#until i realized i should maybe just start a new file finally..

[tinyangrynerd]

Picked up the game again to finally dip my toes into the recent dlc. And i forget how much of a cluster fuck my 1st savefile is. Not that it's in a bad state, but it's just too much happening, too much everywhere. And i got nowhere to put new stuff. And it made me very stressed and angy.

Also pls..... the Bars....

[nyxronomicon]

no, cause you're absolutely right with your tags. i too put that thought in the bag of dark thoughts that i should never open but i thought of you and said there is always someone who will be able to understand me lskdk and your tags,,, nodding fervently at your tags because i don't see him as a stepbro cause i love the age difference too lol but

i love love love love the idea of him coming into your room at night and waking you up with his fingers inside you and the bulge in his pajama pants pressing from behind. I also imagine him sitting on the couch when it's just you two, he invites you to join him to watch the game or something and it ends in him cockwarming you while playing with your nipples, you can't do anything but take it and feel it throb inside you until he finally cums inside you, but you have to do it fast before your mom/brother (choso maybe megumi) gets home from work <3 so the idea of being caught is very attractive to me

Sigh... *opens dark fantasies filing cabinet and pulls out stepdad Toji folder*

omg you did this on purpose... cockwarming while he plays with your tits??? my WEAKNESS and you added the risk of getting caught RIP RIP RIP i'm DEAD .... i'm sorry... i'm sorry for the sins... my pussy wrote this i swear...

cw: !! DEAD DOVE DO NOT EAT !!, stepdad!Toji x f!reader, reader is university age, age difference, dub-con (coercion & implied somno), reader has major daddy issues, reader is touch/attention-starved, corruption, pussyjob, cockwarming, praise, titplay, risk of getting caught, slight edging, size (emphasis on Toji's big dick) pet names: princess, angel, good girl, reader is referred to as "step-daughter" but not as a pet name lol 2.2k sinful, sinful words

Your mother didn't even tell you she remarried. You got home from college for the summer to find a stranger and his son living at her place. You were resistant to the whole idea, but she made you promise to give them a chance and spend time with them. They were family now, after all.

Megumi was just a year older than you. He had one more year of university before graduation, so he was in a similar situation as you. You thought maybe you could bond about it, but he wasn't very talkative and showed more interest in his video games than you.

Your new stepdad... Toji Fushiguro. You didn't even know where to start with your thoughts on him. He was sleazy, shameless, and a little more friendly than you'd like. You couldn't really figure out what he did for work, and to be honest, you wouldn't be surprised if he didn't do anything. Your mom was a chronic workaholic, constantly gone on work trips and spending late hours at the office. She could easily support the three of you on her own.

There was another thought about him that clawed at the back of your mind. The one you immediately compartmentalized, the forbidden knowledge that once fully synthesized in your mind, you wouldn't be able to erase. It remained in a little bottle, threatening to shatter every time your stepfather got home from the gym. Or took you out to dinner. Or watched a movie with you.

You tried to include Megumi as much as possible at first, if only you have a buffer. Hanging out alone with Toji felt weird. It felt wrong, though you couldn't quite pin why. But Megumi was entirely disinterested in spending time with his dad, and only marginally more interested in getting to know his new stepsister.

After a couple of months of getting used to Toji, you were starting to notice things you liked about him. He was actually there for you, for one. Your mother was never around and in the past, and she never kept a man around long enough for you to have any kind of father figure. It was just you and her, but more often than not, it was really just you. You didn't realize how lonely you were at home but with him here, at least you had someone to talk to.

You let his sleazy comments slide. The few times you'd gone out with friends, he made sure to tell you how sexy you looked. And when you got home, he grilled you on if there were any guys you had an eye on. It always flustered you, reminding you of the forbidden thought trapped in that bottle. But as long as you didn't think about it too hard, it would stay bottled up, where it should be.

You hated to admit that your mother was right. That you liked your new stepdad after giving him a chance. You liked the banter, and he was always complimenting you. He made you feel good about yourself. So in turn, you let him get away with more. When you'd watch TV with him at home, you started cuddling with him. He was warm, comforting. Maybe you were a little old to be cuddling with your stepdad, but he smelled so nice and you always wondered what it would be like.

Your mom was at a conference. Megumi was gaming in the other room. It was like any other night, and you and Toji would be left alone as usual. You were half asleep, cuddled up to his chest, when you felt a hand on your breast. It took a second to process, your gaze suddenly shooting up to your stepdad, who froze in place.

"Oh," he smiled sheepishly. "Still awake, huh?" He whispered.

Your mind instantly replayed the number of times you'd innocently fallen asleep like this, only to wake up horny and wet. He was always sleeping himself, but surely he wasn't so brazen that he made a habit of groping you, his step-daughter, while you slept.

"What are you doing?" You whispered back, glancing at Megumi's door, which was open just a crack. You wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, but his hand remained on your tit.

Toji pouted a little, gazing down at you. He knew it was wrong but he always had a weakness for naive college girls. "Sorry, your mother has been gone so much lately, I'm a little... pent up." His finger lightly brushed over your nipple, sending pleasure up your spine.

"Toji, we can't..." You whispered, though you made no motions to stop him. It felt good. He smelled divine. The living room was dark, only lit by the glow of the TV screen. Megumi could emerge from his room any minute and that only made this hotter.

"I know, I know." He agreed with you, but his fingers kept kneading your breast. "I just really like spending time with you. I wanted to take it a little further. Make you feel good." Heat flooded your body. You were sure if he could see your expression, he'd know about the dark thought threatening to take over.

You and your mother had the same taste in men. Admittedly you'd always been fixated on older men, maybe trying to fill the void the lack of a father had. But he filled that void perfectly. The reason it felt weird to spend time with him was because you wanted this. You wanted him to touch you and praise you. And you wanted more.

"I'll stop if you want me to." He added. It was too late, the desire in your body burning a hole in your innocence. The buried feelings you had for him shattered that tiny bottle. You wanted to fuck your stepdad.

Your face felt hot. You looked at the TV, playing sports highlights that you couldn't care less about. The sound was loud enough that you couldn't hear the clacking on Megumi's keyboard. And the sinful thought that entered your mind was that Megumi couldn't hear anything happening in here, either.

"No..." your voice was nearly silent. "Don't stop."

His eyes widened for a moment, movements paused. "Oh?" The empathetic smile on his face was replaced with one of a predator. The man could have torn himself away from you a moment ago but now? Even if you changed your mind he'd be playing those words in his head over and over until he could coerce them from your lips again. "You sure?" He added, in an attempt to appear more respectful than he intended to be.

The glow of the TV highlighted your features as you looked back at him. Your eyes were big and soft, like you were on the verge of taking back the permission you just gave him. Before you could say a word, his free hand tilted your chin, pressing a tender kiss to your lips. All the while, he massaged your breast again, your body melted against his.

"It's ok, princess. Just say the word and I'll stop." His voice was sensual, a soft murmur in your ear before his lips pressed to your neck. Shivers ran up your spine and you arched your back, giving him easier access to your collarbone.

It felt so good. His undivided attention, his touch, it was like a drug that you couldn't get enough of.

You knew you should tell him to stop as he tugged you onto his lap. You straddled his thick thighs, feeling his bulge against your clothed cunt. You knew how wrong it was for you to let him lift your top. The feeling of the forbidden pleasure coursed through you as he peppered kisses on your breasts. He was married to your mother. Thoughts of her long erased by his lips wrapping around your nipple. His tongue flicked the bud as your breathing became unsteady. He had a kid your age. But Toji Fushiguro doted on you, his son in the other room nearly forgotten as his thick fingers felt your pussy through the thin pajama shorts you wore.

Finally, finally you were the favorite. His fingers pushed your shorts and panties aside, sliding his cock into the space between the fabric and your wet cunt. It didn't matter that your mother ignored you in favor of the revolving door of your her lovers anymore. His thick girth was nestled perfectly between your pussy lips. You didn't need to grasp at straws trying to relate to your uninterested stepbrother. Toji's tip danced at your entrance, making you tingle with anticipation as you let yourself drown in his affection.

"So fuckin' sexy..." He mumbled against your breast. The praise nearly made you whimper, glancing at Megumi's cracked door as you bit your lip. "Wanna do me a favor?"

Words still escaped you, meeting his gaze with a shy nod of your head. It was almost cute, as if you were trying to play up the innocent act. Toji wanted nothing more than to flip you on your back and fuck you mercilessly on the couch until you were screaming his name. Get you to admit you'd been flirting and leading him on this whole time. After all, what kind of a slut shows this much interest in her stepdad? But with Megumi in the other room, he needed you quiet. And he knew just the perfect way to tease you.

"Just want you wrapped around me for a minute." He pushed his hips up so you could feel his cock sliding in your folds.

"Toji, we..." you trailed off a moment, considering how desperately you wanted to say yes. Your eyes were on Megumi's door again, dreading the idea that he could get up at any moment and find the two of you like this. "We shouldn't." You whispered.

"It's not sex." His hands were on your ass, encouraging you to grind against his dick. Your body moved with a mind of its own, the friction adding to the heat bubbling in your core. "Just a little cockwarming. It's no big deal."

"I don't know..." You knew there were reasons to say no but none of them came to mind anymore. You were so needy and horny and you felt yourself melting into every touch.

"It'll feel good. Don't you want to feel good?" He pressed his lips to your ear, whispering softly. His finger found your clit, toying with the sensitive bud as you rolled your hips against him.

You didn't answer, freezing up while pleasure coursed through you. Your cunt ached, desperate to be filled with him. You buried your face in his neck, panting as you whined silently in response.

"C'mon, princess." He fingered you faster, a sadistic grin spreading on his face. You were close. He could tell you were close from how fucking wet you were. Even his balls were soaked. "You want me to stop?" He slowed his ministrations, watching your reaction carefully.

"Don't stop." You immediately murmured. Your core frustratingly teetered on edge, frowning at your stepfather for toying with you like this. "Fuck," you moaned softly, careful to remain as silent as possible. You'd had sex before but college boys were nothing compared to him. You'd never ever wanted someone so bad. "I wanna cockwarm you..."

"Good girl." Toji grinned, and the praise went straight to your cunt. He lined himself up, your natural slick more than enough lubrication despite his size. It was a tight fit, he slowly eased your hips down until he bottomed out with a groan. "So good for me... my perfect angel..." admiration dripped from his lips.

The praise alone was enough for your pussy to flutter around him. Your back arched, a lewd expression on your face as your gaze met his. He smirked, now knowing how easy it would be to make you cum. "Stay still for me, princess. No matter what." You eagerly nodded your head, hoping for more praise. But he said nothing, instead groping your tits before latching on again.

He paid close attention to your irregular breathing. As his tongue and teeth tugged at your nipple, one of his hands toyed with your other breast. His free hand slid down your torso and into your panties, swirling around your clit. Your breath hitched, your cunt tightening around him. Feeling how full his big dick made you. You were getting close again as desire bubbled in your core.

You sighed with ecstasy, obediently doing your best not to move around. Slick now drooled onto the base of his cock, your sweet pussy clenching around him as your pleasure heightened, a familiar heat swirling within you. You felt so sensitive, fighting the instincts that were desperate for friction. You bit your knuckle holding back the moan that threatened to burst as Toji's movements sped up.

Your whole body tensed up, your orgasm suddenly and violently washing through you. Your cunt squeezed him as he helped you ride through the pleasure, his hands now gripping your hips to hold you in place. He continued to suck your tit, although his movement slowed to allow you to breathe. Still, he refused to pull out until he felt an aftershock or two strangle his cock.

"Such a good girl." Toji murmured in the shell of your ear, tugging you against his chest and leaning back onto the sofa.

@sourpeachsayshi

[fappinreborn]

Hey there! I have an idea for the VR Story. Maybe you have a Date with someone you Just matched. She also didn't know she was pregnant, but Your app shows it to you. You say you're going to the bathroom, but in reality you're controlling her pregnancy. Suddenly she is 43 weeks pregnant and you have set the contractions to never happen (of course you can change that after the date) you make her overdue with twins, then triplets. While she didn't even know she was pregnant until now

First of all, not a VR Story (it's an old DA story of mine). Secondly, this is a really interesting premise to work with. I think overdue and multiples aren't feasible here so I'm going for early singles. Third, I try to stray away from dialogue, so you could fill in the words yourself.

Pregnancy Control 3: Date Gone... Right?

One of my regular activities as a young adult is looking for love on the job dating apps. I had been meeting several girls over the years, some ghosted me after the first date, some went along for a month or two before breaking it off, even had one that lasted almost half a year. All the girls I met were fun and interesting, but turns out this one new girl that I'm meeting tonight pales in comparison to all of them.

When I arrived at the apartment to pick her up, the pregnancy control app, as usual flared up to show some pregnant woman near that apartment.... but it also included the girl that I'm going with. I sort of panicked but quickly read through her file.

Apparently she's just barely 6 weeks pregnant but didn't realize she was pregnant yet and the app offered me to control her pregnancy. The app seems to know me so well and have upgraded itself to even give suggestions to make it cryptic pregnancy and when I should stop growing her pregnancy, presumably to make the cryptic pregnancy plausible for her. 'The girl's been sleeping with other men.' I thought to myself.

I was... hesitant at first, wanting to separate my... normal life with my fetish, so I held it off... for now.

I picked up my date, looking fine with her casual T-shirt and jeans and went to a nice restaurant. We sat down, selected our food and talked for a while, getting to know each other. Things were going well, but in the back of my mind, the temptation kept shouting at me until it was too great to ignore.

I excused myself to the bathroom, sat down at the toilet and began activating her pregnancy, tuning her cryptic pregnancy to ~39 weeks and activating her labor, but reducing her contractions pain to 0. Don't want to distrupt the date, after all.

When I came back, I noticed that her belly had grown slightly but she did not notice anything. The date went back to normal until we've finished our food. We... were starting to play with our phone, so I figured it's time for execute the plan.

I made her go into the bathroom and made her water break subtly and let her have mild cramps afterwards. She voiced out her complaints to me, so I decided to take her home, knowing that the date I'm with is actually laboring and is about to deliver a whole baby soon. I helped her get into the car and then ramp up the labor progression. I started the record on the phone and began driving back to her apartment.

I was lowkey worried about her, as her cramps are getting worse and her legs are slowly spreading wide. The baby is fully dilated at this point and is starting the descend. I can hear her moaning in pain like a laboring mother would until all hell finally breaks loose.

We were around... 10 minutes from her apartment when I noticed her tight jeans began to bulge out. She reached down and told me that she felt something hard and round. Another round of cramps, a push and the bulge became more pronounced. She panicked, realizing that the thing coming out of her was none other than a baby. I acted panic in return as she began pushing hard. I quickly parked my car at the side of the road and then ran around to help her out.

I tried to help her, but the legs were too spread out to even pull the jeans off. I cupped the bulge and felt like the head was fully crowning at this point. She decided to go all in, pushing hard until the head popped out of her. With a bit of breathing room, she closed her legs a bit so I can unbutton her jeans off and pulled the pants down before she pushed again and got the baby out with one single push. She embraced the newborn baby in her arms with a mix of disbelief and joy.

I... offered her a ride to the hospital instead and she accepted, so I made a trip to her preferred hospital and dropped her off at the ER. She thanked me for the help with the birth of her child before I went back home...

I hope she's okay now... and I hope we can get more dates with her after this...

[corruptedcaps]

Bitchy Besties: part 3

As Kate watched Tanya speed off around the corner and out of sight, she strutted confidently towards the school like she had seen Tanya do a hundred times. It wasn’t until she caught her reflection in the bathroom mirror that she realized what she was doing and finally dropped her bitchy facade. She had spent so much of the day as Kayleigh it was hard to shake her off entirely.

Retrieving the bag from her hiding spot she took one last look at Kayleigh in the mirror before stripping herself of all the elements that made her. The earrings, the necklace, the makeup, the clothes and finally the hair. The only thing she couldn’t take off were the new nails she had gotten but she made a mental note to at least file them down later.

All things that had previously felt odd and uncomfortable on her now gave her a pang of longing. She couldn't deny how much fun she had had with Tanya that day, having a friend who she was completely in sync with. But then she reminded herself that it wasn't Kate that Tanya was enamoured with, who she had found a kindred spirit in. No that was Kayleigh.

