#when he comes back to life he’s no longer connected to the hive mind | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

beels-burger-babe · 2 years

Text

Time and Time Again

*** This fic is something I've been excited for ever since @dicetheroll, @rainiishowers, and I brainstormed the concept for it in the Hive Discord! It the most voted for the recent "Help Me Choose" post, so alas, Barbatos simps, this one's for you. I hope you all enjoy it ❤️-B ***

Summary: Barbatos loves MC. He has loved them for nearly as long as he has known. He goes back and relives every second that he can with them, over and over again. But, after experiencing a time line so many times, one begins to notice certain patterns — MC getting hurt, for example. And after one too many times, he decides that he can't stand idle by any longer.

*Spoilers up to Lesson 16*

The confusion, but glittering curiosity that shimmers in your eyes never ceases to excite him upon the inevitable first meeting. It's one that he's lived a thousand times, yet still, it remains one of Barbatos's favourites.

Sometimes, when he first gets there and hears Lord Diavolo and Lucifer discussing your new pact with Mammon, he'll see you — the slight twitch of irritation in your brow in the way they converse as though you're not there. The proud puff of your chest as they remain in awe of your achievement. The flickering of your gaze around you, ever alert and cautious — and he'll forget you're not an MC who knows him yet.

But there comes the moment, where your observant stare falls onto him and your soft lips purse.

"Who are you?" You ask, just as you have a thousand times before. He's memorized the question and the way your voice dictates the words.

To him, the question reads like poetry. Who are you? So innocently unaware of the history you've shared with him. As friends. As allies. As enemies. As lovers. You ask the question, completely unaware that you are his polar magnet — a ruthless force that constantly draws him in no matter how he may resist.

And resist he did — at first at least. He had responsibilities and duties. Diavolo was meant to be his priority, not a rambunctious human who had no concept of self-preservation. And yet

"Ah yes. Pardon me," he responds with a subtle grin. "I suppose we haven't met before, have we?"

There it is. The slight flush that painted your expression as he took your hand into his and kissed the back of it.

He already knew which way this route will be going, he decided it before he even entered the timeline.

He has seen you choked, and broken, and ripped to shreds. He has seen you destroyed both mentally and physically to the point that had become nothing but a shell. He has stood as a bystander as you lived a life with each and every one of the brothers, his lord, and even Simeon and Solomon — and he has witnessed both the good and bad endings of each of those relationships.

Time, as it seems, was not kind to you, despite all the kindness that you gave. It would chew you up and spit you out with every chance that it got.

But not this time. Barbatos would be sure of that.

This time, he spared no mind to being suspicious to others or acting out of character. His only concern was you and your safety — and in order to ensure your safety, he needed to become close with you as quickly as he could.

He spent your lunch hours by your side — claiming he needed your aid with paperwork or surveying the students. It would hurt your connection with Mammon, sure, but for all his efforts, Mammon never was all that great at his job of protecting you.

He, much to Diavolo's delight, would often invite you over for tea and dinners at the castle — it was a joy to be the one to introduce you to your favourite Devildom delicacy. The honor was usually reserved for Beelzebub, but he found he couldn't help himself.

It was after one of these dinners, as you aided him in doing the dishes that he dared to spark a conversation he had only initiated a handful of times before.

"MC?" he questioned as you scrubbed the porcelain plates with the same care and ease as one would when handling an ancient artifact.

"Hm?" You hummed in response, squinting your eyes to glare through the soap suds at a particularly tough stain.

He smirked knowingly as he set down his drying towel and faced you. "Make a pact with me."

He quickly reached down and caught the plate slipping through your fingers before you had time to even process you had dropped it. You blinked at him with wide eyes as he carefully set it back on the counter.

Barbatos could feel your gaze on his back — filled with pure shock and confusion. It was one he knew all too well.

You had told him once, after the first time he had ever proposed the pact, that you had never expected him to ask you this. Not in a million years. You knew he had a pact with Solomon, but no one truly knew how that particular agreement came to be (and he would much rather keep it that way). But you also knew how much trust went into bestowing a pact with someone. It was not something to take lightly.

"Barbatos," you breathed with awe on your tongue. "You ... Why?"

To protect you. To ensure that he could be by your side in an instant the second you call out for him. To keep you safe from the world — from time. To love you.

He smiled and went back to putting away the dishes as though he hadn't just offered his entire being to you. "You already have Mammon's. And I hear that you have a contest with Leviathan soon approaching to earn his. It seems you've become a collector of sort."

And if the promptness of the decision had anything to do with the lingering threat of Leviathan's rage during said competition, well, Barbatos was hardly one to offer spoilers.

You huffed and placed a hand on his shoulder, forcing him to face you. He reveled in the closeness. "This is serious. I- You're not usually one for jokes. I- I mean, pacts are a big deal, right? I'm just beginning to understand that. I-"

He gently scooped your hands into his own gloved ones and peered deeply into your eyes. "We're friends, are we not?" he couldn't help the flare of pride that ran through him as your expression grew flush. "I like to keep my friends close. I like to protect them. And this, this pact? It's the best way I can think of to keep you as protected as possible."

A frown dug at your lips as you tilted your head in confusion. "Isn't that what the brothers are for? Do you not trust them?"

Quite honestly, no. He didn't. More often than not it was them who were the very cause of your pain. He would never understand why his Lord thought that it was best to keep you there, with the brothers who had barely agreed to the program in the first place, over keeping you in the castle with them. But that was out of his control.

This, however, was not.

"I think they do the best they can," he answered instead as he peered down at your joined hands. He would never grow tired of just how nicely they fit together. "But this is different. It's a personal comfort that you're alright," your breath hitched as he his thumbs caressed your knuckles. "Would you allow me that one little peace, MC?"

"Okay," you whispered, and that oh-so-beautiful burn ran through him and branded itself into the base of both of your throats, just under your voice box.

He couldn't help but smile. Teal always looked so good on you.

He lifted a single hand to touch the mark — it was still warm to the touch. "Perfect," he muttered.

The pact was good. It meant you two were connected now. But it wasn't enough.

He knew from experience. The pact alone wouldn't prevent you from nearly dying in the competition. It wouldn't stop you from getting Leviathan's cursed album and finding your way to the attic.

It wouldn't stop Belphegor.

The night before the competition he made his way to the House of Lamentation with one goal in mind — to take the pendant of the Lord of Corruption's lost wing that Solomon had given you.

You hadn't spoken in detail with Simeon as Satan had advised you. Meaning this pendant was your only chance of winning the competition. Without it, you would lose, Leviathan would never go into a frenzy, the two of you would never form a pact, and most importantly, he would never give you the cursed TSL album that would allow you access to your doom.

Barbatos knew what this meant. He would be completely shredding apart the timeline and creating a number of unknowns.

But it had to be done. To save you.

As he was making his way out the door, a large hand on his shoulder stopped him in place.

Barbatos felt his heart nose dive from his chest to his stomach as he stared at the door not five feet in front of him. "I have to do this," he said firmly even as dread began to swirl within him.

"You know you can't," came the Young Lord's voice — calm, for once. Thick with morose solemn.

The butler swallowed thickly around the lump in his throat. "They're going to die.

"They will." "I can stop it." "No. You can't," Barbatos felt his hands begin to shake at the finality in his tone. "You know this. It's fate."

Anger boiled deep in his stomach at those words. "It's fate," Diavolo would always tell him, as though that excused the endless hardships you were forced to endure.

It wasn't fair, he knew that. Diavolo loved you just much as Barbatos himself did. But he didn't understand. How could he?

While he may be able to see through lies, he couldn't travel through time as Barbatos could. He didn't have the power to actually change fate like Barbatos did.

He wasn't the one who could do something, but has been forced to stand by and do nothing every single time and just watch.

Watch as your back broke and blood trickled out from your lips. Watch the soul leave your eyes as your face remained frozen in eternal horror. Watch as you died. Time, and time, and time, and time, and time, and time, and time again all because it was fate.

His hands twitched at his side. "Why?" He pleaded in grievous whisper. "Why not just this once? They live, and they'll be safe."

The grip on his shoulder tightened. "It's MC's fate to sacrifice themself for the betterment of the Devildom and those within it. Just as it was Lilith's fate to die so her brothers could fall and take their rightful place here. If it didn't happen here, and now, it would only happen later on. But in ways that we won't be prepared for."

"I know" he damn-near growled. Where Diavolo could only speak based on theory, Barbatos had lived it.

One time you were kidnapped by a rebellion who disagreed with the exchange program and publicly mutilated you as an example. The next, your head was sent to Mammon by the witches he loved to infuriate. In another, your soul was claimed by the very nature of the Devildom — torn apart by beasts and plants alike. And one more, the angels stole you to "train" and shape you until you're the perfect weapon against the Devildom that they'd been searching for.

And again, and again, and again.

"I hate it," he spits as exhaustion bleeds into his tone and his voice cracks. "No matter how many times I reset the timeline. No matter how many things I change, I-I can't-"

"You can't save them, Barbatos," a sob escapes him as Diavolo speaks. "I'm sorry, but you can't. It's ... It's impossible."

And that was it. Wasn't it? There were simply somethings that, no matter how hard you tried, you could simply never change.

A little over a week later, his pact ignited. He felt the air cut from his lungs. He felt his spine break into two. He felt the blood trickle down his throat and flood his lungs. He felt his stomach flip as he plummeted.

He felt you die. Just as you had before. Time and time again.

***Oh this may be on of my favourite fics I've written yet. I hope you all enjoyed this as much as I did! Thank you all again for endless love and support. You guys are the best community I could ever ask for. Love you all! ***

Tag List: @thegrimgrinningghost @henry-and-the-seven-lords @satans-beloved-riv @cosmixbun @sufzku @obey-mes-treasure @kissed-by-a-dementor @yukihaie @justtiarra @mammoneybb @poly-bi-mf @burrixino @rul-of-demise @pumpkins-mainside-blog @acousticpen @sucker-for-angst-and-fluff @itskrispy @10paradox10 @vallison-rea @ivoryclive @newfangled-artistry @pumpkinpatchkid @chirikoheina @sailboat21 @theother4 @todoroses @circus-of-freaks @fuzzyphotography @avatar-mikazuki @curatoroffiction @sunlightocean @taare-ginn @dragon-rider-with-a-book @korneatto @rphantom1

359 notes · View notes

mca-attack21 · 3 years

Text

Semi-Flayed

Steve Harrington x Reader. Season 3 finale spoilers.

The floor was cold, the atmosphere chaotic. The screams of your friends were drowned out by the fireworks and snarls of the mindflayer. Despite the noise, you clearly heard Billy, or the Mindflayer rather, whisper, “Stay still, it will all be over soon," his words sent ice through your veins. You struggled against his grasp, but it was no use. Realizing the imminence of your demise, you felt an overwhelming sadness, not even for yourself, but for Steve Harrington, the first and apparently last love of your life. As the “flaying” began, he was the only thing on your mind. You hoped that he would survive this, that he would get out of Hawkins, that he would be happy. You hoped-

“Y/N!” Steve screamed as he blew his cover to run to your side.

This caught the attention of Eleven, who managed to use her powers to throw Billy away from you. She fell back against Mike. The rest of the kids were still blasting the mind flayer with fireworks. Steve used the opportunity to pick you up and carry you away from the action.

“Y/n? Can you hear me? You gotta wake up okay? I did not survive being tortured by Russians only to have you be flayed before I could even-” his voice broke, and before he could continue, he was rounding the corner to where Dustin was.

“Shit. Is she okay?”

“I don’t know. Billy - the mind flayer- how do we know if she? What if she was?” Steve tried, but his heart couldn’t even handle the idea of you being lost to him.

“She wasn’t flayed.”

“How do you know?” Steve asked reluctant to be relieved.

“The hive mind is activated, she would be awake and trying to kill us if she was,” Dustin explained.

“Then why isn’t she waking up?”

“I don’t know Steve, but we have bigger problems right now,” he said gesturing to the fact that they were almost out of Fireworks.

Steve hesitantly left your side to help the others and watched in absolute shock as Billy sacrificed himself. It was only moments later that the mind flayer collapsed. It was over. Jonathan hugged Nancy, Mike went to Eleven, Lucas held Max as she cried, and both Steve and Dustin turned towards you.

“Y/n wake up!” Steve tried shaking your shoulders. He lowered his head to your chest to hear your heart beating and feel your breathing, “Y/n, c’mon, I need you to wake up,” he tried again, sounding more desperate.

Before he could continue, the FBI came running in and they were all escorted out. Steve barely managed to convince the EMT to let him ride with you. He was stuck in the waiting room for what seemed like forever, shrugging off the nurses who offered to check out his injuries. Dustin, Mike, Nancy, and Jonathon came in, gathering in silence waiting for any news. The worst part for Steve was when your mother showed up, he had never felt more guilty than when he lied to her about what happened.

Eventually, the doctor came out with a flustered look on his face. He asked for your mom, and Steve quickly stood to join them. The doctor protested, but your mom assured him that Steve should come with her.

“So, I don’t know how to tell you this, but as far as we can tell there is nothing physically wrong with your daughter. She is seemingly in a coma with no cause. As such, there is nothing medically we can do other than sustain her condition if you choose to do so,” he then turned to Steve, “Can you run me through what happened again?” Steve managed to recount his story, trying to ignore your mother's sobs. As soon as he finished, he exited the room in shock, he sunk down to the floor, struggling to breathe, replaying the doctor's words over and over again in his head. His chest was filled with immense pain at the thought of losing you.

He sat there a while trying to calm himself down before forcing himself off the wall and back to the waiting room, where Will, Mrs. Byers, and Eleven had joined the others. All eyes went to him expectantly, but with one look at him Dustin said what they were all thinking, “Shit..."

Steve repeated what the doctor had said, Nancy pulled him into a comforting hug. While the others started brainstorming. There was an hour of outrageous theories until finally, Will realized something, “She wasn’t completely flayed, but the process was definitely initiated.”

“Obviously,” Dustin chimed in.

“But what is flaying? It’s like your identity being ripped away from you and replaced with the host mentality,” Will continued.

“So maybe Y/n’s soul or whatever was separated. Nothing medically wrong with her, because that’s not a physical connection” Mike added.

“So in other words, we have to jumpstart the connection again,” Lucas agreed, and then all eyes shifted to El.

“Do you think you could try to find her? Like you did Billy or Heather?” Mike asked.

“I can try,” El nodded.

Dustin walked over to where Steve was laying with his head in Mrs. Byers' lap. She ran her fingers through his hair like she had for her sons so many times, mind wandering to Hopper. Steve looked so broke, like he had given up any hope.

“We need to get into Y/n’s room, we think we know how to fix her,” Dustin announced.

It was like that swiped a switch in Steve, and he popped up at once, “What do you mean?”

Dustin explained everything to Steve and Mrs. Byers, and then again in layman's terms. From there the whole group formed a plan. Mrs. Byers and Nancy would go distract your mom. Dustin, Mike, and Will would distract the nurses. Steve and El would sneak into your room, while Jonathon kept watch. For once, everything went smoothly.

El was searching the cabinets for something to cover her eyes with, and Steve handed her the red ascot from his Scoops uniform. She went to your side and took your hand, instantly being transported into your consciousness.

It was dark, unlike anything she had ever experienced before. Every step she took was echoing, the entire reality was glitching in and out, but there was no sign of you.

“Y/n?” she called out.

The blackness would flash to a scene of you and then back to the nothingness, “Y/n, can you hear me?” El tried again, “I need you to focus on my voice, and I can bring you back. I’ll bring you back home, back to Steve.”

At the mention of Steve, the glitching stopped and El could see you know for the first time, you laid on the ground folded into yourself. You were pale and shaking, looking only a moment away from death. As she got closer she could hear you softly repeating, “Please don't, I'm sorry.” There was no indication that you knew she was there. She touched you lightly on the shoulder, but it didn’t phase you.

“Y/n? We need to get out of here, I need your help,” she tried, again receiving no response. The glitching started again, each time putting more and more distance between the two of you. El knew that you wouldn’t survive it much longer.

In the hospital room, Steve watched as blood trickled down Eleven’s face. He didn’t know why it was taking so long. He tried to get an idea of what was happening through the one-sided conversation that he was hearing, but even that was being drowned out by his fear of losing you, What if this didn’t work? The lights started flickering, the machines in the room going nuts, and then suddenly Eleven called his name, “I need you to talk to her, to bring her back.”

“What does that even mean?”

“Steve, we don't have time, just talk to her!”

“Okay….Uhm...Y/n? It’s Steve. Your boyfriend,” he started, feeling extremely uncomfortable, before his emotions took over. “I’m sorry that I wasn’t there to protect you. I’m here now though, and I need you to come back to me. I need you to wake up, cause you are the best thing that has ever happened to me and I don’t want to lose you. Not now, not ever. Please Y/n. I love you so much, please wake up." As he finished, everything went black, the entire hospital lost power.

In your head, every nightmare you had ever had was playing through your mind. You were cold and afraid, feeling lost beyond anything you have ever felt. Whatever was happening to you it was killing you, you could feel it draining you. A strange numbness started to overtake you. You weren’t giving up, you were running out of fight. Just as you were trying to prepare yourself for whatever would come next, you heard a familiar voice, “Okay….Uhm...Y/n? It’s Steve. Your boyfriend.” Hearing his voice made everything stop. A warmth filled you, and you forced your eyes open, seeing Eleven.

"El?" you asked weakly.

“You’re going to be fine, I’m here,” she reassured, moving towards you and taking your hand.

The next thing you remember was hearing Steve’s voice, “Are you okay?” he asked, you forced your eyes open to see who he was talking to.

“I’ll be fine,” Eleven reassured him, wiping her nose.

“Everything was going crazy in here and then the power went out...Is she okay now?"

Suddenly Eleven’s face lit up, “Why don’t you ask her yourself?”

You had never seen Steve turn around so quickly in his life, a wide smile on his face as he practically dove onto your bed holding you like his life depended on it. “Nice to see you too,” you laughed. God did he love that laugh, and that smile, and you.

“I am so glad that you are okay,” he sighed, allowing himself to relax a little for the first time since he had found out about the Russian code from Dustin.

“Are you okay?” you asked running your finger lightly across his cheek. His eye was swollen and undoubtedly painful. His lip was busted and his nose was also bruised and swollen. In other words, he looked like he got into a fight with his hands tied behind his back.

