device?

Half a terabyte of data just sitting on a hard drive. A hard drive that was in the button of one of Vincent’s bags for months. Vincent starts to chew on the inside of his cheek, hands trembling near the mouse pad.

Yes.

Not enough storage for transfer. Preview file?

Yes.

A handful of files transfer to his laptop. Some files were named with dates, some with pet names, some with actual event titles but all were photos. Vincent closes his eyes and opens one simply labeled Coffee. The actual photo itself is just him sitting in one of his old dressing rooms back when working with Owen. There is a blurry spot in the upper left-hand corner of the photo. This was definitely Owen’s phone. Owen’s phone always had a blurry spot in the upper left-hand corner no matter how much Owen wiped it off.

The photo looks like it was taken at an awkward angle. Vincent pinched the bridge of his nose and mutters, “So he stalked me long before the incident, I stopped working there months before it happened.” The other handful of photos are similar; pictures were taken without Vincent noticing, usually at work. The last one was in his own house, but it was during a party he remembered that he invited Owen to.

Then a video pops up only labeled with a date.

Vincent reaches up and mutes his computer, and slowly presses play on the video. It starts with Owen muttering something before sticking his phone up and peering through a window. The video is of Vincent sleeping, and it lasts for nearly 30 minutes before the phone is dislodged, and the video finishes.

The next set of photos and videos are dated during his time with Owen.

He gets through three before rushing to the bathroom to puke.

When James gets back, Vincent has seen enough. He was right. It was Owen’s hard drive, and somehow he got a hold of it. James hands Vincent the coffee and the bag.

“I’m not gonna lie, I kinda forgot what you said about food so I just got you a scone since I was listening to the radio talk about the new federal policy on box boys.”

Vincent took a sip of the coffee and raised an eyebrow at James, “Something changed?”

“The emancipation law, it was signed by the president a week ago and the changes went into effect today,” James says as he sips his own coffee, “If you own a box boy for over a year and they meet a handful of prerequisites you can emancipate them and give them legal citizenship.”

“I honestly thought it would get shot down.”

“Well since the senator that was so against it was voted out this election no one else has objected,” James says, and he pulls up his phone, “Well the owner has to be the one to sign them for emancipation. Senator Grant was her name wasn’t it?”

Vincent takes a bite out of the scone. He swallows both the scone and a thought.

“Does it say anything about private transfer?”

“I think you just have to have their papers. Why?”

Vincent looks down at his food, and an idea pops into his head, “What’s Senator Grant doing now since she’s not in office.”

James shrugs, “Let me see if anyone said anything?” He taps on his phone, the little buzzes echo around the room like flies to trash. James pauses, “I’m pretty sure she’s just at home preparing for the next election why?”

“I think I might need you to help me make a phone call.”

Weeks later, Vincent paces, listening to James talk on the phone in the other room. He could not physically hear Owen’s voice through the phone without falling apart.

“That’s my ear,” James says sarcastically, “Do you agree with this or not?”

Silence.

Click.

James knocks on the half-open door, “You alright Vincent?”

“Are you done?” Vincent asks, tighter than a spring.

James nods, “After the screaming he agreed, do you want me to go over with the papers so you don’t have to see them?”

“Please, I’m more than likely already going to have to be on a phone call with his Mother and that's stressful enough.”

Vincent opens the door of his study and steps out, “I need a drink.”

“It's noon Vincent.”

Vincent has one hand on the liquor cabinet and chuckles dryly, “Perfect.”

‘Vincent, no.”

Making dead eye contact with James, he pulls a bottle of sweet tea vodka out of the cabinet and pours himself a glass. James sighs and shakes his head, “I thought Dr. Brycan told you not to drink.”

“He said that I need to wait until at least noon since I used to drink from dawn until dusk unless I had work, it’s 12:01.”

“Didn't you tell me that you’re probably going to get a phone call from the ex-Senator today,” James says, stepping back, “I think you want to wait at least until then so you're sober when you two talk.”

Vincent pauses with the glass halfway to his lips. He sets it down just hard enough to hear it but not hard enough to crack the crystal. Vincent grumbles, “Fine,” and walks back for his study to wait by the phone.

“You do know this is blackmail, Vincent,” Mrs. Grant grinds through the phone, “And that is illegal.”

“So is paying off someone to hide criminal charges. He either takes the deal or I take this half terabyte hard drive filled with evidence to court and get the press involved, his decision.”

“How much do you have to pay you,” she says after a moment.”

“No amount of cash will buy me over, he either takes the deal or I contact my manager.”

Silence through the phone. Vincent’s nails dig into his jeans. The woman on the other end of the line can’t see the tears pouring down Vincent’s face. One thing acting taught him was how to keep his voice steady for clarity in a microphone. The only difference here is that the microphone is in a phone rather than on a long stick.

“We’ll think about it,” she finally says.

“You have until Sunday.”

“Fine.”

Click.

Vincent holds the phone up to his ear for a second before dropping it onto the table. His head falls into his hands, and he sobs. His mind, blank yet filed with too many feelings, recoils under its own weight. Tears that had been held back for months spill across contract papers and blot through blank ink. The ink spread like blood across bed sheets.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to knock his teeth in?” James asks as he holds the contract and transfers forms in one hand and a Sprite in the other, “Because I will and want to.”

Vincent shakes his head, fingers drumming across the velvet seats of the limousine he almost forgot he had. When did I even buy this was the first thought he had when he dug through contacts. “No, just go inside, get him to fill out the forms, and come back. Then we go home and I gorge myself on M&Ms and fudge ice cream.”

James laughs, “Room numbers on the card right?”

“Yes.”

James steps out of the car. The condominium looms over the limousine, and James bites through white-knuckled rage as he steps into the lobby.

Guess who’s standing there waiting for him, Owen Grant, and his mother. James steps up to them, “Grant, correct?”

Owen looks surprised and gives James a quick not-so-subtle scan, “Are you who Vince sent, I thought he was coming?”

“Do I really need to explain why that will never happen?”

Mrs. Grant gives James a glare to rival the sun’s wrath on gingers. The demeanor shifts almost instantly to a more business appeal, “Well allow us to get this paperwork sorted out as painlessly as possible.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

How long does it take to sign papers? James thinks as he watches Owen go through the forms. These are pre-filled out records; he just needs to sign in three spots. Pen scratches against the paper, Owen’s friendly demeanor evaporated when he reached the final form.

“Why this of all things?” he grinds out.

Neither of the two people answers him. Owen finally tosses the form and an orange file in James’ direction. “All of Kauri’s paperwork; if Vince needs anything else, he’ll have to contact WRU directly.”

James scoops the papers off the table, flipping through them; he looks to make sure Owen didn’t deliberately miss any signatures. An extra envelope sits in the orange file. James pulls it free and waves it in Owen’s face.

“What’s this?”

Owen, stupidly, answers, “A goodbye letter since I just filled out a no contact agreement, I want to give my final goodbyes if you will.”

James rips open the envelope and takes out the letter but keeps in anything that may be important.

“That’s for Vincent’s eyes only!” Owen snaps.

“And that hard drive was for your eyes only wasn’t it? I got Vincent’s consent to look through these forms.”

Owen and his mother glare daggers at James as he tosses the letter back onto the table, “Goodbye.”

James can still feel Owen’s teeth grinding gaze on his back as the door closes behind him.

Jake answers the door, “Hello Vincent.”

“Is Kauri here?” Vincent asks as his fingers shift around the orange folder.

“Depends,” Jake says, leaning against the door frame, “What do you want?”

Vincent sighs, “I called Natalie yesterday and---”

“Just let him in,” Kauri’s voice echoes from inside the safe house, “Let’s just get this over with.”

Jake pierces his lips and steps out of the way. Vincent steps past him and enters the safe house. Natalie had told him to make things as quick as possible, and if Kauri told him to leave, he would. Vincent agreed. Now he simply hoped that he would be able to get this across without being told to leave.

Kauri steps around the corner, a look of tired anger sits behind his eyes.

“Kauri I’m so---”

“Skip the bullshit, Nat said this would be quick.”

Vincent nods and forces the new wave of guilt back into his stomach, “A few days ago, I was able to… convince Owen to transfer ownership of you to me. I want to ask if I can transfer you to anyone else for your own security, so you are entirely out of Owen’s grabbing range.

Kauri stands there with an expression of absolute disbelief. Then, finally, he opens his mouth to speak before stammering, “I said quick but not one sentence, elaborate.”

“Well, to put it in simply I was going through some of my old stuff from during the incident. I found a hard drive with nearly half a terabyte of… evidence that could be used against Owen,” Vincent says as his shoulder tense at memories he wishes to be buried. “A friend of mine brought up the new box boy emancipation law and after that I got an idea. This friend, who I vomited out my entire life story to black out drunk, was willing to help be the liaison between Owen and me. After a telephone call between Mrs. Grant and I, we got the papers signed and so now I have all of your paperwork under my name.”

“Okay?” Kauri says with disbelief still in his tone in tiny blips, “Then why are you talking to me, just leave me alone and I won’t have to worry about Owen.”

Vincent chews at the inside of his cheek, “Here’s the thing, what I did is, in the eyes of the law, black mail. While he could be charged with the same thing, if he took me to court one of the first assets taken for compensation are box boys. So, you could stay under my name but I don’t trust that he won’t try to get you back by either suing or doing something. My question now is, is there someone who you trust enough for me to transfer your ownership form to.”

Kauri pauses. The gears shift in his head for a moment before he looks past Vincent and back at Jake. The widest shit-eating grin nearly splits Kauri’s face in half. He looks over Vincent’s shoulder and laughs, “Hey Jake, want your own Romantic?”

Vincent looks over his shoulder and sees a very exasperated, tired, and just downright flustered Jake.

“I- um- Kauri- I- please don’t wrd it like that, that makes me sound terrible.”

“And.”

“I- mean in order to keep Owen away from you then yes I will but please don’t,” Jake stampers, “I don’t and won’t own you.”

Kauri pushes past Vincent and boops Jake on the nose, “Congrats you get your own boxie.”

“Kauri, please.”

Vincent clears his throat and interrupts, “While I am used to being third wheel um I know you all want me out of your hair so I have the forms with me and after they are signed I will do the heavy lifting with WRU.”

After a second, Kauri chuckles before walking away. Jake just watches as he leaves, a sigh escaping his lips, “He is never going to let me live that down.”

“If you don’t want to-”

“No no,” Jake says, “I will, he's just teasing. What do I have to sign?”

#owen grant should be castrated #bbu #ash is cruel to the boys #kauri #jake #vincent shield #blackmail #tw: implied noncon #tw: noncon phototaking #whump #box boy #box boy universe

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bittydragon · 4 years ago

Text

The Problems Arising (The Election)

Notes: Here it is! This is the start of that big project I told you all about yesterday! This story is based off of the request by @potatonugget7 - “I was wondering if you could do like, the whole Schlatt arc of L’Manburg but with borrower Tubbo?” (Just in case the picture decides to not load for some dumb reason.) (Also, only reason I’m not answering this as the ask itself is purely due to formatting reasons) Let me tell you, this has been a blast to create. I have actually been talking with the person who sent me this ask and they helped me develop the story. Personally, I think this is turning out amazing. I am very excited to share this project with you all and hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

“Wilbur, relax! We’ve got this in the bag! There’s no way we could lose this thing, not after all the work we have put into this.”

“But Tommy! SWAG2020 has begun gaining a following and Schlatt’s sudden entrance to the election could send this all for a loop. Can we really still win?”

Tubbo watched as his best friend and his brother argued over what the outcome for this election would be.

Wilbur had only become increasingly anxious over the results whilst Tommy was completely confident in their abilities to win the election.

Tubbo wished he could help, but it was rather difficult when he was only a few inches tall. All he could do was sit there and give whatever words of encouragement he could think of to help calm the two humans’ nerves.

But in this moment, Tubbo couldn’t even think of what he could say. Wilbur was rightfully worried, Quackity had begun to gain a following and Schlatt’s sudden entry to the election threw everyone off.

Though, Tommy’s optimism had its own truth behind it. The two brothers had put a lot of work into their election campaign, and that isn’t even considering the amount of work they put into building the country as a whole.

With all this in mind, Tubbo still had high hopes that Wilbur and Tommy would still win.

“Guys, at this point it’s useless to argue about the outcome, the votes are all in already. Nothing is going to change the outcome now.”

Both humans went silent and turned to Tubbo, who barely flinched at the sudden attention. He was used to it at this point. He was just happy that they actually listened to him instead of ignoring him because he was different.

“Though, I do want to ask a favor of you Wilbur.”

Wilbur sent him a questioning gaze. “And what would that be, Tubbo?” Tubbo took a deep breath. He just hoped that they would be alright with this.

“Could I come and watch this time? I could just hide in your pocket!” He took a deep breath as he noticed Tommy was about to say something and continued.

“I just feel as if I don’t get to see what happens with you guys. Plus, I want to be there to celebrate with you two afterwards!” He sent them a wide smile, which thankfully seemed to calm both of their nerves.

“Of course, Tubbo. I’d be happy to-”

“Wait! Why don’t you want me to carry you? Why the hell did you ask Wilbur and not me, your best friend if I may add.”