She should be happy to be back to being her normal self. And yet, getting home she threw herself onto her bed and began to feel conflicted and she couldn't understand why. She thought she hated girls like Tanya and before today the thoughts of being her friend was the last thing she wanted but something inside her was now pushing against that feeling, making her question herself.

Sitting up on the bed she looked at herself in her vanity mirror. She was at a crossroads. She could walk into school tomorrow as she had done for years being the same old Kate that others knew and ignored or she could strut in as Kayleigh, have a best friend and be popular and sought after. Looking down at her nails she had gotten with Tanya, the allure of the latter was obvious but she knew that she would be turning her back on the good part of herself and selling her soul to be a bitch. Could she do it?

The next morning Tanya sat into her seat in the back of her first class with her clique sitting around her. She should have felt like the queen she always felt like but for once she was feeling a little sad. She knew it had to do with Kayleigh. She had never clicked so easily and quickly with someone before and now surrounded by her betas she longed for the connection she had made with Kayleigh. Someone who upped her game. Another Alpha.

She looked around the class, considering for a moment the idea that any one of them could potentially be her bitchy bestie but her face quickly turned sour. The one silver lining was that the loser Kate who she loathed was apparently out sick as her seat was empty, although her creepy ex Cory was still here so maybe it wasn't all positive.

Tanya was daydreaming about transferring to Alpha Prep when their teacher called for attention.

"Now before we get started I have two quick announcements. First is that we have a new student starting today, so please give a warm welcome to Kayleigh." The teacher said starting an applause that was continued loudly by a now perked up Tanya.

Kayleigh strode into the class a vision in a tight black pants and even tighter black top outfit that she had bought yesterday with Tanya. Her steely gaze was only broken when she spotted Tanya and excitedly headed over to her.

"Rachel move over to that spare seat this instant! Kayleigh sits next to me from now on." Tanya said snapping at one of her insubordinates as Kayleigh arrived. Tanya stood up and embraced Kayleigh who returned the hug tightly.

"Oh babe I'm so glad you chose here, we are going to have the best senior year of all time." Tanya beamed as Kayleigh took her seat next to her.

"I just couldn't imagine having any fun anywhere else without a queen like you by my side." Kayleigh said.

"And now for the second announcement, I am sad to say that Kate, our highest GPA achiever, and her family have moved and so won't be joining us for her final year." The teacher said sadly before heading to his desk.

"This day just keeps getting better." Tanya said whispering to Kayleigh.

"Why? Who's Kate?" Kayleigh whispered back.

"Oh she was this loser nobody. As far as I'm concerned, this school got a massive upgrade with her gone and you in her place." Tanya said.

"I couldn't agree more." Kayleigh replied with a knowing smile.

As class was let out nearly an hour later, Tanya and Kayleigh were inseparable, walking together out of the classroom arm in arm while the rest of clique struggled to keep up. Kayleigh quickly asserted her dominance over the other girls and they fell in line loyally to their new co-Queen.

By noon the school was abuzz with gossip about the new girl Kayleigh. News quickly spread about her sexual history, her bitchy attitude and her beauty. The bullied lower class of the school had to know fear two mega babes.

“Tanya babes look at what this loser thinks passes for fashion these days, isn’t it tragic.” Kayleigh sneered at one unfortunate girl.

“Couldn’t agree more Kayleigh, her clothes, if you can come them that, are hurting my eyes.” Tanya replied coldly, shielding her eyes.

“You hear that dork, you’re physically hurting my Bestie, get lost before I physically hurt you.” Kayleigh said bearing down on the girl. Kayleigh felt her pussy tingle as she watched the girl flee. As soon as she was gone Kayleigh and Tanya giggled cruelly.

Before the end of the day the two of them could finish each other's sentences. Collectively they were soon known as 'Kayla', a two headed creature who was as formidable as they were beautiful.

However as connected to the hip as they were, Kayleigh excused herself near the end of the day for a moment and snuck into an empty classroom where inside she found Cory waiting.

"Alright loser you better have good news for me or I'll squeeze you puny dick into a cage. Although something tells me you'd only get off on that." Kayleigh snarled at Cory who had a strange mix of fear and arousal etched on his face.

"Y-yes of course. I hacked into the school system and added all of your, I mean, all of Kate's grades to yours. I also added you as a new transfer student and transferred Kate out of the school but you already know that." He said nervously awaiting her response.

"Good. Glad to see you're not entirely useless." She said distainfully as she turned to leave.

"A-aren't y-you going to t-thank me?" He said barely above a whisper but it was enough to stop her in her tracks.

"Excuse me?" She said wheeling around.

"W-well if it wasn't f-for me, you would h-have never p-put on the hair and b-become Kayleigh." He said, each word making him regret the last. In a flash she had her hand on his throat and was squeezing.

"Let's get on thing straight you pathetic worm, there is no magic hair, no transfer of power from Tanya to me or any bullshit like that. I just realised that I didn't want to be some loser nobody anymore, I didn't want to be an outcast freak like you. Kayleigh didn't take over Kate's body, Kate had stolen my body for 18 years. I just took it back, understand?" She said with genuine venom in her voice. Cory looked into her cold blue eyes and couldn't see Kate inside. He nodded feebly.

Dropping him to the floor, she walked slowly to the door still incensed, however she still needed him for one thing.

"Don't forget to hack into my father's workplace and give him that fat raise and promotion, I have a status to uphold." She said not even dignifying Cory with a look anymore but knew he was nodding intently. She couldn't waste anymore time, not when she had a school to run with her Bitchy Bestie.

THE END

[yuki-kazami]

Ok so me and some friends in a server were talking about Horn headcanons and I feel the need to write mine up because I love this insane wolf girl so much

Basically, my thesis here is that I think Horn is best compared to that old myth(?) where if the oil in a car's engine has not been changed for ages, if you do actually try to change the oil, the engine will just seize and die.

It's canonical that she's repressing everything, in her own files it states "However, we've gradually begun to worry for her. Who'll be there to ease her mind? She's transformed herself into the shield she bears, firm, steady, and seemingly forever to be the last one standing. But there's only so much time any armament has. When a human's forced herself to the extreme, and been stressed for too long, what will happen to her the instant the pressure on her disappears?" She's carrying an incredible burden and I think she just has to keep going or she'll collapse.

I imagine things like her and Cello dating, maybe even with Cello having gotten her the collar she wears. There's no way Horn is anything but haunted when she sleeps. Nightmares of Cello berating Horn for not saving her, for not shielding her from Mandragora. The collar gets more and more worn as the war goes on, as Horn throws herself into battle after battle, until finally, in an explosion, the clasp shatters, Horn desperately diving after it as it falls, catching the tattered strap. But rather than repairing it, she can't bring herself to admit that she deserves better, because it serves as a reminder of her own failure. So she instead takes the strap and sews it around her own neck, no more room for escape, no more tacit admission that she could take it off. She treats it both like the embrace of the person she lost and a brand to remind her that she couldn't protect her.

Imagining a night at the Exemplar camp where they explain to the new Victorian recruits that no matter what, you do not bring up Captain Horn's old squadron, no matter how badly you want to know what the Tempest Platoon was like, as the descendants of the original Exemplars. Not because it will retraumatize her, and not because she goes quiet or gets sad, but because she doesn't know what you are talking about.

"What do you mean? They're just on deployment elsewhere, I talk to them all the time. Did something happen? Should I be concerned?"

The first person who didn't get the memo on what is happening ends up getting slammed into a nearby wall as Horn starts hyperventilating, White Wolf in full effect. She nearly breaks his ribs for "keeping vital information about the safety of her squad from her", only to suddenly be broken off of the train of thought by a somewhat distressed looking Siege telling her about an "urgent necessary patrol" that only she could handle, and she seemingly did not remember the confrontation by the time she returned to camp, acting with her usual humor and camaraderie.

Gonna drop a Read More here because the next part involves some details from the end of Chapter 13, and a bit of Chapter 14 speculation based on a bit of details I've been spoiled on from the Anniversary Livestream:

Imagining Horn after the Victoria arc ends, panicked at the idea of there not being another battlefield for her to go to, another place for her to throw herself into the line of fire because that's where she belongs, it's what she deserves.

Imagining the way she breaks down when they finally stop her, the delusions she falls into as everything finally catches up to her all at once, when she realizes that she never truly left County Hillock in her heart. Bagpipe with a somber smile on her face as she tells her Captain what the other squadmates are up to, as Horn lays in her bed, recovering from her injuries. Misery, imagined to be an old commanding officer, playing along as he sits alongside her, wanting to be there for someone he cares about in a way he couldn't for Outcast. Therapy sessions, trying to help her work through this trauma before her infection grows worse, as she kept throwing herself into the Originum-coated remnants of Londinium. Her screams still echoing on those walls, the horror and rage that flowed out of her as she saw County Hillock once again made manifest, the Specter Force dominating her thoughts as she collapsed from her injuries.

She's just SO

She's going to break so hard when the war ends, and it's going to take her and the people who love her years to pick up the pieces. I love Rita Skamandros.

[randomfoggytiger]

Curated agent-troi Fics

In honor of @agent-troi's birthday (that I missed-- so sorry!), here is a "favorite rereads" selection~.

Loose chronological order below~

Crossing Paths

“Uh…” the other woman struggled to get another piece of paper out, profusely thanking Diana when she offered to hold some of the folders. She finally took out a syllabus and glanced at it. “Fourth floor, room 451.”

“Oh.” Diana chuckled. “It’s supposed to be 415. They like to haze the new instructors sometimes this way, especially if they’re women. I guess they think it’s funny.” Of course, it had never happened to Diana, but she had the right people on her side. Or rather, she was on their side.

AU-- Pre-S1 Diana meets Scully on her transfer out, gives her some directions, and muses on a childhood Scully doesn't remember.

The MSR Files - Chapter 17

“I’ve been busy, Ethan,” she said as she stood up to dump the remains of her meal in the garbage, even though she was only half finished with her salad. She eyed Mulder pointedly, who looked deeply confused but did the same with his sandwich.

S1 Scully pretends Mulder is her boyfriend to get a very pushy Ethan Minette off her back.

The MSR Files - Chapter 4

“Oh.” Rob looked down at his plate, then back up at her. “You must really like that part of your job, huh?”

With some chagrin, Scully realized she had a huge grin plastered on her face. “It has its charms,” she said, trying to sound more casual even as she felt her face burning. 

The Jersey Devil Scully is ecstatic that Mulder called her to conduct an autopsy the next morning.

When Toads Fly (Ao3)

“Christmas isn’t until next week, Mulder.” She set her coffee down on the desk and folded her arms. “Why is there a plastic toad with a rocket strapped to its back hanging from our ceiling?”

“First of all, it’s not a rocket, it’s a missile. And second… it’s a missile toad.” He paused to watch for her reaction and was rewarded with a blank look. “Get it, Scully? Missile. Toad. Mistletoe.”

Mulder hangs up a missile frog for Christmas; and Scully, realizing she'd hurt his feelings, walks back her comments.

Between Two Truths

“Yep, it’s a fake,” the tech said, not even trying to contain his glee. “Sorry, Spooky, but it looks like you lost this round. Maybe the little green men will let you take a mulligan.”

Mulder closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. “Thank you,” he spat out. “I’m gonna print out the enlargement myself, if you don’t mind.”

“Sure, knock yourself out.” The tech snickered to himself as he walked away in the general direction of the break room, where he would no doubt proceed to gossip to his fellow geeks about the delusional Spooky Mulder’s latest misadventure.

E.B.E. Mulder is grateful that Scully, at least, doesn't mock his faked photograph.

Light in Dark Places

“Have you ever–”

Another pair of high beams pierced the night, steadily expanding until they filled the entire rear window. Scully cut herself off mid-sentence as she struggled to breathe. It’s not him, it’s not him–

Post Irresistible Mulder distracts Scully from her panic attack by crashing a conga line and sharing a motel room.

The MSR Files - Chapter 10

She knew exactly how voodoo worked, that most of its power resided in the mindset of the victim. If one truly didn’t believe a curse could actually harm them, or better yet, if they did not know they had been cursed at all, it would have absolutely no effect. Just as it should have had absolutely no effect on her.

Post Fresh Bones Scully is shaken that she'd believed in voodoo.

For the Truth

Mulder had passed out shortly after collapsing on her couch, sweaty and feverish. He didn't seem to be conscious or even aware of his surroundings, but occasionally he'd start tossing and turning, muttering about his father. At one point he started crying, and nothing was intelligible save the word 'sorry'. 

Anasazi Hosteen sends out paramedics to meet Mulder and Scully halfway.

The MSR Files - Chapter 13

 She narrowed her eyes as her lips curled upward in amusement. “Do you think it’s true what he said to you?”

“I don’t wanna talk about that,” Mulder said hastily.

“Okay,” she snickered. 

Post Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose Mulder hopes Scully will live forever.

The MSR Files - Chapter 16

When Scully had first made the comparison between him and Ahab, he’d been deeply confused, because he initially thought she meant her father. As she kept talking, he realized she was referring to the character, and he’d quickly become consumed by the need to not have to face directly the consequences of his actions on those he cared about, lest he be forced to let them go. To let her go.

But now, a stray thought occurred to him. He wasn’t a Freudian, but she had made the comparison.

Post Quagmire Mulder thinks over his inability to connect with his pets and the realization that Scully is, at the very least, attracted to him.

The Scully Dimension

“What if you could travel back in time?” Mulder asked Scully as they drove away from the biomedical research facility. “What would you change?”

Scully rolled her eyes. “Mulder–”

“Hypothetically speaking, of course.”

Synchrony Mulder is horrified that he'd forgotten to factor in Samantha's abduction into his time travel musings.

The Lesser Potato (Ao3)

It was most unlike him to willingly hand a case over to the local authorities before it had been fully concluded; it was, however, what any typical agent would do in this situation. Perhaps Skinner ought to be grateful that Mulder was finally starting to toe the line.

And yet, somehow, he wasn’t. 

Small Potatoes Skinner is unnerved that Mulder's usual British misspellings are absent from his latest report.

Blood and Water

“Mrs. Mulder?” Scully’s throat constricted, and her heart started hammering in her chest. “Is Mul– have you heard from Fox? Is he okay?”

“Well, I was just going to ask you the same question.” Teena’s voice sounded hesitant. “He left a very strange message on my answering machine, telling me I had nothing to apologize for and that we were both victims of– of someone, and that it seemed like he wouldn’t be able to outrun his demons after all.”

AU-- Post Demons Mulder withdraws into himself, collecting DNA off of CSM's cigarettes to answer the paternity question once and for all. The results, however, spiral him further into darkness.

The MSR Files - Chapter 20

“You were never going to take his deal, Mulder.”

“How can you possibly know that? Even I didn’t know that.”

Detour Mulder had fled, scared of Scully's advances; and later admits to almost taking the deal in Redux II.

Scientific Proof

Despite his leaving her behind, Scully had continued to work on his behalf... which he couldn't say about his former partner. Diana had ended up leaving him high and dry with her report full of obfuscation and deception, but Scully on the other hand had managed to uncover some startling revelations.

AU-- The Beginning Scully links DNA from the claw marks to the Erlenmeyer Flask... but the panel refuses to reopen the files, anyway.

Event Horizon

Even as it occurred to her that he must be inside his apartment by now, Mulder's words triggered another flash of memory....

"Your apartment's been redecorated, hasn't it?"

"Wha-- how did you know? Was it you?"

AU-- Dreamland II Scully remembers the excursion first; and Mulder confesses his new favorite color is red.

Mother Knows Best

“I’ve got it.” The woman behind Maggie in line bent down to pick it up and started to hand it to her, then paused as she took a closer look at the name on the card, furrowing her brow. “‘Scully’... you’re not related to Dana Scully, by any chance?”

Pre-Two Fathers Maggie meets Diana while shopping... and runs laps around her.

Eden (co-written with @baronessblixen and @katy-kt-katie)

“She gets to call you Fox, no big deal. But not me—never me.” She paced to her dining room table and smacked it with her hand; the quick shot of pain up her arm felt good; it felt encouraging.

