#you can pick if this is before or during the heist (: | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

bubbles-for-all-of-us · 10 months ago

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The way of the water

request: can i have some kaz x grisha!reader where she's a tidemaker and during a heist he falls into the water and she uses her powers to pull him out and helps him through a panic attack? hurt/comfort and preferably established relationship pls and thx

a/n I am so tired that I do not know what this is. And I really apologize if it is bad.

warning: drowning?, fear of water, not really played into his touch aversion.

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Kaz was convinced that you were simply his best investment. A quick and smart way of dealing with his fear of water. He had torn earth and sky. Put at least five bullets between different merchants' eyes before he found you locked in a glass tomb. For a moment, you looked repulsive to him. Floating in the water like a corpse. But then again, he remembered the gossip. The way the creature was forced into a trance. It had been the only way to drag you out of the village the salesman had raided once the word about your kind spread. Just you didn’t remind him of a creature...

“Unlock her," Kaz had muttered to Jasper, who had stood gaping like a fish himself, “and I don’t know... offer her water." Kaz had glanced one more time at you. “Very funny, boss," Jasper hissed. “You do know that she could bite my head off and drown me once I...", but Jasper was only met with a slam of the door.

The weeks that followed left Kaz both satisfied and frustrated. You had tried to run only five times in a span of two weeks. In an angry haze, Kaz had locked you against the staircase railing. Much to everyone’s displeasure. But then he only managed to sit in his office for an hour before he found himself reaching for his cane.

“Extend your leg," he muttered, watching as the droplets fell to the floor. Your angry eyes darted toward him. “Sometimes I’m glad you can’t move blood," he muttered under his breath. “Careful, maybe you don’t know all of my tricks," you huffed, pulling your chained leg beneath yourself. Kaz inhaled deeply. He needed you. There was no use in you if you just sulked.

“You do know that I wasn’t the one who brought you here. I saved you from a very bleak existence. You should be thankful," he said blankly. “My apologies; you want me to bow or kneel?”, you scowled back. “I don’t want to exploit you, I..." Kaz swallowed thickly. He hadn’t told anyone why he had been so close to obsessively looking for you. He was sure they had found their conclusions on their own. “I need your help," he finished.

Kaz watched as curiosity flicked in your gaze. He knew that you weren’t going to ask. You could very well just sit there for hours. “I don’t like... I have a complicated relationship with water." For some reason, Kaz was waiting for you to start laughing. Make a joke. But the expression on your face didn’t change. If anything, the harsh frown eased up. “It… I had to be near corpses during the plague”, Kaz pulled at the suit he was wearing as his throat slowly closed up with anxiety. But then, in a heartbeat, the air in the room shifted. The dripping of the leaks in the roof faded to nothing. Kaz lifted his head to assess the droplets turning to mist the moment they entered the room. Once he glanced back down, he found you standing with the chained leg extended to him. He held your gaze for a moment before nodding. A silent understanding taking shape between you both.

“It’s an easy job. Pick up the document and go." It had been a while since any job had come into Kaz’s view. One he would like to take on, at least. Until now. He needed that handbook, the new shipment trades, and the new substance that had leaked into the market. “Worst-case scenario, there’s a harbor," Kaz tapped onto the map. His eyes caught yours across the room. He had sworn to never involve you in the Six Crows business but caved in after watching you wilt into nothing for weeks. So now he just offered you the safest job he could find. To stand watch. To leave false trails. To watch his back if a big body of water was near.

“Fourth floor. You will go through here." Kaz quickly averted his gaze. “I will scale the outside wall." He could hear the sharp breath you had taken in. He knew why. The side wall was bordered by the edge of the dock. Kaz swallowed thickly and said, “Get me that fucking book," before folding the map up and showing it into the top drawer of the desk.

The salty water kissed your skin as you slowly walked into the waves. You knew that Kaz watched you from his spot. You could feel his eyes on you. It had been weird the last few months. Going from full terror to finding a strange family of sorts. Yet still, it was Kaz who intrigued you the most. It was unusual the relationship between you two. If you could even call it that. You rarely talked, but then it never felt like you had to. He understood. And when he wanted you to be there when he tried to overcome his fear of water, you would just linger there. Like a phantom touch. Guarding him. And then he would stand there looking at you for hours. Eyes pouring more than words could ever tell.

You are the one watching him now. Like a shadow. Crawling up the wall. Each move is calculated, each move is planned out. Covered by the waves crashing against the shore. It always bugged you in the moments when you couldn’t see him. When he was inside the building, outside of your sight. You couldn’t protect him there. Even if Jasper had told you time after time that it was you and all of them that needed saving from Kaz, not the other way around.

A loud bang sent your head shooting up to the balcony. Voices following through. Shouts. Glass braking. The light flickering on throughout the whole upper floor. One that was supposed to stay undisturbed. Your own heart picked up in pace. Then the dark coat appeared, swaying in the wind. Another figure leaped upfront. The two wrestle in the tight spaces. A loud snap. And there it was. The time stopped still as a flash of Kaz’s face eliminated by the moon glimpsed by right as his body was forced over the railing. You had barely managed to swallow his name while diving into the waves. Forcing your body to move as fast as possible.

The free fall felt short, but the impact of the water felt as if Kaz had been drowning for an eternity. He didn’t even realize that he was falling into the water. He was prepared for hard ground. But the panic that filled his body when he was submerged made him let out a gasp. Filling his lungs with salty water. Memories of the past clasped clammy hands all over him, dragging him deeper and deeper. The light from the moon fading away.

And then it’s as if he’s wrapped in an invisible net. Kaz blinks once, and it’s you there. Right in front of him. By some absolute stupidity, he tries to call out your name. Letting more water into his lungs. Your eyes grow big, and then your fingers are grasping for him. Kaz catches that apologetic expression on your face before you pull him closer to you. Lips crashing into his, and at once it feels as if his lungs don’t remember how to breathe or how to welcome that gust of oxygen. But he’s holding onto you regardless. Feeling the fear fade away until it all goes black.

“Look at me," you frantically tap at Kaz’s cheek. Breathing heavily. The very tips of the waves still kissing your legs. You didn’t have enough energy to pull you both out fully. Feet slipping beneath the wet sand. Making you fall over, with Kaz’s body following right with you. "Kaz," you press your ear against his chest, trying to listen for a heartbeat, but you’re too anxious and too shaky to distinguish anyway.

“Why aren’t you waking up? Wake up!" You whine in frustration, pressing your lips against his now-blue ones. A kiss from you had to be enough. Had to breathe him back to life. You couldn’t have been too late. Couldn’t have. And then Kaz jerks, sitting up in a rush, his pained coughs slipping past his lips. You don’t dare to touch him now. You know he doesn’t like it. You had already overstepped as it was, but now.

“What the fuck?", he hissed through clenched teeth, making you drop your gaze. “Are you out of your mind?”, Kaz was coughed once again. Now you could see a sharp gash in his forehead. Still leaking blood. Your fingers traced the wet sand. “I saved it," you muttered, handing him the book he had come for—one that fell alongside him into the water. Kaz rips it out of your grasp, throwing it to the side. His fingers wrap around your wrist. “Are you insane?”, he hisses, pulling you closer. “You could have gotten hurt; they could have very well shot at you." His words hit you like a blow, leaving you speechless as you glanced up at him.

“Your arm." You want to laugh at how insane this is. Had you too hit your heads? Why is he concerned with... “What happened to your hand?” Kaz demands, making you glance down at the torn flesh. He was too heavy for you to lift up the dock. You tried. Unfortunately, that resulted in you slipping, and since you were too afraid to let go of his body, your arm met the sharp edge of the hook that was left carelessly there.

The sound of the shirt being ripped makes you blink. And here he stands. Taring his shirt up before grasping your hand as he wraps it around. “Your head," you mutter, "You," "It’s a scuff," Kaz grunts, his fingers shaking the longer he touches you. You back away slightly, not wanting him to do something he’s uncomfortable with. But Kaz’s wild eyes meet yours, making you still. “Next time," he breathes out, “Next time, you swim away without looking back.”

He drops your arm, turning away from you. Brushing his shaky fingers through his messy hair. “There will be no next time," you mutter, making Kaz turn around so quickly it makes you jolt. “There will be no next time," you continue once again, “because I will be right there, right under, and you will never get to feel what drowning feels like." Your hands wrap into fists as angry tears roll down your face. Kaz shakes his head. “You silly girl," he huffs, stopping closer to you. Not daring to touch you, but enough to feel your body close. Enough to feel whatever that is left of both of your bodies's warmth bouncing off of each other. Kaz takes a deep breath, "I would rather drown over and over again than see you get hurt again.”