“Tommy, I wouldn’t trust you to actually keep me hidden either if I were Tubbo, dumbass.”

Tubbo giggled as Tommy began sputtering out various curses and insults. Wilbur only looked on in amusement. Tubbo enjoyed these little moments with them.

They were like a family, something Tubbo hadn’t really had before meeting Tommy.

All too soon, their fun was stopped by the distant ringing of a bell. All three of them knew what this bell meant; the time to announce the results of the election.

They all stood there in silence for a brief moment to let it sink in. Eventually, Wilbur turned towards Tubbo and extended his hand out to him with a smile.

“Shall we?” Tubbo nodded and quickly climbed onto Wilbur’s hand.

His grip tightened ever so slightly to keep himself balanced as the hand moved upwards. It seemed to take no time at all before he reached the pocket of Wilbur’s uniform and slid into it.

He began situating himself inside of the pocket as he felt Wilbur lean down to pick up the envelope that contained the final results.

When everyone was ready, they left towards the podium with a heavy silence hanging between them.

The walk was uneventful and quiet, all three too caught up in their own thoughts. As they approached the podium, they could see many of the citizens of L’Manburg had already begun to gather below. With a heavy sigh, Wilbur walked up towards the podium with Tommy trailing behind him.

As soon as they reached the podium, Tubbo ducked back into the pocket. He’d rather not be seen by others. He’d be content with only listening to the results, they really weren’t something he needed to see to know the outcome.

Tubbo heard faint conversation around him as Wilbur prepared to announce the results that were located in the envelope from earlier. A moment later, Wilbur tapped the microphone and cleared his throat; everyone went silent.

“Hello everyone, and welcome to the L’Manburg election results! In my hand are the final votes for the election, the deciding factor on L’Manburg’s next president.” Tubbo felt Wilbur take a deep breath as he lifted the envelope for everyone in the audience to see.

“This envelope contains the popular votes for the four running parties: POG2020 consisting of Wilbur Soot and TommyInnit, SWAG2020 consisting of Quackity and George, Coconut2020 consisting of Fundy and Nihachu, and Schlatt2020 consisting of Schlatt. With that said, I will now read out the results of the election.”

Silence was all that met Wilbur’s words. Tubbo assumed everyone was anticipating the results with baited breath because even he felt his own doubts creeping in.

However he shook it off as he heard Wilbur tear the envelope open and pull out the sheet of paper.

A few seconds later, Wilbur suddenly tensed up. It felt so slight that he was sure that no one watching would notice, but Tubbo could feel it from inside the pocket.

He was confused, POG2020 was the clear favorite, at least, he thought they were the clear favorite. But the way Wilbur tensed up made his doubts increase tenfold.

“In fourth place with 9% of the vote, we have Coconut2020!”

Cheering suddenly erupted from beside Wilbur, and Tubbo made a quick guess that it was Fundy cheering. At least he still seemed happy despite losing the election.

“In third place with 16% of the vote, we have Schlatt2020!”

An astonished silence followed the announcement. Tubbo shifted in surprise as well. Schlatt had been such a late entry to the election as a whole, and yet, he didn’t receive the lowest amount of votes. He had actually managed to gain a decent following for only being in L’Manburg for a few days, prior to the election.

“That leaves us with the last two parties: POG2020,” he paused for effect before continuing on, “and SWAG2020.” Silence hung in the air, only broken by a small cheer behind Wilbur that went ignored by everyone.

“In second place with 30% of the vote,” Wilbur paused, raising the suspense.Tubbo held his breath, hoping that POG2020 came out as the elected party.

“SWAG2020!”

Cheer erupted from all around, the loudest being Tommy who was standing right beside Wilbur. Even Tubbo couldn’t help but let out a relieved laugh, they had won the election.

“That leaves POG2020 with 45% of the popular vote.” Tommy’s cheering increased tenfold at the new statement. Tubbo knew that if he wasn’t in Wilbur’s pocket at that exact moment, Tommy would be all over his brother in excitement.

Tubbo was about to tap Wilbur to show him how excited he was when he began to speak again.

“Tommy, Tommy please settle down. I need to announce one other thing.” Tommy lessened his cheering but Tubbo knew he was probably still smiling like an idiot. They had won, they did it!

“Two days ago, a deal was made between candidate Quackity and candidate Schlatt. They both agreed to create a coalition government based off of both of their respective followings. Therefore, the new party of Schlatt2020 has 46% of the popular vote. Meaning that Schlatt2020 has won the election by 1% of the vote.”

Tubbo could no longer pay attention to everything going on around him, all of the words around him blending into white noise.

They had actually lost the election.

Wilbur and Tommy didn’t win when it should have been an easy victory for them. The only reason they lost was because of the new coalition government pooling their votes together.

So what was going to happen now? This Schlatt person was the new president of L’Manburg?

He had only been in these lands for around a week prior and the people had already decided that they preferred him over Wilbur. Wilbur hadn’t done anything wrong, he had done nothing to cause a dislike towards him.

And L’Manburg chose a new member over one of the original founders.

Tubbo eventually let himself tune back into the happenings around him and risked a glance over the edge of the pocket as Schlatt began his inauguration speech.

He hadn’t noticed when they moved down from the platform to stand with the rest of L’Manburg’s citizens. He really was lost in his thoughts it seemed.

He glanced over to Tommy who sent a small worried look back. Tommy had done so much for this country and he was now nothing more than another citizen.

Tubbo hoped that Schlatt would at least honor Tommy’s contributions to the country at the very least.

“My first decree, as the president of L’Manburg, the Emperor of this great country!” Tubbo turned his gaze to the podium where the ram hybrid began giving his first decree.

That first line alone made a small chill run down Tubbo’s spine.

“Is to revoke the citizenship of Wilbur Soot,” Schlatt paused for a minute and his smile grew bigger. “And TommyInnit!”

Time seemed to stop for Tubbo as he registered the new president’s words among the now growing cheers and screams. But that meant they couldn’t be on L’Manburg lands.

They weren’t allowed to stay so what are they going to-

“Get ‘em outta here!”

Suddenly, Tubbo felt Wilbur jerk as he turned tail to run. He faintly heard him yelling at Tommy to run, over the roaring blood in his ears.

He ducked into the pocket as soon as Wilbur lurched forward, like he’d been struck by an arrow.

Tubbo ducked as low as he could in the pocket to avoid falling out in the commotion, especially when Wilbur whipped around to check who was behind him.

He then heard Wilbur chug a potion and noticed as the effects began taking place, making Wilbur’s body seemingly disappear into thin air.

Before he was completely out of sight though, another arrow hit Wilbur and next thing Tubbo knew he was free falling toward the ground.

What just happened?

He attempted to prop himself up on his arms in the tall grass, only to see items littered around him.

The sound of people running fell on deaf ears as Tubbo attempted to regain his bearings. It had all gone so fast, he wasn’t exactly sure what had just happened.

“Well this is unexpected. The fuck are you supposed to be?”

Tubbo stared wide-eyed up at the figure that was now towering over him.

It was the ram hybrid, the one who beat Wilbur in the election. At Tubbo’s silence, Schlatt’s eyes narrowed and he let out a small noise of annoyance.

Before he could register what was happening, a large hand reached down and snatched him up in a tight fist.

Tubbo began trying to squirm out of the suffocating grip to no avail as he was lifted off of the ground. The fist only squeezed harder, pushing Tubbo’s breath out of him.

He stopped struggling in hopes that he would be allowed to breathe easier and possibly get a chance to escape.

One glance at his captor however, dashed all hope that Tubbo had. He watched in horror as the ram’s expression changed from confusion to a sinister looking grin.

“You belonged to Wilbur, didn’t you?” Schlatt smirked and began twisting Tubbo around in his grip. “If that’s the case, you might be useful.”

Tubbo tried to steady himself in the man’s hands but was constantly knocked over by Schlatt twisting and turning him.

With the implications Schlatt made and the constant twisting; Tubbo felt sick to his stomach.

The movement finally stopped, only for Tubbo to be trapped in a tight fist once more as Schlatt bent down to pick up the potions that Wilbur had dropped.

He seemed uninterested in most of the things Wilbur dropped when he died, he only seemed to be interested in the potions and Tubbo.

That did not bode well for Tubbo at all.

A few seconds later, Schlatt stored the potions on his person and began walking towards the White House with Tubbo in hand.

Schlatt didn’t even look at him as he began shifting Tubbo around again, further disorienting the tiny boy. A quick glance at the ram however, heavily implied that he was doing this on purpose.

It felt like forever before they reached the White House, at least for Tubbo it did. He felt dizzy and sick by the time they stopped walking, anymore and it may have caused him to throw up.

He was so out of it that he didn’t even notice Schlatt creating a small glass box on the table until he was dropped into it.

Tubbo landed on his butt inside the enclosure with a grunt of pain before looking up in fear. Schlatt smiled and propped his head up on his hand atop the table.

“There you go, pet. Just like home, right? Of course it is!” He leaned in, not giving Tubbo a chance to respond. “‘Cause little fucking things like you are nothing more than pets.”

Tubbo scooted backwards, hoping to put as much distance between himself and Schlatt despite the glass enclosure. He shrunk back further as Schlatt laughed at his actions.

Before either of them could do anything else, someone else entered the White House with a loud, excited cheer.

“Eyyyy, Schlatt! Mr. President! How does it feel to have all this power in your new nation?” Tubbo glanced over to see the newcomer.

He quickly deduced that this was Quackity, Schlatt’s vice president and the reason Schlatt became president.

Tubbo knew that Schlatt wouldn’t have won if Quackity hadn’t pooled his votes with Schlatt, meaning he already had a bitter feeling towards him.

“So what’s our first plan of action- Schlatt? What the fuck is that?”

Tubbo was now extremely aware of the new pair of eyes on him, the attention was too much. Unfortunately, in his situation there was nothing he could do to escape the attention.

Tommy and Wilbur at least respected his privacy whenever he felt overwhelmed, these two however, most definitely did not.

“Dunno, but it was sitting amongst Soot’s stuff after he was killed. Brought it back here as soon as I realized that this weird creature could be used against him if he tries any funny business.” Schlatt never took his eyes off Tubbo as he spoke, unnerving the tiny boy even more.

Tubbo switched his gaze towards Quackity and noticed a small unease forming in his expression. It was almost as if the idea of Schlatt using a small person as nothing more than a tool unnerved him.

It made Tubbo feel a bit of hope for his situation.

“As weird as this is, I’ll be fine with this ‘cause you’re right, it does give us the upper hand against Wilbur and Tommy!”

And with that, any hope Tubbo had left was shattered. The new vice president wasn’t going to do anything to stop Schlatt, he was too loyal to the president.

“That’s what I thought! This is why you’re my vice president! Come now, we have much to figure out with my new country!”

“Yessir!”

With that, they left the room, leaving Tubbo alone in his glass enclosure. He curled up into himself as tears threatened to fall.

He knew he wasn’t going to be able to escape this situation easily, if he could even escape at all. All he wanted was to end this new nightmare.

He just wanted to be back with Tommy.

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hufflepuffhermione · 4 years ago

Note

from the drabble list 23 “I immediately regret this decision.” if you feel like it!!

This got LONG. I know that’s what happens with everything I ever write, but this got long even for me. But I hope you enjoy it. It’s set in the summer between S3 and S4.

The Oval Office is a dangerous place. Life or death decisions are made in the room every day, and a briefly floated idea can quickly become policy before all of the words are even out. One the President has an idea set in his head, it’s difficult to talk him out of it.

Unfortunately for everyone, Toby and Josh fail to recognize the present dangers.

It’s a staff meeting outlining upcoming campaign events and the changes to the policy calendar; nothing out of the ordinary or particularly monumental, but when there’s something to do with national parks, there is always an element of risk.

“Will someone tell me why I’m going to Montana in a few weeks? If I know my electoral math, and I think I do, they’ve got all of three votes and they usually go to the other guy,” President Bartlet says, looking up from behind his reading glasses.

There’s a look exchanged between the senior staff, but Josh swallows and answers. “Sir, it’s the… the opening of Big Sky National Park.”

The President pauses. “That’s not a national park. I would know, I’ve been to all of them.”

Again, more glances. Josh clears his throat awkwardly and continues. “Yes sir, but this is the one that you signed an order to establish a few years ago. In Montana. They’re finally opening it to the public, and you’re going to be there at the opening with the Secretary of the Interior.”

“Ah, right, I did do that,” Bartlet says, smiling. “You know, I do love national parks.”

“We’re aware, sir,” Toby says dryly.

President Bartlet puts down the schedule he’s been looking at and meets Toby’s iron gaze. “Well Toby, tell me? What’s the best national park you’ve been to?”

Toby mutters something under his breath, and when he’s asked to repeat it, his voice takes on an edge. “I’ve never been to one,” he admits.

Mistake number one.

“You’re telling me you’re about to write a speech for me about the glories of the national park system, and you’ve never even been to one?” the President asks incredulously.

“Well, I was going to make Sam do it,” Toby admits.

“What, is this below your pay grade?”

Toby would be rolling his eyes if he weren’t in the Oval Office. “No, sir, but I figured California boy here has been outside a few more times in his life than I have.”