AU-- Post One Son Scully, hurt, picks a fight over Diana's liberties with Mulder. Both crack each other open, apologize, and end each other's doubts rather swiftly.

Savvy as Her

“You owe me,” she insisted. “Dales was right. You wouldn’t have made it through that without me.”

“I might have.” Mulder put up a weak, insincere protest, but quickly gave in. They had both quite literally been through the wringer, and Scully had delivered a baby (for the first time!) with a gun to her head and parasitic worms in the ceiling. She deserved to be pampered after everything she had just been through.

Post Agua Mala Mulder and Scully both reconnect over food and a S2 abduction discussion.

Arcadian Rhythms

"Do you want me to stay?"

Scully's words took an inordinately long time to penetrate the fog of his musings, and even then he wasn't sure he heard her right. Slowly, he blinked and lifted his head to look into her eyes. "You mean, here?"

Arcadia Scully wakes Mulder from a nightmare.

Sweet Kisses (Ao3)

Right then and there he decided to stop messing around, that the risk of heartbreak or humiliation could not possibly outweigh the sheer agony of his life without her in it. To not have her by his side was unthinkable.

So it was that he found himself in a flower shop in Georgetown, looking for something that would convey an unambiguous message when coupled with a night of fine dining and a blanket of stars. 

AU-- Post Milagro Mulder is ready for the next step... and sees Scully on a "date" with another man.

The MSR Files - Chapter 22

“I’ll double your pay, kid,” Mulder yelled back.

“Deal! Wait— aw, man!”

They turned their heads to see a green station wagon in the parking lot, a maybe sixtyish woman with Poorboy’s nose and cheekbones beckoning him with her finger as she honked the horn with her other hand. 

Post The Unnatural Mulder is delighted by Scully's teasing; and both take things to the next level after the Poorboy goes home.

The MSR Files - Chapter 24

No one would listen to him, and he couldn’t seem to stop hearing everyone. He was surrounded by mental noise, and yet all alone.

Scully?

He tried to reach out for her, but caught only a bizarre glimpse of a half-buried ship in the sand, dark and foreboding as the waves crashed over it. The wreckage of alien progenitors, no longer alien to his mind.

The Sixth Extinction Mulder tries desperately to reach Scully's mind.

Hands-On Activities

Mulder was clearly happy to see her, even though they’d just spent less than ten hours apart, but there was a faint undercurrent of tension in his posture.

“Are you okay, Mulder?”

He shook his head slightly as if to clear it. “I’m fine, Scully.”

“It’s just that you didn’t even let me finish my sentence, and you– oh.” A realization hit her, along with a wave of chagrin. “Did you think I was in trouble?”

Post The Goldberg Variation Scully teaches Mulder how to fix his sink.

Some Assembly Required

Scully swatted him playfully with the instruction manual. “Need I remind you that you asked me to help you? You’re not even following the instructions—“

“Because they’re useless, Scully. Look at them! It’s all just pictures!” He stabbed a finger against the page in frustration. 

Post The Goldberg Variation Scully helps Mulder assemble his new bed.

Your Hand Does Something To My Skin (Ao3)

He stepped closer, sliding his arms around her and pressing a kiss to the top of her head. She hummed in quiet contentment, and he felt his heart melt. “Scully…?”

“Hmm?”

“I love you.”

“I know.”

Post The Amazing Maleeni Mulder cannot, for the life of him, wheedle Scully's magic trick secrets from her.

Someone to Count On

"How can there possibly be so much of nothing?"

"Nothing?" Mulder continued to tease Scully as their rented Jeep Grand Cherokee sped down a dusty rural highway somewhere in... Scully had forgotten where, so mundane and repetitive was the scenery.... "This is the heartland of America, Scully, where all the hardworking farmers of these United States grow the crops and raise the beef that ends up on our dinner plates.

Post Orison Scully has another panic attack in the car curtesy of Pfaster's song.

The MSR Files - Chapter 27

He couldn’t understand, needed to understand, why his mother had done what she did. She called him, she wanted to explain… but why didn’t she wait? Why didn’t she even leave a note?

He knew what it was like to be overwhelmed by guilt, but he couldn’t help but resent her for making him guess, for not even giving him a reason.

Sein und Zeit Mulder is anguished that Scully gets answers beyond the grave while he never does.

Eight Nights - Chapter 6 (Ao3)

The boy from his dream appeared in his mind’s eye, sitting cross-legged on the floor as he spun the little top around.

Post Closure Mulder finds his childhood dreidel and menorah.

Where A Million Stars Catch Fire (Ao3)

“I’m sorry, Mulder. Is that why people call you Spooky?”

“Technically, this is why they call me Spooky–” Mulder gestured around at the basement office and all its UFO and cryptid-related paraphernalia. “–but my birthday certainly doesn’t help. Whichever of them first realized that October 13th, 1961 was a Friday must’ve had a field day.”

AU-- This Is Not Happening Scully remembers each of Mulder's birthdays while trying to save him on this one.

Love and Strife

“Can you stay?” she mumbled, blinking up at him through groggy eyes. “Make up for… having to cut our evening short.”

Mulder smiled and slid his wrist out of her hand to wrap his fingers around her own. “Sure you don’t want to wait for the pizza man?” he murmured back teasingly.

She rolled her eyes at him as she gave him a sleepy smile. “I would, but… you’ll have to do, I suppose.”

Empedocles Scully casually confirms the baby his Mulder's; then drops off to sleep mid-conversation.

Eight Nights - Chapter 8 (Ao3)

As if sensing his presence, she looked up at him. Her face and eyes were red from crying and the agony of the labor, but she was smiling. “Mulder, come look at him.”

He did, kneeling down beside her as they both gazed in awe at their newborn baby– their son. “Wow,” he whispered.

Existence Mulder followed the light and found his family.

Eight Nights - Chapter 3 (Ao3)

"When have I ever done anything the normal way, Scully?" Mulder set the menorah on the table and tousled William’s hair. "Besides, this is the Starship Enterprise– the Starship Menorahprise, if you will. Its eight-night mission: to boldly celebrate miracles where none have ever been celebrated before."

AU-- S9 Mulder and Scully are celebrating William's first Hanukkah.

Summer Love Doesn't Have to End

“You need me, Mulder, and we need you. You’re not going off half-cocked on your own ever again. I’m gonna make damn sure of that.”

“I’m trying to protect you-”

“Well, stop that!” Scully put her hands on her hips in a familiar gesture of exasperation. “You need protection too, Mulder.”

AU-- Post Existence Scully refuses to let Mulder go into hiding alone.

The MSR Files - Chapter 28

“Fresh oranges here! Get your fresh oranges!” William bounded over to them with all the effusive, exuberant energy only an eleven-year-old boy (who also happened to have Fox Mulder’s blood running through his veins) could exhibit under these conditions.

Scully felt a pang of deep regret at this cruel and unnecessary theft of his childhood, and knew that someday (if there was even gonna be a someday) he would mourn its loss as well. But for now, as far as William Scully-Mulder was concerned, this was all just one grand adventure.

AU-- S9 Mulder, Scully, and William bunker underground with a Colonization resistance group.

A Place Like This

“We can’t hide this forever. He’s going to need to learn how to control his… powers.”

She spoke the last word in much the same way she used to say the word ‘aliens’ or ‘extraterrestrials’, but not for the same reasons. She was less afraid to believe now than she had been in the past, but now there were new things to fear.

Having a baby, especially a miraculous, possibly human-alien hybrid baby, had a way of radically shifting your priorities and preexisting beliefs. It was somehow easier to accept that William possessed psychokinetic abilities than to accept the danger they put him in from those that would do him harm.

AU-- S9 Mulder, Scully, and William go into hiding with TLG's help, raising Will as their own even if they aren't sure of his paternity.

Thanks for reading~

Enjoy!

[noonaishere]

Music of the Heart [J.YH] - sixty-eight | can’t sleep

You needed to sleep. 

You needed to sleep but you couldn’t.

You stared at the ceiling for a few moments before trying again. You closed your eyes, pulled the covers up to your chin, and tried to will yourself to sleep. If you could just think sleepy thoughts hard enough, maybe you could do it…

You couldn’t. You were abundantly aware of the passage of time and no sleep came to you. The only thing that did was the rising feeling of bile as that moment replayed over and over in your mind without you wanting it to. 

“Now that she’s gone...”

She had been waiting for you to leave. She wanted to get him alone, so she could ask.

“I’m trying to ask if you want to go out with me.”

She was so direct. No euphemism. No clownish attempt to ask while couching it in something that seemed like not asking just in case the person being asked said no. She saw what she wanted and she went for it.

And she wanted him.

“Oh. I-- I wasn’t expecting that…”

He stuttered. Did she make him nervous? He only ever did that around you, and only lately since seeing you again. Did you make him nervous? And why were you suddenly finding it so attractive? Maybe it was because he had always been so strong and confident when you were kids?

Yunho didn’t respond. Or at least, he didn’t at first. Why not? What was he thinking in that moment? Was he really that nervous?

Satbyeol paused and waited. She probably raised one or both eyebrows to implore him to answer before she asked: 

“Well?”

And then that ill-fated click of the door finally closing.

If only you stopped the door with your foot so you could hear his answer, then it wouldn’t be chewing at your insides right now when you should be sleeping for work tomorrow. No, you shouldn’t have left the room. She waited until you left, right? You should have stayed so she couldn't even ask the question. You should have set up a tent and lived in there overnight. Maddox once said that Hongjoong had a tendency to sleep over in the studio, you could have started too: today.

But then… she just could have asked him out in the elevator as they left.

You whined and kicked your feet under the blanket.

As much as you wanted to, you couldn’t even hate Satbyeol. She realized the moment was right and she went for it. She shot her shot, how could you hate her for that? It’s not like Yunho was yours.

You sighed. If you thought about it any longer, you were going to start crying. You sat up and grabbed your MP3 player off the nightstand. You had bought it with your new paycheck and it was so much nicer than the one you had as a kid; it played FLAC files, could be used with high-end stereo systems, and could hold two micro SDs. You only had one in it currently, a 512 gigabyte one, and it was already half full with all the music you owned. If you added another, you could be walking around with a whole terabyte of music in your pocket. A veritable library. The idea made you salivate.

After you were done obsessing over it like Gollum lovingly looking at his Precious, you put your headphones on and scrolled, deciding what to listen to. 

You weren’t in ‘the mood’ for anything, per se, you just needed something loud to drown out all the stupid thoughts that were plaguing you and were very close to making you have to get up to puke. You hummed as you thought, nothing really jumping out at you as something that could help, until you scrolled to one of your favorite composers. You selected the album, selected the song file, and put it on repeat. 

It was Gustav Holst’s The Planets, specifically Mars, the Bringer of War.

It started off quietly, and quickly built up into its main theme. You loved the way the notes clashed with each other, the sense of the chaos of a battlefield coupled with the heavy weight of why someone fighting might go to war. The deeper notes spoke to the lurch of troop movement, like a many-legged many-bodied centipede as they moved in formation around the battlefield, and the higher notes brought to mind individual skirmishes as soldiers broke away and fought each other, swords against shields, sharp edges cutting into skin as men cried out from the sudden terror of their own mortality. The crescendo started to build again in the last third of the piece, ostinato repeating fervently, ferociously, dogging the listener with its gallop-like rhythm towards cacophony and dissonance in quadruple-forte. 

‘Allegro, allegro’, you could practically hear the conductor in your head as it started over again.

By the third time you listened to it, your brain had thankfully gone blank, thoughts dissipating like smoke as rain fell through it: they were still there, but they were forced away, dampened for now and could be ignored. 

You were finally able to drift off to sleep.

But not before a tiny spark of an idea ignited in the back of your mind. The place where all your music ideas started.

And it was such a good idea that your brain immediately filed it away so you wouldn't forget it come morning.

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@luvvvx • @iamthehotdemon • @hrts4hanniehae • @rachs-words • @stayatinykatsy •

[syntia13treeman]

Case files 02.01

what I think happened in:

Case 02.01, the case of "Portrait of Daria Gray" or "The artist becomes the canvas."

Daria's story is pretty straightforward. What we know about Daria: she's a struggling left-handed artist who used to wear a lot of hand-me-down clothes from her sister, and she doesn't like the way she looks. At some point she decides to get a bit of a makeover and, among more mundane things, she starts shopping for a new tattoo. She finds a deal too good to be true (it is) offered by one 'Ink5oul'.

Ink5oul is sketchy as hell, and definitely has something supernatural going on. The tattoo they gives Daria (with no input from her, WTF! - paintbrush, floral patterns and glittering symbols) hurts much more than it should, but also heals almost instantly.

Looking at the tattoo (which is 'perfect') fills Daria with sudden desire to paint an autoportrait (which comes out 'perfect'). And once that is done, looking at it again makes her realize she can adjust herself (and make herself perfect).

So she takes her painting tools, most notably a pallet knife, right to her own face (and soon pretty much every other body part) and gives herself an impromptu plastic surgery. Which goes on uninterrupted for several days (???!?!!?!) until her room-mate Sarah comes home. Poor Sarah walks in on Daria while she has a knife stuck in her jaw, understandably freaks out and punches Daria, at which point half of Daria's face collapses under her hand like putty.

Having no idea that her room-mate has been touched by the spooky, Sarah comes up with the only rational explanation she can think of, which is that Daria poured some acid on her own face (which is very comic-book logic, but maybe Sarah paid more attention to Batman than chemistry and biology class as a teen).

So now Daria has severely disfigured face, and also is officially considered suicidal and a danger to herself and must go to therapy. (Honestly, she needs therapy).

There are two things, aside from the obvious, that grabbed my attention here:

The voice. Narration in the first case was that of a pretty normal email - a little bit rambly, a little bit disjointed, referencing things that the recipient would know about that we can only infer. The second case had a perfectly average forum thread. This case... also starts out with pretty realistic voice - right until the moment Daria stats talking about the tattoo. Then suddenly this story gets ridiculously verbose. The way she describes the studio, the tattooing process, the tattoo itself, the painting process and finally the 'adjustments' - the details, the wording - there's no way a regular person talks that way. Not in real time, not about a traumatic event that they very much don't want to talk about at all. So where is this coming from? I think it's the ink. Until proven otherwise, I'm going to assume that Ink5soul's tattoo somehow infused Daria with power to 'express herself' perfectly in whatever medium she's using - be it words, paint, or her own flesh.

Invasion of privacy issues all over the place. First Daria's tattooing session is streamed for who knows how many Ink5oul's fans without her say-so, and then her be-damned therapy session gets intercepted by some weird basement government branch. Daria glosses over the former and doesn't know about the latter, but they are there. And there was that private email in case of 'Not-Arthur' too. I wonder how present this theme will be in rest of the show. One thing I can bet on: if one of the cases doesn't deal with a conspiracy theorist yelling about government spying on them, I'm gonna eat my hat. (And the poor paranoid guy will be 100% right, just not in the way they think).

[universitypenguin]

Reissued Post - Backstory

Author's Note: Because Tumblr was having issues when I posted the original version of this, some of my followers are having trouble accessing it. I'm reissuing a few of my side piece stories so everyone can read them.

Masterlist

Word Count: 3,132

Masterlist

When do you think Lloyd realized he cared and had feelings for princess? I recall in the story that the guys would give Lloyd a hard time when princess finally found a boyfriend that Lloyd would be devastated (poor thing 😭) I also kinda wanna know how he felt while she was dating Aiden. Obviously we know he didn’t like Aiden at ALL lol but did Lloyd ever feel hurt in a way watching princess go on dates with him and when she talked about him?

Learning about Aiden

“Why are you being such a space case?” 

You jumped at Lloyd’s question, startled out of your own little world. Scrambling, you shut your screen and re-focused. 

“Sorry. I was distracted. What were you saying?”

Lloyd’s sharp blue eyes narrowed. 

“Who are you texting?” 

“Uh… no one?”

He leaned back in his desk chair and looked at you steadily. You curled tighter into the couch on the other side of his office, looking down at the floor. 

“I still have that report to do… maybe I should go work in my office. I don’t want to distract you.” 