#kaz brekker x you #kaz brekker x oc #kaz x you #kaz brekker six of crows #kaz brekker imagine #kaz brekker x reader #kaz x reader #kaz brekker #the six of crows x reader #the six of crows imagine #the six of crows #the six of crows x you

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juniper-sunny · 2 months ago

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The Art in the Heart* - Chapter 6

It's Silco's turn to give you an invitation, and you're not quite sure what answer to give him. Then something chases you through the dark corners of the Undercity—and you end up somewhere unexpected...

Happy Ending AU | Silco x Reader | Young!Silco | F!Reader | No [Y/N] | Slow Burn | Romance | Eventual Smut | Fluff | Angst | Hurt/Comfort | Fix-It || SFW | TW: Stalking | WC: 4.1k

beta reader: @silcoitus <333

ao3 || Masterlist || Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5

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Even though you told Silco you’re not painting today, you still have to check on the mural. When you arrive at your worksite, you lift the plastic sheeting and rest your palm gingerly against the wall; the rough stone is cool but dry to the touch. The colors seem a bit dim in the overcast weather, but the paint is still intact. It looks like your protective measures were successful.

The desire to linger persists, though. You extend the scissor lift higher to reach the rooftop, climbing up onto the ledge. You lean forward, kicking your feet against the wall. Staring out into nothing and shivering at the cold air that blows through your clothes.

Silco’s sleepover was already a significant disruption to your usual routine, but that’s not the only reason you feel disoriented. It’s been a while since you’ve made a new friend, and the buzzing excitement is enhanced by how much you have in common with him.

Unfortunately, it’s tainted by anxiety about the heist. According to the papers, the shipment will be arriving in two weeks. It seems unlikely that you’ll see Silco before then.

Still, you can’t help but wonder. Should you go looking for him? It would be a change of pace if you were the one to initiate contact for once. Would he find that refreshing? Or would he think you’re coming on too strong?

Something tells you he wouldn’t want to be disturbed during the planning phase of the raid. It’s an important mission, but he doesn’t have a lot of time to prepare for it. Maybe it’s better to leave him alone for now; he knows where to find you if he can make time for a visit.

These thoughts and more circle your mind like Poros chasing each other. You probably would have sat there for even longer, but a light raindrop taps your cheek. When you look up to the sky, the clouds are blotting out the sky, heavy trails of dark blue and gray ink swirling above your head.

As you wipe your face, the back of your neck tingles, goosebumps rising as your hair stands on end. The chill at the base of your skull isn’t caused by the weather.

Someone is standing behind you.

“Silco?” you call out, turning around in surprise.

You almost don’t hear it over your own voice and the rumble of thunder: a mechanical click and whirring, low like a buzzing insect. Simultaneously, a blinding, white flash bursts in your face, burning into your retinas.

As you squeeze your eyes shut, footsteps patter away; metal clanking echoes in the distance as something jumps onto rooftops. When your eyes readjust, you carefully jump off the ledge onto the roof.

“Who’s there?” you say in a small, quivering voice.

But you’re all alone. Whoever that person was, they’re long gone by now. You pull your jacket tighter around you. You’re just about to leave when you spot something small floating to the ground.

Curiosity gets the better of you, and you walk over to the thing and pick it up. It’s thin, glossy, and square, artificially smooth and warm to the touch. There are undefined shapes on it, blurred edges slowly sharpening into focus as the dull gray smears become stained with color.

The shock of what you’re looking at almost makes you drop it.

It’s a picture of you, your face blurred as you’re turning to look over your shoulder. But it has your clothes and your hair color, framed by a cloudy sky.

On instinct, you crumple the picture and stuff it into your pocket. Your body moves on its own, climbing onto the scissor lift and running away.

Stalkers aren’t unusual in Zaun, but their presence is still unnerving. No one’s ever followed you this closely before, and the picture proves that their issue with you is personal.

Instead of heading home, you make your way Topside. You had meant to go shopping for new art supplies, and now seems as good a time as any. Hopefully you’ll be able to lose them in the streets of Piltover, where there’ll be more scrutinizing eyes.

This one time, you’re grateful that Pilties are so judgmental of people from the Undercity; if you’re being watched like a hawk, they’ll be able to spot whoever’s stalking you. So you take your time browsing in an art store, not bothering to step away from the shop attendants that shadow your every footstep. It's late and raining hard by the time you finally leave. When you step out and take several careful, cautious steps, the tingling sensation doesn’t come back. You start walking faster to take advantage of your pursuer’s absence.

On the second full day without rain, you return to the mural. But just as you pry open a can of paint, the feeling strikes you again. This time, your scalp tingles and stings painfully, as the stalker seemingly observes you from the rooftops. You jam the can’s lid back in place and run away again.

For days after, they don’t come back. But those close calls are enough to make you dread going to work. You keep your sessions short just in case you need to flee. The shorter workdays aren’t a problem for now, as you’re still laying down the base coat for the mural. However, longer sessions can’t be avoided when painting the finer details, as they’ll require focus and precision.

The fear of being stalked embeds itself into the very air around you, making you hyperaware of your surroundings. It doesn’t help that your nights have become restless, disturbed by nightmares of faceless figures towering over you and footsteps growing louder and louder as they approach you.

Still, you’re determined to not let your newfound paranoia get the best of you, especially on the day after the raid. Silco had promised that he would find you, after all, so you steel yourself and head out to the mural.

To your immense relief, Silco is already there waiting for you, a triumphant grin on his face blazing like the sun. All your worries fall away as you rush to the scissor lift, impatiently slamming the button that extends it to the roof. During the ascent, you take a deep breath to calm your hammering heartbeat, hoping to regain some semblance of dignity.

As you pull yourself up and over the ledge, Silco extends a hand out to you. You take it, savoring the feel of his calluses and scars, solid and rough as you find your footing. He lets go of you all too soon to rummage in his backpack. You shove your own hand in your pocket, squeezing reflexively.

“We were right about the shipment,” he says excitedly, pulling a bottle of wine out of his backpack. “Noxian goods were just some of the many illegal imports we found last night. The councilor’s in trouble.”

“Hello to you too, Silco,” you say, laughing with relief. “Are you okay?”

The fire in his eyes diminishes to something softer, a warm hearth as he looks at you properly now with appreciation. But his smile widens as he holds out the wine to you.

“We prevailed thanks to you,” he says proudly. “It isn’t much, but we wanted you to enjoy your share of the spoils.”

“Oh—” you say, surprised. “You didn’t have to—”

“Is this not enough? We have much more stashed away—” he asks.

“No, no,” you shake your head, hesitating. “I—I just need to hear you say that you’re okay.”

He doesn’t tell you those exact words, but instead launches into a grand retelling of last night’s events: staking out the warehouse for hours, bribing some of the less disciplined guards, knocking the rest of them out, hurrying away with as much cargo as they could carry, and dumping the rest of it in the harbor. He puts down the wine bottle and pulls a flask out from his pockets, toasting to the Children’s victory.

His tale is probably a very thrilling one, and you’ll have to ask Silco to tell it again someday.

But right now, your attention is focused on his sleeves; despite the warm weather, he has them pulled almost all the way down to his wrist, bandaging peeking out like a dog sneaking into a dining room for table scraps.

When he holds the flask out for you to take, you instead seize his left wrist, shoving the sleeve up as high as you can. His entire forearm is bandaged past his elbow; it’s not unusual for him to accessorize with unnecessary bindings, but he hisses in pain from your manhandling.

You handle him more carefully now, fingers lightly grazing over the makeshift wrapping. The cloth is gray and dirty, smeared with dirt and coal dust. A tight, stubborn knot in the crook of his elbow refuses to untangle despite your best attempts to press your thumbs into its crevices.

“Dummy,” you say, exasperated. When you let go of him, he pulls his forearm close, rubbing it gingerly. “You broke your promise.”

“What do you mean?” he asks defiantly.

You climb over to your scissor lift and grab your bag, placing it carefully on the ledge. After pulling out a first-aid kit, you wave at him to come closer, scolding him gently, “You promised you’d stay safe.”

“There are always mishaps in battle,” he fires back, but there’s no malice in his voice. “And I’m here in one piece, aren’t I?”

“I’ll be more specific next time.” You roll your eyes and gesture again. “Besides, if you die of infection then that will count as you breaking your promise.”

“My own well-being is of no importance—” he protests.

“Silco…” You glare at him. “Don’t you ever say that again.”

His eyes widen in surprise at the anger in your voice. He’s almost meek when he finally steps forward, extending his forearm out to you. You take the flask from him and put it on the ledge next to your kit.

“What happened?” you ask, pulling out a pair of scissors to cut off the knot. You unwrap the dressing slowly, peeling it away layer by layer. On his arm is a long, jagged cut, almost spanning the entire length of his forearm. Another shorter cut closer to his wrist runs parallel to the first one. Neither are very deep, with dried flecks of blood already crusting at the edges of the wounds. His fingers are cut up as well, with tiny nicks at the joints that have already scabbed over.

“Climbed out of a broken window,” he says dismissively. When you narrow your eyes at him, he says defensively. “Time was of the essence—”

You sigh. “I know.”