He put his hand over yours and pulled it down to his chest over his heart as he had done so many times before, “It’s worse than it looks, I promise. I’m just glad you're okay.”

You were going to ask him what happened but were interrupted by the kids coming in excitedly. They were vividly telling you everything that happened after you were “Semi-flayed” as Will had coined it. You listened to every word, happy to know that it was all over. Their commotion gained the attention of the nurse, who proceeded to kick everyone out. Well, everyone but Steve who was practically glued to your side.

She went back to find the doctor and notify your mother, promising to bring back the ice that you requested for Steve’s eye. There were more happy reunions, followed by another round of tests, and finally, you were discharged. Joyce took Will, Jonathan, Dustin, and Lucas home. Nancy took Mike and Eleven back to her house. Your mom went back to your house and you went with Steve to his.

You both were exhausted but found it hard to sleep.

“What happens now?” you asked innocently.

“What do you mean?”

“How do we move forward from this? I mean nothing can ever really be the same can it?”

Steve thought for a moment, “I think we grieve and heal, then we start looking for the little victories again until this is nothing more than a memory.”

You nodded, “I love you, Steve Harrington,” you spoke softly.

You missed the grin that spread across his face before he kissed your forehead, “I love you too.”

You laid like that for a while, it didn’t take Steve long to fall asleep. You thought about what he said. Tomorrow would be hard, and the day after that too, but eventually your life would become some type of normal again. You shifted to look at his face, careful not to wake him. You felt a sense of relief, knowing that as long as the two of you had each other, you could work through the rest.

#steve harrington imagines #steve harrington imagine #steve harrington x reader #steve x reader #steve imagines #stranger things x reader #stranger things reader insert #stranger things imagines #stranger things x you #stranger things imagine #stranger things

503 notes · View notes

starr-fall-knight-rise · 4 years

Text

HASO, “Take Me to Your Leader.”

I hope you guys are all having a great week, and I hope you enjoy the read.

Captain Kell sat in his room's boots up on the small desk space as he watched the news report filtering in from over the feed.

“Early this morning the chairwoman of the UN has announced a state of emergency and launched a formal investigation into the attempted assassination of the GA’s Admiral Vir. This all comes in response to the announcement by UN president late last night that they were unable to identify connections to any internal terrorist organizations after a woman was caught attempting to assassinate the Admiral during one of his speeches two months ago. The failed assassination was thanks to 25 year old marine Angle Ramirez who dove in front of the bullet for his commanding officer, and is now (as his family claims) fully healed and back to work. Since the incident, GA and UNSC leaders alike have encouraged Admiral Vir to stay away from earth as much as possible and remain on his ship until further notice. At a request from one of our journalists yesterday morning, he agreed to a statement from his ship the Omen.”

There was a flickering on the screen as a face appeared on the news feed. It was, somewhat from a distance, and the lens seems grainy from radiation interference, but the man seen was tall and blond and had one green eye though he was wearing an eyepatch. Captain kell thought he looked a little more lean than the admiral, but it was hard to tell with all the distortion.

When the man began to speak there was something missing in the voice as well, but it would hardly be noticeable.

There was a knock at his door and he quickly threw his feet down from the desk walking over to throw the door open and step outside into the hall. Angelo was waiting for him there and without saying a word the two of them walked down the long hallway and to the planning room.

Mace was still discussing with some of the other men and women there., and Geea and Beatrice were still loitering at the back.

Captain Kell couldn’t keep the distaste from his thoughts as he looked at the two of them. There was a prime example of toxic love if he had ever seen it. The two were clearly partnered or, at the very least, dating, but he had never seen two people who enjoyed pissing each other off as much as they did. WIth them there was plenty of jealousy and mistrust to go around. And as for Geea’s views on Drev religion, well they were backwards to say the least.

He had seem the same sort of fanaticism in certain shamed drev generals after the war, radical, and suicidal almost in nature.

She had no real idea what the meaning of the new law was.

As soon as he walked in the two women turned to look up at him, their arms crossed over their chests. Beatrice was playing with some big ass knives like that was likely to impress anyone, but really all he saw was some crazy asshole whose parents probably didn’t give her enough attention when she was a kid.

He sad down at the table.

Geea leaned forward expectantly.

“Setting course/”

He turned his head to look up at her, “Yes, setting course to whatever cesspit of corruption spawned you.”

Geea pulled back, “Excuse me, but we hired you for a job, not for insults.” One of her hands reached for the weapons on her belt, but Noble stepped forward spear at the ready. He was a good foot taller than she was, and he knew for a fact he was probably a better warrior. He had a natural talent for it.

He leaned back in his seat, “You hired me for a job and now expect me to fling my dead corpse at the Omen like my ship is going to be able to handle that.” he shook his head, “You hired me which means we are going to do this MY way, which means we are going to do it quiet, and we are going to do it proper. That means NONE of this comes back on me. If we show up at the omen right now and bust down their doors, we are going to get atomized by two platoons of marines and an entire clan of Drev. LEts not also forget that the Admiral Isn’t exactly going to be easy to just kill.” Captain Kell waved a hand wildly, “He has a fucking Drev SAINT on his crew, that is hardly something I think I want to deal with.” he shook his head, “No no, this is going to take me a lot longer to plan, and it is going to require a lot more material that I don’t already have.”

Geea bristled in impatience and indignation.

“I am not going to throw my life away for this mission, and if you want to push that, than I will throw you out of the airlock faster than you can say, “please captain, please I was just being a whiny little bitch.” The room was silent around Geaa’s seething, but he paid her no mind. She didn’t exactly scare him.

She was a minor player in the black market at best, and the way she moved told him she was no great shakes as a warrior either. Probably used to fighting humans so developed a habit of using brute force to overcome them with her height. As for Beatrice, he had a feeling that she made up for skill mostly in unpredictability and sheer fury.

Anyone can look scary if they scream real loud and flail their knives at you.

The way their crew behaved was enough to tell him as much. No one on the ship really respected them, and Geea ruled mostly out of ear, her men were not as loyal to her as she thought they might be, and he had a feeling that, for the right price, he could buy them off if he wanted.

He rested his palms flat against the table before him, “You understand if I am going to do this I am going to need all the right equipment. You want the man gone but I want it to look like some freak disappearance The last thing my crew needs is the long arm of the GA down on our heads.” he shook his head, “No we need to do this strategically, and we need to do this quietly, and we are going to start by getting the tech we need to pull this off without being seen.”

He turned to look at the two of them, “I am assuming that you two know where I can get those sorts of things…. Under the radar.”

Geea crossed her arms over her chest, “And YOU don’t. You are a pirate after all.”

“Yeah, I generally tend to STEAL from other people and sell it to middle men. I don’t generally tend to buy any of the goods.”

Geea stood, waiting for a long moment before finally uncurling her hands in annoyance, “Fine, Fine, but we make this quick.”

He nodded his head once and motioned her to continue on following her up and to the bridge where he watched her set a course.

He tried to make it look like he wasn’t watching her, but in the back of his mind he was quickly memorizing the coordinates that he saw appearing on screen. Granted he did have a bot installed that should copy it for him, but you can never trust technology to do exactly what you expect it to do.

When she was done, he moved forward and slid into the Captain’s chair, familiar with the machine as he prepared it for a warp sequence.

Despite him being very familiar with this ship, more than one time he found himself accidentally reaching for controls that weren’t there. He cursed his muscle memory, though he forced the ship into doing what he wanted, alerting the crew to the imminent warp before he could accidentally kill one of them by sheer freak accident.

Geea watched him from behind.

He knew she didn’t much like him.

That was fine by him. She wasn’t exactly the kind of person that he would want to be liked by.

They came out of warp a few moments later with a hard lurch through the internal dampeners were doing their job to avoid smearing him across the front windscreen like window pizza.

She walked up to stand beside him and rested her hand of the chair, the gesture reminded him of someone else, and it felt wrong to have her do it, though he tried not to show his discomfort.

“Just beyond that asteroid.”

Captain Kell raised an eyebrow. This was all very interesting. Here he was thinking they would end up back on Noctopolis, for he had been sure that that was the hub of all pirate activity in the universe, but he guessed not. As they came around another asteroid, his eyes fell on a large chunk of rock that must have been over ten miles wide in his shi[s estimation, and from here he could already see the hive of docking ports and extending protrusions built into the rock.

He blinked in awe at the glittering blue lights and the hive of activity surrounding the massive asteroid.

Ships flew in and out through open docking bays landing here and there on extending arms. Good were moved by silent crane arms through space as add ons were constantly being made by men in space suits scurrying over the rock. The palace was…. Amazing at the same time it was an absolute disaster of engineering. You would never see something like tat made by the GA or UNSC, but from here he could see plenty of influence from all parties.

As they flew closer, they were absolutely dwarfed by the massive rock, and it’s protruding arms. All around him he saw human building techniques, and Tesraki logos stamped on almost everything as they moved forward. Massive viewing screens were all around them doing advertisements on things would would never have seen on a location run by UNSC or GA interference.

The one to his right was some sort of bootleg pill for weightloss, while, on the other side, someone was advertising some kind of flamethrower. The screen above that was giving the specs for the newest design in railgun technology.

His eyes were wide as he stared at all of it, and his heart began to race fast inside his chest.

Now THIS was awesome.

Being a space pirate sure did have its perks.

Over the radio feed static rolled in and out as the broadcasts from the different advertisements tried to pick up his frequency.

But one voice came in clear and crisp above all others, “Unknown aircraft. Identify yourself.”

“This is the Infinity requesting docking.”

There was a momentary pause over the other end of the line, as their ship was likely scanned before, “Docking permission granted, please proceed to hanger E docking space 6.”

He did as ordered, flying his ship down to the entrance of the docking bay, where he was ordered to slow, and then a large mechanical hand grabbed them around the hull and pulled them further into the asteroid.

They were dragged inside a ways, though he could definitely have flown in himself, and eventually sat down on E6.

There was a sharp jolt as they made connection with the airlock, and he stood rom his spot, turning and walking past Geea and towards the cargo bay where his men were waiting. He looked at them each in turn, making slow eye contact with them.

“You know what to do?”

There was a nod as they recognized the true words behind his eye contact, and they quickly moved into pairs of two discussing which piece of “equipment” they were looking for. It likely wouldn’t take them long, but he didn’t expect that part of their mission to take that long anyway.

Following after them, he was accompanied by Geea, Beatrice and Noble as they walked out into the tube and finally, into the absolutely massive atrium of the hidden Pirate city.

He had to stop, he just couldn’t help it, it was like nothing he had ever seen before, and his mind just couldn’t wrap itself around the massive room full of people and billboards and holograms. There were railed transports on the floor, and there were vendors selling strange food at every turn. It might have been any normal metropolitan area if it weren’t for the sort of advertisements for weapons, and strange illegal creams.

There was one place that was advertising body modifications….. With a ten percent discount if you got the limb removed with them as well.

On another wall someone was advertising a new mechanical eye. The technology hadn’t been released to the public yet, but the features…. Well the features were amazing. He found himself dragged in and rendered mostly stunned. They had him hooked by the first demonstration.

He wanted a cool new mechanical eye.

But Geea grabbed him by the shoulder and shook him, “Aren’t we supposed to be doing something.”

Angrily he frowned and held up a hand turning on her with his eyes narrowed.

He prodded her in the chest in a show of dominance towards her. Letting her know that he wasn’t afraid of being insulted or intimidated by someone like her. To him she was nothing.

“Look, I’m not stupid. I know that this genius little assasination attempt wasn’t your idea, so right here and right now, you better take me to the asshole who set you up for this is you can color me gone. I don’t work through third parties.” He prodded her in the chest again with one finer, “I don’t trust them.”

The Drev stared down at him with absolute rage and consternation.

“Don’t touch me.” She hissed.

He prodded her again, “Just try and stop me.”

She reached for his hand, but he caught her by the wrist and twisted it. He knew the way Drev joints worked, so he knew exactly what NOT to do. She howled in pain and Beatrice moved forward to help, but a spear to her throat by Noble was enough to stop her in her tracks.

“Show me your boss, or your girlfriend becomes a kabob, your choice.”

There was a sharp growl and finally Geea agreed, taking her hand back with some measure of pain and annoyance, “Fine, fine…. Follow me.”

She stalked away grumpily and Noble kept an eye on beatrice as the were led further into the station.

The captain kept his head turning this way and that distracted by the bright and colorful ads, advertising things that he wanted, and some things that he didn’t.

To his surprise, more than once he saw advertisements for Iron eye Knockoffs. He would have dared get a procedure done on this back alley asteroid, but it was still quite shocking. This air of shock continued along with him as he was led down through the darkness and into the tight passages and tunnels of the Asteroid.

Eventually Geea stopped in front of a door and knocked once.

The camera above the door whirred and looked down at them. Geea waved to it and with a hiss it finally opened.

They were led into a small waiting room with pristine little couches as if he was expecting to see a doctor at any moment, but after a few minutes of sitting another door opened and they were allowed through into the next room.

Geea told him to stay put as she was led behind yet another door.

Not to be left Behind, Beatrice followed after, giving him the opportunity to slip over to the door and quickly deploy a small circular camera which used technology unknown to him to see through the door.

It streamed directly into his fake eye as he closed the real one, and glanced around the room.

He could hear voices, and enhanced the sound of his implants.

“Did you get the assassin.”

“Yes, but there have been some, hiccups.”

“What might that be?”

“He is insisting on meeting his employers.”

The voice seemed almost bored with the idiot pirates, “Then let him meet someone, he doesn’t have to know. Jerah over there will do just fine.”

He turned his fake eye towards the source of the voice falling on some sort of hologram. He quickly looked up just as Geea was turning back towards the door.

He managed to make it up to the person’s face, a Rundi, how str-

Then he froze in shock and disbelief.

Geea reached towards the door, and it was only with a swift movement he was able to pull his camera away in time an leap from the door as she stepped from the room.

He tried to keep the horror and shock on his face in check as he was led into the room to meet his “employer.”

He didn’t care though.

He knew the truth.

There was plenty of evidence on that camera. Evidence that the chairwoman of the GA had ordered his assassination.

227 notes · View notes

preciousthingsareprecious · 4 years

Text

Hearts Pounding and Blood Coursing

I am back with yet another D&d week fic! Is everything I write going to be set in Dick as Batman times? Maybe. Maybe. This one certainly is.

Dami Calls Dick “Baba” / First “I love you” / “You’re not my father!” “I am well aware.”

Summary: When Batman goes missing on patrol, it's up to Robin and Batgirl to track him down. Will they fall into the same trap he did, or make it out in one piece?

AO3 Link

The old warehouse looked ready to collapse in on itself any second. Damian wondered why Gotham was so littered with them. He’d told Grayson a hundred times that they needed to do something about them. Wayne Enterprises could surely step in and repair them or rebuild them or do anything to prevent them from becoming hives of villainy as they were wont to do in Gotham.

Grayson. Damian’s chest tightened. Grayson would not be able to talk Lucius into anything if they did not rescue him soon. The stupid man had gone on patrol alone and had not returned. Thus it was up to Batgirl and Robin to rescue him.

“You ready, Baby Bat?”

“Call me that again and I will paint that horrible motorbike of yours a garish shade of orange.” Damian snapped, less focused on coming up with proper revenge threats and more on finding his lost partner.

“Alright, remember the plan, you’ve got the window on the second floor and I’ve got the one on the first. We meet in the middle or wherever we find Batman.”

“I would not forget such a simple plan so soon after making it.” Damian replied, already pressing a gloved hand against the window in question to test it, “Now may we begin? Or would you like to chatter until whoever is inside parades Batman’s dead body out of the front door?”

“No, let’s go.” Brown replied.

Damian nodded, the glass was firm under his palm, not quite as ramshackle as the rest of the building. He slipped a laser cutter out of his belt and ran it across the edges of the window, and let it fall backwards into his palm.

“And Robin?” Brown added, as Damian was setting the glass aside, “Batman’s going to be just fine, okay?”

“Tt.” Damian responded, then added a quick, “I know. He will.” as if to convince himself of the fact as well.

He climbed in the window and dropped quietly into the building. Damian found himself in what looked like an office. An old desk stood off balance, titled down on a broken leg. Papers and overturned file cabinets took up most of the rest of the room, with huge windows that looked out over onto the warehouse floor below.

Damian slipped out of the door and into the hallway beyond it. He flicked a flashlight on to illuminate the dark interior and crept through, ears perked up for any sounds.

The whole building smelled of dust and mildew, and something else that was sharp and sour. Around him, the walls were covered in ancient cracked paint that might have once been white, but now looked more yellow than anything under the beam of the flashlight. Cracked and broken picture frames featuring staff, products, and some construction site Damian couldn’t recognize decorated the walls, and floor where some had fallen.

An eerie unsettled feeling crept it’s way into Damian’s head, tingling from the back to the front like cobwebs. He spun on his heel, the flashlight swinging wildly first behind him, then up to the ceiling to check for the source of the feeling.

Nothing. He was alone.

Slightly abashed, but still feeling odd, Damian turned again to continue down the hall. The feeling only seemed to increase as he walked. No doors presented themselves at first, which was strange. This building should have a number of offices in it.

Damian thought back to the blueprints he and Brown had analyzed a few hours earlier. Grayson had left them open on the Batcomputer. Their one big clue to where he’d gone.

There was one section of the building with a longer hall than others, but Damian had thought he hadn’t come in that way. Had he already gotten turned around? That quite simply wasn’t possible. He’d only been moving for a few minutes.

He slowed his pace, flashlight swinging from wall to wall as he carefully examined each one. No doors still. So he must have come in the other way. Perhaps his fretting over Grayson had caused the error. Mother had not been entirely incorrect in her assumption that feelings for another caused problems.

Still, Damian had decided that he was willing to fail a little more if it meant keeping Grayson in his life.

The further into the building Damian moved the worse it smelled. The sour, acrid, scent that had been mostly hidden under mold and disuse gradually became the prevailing one. Damian scrunched his nose at it, and tried to figure out where he knew it from. It tickled his memory, like something he should know and made the hair on his arms raise.

So far, he had heard nothing from Batgirl. Though, that was a good sign. They had decided to keep the comms silent until they found something or needed immediate assistance. They had no idea what Batman had run into in this warehouse, nor how he had been taken down. It was best not to draw too much attention to ones self, and wasting time with pointless updates or incessant chatter would be just that.