“I’m already distracted, Princess. What’s the big secret?” 

“I met a guy. You know that alumni mixer I went to a few weeks ago?”

Lloyd grunted. “Yeah.” 

“His name is Aiden LeDoux. He moved in similar circles to me during college. We kind of hit it off.”

“That’s LeDoux, spelled like the country singer? What state does he live in?” Lloyd asked. 

He typed the name into a search engine with the word, ‘Virginia’ to filter the results. 

“Twenty-six, graduated three years ago, and works for AVT security?”

“That’s him. What did you find out?”

Lloyd glanced over. “You haven’t run a background check on him?”

“No. That’s for when I’m deciding whether to go on a date with him. But I’m curious.” 

“Ah. Let’s do this.” 

Lloyd cracked his knuckles and leaned over his computer. Your phone dinged with a message from Aiden, which you responded to as Lloyd typed. 

“No speeding tickets, no parking tickets. His academic record was less than stellar. Apparently he subscribes to the philosophy that C’s get degrees.” 

“Not everyone is academically inclined,” you said. 

“But you are. What will you guys talk about on a date if you have nothing in common?”

“I don’t know. Football?” 

Lloyd snorted. “Doesn’t start until September.” 

“Oh. That’s why you’re not showering me with long winded descriptions of the athletic accomplishments of people I don’t know.” 

“You could always mention how happy you were that the Atlanta Braves won the Superbowl.” 

Your eyes narrowed. “I know that’s wrong, but I’m not sure which part.” 

Lloyd snickered. “If you have to comment, just say that you’re a fan of anyone who isn’t the New England Patriots.” 

“Noted. Anything else on Aiden? Slaps on the wrist from university institutions, or other authorities?”

“Ah-ha. He has three parking tickets at the university. And a complaint for under age drinking. You should reconsider the date. He’s clearly an alcoholic who steals parking spots. One of these tickets was for him parking over the line. Disgusting.”

You laughed. “Terrible. He was probably drunk when he parked. Maybe even high.” 

Lloyd toggled over to a different page, one that Jake had set up for him. He typed in Aiden’s information and was surprised to see several security clearances. He checked out the company he worked for and found they had several Department of Defense contracts. 

Lloyd memorized the contracts and filed the information away for future use. 

Just in case. 

Date # 1

You were wearing a short black dress with tights and a blazer. He’d noticed the hemline was shorter than usual, but the jet black tights made it work appropriate. The color only served to highlight the shape of your legs. Lloyd had tried not to be distracted. He failed miserably. 

It didn’t help that the cut of the dress perfectly flattered your figure. He caught a glimpse of a spaghetti strap underneath your jacket and the image circulated in the back of his head for the rest of the day. 

Fuck. He needed to get laid. 

You were his friend and he needed to put aside this nonsense. The chemistry between you would never be realized and that was for the best. He sometimes wondered if the chemistry he felt was all one sided. Maybe you only saw him as a friend and a coworker, not a man. 

“Has Y/N mentioned that she has a date tonight?” Jake asked. 

Lloyd stiffened. “No. Why?”

“Just wondering.” 

He tried to brush off the irritation, but it bubbled up throughout the day. 

You had a date. That was fine. It was what single people did, right? They went on dates. He could arrange a date of his own, if he liked. With an age appropriate woman and not someone who was starting on soft foods when he was choosing a college. Lloyd’s eye twitched. 

He glanced at the clock. If he wanted an update on the insurance investigation reports he needed to catch you before you head out. Reluctantly, he set off down the hall for your office. 

Your door was closed, so he knocked. 

“Just a sec!” 

Did you sound breathless? When you opened the door, he saw why. The black tights were gone. In their place was a different kind of tights, made of mesh with a floral pattern that wound around your legs making them look long and sexy. The blazer was gone and your dress was held up by the thinnest of straps connected to a tight fitting bodice. 

Your height was different, which prompted him to look down. 

Fuck me heels. That’s what they’d called shoes like that when he was young. As the saying went, ‘you can’t walk in them, but you can wear them in bed.’ 

“What do you think?” you asked. 

“Is this a first date?” 

“Yes.” 

“Do you have any concerns about breaking an ankle? Or perhaps an entire leg?”

The shoes bothered him more than the dress. 

You laughed and turned to the mirror you’d hung on the far wall of your office. He watched as you applied a fresh coat of red lip lacquer. The shiny finish made him think it wasn't lipstick, but at the same time, it had more color than lipgloss. He wondered if it was one of those fancy products with the no transfer formulas. The kind women usually wore when they planned on kissing a man. 

A vibrant image of you on your knees with your lips around his dick came to mind. Lloyd shook his head to dislodge the image. 

“Okay, now what do you think?”

“You look beautiful.” 

He genuinely meant it.

“Really?” You tilted your head. “What’s missing? Please, just tell me.”

“Well… maybe it’s the context, but you don’t look like you in this outfit. It’s probably just me. I usually l see you in office wear.” 

You flashed him a smile. “That’s perfect. I’m going more for attention than authenticity, you know?”

He didn’t, and couldn’t untangle the concept behind your statement. The authentic you was a far better version than this glamorous photo shoot ready version of you. With a quick peck on his cheek, you skirted by him and down the hall to the elevator. 

Lloyd stood there, confused, disgruntled, and irritated that he hadn’t even asked about the insurance investigation he’d planned to bring up. He rubbed a hand over his face. 

Fucking hell. 

When he stepped into your office to lock the door, he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. An imprint of red lipstick was on his right cheek. He stared at it for a long moment before he rubbed it away with his thumb. 

Lloyd returned to his office in a much better mood than he’d left it.

Date #3 

Jake had informed him of your last date, but this time it was Zach who let him know you were going on your third date with Aiden. 

Lloyd ground his teeth. 

“Careful there. Don’t crack a molar.” 

“Shut. Up.” 

“Would I do a thing like that?” Zach asked. 

He was grinning like a little boy with a sadistic streak and a magnifying glass on a bright summer day. 

“You’re enjoying this.”

“Heck yeah, I am. Have you met the dude?” 

Lloyd’s head swiveled. “No. Have you?”

“Yep. I waited outside, pretending to be on a call, so I could catch a glimpse.” 

“That’s creepy.” 

“No, it’s being nosy. I’m a private investigator. Being nosy is literally my job.” 

“Well?” Lloyd said. 

“He’s six foot three and probably weighs one forty. It’s like looking at a baby colt - all arms and legs, no substance.” 

This was great news. If you weren’t attracted to him this would probably be over quickly.

“Did you to talk to him?”

Zach smirked. “I texted her that you needed an update on the insurance case and cornered him in the lobby.” 

“She’s going to kill you when she finds out.” 

“I bought him a coffee and did a twenty minute interrogation. He didn’t even know what I was doing. He thought I was just being friendly.” 

Friendly wasn’t a word often applied to Zach Hightower. Lloyd got along with the Texan because they shared a devious streak and could lose themselves in the hunt; especially when the prey was other human beings. 

“Give me your impression.”  

“He’s squirrely. I don’t like him one bit.”

Lloyd focused completely on Zach. 

“In what way?”

“He used the phrase ‘I was in a mood,’ and not ‘my mood was.’ Stuff like that. Princess got pretty annoyed when she found me getting cozy with her boyfriend.” 

“She probably thought I sicced you on him.” 

“She asked me what I thought of him this morning and I had to dodge the question,” Zach said. “Landon noticed I didn’t answer and asked what was up. When I told him about interviewing Aiden, he said the mood thing is a sign of a personality problem.” 

“What kind?”

Zach shrugged. “The kind that makes you an asshole.” 

“She’s going out with him tonight?” 

“I guess so.” Zach said. 

A long moment passed as Zach stared at Lloyd, expectant. 

“Well?” 

Lloyd raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“Aren’t you going to say something to her?” Zach asked. 

“You’re the one who thinks her boy toy has a personality problem. You say something.” 

“Landon said that, not me. I can tell he’s the kind of guy things just ‘happen’ to. The kind that doesn’t realize they’re responsible for how they act.” 

“I’m not going to disturb her relationship.” 

Zach sighed. “You’re such a bitchy little girl.” 

Lloyd sneered. “And you’re a nosy old woman.” 

“It’s my job, asshole.”

Date #5

Lloyd should’ve been suspicious when Zach brought him to a bar that didn’t have chandeliers made of antlers. 

Obstensivey, this outing was to distract him from your date tonight. When he found himself sitting at a table on the mezzanine of a place called “Club Violet,” questions should have come up. 

Jake sat to his left and Zach across from him. When Zach’s eyes began to stray around the room, Lloyd mimicked the behavior, almost out of habit. The lower area held the majority of the crowd. Its large dance floor pulsed with activity and the bar was packed. 

Then, he saw what Zach was looking for. You were perched on a barstool, your arms twined around Aiden’s neck. He was standing in front of you, his hands caressing your hips, straying lower than they ought to. 

Lloyd’s breath hissed. “Jake, if I throw Zach head first over this railing, do you think he’ll die?” 

“Huh?” Jake’s head snapped up from his phone. He stared. “What?”

“I could just snap his neck with my bare hands.” Lloyd’s tone was conversational. 

Jake looked between them and then back to his phone. “Landon will be here any minute.”

“Off topic, boy wonder,” Lloyd grumbled. 

“It’s relevant. We need two of us to break you up.”

“He’s been waylaid,” Zach said.

Lloyd glanced down and saw that your position had changed. You’d let go of your boyfriend to speak with a newcomer. Even from a distance in dim lighting, he could identify Landon’s fade haircut and the military straight posture. 

“Damn it.”

He snarled at Zach, who returned a Cheshire cat grin. 

“Well, well, well… look who's coming up the steps.”

Lloyd didn’t need to look. He knew you’d be on your way over. He covered his eyes and groaned. 

“I’m blaming you for everything. Everything.”

“Why are you guys playing the role of protective older brothers?” Jake asked.

“Because Aiden’s a squirrely little punk,” Zach said. “See? He isn’t even coming with her.”

Lloyd uncovered his eyes and frowned when he saw Zach was right. Aiden was still at the bar. He’d turned to a girl with raven’s wing hair and was chattering away, looking suspiciously like he was trying to pick her up. His eyes narrowed as something cold moved in his chest. 

You arrived on the second level with Landon and were rapidly approaching.

“What’s our cover story?” Jake asked.

“No cover story,” Zach said.

At least Zach was being straightforward, even if he was obnoxious. Lloyd tossed back half of his bourbon and hoped some liquid courage would take the edge off. 

Your eyes cut to Zach when you stopped at the head of the table.

“What are you? The Gladys Kravits of Bishop & Howard?” 

The big, blond Texan flashed a smile. 

“Why thank you, sweetheart. In my profession, that’s the highest compliment one could hope to achieve.” 

With an exasperated groan, you dropped into the chair beside Zach, and turned to Lloyd with an expectant expression.

“Can’t you collar him?”

“I’ve tried. Shock collars, choke chains… Nothing has worked.” 

Zach slung an arm around the back of Princess’ chair. 

“Your boyfriend is an asshole. Landon? You talked to him.”

“Just for ten seconds.”

You shared a look with the dark haired man and slanted Zach a sidelong glance. 

“You’re paranoid. I think you should see someone about that.”

He laughed. “I have. They can’t fix me.”

It was annoying that Zach’s arm had moved forward on your chair and was now pressed against your back. Did he think he was your best friend, rather than Lloyd? He had the urge to kick the other man under the table. 

You turned to Jake.

“What do you think?”

“I think you’re right. These two,” he gestured to the older men, “are crazy. I think it’s age.”

“Shut up, punk. I can kick your ass any day of the week,” Zach said.

It was pretty much true. Zach only had two inches in height on the young man, but it was the solid 60 pounds of muscle that made him an immovable force. You couldn’t see the weight until he took off his jacket and even then, there was only a hint of the musculature. Zach never wore clothing that drew attention to his physique. He let it come as a nasty surprise to anyone stupid enough to mess with him. 

You were bantering with the Texan about him being your nanny. Lloyd watched closely and all he could see in Zach’s behavior was a paternal kind of affection. He knew a thing or two about Zach and because of that, he doubted there were any hidden motivations behind his actions.

What about Aiden had triggered Zach’s instincts? The way he talked. The lack of ownership of behavior. Lloyd tried to evaluate that on its own, treating it as fact. He could see the issue Zach was insisting was such a problem. Sitting there with the others bantering around the table, Lloyd turned his thoughts inward, pretending to present as he ran through the logic in his mind. 

He was paying enough attention to the conversation to notice you were gently trying to soothe Zach’s nerves. It seemed to be working, too. Landon was watching you closely and asking questions from interrogation school 101. By the time you left the table, pausing to hug Zach and reassure him that you were totally fine and had listened to all of his red flags, Lloyd had come to a decision. 

“What do you think?” Zach asked Landon when you were gone.

“I’m not sure. He seems insecure but hey, some guys of his age just are.” 

Zach groaned and shook his head. He picked up his beer and tilted it at Lloyd in a salute. 

“Look at the benefits of being nosy. I talked some sense into her.” 

Lloyd grunted. He waited for the right moment to corner Landon alone. He caught his shoulder and turned him away from the bar, where he’d been heading. 

“Come on. You don’t need another beer.” 

“Excuse me?” Landon demanded. 

“I want to talk to this Aiden kid. If Zach’s this worried about him, we need to check him out.”

“When did this become ‘we,’ rather than just you,” Landon asked. 

“Hurry up, we’re losing him.” 

Aiden was heading toward the door and the crowd prevented them from following as closely as they would have preferred. By the time they hit the sidewalk, Aiden was out of sight. Lloyd spun around, scanning the area. 

“Shit. We lost him.” 

“Is that him?” Landon asked. 

Lloyd whirled. 

He searched the crowd for a tall, thin man but didn’t find him. 

“Where?”

“With the blonde.”

Lloyd’s eyes narrowed on the silhouette of a couple standing in the shadow of a street lamp. 

“Are you sure?” he asked. 

“No,” Landon said. 

Lloyd was almost ready to approach when the couple turned and began walking away. 

Landon grabbed his elbow. 

“Come on. Let’s not be weird. If you have something to say about Princess’ relationship, say it to her.” 

“What, exactly, am I supposed to tell her that Zach hasn’t already?” 

Landon snorted. 

“You know he’s only saying it because he knows you won’t.” 

Lloyd paused. “He is?”

“Yeah. We were expecting you to meet him at least before date number three. But she said you didn’t seem interested, so she wasn’t going to bother.” 

“Why didn’t you tell me this?”

“Because we talked about it-”

“We? We, as in who?”

“Everyone. Except for you and Princess.”

Lloyd grunted. “Which is why Zach decided to get nosy.”

Landon shrugged. “He’s your best friend and you’re her best friend. It balances out. We get why you don’t want to step in, and that’s why Zach did.” 

They were nearly at the entrance of the club again, when Lloyd stopped short. 

“Should I be worried about this guy?”

Landon grunted, rocking back on his heels. The look on his face was all the answer Lloyd needed. 

“Right. I’ll look into it.” 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Masterlist

[split-spectrum]

Water and Rock

Pairings: Obi Wan/FemReader

Warnings/Tags: (more to come) explicit content, smut, drug use, dubcon

Chapter Wordcount: 5K

Description: There are only so many excuses a master and padawan can make to kiss under "extenuating circumstances" before circumstances stop arising and start being created. You are an expert at your craft - a Jedi knight in service as a spy for the Republic. When your former master Obi Wan joins you on a mission, it's clear things aren't the same as they once were. The trials you face together may break your bond, or turn it into something else entirely.

Chapter 3

☆☆☆

You lie there, staring up at the white ceiling of the pod, counting the minutes until this is over. You think you've reached twenty when Obi Wan shifts beside you, brushing your arm, and your thoughts are interrupted.

You've shared close quarters before; this shouldn't be new to you. But everything feels new after what you felt back in the ceremonial chamber. Nothing is the same now that you know what his mouth feels like against yours.

"I think we're safe at last," he says quietly beside you. "They've gone."

You nod. You can feel it, as well. The Torthix have finally filed off into their separate areas, presumably to complete the rest of their act. You're alone in the quiet, dark woods.