“Is this true, Sam?”

Sam shrugs. “I guess. My parents weren’t really outdoorsy types, but we went to the Grand Canyon once. So I guess I’m ahead of Toby on that score.”

“And the rest of you? Have you all had the opportunity to experience the wonder that is American national parks?”

Josh and CJ glance at each other warily. Leo volunteers the information of a few he’s had a chance to visit, but when the President’s gaze rests on CJ, she stammers, “I made plans to go to Yosemite when I was in grad school, but I… I don’t think I made it there.”

Before the President can comment on CJ’s admission, Josh chimes in. “Frankly, sir, there aren’t any national parks easily accessible from where I’ve lived, so…”

This is mistake number two.

“Nonsense,” the President exclaims. “Shenandoah is just an hour and a half from here! You’ve lived in DC how long and you still haven’t…” He breaks off, and a dangerous smile spreads across his face. “Josh, do you remember when I suggested we take a staff field trip to Shenandoah?”

“I didn’t think you were serious, sir,” Josh replies, gulping.

“I wasn’t then, but if Toby and Sam are going to be writing a speech for me about the wonders of national parks, on the anniversary of the day which, by the way, the National Park Service was established, you really ought to have some experience visiting national parks,” the President says. “Do you all have anything going on this weekend? Doesn’t matter, I can raise it to the level of an executive order and everyone you have to cancel on will just have to deal with it. We’re going on a field trip.”

The door opens behind them, and it’s Donna standing there. “I’m sorry sir, am I interrupting something?”

“Not at all,” Josh answers with relief.

“I just needed Josh for…”

“Donnatella,” the President interrupts, smiling at her. “How would you like to go on a national park expedition?”

Donna looks at him, wide-eyed. “Well, sir, I do appreciate a good national park. I’m not sure I can say no… can I say no?”

And there’s the third mistake.

“Well, Donna, pack your outdoor things, because you’re going camping this weekend,” the President says gleefully. “I’ll get my guys to arrange all of this.”

“Do you need Josh? He’s needed in a meeting with legislative affairs right now,” Donna says. “They only have twenty minutes before the vote.”

Josh immediately stands up as the President waves him off. “You shouldn’t have come in,” he hisses to Donna, as they walk down the hallway towards his office. “You should have just called. You might have avoided getting roped into this nonsense.

“Well, I immediately regret this decision, but… is he serious?”

“He’s started making plans and everything,” Josh says. “But hey, if I’m forced to go camping, at least you’ll be forced to go too.”

Donna rolls her eyes. “You’re a horrible, horrible man.”

“Yeah, but I sign your paychecks.”

“I had plans!” she whines.

Josh laughs as he turns towards his office to pick up a file. “Haven’t you learned never to make weekend plans? And never to indulge the President when he’s in one of these moods?”

“Believe me, I’m regretting all of this.”

—

“As it turns out,” the President says on a Friday morning staff meeting, “I can’t go to Shenandoah. That would require the Secret Service to shut down the whole park, and even then, there’s nothing they can do about the bears.”

An audible sigh of relief falls across the staff, but it doesn’t last long when he continues, “I’ve arranged transportation and reserved a couple of cabins for you all. You’re leaving at 6am sharp tomorrow morning, and they’ll have you back by Sunday night.”

“Sir… is this… serious?” Sam hazards.

“Serious as the deficit,” the President replies with a grin. “You’re going to experience a real national park.”

“And if we just… happened to be sick tomorrow?” Josh asks.

President Bartlet shakes his head and laughs. “I wouldn’t believe you, since you’ve never taken a sick day you weren’t forced to take. I’d send my guys over to your apartment and have them throw you in the van. Face it, Josh, you’re going to see the great outdoors.”

Toby rests his head in his hands. “Please someone just kill me now.”

“Come on, Toby, you’ll love it!”

“Sir, I’m pretty sure I have to brief this weekend, so I think…” CJ begins to argue.

“You have highly competent deputies, let them handle it,” the President deflects. “6am sharp. Be here, or the Secret Service will be making visits to your places. And they do know where you live.”

—

After a two-hour drive which everyone spent asleep, they are unceremoniously deposited at a campsite with a fire pit and two cabins which might generously be described as ‘rustic’. The August heat that has settled over DC is only marginally lessened by elevation.

“Well this is… something,” Sam remarks, taking a peek inside one of the spartan cabins, which contains nothing but wooden bunks and an ancient-looking table.

“There aren’t any bathrooms,” Toby comments with barely restrained fury. “What are we supposed to do, go in the woods?”

Donna shrugs, wondering, once again, how she got roped into this. “That’s how we usually do it when I went camping as a kid. Sometimes they had a bathroom at the site, but it doesn’t look like they do at this one.”

“You’ve been camping?” Josh asks incredulously.

“Yeah. We’d go camping in the Wisconsin Dells most years, and once in a while we’d go to Minnesota or the UP,” Donna replies offhandedly.

“The UP?” Toby asks.

“Upper Peninsula of Michigan,” Sam corrects, always glad to make a geographic contribution.

Josh picks up a large plastic tub that was left with them, filled with camping food, and begins to walk toward one of the cabins. “Well, at least Donna knows what we’re doing.”

“Didn’t you claim to be an outdoorsman?” CJ asks, quirking an eyebrow. “I’d like to see you prove it.”

He drops the tub and rubs his eye. “I mean… I was on some drugs then, so I’m not sure I can be held liable…”

“You were not on any drugs, Josh, or else I wouldn’t have let you have alcohol,” Donna corrects.

“I was on the drug that was being outside after three months of miserable confinement!”

Donna and CJ share a glance. “Well, I think this is the perfect opportunity for you to demonstrate your outdoorsy prowess. You can lead our hike.”

“Hey, no one said anything about hiking!” Josh completely ignores the tub and stalks over to where CJ and Donna are standing with the rest of the supplies, almost tripping over a branch as he does so.

“It’s in the President’s executive order. He set us an agenda,” Donna declares, waving around a piece of paper that does, in fact, include the presidential seal.

“There’s no way he used an actual executive…”

Josh is cut off by Sam, who snatches the paper out of Donna’s hands with a “Let me see that!” He reads the paper quickly, frowning as he does. “Yeah, he wants us to take three different hikes. There are maps attached to it. Also, he’s set some time aside for Toby and I to… extol the virtues of nature and apply it to our speechwriting?”

“And we wonder why nothing gets done in this country!” Toby throws his hands in the air. “I can extol the virtues of nature perfectly well without having to actually…you know… go out in nature!”

Josh takes a look at the schedule over Sam’s shoulder. “He’s really given us specific times to start each hike?”

“Including one at 5:30 in the morning so we can catch the sunrise over the mountains,” Donna notes.

“Well I’d like to catch a few hours of sleep for once.” CJ rolls her eyes and picks up her duffel bag. “Think we can blow this off?”

Sam presses his lips together. “Um… he’s going to know if we do.”

“Why?”

“Because he left the Secret Service agents here to ‘keep an eye on us’,” Sam says, jerking his head toward the van which they came in, which is parked in a clearing in the woods. “Ostensibly it’s so we don’t die when Josh forgets he’s not actually an outdoorsman, but he’s definitely spying on us.”

Josh rubs his forehead and sighs heavily. “You couldn’t have just lied and said you have a great appreciation for national parks, Toby?”

“If I said I’d been to one, he would have interrogated me about it!” Toby shouts. “I was cornered!”

“You were the one who came up with the idea to establish this new national park,” CJ says, nudging Josh’s side, “so I hold you responsible.”

“God help me for winning a political battle and doing some good for the country at the same time,” Josh replies, rolling his eyes. “That was almost three years ago! Why should I have known it would backfire like this?”

Donna sighs heavily and picks up her bag. “I’m seriously regretting coming out here with any of you.”

“If you had just called the Oval instead of coming in…”

“Yeah, yeah,” she says. “CJ, what do you say to the cabin on the right? I looked inside and I think there are fewer bugs in that one.”

“Please,” CJ says. “I’m grateful I have at least one other member of the Sisterhood here.”

Sam and Josh give each other a look. “I guess we’d better move into the bug-infested cabin,” Sam remarks.

“They’re both bug-infested, but the one on the right is just… less bug-infested,” Donna shouts back, as she heads into the small cabin.

“Well, Mr. Outdoorsman,” Sam says to Josh, “what now?”

Josh rubs the bridge of his nose. “If I wasn’t on drugs, I was under the influence of alcohol—which I hadn’t had in three months—so you know, I can’t be held liable for what I said then.”

Sam quirks an eyebrow as he picks up his duffel bag. “You do have a law degree, don’t you?”

“Don’t remind me.”

—

It’s another hour before all of the stuff in moved into cabins and everyone is seated on logs around the unlit fire pit, unsure of what to do next. It’s Donna, naturally, who has a handle on the schedule.

“Now, the President has recommended we do a short hike before the heat of the day really kicks in, and that one takes off from that trailhead over there.” She points toward a small clearing in the woods with a ragged wood sign marking the head. “It leads to a lake, so he suggests taking a dip to cool off before heading back, so maybe put something to swim in here in your daypack.”

Josh furrows his brow. “Wait, wait, wait. We’re not really doing this, are we? Following this ridiculous schedule, doing all these…”

“Just because you can’t follow a schedule doesn’t mean we shouldn’t,” Donna replies. “And do you really want to defy the President of the United States?”

“Well, if he’s making us go hiking… and swimming,” Toby growls. “I told him, I have a healthy appreciation for the outdoors, but I prefer to be far, far away from them.”

Donna stands up. “Well I, for one, am not going to defy the President, and I think when he asks you very specific details about the hikes, you might want to have some answers for him. Come on, the sooner we get started the less heat we’ll have to deal with.”

“Because this isn’t bad enough?” CJ asks, wiping her brow. The humidity is already oppressive even at nine in the morning.

“Come on California girl,” Toby teases, “aren’t you used to this?”

In unison, Sam and CJ respond with, “It’s a dry heat!”

Josh pulls several files out of his backpack, carries them back to the cabin, and sighs. “It’s going to be a long day.”

—

Donna isn’t sure who does the most complaining in the mile and a half hike. Josh probably complains the most audibly, but there’s something to be said for Toby’s constant glares at everything that constitutes nature and Sam’s intentional, hefty sighs at every single step. CJ is quiet about her discontent, but she doesn’t seem particularly happy either.

Perhaps they really did need an opportunity to learn how to appreciate nature.

The hike isn’t all too steep, although you wouldn’t know that from the way Josh and Toby are panting when they finally reach the swimming hole the President indicated in his instructions.

“Here it is,” Donna says with a smile. The water is set up against a cliff edge, and there are thin streams falling over the edge. It’s really an idyllic place, but none of the staffers seem particularly enthralled.

Still, they’re all hot and sweaty, and so Sam pulls off his shirt and wades into the water, and CJ follows. Toby grumbles, but the prospect of cooling off is too great for him to resist.

Donna is about to take a dip when she notices Josh’s hesitation to go in. He sits at the edge, dipping his toes in, but not looking as if he will go any further.

“Don’t want to swim?”

He shrugs. “Someone has to watch our stuff. You know, because of the bears. Or the tourists. They’re probably Republican tourists, in this part of Virginia.”

She looks at him critically. “Josh… Do you know how to swim?”

“I grew up in Connecticut, of course I know how to swim!” he snaps. “I just don’t want to!” There’s sweat beading on his forehead. There’s no way he doesn’t want to swim.

Donna frowns and takes a seat next to him, dipping her toes in as well. “Why not?”

Josh looks straight ahead at his own soaking feet. “I don’t have another shirt in my pack,” he says quietly.

“Well then, take it…” she begins, and then she sees something in his eyes. He’s still self-conscious about his bare chest. She grabs his hand and smiles at him. “It’s fine. I’ve seen it before.”

Josh shakes his head. “They haven’t.”

“They’re not going to care,” Donna assures him. “They were all there. They don’t need an explanation.” She briefly wonders if he ever had to explain it to Amy.

“Yeah,” he says, his face still grim.

She tugs on his sleeve gently. “Anyway, you’re going to be neck-deep in there anyway, so if you dive in fast, no one will even see anything.”

“I guess,” Josh says.

“I’m not going to go in if you don’t, and I really want to go in, so I’ll be rather upset with you if you don’t go in,” Donna threatens.

He lifts an eyebrow. “So this is on me now?”

“It’s your call,” she challenges.

In one smooth motion, he tears off his shirt and pulls Donna up into his arms, holding her against his chest and taking a few steps into the water. She shrieks as he drops her in a deeper part of the swimming hole. “That good enough for you?” he asks with a grin.

“You shouldn’t be doing that,” she chides, although there’s a smile on her face too. “You’re a cruel man.”

He splashes her with quite a bit of force. “You asked for it. I’m just trying to be an outdoorsman.”

Sam practically has to be dragged out of the water, but as the sun nears its high point, everyone agrees that they sooner they get back to the camp, the better. They manage to make it back faster, thanks to the downhill slope and Toby’s urgency to get back to something even slightly resembling civilization.

“What’s on the schedule now?” CJ asks through a bite of the pre-packed sandwiches that the President sent with them. A good thing, too, since none of them are fantastic cooks even in normal circumstances, and certainly none of them know how to cook over a fire.