He could have sworn he’d seen the same picture of the construction site three times now. But, no he was probably just seeing things. Mistaking the weird old building and land for something else in the dim light.

With every step that unsettling feeling grew stronger, until at last, he came across a door.

Damian should have been relieved seeing it, but the anxious feeling only grew as he reached out to turn the knob.

Slowly he eased the door open, and peered into the room, listening for any sounds of occupation. When no lights flared on or voices sounded he took a step into the room.

The smell here was far worse than it had been in the hallway, as if something inside were the source of it. Damian gulped back bile and stepped further inside, his flashlight held ahead of him like a shield.

As he did so, the world swayed sideways. Damian blinked, trying to clear his vision, but the room still seemed skewed to the side.

He took another step forward and all at once the memory of the smell hit him. Fear toxin. Not as strong or as tick as he was used to, and still masked with unknown notes but Crane’s toxin all the same.

He reached up to alert Brown of the situation and tapped the comm unit in his ear, comforted by the fact that the usual hum of connection reached his ear.

Before he could say a word though, something cracked against the back of his skull and his world went black.

When Damian came to, it was slow and plagued by shadows cast over everything from the back of his eyelids to the ceiling above him. He blinked at the ancient popcorned paint and yelped as all at once it seemed to morph into staves, razor sharp and now raining down on him.

Damian shot up from where he lay, and found himself not impaled by a hundred sharpened stalactites of paint but simply faced with a throbbing headache and hands bound in front of him.

He sat, just breathing for a few moments and staring down at the cuffs and his gloves. After a moment the nightmare faded, but left that same lingering uncomfortable feeling he’d gotten on entering the hallway. Fear, he now recognized it as, not the overwhelming fear Crane’s toxins were best known for, but something more subtle. Like waiting on the jump scare in a movie.

The room didn’t smell of the toxin, and Damian assumed what he was feeling was lingering effects from what he’d breathed in earlier, and not a new dose.

The lighting in the room was provided by a dim bulb hanging from the ceiling which Damian glared at. Of course Crane would be so predictable as to make the room he’d been placed in creepy in the most cliched of ways.

His gaze travelled down from it and across the mostly bare room. More yellowed walls, cracked with age, and decorated with dreary photos resided here. And then there was—

“Batman.” Damian breathed.

Grayson lay in a crumpled heap in the center of the room. Damian had been dropped in at the back, either before his brother had been returned or Crane had purposely carried him over the unconscious body of his partner. And Grayson had better only be unconscious or Crane would feel Damian’s wrath unleashed fully against him without hesitation.

Damian scoffed at the flimsy cuffs Crane had put on him and picked the lock quickly. The villain had not even bothered to attempt to remove Damian’s belt or other gear.

Soon he was up on unsteady legs, much to his displeasure, and then taking the few strides needed to reach his Batman.

He crouched beside him and began his examination of his partner. The first thing he noticed was the rise and fall of Grayson’s chest. Then his eyes caught sight of the variety of bruises coloring his chin, how his lips were split and swollen, and the various rips and tears littering the Batsuit. One lense of his cowl was broken out and Damian could see another ugly black bruise over his closed eye.

Crane had not wasted a moment with Batman it seemed. Something he would pay for if Damian had the opportunity to avenge Grayson. But first, he needed to get his brother out of here and inform Brown of the true danger lurking in the warehouse.

This time when he activated his comms no one bashed him over the head.

“Batgirl.” He said, keeping his voice low, “Scarecrow is here. He has incapacitated Batman and locked us in a room together. I will do my best to get him out, but I would do better with your assistance.”

As much as he despised asking for help, Damian was not a fool. He could not both carry Grayson and defend him if Crane returned. Batgirl’s backup would be key in them all getting out of there alive, and in potentially apprehending Crane.

“I will be right back.” Damian promised Grayson, then stood.

There was only one door in the room, and Damian moved towards it. He was careful in his examination, wary both of traps and his mind playing tricks on him. He was far too lucid for the earlier gas to have been pure fear toxin, but he could not discount it having lingering effects beyond what he had experienced waking up.

He tried not to wonder if any of this was real or fake. He was sure now he’d imagined the hallway being longer than it was. If that was false, what else might he be seeing that was a lie? What if he was hallucinating his Batman being there, beaten and bruised? What if something worse lingering outside the door?

What made it worse, was the fact that with Crane lurking it was highly likely a nightmare was waiting for them, real or imagined.

It didn’t matter. Damian couldn’t be frozen by what ifs. His Batman was hurt and needed him. Grayson needed him to act like this was real and keep moving.

The door was not locked. Of course it wasn’t. This trap was turning into an even deeper trap with every minute longer they stayed. It made the fear in his chest twist into dread. A cold sharp worry right between his ribs.

Damian swung the door open right into more darkness. He growled, this was getting ridiculous. The one thing he no longer had on him was his flashlight, dropped when he’d been foolish enough to get knocked out.

Fine, he had other light sources he could work with. And if he had to walk in the dark he would. Brown was surely on her way, even if she had not responded to him yet.

He turned back to Grayson to crouch beside his brother.

“Batman?” Damian prompted, shaking Grayson’s shoulder gently, “I would much prefer it if you were mildly conscious and were not complete dead weight.”

He prayed that the Grayson who woke up was both sensible and toxin free. It was a hope he thought might be in vain, but based on his own experience with Crane’s toxin tonight the man seemed to be testing a new strain. It seemed less all encompassing and more designed to disorient and instill a quiet, constant, fear of a more general nature.

His brother groaned.

“That’s it.”

Damian’s encouragement seemed to help drag Grayson back to the surface. So much that he watched a bleary blue eye blink open through the shattered cowl lense. Grayson’s eye was bloodshot, but his iris looked normal. Well, normal enough for a possibly concussed, probably drugged, and definitely beaten, Batman.

“Come on Batman, we need to go.” Damian said, tugging at one of Grayson’s arms.

His brother mumbled something incoherent, but allowed himself to be dragged up from where he’d been curled. It took some effort, but eventually Damian had Grayson awkwardly positioned over his back like some kind of kevlar covered sloth. One arm draped over Damian’s shoulder, fingers brushing against his uniform, with the other was held tightly in Damian’s hand.

He tapped his R insignia to light it up. The beam was pathetic compared to his flashlight, but it was all he had right now unless he wanted to waste time searching Batman’s belt for a flashlight that might or might not be there.

On Damian’s first step forward, Grayson seemed to be putting in some effort to push himself with his feet. By the time they made it out the door, and took a random left down the hallway, he was already flagging.

Damian grit his teeth and bit back a complaint. Even this situation was better than the alternative. Damian would drag Grayson for miles over dealing with him under the influence of fear toxin the way it normally worked.

He hefted Grayson a little higher against his back from where he’d slipped. His brother’s chin rested on his shoulder, and Damian could feel his breath against his neck. He felt Grayson’s breath pick up, as he stirred back to wakefulness.

“What’re we doing?” he asked, voice thick with exhaustion.

“We are escaping a trap you fell into.” Damian explained.

Grayson tried to pull away, “S’not safe. You have to go.”

He was thrashing now, so much so Damian had to stop moving forward just to keep him held up.

“Stop fighting me and we will! If we do not keep moving we will be in even more danger--idiot!”

Grayson had thrown himself off Damian’s back, and thumped against the floor with an oof. After a moment he flipped over to look up at Damian, a deep frown on his lips.

“Batman!” Damian snapped, then realized, that perhaps he had been wrong in his assumption that Grayson was not dealing with toxin effects.

He was a fool. He should have given Grayson a shot of the anti-toxin the moment he found him.

“Calm down.” Damian said, lowering his voice to something soothing, “You are injured and drugged, and if you do not listen you may hurt yourself worse.”

Grayson pushed himself up on his palms, wincing, “You need to leave, Scarecrow is here and he’s after Batman.”

He nodded, kneeling beside Grayson, “I know. You need to let me give you a dose of the anti-toxin, and then we are leaving.”

“Don’t tell me what to do.”

Damian blinked at him, surprised by the sudden petulance in Grayson’s voice. It sounded a bit like Drake when he was disagreeing with Grayson.

Careful, Damian slipped a vial of anti-toxin out of his belt, and popped off the lid. He held it out so Grayson could see it.

“Okay. I am not telling you what to do, simply asking. Will you let me give you this? It will help you feel better.”

Grayson shook his head, lips going from a frown into a pucker. Is this how everyone felt when Damian was being difficult? He would have to keep that in mind in the future. Grayson was a saint for putting up with his antics longer than the ten seconds Damian had been dealing with Grayson’s.

“Listen. We need to get moving. If we stay here much longer we’re going to get caught. You need to let me do this.”

Damian reached out to take Grayson’s arm. He was just about to press the syringe between a tear in the uniform when Grayson yanked his arm back.

“You’re not my father!” He shouted, sounding almost just like Damian had heard himself sound a hundred times when he’d still been wary of his brother.

“I am well aware.” Damian frowned, furrowing his brow.

It felt very strange to him to imagine Grayson seeing Father in Damian. It was a complicated feeling that made his chest feel tight like he was about to cry. It was also something he could not linger on for long. Grayson was not in his right mind, and every moment they sat there on the floor was another moment Crane could find them in.

More than that, it was frightening. A word Damian did not use often or lightly. Seeing Grayson like this was...wrong. Grayson should not be childish. He should not be so confused he saw Father in Damian. For one they were nowhere near the same height. For the other, well, Damian did not think himself worthy of being compared that closely with his Father yet. Perhaps ever.

But it was more unsettling to see Grayson so helpless. So disarmed by this drug in his system. Damian did not like it, and he wished to right this wrong as soon as possible. He resolved himself to get the anti-toxin into Grayson’s veins now, no matter how the man fought him.

Of course, that’s when he heard it. The creek of a footstep on the wood paneling in front of him.

“Stay down.” Damian said, standing, then added, “Please.”

He didn’t wait for Grayson to respond. Instead he spun on his heel, trading the syringe in his hand for a batarang.

A few feet before him, Crane stopped in his tracks. Even illuminated by Damian's dim light he could see the man wore his typical scarecrow mask, and carried a scythe in between his palms.

“Hello, Little Bird.” Crane sang, “I see you found your bat.”

“Tt. He was not hard to miss.” Damian said, bracing himself.

Crane hefted the scythe, pointing it towards them, “Of course. I was hoping you’d be a little more impacted by the sight and not run off so quickly. You’re a hard bird to frighten. Do you know how much toxin I pumped into that hallway earlier?”

Damian shrugged, “I don’t care. In fact, I’ve had enough of your blabbering.”

He threw one then two batarangs at Crane watching the man deflect one with the scythe, and dodge the other.

Crane tsked him, stalking forward. “Not so fast, Bird Boy. I have a bone to pick with your mentor first.”

“No.” Damian growled, brandishing a third batarang in his hands, “Keep moving and I will end you.”

“Doubtful.” Crane said, his mask pulling up into a smirk, “Bats don’t kill.”

“Batman doesn’t kill.” Damian corrected him, “You touch him again and I will not hesitate to take you down.”

Crane chuckled, and took a step forward, only to yelp, then jerk as if he were being shocked. When he collapsed forward, Damian saw the source of his sudden strangeness. Batgirl stood, taser held forward, a blinding grin on her face.

“I had it covered!” Damian protested.

“You’re welcome.” she said, already moving to zip tie Scarecrow.

“Tt.” Damian said, and opened his mouth to argue further, but was stopped by a hand on his ankle.

“Damian?”

He turned, and found Grayson leaned forward just enough he could grab Damian. He was looking confused, and concerned mouth turned down and eye worried. Damian’s heart skipped a beat. Grayson had heard him say he’d kill Crane. Damian would not break his promise, not with Grayson safely behind him, but he’d also been furious with Crane and ready to defend his Batman however he needed to.

Dread pooled in his stomach. What if Grayson thought Damian serious? What if he--He did not have time to worry about that right now. They needed to get him home and taken care of. Batman’s health was his priority, not how he viewed Damian.

“It’s alright.” Damian said, voice dropping back to a careful softness he hoped would soothe an toxin induced reactions, “We are leaving.”

Damian knelt again by Grayson’s side, and began the process of trying to help him up. Thankfully, Brown was here. Once she’d finished with Crane, she added her own strength to Grayson’s other side, and together they carried him out of there.

The exit was surprisingly close, and soon Damian was settled in the back of the Batmobile beside his Batman. While Brown drove, Damian held Grayson's hand and did his best to explain the rescue to his brother. At some point, however, Grayson passed out again, tilted over, and against Damian. It was not an unpleasant feeling being the one Grayson trusted enough to fall asleep against.

Pennyworth took over when they got home, and Grayson was, mercifully, mostly fine. Bruised, battered, and unconscious, but he’d be fine. That knowledge eased some of the tension in Damian’s chest.

Both Grayson and Damian received doses of anti-toxin. The way it almost immediately started to make Damian feel better hinted that he'd been more effected than he'd first assumed. Damian would never voice it, but he was grateful for Brown's save. He wasn't sure how well he would have done in a true fight against Crane in that cramped hallway.

He showered quickly then planted himself at Grayson’s side, ignoring Pennyworth’s suggestion that he should lay down and rest his own bruised head while he waited for the anti-toxin to completely remove the lingering feelings of fear in his system. Sitting was just as good as laying, and this way he could keep an eye on his brother. Brown offered to stay, but Damian waved her upstairs along with Pennyworth. He’d be fine keeping an eye on Grayson, while they moved for a cup of victory cocoa, or tea in Pennyworth’s case.

There was no victory for Damian tonight. Not until his brother woke up and he knew he was fine.

Even being home, and not in the middle of some wild trap, Damian still couldn’t get over Grayson being so vulnerable. It was wrong. His Batman could be an idiot, but he was also competent and strong and worthy of respect. He was not helpless or so confused he viewed a child as Batman.

So Damian held vigil.

He played on his phone, opening up a mindless game he could pass the time with while still being able to keep one eye on his brother. Unfortunately, Damian ended up getting kind of wrapped up in a particularly hard level. It took a solid ten minutes for him to clear it, and when he looked up again it was into bright blue eyes, totally aware of where they were and who they were watching. Damian’s cheeks flushed.

“Grayson.” he said, dropping his phone into his lap and straightening.

As he did, his phone slipped off his thigh and smacked onto the floor with a loud thump. Damian stared down at it for a moment, briefly considering leaning down to pick it up. Instead he planted his fists in his lap and looked back up at Grayson.

“I am glad to see you have awoken.”

His brother’s lips quirked into a wry smile, “You would have seen a bit earlier if you hadn’t been so focused on, Candy Crush?”

“Angry Birds.” Damian muttered, cheeks still hot.

He leaned forward to examine his brother. He couldn’t say Grayson looked too much better, but the split skin on his forehead was cleaned and closed with a butterfly bandage, and his lips were looking less swollen. His expression, happy and open is what was truly improved.

“You are looking better.” he said, “I’m glad.”

“I’m feeling better.” Grayson responded, “Wanna give me a run down of what happened? My memory is spotty at best.”

Damian kicked his feet up onto the bar on the bottom of his chair, “When you did not return by morning Brown and I began to make a plan for your rescue.”

Grayson nodded, “You found me?”

If his cheeks were not already red they would have blushed again, he shook his head, “Crane got the drop on me. I am not sure what he was planning, however it seems my intent on getting you out upset his plans.”

“We were moving down a hallway--” Grayson stopped, his eyes widening, “Oh, Dames I’m sorry. I was the worst wasn’t I?”

Damian tilted his head, “What do you mean?”

“I kept seeing Bruce, and for some reason I was mad at him.” Grayson ran his hand through his hair, “That was you, right?”

“You were not too much trouble.” Damian shrugged, “In fact you may have helped prevent Crane successfully sneaking up on us again. In the end, Brown saved us both.”

He wanted to ask if Grayson remembered the actual confrontation, but at the same time Damian was not sure he wanted to know. He almost squirmed, but held back. Robin did not squirm.

“Thanks for coming after me.” Grayson said, reaching a hand out to Damian.

After a moment, Damian took it.

“I am glad you are okay.” he said, “I--did not like seeing you injured.”

“I bet. You sounded pretty angry.”

Damian wasn’t sure how to respond. He tapped his heel on the wood under his foot.

Grayson squeezed his hand, “It was sweet, you threatening him.”

“You--” Damian spoke before he thought about it.

“I?”

He swallowed, “You did not think I was serious, right?”

“You promised me you wouldn’t kill, right? I believed you then, and now.”

Damian nodded, “Of course. He should not have hurt you.” he added, again losing the words before he thought about them.

Grayson slipped his hand out of Damian’s to reach up and brush it through Damian’s hair.

“You either.”

“Tt, do not be so sentimental. It is foolish.”

There was that smile again, “I think I have the right to be sentimental. My baby brother and basically little sister came running to my rescue.”

Grayson reached for Damian’s hands with both of his, “In fact, I’ll be a little more sentimental.” he pulled Damian forward, “Join me? I’m tired and I don’t want to be alone. Plus I doubt Alfred’s going to let me trek upstairs until at least tomorrow.”

Damian rolled his eyes, but allowed himself to be tugged forward, “Fine.” he relented, “but only because Robin must make sure Batman rests properly.”

#dickanddamiweek2021 #Dick Grayson #Damian Wayne #Stephanie Brown #hurt/comfort #canon typical violence #fear toxin #scarecrow is here for like 2.1 seconds #precious posts

60 notes · View notes

user-2-electric-boogaloo · 4 years

Text

A Comparison of RTD and Steven Moffat: Saving The Day

So for this analysis I’m going to compare when Moffat and RTD save the day well and when they save it poorly. There are a few bits of criteria I need to explain.

First I will only be including main series, no Torchwood, no spin-offs, and no mini episodes.

Second, I have to define what makes a good and a bad ending (my examples will come from episodes written by neither of them):

Bad endings include when the sonic saves the day (see The Power Of Three) (there are exceptions, see below), when a character spouts some useless technobabble that doesn’t make any scientific sense/when it doesn’t make logical sense in general, when the Doctor invents/presents a machine/equipment that miraculously stops the baddy and is never referred to again (see Journey To The Centre Of The TARDIS), and any other ending I deem to be bad (see The Vampires of Venice)

Good endings include when the sonice activates a device that has been well established to save the day, when technobabble is used that actually makes some scientific sense, and just generally when the baddy is destroyed in what I deem to be a creative manner that makes sense with all the things that had been set up in that episode (see The Unquiet Dead).