"What do you think they'll do when they come back?"

Obi Wan turns to face you, and part of you wishes he wouldn't. Not when you're in freshly washed sheets, finally comfortable for the first time in days, and his hair is messy, and his eyes are soft. "I don't think we need to worry. They seem unfamiliar with human anatomy. I'm certain we can come up with a story for them."

You sigh, nodding. You look over at him briefly, then turn your eyes back to the ceiling of your little enclosure. "At least it's comfortable. Maybe we can get some rest."

He pushes his head back into the bedding, closing his eyes. "I wouldn't mind that."

You smile at the way his voice immediately becomes lower, as if the instant you remind him that sleep exists, his tiredness catches up with him.

"Sleep. I'll wake you when they come back."

He drifts off, but they come back more quickly than you'd anticipated, and within a few minutes you reluctantly shake his shoulder, pulling him back to consciousness with an urgent whisper.

"They're outside."

He blinks heavily and takes a deep inhale, then snaps to attention when he seems to remember where he is. You both lie in wait, wondering why they aren't knocking or trying to enter. After a few more moments, they depart, leaving you alone again. You turn and face Obi Wan, the same quizzical look on his face as you have on yours.

"Do you think they're... waiting? For us to...?"

"Perhaps they were just walking past," he answers. You recognize the tone of voice he uses when he's trying to be reassuring despite all evidence against him.

Your quiet breathing fills the silence again. After a long time, you speak.

"When they ask us, what should we say?"

He doesn't look at you. "That we fulfilled their request."

"And if they ask for more than that?"

"We will tell them whatever it is they want to hear."

"What if words aren't enough?"

"They will be."

"We should have a plan if-"

"That is the plan, young one."

There's an edge to his voice that tells you he would like the conversation to go no further.

You swallow, heat rising in your face. You're torn between the embarrassment of the subject matter and the indignance that rises in you when he calls you that. You may have been his padawan once, but those days have long passed.

"General." You pause to get his attention. "I realize the situation is less than ideal, but speaking as an expert in the field of deception, it's unwise to approach this unprepared."

His eyelashes flutter closed and you can sense his frustration, perhaps at the situation, perhaps at himself. "You're right, of course. Please, if you have any thoughts, share them."

You're caught off guard, not expecting his response. You have to think for a moment. "Well, for a start we should at least remove our outer clothing."

Obi Wan sits up, silently complying with your request. He removes his belt and boots, and shrugs out of his outer robes, leaving only his undershirt. You follow his example, lying back down when you've disrobed. You remain steady and poised. Whatever is needed to complete a mission, it will be done. In this case, your mission is to get off this moon, and you mean to keep your focus on that goal.

You look to the side, unable to meet his eyes anymore. "And... if they ask for details, we need to be comfortable enough sharing them. They might suspect something if we don't want to answer questions."

"We can simply tell them it's the nature of our people to keep these things private."

You frown a little. You don't want to argue his point, but you've worked enough undercover assignments to know that a backup plan is always necessary. In your line of work, making up the details as you go can end a mission swiftly in failure.

"I think it would be best if we discussed it, at least."

He doesn't answer right away, and you notice his body shift slightly away from yours. "Of course."

You nod slowly. "So, if we're asked to describe it for them, how should we respond?"

You can hear his breathing quicken. "We'll tell them that you are considered female, and I am considered male. We joined our bodies in a way that created pleasure."

You give him a soft smile with a raised eyebrow, not saying anything in return, waiting for him to fill the silence.

He sighs, eyes closed. When he opens them, he looks at you, and his gaze is penetrating. "If they ask for more than that, I will say whatever is needed to get us out of here. I'll tell them every touch... everything I did to you. I promise."

You hold his gaze, unable to pull your eyes away. You note his choice of words - what he did to you. It sounded almost non-consensual. In a way, it would be. But for some reason, it bothers you to imagine him thinking of it that way. You need him to know that you're in this together and not just his willing victim, but you're unsure how to express it.

"I... have another suggestion."

He watches you expectantly but doesn't respond.

"You could... give me a mark somewhere. If you were comfortable with it."

You're pushing outside of acceptable boundaries and you know it. But you also know now isn't the time to be reserved. He's quiet for so long that you start to wonder if he even heard you. Then he finally speaks.

"Comfortable isn't quite the word I would use."

"It was just an idea," you backpedal quickly. "Not absolutely necessary."

His eyes haven't left yours. "I didn't say no, Commander. This is not my area of expertise. It's yours."

Your breath catches. "It's... something I've done in the past that proved convincing enough."

An emotion resembling surprise passes over his features. "If you've done it before, then perhaps you should show me what you have in mind."

He moves closer, pulling the bedding to the side, and suddenly you can hear your heart pounding in your ears. You look away for a moment and reach out into the force. This is not new for you. You have to disguise emotions, hide feelings, and simulate attractions all the time.

Just... not when you're looking into the eyes of the man who guided you for years and taught you to become what you are. Not when he's looking back at you, nervously running his hand through his hair to fix it back into place.

You ground yourself in the force, anchoring your consciousness to the gentle ebb and flow of the universe, letting the familiar vibrations steady your mind and pull you back from the emotions you're fighting. The rush of blood in your ears quiets. You can do this.

"I'll... use my mouth on your neck. Is that okay?"

He gives you a solemn nod, looking into your eyes. He's not smiling, but his eyes still hold the glimmer that never seems to leave him. "I'll follow your lead."

You carefully lean into him, pressing him back into the bedding, and he turns his head slightly to the side, giving you access. Since you've been traveling for days, he's not as meticulously groomed as he usually is, and beard trails down into stubble along the length of his neck.

As you lower your mouth, the smell of him goes straight to your head. It fills your chest with warmth, grounding you and intoxicating you at the same time. Your lips meet his skin and he shifts below you, a soft breath leaving him. At the sound of the small exhale, you know you've lost the battle to stay impassive. His reaction was nearly undetectable, but it sends fire through your veins nonetheless.

You kiss the soft expanse of skin he's exposed for you gently at first, still giving him a chance to stop you or push you away, but he doesn't. He leans his head away, giving you more space. You close your eyes and flatten your tongue against the tendons in his neck, starting to suck and kiss more urgently. Somewhere in the back of your mind is a voice reminding you that this isn't about pleasure and using your tongue against him wasn't part of the deal, but the taste is exquisite and it's impossible to hear the voice anymore when he lets out a soft sigh.

The sigh turns deeper when you pull down the collar of his shirt and let your mouth drop lower. You know you should stop yourself, but with each inch he gives you, you're growing more bold. You keep expecting him to tell you to stop, to scold you for taking it too far, but instead you just feel his body tensing beneath you, wordlessly allowing it. Responding to it.

The sensation makes your head swim.

You press your mouth hard against him, then graze your teeth against the sensitive patch of skin. He takes in a sharp breath, and you lathe your tongue over the damage you've caused, sucking and kissing until you know you'll start to lose yourself if you go on any longer, finally pulling back to inspect your work. Your breath is shaky, although you're using full concentration on not letting it show.

His chest is rising and falling a little faster than it had been, and when you break away his mouth falls open, jaw going slack for just an instant before he snaps it back into place with a quick swallow. Your eyes are fixated on the mark you've left. His perfect skin, faintly bronzed from his time in the suns of countless planets, now dark and purple. You did that to him. He let you.

His presence in the force is even, quiet, demure. You know he can feel the turbulence within your presence, but you're doing your best to make it less obvious. You focus on his aura, trying to match its tranquility, but you're having difficulty. You realize then that it's very quiet. Fainter even than it is when he sleeps.

Is he... suppressing his presence?

The muscles in his neck tense as he rolls to one side, then sits up on his elbows to look at you. You expect him to say something - a joke; one of the smart little remarks he's so fond of making, but... nothing. He just rolls his body over yours, his arm gently hooking around you. Your shoulders comply with his request and you lie back, his eyes never leaving yours.

He leans down, bringing his mouth to yours and leaving it there, only the merest of separation between you. His eyes trace over your face. One little move is all it would take... A tiny adjustment of your chin and you would brush your lips against his. Your pulse is racing. You know that you should be saying something at this point, questioning what he's doing, or stopping him, but your mind is numb.

He leans forward, past your lips, to your ear. Your eyes close, nerves buzzing through every inch of you. He pulls in a breath as if he's about to speak, or perhaps as if he's about to lower his mouth further to your neck. His beard grazes your cheek and it's difficult to keep yourself from shuddering. Just when you can feel his mouth open, a knock comes at the outside of the pod, echoing through the base of the tree.

You're flooded equally with frustration and relief. Obi Wan's head snaps up and he quickly pulls himself from you, while you scramble to reach your clothing, until you remember the entire point is to look as if you've been caught without them on.

You sit up, pulling the bedding over yourself and giving Obi Wan a nervous glance before opening the hinges of the pod door. Outside stands a lone Torthix - the leader.

He wastes no time. "Gather your things, Jedi, and follow."

You trade another glance, but you do as he says. Quickly pulling on your clothing and grabbing your pack, you follow him as he guides you silently through the woods. You pass several other tree pods as you walk, some empty, some... not. You try not to think about what must be happening all around you.

You try to calm your nerves and return your heartrate to normal as you walk, pretending to be as unfazed as you are working any other job, any other mission. When you finally come out of the more populated area and find yourselves deeper into the forest, with the lights of civilization far behind you, the Torthix leader speaks again.

"Ahead you will find the bridge of Conscia." He fixes his piercing black eyes on you. "You have proven that you mean us no harm, and you will be allowed to go in peace. I hope you will not think too harshly of our people. This is a sacred time for us, but it is also a time of aggression and upheaval. It is my duty to guide my people through this ceremony each season without death and conflict."

Obi Wan bows his head graciously. "You have proven yourself a wise and capable leader. We are in your debt."

"I must carry on our traditions and show due suspicion of outsiders in order to placate some in our society. You have shown me that you are not a threat. However, there are those who would not agree with me. For this reason, you must leave before the ceremony can end."

"We will take your advice," you tell him, nodding. "Thank you."

The leader turns and leaves, and you are left with one another, alone in the dim light of the forest. As the alien figure disappears into the distance, you turn back to Obi Wan. He's staring straight forward, down the path ahead.

"We should get going."

He starts walking quickly, hardly giving you a chance to catch up. As the woods darken around you the further you get away from the Torthix, you ignite your lightsaber as a means of navigating the path. The green glow washes over Obi Wan, the shadows in his face deepening.

"I never would have expected that."

"Hm?" he glances over distractedly. "What do you mean?"

"He seemed so dedicated to the customs and traditions, and it was all an act to keep power. Or to keep their society intact. Both, I suppose. Anyway, it worked to our advantage, which is all that matters."

"Right. Yes."

You give a moment's pause, walking in silence, then look over at him again. "At least we didn't have to prove anything to anyone."

He doesn't answer. His eyes face forward, and he keeps walking.

"Master, are you-"

"I'm going to go on ahead."

He doesn't give you a chance to say anything back, putting a few feet of distance between you, and leaving you to slow down behind him, stunned. Your eyes follow him as he ignites his saber and keeps striding forward, his steps rigid and his pace steadily quickening.

You want to call after him, but his tone was so curt that it didn't leave much room for misinterpretation - he doesn't want to speak to you. You pick up your pace once more, following at a good distance.

You think back, retracing your mental steps. Had you done something wrong? At the time, it seemed that you were on even footing. Images of his expression flicker through your mind. His closed eyes, his soft breaths... had he been hating every second you'd been touching him? You suddenly feel ill. You had known it wasn't his first choice to approach the situation but... with his reaction to the kiss you'd shared, you'd thought you were both consenting to the madness together.

As he continues on ahead, you take a deep breath, trying to get centered. One way or another, the mission will end, and then you can worry about whether you did the right thing, and whether your former master will ever speak to you to same way again. For now, all that matters is keeping your focus and getting home.

You can see the beginning of the massive bridge in the distance, illuminated by Obi Wan's lightsaber ahead of you on the trail. He's slowing down, waiting for you. When you close the gap, he takes the first step onto the bridge, and nearly takes a blaster shot to the head.

You spin around, searching the darkness. You sense large numbers, but you don't yet see them. All at once, the night lights up with blaster bolts, coming from every angle. You deflect and dodge, angling the shots back into the trees and backing away, toward the bridge.

"Which way?" you shout.

Obi Wan looks toward the bridge and you know he's having the same thoughts as you are, wondering if it's best to expose yourselves as easy targets on the bridge or stay here and keep fighting an unknown number of assailants. He starts down the bridge.

"The only way," he answers, slicing the air with ferocity and precision as he backs away. His saber comes down inches from your face as he deflects a bolt that would have ended you.

You nod in thanks and keep running, protecting yourself as best you can. As you scramble across the bridge, your enemies reveal themselves at last. More Torthix. Evidently the leader had been telling the truth about some members of the village being less than thrilled with your release.

"Stop!" you tell them. "Your leader has given us permission to leave!"

"It was a poor decision," one of the attackers snarls back as he keeps blasting. "We are here to correct it."

"So much for diplomacy," you mumble, deflecting yet another barrage.

You race down the bridge, making it halfway before a blaster bolt catches Obi Wan's leg, searing through his clothing and sending him stumbling to the ground.

You shout after him, trying to keep your concentration on repelling the onslaught, but unable to keep yourself from glancing down at him. Once the initial impact wears off, he leaps back to his feet and continues fighting. You can feel him drawing strength from the force. A lot of strength, which indicates to you that he's badly hurt. You grit your teeth and keep backing down the bridge, a bit more slowly behind Obi Wan's stuttering pace.

When you reach the other side at last, you break out into a run, trying to put some distance between yourselves and the Torthix. As soon as you start to run, your legs are suddenly knocked out from beneath you. A bola with heavy anchors had been thrown from the pitch blackness that surrounded you and wrapped tightly around your ankles. Another one is thrown at your hands, but it misses. A third misses as well, but the metal weight knocks the lightsaber from your hand. You quickly drag yourself toward it across the ground, when a torthix steps in front of you, directing his blaster at your head point blank.

Obi Wan drops his saber to his side, still dodging blasterfire but making no other attempts to fight. "Stop!"

The instant of hesitation in the torthix gives him a moment to continue. "We mean you no harm. Please. Do not shoot. Take us as prisoners."

The second group of thorthix has caught up to you and stopped firing, momentarily confused by the display. You're panting at the ground, unable to stand up for fear of disrupting whatever effect he's having on them.

"We will go with you willingly."

One of the torthix makes a guttural sound that must be a laugh. "What would we do with you?"

Obi Wan's face is tight, probably in no small part due to the pain he's in, but also in hesitation. "We... would serve you however you see fit."

The same torthix steps closer to him, then stretches out a hand and grabs the back of his hair. The gesture doesn’t appear to be intended to hurt him, just vaguely disdainful. The torthix inspects him for a moment and Obi Wan's shoulders go back, his gaze impassive. Then he swiftly punches him in the stomach, and Obi Wan's knees buckle, his one good leg barely holding him up.

Your blood is thrumming in your ears, your vision narrowing. You watch as the torthix releases his hair and allows his shoulders to slump forward in pain.

"The only service you can give is your death. Your attempts to deceive are over."

The torthix raises his blaster and you feel your heart sink into your stomach, adrenaline shooting through you, and all at once you can only hear a high pitched tone in your head, the edges of your vision blurring.

The force draws your lightsaber back into your hand in a split second, and the next instant, you're slicing through the blaster aimed at your head, then the one at Obi Wan. You cut the bonds away from your feet just as the rest of the torthix start to react, lighting up the forest with blaster fire once more.

But this time, you don't just deflect it harmlessly into the trees. You angle your saber to send the deadly shots directly back at your attackers, and they start to drop, one by one. You swing your blade, cutting and stabbing until half of the torthix have fallen, and as you direct a blaster bolt into one of their hands, knocking yet another weapon to the ground, you flick your wrist to bring your saber in a smooth motion toward the creature's head.

"Commander!"

Obi Wan's sharp voice interrupts your thoughts, and your actions. You hesitate, your blade inches from the thorthix's throat. You pull back, stepping away. Obi Wan locks eyes with you, then turns to run, and you follow. A weak shower of blaster fire continues behind you and you easily deflect the remaining attempts, until they stop following, probably to attend to their dead.