Donna pulls the piece of paper out of her daypack and skims it. “Well, there’s a couple choices until our second hike at 6. Either working on the speech, or as he puts it, taking a Thoreau-like approach to extolling the virtues of nature…”

“He’s really going to put me through all of this and then tell me to emulate Thoreau?” Toby interrupts indignantly. “That pretentious mother—“

Josh raises an eyebrow and cuts Toby off with a, “So how about those of us who are under any circumstances not allowed to touch the President’s speeches?”

“We ask for your input when we need it, Josh, it’s just… you’re not the most eloquent of writers,” Sam tries to say diplomatically. Toby, still fuming, nods in agreement.

Josh rolls his eyes. “I like to be direct. Sue me.”

“See, that kind of attitude in speechwriting is what gets the President sued,” Toby shoots back.

Donna clears her throat, giving a barely concealed glare to the staffers before her. “Anyway, Josh, in answer to your question, he suggested you could take a nap.”

His brow furrowed, Josh lets out a little snort. “A nap? What is this, kindergarten?”

“Sometimes I think so.” This from CJ, who hasn’t managed to get her head out of her hands in several minutes.

“I remember a time when you were extolling the virtues of naps to me,” Donna says sweetly, folding up the schedule and putting it back in her bag.

Josh sighs and leans back into the log he’s sitting against dramatically. “Can everyone please stop using the things I said while I was on many, many drugs that made me kind of loopy against me?”

“Never, mi amor,” CJ says, standing up and patting his shoulder. “I’m going to take advantage of the once chance I’ll ever get in this administration to take a nap. Any interest in joining me, Tobias?” she asks with a smirk.

Toby raises an eyebrow. “No, because I have to emulate a pretentious dick who thought he knew everything about nature because he was living in the backyard of his in-laws.”

“I quite enjoy Thoreau, actually,” Sam begins to interrupt.

“Of course you do,” Toby says with a sigh, pulling out a legal pad and a pen. “Come on, let’s get to writing this. Anybody know anything about national parks?”

“No,” Josh says. “I think that’s why we’re here.”

—

The afternoon passes rather pleasantly to everyone’s surprise. CJ takes her nap, Josh reads through all of the briefing memos he managed to smuggle in, and Toby and Sam bicker over the speech, but there are several pages filled by the time Donna comes out of the cabin, fresh from her own nap, and calls out that it’s almost time for their next hike.

“You’re kidding me, right?” Josh says. “One isn’t enough?”

“There are three, remember. The next one is very early tomorrow morning so we can catch the sunrise. This one is so we can catch the sunset,” Donna replies, thrusting the schedule at him.

Josh shakes his head as he looks it over. “I’m kind of regretting getting this man elected.”

Still, everyone, even Toby manages to traipse through the woods and up get another mountain to get to a west-facing lookout, where the sun is just starting to dip behind the mountains.

“Is this inspiring you?” CJ teases, stretched out on one of the benches at the lookout. The sky really is turning very pretty, the sunset a fiery orange with hints of pink.

Toby shrugs. “I don’t think the colors of a sunset are relevant to this speech, but sure.”

“I have to say, I think the Midwest does sunsets better. All that open sky…” Donna says. She’s seating on the other bench, and Josh is next to her, his arm stretched around the back of the bench and his fingers just barely grazing the top of her shoulder. The distance between them is acceptable, but only just.

“Do you miss it? Wisconsin?”

Donna bites her lip. “Sometimes? Sometimes I’ll think about a walk I used to take, or about the ice cream shop I would always go to with my friends, or about the view from my dorm when I lived on the top floor, and I feel a little bit of homesickness. But then I think about how amazing it is to live here, and how much I’ve accomplished since I left, and well… I can’t say I regret leaving.”

Josh chuckles. “I’m glad you’re here.”

Donna turns back to look at the sunset and hopes that no one notices that her eyes are beginning to water with what could be tears.

—

“Okay, dinner now? I”m starving.” Sam says, when they come back from their sunset expedition to the camp. Darkness is beginning to settle, so they’ve set up a few lanterns, but it still feels incomplete.

“We have hot dogs for roasting,” Donna says. “You know, good camp food.”

“That means we need a fire,” Sam says, exchanging a glance with Josh. “We can do that.”

CJ and Donna share a look of concern. “Last time you tried to start a fire, you almost set the White House ablaze,” CJ says cautiously.

“But we successfully started a fire,” Josh points out. “And if it wasn’t indoors in a fireplace with the flue welded shut, we would have been successful.”

Donna has to give them this. “Okay. Go find some firewood and get it started. I think we’re all starting to get hungry.”

Josh grabs a lantern and gives Donna a grin. “Let’s go, Sam.”

While Donna unpacks the food they were sent for dinner, Josh and Sam come back with arms full of wood, Sam looking the worse for wear with several scratches all over his body and what looks like it could be blood.

“Sam! What happened?” CJ exclaims, looking him over.

“I got into a fight with a blackberry bush,” Sam mutters. So not blood, at least, CJ thinks with a sigh of relief.

Josh drops his armful of wood by the pit. “The bush won.”

“Do you need any bandages or anything? They sent us an extensive first aid kid, because I’m sure they know how clumsy you are.” CJ takes Sam’s armful of wood and kneels down next to Josh. “Show me, how do we do this?”

While Sam washes himself off with a water bottle and pulls out the last few thorns, Josh manages to get a fairly impressive fire going. Donna passes around hot dogs and everyone begins to roast theirs, although Sam drops at least two in the fire. Josh intentionally sets his on fire, charring it until anyone else would regard it as inedible.

Perhaps, they all begin to think as they laugh around the fire, for once able to focus on something besides work, this camping thing isn’t so bad. The stress of the election has been weighing heavily on all of them, but they’ve spent almost a whole day without pondering electoral math or congressional seats.

The fire slowly dies, and once it’s down to only the embers, everyone slowly begins to peel off and say good night.

CJ blinks and lets her eyes adjust to the dark before picking up her lantern and padding softly out of the cabin. She would blame her inability to sleep on the nap she took earlier in the day throwing off her schedule, but she knows that’s not the entirety of it.

To her surprise, the fire is still going when she emerges, and there’s someone still seated on a log by it.

“Josh?” she whispers softly, and he turns to face her with the barest trace of a smile.

“Couldn’t sleep?” he asks.

“No. You?”

He shrugs and pokes at the fire with a stick. “Didn’t want to,” he says. “Toby snores.”

“And so you’re just going to spend the whole night out here?”

“Probably.”

“Just because Toby snores?”

Josh doesn’t answer, but CJ turns to look at him and can see the set of his jaw and the tension in his face. And she has an idea of what might be going on.

“Josh, have you been having nightmares lately?” she asks, her voice soft.

She didn’t think his body could show any more tension, but he immediately tenses up even more at her question. “Why would you think that?”

“Because I have, too,” she admits. She can see some of the tension fall away from his shoulders, although he still seems guarded.

“About what?”

CJ bites her lip. “Simon, mostly. Which is ridiculous, I mean, I wasn’t there. And that was three months ago, and I wasn’t even there.”

He reaches out and grabs her hand, squeezing it. “You can easily imagine it though, because you know what it’s like to be shot at,” he concludes.

“Yeah.”

“I don’t. I don’t even remember it, really, and I still have nightmares,” he tells her. “It’s not ridiculous, CJ. Believe me.”

She sighs. “I just… they went away for a while. I thought I was doing better, I thought I was over my grief, and then this last week… well, let’s just say my nap this afternoon as the only time this week I woke up from something other than a nightmare.”

“Well, it was two years to the day a few days ago when we got shot at,” Josh says. “Because I haven’t slept much this week either.”

CJ takes a look at him, his tired eyes and the vulnerability present on his face that so few get to see. She feels privileged to see it. “I hadn’t even thought of that,” she admits, “but I’m sure that doesn’t help.”

“It’ll get better again,” Josh says. “You’ll notice that you’ve gone weeks, even months, without something. The grief never quite goes away, but the fear does.”

“Okay,” she replies, her voice choked up a little. If it were anyone else saying this to her, she’d probably be annoyed, but she knows that Josh speaks from experience and is telling the truth. “So you and I, it’s going to be a sleepless night for the two of us?”

He smiles at her and leans further back against the log. “Claudia Jean, are you propositioning me?”

“Only if you want it,” she teases.

—

Donna doesn’t end up needing the alarm she set on her watch because her internal clock is set to absurdly early mornings anyway. It’s mostly still dark when she gets up, but as she emerges from the cabin, she can see that there’s still a fire going, and that CJ and Josh are in front of it, seating against a log. CJ’s head is resting on Josh’s shoulder. If Donna didn’t know the completely platonic nature of their relationship, she would have been jealous, and even though she knows Josh and CJ see each other as siblings, she still has to bite back a bit of jealousy as she approaches them.

“Hey,” she says, “you two slept out here?”

Josh blinks and looks up at her. “I guess we did sleep,” he says. “I didn’t think we’d manage.”

CJ smiles. “Who knew your shoulder made such a nice pillow?”

He tries to push himself up from the ground and winces. “Well, this log did not,” he says. “Is it really time to get started already?”

“Our sunrise hike awaits,” Donna says, with a look on her face that’s somewhere between a smile and a grimace. “Who’s going to have to wake up Toby and Sam?”

“I say we wake up Sam, and then make him wake up Toby,” Josh says. “I didn’t bring my full-body armor with me.”

—

As it turns out, the sunrise hike is an eight-mile loop, with east-facing lookout about two miles into the trek. Toby, already furious about being woken up, is absolutely fuming at the fact that there are six more miles to go after the sunrise stop. “What kind of a man makes you go on a hike at five in the morning, and then extends It so you’re going to be on this trail all day?”

“I’m finding I don’t hate hiking as much as I thought I did,” Josh says. “But I’m sleep-deprived, so don’t hold that against me.”

“Josh, if you used sleep deprivation as an excuse every time, we’d never be able to call you out for anything you’ve ever said,” CJ points out.

Sam sighs. He’s looking much better now that he’s not covered in blackberry juice, but his arm and leg and the side of his face are still very scratched up. “I just want to take a shower.”

“Ten more hours until they’ll take us home,” Donna says. She doesn’t even have to look at the schedule anymore; her memory is freakishly good sometimes.

They reach a clearing near the top of one of the mountains that has some large rocks and a few benches. They’re above most of the other elevations around them, so they have a clear view of the sun beginning to peek out over the hills before them.

“We never see sunrises or sunsets,” Donna notes. “I think it’s usually dark when I get to the White House and dark when I leave.”

CJ lets out a laugh and perches on a rock. “That’s when we actually manage to leave.”

Donna reaches into her backpack and hands out granola bars. “Breakfast, anyone?”

“Any coffee?” Josh asks.

“There’s a pot to boil water back at camp and a thing of instant coffee,” Donna says.

He groans. “So none here?”

“You should really try to become a less caffeinated life form.”

“Tried that for three months. Worst three months of my life.”

“Just because of the coffee?”

Josh grabs a granola bar from her and takes a seat on one of the benches. “Because of the gunshot wound, but you know, the lack of coffee didn’t help.”

“Will you just shut up and enjoy the sunrise?” CJ asks. “Because I’m not going to see one for another four years.”

Josh clears his throat after a bite of the granola bar. “You really believe that? We’ve got another four years left in us?”

“The President’s in fighting mode. He won’t back down,” CJ says. “And we’re not going to let him, are we?”

Sam smiles. “Absolutely not.”

Through a bite of his granola bar, Toby mumbles, “Careful about tempting fate.”

“We’re not tempting fate,” CJ says, “but we’re renewing our fight. We’ve been so bogged down in reelection struggles that it feels like we’ve lost sight of what we’re fighting for. But you know what Richie wants to do for places like this?”

“Tear them down,” Toby mutters.

“But Jed Bartlet wants to build them up. Build more of them. Let people come to appreciate the outdoors, to see the sunrise, to protect the natural treasures of this country. If we never get to see the sunrise, we should make sure it’s because we’re working long and hard to ensure that other people have that chance here, and at places like this.” Her voice is beginning to get excited. “And that’s only one of the many reasons we’re fighting to show the voters our vision of America. The one that protects the treasures we have, and seeks to provide the best for our citizens. That’s why we’re fighting from before sunrise to after sunset. So what do we say? Four more years?”

Josh grins and holds up the remaining half of his granola bar in a sort of toast. “Four more years!” he shouts out over the mountains.

There’s a chorus of exclamations that no one but them will ever hear, but as the sun rises, there’s a bit of weariness lifted off of each of them. The last four years have been interminably long and difficult, but they are all instilled with a sense of new energy for what they do.

“So that’s what you’re like on sleep deprivation?” Josh teases CJ, as they leave the clearing and set out on the next part of their hike.

“See why that excuse will never work?”

“Fine, but I still stand by the fact that I said a lot of things on heavy drugs that I didn’t mean.”

“Such as being an outdoorsman?” Donna pipes up.

“See, after this weekend, I think I stand by that one.”

——

The Secret Service takes them all back to the White House, rather than to their apartments, and they’re all directed to the Oval Office, where President Bartlet sits behind the desk expectantly.