There will also be cases where there isn’t really a day to be saved, however this happens more often with Moffat.

Let us begin (obviously there will be spoilers but the last episode in the list aired nearly 4 years ago so what you doing with your life).

RTD:

Rose: Bad

What even is anti-plastic?! Like seriously, he’s faced the Autons loads of times and has never thought to use it any other time.

The End Of The World: Bad

The Doctor just goes up to the appearance of the repeated meme (ha meme) and rips its arm off. He then just summons Cassandra back by twisting a knob which apparently everyone can do if “you’re very clever like me”.

Aliens Of London/World War Three: Good

Just nuking them all was a bit dodgy but I’ll give it to him purely because it had been set up earlier in the episode and it is a genuine option that could have been taken.

The Long Game: Good

The heating issue was set up within 2 minutes of the episode starting. It’s always good to see the Doctor using his enemies weakness against them.

Boom Town: Good

Only just. It’s technology that hadn’t been showcased ever before and came out of nowhere, but I’m allowing purely because it was setting up The Parting Of The Ways.

Bad Wolf/The Parting Of The Ways: Good

See above. It was set up the story before so it works.

The Christmas Invasion: Bad

This was so close to being good. If RTD had just let the Sycorax leader be honourable then everything would have been fine. Instead he had to let him be dishonourable and then the Doctor through the Satsuma at a random button that for no apparent reason caused a bit of floor to fall away.

New Earth: Bad

It only makes sense if you think about it for less than 10 seconds as just pouring every cure to every disease ever into a giant tub and then spraying said supercure onto them all, then having them hug each other to pass it on. That is suspending my disbelief just a bit too far.

Tooth And Claw: Good

Everything is set up in the episode so I’ll allow it but I fail to see how Prince Albert had the time to ensure that the diamond was cut perfectly.

Love And Monsters: Bad

It’s Love And Monsters. Need I say more?

Army of Ghosts/Doomsday: Good

It was very clearly set up throughout the episode.

The Runaway Bride: Bad

I don’t like how a few bombs can supposedly drain the entire Thames.

Smith And Jones: Good

All the events were well established

Gridlock: Good

It’s a fairly bland way to save the day, just opening the surface to all the drivers. But how else could he have done it?

Utopia/The Sound Of Drums/Last Of The Time Lords: Bad

As much as I like the idea that he tuned himself into the archangel network, he basically turned into Jesus. It is arguably the least convincing ending in modern Doctor Who history.

Voyage Of The Damned: Bad

Why was he the next highest authority? If he’s the highest authority in the universe why didn’t they default to him in the first place? If not then why not default to Midshipman Frame? And if he’s somehow in between them then why? Also Astrid killed herself for no reason when she easily could have jumped out of the forklift.

Partners In Crime: Good

It works in the context of the episode, but I don’t see why they needed two of the necklace things.

Midnight: Good

It’s human nature, you can’t get more well set up than that.

Turn Left: Good

It works logically

The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End: Bad

Donna just spouts a load of technobabble whilst pressing buttons and then the Daleks are magically incapacitated.

The Next Doctor: Bad

Why do the infostamps sever Hartigan’s connection with the Cyberking? As far as I remember it ain’t explained.

Planet Of The Dead (co-written with noted transphobe Gareth Roberts): Good

A good couple scenes are dedicated on getting the anti-gravs set up.

The Waters Of Mars (co-written with Phil Ford): N/A

The day isn’t really saved cause everyone still dies anyway.

The End Of Time: Good

Using a gun to destroy a machine is much better than using the sonic to destroy it.

Summary for RTD:

Out of 24 stories written by him, I deem 10 to be bad endings with 1 abstaining. That’s 41.7% of his episodes (43.5% if we don’t count any abstaining).

Steven Moffat:

The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances: Good

You’ll see this a lot with Moffat, he knows how to explain things without stupefying levels of technobabble. “Emailing the upgrade” is a perfect example of this.

The Girl In The Fireplace: Good

Some basic logic, the androids want to repair their ship, but they can’t return to it, they no longer have a function so they shut down.

Blink: Good

Always loved this one, getting the angels to look at each other, however they do look at each other sometimes earlier in the episode.

Silence In The Library/Forest Of The Dead: Bad

This is more of a problem with the setup of the episode, I don’t like that he can negotiate with the Vashta Nerada. I’d rather see them comprehensively beaten, but I guess it’s good for the scare factor that they can’t be escaped from.

The Eleventh Hour: Good

He convinced the best scientists all around the world to set every clock to 0 all in less than an hour. In the Doctor’s own words “Who da man!”

The Beast Below: Good

The crying child motif pretty much ended up saving the day (well for the star whale, life went on as normal for pretty much everyone else).

The Time Of Angels/Flesh And Stone: Good

The artificial gravity had briefly been set up earlier so I’ll allow it.

The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang: Good

Everything had been set up perfectly, the vortex manipulator, the Pandorica’s survival field thingy, the TARDIS exploding at every moment in history.

A Christmas Carol: Good

Literally the entire episode is the Doctor saving the day by convincing Kazran not to be a cock.

The Impossible Astronaut/Day Of The Moon: Good

The silence’s ability to influence people is their whole thing, so using it against them is a good Doctory thing to do.

A Good Man Goes To War: N/A

The day isn’t really saved, Melody is lost, but River shows up at the end so is all fine? I love the episode it’s just the day isn’t really truly saved (yes I know Amy was rescued but she still lost her baby).

Let’s Kill Hitler: N/A

There isn’t really a day to be saved. They all get out alive but no one is really saved other than maybe River but we all knew she was gonna live anyway.

The Wedding Of River Song: Good

Whilst opinion is divided on the episode, the ending still works. the Tesseracta was established in Let’s Kill Hitler, and the “touch River and time will move again” was established well in advance.

The Doctor, The Widow And The Wardrobe: Bad

I don’t like how the lifeboat travels through the time vortex for no reason but to rescue the dad. It don’t make no sense and I don’t think it’s explained

Asylum Of The Daleks: Good

Oswin had access to the Dalek hive mind so of course she should be able to link into the controls and blow everything up.

The Angels Take Manhattan: Good

Paradoxes really do be something powerful, and they even acknowledge how nobody knows if it’d work so I’ll let it slide.

The Snowmen: Bad

Lots of people cry at Christmas, why are the Latimers anything special?

The Bells of Saint John: Good

The whole episode is about hacking so why shouldn’t the Doctor be able to hack the spoonheads

The Name Of The Doctor: Good

It was the story arc for the season pretty much, so of course it was explained well in advance.

The Day Of The Doctor: Good

Both the storing Gallifrey like a painting and the making everyone forget if they’re Human or Zygon works in the context of the episode.

The Time Of The Doctor: Bad

Since when were the Time Lords so easily negotiated with?

Deep Breath: Good

I like the dilemma over whether the half-face man was pushed or jumped.

Into The Dalek: Good

It’s set up well with this new Doctor’s persona of actually not being too nice of a guy (at first).

Listen: N/A

There isn’t a day to be saved. It’s just 45 minutes of the Doctor testing a hypothesis and I low-key love it.

Time Heist (co-written with Steven Thompson): Good

It works logically so I’ll allow it however it isn’t very well set up at all.

The Caretaker (co-written with noted shithead Gareth Roberts): Good

The machine to tell the Blitzer what to do was set up well in advance so I’ll allow it.

Dark Water/Death In Heaven: Good

The fact that Danny still cares even as a cyberman is set up fairly early on after his transformation.

Last Christmas: Good

He does use the sonic to wake up Clara but he convinces the others to wake up through talking so I’ll allow it.

The Magician’s Apprentice/The Witch’s Familiar: Good

It’s set up well with that little scene from actually inside the sewers.

The Girl Who Died (co-written with Jamie Mathieson): Good

IDK why the vikings would randomly keep electric eels but they’re set up well so I’ll ignore it.

The Zygon Inversion (co-written with Peter Harness): N/A

Not including this one as it’s only the second part and I’d argue the ending is most likely Harness’.

Heaven Sent/Hell Bent: N/A

Again there isn’t really a day to be saved, yes Heaven Sent really is amazing but it’s only the first part and, being completely honest, he dies several billion times before finally getting through the wall.

The Husbands Of River Song: N/A

Again there isn’t really a day to be saved here.

The Return Of Doctor Mysterio: Good

He gets Grant to catch the bomb which is good. But he does just sonic the gun out of Dr Sim’s hand and says UNIT is on its way which just sort of wraps it up very quickly.

The Pilot: N/A

No day to be saved here.

Extremis: Good

You could technically call it the sonic saving the day, I consider it to be the Doctor emailing the Doctor to warn him of the future.

The Pyramid At The End Of The World: Good

The fire sanitising everything makes sense and it’s in character for Bill to love the Doctor enough to cure his blindness in return for the world

World Enough And Time/The Doctor Falls: Good

Yes it is the sonic just blowing the cybermen up, but it’s blowing them up with well established pipelines so I’ll allow it (also the story is amazing).

Twice Upon A Time: N/A

No day to be saved here. Just Doctors 1 and 12 getting angsty about regenerating.

Summary for Steven Moffat:

Out of 39 stories written by him, I deemed 4 to be bad with 7 abstaining. That’s 10.3% of his episodes (12.5% if we don’t count any abstaining).

Conclusions:

Moffat was much better at saving the day than RTD

Moffat liked telling stories where the day didn’t actually need to be saved

I’ve spent way too long on this and I need to sleep

If I spent as much time on this as my coursework I’d probably pass

If you’re still reading this, you probably need to get a life

#doctor who #steven moffat #rtd #in case you can't tell I really don't like RTD #Remember the Superwholock days when everyone ripped the shit out of Moffat #what am I doing with my life #tardis #rose tyler #martha jones #donna noble #amy pond #rory pond #rory williams #river song #clara oswald #Bill Potts

56 notes · View notes

invisiburu · 4 years

Text

In defense of Mia Winters

She lied

Yes, she does lie to Ethan about her job. To keep both Ethan and herself safe from The Connection itself and its rivals as well as not involving Ethan in her line of work. Lying is terrible to any relationship but it seems her lie was only about her job for their sake of their safety. You may hate her here.

Facts: Mia’s lies was only before the game started. She did not spout a single lie at any point in time during the event of RE7.

Proof? She really does not remember anything except a little tid bit here and there due to Eveline messing with her mind. That is one of the big plot of Mia section on the boat. Even Eveline’s line explicitly says “You need to remember”

So if you keep saying she’s annoying and always lying and hiding throughout the game, well F**k You!

She was bio-terrorist

That is correct. She does worked for The Connection, a crime syndicate involving creation and trade for bio-weapon. However, her motives and reason she was working there remains unknown. Hopefully will be explained later in Village. Until then i’m giving her the benefit of a doubt and allow you to hate here

Responsible

1. Unlike any other RE antagonist, Mia actually tried her best to deal with problem at hand. After Eveline gotten loose, she immediately spring into action to find and stop Eveline on the ship.

2. The moment she was rescued by the Bakers, she wrote them a letter to warn them with what strength she had left.

https://residentevil.fandom.com/wiki/Mia%27s_Letter_to_the_Bakers

3. Both she and Zoe worked together to help those who were kidnap by the Bakers in order for them to escape.

4. After she cuts off Ethan’s arm under Eveline’s control with the chainsaw, most people seems to not notice or pay attention to her line saying “ It's my job... must... contain... outbreak! I promise... must burn it all down!” and during the attic fight, “They’re relying on me. Everyone is relying on me. Everyone.”

She continued trying her best to fight off Eveline’s influence and saved the Bakers as well the other victims even this whole time despite not remembering who or what Eveline even was. She really just fight her way to save these innocent people without knowing why

Fact: Yes, I repeat, she don’t even remember who or what Eveline was.

Proof? The boat ship section again. She literally asked Eveline “what are you?”

Kindness

Mia is actually genuinely a kind person and very humane.

1. Even after her fellow colleague, Alan Droney who was the one who actually at fault for letting Eveline out in the first place. She still wanted to try to save him.

Actually, scratch that, its not exactly Alan fault but rather it was Eveline’s own plan to escape all along.

This twitter post has translated some Resident Evil 7 Kaitai Shinsho or the official book for Resident Evil 7

https://twitter.com/project_umb/status/1269136222363975682

and here is the link for the translation: http://projectumbrella.net/articles/BIOHAZARD-7-resident-evil-Kaitai-Shinsho

2. Also another point for Mia’s kindness as she seems to actually care about Eveline’s loneliness and not just outright called her a demon like everyone else pointed her out to be.

3. Despite Ethan gave serum to Mia, she still cares about Zoe and asked her to come along with them

Love and Devotion

She actually really does love Ethan and especially wants him to be safe and live a good life even without her.

1. Knowing her demise, she immediately send Ethan a stay away message as she knew he will come looking for her. In fact, she goes even further to say forget about her and moved on.

Just in case, you all forgot about the Baker scene in the hive mind thing? It was Eveline who’s the one controlling Mia to send out email message to Ethan to come get her.

2. Instead of finishing Ethan off after his hand was stabbed with the knife. she manage to gain control of herself and smack her head on the wall till it knocks her out to allow Ethan to escape. Ethan’s would be death count + 1

3. First fight: She tried her hardest on fighting off Eveline’s influence when she was forced to attack Ethan. Else Ethan would have died immediately after she attack him at the guest house. Her lines includes, “Leave me!” “Go home” “Leave” “I don’t want to hurt you!”

At the end of the fight, after being struck down by the axe, she returned to normal state and tried to reach out to him as she fall.

4. After she cuts off Ethan’s arm with the chainsaw, rather than just kill him off immediately, she throw him and walk away trying to regain control of herself and cue the “It's my job... must... contain... outbreak! I promise... must burn it all down!” line. Ethan’s would be death count + 2

5. Second fight: Again, she tried her hardest on fighting off Eveline’s influence when she was forced to attack Ethan once more in the attic. Again her lines includes the previous lines from the first fight with addition of “Forget about me!” “I can never leave!” “I don’t want your pity!” to encourage Ethan to leave her there. At the end of the fight, as she dropped she said “I love you”

Now here’s a part where everyone and i mean EVERYONE missed out on.

READ HERE FIRST! This part is a GOD DAMN FLASHBACK! Ethan is not getting any damage whatsoever by these flashback and it fleshes out Mia’s devotion even more

Please do yourself a favour and watch this video or replay this section again.

youtube

This video itself missing one more Mia flashback. However to see all the flashback you have to follow these steps

go to attic -> trigger eveline scene downstairs -> fuse room -> back to attic.

6. The whole ship section. Mia’s ultimate goal here is to find Ethan and set him free. However, since the serum is of D-series is not exactly meant for the E-series. She only manage to hold off Eveline’s control a bit longer. So what she did? Immediately after freeing Ethan from the mold she gave him the E-series sample tissue and pushed him out of the door and locked herself in sacrificing herself to save her husband’s life.

If you keep saying you hate her because she cut off Ethan’s arm ON PURPOSE, well F**k You!

Regret and Starting Over

1. Most from what I see in internet is that everyone wants her to go to jail. Normally, I would agree but consider this. She was already punished hard as she was being trapped in hell of the Baker’s estate. If you have to choose between life time of prison or 3 years of hell, I bet your damn ass you would choose life time of prison. Besides, what is the purpose of prison in the first place.

The 4 reason for prison are:

Deter crime - so that one may not likely to do it again after release

Issuing punishment - to someone who commit serious crime

Personal reform - Change the person from bad to good

Protect the public

For someone like Mia, I’m very sure she learned her lesson the hardest way possible. If I were her, or anyone else in her shoes, I would damn well be a good citizen and start over, turning over a new leaf. And guess what she does?

2. She is one(perhaps the only one) of the key person to take down the The Connection. Chris, BSAA and Blue Umbrella Corp aren’t stupid and their clean up crew would look to all the nooks and cranny of the whole Baker estate, Mine field and the ship. Mia’s order from The Connection was left intact in the safe room inside the ship. So Mia cannot lie or pretend to not know. I’m positively sure that Mia would let Chris knows all of intel she know of The Connection she had in return for her freedom and witness protection. and that’s how and why they live peacefully in Romania in the first place.

CONCLUSION

Now I know, I can’t change your mind if you really just not fond of her. But what I’m trying to say here, if you want to hate or dislike her at least hate/dislike her properly and not just blind hate for the sake of hating. They just hate because they want to hate and it just pisses me off.

#mia winters #ethan winters #resident evil #justice for mia #defending mia #i'll die on this hill #stop the blind hate #at least hate with proper reason #please capcom let her live so she can redeem herself #if she have to die at least let her die after she redeem herself #mia x ethan #mithan

40 notes · View notes

kai-borg · 3 years

Text

Tisane - Tea party AU

Tisane was yet another of the Pale King’s countless failed children creations, why? Because they had mind to think, a will to break, they were a Vessel too impure to be his Hollow Knight that would contain the Radiance and finally halt the spread of her wrathful infection amongst his subjects.

In fact Tisane was so impure a Vessel they failed in all three of his rulings, because had they made it to the king they would have had voice enough to scream in pain, well, realistically more likely let out a choked whimper, as the Pale King snapped their neck, impaled them on a spear of light, or killed them in whatever way he chose to do to those Vessels that managed to pass his trials and stand before him but were too impure for their task, before throwing them back down into the pit of their other failed sibling’s bodies.

In a way Tisane was almost fortunate in the way that their early fate was laid out, as it meant they never even had the chance to try and attempt the King’s trial in the first place.

Though could it truly be consider fortunate they avoided meeting an end so young with what it meant for their future?

Tisane, as was said, never even had the chance to even try to attempt their father’s challenge, in fact they never even had the chance to feel the Pale King’s influence and know of said orders the rest of their clutch (and all those who had preceded, and later followed them) were told to follow, or at least enticed to by their fathers godly glow from so far above their dark and dismal birthing grounds.

This was in part because they hatched extremely late compared to the rest of their clutch, in fact had they hatched just a bit later they would’ve been left just as alone as they currently are, though that would’ve been only until the King lowered his next clutch into the Abyss to be... revived. That was because by the time they’d managed to crack their egg’s shell and emerge their father had already begun to ‘test’ their siblings, which was also entirely what caused the reason that they never even hade the moment needed to feel their father’s influence to happen.