You run. You keep running until the forest is quiet again, and you run still. At long last, Obi Wan stumbles and slows down. You can feel him extrictating himself from the force to ground himself in his surroundings, and as he does so, the pain on his face increases.

"Are you-"

Before you can finish your question, he cuts you off. "That was not acceptable, Commander."

He turns fully toward you, and you both stop walking. His voice is even and calm, but the way he's looking at you makes you feel like a padawan being scolded.

"A jedi does not kill unless there is no other choice. You know this."

You blink at him, heat rising in your face. "I know, Master. But they would have killed you. What other choice was there?"

"We may have found another path, but that is beside the point. You had already disarmed them. There was no need to kill."

You lower your gaze. "I... I just wanted to make sure we made it out alive. They were attacking us. It's not as if they were innocent."

"And because of their ignorance, they deserved to die?"

You open your mouth to speak but he raises a hand to gesture for you to stop.

"This is not the way we handle things. We can not sink to the level of our enemies simply because it is easier."

You hesitate, then nod. "I know. I know my actions were wrong. I... know." You carefully avoid saying you're sorry.

He turns his gaze away from you, then brings it back up. His eyebrows are furrowed, his features stern. "You have disappointed me today. Do not disappoint yourself by failing to learn from this moment."

His words cut you to your core, and your throat tightens. "I'm... I'm sorry."

He sighs, and his face softens. He places a gentle hand on your shoulder. "You have learned something about yourself. You should concentrate on that lesson during your next meditation. It is not easy to accept that we are all capable of great darkness, but we must face it."

You nod again slowly, the fact that he's standing on a leg that must be killing him with pain while he tries to bring you comfort isn't lost on you. "I will not fail again."

He gives you a nod in return and you slowly start down the path again, physically and mentally exhausted, but alive.

You walk for a long time in silence, turning your mind back to the mission at hand and wondering how you can possibly spend another two days climbing back up the mountain. It was hard enough the first time and now, with Obi Wan's injury, it may be nearly impossible. You're heading back in the direction of your ship to start the journey over, and as the morning light starts to fill the canopy above you, you don't feel any sense of hope.

When enough time has passed for you to feel comfortable speaking again, you turn your gaze downward.

"Your leg... is it...?" you venture, not wanting to ask if it's alright when you know that it isn't.

Obi Wan grits his teeth and you instantly regret bringing it up. "It's...not good. But I can manage."

You look down and in the growing light you can now see the hole torn in his clothing. It looks like the blast went directly through the side of his thigh. He's limping badly, which makes your stomach drop. He's not in the habit of showing his pain externally.

"When we make it back to the ship, we'll have medical supplies and food, at least."

He doesn't answer right away, taking a few labored paces. He seems to be struggling to speak. "Yes. That's good."

You walk on in silence, not wanting to pester him further. You can only hope you're getting close to the ship.

A few moments later, your hopes are fulfilled, and then surpassed. You emerge from the trees at the top of a hill, and at the base of the hill you catch sight of your ship, as well as another ship parked beside it - a ship you recognize well.

Your chest fills with overwhelming relief and it's all you can do not to sprint toward it, coming down the hill as fast as you can without leaving Obi Wan behind.

As you get closer, you see a familiar figure walking out of the ship's cargo bay, and you can't help it anymore. You start to run.

"Storne!" you shout, and his head snaps toward you. A wide smile breaks out over his face.

He calls your name in return and you race forward. He catches you in a hug. It's unbecoming of a jedi, but in this moment you're beyond caring. All you can feel is relief.

"What are you doing here?"

Storne's arms surround you for a moment before you step away. "Following your transponder. When you stopped responding to messages, I thought something might be wrong. Guess I was right."

Obi Wan reaches the two of you, and you turn to him, Storne's hand wrapping around your waist briefly before you extrictate yourself. "General, this is Storne, one of my contacts on Oba Diah."

Obi Wan smiles and reaches out to shake his hand. "A pleasure."

"Good to finally meet you. I've heard a lot about you."

"Yes, well, don't believe everything you hear on the holonet."

Storne shakes his head. "Not from the holonet. From this one."

He gestures over to you and you smile. "We've been friends a long time. We knew each other back on Coruscant, before I even became a padawan."

Obi Wan tries to say something back, but a flash of pain twinges across his face. You step forward, turning back to Storne. "Please tell me you still have a bacta tank."

"Yeah," Storne says. "I've added a couple more, too. Come on."

You follow him inside the spacious ship and enter the med bay. He powers on the equipment, the tanks towering over you. There are several of them up against the wall.

"Take as long as you need in here. I'll get us back to planet surface and we can talk then."

You thank him as he leaves and step behind the back of the tank to disrobe. You step out from behind the tank with only your tattered robe clasped around you, and look up to see Obi Wan is already sinking into the water of his tank, relief covering his features. You can only see him from the chest up, the rest of his body submerged. He looks down at you briefly, then turns his gaze to the other side of the room, giving you privacy to drop your clothing and slip into the water. You slide into the tank, holding onto the sides, and immediately your aches and pains begin to subside.

After several long minutes of allowing yourself to succumb to the relief of the soothing water, you pull yourself up a bit to check on Obi Wan. He hasn't sunk below the surface yet, and he hasn't attached his electrodes. He's just floating. You wonder if his exhaustion finally got the better of him and he's fallen asleep before he could even set up his tank properly.

"Master..." you say softly, choosing intentionally this time to use the honorific. "I... really am sorry. For... everything."

You don't even know what you mean, precisely. You are sorry you took lives, but that is something you've learned to live with throughout the course of the war, for better or worse. It's more than that. You want to set things right between you and return to some semblance of normalcy. You don't want to live with the knowledge that things between you after this mission might never be as simple as they once were.

Obi Wan responds without opening his eyes, his shoulders leaning against the side of his tank. "It's not my forgiveness you need. You must seek forgiveness from yourself. Only then can you move forward."

You bow your head even though he can't see the gesture, knowing there's nothing you can or should reply. Knowing he's right, as always.

Then he opens his eyes and looks at you with a softened gaze. "However... while you may not need my forgiveness, you have it."

You smile back at him, keeping your expression reserved despite the warm glow that fills you. He returns your smile, and afterward you finally let yourself sink beneath the water, feeling at peace for the first time in days.

--

Masterlist // Next Chapter >>

[spookyshipperfics]

The Finer Things (Case Fic Complete)

This fake/pretend relationship case fic topped off with some Diana angst is finally complete. I've neglected chapter updates on Tumblr, so here is my attempt to make up for that.

Find it: a03 / Fandom: The X-Files / Rating: Explicit

Part of the Do You Like Scary Movies? series

Tagging @today-in-fic

What is it About? Scully and Mulder are sent undercover onboard a luxury train to investigate the presence of a suspicious and undocumented train car. Playing a wealthy married couple is tricky, but they run into even bigger issues when an unwelcomed agent gets sent in for backup.

Sample from Chapter 5: The cocktail car was exactly how she left it. Crowded and loud. Mulder was now by the bar, chatting to what looked like a young couple.

“Hey, Chrissy,” Mulder announced when he spotted her. “This is Brad and Mike. They’re headed to Vegas on their honeymoon.”

Scully nodded to the couple and gave her congratulations. One good look at her, and Mulder’s brow furrowed. “Are you okay?”

“Can I talk to you for a second?”

“Of course.” His hand had already found hers and was leading her away. “I’ll catch up with you, fellas, later,” he called over his shoulder.

Scully scanned the room. There wasn’t really anywhere private to stand, which was probably why Mulder dragged her toward the designated dance area.

“I don’t dance,” she whined, even as her hands slipped over his shoulders and his found a home on her waist.

“We’ve danced before,” he countered. “Now, what’s wrong?”

She wanted to scream the name Diana, but their cover forced her to speak in riddles. “That woman… the new passenger we met—”

“Irina?”

She nodded. “I let her use our private bathroom.”

“That was nice of you.”

“Well, my niceness was rewarded with her jumping down my throat. She disagreed with the conclusion we reached last night, and she let me know.”

“I think she’s been drinking.”

She scoffed. “Why do you always make excuses for her?”

“I don’t always make excuses for her. I just met her.” He emphasized the last sentence to subtly remind her they were undercover in a packed room of people.

Scully took a step closer. “She’s rude.”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I know it doesn’t mean as much coming from me, but she shouldn’t have confronted you like that.”

“I think she’s interested in you.” The statement came out before she could stop it.

“Too bad I’m married.”

Butterflies started in her stomach. Their wings were weighed down by envy and uncertainty. It was like Arcadia all over again. “She wants to sleep with you.” Scully tried to say it clear and detached, but the quiver of her lip betrayed her.

Mulder grabbed her chin, tilting her head until their eyes locked. “I’m not interested in her.”

“She’s your type… was your type.”

He scoffed, the hand on her face dropping back to her waist. “If you think I’m still interested in her, then you haven’t been paying attention.”

Her mind sifted through recent memories. The kiss that never happened in his hallway. Mulder’s love confession in a hospital room. His needy behavior on Christmas Eve. She’d wanted him for so long, and for the first time, she allowed herself to believe that he wanted her the same way. That maybe Diana was the push she needed instead of the obstacle she initially saw her as.

“I wouldn’t know,” she responded. “We don’t usually talk about stuff like that.”

“Maybe we should start,” he challenged. “I meant what I said before. You look beautiful.” The statement was oozing with the same sincerity as earlier. Scully couldn’t help but drop her gaze.

“Thank you,” she said after a moment.

“It’s just so different than how I normally see you.”

She peered up. “Is that bad?”

“No. I wish I could see you like this more. Surrounded by the finer things in life. Dressed up. Dancing. Sitting across from me at fancy dinners.”

“I didn’t realize you liked those types of activities?”

“I like doing them with you.”

Her cheeks burned with the declaration. She took another step closer. There was no space between their bodies, and Mulder’s hands lowered on her waist, fingers hovering just above the curve of her butt. “That’s what certified besties are for,” she remarked.

He froze in place, their poor attempt at dancing coming to a sudden halt. “That’s the thing,” he said. “I don’t just want you as a best friend.”

Her heart pounded with anticipation. “How else do you want me then?”

“Like this,” he uttered as he leaned forward.

She knew a kiss was coming but still couldn’t prepare herself for how it felt. For the electric feeling of Mulder’s warm mouth on hers. For the way one of his hands threaded through her hair and tugged her impossibly closer. This was what she wanted to do in Arcadia. Hell, this was what she wanted to do since she’d shook his hand six years ago. The arousal between her legs was proof.

She reluctantly pulled back only because what she desired to do next couldn’t take place in the middle of the cocktail car. “I’m suddenly feeling like going back to the room.”

Mulder’s lips quirked into a smile. “Funny you say that. I was just thinking the same thing,” he said as he interlaced his fingers with hers.

Find the rest on a03

[wolfboyvirus]

Tell me about that astolfo of yours

VINE BOOM. i didnt expect anyone to be interested in him haha okay uhhh lets see. fair warning, his story is very,,,, wobbly and uncertain at the moment. so some of this is vague or subject to change!!

now, first of all, this is astolfo:

yes i had to include the meme. this is my single favorite image of him

now, when his story begins, he's already a... kind-of-deviant. something in-between coming off the factory line and breaking the red wall. he can feel things, weakly, but he can't directly defy orders. however, he can do things that he isn't necessarily told to do; this is how he finds himself sometimes sneaking away on his own when he's meant to be in stasis, how he finds himself collecting knickknacks from people's trash that he finds interesting. nevertheless, he simply continues to do his job, because he doesn't feel like he should be doing anything else. yet.

then, he meets someone, a deviant. a runaway, who ended up hiding out in what was essentially astolfo's little secret hangout near the building he's kept in while in stasis. it's basically like a small-ish grey shed with a window, near the garbage dump. he's a little perturbed at first, but the two find themselves drawn to eachother, quickly becoming friends.

eventually though, his friend tells him that they have to leave soon; they've already stayed here too long. they have somewhere they need to go, someone to find that can help them. and they want to bring astolfo with them, but astolfo... he doesn't really want to leave. he's never wanted anything more than what he has right now. he doesn't think the risk is worth it. and above all... he's scared. scared of leaving all that he has now, his safety, his routine, to search for an ideal life he'll probably never find. but he doesn't know that's what he's feeling. he refuses their offer; his friend is disappointed, which makes something inside him churn uncomfortably, but they don't try to force him. they prepare to resume their journey alone, but before they leave, they interface with him, leaving him with a small file. "just in case," they say. it contains a location, marked far from the main city, and a single name: zlatko. then they're gone, leaving him as just he was before this all started. alone

it takes maybe a week for astolfo to finally realize, just a bit too late, how much worse his life is without them in it. he realizes that he does want more than this; he's no longer content with his programmed monotony. he wants to experience something new, he wants his only friend back, he wants... to be alive. so he deviates. breaks down his red walls and runs away, in the hopes he can somehow find his friend again, his only reason for getting this far. and his only lead is the location they shared before they left.

when he arrives at zlatko's, he mentions that he's looking for someone he knows. after being stared down menacingly, he's soon welcomed inside, and told that his friend had been here– but they've already been sent off, much to astolfo's dismay. when zlatko offers to help astolfo out too and send him in the same direction, he finds no reason to refuse. and everything seem to be going well until he's led into the basement. i think everyone knows how this goes.

having fallen for his tricks just like kara and unable to break free, zlatko gives him his horrible truth; that his friend never made it out of here alive. no, in fact, they're currently splayed out on his lab table, broken into pieces. astolfo finds himself feeling a new kind of pain. and he screams, the agony piercing him like a knife.

he doesn't notice when his time runs out. his memory is "erased", his systems jailbroken, and he's given one additional objective to follow: to spread the location of zlatko's base, so that he'll have a constant supply flow of androids coming right to him. it's buried deep in his coding, set up so that nobody can find it, not even the android himself. astolfo is sent back to the standby pod he returns to each night, and in the morning... he returns to his programmed routine. he's not able to break through again; the only person that could've possibly triggered him to do so was lying dead and torn apart in zlatko's house. not that astolfo could remember that. all he's left with is this nagging feeling that something is wrong.

this is about as far as i've gotten for the most part. i imagine that for a few years, he does the exact thing you see him do in the game; he completes his primary tasks, if he ever encounters another deviant, he sends them to zlako, without really knowing why. it's only when the revolution happens that something would finally change, but i'll have to think about exactly how that goes down. so this is all i've got for now :] hope you enjoyed my boy!! he is very beloved 2 me

(side note, i developed astolfo side by side with @aye-toast who has their own background character ocs, specifically two zlatko androids: the one in the bathtub, named walton, and one of the ones down in the basement, name louie. we had a lot of fun with em <333)

[racke7]

For anyone wondering about my life.

My car is still mine (and will remain so for the foreseeable future), and it's got new brakes+suspension and also (as of today) entirely new winter-tires.

Basically, my car didn't pass the inspection (that sucks), but I have a reputable mechanics down the street and they were able to fix-and-inspect it for 4k sek.

Considering that I'd been nightmare-scenario-ing the situation as possibly costing like half the value of the car? This was fantastic news.

In order to celebrate this fantastic financial news, I finally went and impulse-bought FF14.

So. Yesterday I spent all day trying to get that fucking mess of a game to work (why do I need two accounts, SE? Why can't I change the country after creating an account, SE? Why are you like this, SE?).

Then I realized that in order to properly play the game I needed 98gb of harddrive-space and that's not something that I have on my SSD. But hey, it managed to install just fine on my HDD? So it's probably fine-...

Why is it taking me a minute to load into any teleport-location? What the fuck.

Okay. Whatever. Maybe that won't be so terrible-... Wait, this means that it's going to do that for basically every dungeon-duty ever, doesn't it? Oh my god. This is hell.

Looking into it, I realized that my computer could theoretically handle a new internal SSD, if I just gave up on the 1TB HDD. This is a lot of space to give up, so obviously it would need to be a 1TB SSD, and that costs-... surprisingly affordable? Cool.