Your first-aid kit is an expensive, deluxe product from a Topside pharmacy, stocked for almost every kind of emergency. First, you use a sanitizer on your own hands, making sure to meticulously scrub underneath your fingernails. Then, you carefully pour clean water onto a sterile cloth, just enough to dampen it but not soak it.

You look up at Silco apologetically. “Sorry, this might hurt a little.”

Carefully, carefully, you dab away at the caked dirt and blood on Silco’s arm and fingers. To his credit, he’s a good patient, enduring your administrations without complaint. He winces when a particularly stubborn scab refuses to chip away, his tendons flexing involuntarily. When it finally does, a tiny droplet of blood oozes out.

“It’s a good thing you don’t need stitches,” you remark as you finish wiping up. You pull out a fresh roll of bandaging and start wrapping his forearm securely, but not too tightly. The cuts on his fingers have healed enough that they don’t need to be covered.

“That’s quite a shame; I would have welcomed the scars,” he jokes.

When you secure the wrapping at his elbow, you slide your hand down his arm, assessing your handiwork. The dressing’s grainy bumpiness gives way to Silco’s rough skin as your hand reaches his palm.

Reluctantly, you start to pull away, but he squeezes your hand appreciatively, his thumb sweeping across the back of your hand.

You can’t help but squeeze him back. His palm feels warm against yours, your own skin molding against his calluses.

“I missed you,” he says lightly. But when you look up, his eyes are sincere, turquoise waters as clear as a fountain. “I’m sorry I couldn’t meet you before the raid. But I would like to ask: did you make any effort to find me?”

You look away, mouth suddenly dry. His intense and earnest gaze has your legs feeling unsteady. “I didn’t want to bother you.”

(Also, you weren’t sure how closely your stalker was following you. You would never forgive yourself if they followed you straight to his doorstep.)

“I appreciate your thoughtfulness,” he chuckles.

You purse your lips at him, annoyed; he didn’t deny that a visit from you would be bothersome. You open your mouth to tease him, trying too late to stave off your rising embarrassment.

But before you can speak, he reaches out with his free hand to tuck a lock of your hair behind your ear. His fingertips linger on the shell, tracing the shape of it all the way down to your lobe. His touch is gentle, a soft and tender caress.

Wild heat blooms under your skin at his touch, no doubt spreading across the rest of your face and neck.

You yank your hand out of his grasp and jerk back, hitting your first-aid kid with your elbow. It falls sideways off the ledge and you catch it just before it hits the ground. Some of the supplies within tumble out, rolling across the roof.

“You’ll—uh—you’ll probably need painkillers for those cuts—I’ll get you some—uh—some pills and stuff later,” you stammer out. You seize the opportunity to look away from him, leaning over the ground to pick up the fallen items. “What about your friends? Are they okay?”

“They’re alright, thank you for asking.” He crouches down to help you pick up a roll of gauze. When he holds it out to you, you swipe it from him, careful to avoid touching him directly. He frowns, a little notch sinking between his eyebrows, but he doesn’t remark on your sudden skittishness. “In fact, they’ve expressed interest in making your acquaintance.”

“Huh?” You were about to grab a container of sterile water when you stop, hand still outstretched in midair.

Silco picks it up for you and puts it away in your kit. “They wish to express their gratitude, as I have mine. Your aid was a monumental factor in the raid’s success.”

After craning his neck around you to look for more medical supplies, he stands up. With the kit fully reassembled, he zips it shut, putting it back inside your bag. You get to your own feet as he turns to face you, leaning casually against the ledge.

“Our preparations were more than adequate due to your intelligence,” he says solemnly, looking straight at you. “I do not mean it lightly when I say you helped save many lives that night.”

“Oh…” You fold your arms, hugging yourself against a sudden breeze. It ruffles Silco’s hair, and he pushes his bangs out of his face. “I just took some pictures, that’s all.”

“All it takes to set off an avalanche is a pebble,” he says. “We struck a single blow against Topside last night. And we’re going to do it again and again until they finally fall at our feet.”

“Don’t call me a pebble just because I’m shorter than you,” you joke.

“We’re all ‘dirty little animals’ living in Topside’s shadow,” he smiles ironically at you. “We ought to stand united because of that. If you ever find yourself at our doors, they will always be open to you.”

“Hmm… The Last Drop is in the Lanes, right?” you ask. The name of the Children’s headquarters is common knowledge, but you’ve never been there yourself.

He nods. “I could lead you there, if you like.”

“I’m good, thanks,” you say quickly. “I’ll think about it.”

Silco grins at your answer. You bite your tongue, unwilling to dampen his mood by voicing your reservations.

So far, you have no regrets in helping Silco, but opening yourself up to an organization of strangers is a different story. If they learn about your connections to the Council, the other Children might want to exploit them.

What would Silco do in that instance? Would he stand by your choice to remain uninvolved? Or would he also pressure you to officially join their cause? He seemed respectful enough of your decision during the sleepover, but you wonder if his friends would change his mind.

Silco picks up his flask again and unscrews it open. When he offers it to you, you take it automatically, still lost in your own thoughts as you take a sip. Instead of water, the tart taste of the Noxian wine floods your mouth. Caught off-guard by the alcohol, you cough and choke. He laughs and thumps you on the back.

You don’t get any painting done at all today. Instead, you both relax, talking about everything and nothing. Silco shows you some knife tricks, his own smile as sharp and shiny as the blade dancing through the air. You make up more stories about the dark-haired woman you’re painting.

He visits you at least once a week after that. Each time he does, the fear of being stalked fades away. Maybe it’s because the harasser is scared off by his presence, or you just feel safe around Silco. Either way, his visits never fail to cheer you up. You enjoy his company, and you pay polite attention every time he launches into a monologue about the Undercity’s future. His seemingly endless well of ambition means that he always has some new insights to share. At least these conversations distract you from darker thoughts about your stalker.

One day, you tell him that you have errands to run in the Undercity. You try to ask him as casually as possible if he wants to accompany you; you’re just interested in hanging out again later, nothing more and nothing less. When he declines, you let some lighthearted disappointment show, but hide the sinking dread that sinks through your chest and into your stomach.

But maybe you’ll get lucky. After all, the underground never sleeps, its children traversing the alleys at all hours of the night. They might provide enough cover for you to slip undetected to your destination.

________________________________________

You should have known better than to be optimistic.

It might be easier to lose your stalker in the crowded streets, but that also means it’s harder to pinpoint what direction they’re coming from.

Every conversation you overhear seems to be about you.

When you sidestep a pair of men wearing long capes and pointy Ionian hats, their sideways glance at you seems to linger unnervingly.

A weapons vendor catches your eye and he smirks at you, licking one of his knives before he stabs his table with it.

Silhouettes in windows point at you before disappearing from view.

As much as you dodge and sneak through the lanes, you can’t outrun the sense of impending doom that chases you.

Your palms are sweaty.

Your breath is loud and fast in your ears.

Blood drains from your veins to be replaced by a howling anxiety.

Your heart beats a rapid and running pace that the whole of the Lanes can hear.

Colors and noises swirl together in a dizzying and incomprehensible spiral.

When you sidestep into an alleyway around the corner from a fruit stall to catch your breath, you review your options. You could head straight to the elevators, but that still runs the risk of the stalker following you home. If you wait it out at Babette’s, they might charge you a premium for a room, especially if you have no intention of spending time with any of her employees.

You’re forced back onto the streets when the stall’s vendor yells at you to get away from his merchandise unless you’re buying. You swiftly step around him, keeping your gaze locked forward. Even in your compromised state, you can’t afford to look weak.

An unmarked, large, multi-story building at the end of the street seems safe enough. It lies at the junction of three different avenues, and you speedwalk through the open courtyard as fast as you can. The edifice is painted over in flaking shades of orange and brown, revealing rusted gray and turquoise steel underneath. Curlicues of metal pipes encircle the front door artistically, iron vines crawling up the walls reaching up towards the sky.

The establishment seems to be a pub of some kind. Most of the chairs are filled, patrons drinking or lounging at tables and booths. You sidestep a tall woman dragging a babbling man out by the collar. From the muted smack of flesh on steel and squeals of pain, the woman used the man’s face to push open the door. You can’t help but chuckle under your breath as you make a beeline for her recently vacated booth, enticing worn red fabric welcoming you as you scoot in to observe the other customers.

Low music leaks out of a brightly lit jukebox by the entrance. The furniture looks handmade, all made of sturdy wood with metal trimmings at the joints. Tables of mismatched sizes and shapes are spread unevenly throughout the room, seemingly moved around at the patrons’ whims. Exposed lightbulbs cast warm, yellow light, illuminating assorted portraits and posters on the walls. Worn brick peeks out from underneath peeling wallpaper. Wooden barrels sit in quiet corners.

A tall, burly man stands behind a counter, wiping it down. A wide selection of various alcoholic drinks occupies a glass shelf above him.