Because as they pulled themself out of their egg, and were shaking whatever... fluids would’ve come out with them off, they then immediately had one of their falling (and very, very dead) siblings slam into them so hard they pretty much shattered their mask like a sledgehammer would a fine china teacup.

In other words, pretty much killed them on the spot.

Or at least they would’ve been had it not been for their own natural affinity when it came to Soul because of being born of the Pale King, which was only increased because of the degree of their 'impurity’ meaning they were more Wyrm and Root than Void than nearly all of their siblings (both past and future), and, that... well, not only would they have absorbed whatever Soul remained in their dead sibling when they hit them, due to Soul’s own interesting characteristics when it came to... inflicting injury’s in fighting (not that a case like this could really be considered such even under the loosest of interpretations, but it still worked the same nonetheless), but they were in what was essentially a graveyard composed entirely of Soul, or at least what little still lingered in the countless masks made at least partially of it (a fact well shown by a Vessel’s ability to heal their mask, and it being the only part that remained when they died instead of reverting into their shade form like the rest of their body).

This didn’t mean they revived from their near death any time soon though, they weren’t exactly consciously healing themself in the first place, it was all just a purely instinctive reaction of their body due to the amount of accessible Soul it was surrounded by after it’s should’ve been near fatal injury.

In fact Tisane didn’t come back too until not only after The Hollow Knight themself had been chosen, but even after the few remaining living Vessel’s had escaped (or been taken as Nosk food in those unfortunate one’s cases).

This also meant Tisane woke up in a pretty uncomfortable situation considering the usual schedule of events the Pale King had planned while he tried to find his Pure Vessel, i.e. a lot of dead children, which to be precise meant Tisane came to buried under who knows how many years worth of layers of the cracked & pointy masks of their dead siblings they had to dig themself out of.

Not a fun time at all.

Following this Tisane found themself... alone.

In fact they were even more alone than their sibling’s practically mindless, death crazed Shades, because while their impurity may have let them have a voice to speak, in doing so it interfered with the innate hive mind-esque connection their other siblings have due to their Void based nature.

This didn’t mean they were incapable of ever being able to use it like their siblings, in fact they were just as well connected to it as any other Vessel, the issue was that it was entirely subconscious, sure they could learn things from it as other Vessel’s did, but they were entirely unaware of said knowledge until encountering something that involved it, and even then they wouldn’t consciously realize they shouldn’t have had any way of having the knowledge they just became aware of.

All they needed really was someone to help make them consciously aware of their telepathic connections, like, really if they’d just had the time to hear their father’s voice calling for his creations to meet his challenge that probably would’ve actually been enough for Tisane to have woken up at least aware of the connection they had with their kind (as difficult it may have been considering their madness and rage was enough to cause the Void sea itself to act upon it)... not that they knew about that, so instead they were completely, entirely alone.

This was also a similar case when it came to their voice, they might have been able to vocalize, they were even aware of the concept of words, specific sounds with specific meanings, but that didn’t mean they had any idea how to talk, it’s not like the Vessel’s that weren’t dead had any reason to learn how to, and in the closest one’s case would’ve ever even been considered lessons they had any reason to be taught. And of course they could’ve talked if they’d had someone teach to them, or even at least been around someone else who could, but they didn’t, and they weren’t, so instead the sounds they did make could’ve been considered, and mostly like would’ve been to any bug who heard them, babble, nonsensical chirps, whistles, gurgles and like, baby talk in other words, just a little bit more refined.

As you can guess, being alone was not a fun experience for a literal child, Vessel or not. Sure, Tisane might’ve had an entire abandoned civilization to explore, so long as they avoided the strange, familiar feeling, floating, horned tentacle things that attacked them whenever they spotted them, or the sea of liquid that would sprout tentacles and try to swat them if they got too close, but there were plenty of ruins, broken statues, and strange odds and ends left over from the civilization that used to worship the Void, but they were still alone, and definitely getting pretty depressed because of it, not that they really knew what that was, just that they were sad and desperate for a... something...

They didn’t know what exactly it was they wanted but for some reason they felt like they knew of some kind of... warm feeling they were supposed to feel if another bug put it’s arms around them which sounded... nice. (They couldn’t feel it when they did it themself but they still couldn’t help but try whenever the loneliness started to get too much)

It was also a bit maddening. Tisane might’ve been mature enough that they would be considered a child instead of a grub (spending who knows how many years subconsciously absorbing the experiences of others who were given the chance to grow tends to do that to one), but even to a child that kind of isolation would’ve been too much for their mind to try and adapt to.

All that combined with their subconscious knowledge sort of all compounded together once they discovered the cracked tea set that practically became an inseparable feature of themself following.

Why? Because of three specific little things in Tisane’s repertoire of subconscious knowledge, one lesson the Pale King gave his Hollow Knight while ‘programming’ it to have some basic etiquette even as a mindless automaton, and two little bits of childhood pretend even Hornet, the princess of Deepnest, daughter of Herrah the Beast, was immune to enjoying, both by herself, and especially when playing it with her sibling, though that didn’t mean it was just them, or in other words, Tisane knew what a tea party was.

And one can’t have a tea party without friends. And as they knew, they didn’t exactly have to be alive to be a friend, they mostly just needed some form of face.

And, well Tisane knew a place with plenty ‘friends’ they could have now, they just had to make sure they were still put together enough they wouldn’t break when they collected them.

After this Tisane, while now a lot more stable, and still just as no longer lonely, didn’t exactly recover from the sort of mental break, in fact they went pretty downhill.

Their life was dedicated to their ‘friends’, chatting with them (i.e. blathering nonsensical chirps & clicks at them with only the barest semblance of consistency) as they explored what remained down in the Abyss’ caverns, cleaning & fixing them, Tisane even named them (though they’re names only in the sense of them being sounds consistently used for them, though less as the sounds they only use for them, and instead as the only sounds they use for them), though with their limited vocabulary they of course came out as whatever mixes of chirps and clicks Tisane could put together, specifically (from left to right), Ctitch, Chirp, and Qirp, and of course Tisane always made sure to set aside time to have tea parties with them.

As time went on Tisane even began to gather new ‘friends’. Scavenging through the pit of masks they’d hatched, nearly died, and then dug themself out of for any mostly intact masks, and shards they could find, storing them in one of the more intact ruins/smaller side caverns they’d eventually chosen as their dedicated ‘home’ during their isolation, where they tried to piece them back together, though of course their first three ‘friends’ were always their most important, and always at every tea party.

On the topic of Tisane’s tea parties again, Tisane hadn’t just gone downhill because they were treating dead inanimate shells like they were alive, but also because they were so dedicated to the concept of having tea parties with them that they were putting themself in danger with every one so they could make it ‘authentic’.

How you may ask? Well easily, by having ‘tea’ to pour of course! Or in Tisane’s case as there was only one source of ‘liquid’ in the Abyss’ caverns, Void itself.

Yes, Tisane was so dedicated to these tea parties of theirs they would risk being consumed by the Void sea every time just so they could fill their teapot with liquid Void from it. They actually became quite good at it eventually, managing to figure out ways to... distract it in a way so it’s tentacles would strike elsewhere, and give them just enough time to dip the teapot in before running away.

Though that’s not to say they didn’t experience a number of close calls before, and following the learning of those skills.

As Tisane remained in the Abyss they also managed to grow, unlike the majority of the living vessel’s, their constant saturation in the Void’s energy and consumption of it (yes, they actually drank their ‘tea’) plus their consistent absorption of Soul they unknowingly gathered from their dead sibling’s masks during their frequent scavenging trips, provided just enough of the necessary conditions from them to reach their fully grown state like the Pure Vessel.

Though they weren’t in as... healthy a condition as the Pure Vessel had been when they’d reached that amount of growth.

While Tisane could subsist of of the Void and Soul energy, yet again because of their impurities it was not enough to fully support their body as they grew. This lead to them having a very ill-proportioned, malnutritioned looking build (and that’s saying something for a bug). Thin, weak looking limbs, dull, sickly chitin, hunched posture, and even a sunken, emacieted look around the eyes of their mask.

This was essentially what Tisane’s life boiled down to for the next however many years until the Little Knight, Ghost, finally reached Hallownest after the Pure Vessel failed, and the few remaining Vessel’s were drawn back to Hallownest.

Though this doesn’t mean Tisane’s story had a happy ending following this, in fact I truly don’t think they could’ve had a worse end.

Tisane’s story ended as it began, with an object heavy enough, and falling fast enough to crush their head into nothing but shards, only this time there was no graveyard of Soul for them to absorb and survive with.

Sometime during Ghost travel’s, most likely once they’d taken the Kingsbrand from the Wyrm’s corpse and brought the spell that kept it from collapsing to an end, or maybe even once they’d used the combined Kingsouls to open the Abyss, the Abyss experienced heavy seismic activity, enough to cause the collapse of numerous stalactites, structures, and even side caverns throughout.

One of which was Tisane’s.

The event itself would’ve been bad enough because of it’s unexpectedness, but it just had to catch Tisane at the worst time it possibly could’ve too, right in the middle of a tea party.

They had barely any time to react, one minute they were ‘chatting’ with their ‘friends’, the next everything was shaking, chunks of stone were falling everywhere, and of course all Tisane could think to do was save their ‘friends’, and once they spotted the slabs of rock falling down in a way they knew they weren’t going to avoid as they tried to get away, well... you can guess what they did.

Later, as Ghost entered the Abyss, confronted their past, gained the Void heart, and collected the Shade Cloak they may have stumbled upon what first looked like the corpse of an insect that had been killed by a chunk of stone crushing their head, though once they inspected it they would’ve realized it was actually a hollow shell of nearly petrified dust and grime in the shape of an insect, as if it was from a bug that had never bathed, and who’s body had vanished in it’s entirety after death, that looked almost like it was protectively curled around something.

If they decided to give it a hit with their nail, or realistically just given it a light poke it a large portion of it would’ve crumbled to reveal a scattered pile of white, almost familiar looking shards of some kind of material, along with some clay shards mixed in.

Obviously whatever that bug had been trying to protect even as they died they’d failed at doing.

Maybe Ghost would’ve pondered how the bug had even been down there, maybe they’d wonder why the bug had tried so hard to save whatever they’d try to save, maybe they’d have wondered if there was enough essence left for their dream nail to tell them something that could help them understand only to get a desperate cry of ‘please... don’t leave me alone’ before whatever essence had remained around that ‘shell’ dissipated entirely, maybe they’d even have felt sorry for the bug who’s final act before they’d died in such a horrible way had been entirely in vain.

But in the end there were more important things they had to do than stare at the corpse, and it wasn’t even that, just a dirt and dust formed shell around where a corpse used to be, of a bug they’d never know.

-========================================================-

Little bonus section:

I actually have a number of other story ideas based around this character I might get around to writing sometime (if I ever get around to writing anything in the first place), tho a number of course were inspired by other fics I’ve read.

Like what if Tisane wasn’t ‘knocked out’ and did make it to the Pale King, but instead of being murdered discarded as a failure, the Wyrm decided to keep them as a gift for the White Lady once he realized how impure they were.

How would that affect the story? Would it force the Pale King to come to terms with the fact none of his Vessel’s were pure, not even his Hollow Knight? Would Tisane get infected instead? Or maybe even take on Hollow’s role to try and save their sibling? I dunno!

Or what if Tisane survived, but somehow missed the Little Knight entirely, and the Ghost ended up doing the Embrace the Void ending, or just outright fell into the Void Sea sometime, and due to weird timey-wimey Void stuff they ended up getting sent to an alternate timeline where the Pale King realized his plan wouldn’t work, and didn’t murder all his kids?

Like just imagine the While Lady having a picnic or something with all her children when all of a sudden a hole something tore itself into existence and spat out a new child (Tisane in their world having either not hatched, or having hatched late again and accidentally being forgotten about in the Void (so now they’re extra lonely because no mask friends for you!)) who are so visibly unhealthy they look starved, on her garden, and who’s not only pretty much feral, but also holding the broken masks of three of her children, a teapot, and all the while is screaming in very recognizable baby talk.

Now that’s a recipe for some angst, even more so if instead of them being relatively similar ages to how they should be, it’s younger Tisane and all of her other kids are older.

You know, just fun little story ideas with the potential for some horrible, horrible angst

#hollow knight #hollow knight vessel #hollow knight oc #hollow knight vessel oc #vesselsona #Tisane #teaparty au #I am so mean to my characters #this poor poor Vessel #I hate absolutely hate needing to use a read more the amount of good content I've seen gone because an account got deleted but this is long #very very long #long post #longpost #character backstory #character profile #backstory #no seriously this is unbelievably (and definitely very unnecessarily but there's a reason I don't call myself a good writer) long

8 notes · View notes

silver-chasm · 3 years

Text

A week ago, I made these icons of all my fursonas with all these pride flags (cause they're all trans lol). Two have a few extra flags/symbols on them, representing me

Two of the symbols you see here aren't lgbt ones. I'm not saying that what they represent should be part of the lgbt community, just that they're just as much a part of me as my queer identity

An explanation of who my fursonas are and what the flags are under the cut. I tried to be brief but some of these are a bit lengthy

1. Toxic Chasm

They're my main fursona (and the namesake of this blog). E is something called a Monsuno Sapien, a human mutated by alien essence (the species comes from the Monsuno series). She is me but more grounded and more at peace than what I was when I created him. Despite the grotesque and intimidating appearance, xe is compassionate and gentle. Chasm means a lot to me

The flags/symbols:

The bandana - genderqueer:

Genderqueer is a term that encompasses anyone who not only fall outside of the binary but also gender nonconforming people (those who "queer" their gender)

Chasm is genderqueer, partly because they contain the colours of the flag. Ze also challenges the idea of anthropomorphism with hir existence, much like how I seem to challenge the gender binary with my own existence

The garland - bigender

Bigender people have two genders. These two genders can be binary or nonbinary. A bigender individual may experience both of their genders simultaneously or shift between the two

In my case, I'm a man and a demiwoman at the same time ^-^

The hearts - bisexual and asexual

Bisexual is when you're sexually attracted to more than one gender. Asexual is when you don't experience sexual attraction. Asexuals may also still experience romantic attraction

Biromantic asexuals, like me, are physically unable to experience sexual attraction but are able to experience romantic attraction to more than one gender

The infinity symbol - neurodivergence

One of the non LGBT symbols. Neurodivergent people are those with neurodevelopmental conditions (such as autism, ADHD, dyslexia, etc) and mental health conditions (such as BPD, bipolarity, OCD, etc) and similar conditions, like schizophrenia. The infinity symbol is prominently used by autistic people, representing both the diversity of autism and neurodivergence

I'm 90% sure that I'm autistic. The other 10% is my anxiety keeping me in check

2. Korong

She is the fursona who I've had the longest (and was my primary fursona before creating Chasm). They're a giant monstrous dropbear with squid tentacles coming from her back and a second mouth on their belly. She is an absolute glutton. They are also the kind of being who would gloat about her power before trying to devour you

The flags:

The bandana - demigirl

Demigirls feel a partial but not complete connection to being a girl or woman. It is a nonbinary identity

Korong represented a past version of myself. Naturally, as I realised more about myself, she would change with me. They were never really "womanly", more monstrous than anything else

The flowers - a former vore pride flag

No, you didn't misread. This is the other non-lgbt symbol. Vorarephilia (shortened to vore) is a fetish where pleasure is derived from the idea of one being eating another (eg. snake eating a mouse, a giant holding someone in their mouth, etc). It's quite broad and typically fantastical in nature. The colours you see there belonged to a flag designed by a user here on tumblr, a genuine attempt at creating a pride symbol for vorarephiles. It wasn't a flag used outside of here. The creator has since deleted the post describing the flag, almost effectively wiping it from the internet

Korong is an embodiment of my vorarephilia. Her monstrous appearance also reflects a deep-seated shame toward this part of me I've had for years (and all for what? Strange thoughts?)

When I saw that flag and what it meant, I guess it gave me permission to feel something else towards this part of me. On top of the, the creator was reblogging vore positivity posts and posts where people were using their flag and being proud

For the longest time I thought there was something wrong with me. They showed that it's okay to be like this

Originally, I was going to draw the flag itself. I pivoted when I found that the original post (and the positivity posts) had been deleted. I drew it as hyacinths (flowers that represent grief and sincerity) because, as silly as it seems, I was dismayed that the flag and the little, safe, accepting corner of the internet had vanished. After all, what is left is a blue and purple symbol of mockery, with people disgusted that someone would think like that

I'm tired of feeling shame. As I said before, they're just strange thoughts that I cannot control. Nothing more

3. Hognose

They're a friendly Goodra, a slug dragon Pokemon. Much like the snake they're named after, Hognose has an upturned snout and a forked tongue. They're quite the skilled baker, with their favourite recipe being apple pie. They like cooking for their friends

The flag:

The bandana - agender

Agender people lack a gender, have a neutral or indefinable gender or don't identify with the concept of gender

Hognose doesn't have a gender. I forgot to give them one when creating them. Their gender expression does lean somewhat to femininity

4. Lantern

They're a baki, a goomba-like enemy from the Drawn to Life series. Technically, they've existed longer than Korong but I never considered them as a fursona. They were the mascot of my old blog thelanternwielder. They're a quiet being, tending to watch from a distance. Their eyes can cast light when its dark. They don't mind being carried by their handle (just don't swing them around too much)

The flag:

The bandana - nonbinary

Nonbinary people are those whose gender identity falls outside the man/woman binary. It's an umbrella identity, as there are many ways of not fitting in the binary

Lantern is another fursona I forgot to give a concrete gender to. And when I remembered, it didn't really make sense to gender them. They've always been a little bit unknown and mysterious, so their gender is vague and undefined to me

5. Aster

They're a fantail centipede/bee hybrid from space. Their hive lives in a moon above a resource abundant planet they collect and harvest from. Aster was one of the workers who became curious about what was beyond their planet and moon hive. So, they left and became a vagabond explorer among the stars

The flags:

On the left - agender

As it was stated, agender can mean 'genderless' and it can refer to those who don't identify with the concept of gender. Aster falls into the latter category as gender is a bizarre and foreign concept to them

On the right - intersex

Intersex people are those who were born with variation in sex characteristics that are 'atypical' from male and female sex characteristics. This can manifest in a number of ways, as sex is made up of several components. Intersex people can have any gender identity

In Aster's case, they are completely sexless. Their anatomy does not conform to the 'typical' sexes of humans (male and female). They are typical for their species, as many workers tend to be sexless

6. Hugs

He is a spotted hyena pyromancer who dances with fire. He's all about having fun and showing off his skill. He's easygoing and relaxed. His power comes from cinnabar he's imbued with

The flag:

The bandana - transgender

Being transgender is not identifying with the gender assigned to you at birth. Contrary to what some may assume, this does include nonbinary people (what do you think the white stripe in the flag represents?)