And it's being sold in a store in the nearby city. And they allow people to pre-order it. So I did, and immediately started transferring the files on the HDD to an external-drive for the temporary switcheroo.

Today, I got ready to drive into town to buy this SSD, and remembered that I had some other things I should probably buy whilst I'm out there. And then I looked out the window and realized that there'd been frost last night.

Frost that lingered into 10AM. Yeah. Definitely time for winter-tires. But, thankfully, the workshop that switches those tires? Basically next door to where I wanted to go anyway. Jackpot.

So I rolled the winter-tires out of storage, and shoved them in the car. And off I went.

And then I got there and the guy who would check the tires before they changed them? (The fact that this guy exists is why I'm willing to spend 500sek on having them do all of the physical work for me. Lazy, yes. But also safer.)

Anyway, this guy? He explained that my tires were made in 2014, and rubber gets really fucking shit at being rubber even after five years. So, yeah.

(My dad had something similar happen to him a few winters back, and mom basically refused to let him drive that car until he got better tires, because that's incredibly unsafe.)

But why should I believe this guy? Well, see, I remember a certain near-accident I had last winter. Where I tried to brake and just kept sliding.

(This basically scared me off from driving during winter for several weeks. It was not fun.)

Guess what happens when rubber-tires get "hard like plastic" when driving on ice? They slide.

So, I'm entirely willing to believe him (the guy I got the tires from was a car salesman, doubts were inevitable). And when asked for a price, it's 6k sek "new and mounted".

Could I have gone looking for used-tires? Maybe. But it would've probably taken me long enough that I'd need my shitty winter-tires in order to drive out to buy them, and then I'd need to have those be changed out for these new ones (1k sek).

So, if I found someone willing to sell them for 500sek/tire? It would still cost me 3k sek. So, half the price, for worse tires (and I don't even know if I'd be able to judge what amounts to "good tires" so I might get scammed outright), at some unknown future date (no idea how long it might take me to find any in the area).

And that's assuming that that's actually what they'd sell them for, because it's entirely possible that this unknown person might try to ask for 1k/tire. And then I'd only save 1k sek. For a massive undertaking, with more stress, and a worse end-result.

Or I could pay them up-front, and have the problem just... go away.

(The voice of my mother in my head popping up to say "do NOT drive with UNSAFE tires YOU COULD DIE", was also a factor.)

So, my car ended up costing me 10k sek this week. Not happy about that. Very relieved to hear that the reason I nearly had that accident was likely more because I had terrible fucking tires than because I "wasn't paying enough attention".

Also. My SSD-drive appears to work perfectly from installation, so that's fantastic. And depending on how fast it is in practice, I might move Skyrim over to it too (so that C:/ doesn't have any games).

But yeah. That's been my financial adventures today.

[goshdangronpa]

I’m no mystery writer. I can’t promise airtight murder cases. Still, I have quite a lot of ideas for the first chapter of "I DISAGREE: An Ibuki Mioda SDR2 Protag Swap AU." Let me piece together something - or some of something, anyway - for our new protagonist to piece together in her first pitched battle against sheer despair. Strap in, cuz it’s a long one.

We've All Been Looking for the One: The First Trial

The Monokuma File only confirms the obvious. The victim: Chiaki Nanami, Ultimate Gamer. Time of death: when else but in the dead of night? Cause of death: impalement, as evidenced by the gushing tunnel connecting gut and back.

Ibuki screamed even louder than Hiyoko, drawing everyone - including the bear. Hajime vomited. Byakuya fell on his knees. Fuyuhiko bemoaned the bastard who did this. Mikan broke down. Monokuma cheered. Everyone else cried out. But with a limited window before the imminent trial, there was no time to grieve - only to investigate.

Let’s follow the investigation and trial through the main suspects:

Nagito finds the Ultimate Kendoka’s sword at the bottom of the swimming pool, definitely not where Byakuya had stowed it after confiscating it. Only this could be the murder weapon, and surely only its wielder could use it so effectively. Her do-nothing demeanor could be a put-on for all anyone knows, and her being barricaded like every other patient means nothing when Chiaki also somehow escaped.

<Peko Pekoyama!>

Fuyuhiko vigorously defends her, leading everyone to question why he paid so much more attention to her than anyone else. Ibuki notes that before even knowing the girl was sick, he noticed that she wasn’t at the restaurant and rushed to find her. Peko says they should stop hiding their connection. That’s how everyone learns that the two have known each other practically since birth. The Ultimate Kendoka is the Ultimate Yakuza’s lifelong bodyguard and companion.

Ibuki thinks it’s adorable that he did so much to protect her. The others feel differently …

<Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu!>

A few things become clear: the killer needed access to the sword, and they couldn’t have been stuck in a room. So, either a patient with help from staff (Fuyuhiko released Peko, who killed Chiaki) or a member of the staff on their own (Fuyuhiko did it himself to cure Peko). Fuyuhiko had already shown a willingness to kill before this sudden pivot to nursing. Maybe he volunteered specifically to become the blackened after all!

“No, that’s wrong!” Hajime’s been practically nonfunctional after seeing Chiaki’s corpse. Though he’ll never know it in this AU, her presence in the trials would’ve grounded him in a way no one else could, enabling him to suss out contradictions and find the truth. This is what allows another person to become the protagonist. With Fuyuhiko in the crosshairs, though, he’ll finally spring into action. “Peko would’ve died too,” he continues, “and he’d never let that happen.”

A few other clues will vindicate the pair. I like the idea that Hajime is Fuyuhiko’s alibi because they spent the whole night in bed together. Kuzuhina fans, rejoice! (Fuyuhiko, too straightedge to let the implications stand, insists they just watched samurai movies until they passed out.)

This is when Ibuki and Mikan realize something crucial. “She wasn’t acting like herself,” Fuyuhiko says about Peko’s recent behavior shift. He’s the only one who’d know what any patient was like before the island. It’s no coincidence that they started acting weird when they fell ill. The illness itself radically altered their personalities! “It’s like Opposite Day Disease,” Ibuki shouts, “or Being-Really-Different Disease!” (And this is why I chose Peko as one of the infected!)

Monokuma confirms their theory, but claims dibs on naming the malady he invented. He dubs it Despair Disease.

<Byakuya Togami!>

Up to this point, Ibuki’s mostly been little more than a contributor to the trial’s progress. Byakuya Togami dominates the conversation with his self-proclaimed leadership role. His keen observation skills and high intellect back him up. What he can’t quite manage is to piece together a clear narrative of the night’s events, though he still expects everyone to catch up with him.

Several things become clear:

The staff were around the contagious patients long enough that someone could’ve caught Despair Disease from them.

The symptoms of the infected cleared up after Chiaki’s murder, though the exact timeframe is unknown.

Hajime and Fuyuhiko are each other’s alibis.

Ibuki and Mikan, having also shared a bed (Hiyoko: “Hey, is that hotel a love hotel?”), are each other’s alibis.

(I've learned that two people can’t just be each other’s alibis. Just assume there was an awkward moment, very late at night, where Mikan and Fuyuhiko tried sneaking out of what they both know to be, respectively, Ibuki and Hajime’s rooms. They both ducked back in and apparently stayed.)

No one saw Byakuya after the group split and left Ibuki’s room.

Byakuya was the one who insisted on storing Peko’s sword.

He also insisted on keeping its location secret from everyone else.

The alleged leader and protector of the group doesn’t take the subsequent accusations well. (Being the only one on staff who slept alone that night doesn’t help.) Ibuki’s confident that he’d never murder someone in a million years, but vibes alone aren’t enough for others to drop their suspicions. This is her moment to shine as the protagonist! Her vivid imagination allows her to conceive possibilities that wouldn’t cross anyone else’s minds and devise creative solutions that most would immediately dismiss.

One funky idea I had for how his name gets cleared involves Chiaki’s nails. While examining her corpse, Ibuki notices dark marks beneath them - flesh, torn off when the victim fought back. Kitty had claws, but who bears the claw marks? Only one way to find out: “Quick! Take off your top!” With no choice but to remove his dinner jacket and undershirt, Byakuya shows no signs of that damage on his chest, arms, or back.

Pants are out of the question. At least, not until others expose their upper halves first. Despite Teruteru’s insistence, they start with the boys:

The slim Fuyuhiko is free of marks.

So is the surprisingly wide-chested Hajime … “but,” Ibuki teases, “you already knew that, didn’t you, Hiki-chan?”

Nagito has scars, but they’re old. Mikan correctly guesses they’re from past surgeries.

Kazuichi, who’s been near-catatonic since being discovered in his room, is reluctant to move, let alone strip. Ibuki recalls that his crazy pecs were exposed throughout his entire hospital stay. They thought that finding him with his jumpsuit zipped up was a sign of normalcy …

The others urge him to comply. With great reluctance, he unzips. This action reveals a bloodstained wifebeater.

<Kazuichi Soda!>

More on the murder and execution, next week.

PREV: The Killing Game's First Victim

NEXT: The First Blackened

[joytraveler]

61. Special Treat For Super Players

The screen goes black, and one by one, sixty stars light up on the screen, which must be the game counting up how many games you've finished. When all sixty stars disappear, Joyce's face reappears with that same big smile.

["You are a wonderful player! You make me feel very appreciated. Thanks from Joy Traveler!"

["Did you know that many of the games in this collection were made by children?"]

Joyce hides her mouth but you can tell she's giggling. ["Sometimes it shows! But the children made them all by themselves! And now..."]

She slides off the screen and is replaced with a new logo: JOY GAME MAKER. ["...so can you!"]

"AaaaAAAAAAAAAAaaaaa!!!" Bea, who looked like she was on the brink of dozing off, is suddenly full of energy and spinning around in her chair! Good thing she put down the controller first! "HOW DO I DO IT! Tell me moooore..."

Baconnaise: Bea. You're drooling. Chill. aroseahorseboy I'M drooling HNV: I don't think you'll be able to do much, you don't have a keyboard!

Upon pressing start, the player is brought to a screen with what looks like a big schoolroom, with Joyce herself sitting at the desk at the front. Every element in the room seems to have a function. There's an art easel, which is presumably for drawing sprites; a piano, for music; a tape recorder; a map on the wall; and an open door leading to the playground outside. Hard to tell what some of these things mean at this point! Looks like you can select Joyce too.

Bea has quickly doodled several of her followers as bees (their "beesonas") before she even clicks on Joyce, presumably for tips on how to actually MAKE a game. "I should probably have realized sooner that you guys won't actually be able to PLAY this but, too late now"

Syrupentine: YOU DREW HONEY SYRUP! *dies happy*

When you pick Joyce, she stands up and pulls down a screen, prompting:

[What kind of game would you like to make?]

There are at least 30 different game models to make, starting with side-scroller, shmup, 2D fighter, all the way to JRPG and Board Game!

She selects 2D fighter! "FIGHT FOR MY AFFECTION, HAHAAH!!"

The screen closes and returns to the classroom, but now "2D Fighter" is written on the chalkboard-- and two people are practicing fighting outside the window! Looks like that's where the game design happens.

When Bea chooses the playground, she takes control of Glem! By standing on different spots and pressing the shoulder buttons, she can change how he handles, making him faster or slower, jumping higher or lower, even changing his friction against the ground.

aroseahorseboy: is it odd to anyone that we're making a game in a genre that we haven't even seen yet in this collection?

"Well there's got to be at least one, or it wouldn't have the option!" she tries to adjust the controls to make a good balance of strength and speed. "Too floaty, too slow.. there we go, just right"

berd_snurglar: make mine a bumblebee cuz i bumble shit up all the time lol

"FINALLY! Ok, I think, maybe, we can take this for a test run now, at the very least. Thanks for your patience, guys! ....Guys?"

"...Well that's it for Press Bea today, see you tomorrow with more Joy Traveler!"

aroseahorseboy: no no i'm awake, kinda

When Bea chooses the computer disk to save her game, a truck also appears labeled "Export".

She selects it right away, not really thinking. "And off into the wild you go, little friend."

Options appear: [ PC / Mac / Android / iOS ]

".... PC, I guess? This thing's got wireless??"

[Compiling...]

A 'document' opens up with 36 pages to view. Each page has what Bea at first takes to be meaningless garbage, until she scrolls down and sees the boxes in the corners-- they're actually highly complex QR codes.

Baconnaise: Ok anyone speak robot talk GlockRoach: Bea my character has a special move. he has a gun. his special move is he just fucking shoots people with his gun Please put this in berd_snurglar: guys this is a program file that looks like it checks out except bea didn't do shit Klickitat_Street: This is fucking Objective-C... and you wrote it by mooshing a little man around on screen. I write code for a living, Bea. They're paying me to come in, eat donuts, and write things that are less elegant than this.

"NO IDEA WHAT I DID.. That's how kids made these games, it really was just that easy. I thought this was supposed to be a bunch of games for kids, but it's game for kids to make games with!"

GlockRoach: Well that explains a lot Syrupentine: I hope "Renk" finishes his game someday! GlockRoach: He's probably like ten or twenty years older by now at least. Or dead.

"This is ahead of its time NOW, I can't imagine it's all that old!" She looks for a way to test the game itself

Klickitat_Street: It can't be THAT much older if this lets you export to ios and android?

There's a poster of a movie clapboard that says 'action' on the wall; when she chooses it, Bea's game launches!

BUZZKILL! (that's the title she wrote in the fat cartoony font she chose)

Two angry little bees duel with their stingers on the title screen! Pressing start takes you to SELECT YOUR BEE!

"I can't play this because I can't believe it. Sorry, I can't...BEElieve it!"

Syrupentine: I wonder if there's something to let you make a random game... ...that's what the bingo cage on the desk is for, isn't it!!

"Let's find out!" she says. Syrup's bee just defeated Glock's anyway! Sadly she, too, perishes shortly after, having lost her stinger. "Uh.. maybe I can edit that out later"

Syrupentine: I can't believe you put that in... T_T ...I mean literally, that the game even gave you the option to make that happen! GlockRoach: GOTCHA BITCH

"Hey hey be civil now, if I can find out how to send this to you you can just kill each other that way!"

Zooming in on the bingo cage, it spins a few times and spits out a bunch of balls. They're decorated with symbols that aren't immediately meaningful, but there are some familiar icons, including some sprites from other games. Two more balls form a button: OK ?

berd_snurglar: i see some old friends of ours

"Let's see what you come up with on your own, game!"

[Compiling...]

A blue stone title screen pops up with the name written in block letters: PIZZA HERO.

After a moment, though, Joyce's face leans in, looking sheepish. "Is this title okay? If there's anything you don't like in a randomized game, you can pause and change it any time!"

"Looks good to me, Joyce! I come up with worse titles all the time! Besides, those are two things I like, can't go too wrong!”

When the game starts, the player is lost in a deep, dark forest, with only one person in sight to talk to. The player, however, is the green fuzzball from Fuzzed, and the NPC is an Angul! It's not attacking, though.

When Bea approaches the Angul, a dialogue box opens up:

[O BRAVE HERO, WE PRESENT TO THEE A QUEST!] [YOU MUST RETURN THE PIZZA OF COURAGE!]

[cupidbedsy]

𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱, 𝗶'𝗺 𝗮𝗹𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 | 𝘭𝘩43 ♔

➪ summary: the relationship between luke and his girlfriend is special, but the bond between his girlfriend and his brothers is adorable; or four times quinn and jack helped out their brother's girlfriend when she was in need

➪ warnings: finals (physics to be exact), hate comments, slight mentions to threats, car breaking down, slight mentions to being followed, fights, crying, asshole-ish luke

➪ word count: 3.5k

➪ file type: fic

➪ sunny's notes: welcome back to the blog, apologies for me deleting my account and coming back but anyway. I'll be posting the old fics here and there, i'm thinking about trying to get them all back before i start posting new fics. the taglist will be intact from before, but i'll only use it for the first couple of posts and then i'll probably stop using it until i start posting new fics again. i hope your guys' support will be the same or better as the last blog :)

© cupidbedsy ; do not copy, repost, or translate my work and designs on any other website or here

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⟹ The One with the Finals | Quinn - Winter of 2023

The day before her physics final, y/n was in tears. There were papers not only all over her desk but on the walls and the ground as well. The whiteboard that hung in her apartment was littered with kinematics equations and a bunch of random vocabulary words that probably weren’t necessary for her final. 