In a more peaceful world, this place could be… cozy. Some patrons allow themselves to slouch in their chairs, even though their hands never stray too far from belted knives. One man has fallen asleep in his cups, but nobody bothers him or his pockets. A group of rowdy friends laugh and encourage each other at one of the pool tables.

“Hey.” The tall woman you walked past steps in front of you, blocking your view of the bar. She’s muscular and tough, a bright red poncho draped proudly around her shoulders. Her short dark hair is tied neatly back in a half up-do, almost girlish except for the dark scowl carved into her face. “You’re in my seat.”

You finally glance down at the table, only just now noticing an almost-empty glass of orange alcohol and a half-full ashtray in front of you, still warm from recent use.

“Sorry,” you say hastily.

You slide out of the booth as quickly as you can, scanning for an empty table. The woman’s energy tells you that she could have just as easily picked you up and thrown you to the floor, and you’re thankful that she opted to evict you more politely.

She raises an appraising eyebrow at you. You draw your hood lower over your eyes, avoiding her gaze.

“If you grab me a drink, I’ll let you sit here.” She takes a seat in the booth, pulling a pack of cigarettes out of her pocket, still staring at you. “You look like you need it.”

“Thanks,” you say quietly, relieved.

“Tell him Sevika wants her usual,” the woman says, jerking her head at the barman.

You make your way to the counter, leaning against it. When you place your hands on its edge, it’s cool to the touch, polished to a brilliant shine. You crane your neck to look for the bartender; he’s at the far end of the counter, finishing up with another customer.

Just as you raise your hand to catch his attention, he spots you. He slaps a towel over his shoulder and saunters over to you.

“Never seen you ‘round here before, miss,” he says, curious. The glass he picks up looks tiny in his massive, boulder-like hands. He holds it out to you flirtatiously, his wink as shiny as the spotless glassware.

“It’s my first time here,” you say politely, taking the glass from him. You put it down carefully in front of you. “Can I get Sevika’s usual, please?”

He nods, a slow grin spreading across his wide cheeks. He pushes his short brown hair out of his face before he grabs a second cup. When he grabs a bottle of orange liquor from a shelf, you belatedly realize that you have no idea how much drinks cost here.

“Does she have a tab?” You pat down your pockets, groaning internally at your carelessness.

The bartender ignores your question, instead pouring both glasses half-full with a flourish.

“Oh, nothing for me, thanks,” you protest.

“It’s on the house, sweetheart,” he says cheerfully. “Welcome to The Last Drop.”

───────────────── ●◉◎◈◎◉● ─────────────────

If you liked this fic, please reblog and/or leave a comment! <3

Chapter 7

#Arcane #Arcane fanfic #Silco #Arcane Silco #Silco Arcane #Silco x Reader #my writing #The Art in the Heart #TAITH #tw stalking #stalking tw

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delic7te · 2 years ago

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sweet dreams | kaz brekker

kaz brekker x reader

summary: after an exhausting day, kaz lets you spend the night in his office

a/n : sorry for not responding to reqs, life was kinda happening. anyway here's something I wrote a long long time ago

Kaz caught himself looking at you for what seemed like the hundredth time that night, as if you might fall into the ground if he averted his gaze away from you.

The Crows were heading back to The Slat, worn out after a risky heist that ended up being a success but left them all exhausted and weak, eager to go lay back for a good sleep.

Except Kaz. The man was almost always wide awake and on watch, busy with something buisness related. He allowed you to tag along with his work at times because you had quite a gift for things like he did, even though he hired you as a weapon more than as a mastermind. But you became both and Kaz trusted you enough to let you help him out with planning heists and managing the Dregs, as you were in the buisness almost as long as he was. Of course, you had your own reputation and jobs, sometimes working for Kaz but mostly for yourself.

Still, Kaz and you partnered up at times.

When you were finally at the Slat, everyone drifted into their rooms immediately and shortly fell sound asleep. But Kaz needed to get some work done as always, which meant he would take you with him.

"Y/N, come along", he told you when you came through the door, glancing down at you again. You looked like you hadn't slept for weeks, your eyelids threatening to shut down any second now. "Huh?"

"There's some paperwork left if you don't mind", Kaz explains as he limps up the stairs, you following behind.

"Alright." A quiet sigh leaves your lips. "I planned on staying up a little anyway" , you lie.

Kaz felt bad for keeping you up even though he knew all you wanted to do was to lay back on your bed and give your mind a rest, but he still kept a straight cold expression when you both sat down in his office.

You took of your coat and put it on the couch by his window, sitting down on a chair opposite of his at his desk. Kaz sat right down, picking up files and spreading them all over the desk. "Where were we?"

You let out a yawn, covering your mouth with your hand. "Are you sure this can't wait until the morning?"

It could. He knew it could. Yet something in him told him to keep going and keep you by his side for as long as possible.

Tonight, during a job, Kaz got really concerned for you. It was dangerous, bloody and filthy out there and even though you fend for yourself perfectly in jobs like that, he still sometimes saw you as a butterfly whose wings are about to be torn off by vultures and the cruel world.

He hated that. He hated feeling that type of cautiousness. But when you were in his office, working by his side, he could have an excuse to be in your presence while you were perfectly safe. He would never admit that to you, so he would rather keep you occupied and close to him.

"Hang on for just a few minutes, can you?"

With no choice and a small nod, you get back to all the paperwork scattered on the desk before you. "Atleast we got what we needed tonight."

♤—————————♤

After some time of silent working together, Kaz stands up from the desk. "Excuse me for a minute", he says as he limps to the bathroom.

Kaz shuts the bathroom door, taking off his gloves. He splashes his face and gloves with water, refreshing himself.

His thoughts shift back to his partner in the next room. When had he begun to trust a person like this? Maybe it were your talents: your fighting skills, your calculated moves, your bright, sharp mind. Or it was simply your charm and wit that enchanted him whole.

Those few minutes of peace with you were all he wanted for the rest of his life. It frustrated him, how much space could someone take up in his head.

Kaz walked out of the bathroom, when he saw you lay your head over your crossed arms spread out on the desk. Your eyes were shut and you looked as if you just passed out.

He realized how he kept you up for no reason, just his selfishness, even though you were tired out of your mind. This time he didn't want to wake you, but he figured you won't be comfortable if you fell asleep in the position you were currently in.

"Y/N?", he whispers softly, careful not to startle you.

Your head rises from the wooden surface. "Sorry", you mumble, rubbing your eyes.

Kaz sits back down. "Don't be. You can stay here overnight, if you wish. My room is open to you."

You shook your head. "No, I'll go back to my place, I'll be fine."

He scoffs. "Just accept something for once. We don't want you to pass out on your way out, do we?"

There was silence after you sighed, burying your face in your hands.

"I insist", Kaz finally says, and you didn't want to resist anymore because you knew that in the end he would make you stay.

"Where would you sleep?"

"I don't need to, yet. Don't worry about me."

"Even geniuses need sleep, Kaz", you frown, standing up from your chair.

He shrugs. "Exactly why you're gonna stay here and get some rest."

"I'll just take the couch here."

When you finally layed down on the couch close to his desk, none of you said anything for a long time. Kaz kept scribbling with his pen, which lulled you to sleep even more.

"You did a good job tonight", Kaz breaks the silence, surprising you.

Your eyes find his and you gaze at each other for a moment. A small nod of appreciation was all you left off before letting your eyelids close and the darkness take over.

♤—————————♤

Kaz was finally done with working for the night, which was slowly turning into the morning. It was really late, and you had been asleep for about an hour on the couch, eyes shut and eyelashes spread over your plum cheeks.

You looked relaxed, pleasantly at peace. It was a sight Kaz couldn't take his eyes off.

Before heading to his room, he noticed that it was getting chillier in the space and that nothing covered your body from it.

There was an old blanket hanging from the end of the couch and he picked it up, placing it on top of you and protecting you from the cold in the air.

He admired you one last time. "Sweet dreams, Y/N/N", he whispers, turning around to leave the room.

"Night, bastard", replied a sleepy voice behind his back. Kaz freezes, slight embarrassment washing over him.

He was now glad he wasn't facing you, because he couldn't contain himself from letting his lips stretch into a wide smile.

#kaz brekker x reader #grishaverse imagines #grishaverse #kaz brekker imagine #kaz brekker #six of crows #six of crows imagine #freddy carter #shadow and bone #shadow and bone imagine

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daizedndconfused · 15 days ago

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thievin’

a/n- idk why im up right now but yay first post of 2025 who’s hyped?? ik i’ve been like mia for a bit but i blame my ps5 for that. also back in school!! awesome (can you tell im crying) lmaooo anyway this is defo gonna be like a mini series so get ready okay lots of love everyone hope you keep up your resolutions if you do em<33

characters- cole brookstone x thief fem!reader

type- eh fluff kinda/enemies to lovers type beat you’ll see

warnings- very mild suggestive comments (not proofread)

synopsis- you’re a thief living in the most run down part of ninjago. you’re doing everything you can to make ends meet, but sometimes you gotta bite the bullet and take a gamble. in order to make a little extra cash you’re sent on a mission to steal a very priceless artifact—the most high risk heist you’ve ever been on. you encounter a certain ninja during your outing and you just can’t help yourself to a little bit of fun upon meeting him. will he let you go? will you succeed in recovering the artifact? or will it be your head on the line instead?

word count- 3.1k

Being poor was okay. Obviously, it wasn’t the ideal spot to be in, and sure you’d prefer to have money and not have to worry about whether or not you would be able to feed yourself tomorrow but you can’t have it all, can you?