“You all made it back in one piece!” he says with delight. “I was sure a bear was going to eat one of you; my money was on Toby.” He takes in Sam’s scratched up face. “Except for you, Sam. What happened there?”

“I fought a blackberry bush, and the bush won,” Sam mumbles.

“You did all the hikes?” the President asks.

Toby grimaces. “Donna forced us to.”

“I knew she’d keep you on track,” he says, and Donna beams in response. “And the speech?”

“Needs revision and typing up, but it’s quite good, if I do say so myself,” Sam says, although Toby shoots him a glare, clearly not as pleased with the quality of writing.

“Excellent, excellent. And you two,” the President says, looking at Josh and CJ, “how did you find it?”

CJ smiles. “Quite enlightening, sir. I’m instilled with a new sense of energy. That said, I’d like to go home and get some sleep.” Josh nods in agreement.

“Yes, yes, of course,” the President says. “But senior staff tomorrow, I’m going to have to hear more. God, I can’t wait to open this new national park.”

They all file out of the Oval Office, but Josh hangs back behind the others and grabs Donna’s arm. “Do you have a ride home?”

“I was going to take the metro,” Donna says. “My car��s on the fritz again.”

He shakes his head. “No, don’t. Not will all that stuff. I’ll give you a ride.”

Donna’s about to protest, especially since he definitely seems too tired to be driving, but she considers it and nods in agreement. At least she can make sure he doesn’t fall asleep at the wheel.

“I’m glad you were there,” he says. “I don’t know if I would have made it through this weekend without you.”

She blushes at the compliment. “I’m sure you would have been fine. After all, you proved that you are, in fact, an outdoorsman.”

“Still,” he says, with a surprising amount of sincerity, “the outdoors is so much more fun with you there.”

#donnaamoss #asks #the west wing #josh lyman #donna moss #josh x donna #sort of?#it’s mostly senior staff + donna friendship fic #but it’s 6k words of it lol #this is maybe a weird direction to go with this prompt but i just wanted to write the senior staff camping okay #i really did this instead of working on my final projects go figure

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crazyfreckledginger · 4 years ago

Text

Batboys x Batsis!Reader - “Out Of The Dark” [Part 1]

Waiting desperately to be saved from a kidnapping, you end up being brainwashed to be used against your own brothers.

Requested by @flashdash626: “Hi! I’m not sure if your taking requests, so if your not then you can choose to ignore this. Anyways! I was hoping you could do a Batsis were the sister is kidnapped by a random villain, and once the boys find her its to late and she was brainwashed and was now under control of the random villain. Once they like knock her out they bring her to the cave and try to bring her memories back. After a little bit of them talking to her her mind snaps and shes back to normal and she gets all emotional”

A/N: I know how this looks, I was really inspired since I was stuck on another fic and ended up writing three parts to this I’m sorry T-T

Warning: angst, violence, swearing

Eyes fluttered closed as the sound of rails lulled her to sleep. University had been so tiring this week, having to finish a whole project by the end of the week, in which the guidelines had been given on Monday. A lot of preparation and running around in order to polish a well researched and thorough end result.

The lack of sleep, tiring long hours and accumulated stress had finally left her body as soon as she handed in the work two hours before the deadline was scheduled. To say that fatigue had taken it’s toll on her was an understatement.

For a Friday late afternoon, the train was quite empty heading towards Gotham, but then again, no one wants to go there willingly. Her eyes fluttered closed, mind numbing, it was still two stops into the city, each of which are more or less an hour long, she had time, even if it’s only a thirty minute- one hour nap at most. Too much sleep and it was disrupt -- or complicate her-return-to-normal-sleep schedule.

~ I should be due at the mansion in just over two hours ~

A quick message wouldn’t hurt if there still need to be preparations.

~ Are you sure you don’t want me to pick you up? ~ DG

That was quick. Smiling, (Y/N) texted her older brother back.

~ It’s okay, you're still busy, and I’ll be back before you’ve finished your work! ~

~ But we missed you! ~ DG

~ It’s been two weeks! Besides it’s the vacation, I’ll be home for a month or so. ~

~ Fine :( ~ DG

With a chuckle, she slipped her phone back in her inside pocket. A grown ass baby.

Finally, she settled back into her seat, paying no mind to the occasional vibration of the carriage window to her head, inescapably submitting to sleep.

When she finally woke up, it was at the end of the line, the carriages were empty, doors wide open, only the occasional person walking or sitting along the platform.

Shit, the woman mentally cursed, grasping her things, and which, luckly, everything was still with her. Rushing out of the train, she scanned the screens: last train, departing in 2 hours and 30 minutes, Platform 8. The words glided along the end of the screen, in bright red dots. A disappointed sigh escaped her. At least it wasn’t late -- and dark. Well, the sun was setting.

The last stop was at the outskirts of Gotham, so she was thankful that she didn’t have to cause too much trouble getting back. Despite her nap, she was still tired -- just less so, and she would really enjoy getting into a comfy bed in the company of her brothers, father and butler.

A slightly irresponsible idea occurred to her. She could get home reaaaaally quickly if she wore her vigilante suit. The woman would be able to call her self-driving motorcycle and hurry to the Mansion in a record time. It was in her bag, and it’s not like it would hurt anyone.

As long as she was careful when changing, this wasn’t going to threaten the reveal of her identity.

With a smile, and making sure she held tightly onto the small bag she carried back with her, she briskly walked out of the train station, to an empty, dirty public bathroom.

Gross but will have to do.

After having scanned the toilet for any lewd hidden cameras, she hastily slipped into her costume, placing her civilian clothes back in her bag and creeping out onto the nearest rooftop. Activating her tracking device and then the automated call, she sat down on the ledge, sighing in relief as she got the notification that her motorcycle just headed out.

Now it was only a question of patience. Since nothing was happening, she lay down fully on the ledge, bag on the rooftop and arms under her head for more comfort.

Her eyes closed, this time, not falling asleep, but listening to the nearly inheart environment surrounding her.

That was until her phone vibrated. Sitting up, she reached for it, opening the message.

~ Where are you? I’m about to head home, but word is you’re not there yet. ~ DG

~ Yes, I missed the stop, called the Batcave, my ride should be here soon, sorry! ~

They must have been worried.

Before she could answer, she heard quick footsteps trailing behind her. Her head snapped back but before she could distinguish anyone, the silhouette landed a hard blow to her head, which probably was a metal pole.

“Fuck.” she cursed in pain, her unlocked phone dropping off the ledge, sliding down the roof and landing in the gutter, “who are you!?” (Y/N) yelled standing up clumsily as the side of her head ached.

“Lights out.” the unknown person grunted, lifting the pole high after dodging an attempted punch, slamming it to the back of her head. Her whole body smashed to the ground with violent force -- but it’s not something she felt, as she fell into unconsciousness.

****

“Where is she?” Bruce grumbled as Dick entered the Manor, an hour and a half later than planned, and after some exhausting, useless paperwork.

“What’s happening?” he frowned, seeing Robin hurry down the stairs of the Batcave.

“(Y/N) was supposed to be due, the tracker on her motorcycle hasn’t moved and she isn’t answering her phone.” Jason geared up.

“I’m coming with you,” Dick scurried to the room with his suit, slipping into it.

“We’ll be on comms if anything comes up.” Tim nodded.

It felt like a very long ride towards the location that was given to them, even though they got there very quickly.

As Nightwing’s motorcycle stopped close to their destination, he hopped off, watching the tracker from the screen on his arm, zooming in to be able to pinpoint exactly where her last place was.

Jason jumped onto the nearest rooftop, scouting the area in case it was a trap of sorts. He frowned, seeing that the coast was clear and signalling his brother his ‘go’ card.

It must have been a good half an hour before they even found a clue -- excluding her untouched motorcycle.

And it happen to make Red Hood jump out of his skin. Good thing Nightwing was still scouting the ground otherwise he would have been seriously embarrassed.

The gutter buzzed, it was utterly unnerving. Cautiously, he approached the roaring object, staring down at it as he spotted a phone. It was unlocked and vibrating widely.

Crouching down, he grasped and inspected it.

(Y/N)’s definitely. And he didn’t like where this was going. It was Damian this time, calling her -- in addition to like 78 missed calls and numerous texts.

“Found her phone, she’s definitely gotten kidnapped.” The man announced nonchalantly, but his heart was beating fast. Their sister? Kidnapped at an unusually early time of the night? Hours after she got back into Gotham? Someone must have been keeping an eye out and planning.

And given the fact that nothing has come up, it might not be a usual Gotham criminal.

“We might have a problem.” Dick spoke through his comms.

Comments, votes and feedback improve motivation, writing and publishing, so it is in your best interest to leave some! :)

Want to be tagged? Let me know in whichever way you are the most comfortable with!

Tagging: @lumifuer @ijustwantmyshipstobehappy @plethora-of-things @xlatinaaxx @lostnliterature @batette @schweeeppess @gearsinice @mizmahlia @tina8009 @disa @caswinchester2000 @brooklynalpha @jason-todd-squad

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btssavedmylifeblr · 4 years ago

Note

I forgot to send on my voting story. Ok so my brother and I both got mail in ballots, and let me tell you how we both forgot to mail it in so we just thought to bring them to our voting location. The lady there kinda yelled at us? She was confused and didn't know how to go about it. And honestly I just took it because we were the idiots who didn't mail in our ballots. We had to rip them up and they just us new ones to fill out in person and submit. Not exciting, but a story for void snippet. 👀

Anonymous said: Hi!! I'm so excited for void! I voted today around 30 minutes before the polls closed in my neighborhood because I had to wait for my dad and brother to get home from work since they wanted to go all together hehe. It was a pretty fast process! We just pressed buttons on screens (compared to last election where we had to bubble in everything by hand) plus, I got to keep the stylus that they gave us and it works on phones too! 🥰🥰 Thank you! I love your writing so much 💜💜💜

Anonymous said: I did mine through mail me and my husband did and we went to the post office a little while back and then he took us on a nice little date afterward and we got ice cream! Also I love void💖 keep up the good work

Anonymous said: VOTES FOR VOID??? I love democracy and I love VOID! So since May I've (temporarily) moved back home from New York to Indiana RE: covid; I've voted absentee for the both the primaries and presidential election (I'm still in IN rn...blah). I voted early and mailed in my ballot for the presidential election (about 3 weeks ago). Made sure my family was voting (brother mailed it in, mom dropped off a ballot, and dad did early voting) and encourage them to put up a Biden sign in our yard <3

Anonymous said: HI BEE! I ALSO VOTED TODAY! IM 21 SO THIS IS MY FIRST TIME VOTING FOR THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION (my 18th bday didnt make the cutoff since im a december bday) im so happy to have done my part! I made sure to study up on the judges and policies and everything! Luckily the polling place didn't have a line so i was able to get in, get my ballot, and fill it in right away! I even dragged my mom and cousin to come with me. I made a joke on snapchat to encourage my friends to vote too. It was a pic of my "i voted" sticker with a caption saying "omg youre so sexy when you vote aHaha" -🦙

Anonymous said: this is my first time doing this so, so i hope i’m sending this correctly! i voted early in late september by mail! i live in a swing state, so it’s really important for me to vote and not waste time!! bc of my age, this is my first time voting so i’m really nervous 😅

Anonymous said: I voted by email! I'm overseas so I wasn't sure if my ballot would actually make it through in time, so I decided to go electronically. Had to sign a waiver saying I understand that my vote won't be anonymous but I haven't been given a reason to suspect voter suppression/fraud in my state, so I'm happy I think...!

Anonymous said: hi, i voted early on oct 24th. my absentee ballot didn't come in, so i had to travel back home to vote (~3 hour drive). when we got there, there was a ton of people outside the polling place, but no lines, so i was in and out pretty quick. it was my first time voting, so i had all the candidates i was voting for written down on a tiny receipt so i wouldn't forget 😅. my mom was with me, so she voted too. took a pic with my sticker (mask on for extra covid-ness) and went home. drove back the next afternoon!

whippedforkook said: Hi Bee. 💕 I voted in early October - nearly a month ago! 😱 It’s been really weird with all the lead up to the election because it felt like it should have been done once I cast my ballot! A lot of my friends have volunteered to get out the vote: writing postcards to voters, texting, phone banking, working the polls, curing ballots. I didn’t volunteer at all this year, but I hope that all of my friends’ hard work and everyone else’s is enough. I’m also hoping and praying that I will be in a better place mentally for 2022 so that I too can volunteer. Our work starts with 2020 not ends. 💕 Wishing you well. 💕

begineuphoria said: I went and voted last Friday as it was our last early voting day. No way was I going to wait until today with the crowds of people in my area that still act as if masks are somehow infringing on their rights. 🙄 It was a rather normal experience for the most part. Other than having to use a coffee stir stick to press the buttons on the machine to vote. In and out within five minutes.

Anonymous said: I voted down the street at this pretty park this morning. I got up at 5:30 and it was freezing. Luckily I wore like 30 layers and stood outside for 2 hours. Some nasty orange man supporters were rude but everyone else was pretty nice. A really cute older couple was playing soccer with pine cones and kicked it towards me to play too. Not the worst time tbh.