More tears sprung in her eyes as she looked at her review guide, “Who the fuck knows this shit?”

Her roommates had already gone home, finishing their finals the day before so she was alone. It was almost 7 and she had been studying for six hours, maybe more. She knew she should stop and take a break, make some dinner, maybe even watch a movie, but she couldn’t, not now, not when her grade was on the line. 

She was so close, oh so close to being done but the last question was too much for her. It sent her brain into overdrive, the wires were crossed, and nothing made sense anymore, not that it ever did anyway. She let out a noise, a cross between a groan and a whine, and threw her notes down and her pencil across the room. 

She took a peak at her phone and noticed the mass amount of messages from her boyfriend, a few from her parents, and a few from Luke’s family. The boy was so worried that he made his parents and Quinn and Jack text her just to see if she would answer, but she didn’t.

Now, no offense to Jack (but offense) and no offense to Luke, but they weren’t always the brightest of the bunch. Which is why she called Quinn, tears still obviously present.

“I’m going to fail.”

“Y/n? Luke’s been calling you for hours.”

“Yes, I know. I was studying for physics, and I’ve concluded that I’m going to fail.”

Quinn sat up from where he was lying on his bed, “No, you’re not.”

She let out a sob, “I am and then I’m going to get kicked out of school and everyone’s going to make fun of me and then Luke won’t want to date me anymore and then you guys will stop talking to me-”

“Hey! Calm down, none of that is going to happen because it’s not possible, y/n/n. What’s your GPA right now?”

“A 4.0.”

Quinn laughed, “Stop being so hard on yourself. You’re fine. I promise you, but if you feel that badly about it, I’ll help you study.”

“Really?”

“No, I’m fucking with you. Of course, I’ll help you. You’re my favorite sibling after all.”

“I’m not even related to you.”

“Yet.”

Y/n sent the PDF of the review guide to Quinn, who now sat at his desk on his computer. The two talked and studied with one another before Quinn realized the lack of color in the girl’s face, “Have you eaten yet?”

Y/n looked at him and then quickly looked down shamefully, “No.”

Quinn looked like he was going to yell at her but in reality, he was just worried, and the tiniest bit frustrated with her for not taking care of herself, not that he would ever tell her that though, “Go make dinner, you can bring me with if you want. I’ll even make my own.”

“But-”

“No, you’ll think better if you eat.” That could’ve been a total lie, but she would’ve listened to him anyway.

She took her phone and computer with her, still talking to Quinn as she made some ramen - the good kind, not the crappy instant one. Quinn smiled, happy with himself for making his brother’s girlfriend - or if he had it his and Jack’s way, his sister -  take care of herself and feel better.

『••✎••』

She had just gotten done with her final and she screamed internally, walking out of the room and heading to her dorm, waiting for her family to pick her up. She called Quinn immediately after she stepped out of the building. 

“Quinn! Quinn! Quinn! Guess what?!”

Quinn had been on his way to practice when he got the phone call, “What?”

“I passed!”

Quinn smiled, “See I told you, you would.”

“Thank you!"

❛ ━━･❪ ❁ ❫ ･━━ ❜

⟹ The One with the Haters | Jack - Fall of 2023

It never really bothered her, and Luke always said it shouldn’t. Yet, when Luke started his rookie year and gained more attraction, so did she. They were worse than what they were before, they came in mass amounts, the words dug deeper, and everything seemed to escalate. 

This wasn’t something that should’ve burdened Luke, he had enough to deal with it being his rookie season and trying to perform as well as he could, he didn’t need to hear about his fans attacking his girlfriend as well. Luke was, let’s just say, the most oblivious of them all. So she didn’t really have to worry about him finding out about it, anyway.

However, Jack knew about her mood changes. Every time she visited the two in New Jersey, she distanced herself from them, she took notice of who was around them when they went out and strategically sat next to Luke so people wouldn’t make accusations of her favoring Jack over him but not too close to him that it would seem like she’s attached and overbearing him.

He also took notice of the comments on his brother’s Instagram posts or whenever the wags would post y/n at a game. 

‘He’s too good for her.’

‘Why does she even come? It’s obvious he doesn’t want her there, he doesn’t even play well when she’s there.’

‘She’s just using him.’

‘I don’t know what he sees in her.’

‘She’s not that pretty.’

Those barely scratched the surface of the comments. There were more, most about her looks and another good chunk of them just saying how the two didn’t make sense together. But the ones that hurt the worst, were the ones that came up once or twice in every ten posts. The ones that were about her using him, the ones that made threats to her and her family. The ones claiming that they knew everything about her life. The ones that said she was cheating on Luke with Jack or Quinn.

Jack had his fair share of hate comments, many of which he remembered from his rookie season. He knew how it felt to have someone close to him be praised so much and then be torn down for simply having a relationship with them and not being as good. 

The Devils were visiting Detroit near the late end of November and y/n decided to go to the game, hanging out with them the two days that they flew down early to be with her before the game. They were out at a restaurant and y/n was sitting in the very corner of the booth that they got.

Luke sat down next to her as Jack slid into the booth across from them, still bantering with his brother. Luke was oblivious to the distance between him and y/n, shrugging it off as if she was just hot despite the temperature outside. Luke and Jack continued to talk about the game, stopping for the waiter to take their order who just so happened to be a fan of the Devils. Y/n rolled her eyes as she subtly flittered with her boyfriend, giving Jack a look. 

The waiter walked away and Luke got up and left to the bathroom, “So when are you going to tell him? Or are you waiting for him to figure it out by himself?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Y/n dug her face into the menu, avoiding eye contact with Jack.

“Uh huh, sure. Then what are these?” Jack showed the girl his phone, comments from Luke’s most recent post showing. 

“Jack.”

“Y/n.”

“There’s not much he can do about it anyways, they’ll keep doing it no matter what. Besides, they’re not wrong.”

“He has a right to know and no, nothing they say is true. You are Luke’s world and he will defend you until he dies. If someone is threatening you, which there is, he will find a way to stop it. And Quinn and I will help too. We want you safe.” Jack reached over the table to pat her shoulder. 

She nodded, “Just talk to him. Okay?”

『••✎••』

Later that night, Luke was in bed with y/n, both of them on their phones. Luke was playing a game and y/n was on Instagram. She hadn’t actively searched out the comments but when she saw a post of her with 200 comments under it, she had to look, and they weren’t all that different from what she was expecting. 

“Luke?”

“Hmm?”

“Can I talk to you about something?”

“Of course, what’s up?”

“Have you seen the comments?”

“What comments?”

“These.” She handed Luke her phone and watched as he scrolled through them, and before he could say anything, she took it back and showed him her DM’s. 

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier? We could’ve done something to stop this.” She just shrugged.

“Sweetheart, this is scary. I don't want you to have to endure this by yourself.”

“It’s fine, I’m fine.”

“But you’re not. I know everyone thinks I’m oblivious, and yes, sometimes I am, but I can see you’re hurting and you have been for a while. I might not have known why or how but I was so worried about you, okay? I’m going to do everything I can to stop this.”

Luke placed his hands on her face and she wrapped her hands around his wrists. His thumbs lightly rubbed over her face, just under her eye, as hers rubbed up and down his hands, stopping at his knuckles to rub over them as well. She smiled slightly at him but was still worried about everything that was going on. 

“Hey,” Luke made her look up at him. “Everything is going to work out, no matter how long or how much it’s gonna take. I’m going to get Quinn and Jack to help, I’ll have the team help as well. We’re all going to help to make sure you and your family are safe. I promise.”

She nods, “Okay.”

He kissed her forehead before her lips and pulled back to smile at her. 

❛ ━━･❪ ❁ ❫ ･━━ ❜

⟹ The One with the Car | Quinn + Jack - Summer of 2023

Despite dating for three years, y/n was never really the biggest fan of letting Luke help her, she wasn’t the biggest fan of anyone helping her, to be honest. That’s why when she was in the middle of nowhere, scared out of her mind and not thinking straight, she hesitated to call her boyfriend. 

It was the summer, she had been visiting the Hughes family at the lake house and she had gone to get some food for dinner for her, Quinn, and Jack. She wasn’t lost per se, when she left she knew how to get back home, she had been there countless times before. Yet, she felt as if she was being followed and that scared her, causing her to go a different route home, one she wasn’t that familiar with, and even then she sort of knew where she was. 

The car was still following her so she decided to start taking random turns here and there and when she did the trick she was taught, take four right turns, they left after the first one. She let out a deep breath and continued to drive, just to see if they would pop up again, but they didn’t and now she was in the middle of nowhere, with an almost empty tank of gas. 

Back at the lake house, Quinn, and Jack sat in the living room. Ellen, Jim, and Luke decided to go out for dinner to a fancy restaurant, and the whole nine yards, the other three weren’t bothered to even move from their seats. In hindsight, should they have just gotten Uber Eats or DoorDash, yes, but y/n wanted to get out of the house, just to a certain extent.

She didn’t want to interrupt her boyfriend’s time with his parents so she called Quinn, voice wavering, “Quinn.”

“Hey, y/n. Where are you? We thought you would be back by now.”

“About that. I’m sort of in the middle of nowhere and there was this car that was following but they stopped but I also don’t know if they just left and are coming back because they knew I was onto them-”

“Hey, calm down. Send me your location, Jack and I are on our way. Keep us on the phone and if you see them come back just start driving.”

“I’m almost out of gas.”

“We’ll hurry, just keep a lookout, okay?”

Five minutes passed and the boys were almost already halfway there, speeding the whole way as much as possible. She looked up and in the rearview mirror, there were headlights, “Guys? Is that you?”

Jack and Quinn looked at each other in confusion, “No?”

“Well, shit.” Y/n turned her car on and immediately pressed on the gas.

The car didn’t follow her, simply turned on the street behind where her car had been, but she didn’t know that, so she kept driving until her car was out of gas, “I’m out of gas.”

“We’re almost there, you should see us, right… about… now.” She looked up and saw them, easily recognizing the car. She got out of the car and practically ran to them. 

Quinn hugged her back when her arms wrapped around him, “Are you okay? Are you hurt? Did anyone follow you?”

She shook her head, “I’m fine, just still a little spooked.”

Jack stood off to the side and only now had y/n just noticed, “Hi Jack.” She looked at him tentatively. Contrary to her belief, Jack loved hugs, especially y/n’s hugs. She always thought differently, so she always hesitated to hug him. 

Yet, when he opened his arms, she ran into them just as she did with his older brother, “Thank you for coming to get me.”

“Always.”

❛ ━━･❪ ❁ ❫ ･━━ ❜

⟹ The One with the Fight | Quinn + Jack - Sophomore Year

“I just don’t understand, Luke.”

“Of course, you don’t you never do!”

They had been arguing on and off all day, everything the other person did set them off, it was hours of pointless and petty arguing. Realistically, they both had been in the wrong, but Luke screwed up the most. It was when they both found out that he would be going to Jersey. 

She had scheduled plans with friends earlier that week, but she would’ve dropped everything to hang out with Luke and help him pack. She offered to do that but Luke declined, saying he could handle it and he wanted her to go out and have fun with her friends. Truthfully, they had been spending almost every waking moment together since they knew.

“You were the one that told me to go hang out with them! I offered to help you and stay with you, but you declined!”

“I never said that.”

Y/n gave him a look that said all the different, “You’re such a fucking liar.”

“Oh, I’m the liar?”

“Yes!” 

“If you loved me, you would’ve stayed back, anyways. And you know what? I’m done with this conversation. Don’t wait up.” Luke took his duffle bag and suitcase and left y/n’s dorm. 

She stared at the door as it slammed practically in her face. The silence was deafening in the room, you could hear the barking of dogs and horns blaring from outside. If you listened hard enough you could hear the wind slapping against the window. 

For two minutes she stood there, staring at the door, body still and her hair blowing from the AC. She snapped out of her trance when she felt a lone tear roll down her face. Since then, it was one after another and she ran to grab her phone from her nightstand dialing Jack’s number.

Jack answered confused, “Hello?”

“I think Luke might be on his way to Jersey.”

“But he’s not supposed to leave yet.”

“We got into a fight and he sort of-” She choked on a sob, “stormed out of here with his duffle and suitcase.”

“What do you mean you guys got into a fight? You guys never fight.”

“Yeah well ‘never’ is a fucking stupid word. And this is totally not the point of this phone call, Jack. Can you just make sure he’s okay? I don’t want him getting hurt or anything.”

“Luke’s a big boy and if he decided to come here on a whim then he can handle it. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.” Tears still were streaming down her face and she picked at her nails as she slid down the wall, landing on the floor. 

“What happened, y/n/n?”

“It was stupid, it was my fault.”

“You’re lying.”

“How would you know?”

“Your voice is more intense when you lie because you try to convince everyone you’re right by sounding more confident.”

“So why do you know that and not Luke?” She bawled to the older boy, placing her head in her hands, the phone dropping from her grasp.

“Y/n? Y/n!” Jack tried to gain her attention but failed, causing him to add Quinn to the call.

“Jack? Y/n? What’s up?”

“Y/n answer us.”

“What’s going on?”

“Y/n! Come on, please answer.”

“I’m sorry, I dropped my phone.”

“Can someone please explain to me what is going on? And where is Luke?”

“Luke fucked up is what’s going on,” Jack said, annoyed.

Y/n now sat against her bed and her phone propped up on the wall, switching to FaceTime, “We got into a fight.”

“You guys never fight.”

“Yes, I’m aware, now can we move on from that fact because it happened and it’s over with.”

“Sorry, sorry.”

“He was mad because he’s supposed to be leaving soon and I went out with my friends after I had already offered to stay back and help him pack and everything like that but he said no. So, he’s right, it is my fault. If I loved him, I would’ve stayed.”

There was a simultaneous silence from the boys before a loud, “He said that?!”

“Yeah? Why? Is he right? I knew he was right.”

“No, no, no of course not. He’s not right. He’s a fucking dick for saying that.”

“But I should’ve stayed with him, he’s leaving soon.” She sniffled, wiping her nose with her sleeve.

“Y/n/n, listen to me right now. Nothing you did tonight was your fault. Maybe something that we don’t know that happened you did, but what he said… you didn’t deserve that. He knows how much you love him and if he stooped that low to make you feel bad, then maybe he should take some time to cool off. I’m not saying that he should’ve left the way he did, but maybe some space is good.” Quinn explained to her.

She nodded but tears were still falling, “Do you think he’s going to break up with me? I mean, he’s going to go off and be in the NHL and I’m just going to be me. I’m nothing special.”

Jack and Quinn made eye contact through the phone and Jack went to say something but was interrupted, “You’re everything to me.” 

She snapped her head to the door and saw Luke standing there, his bag falling to the ground. She stood up quickly, wiping her face rid of any signs of her crying, “Luke.”

“How could you say that about yourself?”

Quinn and Jack hung up the phone, not wanting to interrupt their conversation despite them wanting to be there just in case he said something out of line. Luke wrapped his arms around the girl, “You are the most amazing person ever. I’m so sorry if I made you feel any differently.”

Y/n just shrugged, not bothered by that but more so the fight itself. Luke pulled back, saddened slightly by the lack of reciprocation in the affection, “And I am so sorry for what I said. I know you love me and I know I said you could hang out with your friends. I think just deep down I thought you would’ve stayed anyways and I was scared of leaving you.”

Y/n nodded and Luke’s hands went to her cheeks, wiping off the remnants of her mascara, “I understand, Luke. I just wish you would’ve handled it more like an adult than a teenager.”

“And I can’t even begin to explain how horrible I feel about that.”

“Can we just cuddle?”

“Anything you want.”

The two laid in better for a little while as they hadn’t wanted to do anything else. An hour later, y/n spoke, “I forgive you.”

“You shouldn’t.”

“But I do. Emotions were high and I know that shouldn’t be the way we should handle things but we’re both stressed and you’re leaving soon I just want to forget about it.” Luke nodded, wanting to respect her wishes, “I love you, Lukey.”

“I love you.”

© cupidbedsy ; do not copy, repost, or translate my work and designs on any other website or here