Hugs is trans guy. He's the only one here who has a binary gender

7. Alezan

He's the only child among my fursonas and the only one who was designed by someone else. They were designed by chibitacolord (here on tumblr!) He's an elfish fox child whose design is based on the raposa from Drawn to Life. Alezan mostly lives in the woods by themself, proclaiming himself to be 'the prince of the woods'. They're quite mischievous and playful. He loves flowers. They would be a florist if he was older

The flag:

The garland - genderflux

This is when the intensity of a particular gender changes. It can be considered a type of genderfluidity where the gender changes between something and nothing

Alezan is boyflux. The intensity of being a boy changes for them. Being so young, he doesn't quite have all the words to describe how he feels sometimes

8. Lasso

They're a strange being who has the body of an ox, the head of a humanoid crab and draconic wings. Their design is based on lamassu, ancient Mesopotamian guardian deities, and my Chinese and Western zodiac signs. Lasso was a being who was created at the edge of reality itself. As a result, they're incredibly inquisitive. They are also quite protective once they get attached to you

The flag:

The bandana - aitherogender

This is a xenogender. Some people feel that usual language around gender isn't able to describe the gender identity they experience, so they use metaphors to describe it. Aitherogender is an ethereal and otherworldly gender that is almost impossible to describe with written or spoken medium. It was originally intended for neurodivergent people but anyone can use the term

Given where Lasso came from, it would be likely that their gender wouldn't conform to human expectation or understanding of gender, let alone be able to be described in human language (or any language). I just thought it would be neat for them to have an otherworldly gender when they themself are otherworldly

#myart #personal #despite that last tag you have my full permission to reblog this #I'm very nervous about posting this and it's entirely because of thoss hyacinths

8 notes · View notes

starrynite7114 · 4 years

Text

Misconstrued: Part 3

A/N: Good evening my lovelies! I was going to post this last night, but it became too late when I got home. Hopefully you all will enjoy this one! Snapshots and another request will be posted after this! Hope you all will enjoy the update as well! Diego is getting quite a reception, which I’m honestly happy to see! Can’t wait to see what you all think of this latest update.

Just a heads up, I am back in school, so I’m not sure how often I will be updating, but I will try!

Also, thank you again for the response I’ve been getting for this story. Never though it would be as great as this, but thank you!

Anon: I don't know if this is too specific but could you do something about Angel ruining a date and later admits it because he loves them and then they have some angry smut and late night fluff

Word Count: 7835

Masterlist

Tag List: @iambabyharry : @justahopelessssromantic : @carlaangel86 : @marvelmaree : @mrsamaroevans : @ifoundmyhappythought: @woahitslucyylu : @cind-in-real-life : @briannab1234 : @fairygardenss : @gemini0410 : @everyhowlmarksthedead : @losolvidad0s : @whyisgmora : @comasi-world : @xserenax-13 : @chibsytelford : @welovethesponge : @claytoncardenasbabymama : @jadert15 : @bigcreatorwombatdreamer

If you would like to be added to the tag list, let me know! If I forgot to add you, I’m so sorry!

Angel sat across from Diego, glaring at the man who has been trying to undermine his floundering relationship. Diego has been in Santo Padre for only two weeks, but it felt longer than that. At every turn, Diego was there to offer his services to you.

Before the Stockton charter left, Medina had pulled him aside to give him a warning.

“Angel, I like you, and I know you like Y/N.” Medina began, looking around to make sure there was no one around them. “Diego has it in his head to bring her back to Stockton, I’m sure you don’t want that.”

“Fuck no. Who the fuck does he think he is?” Angel was fuming. Ever since the incident two days ago, Diego has been texting you and to top it off, Bishop just made it known that Diego was coming to Santo Padre for a few months due to Creeper being out. From what he understood, Creeper was going to be out for two weeks, this was unnecessary. “She’s my girl now, he can’t sniff around her. He lost his chance.”

“I agree with you hermano, but I just want to give you fair warning. They did have a connection, I would hope she’s smarter than to fall for his charm.” Medina didn’t think you would come back to Diego, he hurt you far too much for that. But in the back of his mind, he still had this inkling that if Diego played the right moves, you would come back.

“Why’d he come for her? It’s been years.” Angel knew the story, but he wasn’t sure how much Medina knew.

“Regina left him after he said Y/N’s name while they were fucking. Apparently she’s been a topic of their relationship troubles more than once.” Medina knew how much Diego suffered after you left. He wasn’t the same and everyone took notice, especially Regina. She never dared speak your name inside the clubhouse or other members knowing it could get back to Ramos or Medina, but outside, no one could shut her up. Diego was a shell of a man after you left. Though Medina felt for him, it wasn’t enough to call you about it. You finally escaped his spell on you, Medina didn’t want you to come back, especially not for Diego.

Then he saw how Angel was with you and he could tell that you had something there. He chuckled at the way you would blush when Angel complimented you and how he took care of you. That’s what he wanted for you and Diego, but he knew it would never happen. Diego was too focused on becoming a Mayan to do it. Maybe Diego did love you, but as far as Medina was concerned, it was too late for that.

“Diego doesn’t give up.”

“Yeah? We’ll see about that.”

Coco and Gilly watched as Angel’s eyes were trained on Diego, who was doing the same to Angel. Both men have been having a pissing contest since Diego’s arrival. They were cordial to Diego due to not wanting Bishop to sniff around as to why they wouldn’t like him. But with the way he hung on to you, it was making it difficult. Whenever you were at the clubhouse, Diego immediately gravitated towards you, but they were thankful that you didn’t entertain any of his advances. You put a wall and you were damn good at keeping them up.

Angel let you fight your battles knowing that this was something you had to do on your own, but that didn’t mean he didn’t want to beat the motherfucker to a pulp.

“Alright, Diego, you’ll stay here to make sure everything is in order while we find out what’s going on with Dogwood?” Bishop questioned.

“Yeah, I was going to actually help out Y/N out. Didn’t she say she needed to have her garbage disposal fixed?” Diego remembered Bishop mentioning it to him and Hank earlier since he was wondering if Hank could fix it for you.

“She’s good. I can do it for her when I get back later.” Angel knew this mother fucker was testing his resolve.

“Angel, Diego can do it, it shouldn’t be a problem. He’s free and the scrapyard is good.” Bishop has felt the tension between the two since he made it known that Diego was saying for a few months. He wasn’t certain if it was due to you and Diego’s previous closeness, but he honestly didn’t even want to get in between petty shit like that.

“Diego should just come with us, strength in numbers.” Coco backed up Angel. He wasn’t getting you alone. They’ve been successful with assuring that Diego was never left alone with you, he wasn’t going to pull a fast one of them.

“It’d be easier to find Dogwood if we all look for them.” Gilly added.

Bishop looked over at Coco and Gilly, not one bit surprised that he was backing up Angel.

“Am I missing something here?”

“No.” All four replied in unison.

Bishop decided to let it go, again choosing not to involve himself till he absolutely had to do so.

They all dispersed, leaving Templo to do their own business. Angel immediately smiled when his eyes landed on you, as you sat by the bar, talking to EZ. He came up from behind you, wrapping his arms around you and placing a kiss on the side of your head. Gilly and Coco flanked your sides, leaving Diego absolutely no room to put himself anywhere near you.

“Hey mi dulce, we got shit to do, don’t you have work?” Angel turned you to face him, wrapping his arms around you again.

You looked up at him and nodded. “Yes, but I just wanted to drop cookies off to you since I got early enough to make some.” You handed him a box that was right behind you. It was in a box and it made Angel smile.

“What?! What about us? That’s favoritism.” Gilly accused, feigning hurt.

“Don’t be such babies, I brought chocolate chip cookies over there.” You pointed around the box behind EZ.

Coco and Gilly both stood up and made their way to the box. Riz came up behind you and kissed your cheek before going to the cookies as well.

“Is mine chocolate chip too?” Angel wasn’t the biggest fan of chocolate chip cookies, but he would eat it if you made it. His absolute favorite was the white chocolate macadamia nut.

“No, of course not. You don’t like chocolate chips, but I know you eat them to appease me.” You smiled. “I made your favorite, white chocolate macadamia nut.” Angel opened the box you brought him and immediately took a bite of one.

“Are you fucking serious?” Diego narrowed his eyes at you, as he made his way over to you. “How can you be so careless? You know you're allergic to nuts, why would you bake that?”

Angel gave him an incredulous look as he stopped in front of you, taking your hands to inspect them. Everyone in the clubhouse had their eyes on you two. Bishop, Taza and Hank were still inside Templo.

“What were you thinking? You know if you even touched nuts you get hives.” Diego frowned, dropping your hands when he didn’t see any rashes.

"I used to make you banana nut muffin all the time." You shrunk as Diego scolded you. Angel loves white chocolate macadamia nut, you just wanted to bake something for him.

"And remember when we had to go to the hospital because you wiped your lips with your hand?" Diego narrowed his eyes at Angel. "If you can't take care of your girlfriend, maybe you shouldn't be with her."

“You fucking serious right now?” Angel moved you behind him while EZ immediately put himself between Diego and Angel.

“Easy, don’t make a scene.” EZ reminded his brother.

“You’re getting on my last nerve Diegito, you lost your fucking chance, so why won’t you go fuck off?” Angel warned him.

Diego just smirked before looking beyond him towards you. “This is your boyfriend, a guy who doesn’t even know you have severe allergies to peanuts. Tremendous.” He turned away then and walked out of the clubhouse.

Angel muttered under his breath as he turned around to face you. “You’re allergic to peanuts?”

“Yeah, any tree nuts I’m allergic to. I break out into hives and my throat closes up.” You admitted. “But please don’t worry, I used precaution after that time at the hospital. I wore gloves and took them off”

“Baby, you don’t have to make me cookies, especially if you can get hurt.” Angel did not like Diego’s remarks towards him. He could only keep quiet for long. If Diegito kept pushing him, he would have to inform Bishop of the way he played with his niece.

“No, it’s okay, I don’t mind.” You had this urge of pleasing people. You hated that about yourself, but even if it put you in harm’s way, you still did things for the people you cared about. You were afraid that once you stopped doing things they liked, they would stop liking you and be tossed to the side. It was embedded in you after the incident with Diego and you couldn’t shake it for some reason.

“Well I do, please don’t make me anymore cookies. If you do, at least have me there and I can make it for you.”

Angel was moving to kiss you but you moved away. He gave you a confused look as you gave him a sheepish smile.

“Can’t kiss you, you just ate the cookie.” You reminded him.

“Shit, that’s right.” He frowned. “Okay, I’ll come by later.”

“Okay, I’ll see you later.” You gave him a hug and kiss on the cheek. “Enjoy the cookies.”

“Oh you know I will mi dulce.” He smirked. “Prospect bring my girl to her car so I don’t beat that mother fucker up. And make sure she gets to her car without him stopping her.” Angel was trying to avoid problems, but Diego would get what’s coming for him soon enough.

============

EZ stopped the van in front of the auto shop you worked at and turned it off.

“I think it’s sweet that you're bringing her food.” EZ teased his older brother.

“Yeah, yeah. Fuck you.” Angel smirked. He didn’t mind being teased when he did things for you. You did far too many things for everyone else. You deserved to be spoiled every way that he could spoil you.

Making his way inside, he stopped in his tracks when he saw Diego already waiting for you. Angel’s hand clenched into a fist and he shook his head.

“Diego, what are you doing here?” Angel heard you question him as you walked in with grease on your left cheek and multiple new stains on your work jumpsuit.

You looked beyond Diego and saw Angel. A smile graced your face as you walked by Diego and greeted Angel. “Hey, you’re here too. What’s going on?” You looked back at Diego who was glaring at Angel. This was so new to you. Diego has been trying to make his presence known, but you’ve pushed back at his attempts. What was done was done and you were with Angel now. Out of respect, you didn’t want to entertain Diego, especially with everything that occurred between you two.

“EZ and I ate at the Thai restaurant by our place, brought you some of that fried rice you like.” Angel was very protective of your relationship especially with how new it was. Even though you technically were not together as Angel had only asked if you wanted to go on a date, to him you two were together. But he didn’t undermine the connection that you and Diego had, which was why he had to make sure he had to block every attempt Diego made.

“Oh, cool.” You made your way over to Angel and as you were about to hug him, you stopped. “Sorry the grease.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Angel wrapped his arms around you after he kissed you, making a point to look at Diego as you relaxed in his arms. “How’s work?”

“Busy,” you sighed as you pulled away from him. “I know we’re supposed to go out tonight, but do you mind if we reschedule? I’m really tired.”

“That’s fine mi dulce, let’s just order take out and we can catch up on Umbrella Academy?” He offered. You two have been trying to go on this date for two weeks, but something always came up. As much as he wanted to take you out, it wasn’t a determining factor of your relationship. You two were together and Diego better get with the program.

“That sounds great.” You smiled up at him. “You’re the best.” You turned to Diego. “I’m sorry, thank you for bringing me food.” You didn’t mean to bypass him, but your attention was focused solely on Diego, at least you tried your best. As much as you wanted to give Diego a chance to explain to you, you just didn’t see the point. You’ve moved on. It was too late.

He gave you a small smile and nodded his head. “I actually made your favorite, chicken Alfredo.” He handed you the bag. “Let me know how you like it.”

Angel just scoffed and shook his head. They both said bye to you and as soon as they were near the van and out of sight, Angel grabbed Diego by his kutte and slammed him against the van. The noise startled EZ and he quickly exited the van. He found Diego against the van, with Angel holding his shirt and kutte along his neck.

“I’m going to say this one last time, stay the fuck away from my girlfriend. She’s moved on and she doesn’t want you. I don’t give a fuck what apology party you want to partake in, but she’s not going to be a part of it.” Angel warned.

“Angel, let’s go.” The last thing EZ wanted was for them to fight in front of your job. But he wouldn’t be opposed to Angel getting a few hits in.

Diego chuckled, almost mockingly. “You think just cause you’ve been around for a year she’s yours? I had her for five years. Once I show her what she’s always wanted from me, she’ll leave you in the dust.”

“Keep pushing me bitch, let’s see how Prez feels about how you fucked around with his niece to ensure a place at the table.” Angel gave him a hard shove before sliding in the van.

EZ followed suit, turning the van on.

“You know he’s not going to stop.”

“Then he can get his ass beat.”

============

Diego saw you walk in the clubhouse, immediately looking around. He knew you were looking for Angel and he wasn’t going to lie and say it didn’t affect him. Seeing you with Angel was unnerving, irritating. He remembered when you walked in the clubhouse in Stockton, the elated look on your face whenever you saw him, he missed that. He saw that look when your eyes would land on Angel, but it was different.

“Hey sweetheart.” Bishop greeted you, giving you a kiss on the cheek.

“Hey Tio, is Angel around?”

“Now you with Angel, you can’t even visit just to see your Tio?” He teased you.

“No, it’s not like that, it’s just,” you blushed. “Tio!”

“I’m kidding.” He chuckled. “Angel is visiting Creeper, he should be back soon.”

You nodded. “Is it okay if I wait here?”

“Sweetheart, you can wait wherever you want. I got business to take care of up front, you going to be okay with Diegito?” Bishop wasn’t entirely sure what made you and Diego fall out. Whenever he would ask you, you would brush it off, changing the subject.

“Yes, I’ll be fine, go ahead.” You waved off Bishop.

Bishop left you at one of the tables. One of the girls approached you asking if you wanted a drink, but you politely declined. Diego took one of the available seats next to you. If you stood up, that meant you were avoiding him, and you were, you just didn’t need him to actually know that. Other times you could make excuses, but this time you couldn’t.

“Wow, no bodyguards today, your boyfriend okay with that?”

“Don’t be an asshole.” You snapped. “I am fully capable of being alone.”

“Doesn’t seem like it with the way he always has one of his buddies with you.” Diego scoffed. “You never liked any of the Mayans following you around, yet now, it’s like you welcome it.”

“They’re not following me around out of duty, they’re just genuinely my friends.” You defended. “Many things can change in the span of three years Diego.”

“Sure, but it’s you, you don’t like change, it makes you anxious.”

“Is there a point as to why you’re speaking to me?”

“I’m trying here.” Diego couldn’t get through you since Angel and his boys were usually around you. Whenever he did get you alone, he tried speaking to you, but you weren’t really entertaining him. You were cordial at best. “I really missed you.”

“Diego, I don’t know why you’re trying. There’s no point for it. It’s been almost four years, why try now?” Maybe if he approached you a year after this whole thing occurred, you could have tried to go back to at least being friends. But the more you encountered people in your life, the more it sunk in that whatever you misconstrued with Diego, was never there. When this whole thing with Angel started when you first came, you thought it would end the same way, or similar at least, but it didn’t.

It was different with Angel.

“Because I fucking realized how badly I fucked up. I don’t expect you to forgive me, but I just want you to give me a chance.”

You remained silent. Not knowing exactly what to say to him. It was weird that you had this feeling of needing to talk to Angel. You know he doesn’t control your life, but he was technically the person you were seeing.

“It’s Claudia’s birthday today.” Claudia was Diego’s youngest sister. He had three younger siblings, all of them were girls. Claudia, if you calculate correctly, should be turning eighteen years old. Diego was closest to Claudia. Ever since she was a toddler, from your understanding, she drifted to her older brother. Diego dotted over her and it was one of the reasons you fell so hard for the man. “She knows you’re here with me and I was wondering if you wanted to FaceTime her.”

You cut off all ties with Diego’s family, except for Claudia. You bonded with the young girl and to leave her hanging at that crucial age of fifteen, you couldn’t exactly walk away. Every once in a while, you called her to check in, making sure she was good. Diego didn’t know you two kept in touch and you were keeping it that way.

“Sure, that’d be great.”

Diego scooted closer over to you so that Claudia would be able to see you both. Taking his cell phone out, he searched for his sister’s name, selecting her name to call her.

Diego moved your chair closer to him so that you were right beside him. He placed an arm around the back of you chair. Before, when you were in such close proximity, you would blush, loving the feel of having him so close to you, but now, it just felt awkward.