Anonymous said: Did mail-in voting in California! Extremely exhausting and took forever to research all the propositions - they are notoriously tricky in hiding their flaws and one side tends to outrageously outspend the other. But in the end I felt really good about my research and decisions! No need for you to post a snippet for this story - would like to save that to read sometime in the future ;) Thank you so much for doing this!

joonsgotthejuice said: Votes for void??? I am here! I went last Thursday and it was chaotic bc I kept going past the poll place but the line was soooo long so my mom called me and woke me up like "its pouring rain and the line is super short get up I'm gonna pick you up" so thats the story of how I got dressed in 5 minutes and dragged my ass to vote in the rain <3

Anonymous said: i voted early on thursday it was cold and rainy but i went in the late afternoon and thankfully the only waiting i did was a few minutes for an elevator i got very lucky and while waiting for the results is awful the relief that came from voting in general was just great

Anonymous said: Wheeew the polls just closed and I finally got to cast my ballot yayyy ( I was the one working the polls from earlier) it’s been a really really long day and we actually had surprisingly good turnout. I saw a woman try to vote for someone else who claimed to be “helping” and I saw a woman who I’m pretty sure was on some typa something 👀 Overall though I really I’m really thankful for people like you who encouraged people to get out and vote. I hope the odds are in our favor❤️🤞🏼

chelsea-chee said: Hello Bee! Today surprisingly my elderly father wanted to vote so I brought him out with me. He only cared about voting for Biden, which meant I got to help decide who he should vote for with the rest of the candidates and amendments! Say hello to baby bee for me as well! 💖

Anonymous said: Okay I gonna got a chance to vote today and the process wasn’t that bad actually. I went in just now and it wasn’t that busy( thankfully) so no lines. I’m from Texas and it’s gonna be almost impossible to turn this state blue, but every vote counts! I love that you are getting people to vote and also sharing your experiences as well!

owl-orgy said: Dropped off my mail in ballot at a polling location! I originally wanted to vote early in person because I was worried my signature wouldn’t match closely enough but ended up just turning it in and double checked today to make it said “ballot accepted and counted”!

Anonymous said: I voted in person this afternoon, better late than never I guess. I was gonna go last week but then I got cramps from hell. There was no one in line in front of me, I think my county early voted because it was packed everyday the last few weeks

Anonymous said: I voted early a couple weeks ago. Exciting thing though that did happen was I got both my parents to vote for their first time ever.

Anonymous said: I had a mail in vote. So, I filled it out and dropped it in at the ballot box at my library. (I also checked out books for the first time in years, so I had fun!)

bubblyjiminnie said: I literally just finished voting. Lucky for me, the line and wait wasn’t very long, and it was a nice enough day that the short amount of time I had to spend in line outside of the building wasn’t too bad. My social anxiety when it comes to stuff like this tends to be high but that’s what I get for waiting until Election Day instead of going the mail in route. This was only my second time voting, but I’m glad that I did 😊

Anonymous said: I turned my ballot in last week :) I’m not a big fan of crowds and I hate make spur of the moment choices but despite that the first time I was able to vote back in 08 my Mom pressured me into voting in person because “you’d have to experience it at least once in our life”. And ever since then I comfortably vote by mail. I take my time, do all of my research, listen to music, and best of all don’t have to deal with people.

Anonymous said: here in Washington state it’s super easy to vote. I dropped my ballot off in mid-October and it’s already been accounted for! Mail in voting and drop box voting is fantastic and provides equal opportunity and access. Sad to see some people in red states misinforming Americans about it! We also have a referendum for implementing mandatory sex ed, including teaching respect, empathy and consent as part of the curriculum so I was happy to vote yes on that too!

unionrox006 said: I voted about 2 weeks ago by doing a mail in ballot. The other eligible to vote members of my household did the same. We chose to vote by absentee ballot because both my mom and I have an autoimmune disorder, so we have to be careful going out in the pandemic. Tbh, the ballot layout was a bit confusing at first as was all the paperwork and required IDs and documents. But my dad explained it to me and we got them filled out and mailed off. Kinda mad I didn't get a sticker for it though

bluetostone said: Love this and so excited for the next chp of void! I early voted a few weeks ago and because I live in a pretty rural county I was in and out of my polling place in a few minutes. No sticker though 😢. I live in a swing state so it could go either way in terms of delegates. Just praying everyone is safe tonight as the results roll in...though, won't we not know for sure for a couple of days or weeks?

Anonymous said: My mom, sister, and I received our early voting ballots a while ago and I took the longest to fill mine out because it was making me anxious :,( but I did return it before it was due. I checked our ballot statuses and mine and my moms were accepted but my sister’s said they hadn’t received hers back. Then she got another ballot so she filled that one out too and I took it yesterday 👍👍 I think she got two because she changed her address late so they sent two?

vixsynsblog said: Non-interesting voter story: I'm paranoid and live in a highly divided area, so I filed mail-in ASAP, mailed it a few days after cause neighbors are nosy and don't understand boundaries. Was able to track my ballot through my credit company, which was nice. Only thing I was missing was my sticker. Never got one✊😔. So I had to improvise and write it in pen on my disposable mask. I'm working all this week so if riots break out from either side, I'll be at work. Prayers for the safety of others🙏

______

Waaah!!! Thank you all for voting!! You are all my heroes. I am so grateful and proud of you. I’m sorry I ran out of time to respond to you individually. I’m going to drop two big scenes from Chapter 7 in gratitude (one of which will be familiar to my patrons and one won’t). I’m hopeful I will have the whole next chapter out very soon. Love you all!

Void spoilers below the cut.

When you wake up in the morning, there are still no signed HR forms in your messages. Had you been a fool to think they were interested? How much time does it take to decide such a thing? Perhaps just by putting the idea out there explicitly, it had lost all of its taboo appeal.

There is a calendar reminder waiting for you: Today is chili pepper pollinating day. At least this gives you an excuse to talk to Hoseok.

You find the science officer in the lab as always, sitting with his knee up against his chest. Hoseok doesn’t look well. He’s got dark circles under his eyes.

“Hey, um…” You shuffle your feet. Want to fuck me? No wait…“You don’t look good. Were you here all night?” you ask.

He blinks at you, bleary-eyed. “Um, was I? Yeah.. I suppose. Lost track of time.” He rubs his eyes, before looking you up and down, then casting his gaze back to the floor.

All you want to do is ask about the forms. Or the meeting. Or what he thinks of you now. But you don’t. “I need to pollinate the chili peppers today.” Usually Hoseok is the person who assists with that. “But I can get one of the other guys to do it if you need the sleep.”

“No!” Hoseok lurches forward, standing up a bit to rapidly and needing to put his hand back on the bench to steady himself. “I mean, I’m fine.”

You should disgaree with him. He is exhausted. But you’d like more time to talk to him.

Pollinating the chili peppers is both time-sensitive and time-consuming, hence why it took two of you to get the job done. There were no insects on your ship to do the job for you and if they didn’t get pollinated, they wouldn’t bear any fruit. Your chili peppers were your favorite crop. Not only a vital source of Vitamin C, but all your food benefitted from having a bit of spice added to it.

You and Hoseok head for the greenhouse together. The intital set-up gives you something to talk about in the beginning. Hoseok gathers the pollen from one flower onto a paintbrush, then hands it over to you to paint onto the stigmas of each little flower on the next plant in the line.

Slowly the conversation dries up as you fall into a silent rhythm. Other than just enjoying the chili peppers, you must admit that this was one of your favorite tasks on the ship because of the high likelihood that the two of you would brush hands peridically. Always gave you butterflies. But today he seems extra intent on keeping his distance from you. Was he disgusted by you now? His hands are trembling.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

His hand twitches so hard that a little rain of yellow pollen cascades onto the floor. He curses in frustration before turning to face you. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Um, yes, I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“This, um, plan of yours…” he gestures to the vague tension in the air. “It doesn’t feel like you.”

“I’m trying to save the mission. That has always been my top priority.”

“Yeah, I’m still not clear on how this benefits the mission.”

“Yoongi said…” you start to say, but are cut off my Hoseok’s derisive snort.

“Look, if you’re in love with Yoongi, just go date him, okay? Don’t feel obligated to include the rest of us out of pity.”

You frown. “I’m not… I’m not in love with him. It’s just sex. Just biology.”

“This isn’t you!” Hoseok argues back. “You hated the idea of anyone of us ever treating you that way. And now you just want all of us to… to… use you like that?” He splutters out the end of the sentence.

“No one is using me! This is my plan! I’m in charge!”

He sighs. “Well, I can’t be a part of it. Excuse me.”

______

Taehyung finds you in the gym. It’s good to see him up and about, even if his arm is still in a sling.

“Hey, so I need to talk to you about this, um, ape sex thing.” He fishes awkwardly into his pockets and pulls out his tablet. Maybe Jimin was right. Is Taehyung going to be the first to take you up on your offer?

You pause your jog on the elliptical machine. You wish you weren’t so sweaty and gross for this conversation. Taehyung is such an intimidatingly attractive man with those strong eyebrows and that perfect skin.

Taehyung opens up the tablet and flips to the form. It’s happening. He’s going to sign the form. Shit. Then what will you do? It’s one thing to say you want to have sex with your whole crew, but what if he’s hoping to go right now? You need a shower.

Taehyung has really nice hands. Long strong fingers delicately navigating the touch screen. It seems totally improbable that a man this attractive would be into you, even if you were the only woman in the universe. It just adds to your suspicions that hormones are driving everyone crazy. Perhaps if you slept with him once, he’d lose all interest.

He finds the form and then turns his gaze up to you, staring you down with those eyes. It’s a good thing that Taehyung rarely turns his full gaze on you, because it is almost too much to bear. Shit, is he just going to sign it? Is he waiting for you to give him some sort of signal?

“You can’t do this to Jimin,” he says.

“What?” Not what you were expecting. “Do what to Jimin?”

“This.” He gestures over the HR form. “Signing these forms with everyone. Having sex with everyone. You’re going to destroy Jimin.”

“Jimin’s the one who suggested this whole thing in the first place.” It’s a lie. You know its a lie. Or at least a gross exaggeration. But Jimin was the one who first brought up the idea of sharing. All for the benefit of the man in front of you now.

“No way.” Taehyung scoffs, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow. “No way was it Jimin’s idea that you sleep with the whole crew.”

“Well…” You can’t bear his gaze anymore and look down at the floor. “He wanted me to sleep with you.”

That surprises Taehyung. He puts down the tablet. “What? Why would he want that?”

This is awkward. “He, um, thinks you’re in love with me.”

“What?” There is only surprise on Taehyung’s face. It’s actually a relief to see that Taehyung is just as shocked by that idea as you were. “Why does he think that?”

“I don’t know…” You feel kind of dumb now. Of course, Taehyung doesn’t feel that way about you. Look at him. “Cause you told him you were jealous. Cause you can’t stand to be in the same room as us…”

Taehyung bites his lip. “Oh, um, shit, sorry, that’s not what I meant.”

If Taehyung isn’t jealous of Jimin...

“Taehyung…” He looks up, biting his lip. “What did you mean? Who are you jealous of?”

Taehyung’s eyes widen, but he doesn’t say anything. Instead he reaches for his microphone and mutes it. Out of respect, you mute yours as well. He glances toward the camera in the corner of the room, then stands up and begins unzipping his jumpsuit.

“Um…” You are distracted by the golden arms that peak from either side of the tank top as the zipper reaches his groin. “What are you doing?”

“Need something to block the camera.”

“We have towels,” you mutter. But he’s already stripping out of his shirt. The musculature of his back ripples. He hangs the shirt off of the camera to block the rest of the room from view.

“Yeah, but this way anyone watching will think we’re having sex.” His chest is just as attractive as his back and you flush at the sight of it. Mercifully, he zips back into his jumpsuit as he returns to his position in front of the exercise machine.

“You want them to think we’re having sex?”

“Don’t you? It plays right into your whole save the mission with bonobo sex plan.”

“I suppose.” Though the plan was also supposed to be that there would be no more secrets between the crew. “What plan of yours does it play into?”

“The one where Jimin doesn’t realize I’m in love with him.”

“You’ve never tried to tell him?”

Taehyung laughs wryly and shakes his head. “How would that conversation go? Hey man, I know we’ve known each other for years and I’ve already seen you naked and that you just think of me as a friend, but I’m in love with you. I know that’s awkward but now you have to spend the next twelve years with me, knowing that I’m attracted to you when you don’t feel the same way.” Taehyung sighs. “Doesn’t sound like a good plan to me. If he doesn’t feel the same way, I’ve just ruined the friendship for nothing and then I don’t even have that.”

“Yeah… I get that.” There’s something touching about realizing that Taehyung has been fighting the same battle as you for the last two years.

“I couldn’t tell anyone before launch because what if they wouldn’t let me go then? You know?”

“Yeah, the director wasn’t big on sending anyone who might ‘complicate’ the mission.” The two of you share a sad knowing smile.

“Yeah… And I thought it would be fine, you know? I like women too. I’d just date women until launch and no one would know. I wasn’t planning on falling in love with my roommate.”