Everybody thought Ninjago was the most gorgeous city–clearly they’ve never visited your side of town. You personally didn’t think it was an awful place to live, but it definitely isn't what people would expect out of the great ninjago city.

Nevertheless, it was home. Well, home since your parents died and you were left to fend for yourself. Technically, your mother died during childbirth, or shortly after. You didn’t really like to ask your father about it. It seemed insensitive.

The loss of your father was more recently caused by an unsuspected illness you didn’t have the funds to get treated. You lost him seven years ago, and you miss both of them immensely, even if you never knew your mother–she still held a place in your heart, and your blood.

Plus, it wasn’t as if you were completely alone. The loss of your parents and your home only hindered your spirit for a few months. But eventually, you had to grow up. You had only yourself now, and you needed to start getting your shit together.

That’s how you found yourself living in a narrow alley with nothing but a few blankets to separate yourself from the hard concrete, and a tarp above your head held up by hopes and dreams in case it rained. Courtesy of a girl you’d met three years ago–Henley.

You did what you had to to survive, the both of you did, but your version of ‘work’ was a tad more illegal than Henley’s. While your friend chose to work at some manufacturing factory that paid maybe ten cents an hour, you quickly developed the skill of ‘soft hands.’

Just a little something you picked up in the few years before befriending Henley. Plus, living where you did at the time, it was customary for your father to teach you martial arts, and teach he did. He often pushed you to your limits, making sure your senses were always on high alert.

Though now you supposed you were grateful for it. It made it easy to navigate the crowded streets of Uri–the poorer side of Ninjago that most people decided to ignore.

The early morning sun beat down on you, somehow finding its way around the tarp above your head.

Groaning you rolled over, hoping to block out the rays and catch a few more hours of sleep.

“Morning,” Henley yawned from beside you.

You mumbled incoherently back at her.

“I’ve gotta get going, work starts soon,” Henley told you. You heard her scooting closer towards you.

“Why d’you work at that shithole?” You grumbled, still not fully awake. “They barely pay you, Henley.”

You could practically see the expression on her freckled face. She was most likely staring down at you with a torn and somewhat somber expression.

“It’s the only place that would hire me,” she muttered. “You know that.”

Squeezing your eyes tight you then sat up, stretching out your back. Upon opening your eyes you came to find out your assumption was correct.

“Yeah,” you nod. “Which is bullshit by the way. Any web company would be lucky to have you.”

Henley shrugged a shoulder. “Well, beggars can’t be choosers.”

“Then it’s a good thing we haven’t stooped that low,” you reassured her. You left the unspoken yet out of the sentence.

Henley smiled, brushing back her mane of curly red hair. “Okay, now I really need to go. Please, be safe today, and try not to get caught. I really don’t know if I can stomach breaking you out of jail again.”

“In my defense,” you said as she stood to leave. “There may have been some alcohol behind the reason that asshole caught up to me.”

Henley fixed you with a look that said, Good luck, before she looked up and down the already busy streets and made her way to the factory.

You gave yourself a few more minutes before heading out onto the streets. As usual, Uri was already busy at like eight a.m on a weekday. Stall owners were yelling at anyone passing by as if the volume would persuade people to stop and buy a useless trinket they didn’t need.

Still rubbing the sleep from your eyes, you wove through people, fluid like a leaf in the wind. It was almost too easy to nick people’s wallets this way. In Uri it was almost impossible to walk anywhere without brushing shoulders with someone. Lucky for you, the jacket you wore held many pockets to store your ‘finds’ on the street.

After palming a few wallets on your way to possibly the best looking building in this part of town, you opened them up to find nothing much. Out of all the wallets you lifted, you got a whopping thirty dollars.

See that was the issue with living in a poor neighborhood–everyone you stole from was also poor. Not a great match unfortunately.

Sighing, you made your way towards the tallest building in Uri. It also just happened to be where you’d pick up a way to make some extra cash on the days that were really slow. Just from waking up this morning you knew today would be one of them.

The only issue is, the jobs you’re given are risky, and so you try not to do them as often.

The guards posted outside of the doors let you through without any issues. At this point you’d been coming here sporadically for about five and a half years. You were the best and most reliable thief Malina had.

A few doors, some hallways, and an elevator later, you stood in front of the woman herself.

Malina stared at you with a victorious glint in her eyes, her head resting on her intertwined fingers. “And here I thought you broke up with me.”

“Ah, you know me,” you shrugged, shoving your hands into the pockets of your jacket. “Always comin’ back.”

“Now that I can always rely on.” Malina leaned back in her big leather chair, one long leg crossed over the other.

Malina was the only successful business owner in this Uri. Shockingly, she got most of her wealth from illegal schemes and black market dealings. Which is why she needed you.

Malian didn’t waste any time in throwing down a file on top of her spotless desk.

“It’s all in there,” she waved a gloved hand, her diamond bracelet twinkling in the light of her office.

You reached for the file and flipped it open to survey its contents. Your eyes widened as you continued further and further down the papers clipped together. This job was impossible.

Usually, nothing is impossible for you. However, in the past Malina only ever had you stealing jewels from old guys on their deathbed, or artwork from museums, and sometimes some random priceless artifact guarded in an equally random warehouse.

Apparently this time she really wanted to put you to the test.

“This is a joke,” you said, flipping the file shut.

“How so?” Malina asked, dark brows furrowed in innocence.

“Look, you give me work, and I’ve always appreciated that,” you told her honestly. “But stealing from the Royal Family is my one way ticket to a lifetime in prison.”

Malina pouted at you. “And here I thought my star employee never got caught.”

You scoffed out a laugh, tongue in your cheek as you looked up to the heavens for patience.

When she didn’t back down you finally spoke. “What else you got for me?”

“Unfortunately,” Malina said, though her tone didn’t suggest she found it anywhere near unfortunate, “that’s it.”

“Bullshit,” you challenged.

Malina raised her hands. “I’m serious! Work’s been booming lately.”

Crossing your arms, you rolled your eyes. The two of you stood unspeaking, staring at each other as you weighed your options.

On the plus side, if you did this job successfully, you and Henley might be able to afford an actual apartment. A shitty one, but it was better than the alley. Plus, you might also be able to afford the first few months of rent before you get a real job and force Henley to quit hers at the factory.

Closing your eyes you reluctantly agreed. “Fine. I’ll do it.”

Malina’s grin widened into an eerie expression, her pearly white teeth shone almost as bright as the diamonds around her wrist. “I knew you would. Clothes are in their usual place.”

You nodded and spun on your heel, hightailing it out of Malina’s office. Thankfully, ever since you all but pledged your loyalty to her, she’d provide you with some living essentials occasionally. Things like showers, a hairbrush, basic needs like that.

But when she sent you out on a mission, she made sure you were set up for success, and the rest was on you. Opening the wooden wardrobe at the end of the hall, you were greeted with the familiar sight of the dark clothing you typically wore on outings such as these.

You picked the uniform off the hanger and quickly found the nearest room to change in. Even though you wouldn’t be leaving until nightfall, you still would rather put it on now as it helped you even in Uri. With the hood and mask covering the bottom half of your face, the only thing you could really make out was your hair and eyes.

You spent most of the day on the roof tops, going over the blueprints of the palace Malina provided for you, along with the guard rotations. Pacing along the edge of an old rundown building, you slowly came up with a plan. Though, the object you had been assigned to steal was a bit odd. You expected jewels, or even the crown, but instead you were sent after a golden hourglass, with equally golden sand inside.

You didn’t know the properties or importance of the object, but to be honest, you didn’t really care. You just wanted to get the job done and over with so you could return home and finally place a roof over your head after seven years of sleeping under the open sky.

As soon as the sun set beyond the city, you set out. Of course, you left Henley a note explaining you might not be back tonight–and that you might not be back at all–but you assured her not to worry.

It took a while to get to the good part of town, but a few subway trains later, you finally made it. And what a difference it was.

Instead of yelling and aggressive haggling, there was light chatter, laughter, and the buzz of technology reverberating around you. Not to mention the colors. Almost every sign in Ninjago was neon, and sometimes you couldn’t help but get a little sidetracked looking at all the beautiful things you’d never get to experience yourself.