“Happy birthday!” You and Diego greeted in unison as soon as her face popped up on the screen.

“Ah!!!! You two are together?!” Claudia exclaimed. She always wanted you to end up with her older brother. She absolutely adored you and knew you were best for her brother compared to Regina. You appreciated the vote of confidence, but you knew nothing could actually happen.

Diego chuckled. “Hermana, of course we are, I told you I came here to get her back.”

You and Riz made eye contact as he stayed at the bar, watching you two. He wasn’t sure of the history between you and Diego, but he knew there was something there. It was hard not to see it. He mouthed to you if you were okay and you nodded your head, giving him a reassuring smile.

Diego was harmless.

Claudia began to animatedly talk to you both about her senior year and what she wanted for not only her birthday present, but graduation as well.

“You’re going to have to ask Diegito for that one bebita.” You pointed at Diego as Claudia requested for a trip to Disneyland.

“You’ll come right?” She looked at you with those puppy brown eyes she used to pull on you when you were younger.

“Of course bebita, who else will ride the rides with you? We both know your brother is,” you paused looking at Diego and laughing. “Can’t handle rides well.”

“I can!” Diego glared at both of you. “Just not ones with big drops.”

You and Claudia laughed. The clubhouse door opened, and in cane Bishop followed by Angel and Gilly. You waved at Angel before you continued talking to Claudia.

Bishop watched as you and Diego made jokes about one another, entertaining Claudia. This was what he remembered between you two. The endless laughter and joking, how Diego always took care of you and made sure you were okay. He knew you had feelings for Diego, he wasn’t blind, but he never really saw anything come out of it.

It didn’t matter now.

You were with Angel and Bishop would much rather have you with him.

“I’m happy they’re getting along again, they were like two peas in a pod.” Bishop commented as he sat by the bar with Angel.

Angel scoffed at that in his head. Fuck Diego. He knew that strategy he was using. Pulling you in with people from your past, the same people that meant the world to you when you were back in Stockton. Angel hoped you wouldn’t fall for that. The past was the past and this was now.

“Yeah, real great.”

============

You weren’t exactly sure how it happened, but your car was T-boned at a four way stop on your way home. Your car was totaled and was brought to the auto shop you worked at while a co-worker of yours brought you to the hospital, just so you could get checked. You were pretty sure it was whiplash, but you went since your co-worker, Areli, refused to bring you home. She couldn’t stay with you, so you ended up calling the scrapyard, but to your luck, no one was there. At least you thought there wasn’t, but apparently, Diego was.

So here you were now, in the van, being driven home by Diego. There were no findings at the hospital, which didn’t surprise you, but you definitely appreciate the muscle relaxers they had provided.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Diego broke the silence between you two. He has been trying to initiate a conversation, but you weren’t in a talking mood. All you wanted to do was go home and pray Angel would be home soon just so he could hold you.

“Yes, the muscle relaxers definitely helped.” You closed your eyes, the day’s events catching up to you. “Thank you for picking me up.”

“Of course, you know I’m always here for you.” Diego wanted nothing more than to wake you up from this nightmare in Santo Padre. You didn’t fit in here, you didn’t belong. He wanted you to see that so you could go

home to Northern California. Diego was a selfish bastard and he knew that. But he also knew you a hell of a lot longer than Angel Reyes and any of the other members of this charter with the exception of Bishop, Taza and Hank.

He stopped the van in front of your apartment building. Quickly, Diego turned off the van and jogged over to your side. He was lucky you were having a hard time getting out of the van due to your body feeling a little sore from the accident.

“Let me help you,” Diego opened the door for you, trying to take your backpack from you, but you shook your head.

“It’s okay, I’m just feeling sore is all.” You slung your backpack on your shoulder, as soon as you were out of the van. Turning to face him, you gave him a small smile. “Thank you again, I really appreciate it.”

“Can we talk?” Diego saw it as the perfect opportunity to finally talk to you. Angel and the rest of the Santo Padre MC were taking care of Vicky’s neighbors. They had Diego stay behind for a possible alibi, but they knew they wouldn’t exactly need it. When the call came that you were at the emergency room, Diego was the only one who could receive the call from Chucky. It didn’t make sense to you, you just assumed you Tio would want everyone there. But gotta spare someone you guessed.

“For?” You knew what he wanted to talk about, but you honestly didn’t have the energy nor the mental capacity to do so right now.

“Come on, you know what I want to talk about.”

“Diego, what’s done is done.” You sighed, wishing Angel would come as he always did whenever Diego cornered her. “Regina was right, I should have known better and saw you weren’t interested. I was reading into it and should have walked away or kept our friendship just as a friendship.”

“No, listen,” Diego attempted to step closer to you, but you took a step back. He looked wounded as you did, the last time this happened was the day he found out you were leaving for Santo Padre. He didn’t speak to you for months and when he found out you were leaving, he came over to your house to try and convince you to stay. “I fucked up. I should have never let Regina berate you and humiliate you, especially since you’re my best friend. I mistreated you and I used you.” Diego took a deep breath. “Regina was easy, she didn’t come with connections that made me insecure, that made me feel at edge.”

“What?” You were confused at what Diego was insinuating. He tried to apologize to you before, but you dismissed it since you knew his moves. It was his way of trying to reel you back in and you weren’t going to let it happen again.

“I had feelings for you and I know many people thought I used you to get a seat at the table, but you know that’s not true. We were best friends before all of this, we’ve been through too fucking much.” He really didn’t want to have this conversation out in the open like this. He knew Angel could come home at any time and the last thing he wanted to do was deal with Angel. It irked him how attached Angel was to you. He was in his position and it annoyed Diego. He was jealous, he would proudly admit that. He may have fucked up, but it’s between you two against the world till he fucked up. He was going to make it up to you. “No, not had. I have feelings for you. But my own fear of fucking up on you and the consequences that comes with that prevented me from telling you how I truly felt.”

You watched as Diego appeared to become more nervous with what he was discussing with you. This was not what you expected. The conversation you expected was for Diego to acknowledge the incident that changed your friendship, or ended it, and maybe an apology for standing by and letting Regina humiliate you. Other than that you didn’t expect a confession and you sure did not expect this.

“What?” It was the only thing you could muster to say. The words you were dying to hear from Diego, it didn’t have the same effect on you anymore. How were you sure that he wasn’t telling you all this to fall into the favor of Bishop or Marcus.

“I love you, Y/N.”

============

Angel got off his bike, glad that they took care of Dennis and his family. One less thing they had to worry about. Walking into the clubhouse, he only found Chucky there along with a few girls waiting for them to come back. Looking over at Coco, his eyebrows furrowed when he couldn’t spot Diego anywhere.

“Where’s Diego?” Angel questioned Chucky.

“He went to go pick up Y/N from the emergency room, she got into a car accident.” Chucky knew you were Angel’s girl, he did call him, but there was no answer. He was sure he was on important club business since everyone went with him.

“What?!” Angel tried to watch himself, not wanting to be an asshole to Chucky for no reason. “Why didn’t you call us?”

“I did, but you guys weren’t answering. Know you guys had important club business and I didn’t want to bother.” Chucky looked at Coco and then back to Angel. “She said she was fine and needed someone to pick her up.”

“Chucky, please don’t tell me Diego picked her up.” Coco frowned.

“He did. I offered but he already grabbed the keys to the van before I got the chance to do it.”

Angel looked at Coco before rushing out of the clubhouse. He wasn’t worried about you doing anything, but this was Diego’s chance. He finally got you alone and Angel has been trying to prevent that. Insecurities were a bitch and as confident as Angel was, he couldn’t ignore that connection you two had. Diego was making his presence known and he wasn’t backing down.

============

“No you don’t.” You shook your head. All the emotions and feelings that you’ve buried for the last few years were coming back and your chest felt heavy. You hated that this was happening right now. This was the reason that you didn’t want to talk to Diego. You were doing so well and now, it was like things were regressing.

“I’ve been in love with you and I’m sorry that I realized it now, but please give me a chance. I know you love me too, I promise you, it’ll be worth it.” Diego would get on his knees if it helped his plea. All he wanted was a chance to return the kindness you’ve given him all these years. The love he had for you may seem fake, opportunistic, but he did love you. He may have realized it too late, and it was one of those romantic tropes, but he didn’t give a fuck. He was fighting for you and if he had to fight Angel, no hair off his back.

“I don’t love you, not anymore.” The words came out of your mouth before you could even process it, but you meant it. You were no longer in love with Diego. He wasn’t the person you looked forward to seeing or the last person you thought about before going to sleep. It was Angel. He made such an impact on your life. You didn’t even notice till he was MIA for those few weeks. You missed his company, his silly jokes, the way he would hold you whenever he gave you a hug. Your movie nights that usually ended up with you two cuddling on your couch. You realized then that you didn’t want to believe there could be something more between you and Angel since it was what you did with Diego. But there were differences. Angel always catered to you just like how you did to him. He put you first, just like how you put him first. It was a reciprocal type of care that you never felt with Diego. Angel became your best friend without even knowing it. “You broke my heart Diego. Regardless if you felt the same way or not, I was supposed to be your best friend and you let her say all those things to me. I didn’t do anything to deserve that. All I did was be there for you, was love you.”

Diego grimaced, hearing those words coming out from your mouth. There was no way you didn’t love him anymore. You were just saying that, he refused to believe it. “I know, and I’m the world’s biggest asshole for letting her blind me. But you have to know that the words she said, they weren’t from me.”

“Oh, you mean how it annoyed you that I followed you around like a little puppy? That it was annoying how I always texted you and you thought that my anxiety was all in my head? That it was all for attention? That if I weren’t Bishop and Padrino’s niece you would have never approached me?” You were running on adrenaline now, everything was coming out so easily.

Diego was surprised as you usually shied away from confrontation, keeping your thoughts to yourself. But he did hurt you. “I didn’t. Do you honestly think I would say that about you?”

“Yes, yes I do.” The pressure in your chest was still there and you just wanted this to end, for him to go away.

Diego opened his mouth to try and sway you, but the roar of a motorcycle cut him off. You didn’t care who it was, as long as it was someone who could get Diego away from you. But you could tell it was Angel. You were so used to the sound of his motorcycle. He parked outside of the gate that led to the parking lot for the residence of your apartment building. Angel rushed over to you and he immediately cupped your face with his gloved hands, checking you to make sure you were okay. He saw the tears welled up in your eyes. His temper immediately flaring.

“Go inside, I’ll catch up.” He kissed your cheek, turning you around.

“No, Angel, he’s not worth it, let’s just go.” You wrapped your arms around his arm, pleading for him to go with you. The club didn’t need the drama.

“Querida, go inside.” Angel wasn’t even looking at you. His eyes were trained on Diego.

“Just leave Angel, this is between me and her.” Diego snapped. He was tired of Angel coming in between you two.

“Inside, please.” Angel kissed your forehead, giving you a small shove so you could go inside.

Diego attempted to follow you, but Angel blocked his way, pushing him to the ground.

“Don’t even think about it.” Angel placed his foot against Diego’s chest. “I’ve been a patient man with you even though you continuously ignored my request to stay away from my girlfriend. This is my last warning, stay the fuck away from my girlfriend or I’ll gladly let Padrino and Prez know about your indiscretions. Let’s see how you weasel your way out of that.” Angel pushed him back down when Diego attempted to get up. “I’m serious. You fucked up. She doesn’t want you, she’s with me now. Don’t push me, asshole.”

With that, Angel walked away, bringing his bike inside the parking garage before making his way to your apartment. He went in and found you sitting on the couch. Your eyes immediately went to the door and was relieved to see Angel untouched.

“You should have called me.” Angel sat beside you, taking your hand into his. “Are you hurt?”

“I knew you were doing club business, I thought Chucky was going to come get me. I didn’t want to be picky when all I wanted to do was go home.” You were tapping your foot and Angel placed a hand on your knee. “Sorry, I know it’s annoying. I’m just sore otherwise I’m fine.”

“It’s not, you just have no reason to be nervous. I’m just glad you’re safe. Guessing your car is totaled?” Angel was trying to distract himself. Seeing you with Diego was not exactly what he wanted to see with everything else going on with the rebels.

“It is.” You looked at Angel. It still marveled you that this handsome man was all yours. “I’m sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing?”

“I don’t know, you seem upset.”

Angel sighed. “Not at you, never at you.” He gave your hand a quick squeeze. “What did Diego want?”

“He told me that he loves me.”

Angel took a deep breath and nodded his head. “Did he? How’d that make you feel?” He didn’t give a fuck about Diego, what mattered was what you felt about it. Though, he couldn’t keep any promises that he wouldn’t fuck Diego up if he you somehow had an enlightenment that you now wanted to be with Diego.

“Nothing. I know he’s just saying it because he needs me for something.” You shook your head. “It doesn’t matter, I’m with you now.”

“But what if he wasn’t? What if he realized he does love you?” This was a hard conversation to have, but Angel didn’t want to be the second choice, he’s been that all his life. He refused to be that with you.

“Are you serious? How can you even ask me that?” You let go of his hand, standing up to get away from him. “Angel, he played me and even if he did mean it, I don’t care because I’m in love with you.” You gasped at your confession and Angel froze.

‘Shit, I fucked up.’ You gnawed at your lips trying to get out of this one.

You watched as Angel stood up, he walked over to you and before you could even say anything to retract your statement, he captured your lips for a breathtaking kiss.

“I love you,” he whispered against your lips when he pulled away. “I didn’t want to scare you away, but fuck, it feels so fucking good to hear you say it.” He kissed you again and you lost yourself to his kiss. His lips were absolutely addicting, intoxicating.

Angel lifted you up, your legs wrapping around his waist. His lips never left yours as he made his way towards your room. Once inside, he placed you on the bed, lips leaving yours.

“Mi dulce, I just want to make sure that you’re ready. I don’t know if I can hold back if we keep at it.” Angel caressed your cheek. He loved watching you trying to catch your breath, with your lips, looking up at him with hooded eyes.

“I’m ready, as long as it’s you.”

Angel didn’t need anything more than that. He helped you sit up and took off your shirt.

“Are you hurting baby? I know you got into an accident.” He was kissing down your neck as he questioned you.

“I got muscle relaxers, I’m okay.” You reassured him, watching him as he got closer to your breast.

Angel didn’t reply and just pulled your cups down. You’ve had boyfriends, alright, a boyfriend, however you’ve never gotten this far. Kissing was the furthest you’ve gone and you were honestly fine with that. But with how this was feeling with Angel, you were almost certain it wouldn’t feel this good with anyone else.

He took one of your nipples into his mouth while the other was occupied by his hand. You arched your back, loving the sensation he was giving you. Your fingers weave through his hair, slightly pulling it. Rubbing your thighs together for some sort of relief, you felt yourself becoming wetter as Angel continued to give attention to your breast.

His hand that was on your other breast traveled down your stomach and inside your sweat pants. His fingers brushed against your panty line, his lips capturing yours again. His fingers slipped inside, his lips still on yours. Pulling away, he coated his finger with your wetness and nibbled on your ear, whispering to you how beautiful you were. Slipping a finger in, you instinctively closed your leg at the intrusion, but he used one of his legs to drag one of your legs open.

“Just relax baby,” he murmured, you were clenching his finger and Angel couldn’t even imagine how it would be once he was inside of you.

“It feels weird,” you whimpered, biting your lip as Angel began to move his finger in and out.

“I know baby, but it’ll feel better soon. Let’s take off your clothes.” Angel helped you take off your underwear and sweatpants. You thought you would feel more shy with all of your clothes off, but you didn’t. The way Angel looked at you, he made you feel confident. You kept your body hidden under your baggy clothing, never feeling too confident, but when Angel looked at you, you felt like the most beautiful girl in the world.

With your sweatpants and underwear off, you didn’t feel as constricted. He held one of your legs open with his arm as his finger went back to work. It wasn’t as uncomfortable as before. His thumb rubbed your clit, using your wetness to wet his thumb.

“Feel better?” He asked.

You nodded your head.

“Can I add a finger?”

“Yes,” you breathed out. Angel slipped another finger in and you arched your back, grabbing your blanket as the discomfort went away and the pleasure took over.

Angel noticed how your breathing was becoming rapid, and you were tightening up around him. You felt this feeling at the pit of your stomach.

“Fuck,” you let out as you came. This was your first orgasm and you have to say, this completely changed your life. Maybe you should have experimented and masturbated beforehand, but you were just never comfortable with the idea till now. If this was how it felt, you might be addicted.

Angel removed his fingers, taking his fingers into his mouth and cleaning off your juices. You slightly laughed, pulling him down for a kiss. He smirked against your lips, pulling away so he could take off his clothing. He took off his clothes and when your eyes landed on his cock, your mouth slightly dropped.

You weren’t innocent. You’ve seen a porn video here and there. But seeing Angel’s dick, you were impressed by his size and slightly nervous.

“Are all guys these big?”

Angel chuckled. “Fuck no baby, I’m just blessed.”

You had to laugh at Angel’s reply. Of course he was. “Is that going to fit?”

“Oh, you know it will.” He positioned himself in between your legs, coating his cock with your wetness. “It’s going to hurt, baby but it’ll get better I promise.” Angel lined up his cock against your entrance and slowly slipped his cock in. He saw the discomfort on your face, which made him frown. “You okay?”

You nodded your head, holding your breath hoping that the pain would eventually fade. Angel rubbed your clit, hoping the added stimulation would help you relax. Your walls were not clenching down on him as hard when he rubbed it. He was able to move forward and pushed himself in, making you groan.

“Sorry baby,” he whispered into your ear as you scratched his back for some sort of relief. “Fuck, baby. Let me know when I can move.”

The burning was still present, you felt him stretch you, but it wasn’t painful, if anything, it was beginning to feel pleasurable.

“Move, please.”

“Thank god,” Angel began to move in and out, resting his hands on either side of your head. He wanted to make sure this was pleasurable for you. He hasn’t been with a virgin since he was in high school. It was an honor to be your first. With how beautiful you were, he would think you at least have experienced it once but it seemed that Diego built a wall around you that no one could penetrate. That’s ain’t the case anymore. “Fuck baby, you feel really good.” Angel realized that he didn’t have a condom on, but he couldn’t stop now. You felt too fucking good. He loves you and if he fucking got you pregnant, so be it.

You just moaned in response, scratching at Angel’s back.