“I don’t think any of us really knew what this would be like.”

“I knew it was going to be a problem. I should have pulled out…”

Your mind flashes back to that moment of doubt when Hoseok talked you into still coming on the mission.

“But I couldn’t just let him go off into space without me. Even if he’d never feel the same way, at least he’d still be in my life.”

The emotion in Taehyung’s words makes your eyes begin to mist. “You really do love him.”

“Yeah,” Taehyung sighs again. “But he’s in love with you.”

“Well, he thinks he is.”

“What does that mean?”

“He only feels like that about me cause he thinks I’m the only option.” You wonder if maybe he would feel differently if he knew about Taehyung’s feelings.

Taehyung frowns and shakes his head. “You don’t give him enough credit.”

“Oh come on, you know him. How many women did he date while we were in training?”

“A few…”

“And how many of them was he in love with before he found the next one?”

Taehyung bites his lip. He can’t really argue with that. “So why are you with him then, if you don’t think it’s real?”

You shrug, rubbing your arm. “He wants me. It’s nice to feel wanted, I guess.”

“You know you could have that with any man on this ship right?”

You scoff. “They’re all suffering the same delusion. It’s only-available-vagina syndrome. I just want us all to fuck and get it out in the open. Maybe if we could get it out of our system, they would see I’m nothing special. And then we can get back to the mission.”

Taehyung eyes you up and down. “You don’t give yourself enough credit either.”

You shrug. “You wait and see. Jimin will get bored of me. They all will.”

The two of you both slump backwards in your seats, mulling over your shared woes. Taehyung bends down and picks up the tablet again. “So what should I do with this?”

“Obivously, you don’t have to sign it. I should have realized that not everyone would be interested.”

“Jimin thinks I’m in love with you?”

“Yeah…”

“Is it okay if we let him think that for now? At least until I figure out how to tell him the truth?”

“Okay.”

Taehyung smiles and signs the bottom of the form, then sends it to you. Your phone lights up with a message. “Thank you,” he murmurs before he leaves.

#I'm not going to answer asks about the spoilers right now #because I want people to be able to avoid them until the chapter drops #but that should be sometime in the next week or so #votes for void

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wreckofawriter · 5 years ago

Text

Heartbeat

Pairing: Sirius Black x Reader

Warnings: Swearing, Angst

Summary: This is based off 'Points Scored' on my fanfic vote. Sirius and others play a game to see who can sleep with reader first.

An: Sorry for not writting!

"Beat that, fuckers!" Sirius exclaimed busting through the door.

Avery and Mulciber were seated, they looked at him with nervous excitement that they couldn't quite describe.

Sirius then threw a lacy bra onto the table proceeding to bow as the other two boys glanced down at the fabric.

"Don't tell me that’s-"

"That's right, Grace Huddleston!" Sirius beamed.

"No way!" Avery complained, "She wouldn't even come within ten feet of us!"

"That's because you’re slimy gits, not the smooth and handsome Sirius Black." He grinned enjoying the distraught looks of his associates.

Mulciber rolled his eyes and glanced down at the sheet, "As impressive as that is Black, you’re still losing."

"What?! How?! She's worth 10 points!" He said completely aghast.

"Yes, but while you did that I scored Narcissa and Andromeda, both 6 points," Avery smirked.

"My cousins you sick fuck? I thought we agreed on no family?" He growled.

"Yes, we agreed on no DIRECT family, and since neither of us wants to fuck your brother I'd say we're fine." Mulciber smiled.

"Fuck you guys," Sirius muttered plopping down onto a chair examine the chart they had made. He was indeed behind Avery by 7 points and only ahead of Mulciber by 3. The game was ending at the end of the month, leaving him only two weeks to pull ahead. This would have been easy if Avery wasn't scoring points fast enough to keep his lead.

"If you actually want a chance to win I say you go for one of the big two." Avery sneered.

There were two names at the bottom of their little chart, each worth 30 points, an amount which would pull Sirius far enough to win.

The first name scrawled in Mulciber’s not so impressive handwriting read. ‘Lily Evans’.

Now, of course, Sirius would never go for that one. For one, the thought of sleeping with Evan's made him sick, for another even if he managed to somehow seduce her, James would kill him before he even got his points redeemed.

Sirius rolled his eyes, "You guys know that they are impossible."

"I thought you were the Great Sirius Black?" Mulciber mocked.

"Or was that all talk?" Avery grinned.

"Fine." Sirius huffed, "Just don’t come crying for your money back when I win."

"If you win Black. If."

"You know what, let's make it more interesting," Sirius smirked, "Since all of us know I'm not gonna go for Evans, how about whoever can sleep with y/l/n first wins? No time limit, just racing against each other. Whoever gets her first wins?"

Avery and Mulciber glanced at each other.

"Or are you guys too scared?" Sirius jeered.

"Fine." Avery agreed "We're in."

You glared down the girl in front of you, almost begging her to do what you knew she was planning.

“Oops.” Marlen drawled sarcastically pouring the cup of pumpkin juice delicately onto your head.

You didn't flinch, your heart still sustaining its soft, steady beat. You swiped your tongue out onto your lips humming at the taste of the spiced gourde.

Marlen stared at you, you could tell that this was not what she was used to. She was used to girls screaming or bursting into tears. Of course, you did not fulfill these expectations.

“You’re going to regret that Mckinnon.” You murmerd a signature smirk still twitching on your lips.

You saw her eyes flash with fear before darting around and resetting on your own.

“Oh, are you going to write to mommy and daddy about it, they're gonna fix it for you? Or are you gonna break your psycho uncle out of Azkaban and have him kill us?” She smiled sweetly, the sugar that coated everything she did made you want to vomit.

“Don't worry you'll see him in there soon enough.” She giggled; a ridiculously sharp noise.

“Do not ever compare me to my family.” You growled.

“Oooohh, I'm terrified.” She mocked although you could read the truth in her eyes, the truth she would never share with the girls who were crowded around you.

“You do it again and I won't have to break out my uncle to kill you.” Your voice was so low the girl you were speaking to could hardly hear it.

“Don’t worry I’ll put you where you belong, behind bars.”

Her smile and the girls laughs only lasted for a short second.

You heard a loud crunch as your knuckles connected with her nose, a sharp yell of pain echoed through the corridor followed quickly by gasps and screams.

You hissed at the pain your hand now held, it throbbed lightly, your heartbeat finding itself there.

Sobs then grasped from Marlen’s mouth causing you to scoff, mumbling “Pathetic.” quietly under your breath before you turned to leave.

"Miss y/l/n!" McGonagall shouted, her voice inflated with fury.

"Yes Professor?" You drawled turning to face the women, a bored expression taking your features.

"I just ran into Miss McKinnon and her nose is broken!" She yelled glaring down at you, it was no secret you were one of her least favorite students.

"She shouldn't be sticking it in other people's business." You shrugged picking at your nails.

"Are you telling me that you are the one who broke it?" She gasped.

"Godric, I would have thought you had figured that already." You rolled your eyes.

"Detention, my room, for a month." She hissed.

"I'm so sorry, I'm going to have to cancel." You hummed a disappointed look falling upon you.

"Miss y/l/n detention isn’t something you can just cancel." She scoffed

"It is when I already have detention with Flitwick." You shrugged.

"Fine then. Morning detention. I already have a group of students serving then, you will join them."

"I'm gonna gave to cancel again." You smiled.

"Don't tell me you have more detention." McGonagall sighed.

"No, I'm just not a morning person." You smirked.

McGonagall sharpened her gaze on you and you just smiled back.

"I expect to see you there Miss y/l/n."

"Of course." You mocked.

McGonagall turned on her heel mumbling something about the need for discipline and left.

You did the same continuing towards your common room. You reached the room and was about to whisper the password when a booming voice echoed through the dark corridor.

"Y/l/n!"

You turned to be met with a pair of stunning green eyes and floppy blonde hair. A mischievous smile danced in white, tucked neatly behind a pair of pink lips.

"Avery." You drawled attempting to keep your eyes from rolling.

"You look stunning as always." He complimented this time nothing could have stopped your eyes from turning in their sockets, "How are you?"

"Better when you weren't here." You sighed.

"Oh come one y/l/n, we're friends." He smiled.

"Just because I have been forced to go to the same social gatherings as you since I was four doesn't mean we're friends." You drawled before mumbling the password and slipping into the common room.

Avery followed, as persistent as ever, "Good, I never liked the friend zone anyway."

You scoffed, "Well I hope you enjoy the dickwad-who-harasses-me zone."

"I wouldn't call it harassment." He smirked placing his hand lightly on your waist.

"I would," you spoke snatching his palm from your skin and twisting it harshly.

He gasped but continued to smile, "I bet you like it rough in bed."

You dug your nails into his flesh hearing his hiss in pain, "Speak to me like that again and I break your wrist. Clear?"

"Crystal." He whimpered.

"Avery!" Another voice called through the common room, "Will you please stop harassing the beautiful girl?"

You let go of Avery's wrist and turned, this time to see Mulciber.

Avery through him a sharp glance before backing away from you.

"Are you okay?" He asked, placing his hand on your shoulder and examining you closely. A little too closely.

"Fine." You shook his hand off your shoulder once and tossed one more icy glare at Avery before ascending to your room.

You groaned wincing as you sat up slowly from your bed, your head pounded. You swore, regretting the small bottle of fire whiskey which now lay empty on your floor.

You stood slowly, the grey of early morning dulling the colors of your dorm room. You stepped down from your bed, your warm feet cooling on the wooden floor. You glanced out of the window to your left.

You let your mind sink into the green murky water, you watched something dart by calmly. You wished to stay there forever, watching as the kelp swayed slowly back and forth, part of you wanted to grab the closest thing and smash the glass letting yourself become part of the dark wet.

You brushed the thought from your head dressing in silence, downing a few painkillers and, sliding on your robes before grabbing the black leather school bag which rested at the end of your bed.

You exited the room slipping slowly down the stairs before sighing and pushing open the door, greeted by the warmth of the dungeons. You listened to footsteps echo off the walls listening to your heart pound calmly. You let your mind wander, but never too far, you kept it in chains, holding it from dark corners which you wished would fall away.

You accened a stairwell enjoying the soft hum of the changing steps and the murmurs of the portraits which surrounded you.

You walked a few more steps before pushing open a heavy wooden door to be greeted by five pairs of eyes.

The first you locked with were a deep grey, silver almost seeming to swirl within them. Your mind filled with memories of searches and hiding, pinning and secrets, hearts thumping, blush rising.

They left your thoughts as quickly as they flooded them. Your heart thumped its usual slow pace, no change taking place.

“Ms. Y/l/n, nice of you to show up.” McGonagall snipped glancing at a clock which read five-o-five. Five minutes late.

“It was nice of me to show up, you should be thankful.” You spoke back, your headache seeming to remerge.

You heard a pair of sneakers and felt a glare on you, but you refused to look down at the boys who sat at the tables in front of you.

“You should be thankful I don't have you expelled.” She wiped.

You nodded and took a seat at one of the tables in the back, you felt the boy's eyes follow you, you could hear whispers being exchanged.

“Well, I hope you all like paperwork because you will be organizing it for the next three hours,” McGonnagle spoke earning a groan from James who sat in front of you. She waved her wand and papers appeared on each of your desks, most were disciplinary forms. Some papers you didn't quite feel like reading and some were littered with spells and charms. You reached for your wand, only to have it ripped from your hand.

“No magic.” The woman in front of you smirked almost as if she enjoyed your pain.

“Give me my wand back.” you hissed.

She didn't follow her orders and instead examined the wand with intense criticism, “Hawthorn?” she asked.

You replied with a curt nod.

“Core?”

“Dragon heartstring.” You snarled missing the feeling of its rough wood in your hand.

“Very nice.” was all the professor said before setting it gently back onto your desk. “Wand away Potter!”

You glared at the papers in front of you, the harsh black against pure white hurting your eyes. You leaned your head down hiding your eyes in the crook of your elbow, attempting to stop the pounding of your head by cowering from the light. You slowly let yourself be immersed back into black.

You stifled a giggle, your heart beating wildly in your chest as you clamped your hand over your mouth. You were enveloped in blackness, the only visible light was sliding through a small sliver at your feet before it spread like a bird’s wings until it stretched too thin and disappeared.

You felt another giggle rise in your throat. You were tempted to shed the uncomfortable dress you wore, but you didn't want your mother to scold you again. You choked back laughter as footsteps grew louder dress shoes on polished granite sounding loudly in your ears. You could feel a broom handle digging into your back, your heart now thumped so loudly against your rib cage you were sure that the boy outside could hear it, and maybe he could.

The door whipped open, blinding you with light as you let out a small shriek hiding behind your hands before peaking through them and seeing a deep, swirling grey.

You awoke with a start, your eyes met grey once again and you stifled a light shout.

“You awake y/l/n?” Sirius asked with a small smirk.

“No.” You answered turning away from the boy.

He chuckled a dark rich sound, “Well you might want to change that, we’ve got class in four minutes.”

“Fuck.” You mumbled turning back to him. You watched as his eyes sparkled in a godly way, his silky hair falling from behind his ear, his milky skin uninterrupted by blemishes. Your heart thumped its lazy beat, almost bored.