Eventually, you found yourself by the palace. Fishing out the timetable of the guard rotations, you determined that the east side of the castle would be the most unprotected in about two minutes–meaning you had to be quick.

Quick you were. You managed to get to the east side and scale the wall in a minute and thirty. Tiptoeing around the outer wall, you made sure to keep your eyes on the guards below. So far, none of them noticed you.

Finally, you landed on the tiled roof. By memorization, the hourglass would be located in a mostly open room on the top floor. Carefully maneuvering around the roof, making sure to not make too much noise, you managed to unlock the window and pull it open.

Thankfully, it didn’t make much noise. Letting out an internal sigh of relief, you quickly tied a rope on one of the support pillars of the palace and threw it over the side of the window. Directly below the window was an obnoxiously large potted plant that would do well to hide you from view.

You briefly wondered if you’d be able to climb back up with rope one handed, but instead you figured you could bring a cord to secure the hourglass onto your belt loop.

As usual, you landed on the red wood floors without a sound. As much as you wished to stick around and admire the impressive castle you’d only ever seen in newspapers, you had a job to do.

Heart hammering, you peeked around the plant to find two guards–both with their back towards you.

It feels almost too easy, you thought as you crept towards the hourglass displayed on a pedestal.

Once you got close enough, you took a few moments to inspect the pedestal. There was a very possible chance of the hourglass being placed upon a weighted pressure plate that would set off the emergency alarms if removed, but after looking at it, the stone surface looked entirely even. There most likely wasn’t any extra security around this artifact, but in the off chance there was, you’d have to be ready to run.

Calming your mind, you swiped it quickly, preferring to take it and bolt in case the alarms went off.

You got three strides in before your luck ran out. All around you alarms had started blaring, alerting every guard on the premises. However, by that point you had already tied the glass around your waist and were ascending the rope.

You could vaguely make out the alarmed voices of the guards chasing after you, and as soon as you heaved yourself onto the roof, you sliced the rope with the knife in your boot. Two thuds and pained grunts were all you heard before you bolted.

Guards were climbing up at every point, but what they had in size and brute strength, you had in speed and agility. Being quick on your feet was like second nature–and you really should send a letter to the Royal Family to invest in some guards. These ones weren’t all that good at their job.

You hoped over them in groups, and it felt like you knew the palace layout better than they did. You knew exactly where to step and when to step, that by the time you landed on the other side of the walls, you knew you had one.

You grinned and laughed triumphantly as you jumped across the rooftops. The guards got further and further away and you blame the adrenaline in your veins for what happened next.

Suddenly, something tangled itself around your ankles, sending you tumbling to the concrete of an apartment complex.

“Son of a–” you winced, cradling the wrist you had landed on at an awkward angle.

Sitting up quickly, you reached for the rope wrapped around your ankles when a boot beat you to it.

“I don’t think that belongs to you,” the stranger spoke.

Looking up slowly, you mentally cursed yourself at the figure standing above you.

The Earth Ninja.

Why the hell were they at the palace? Why did they care about some petty robbery, wasn’t there some maniac trying to destroy the world that they should be busy with at the moment?

“What? The outfit? It doesn’t–borrowed from a friend.” You leaned back on your palms, looking up at the Earth Ninja’s strikingly gorgeous face.

He wasn’t wearing his mask tonight, leaving all his features on display–brown eyes that you guessed were a gorgeous shade of hazel in the light, shaggy but well kept hair as dark as the sky above, and a build that could rival the strength of an ox.

Cocking your head, you pushed your hood back and mask down, letting him see your roaming eyes and approving smirk.

“I need that.” He pointed to the golden hourglass at your hip. Apparently he didn’t find your jokes very funny.

“No, I need it,” you countered. “How else am I supposed to keep track of the time? I don’t have a watch.”

You shoved your hands up, rotating your wrists spastically to emphasize your point.

The Earth Ninja leaned down, but you didn’t back down. “Just hand over the glass, and I’ll tell them you dropped it trying to flee.”

You too leaned towards him, the both of you so close your noses were almost touching. In the ninja’s favor, his expression didn’t falter.

“I told you, I need it.”

“And I gave you an ultimatum,” the ninja returned, his eyes hardening. “Don’t make this more difficult than it has to be.”

“Aw, but where’s the fun in that?” You smirked with a wink.

You saw his facade crack slightly as he twitched back every so slightly. That was all the hesitation you needed.

As the two of you went back and forth, you had been discreetly severing the rope binding your legs, and you quickly wrapped them around his waist, flipping him over onto his back. The Earth Ninja landed with a harsh exhale. You leaped off of him quickly before he could counter your surprise attack.

He was a ninja, and you knew there was no way you’d be able to beat him at hand to hand combat, but you could avoid him. Your thought was proven when he was back on his feet and into a fighting stance a split second after you created distance between you and him.

The Earth Ninja raised a curious brow at you over his raised fists. “Who are you?”

“Funny I was about to ask the same thing,” you laughed. “But, I think I’ve got something that could help me out with that–Cole L. Brookstone–what’s the L for? Oh well, six-foot five inches, black hair, two hundred and ten pounds–” you broke off looking him up and down. “Well you certainly don’t look over two hundred.”

Cole’s eyes widened as he lunged for you, and the wallet in your hand. You jumped back from him easily and continued to read off his driver's license.

“Hazel eyes, nineteen years old–oh cute we’re the same age–”

“Give it back!” He demanded, reaching for you again, only for you to slide under his legs and appear behind him.

“Born on October 25th–” another attempt to grab you had you using the rope previously used on you against him, binding his wrists, and legs making him fall on his ass.

You then hopped onto the roof of the entrance hallway of the building, and sat on the edge, legs swinging in front of you.

You continued to flip through his wallet, “Restaurant receipt–you know you don’t have to keep those. Lifetime subway pass, oh you lucky bastard. Gift card you’ve probably had for three years, credit card–very shiny, one fifty in cash and–” you paused upon seeing the last item in his standard leather wallet.

Sliding your eyes down to the boy your age, you raised a brow at him, almost laughing at his red face you could see even in the dark.

“Why do you have a condom in your wallet?” You giggled.

Cole momentarily stopped struggling against the rope and had the decency to look away, embarrassed.

“Emergencies,” he grumbled, glaring up at you.

“Ah, right,” you sucked air through your teeth before tossing it back down on his lap.

Flexing his arms, he snapped the ropes like they were ribbons and did the same with the ones binding his legs.

“So, it seems we're at an impasse,” you sighed.

“No,” he stood, “we’re not.”

“Au contraire, you’ll never catch me. You had your shot, and you blew it.” You pointed at him accusingly. “I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that I’m very slippery. And I assure you–you chase, and I’ll run, and I can keep running for a damn long time.”

It would become a game of cat and mouse you knew would go on forever.

“Surely you don’t expect me to just let you walk away with a priceless artifact from the Royal Family.” Cole crossed his arms.

“Exactly–impasse.”

The stubborn boy shook his head, black waves flopping. “No, I–”

Before he could finish his sentence, the dart was already buried into his arm.

Cole startled, looking down at the tiny metal needle sticking out of his right bicep. He gave you an unimpressed look before reaching with his other hand to pluck it from his body. However, his hand was halfway there when it went limp by his side.

Cole’s brown eyes went wide as his legs too started to wobble, and shortly after the rest of his body gave away.

He once again landed on the ground with a dull thud.

Smiling slightly you gracefully jumped down from your perch and made your way over to him to retrieve your dart.

“What the hell is that?” He asked through gritted teeth.

“Just a numbing sedative,” you responded, pocketing it. “Don’t worry it’ll wear off in like an hour.”

“An hour? Hell no, help me up.”

“Hmm, tempting,” you deadpanned, but you did prop his back up against the wall of the roof in a sitting position.

Cole glared at you, and you smirked back.

“I enjoyed our little game of cat and mouse my friend,” you patted his cheek before standing to full height. “But I’m afraid I must be going. Places to be, money to be made–you know how it is.”

“Hey! Wait!” Cole called to your retreating back.

But you didn’t. Instead you leapt down to the adjacent roof and all but skipped back to Uri, happy that you weren’t caught, but you weren’t entirely mad about meeting the Earth Ninja either. Secretly, you hoped he'd track you down–where round two of your game would take place.

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partycatty · 1 year ago

Note

babe like your bratty johnny cage is um, wow holy fuck. But BUT LIKE WHAT ABOUT MORe WHINY JOHNNY.

But its like the first time he's ever whined during sex, this is new for him and you

Like imagine waking up in the morning, he's all sweet cause he's just woken up he's still tired and he's touchy, yall are making out, he's taking whatever clothes you have left on off and his aswell, he's surprisingly rough but sweet at the same time, you get caught up in how he's making you feel and your just pulling on his hair. Hard. And he just whines the loudest whine you've ever heard, but its like the hottest thing ever, he gets embarrassed but he's still fucking you, he gets shy he tells you that's the first time hes ever made that kind of noise, so just keep running your hand through his hair and pulling at it, now he's just whimpering and whining. I FUCKING NEED THIS MAN. THIS MOTHERFUCKER.