“You look so beautiful, I’ve always wondered how you looked without those clothes on. Fucking perfection.” Angel slowed his pace when he felt you tightening around him. He straightened his back, watching where you two were connected. “I’m never going to get tired of this. Fuck Diego, right baby? It’s you and me now. Right?”

“Yes,” you gasped out, wanting him to go faster. “Just you.”

“That’s right, I’m the only one who is ever going to see you like this.” Angel hovered over you again, attaching his lips to yours. “I’m going to be your first and last.”

You could only moan out his name in reply, his pace quickening once more.

“You ready to come again baby girl? My cock has you feeling so good, huh?” He began rubbing your clit again.

“It feels so good Angel,” you moaned out. “Faster.”

“I got you baby girl, I always got you.” Angel knew he wasn’t going to last long. Too much pent up sexual energy between you two. A year and a half and it finally happened.

You called out his name as you came, Angel following after you. He did a few more thrust before pulling out. He saw the blood that was dripping down due to your first time and got up to retrieve a wet cloth. He wiped his dick real quick before coming over to you and cleaning you up. You sighed as he caressed you.

“Where are your blankets?” He questioned.

“Closet in the hallway.” You were spent. The ache was present in between your legs, but it felt good.

Angel took a blanket and came back to your room. He requested for you to stand up and you just laughed.

“I don’t think I can.”

Angel chuckled. “Damn baby, my dick that good?”

“Fuck you Angel.”

“You just did.” Angel helped you up as he quickly pulled your blanket off and helped you lay down. He placed the blanket over you and placed your old one on the floor. He slipped in beside you, taking you into his arms. “How was that for your first time?”

“I’m not going to stroke your ego.”

“You know it was good.” Angel teased.

“Yeah it was.” You kissed his chest. “I really do love you Angel.”

“And I love you. Diego isn’t going to come between us.”

“No, he isn’t.”

Angel was going to make sure of it. He meant it. Diego lost his chance and he wasn’t going to let you go.

#Angel Reyes #angelreyes #angel reyes fanfiction #angel reyes fanfic #angel reyes fic #mayans mc imagine #mayans mc fanfic #mayans mc fic

201 notes · View notes

maskedjoker · 4 years

Text

We are getting really close to the scene in lost fragment of snow that was genuinely confusing in the book, and it's the scene were everyone in the circus is killed. I think what we will probably get is a scene were mana finally ends up giving into despair after he is hit and then allen is fed to a lion.

I think that with more current info, i can say for sure that sleeve earl and mana are a hybird. This will likely cause a resurgence of sleeve earl into taking over the body and becoming whole. This only lasts for a short time however and when cross confronts him after the rest of the circus has died from the audience turning into akuma(which i suppose are implied to be constantly just around the earl and is probably one of the many reasons cross warned Allen to stay away) some exchange of words or damage causes a lots of control. This damage however also hurts mana(or potentially just being forced out off control) causing him to loose even more memories as seen when mana and Allen reunite the next day.

Now i think we can agree that sleeve earl exists as a third entity, especially since her recent art exhibit interview, as she talked about the suit being a super sophisticated golem. I think in this case as with tim and lero yhat "golem" refers to AI. Id argue with the weird phrasing like helix of life and all the biotech style that magic is more often than not just more advanced technology, and wherever the noahs came from likely was, hence why they say they only seem strong because we have become so weak. This is only further shown with innocences resemblance to machines like its gear like parts and percentage resonance.

The noah memories in general i think are some kind of AI that passes through generation lines, carrying significant portions of its past forward and then fusing with a similar person in their lineage. For example early on road would have been just road, then through some means either became an AI(or was given a piece of someone that counts as one under golem, its unclear). Regardless once connected to the noah memory, it acts like a save file and becomes more sophisticated with time. It carries each life and gives all those memories, feelings and drives to a new body. So new road would remember being road, her life and everything, but also the life they had been living up until the two combined. Over time the noah memory keeps getting larger and larger to the point new experiences are so small, relatively speaking, that it overrides much more than normal. Since they are fuzed as one being they likely cant be separated without mutually assured destruction, were the current entity will die and any remains will not be the origionals, if anything remains at all. An example of this is that tyki could not be made human by Allen I their fight i the arc, despite having a blade that should destroy only part of him. Admittedly tyki is a special case though, and more tyki backstory is needed.

Changes from body to body become more subtle, but the base, which likely has a distinct core function as seen by its response to certain tasks and ideas, remains a strong aspect. This creates an almost reincarnation like effect for them, needing to only find a new body to continue.

The suit is like this, but different. I don't know how the original earl split, but i do think that some aspect of him was placed on the suit. I would like to say its the original version of the noah memories of the earl and nea got like a brand new copy, but i actually have no idea what memories he has of being past earl so its mostly a guess. Regardless the noah actually all seem to transform in some way when they get mega pissed. Im looking at you skinn, jasdevi, and tyki/joyd. So the suit is likely that kind of thing, but way more distinct and capable of acting autonomously. Since they all have different forms it makes sense that his would also be unique. They all probably represent some inner desire related to their memory. Skinn is just rage so big angry man works fine. Jasdero and devit are bonds so they want most to be one. Tyki got all fucked up before he changed so i got nothing, but it had a heavy does of sadism, which I guess is pleasure? Taking into account that killing in horrible graphic ways is his guilty pleasure it kinda makes sense.

So because of that, this sentient AI is constantly trying to pair with half a fucking brain because nea and mana only share one brain cell. Some kind of resistance from mana or strain causes him to constantly fall ill or comatose. Now to be clear on naming, sleeve earl does not refer to themselves as adam in the mirror scene nor does he refer to mana as adam, and only uses "we" when talking to mana about being the earl. Oddly enough the earls self pronouns are we, using wagashi which is kind of like the japanese equivalent of the royal we used in europe for the entirety of the series. For the record, mana in the flashbacks uses male or single they pronouns, i don't remember if he uses boku or watashi, but he uses at least one if not both.

So from this it seems millennium earl is a title, used by whatever is paired with the suit. Adam is the original name of the noah, and is the preferred name of the current earl aside from the title.

This circumstance was likely caused by the rest of the noah, who are using the earl for something related by the pillar. His separation either by accident or by intent was likely by the hands of his family trying to keep control for their ends. This is why the current earl is called a broken puppet and has so many things around him related to acting and stage plays. He is playing a role, the red clown to allens white clown as stated in the ark arc. He even wears a mask. His memories and mind have been damaged though, therefore broken. However broken puppet for both allen and the earl could also refer to a puppet that doesnt work as a double meaning, implying they can no longer be controlled or puppeted.

It is also implied that he is still unaware of this betrayal, but it is likely nea does to some degree as it would explain why he became a traitor and killed his own family. To be clear, i dont think all of the noah know everything, and i dont think they dont actually care for the earl. It seems they still genuinely follow him to their death and see him as one of their own, especially in cases like road, tyki and wisely.

Now early i said that different generations of noah would cope woth reincarnating differently. Since the earl only died once before 7000 years ago, id say resetting to a new body with only 17 years would be just smashed flat by any algorithm with that much data. However manas feelings are still the newest, and so still have an impact even on the current earl.

Now we come to resurrecting mana. How? Why? Well i dont know. But my guess is whatever part was the memories of mana for the 20 or so years he lived, or at least his memories at death, are in allen. His curse and weird hallucinations of mana seem to suggest it. Alternatively that part of his soul may have passed on, or it fuzed with the noah memory making the origional mana part of the hive and much like tyki and his noah memories cannot be seperated. Not good regardless.

As two additional things, i want to mention that hoshino is a twin and has always been obsessed with it, so having twins in her book was inevitable. What is extra weird is hoshino was actually going to be a triplet, but either her or her sister absorbed it before birth. She has mentioned it in dgm interviews and i cant PROVE it translates to anything in the plot but its suspicious. She also still list mana, nea and the earl as distinct in every book up to date in extra novels and at the start of her books. Oh and her favorite hat for the earl right now? The one featured on the most recent chapter? Has two faces on the front that are visible, and one in the back thats hidden, and the most recent art has the back face as the only one visible, angrily staring allen down. Great art foreshadowing if im right. Its also usually sleeve earl, if not exclusively, that wear it.

The second thing is mana talking about love and drive in the most recent chapter just brings up the earl having the noah memory of love or devotion or something for me. Ive written about it before but it just seems to fit. This character is all about that from the ability to fuze loved ones together to the hearts he talks with and his drives being based on grand acts of devotion, being by their side etc. Mana also loved and adopted both and dog and a homeless child and keeps talking about how the world is so beautiful despite all the bad. The earl literally acts like the whole noah clans mom by his own words and cooks for them, and both of them go out of their way to be cartoony to break tension. The earl literally goes and buys a single red rose from a poor girl while tyki pontificate on how he doesnt act like a villain. He doesnt take an umbrella because he wants to feel the rain. He talks about how what he does is in human nature and requires a connection between two people. He is even designed with his ideal colors as red and purple with white, as well as being designed after flowers. I know this probably doesnt make sense, but its stuck in my head.

#long post #ramble #mine #dgm #d. gray man #spoilers #theory #mana #nea #adam #millennium earl

47 notes · View notes

dailymallek · 4 years

Text

Went with something a little different, and decided to make it a life or death situation in which Mallek’s mind powers awaken.

Thanks again for the ask anon, I had a lot of fun writing this piece!

- mod kai

“So you’ve never tried to see if you have them?!” Diemen yells, his voice suggesting he’s genuinely shocked by the other’s casual statement.

“Nope… In the almost nine sweeps of my life, I’ve never tried to see if I have them, let alone use them.” Mallek shrugs, grabbing his drink from the vending machine.

“Whoa… Never?” He looks at Mallek who just shakes his head in response to him. Diemen takes a bite from his hot dog. “Mmm… I thought all bluebloods had a different mental power?” His words are mixed with his chewing.

“Not all of us… Some blues can develop more manipulative psychic powers as opposed to your caste’s telekinesis, or a gold’s psionic powers…” Mallek explains before taking another big swig from his drink.

“But it’s still a rarity, like… 20, 22% of us can get the power.” They start walking off back to Mallek’s hive.

“Ah, okay…” Diemen takes another bite from his snack. “But you’ve never tried to see if you have them?”

“Not really, it’s never been an interest of mine to explore…” Mallek responds, his focus was always on his hacking, and information gathering, he wasn’t keen on learning about his potential psychic powers.

“Oh, well if you're sure. Still, it’d be pretty cool if you could.” Diemen finishes his hot dog, a satisfied grin, wiping some of the crumbs off his lips. “That would be a cool thing for us to have in common. We’d be psychic BROS.” Diemen makes a gesture, imagining something cool.

“Psychic BROS huh?” Mallek chuckles, he always found his friend’s energetic behavior always refreshing, overall he was just great to be around.

“In that case, how can I not wanna try it?” There was a hint of sarcasm in his voice, but he lowkey feels that he and Diemen would be a little closer if they had something they shared.

“Really?” Diemen was a little eager, he was being serious about the two of them becoming psychic bros. “You don’t have to if it's something that doesn’t interest ya.”

“It’s worth a shot, and I don’t have any plans for the next few days. Let’s give it a shot.” Mallek smiles at the look of excitement on his friend’s face.

The next couple of days the pair spend the time trying to see if Mallek has any psychic powers, Diemen suggested that they try using the methods that rustbloods use to practice their telekinesis. A few books of telekinesis for beginners, some focusing techniques, however, it was all in vain, Mallek tried everything but he couldn’t manifest them. They even found a small book documenting other bluebloods’ psychic abilities, not a lot on how to activate them. But unfortunately, they were looking at this from the technical perspective, there were many angles to look at this from.

Mallek and Diemen were sitting in the park, Mallek was sitting on the grass, while Diemen was on the bench, holding a small bag of hot dogs as if it was a bag of popcorn. The blueblood looked a little exhausted, their latest attempt to make Mallek’s powers manifest was to exercise his body, having him run laps around the park. Mallek was still in the process of catching his breath, his hoodie was on the ground next to him, pale blue sweat running down his forehead.

“Well… It was worth a shot.” Diemen toss his friend a water bottle, Mallek catches it, taking desperate gulps from the bottle, before squirting some of the cooling liquid all over his face.

“Fuck… I don’t think this is worth it dude.” Mallek lays there on the cool grass, still gasping for air.

“We tried everything, I guess you're not in the 22%...” Diemen was more bummed than Mallek probably was, all their attempts hadn’t even caused a spark of power, nothing. “Sorry about that. But hey, at least we tried.”

“This was a total bust…” Mallek sighs, slowly sitting back up.

“You wanna grub dog?” Diemen offers one of his succulent meat products to Mallek.

“No, I’m fine… Let’s just go back.” Slowly he gets to his feet, a strained feeling around his legs, back, and arms.

“Alrighty.” Diemen hops off the bench, cradling his bucket of meat.

“It’s a shame, it would've been interesting to see if I could use any, but whatever.” Mallek isn’t too disappointed, again it was a big deal for him if he had powers, he was mostly attempting this for Diemen’s interests.

“Yeah, it would’ve been cool.” Diemen inhale another hot dog, consuming it in a matter of seconds. They exit the park and are now walking down the street.

While they were speaking, far ahead of them walking towards them was a large purpleblood, he was bleeding from his forehead, his clothing was torn, and his face a mix of anger and exhaustion. It looks like he had gotten into a fight, some of the blood on him was of different colors. His eyes were half-open until he saw Mallek and Diemen ahead of him, his vision then focused more on the shorter burgundy troll, gritting his teeth.

Mallek glances up and sees the purple, immediately feeling uneasy while Diemen is focused on their conversation and his snack. When they finally reach each other, the purple deliberately shoves into Diemen rather aggressively, making him drop his hotdog bucket, his eyes open up wider, a look of shock, before a surprising look of rage fills Diemen’s face. Mallek bites his lower lip, but before he can even attempt to calm his friend down.

“Are you KIDDING ME?! What the hell!” He yells at the purple who ignores him of course still walking away. “What’s your damage you clown ASSHOLE!”

That insult makes the purple troll stop, slowly turning around, his eyes glaring at both of them.

“Shit…” Mallek firmly grabs hold of Diemen’s shoulder, gripping it a little tightly, the rustblood glances at his friend and sees the somewhat frightened expression on Mallek’s face.

“Take it easy… We’ll move on and just ignore my friend.” Mallek speaks clearly but his tone was clearly nervous. Diemen gives the purple another look, scanning him up and down, and realizes how unstable he looks.

The clown snarls back at them, bearing his claws, he begins walking over to them. Mallek and Diemen cautiously step back, but with each step they make, the closer the purpleblood moves to them. Why does it have to be like this, Mallek thinks, why couldn’t he just ignored them, why did he have bump into Diemen, why did every highblood have to be a particular asshole to the lower castes just because they felt like it or in this jerk’s case, he was having a bad day and wanted to take it out on them. His hoverboard would’ve really come in handy, but he decided not to bring it with him, and he had to park his car too far away from the park, like an idiot.

“Hey, hey, there’s no need for t-” Mallek is cut off when the larger troll connects his fist with Mallek, he stumbles back, he receives another punch this time to his stomach, a look of pain twists into his face before he hits the ground hard.

Diemen doesn’t even have time to react when the subjugglator roughly grabs him by the collar of his shirt, lifting him off the ground, this troll was more than twice his size, kicking his feet against the air, trying to pull himself out of the troll’s grip. With little effort, the clown throws Diemen into the ground, a loud groan of pain when the small troll hits the hard concrete. The enraged clown begins whaling on Diemen, each time he fist hits him, or he kicks him, a noise or grunt escapes his mouth.

Mallek sees the larger troll attacking his friend, he quickly gets back to his feet, rushing to Diemen’s aid, the purpleblood sees him coming and before Mallek can even land a hit, the other grabs hold him and throw him over his shoulder, he hits the ground once again. To add further insult he swiftly kicks Mallek in his side making, him coughs up blood, clenching his teeth in pain, the clown snarls at Mallek before turning back to Diemen, his nails extended into claws, as he advances on Diemen…

“N-no… S-stop, leave him alone…” Mallek tries to get back to his feet, reaching out to the troll. “Stop…” He manages to get to his knees.

“I said to

” Mallek raises his hand out, his voice booms, echoing throughout the area, his eyes shut tightly in anger. His other hand was balled into a fist, shaking. He was tense all over with rage, a fit of deep anger, but there was another sensation, something new. A tingling feeling that rolls over him like waves.

It’s quiet, he can no longer hear the heavy footsteps of purpleblood. Mallek slowly opens his eyes, afraid to see what was happening, if Diemen was okay. Peeking at the sight before him, his eyes immediately shoot open in shock. To Mallek’s surprise, the other was standing still like a statue, frozen in place, his eyes were now filled with a blue aura, and on his forehead was now the glowing symbol of Mallek’s sign floating there in place.

“W-what…” Mallek gets back to his feet slowly, confused by what he was seeing. He then stares at his palm that he tried to reach out with, faintly glowing like the purpleblood.

“No way.” He realizes what’s happening, what he’s done. But there wasn’t time to stop and think about this, he goes to Diemen, checking on him. “Diemen, are you okay?” He gently shakes his friend, Diemen grumbles, slowly opening his eyes.

“Mallek?” Fresh blood drips from Diemen’s forehead, holding his head in pain. “What just hap-” He stops when he looks over to see the subjugglator frozen in place, glowing blue.

“Whoa… What’s going on?” Diemen takes a cautious step forward.

“Hey, don’t go near him.” Mallek grabs hold of Diemen, who just brushes him off, moving carefully towards the clown. “Dude… You did this?”

“Nevermind that, come on, let’s go before it wears off.” Mallek was eager to leave, he doesn’t know how long this will last. “Come on.” He makes another attempt to pull his friend away, but not before Diemen delivers a hard, swift kick to the frozen purpleblood’s crotch.

“Diemen!” Mallek yanks his friend’s arm, rushing away with him, turning the corner of the street in the direction of his car, once they were far enough the psychic link was severed and the purpleblood was released from the control. It was like waking from a dream and feeling the sting from Diemen’s kick, he drops to his knees holding his pained area, confused by what just happened.

#mod kai #mallek adalov #hiveswap #homestuck #friendsim #hiveswap friendsim #writing #diemen xicali #ask #ask answered #mallek #angst #psychic powers #anonymous

18 notes · View notes