“You coming?” He asked moving away from you to gather his stuff. You nodded, although you weren't quite sure where you were going.

You gather your things and trailed slowly after the boy who waited for you at the door.

“I've missed you y/l/n, we haven’t spoken in so long.” Sirius spoke and you felt as if you were finally jolted awake.

“You did?” Your voice was filled with doubt and menace.

“Of course, we were great friends as kids, how could I not?” He smiled at you.

Something changed, your heartbeat stuttered, your breaths quickened and you felt yourself falling, so slowly, like the hero in an action movie, you just hopped cupid had just as terrible aim as the villains always did.

You struggled to keep your eyelid’s incredible weight up. You felt your mind nod into darkness before you snapped your head back to attention, Flitwick’s high voice echoing in and out of your head. You finally gave up and let your head fall back onto your arm, your hair spilling onto the desk as you let the world disappear behind you.

You woke in a dark cold room you recognized far too well. The echoing of heels on marble floors ringing in your ears. You could feel the dress you wore scratching the back of your neck as the large earrings poked through you snagged in your hair. You looked across the table and met the face of a tall woman, her smokey black hair pulled into such a tight bun you almost thought it would rip the skin from her scalp. Your small hands grasped a fork, you suddenly felt a sharp hiss of pain and you bit back a whimper glancing at your mother who glared at you her wand clutched under her skirt, ready to perform another act of punishment. You set down the fork you held and grasp the one to its left earning a small nod of approval.

You glanced to your right to meet the softness of pillowing grey eyes. You felt your heart thump loudly as the small boy reached for your hand under the table, grasping it and giving it a small squeeze. You bite your tongue as false laughter surrounded you, the soft tinkle of silverware hitting china running in the cold dining hall, the chandelier above you sending an icy light through the area.

Yet you felt warmth on your cheeks and in your hand as the boy next you held you. You wished to tell him, you hoped for him to tell you something in return, but it was secret you knew you would die with because as your mother said, you're ten years old now, you aren't children anymore. You don't have time for feelings. You have obligations to meet.

You jolted awake groaning slightly as a sharp pain spread from your shin, you glared at the girl next to you who only returned the favor.

Suddenly a voice greeted your ears, it was sharp and high making you cringe.

"Ms. Y/l/n!" Flitwick repeated, although the first attempts to gain your attention went unheard.

"Yes, professor?" You droned.

"What is the answer?" He spoke harshly.

"Ummm," you glanced at the board in hopes of seeing some hints for the riddle you were just handed. None were found, your heart remained calm, it’s beat steady and smooth as it always was.

With slight desperation in your eyes you glanced across the room and found two storms of grey. Your eyes trailed down to his lips which moved slowly, the word they were speaking exaggerated.

"Portus." You spoke suddenly glancing at your teacher, "The answer is Portus."

Flitwick’s eyes widened slightly before narrowing suspiciously.

Your lips twitched into a cheeky grin, challenging the professor in front of you.

"That is correct." He spoke slowly.

Your smile widened, you glanced across to Sirius mouthing a thanks. He winked back unfazed.

You felt your heart flip as he looked your way. Its steady beat was interrupted and it was sent into a frenzy as you glanced back down at your hands, laying your head back onto your desk

The next day you awoke with the same sense of dread you seemed to hold every moment you weren't asleep.

You slowly made your way to McGonagall's room, never quite waking, eyes half-lidded.

You came to the same seat you occupied the day before and glared down at the papers in front of you.

You yawned, eyes snapping shut as your mouth widened. When your lids parted again you were met with a cheeky smile.

"Sirius." You greeted lazily.

"I think I'll sit here today." He responded setting his bag down on the opposite side of your table.

Your heart snapped aggressively, "You can't."

"Why not?" Sirius asked almost looking hurt, almost.

Your mind went blank, reasons evading you as your head began to ache, "There's no chair."

"Well, I can change that." He shrugged walking to the table he had occupied the day before grasping the chair it held and dragging it noisily back to his original position.

You winced at the sharp sound the legs emitted on the classroom's floors, "Can't you pick it up?" You growled.

He rolled his eyes playfully lifting the chair above his head and walking back in front of you, "Better?" He asked before dropping in onto the ground.

"No." You pouted slightly.

Sirius' smile widened largely, "You're really cute ya' know."

Your heart leaped uncontrollably.

"You always have been, even when you were little, you were always so adorable."

You felt your cheeks heat, your breaths becoming irregular, "Shut up."

"Are you blushing?" He teased bringing his finger up and poking your cheek.

You swatted his hand away biting back a smile, "No."

"Are you sure?" He jeered.

"Positive." You grinned sarcastically.

You attempted to focus on sorting the papers in front of you, but it was practically impossible when you could feel Sirius' eyes boring into you.

You snapped your head upwards, "What?"

Sirius only smiled back, "You should come to Hogsmeade with me."

"What." You repeated, eyes wide.

"Ya' know, the village with all the shops and things." He explained

"I know what Hogsmeade is you moron." You said back, heart beating irregularly.

"Yeah well you should come, James, Remus, and Peter will be there. And Lily if she gets over the whole poly juice thing." He shrugged.

Your heart slowed back to a normal pace, "What is the poly j?- you know what, I'm not even gonna ask." You cut yourself off.

"So will you come?" He asked voice inflated with hope.

You bit your lip, "I don't know, I mean Lily and I aren't exactly best buds."

"Come on y/n/n, for me?" Sirius pouted, jutting out his bottom lip in a pitiful pout.

You ignored your heartbeat growing loud and sighed, "Fine."

He let out a little yelp of happiness, earning a glare from McGonagall, "I swear you won’t regret it."

"I better not."

As you made your way to your first class your momentary happiness was interrupted by a certain brunette.

"Y/l/n!" Mulciber shouted through the halls running towards you.

You wondered if you could make a break for it, but before you could decide his hand was on your shoulder spinning you around.

“Yes, Mulciber?” You asked in a deflated sigh.

“I saw you weren't at breakfast and I didn’t want you to go hungry.” He smiled holding out a blueberry muffin.

You knitted your brows in confusion reaching out for the muffin, “Umm thanks.”

“Yeah of course.” He said back, “Do you want me to carry those?” he gestured to the books tucked under your arm.

“Sure.” You shrugged passing him the books and beginning to nibble on the baked good he brought you.

“Where are you headed?” he asked trailing behind you as you began to walk down the corridor.

“I’ve got Herbology. You don't have to follow me all the way down to the greenhouses though.” You glanced back over your shoulder eyes narrowed, you were still suspicious of the boy’s actions.

“It's no problem.” He smiled happily catching up to you.

You suddenly stopped in your tracks causing the boy to come to a skidding halt, “Why are you suddenly being so nice to me?” you asked, never one to beat around the bush; your mother always told you it was a sign of weakness to be indirect anyway.

His face grew a bit red, “Umm, I just, ya know.”

“I don't know.” You cut in.

“I just think your kinda cute and I don't know, I thought maybe you might finally start paying attention to me.” He spoke scratching the back of his neck, his golden eyes refused to meet yours.

“You’re lying.” You smirked. “I'm not an idiot Mulciber, I don't know what you’re playing at, but I will find out and you will regret it, you can be sure of that.”

The boy’s eyes widened he opened his mouth to speak but before he could you had snatched your books back from him and dropped the muffin to the ground, stepping on it as you continue your way to class.

As the week continued getting out of bed seemed to get easier. Your eyelids lost some of the pounds they seemed to be carrying and your heartbeat never felt the same. It jumped unpredictably, sped to inhuman rates and stopped abruptly. Your thoughts filled with those of black hair and leather jackets. The smell of fresh pine and chocolate clouded your dreams, grey eyes were all that you could see. You wished you had disregarded the schoolgirl crush you had for the eldest Black brother but it only seemed to grow stronger and stronger, from infatuation to true feelings.

You went to Hogsmeade, despite everything in your body telling you not to, and it wasn't half as bad as you predicted. Lily was shooting you glares - no doubt because of what you did to her dear friend and darling Marlen Mckinnon - but no one else seemed to have a problem with you, although Peter seemed a bit scared of you.

By the end of the month, you began to look forward to your detention. You got just about nothing done but the conversations with Sirius were endless. You reminisced over the awful dress robes his mother insisted he wore and argued over which quidditch team was superior. You laughed more than you had in far too long. You suddenly felt alive again. It was as if the boy you now fantasized about had finally showed you what existing was for.

You felt the dew soaking through your robes as it numbed your toes and wet your hands as your fingers danced in the grass. You heard a slight grunt as Sirius plopped into the green beside you, your shoulders brushing as your heartbeat sped. You tore your gaze from the boy beside you and glanced up at the sky.

A small gasp left your mouth as you stared up at the stars in awe. Your lips stayed parted as your eyes traced the heavenly body above you. You just stared. You might have laid there for a minute, for ten, for an hour, you didn't know and you didn't care. You could have stayed, sprawled in that field for the rest of your life as you stared into the stars, tracing the constellations, disappearing into the universe above you.

“It’s beautiful.” You sighed out in a dreamy haze.

“Not as beautiful as you are.” Sirius commented causing your cheeks to flush as you turned your head to meet his gaze.

“That was a really cheesy line Black.” You smirked, “You sound like you're in some terrible rom-com.”

“You make me feel like I’m in some terrible rom-com.” He sighed, staring at you in a way you couldn't quite comprehend.

“That was just as bad.” You giggled.

Sirius disregarded you comment leaning close to you, you could feel your heart pumping uncontrollably. “Can I kiss you?” He whispered, his breath fanning directly over your nose.

You nodded slowly and without another warning, his lips were on yours. They brushed your own hesitantly as his hands found your waist. You felt your hands creep up to his hair tugging on it lightly. Sirius released a small moan and you took the opportunity to slide your tongue past his lips as you tasted butterbeer and mint.

You broke away blushing harshly, your lips swollen, light gasps pulling from you.

“I think I might be in love with you,” You whispered scared if you raised your voice anymore you would break the spell the two of you had been placed under.

Sirius only stared back a you and reconnected your lips.

The next morning you woke with a smile for the first time in ages. You practically leaped out of bed dressing quietly.

“You look dazzling today as usual y/n.” Sirius winked when you arrived at the classroom

“Only for you.” You respond as your heart stuttered in your chest.

The hours passed in haze and you soon departed to potions. On your way, you felt someone tap your shoulder. You turned on see Avery who had been becoming slowly more and more kind over the past few weeks.

“Avery. How are you?” You asked continuing to your class.

“I'm alright.” He shrugged “How about you?”

“I’m great.” You smiled as the two of you continued to potions.

Once seated in the class you made a decent effort to pay attention to what Slughorn was speaking about but you couldn't seem to focus on anything, your mind wandered to the texture of Sirius’s lips, the taste he held, the way his hands felt on your waist.

You glanced to were Avery was seated, seeing a numbered sheet of paper and catching a glimpse of your name at the bottom before it was torn from your view.

“What is that Avery?” You asked him quietly.

“What was what?” He responded.

“Don't play dumb with me, I am not an idiot.” You hissed, your hand gripping his arm harshly.

He whimpered sliding the paper over to you hesitantly.

You opened the parchment your eyes scanning the list of names, but seeing yours on there wasn't what hurt. When you saw another's scrawled at the top your heart stopped.

“No.” You whimpered, your throat tightening as your world spun.

You stood abruptly, knocking your knees on the desk in front of you, moving the things on it, one jar falling to the ground and shattering.

“Ms. y/l/n?” Slughorn asked hesitantly, the entire class watched you in a mixture of fear and curiosity.

A wrecked sob left your lips tearing from your throat as your eyes welled with tears, “No!” You shrieked a sharp noise that made those around you wince. You darted from the classroom without another word, collapsing into sobs before you could even reach your common room. Your head began to throb as cries tore from your mouth, you could taste salt as you sunk to the ground.

You slowly regain your footing and stubbled up the stairs, sobs still echoing around you, your throat becoming raw.

Just as you reached the corridor you were looking for classes were released and students flooded the hallways, you didn't bother with anyone, not caring about one pair of eyes on you.

When you saw him your heart halted altogether. He was a masterpiece, his hair shining in the light as his teeth flashed a dazzling white. You wanted to tear him open, rip him to shreds.

His gaze met yours and softened. You didn't speak a word to him, snatching his wrist and dragging him away, you didn't pay any mind to his protests as you dragged him into an empty classroom and slammed the door behind you.

“Y/n/n wh-”

“Thirty points.” You choked out. “I’m worth thirty points.”

His eyes widened mouth falling open to speak.

“I’m impressed, Black.” You laughed darkly tears spilling down your cheeks like hot raindrops. “I truly am, you managed to trick me, you managed to seduce the cold-hearted bitch of a Slytherin right?”

“Y/n, I don't know what to say.” He spoke slowly.

“Say you love me.” You hiccupped.

“You know I can't do that.” He said as you bit your bottom lip in attempts to keep it from quivering.

“Then get away from me.” You spat like venom.

He turned and left without another word and you collapsed to the ground, your nails digging into your wrist.

You lay on the ground for hours, silent tears spilling down your cheeks, wishing your heartbeat would stop forever.

Part 2

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