THIS ASK IS HAUNTING ME /POS I NEED TO WRITE THIS RQ

johnny cage > that was new

warnings: smuddy :3 and also kinda short :(

notes: i love my men PATHETIC and WHINY and BRATTY UGHHH im so fucking happy everyone understands hes a bottom bitch at times

[ masterlist ]

• johnny is the epitome of "anytime, anywhere," so it doesn't come as a surprise to you when he's sleepily bucking into you, his pajama pants doing little to hide how needy he was at the asscrack of dawn.

• you feel his form against your ass only concealed by underwear, with johnny's hand snaking underneath your baggy t-shirt (which just so happens to be his).

• "well, good morning to you too," you sleepily giggle, and johnny can only mumble incoherently before he crawls on top of you, latching his lips onto yours as his hips continue to try and seek relief from his aching morning wood against the fabric of your panties.

• it's not long before your shirt is pulled up and his bottoms are hanging off of the edge of the bed, and he's rocking into you steadily. you're both too tired to probably moan, just letting out little grunts and gasps with each thrust.

• your legs wrap around his middle, pulling him in to sloppily kiss. his hands trail down your bare sides, nearly falling on top of you from how much effort it takes to keep himself upright. it's not that sex is boring, it's just that he's too tired to be his fully dominant self.

• it didn't bother you much, considering you were too caught up in enjoying how much he filled you and pleased you just right. your hands wandered to his hair, massaging his scalp as your foreheads touch. it was sweet, it was loving and it showed that there was care in every gesture exchanged.

• johnny hit a sweet spot inside of you, making your back arch. your fingers instinctively tugged on his hair, and in response, you hear a long, needy whine escape from johnny's lips. it makes you both freeze, panting as you process what just happened.

• his lips part in surprise, hips stuttering before completely falling still. he glances around the room as if caught during a heist.

• "er..." johnny looks away, a blush creeping up his cheeks. he remains inside of you, twitching hungrily for more movement. "that... that was new. can't say i've ever sounded like that before."

• you're dumbfounded. your typically breathy, horny johnny would never whine. it was always moans or grunts, nothing as desperate as that. a blush sneaks up on you as well, realizing you're wetter than before.

• "i liked it," you shrug with a lopsided smile. "i like when you're vocal."

• "oh yeah?" he pants, capturing your lips tenderly again. "i can keep doing it, then."

• it always flustered you how open he was about the bedroom. you could only mutter out a small "please," as he chuckles, picking his pace up again.

• the whimpers and whines were like the hungriest foot in the door for you, and you sought out every opportunity to bring more out. your hands would grab a fistful of hair and tug at the scalp to make him whine out more, his voice vibrating on your neck as he buries his face there.

• although you're enjoying this new spice to the bedroom, johnny is absolutely relishing in the way you clench around him with each whimper he lets out. seeing you happy makes him happy, which applies to majority of... other emotions, too.

• "i love you," he whines out, his hips stuttering again as his lips brush against yours. "my perfect... my... fuck, baby, i-"

• you shush him, bringing your foreheads together by pulling him in by the back of his head. you're panting into each other's mouths, though johnny is more vocal.

• when you reach your own high, your nails dig in deep, making johnny cum hard. with each spurt, a long whimper drips from his mouth as he satisfies his morning wood.

• he falls onto your chest, where you lovingly stroke through his hair and kiss his damp temple. he hums, eyelids fluttering shut.

• "so, here's my plan," he mutters, tracing circles around your bare stomach. "we shower, we eat breakfast, and you tell me exactly what gets you going so i can make you cum like that again."

• "those noises were a good start," you giggle, scratching his back. "that was something that'll probably do it."

• "noted."

#mortal kombat #mortal kombat x reader #mk1 #johnny cage #johnny cage x reader #johnny cage smut #mortal kombat smut #marley writes ☆

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heister-shmeister · 3 months ago

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a list of my payday headcanons

houston has kleptomania and not in the sense that the others do he has the disorder

houston autism

jacket would never kill a civilian willingly

if jacket is ever responsible for the death of civilians he will not be physically able to go on a heist for at least a week

jacket is hispanic

sokol grew up being taught some yucky ideals and has to learn how to not be an asshole

houston lost an eye in prison

sokol adhd

hoxton ptsd

clover pcos

joy transfem

i bounce between jacket having physical trauma making him mute or past trauma making him practically unable to talk for one reason or another

jacket collects vintage game consoles

joy has crashed tetris but cant share it online due to being a wanted felon

joy is cringe on purpose

jacket needs to be reminded to eat drink sleep and piss and he has developed numerous health issues due to depression

houston trans depending on the moment

sydney intersex

clover big fat lesbian

core 4 heisters hoxton, wolf, dallas, chains are a polycule but dont know what polycule means theyre just all dating each other and never bring it up

jacket is obscenely good at claw machines

houston miraculously knows the code to most employee only doors in any grocery store

jacket owns way too much junk that he doesnt do anything with

jacket eats disgustingly sour foods like nothing

one warhead would kill sokol (one nuclear warhead would kill anybody but i mean the candy)

if you made kraft mac and cheese for joy she would cry

sokol gambling addiction

jacket is very prone to throwing up

gore doesnt make jacket nauseous but things like the gunk at the bottom of the sink, chewing his food for too long, touching paper with his bare hands, and unnecessary civilian casualties can make him gag or throw up

this being said jacket autistic

jacket and sydney are both not beyond throwing a brick at a cop. none of the heisters are but these two seem to be jonesing at the chance to pick up a brick and beat a cop with it even if they have weapons already

jacket has tan lines

clover finds the luckiest loot and has the luckiest chance to lockpick doors and stuff but jacket gets the luckiest kills such as throwing one brick and knocking over three cops in a domino effect

jacket tans during summer and becomes pale as fuck in the winter

houston and sokol burn in the sun they shrivel immediately

houston likes the beastie boys, acdc and queen

jacket likes the talking heads and has been caught doing the once in a lifetime dance on multiple occasions

dallas makes hot chocolate with water and tea with cold water because he didnt understand how it worked until someone yelled at him

sokol doesnt know a lot of chemical safety tips he has combined bleach and ammonia before and joy stared at him in total shock

the smoke and carbon monoxide alarms are both lacking batteries in the safehouse

wolf they/he

sydney she/it

whenever sokol is asked for his pronouns he answers “man”

jacket wont answer you if you ask but fr he prefers he/him he just thinks its rlly funny when people call him something other than that because he doesnt answer

hoxton uses fag to describe a cigarette way too often like too often for it to just be british bullshit he says it every chance he gets like hes jonesing to say it

sokol has dyscalculia which means he cannawt do math

sydney also has dyscalculia

i think itd be funny and ironic if duke was dyslexic

jacket fucks with dragonball HEAVY

JACKET. WOULD NOT HURT A CIVILIAN. WILLINGLY.

sydney likes slipknot in my heart

houston fucks with crossword puzzles

clover and dallas will both beat the shit out of you if you spoil the wordle

houston likes to sit at the table with a cup of coffee staring at the newspaper like hes a middle aged father

dallas does this normally completely unironically

theres this one cloaker that never dies that jacket has immense beef with

houston, wolf, or chains will be sitting by a drill actually praying to god thatll unjam then sokol or jacket will wander over, whack it, and itll miraculously fix itself

jackets like those videos of a guy going through the side quest that is starting his really shitty car and the thing is whining until he threateningly holds a pair of pliers by it and it stops

hes like that but with drills. he will walk over and hold the carpenters delight by it threateningly then itll just unjam

sokol tries to record it happening but nobody believes him

joy skateboard bottom text

joy has made playlists for everyone in the payday gang like theyre her little blorbos

#payday 2 #houston payday 2 #sokol payday 2 #jacket hotline miami #sydney payday 2 #i dont wanna tag all of them #might add more as time passes #payday 3 #wolf payday 2 #hoxton payday 2

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fixyourwritinghabits · 2 years ago

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I noticed many of the protagonists I wrote or thought of writing had either no personality or one too self-inserted (sometimes somewhere in between) and now I can't really connect with the protagonists I write so I wanted to know if you have any advice to help me craft more distinct characters and get attached to them.

First, some homework - pluck out about five pieces of media and nail down what you like about the protagonists within.

What about them appeals to you in particular?

Did you like how they grew and changed?

What struggles did they tackle that only they could handle?

Doesn't have to be neat and orderly, just try to nail down what really appeals to you about your favorite characters. When it comes to your own characters, here are some more things to think about:

Are you writing the character you want to write, or are you writing the character you think you should write? You may not be able to connect to your characters because you're trying to make them something you think they should be rather than what you'd feel more comfortable writing.

Are you projecting your feelings on a larger canvas (aka write what you know)? Are you thinking about how your characters would feel in bombastic circumstances (fighting a dragon, running from the cybercops) based on experiences and emotions you've had (facing off with a teacher, hopefully not running from the real cops but hey, you do what you gotta). The best way to infuse your characters with appeal is to take an emotion or an experience you can relate to and projecting it onto your characters.

Do your characters have internal struggles to go with their external ones? Is that high-stakes heist also paired with the character's struggle to display his real emotions? Does the fight with the evil wizard reflect the character's struggles to connect to their dad? If your story is external-plot heavy, a good way to flesh out the characters within is to connect their internal wants/needs/desires with the events going on around them. That zombie fight could be all the more enticing if the main couple is having a massive break-up during it.

Figuring out how to write a protagonist is often more than filling out a character sheet. Great if you can do that (I can't so like, go brag about it somewhere else), but often times you'll have to flesh out the character the hard way, but plotting out their journey before you write it. Work on their inner needs and emotional battles to draw them out as people.

Don't know where to start with figuring out a character at all? Grab an archetype list and get mixing and mashing. You may not come up with usable ideas right away, but you'll be able to pick out the ideas that appear to you until you have a handy list of things to lean on. Tropes are tools to be used, after all, and anything that could add to your characters is a tool with keeping. Good luck!

#characters #plotting #planning

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axelsagewrites · 2 years ago

Text

Lucerys - Dance

Pairing: Lucerys X Green!Daughter

Summary: reader and Luke had been best friends for years before being split up but finally they meet again at the readers birthday ball.

Words: 2914

Requested by anon

Masterlist Here

Being the youngest child of the king was a strange experience. As the youngest you didn’t have to worry about as many marriage proposals or having to go to make official royal visits. The only times you were sent on royal visits had been with either your mother or brother Aemond as your mother did not trust her another son to look after you. You spent more time looking after Aegon than the other way round as you were the one that would sneak him his hang over cures when your mother banned the maesters for helping him as punishment for her sons drinking.

Despite this you were also close with your mother. She was extremely protective which had its ups and downs. On one hand you didn’t need to worry about Lords trying to manipulate you for your hand and on the other you only really had your family to spend time with. However, as you were the youngest, quite a bit younger than your siblings, it still could be lonely at time. Or at least it was after Luke had left court.

When Luke was still at court however you were inseparable. You studied together, trained with your dragons together, were forced to learn how to dance together. It was lucky that you both got on so well because if not the whole ordeal would have been awkward. You didn’t mind spending all your time with him however and soon you may have well been the same person.

The day Rhaynera decided to move her and her children to Dragonstone to marry Daemon Targaryen you cried. You cried the whole day and so many more to come. Luke did his best not to join you in your tears. You clung onto him for dear life as you said your goodbyes. But eventually you were forced to let go.

You didn’t leave your room for days after he left. The worst was no one really noticed as they were used to you being away in some corner with Luke. Aemond only noticed when he realised, he had not been pranked by you and Luke for a week. The only reason you even came out of your room is because he banned the cooks to send food to your room and eventually you realised starvation would not bring Luke back.

Eventually you found a new normal but it was hard at first. Now you were far more studious, rode your dragon more, and even began to wear more princess like dresses as you weren’t having to sneak around with Luke to pull off your next heist. Alicent was so happy by the change that soon you became her favourite. She loved to come to your chambers and do your hair as before you had never allowed her to, claiming she pulled to hard. Now you didn’t see a point of fighting your mother off.

During her visits to try out the latest braid styles in your hair she began to discuss plans for your upcoming birthday. As usual there would be cakes and dancing and lords pretending to take an interest in you. For you it was more of a chore and you would celebrate your birthday properly the day after. Usually this would be done with Lucerys, but this year Heleana would have to do.

“You’re so lucky my dear not to have to organise this yourself,” Alicent said as she tugged your hair back from your face, “Trying to organise the guest list alone is killing me. Who can come and what day and how much time we spend with them outside of the ball itself. It’s all very complicated just to avoid bruising some egos,”

“Do I even know half the people coming?” you asked.

Alicent sighed, “You know of them at the very least. It’s all the usual sort but don’t worry darling you don’t need to talk to anyone for very long. That’s what I’m here for. You just pick a couple lords or their sons, don’t worry I’ll point them out to you, you dance with them then you just sit and look pretty,” Alicent smiled as she admired her handy work. “Don’t you just love it?”

It took all your energy to muster up a smile to try convincing her but she seemed pleased non the less. “We’ll need to set up some more dancing practises,” your mother continued. “Can’t have you stepping on any fragile toes,”

“I normally practise with Luke,” you sighed as you ran your fingers over the braids. You knew exactly the disgusted face he would make if he could see them now.

“Well you can dance with him at the ball but for now-“

“Lucerys will be there?” you span around to face your mother.

“Of course he will,” she said, her face contorted to scold you for interrupting her, “Rhaynera and her whole family will be there. Even that Daemon of hers. I can’t believe she married that lunatic,”

“Why didn’t you tell me he was coming?” you ignored her pettiness not wanting to get involved in her drama.

Alicent just shrugged as she began to pack up her hair styling supplies, “Well of course he was going to be there. I didn’t think you would mind,” but you were too thrilled to care at this point. Lucerys was coming back.

The days leading up to the ball you had been on the lookout for his arrival but your mother kept you so busy you didn’t even find out they had arrived till after dark and your mother insisted you needed your beauty sleep and he could wait. Then despite your tries the next day it felt like everyone was trying to keep you both apart. Every time you would leave your room there would be someone needing something about some dress or food or song that need your opinion despite everyone knowing your mother would be the one really deciding.

Then the day of the ball rolled around and you didn’t think you could be busier. While your mother was off greeting guests you were being primped and polished by handmaidens and servants. Everything had to be perfect. When you were finally ready you looked into the mirror and did not recognise the girl staring back at you. Her hair was filled with intricate interweaving braids. Her skin was slathered with lotions and tinted balms. Her dress showed off a figure even you barely recognised.

A knock came from the door. “Come in,” you called despite feeling all the air leaving your body as your breath quickened.

You glanced at the door to see Aegon walking in, “Well don’t you look like mothers’ little pet,”

“Shut up Aegon,” You glared as you examined yourself in the mirror, running your hands over the braids then the dress then the braids again, “I feel- “

“Stupid? That’s what you get for pleasing her,” Aegon walked over to stand behind you looking at you in the mirror together. He turned to the women in the room, “Leave us. I will escort my sister down in a few minutes,”

He was met with several hesitant looks as the women contemplated who was worse to anger; your brother or mother. “My prince, the queen specifically requested-“ one lady started but was soon cut off.

“I am sure I can be trusted to walk her down some stairs. I’ve not drank that much have I?” he chuckled as he placed his hands on your shoulders.

“I’ll be down in a few minutes. I promise,” you assured your ladies and finally they left the room.

When the door closed Aegon turned you around, “You look like mother,”

“Fix it,”

“Say no more,” Aegon said as he began to pull pins out your hair. Soon he was pulling and tugging harder than mother but it was all worth it when your hair began to resemble hair rather than a helmet. He still kept some of the braids in but now it was at least a curly half updo. “I’m not about to start tearing your dress so you’ll have to deal with that but dab some of that gunk off and lets go before mother finds out and fixes you.”

“Thank you,” you sigh as you dab off the excessive lotions, so your skin did not look so greasy. “I just wanted- “

“To look good for your boy toy,” He smirked as you began to splutter out incoherent sentences, “It’s fine. I’m hardly one to judge. Just don’t tell Aemond you fell for the eye snatcher,”

“It was an accident,” you snap and Aegon just laughed, “Besides he probably doesn’t like me,”

“If he doesn’t then I want to know why he wouldn’t shut up about you all morning so c’mon. Grab your shit and let’s rock this bitch. I wanna make an entrance,”

And that he did. Well kind of. you think the gasps were because it was the first evening all week the prince had walked into a room without stumbling. Aegon led you into the ballroom and presented you to your mother who struggled not to strangle her son in front of everyone. But all you cared about was Lucerys.

He was stood beside his mother and brother who were a mere feet or two away from the king and you tried your best not to stare at him, but you swore you could feel his eyes on you. After your father had greeted you, it was Rhaenyra’s turn.

“You look absolutely darling sweetheart,” your sister said as she took your hands in hers giving them a light squeeze, “I like your hair its very…interesting,” she smiled.

“It’s a new style im trying,” you said with heat rushing to your cheeks before turning to Daemon which honestly did not help your blush. “Uncle,” you greeted and he just nodded and smirked in return. Going down the line you finally got to Jace, “Hello idiot,” you grinned, knowing now it was far too personal to hug him in front of everyone though desperately wanting to.

“Dumbass,” he smiled back as he took your hand to kiss it and you swore you saw him glance at his brother as he did. “We’ve missed having you around,”

“I miss it too. You should visit more often,” you said before quickly moving down again to finally get to Lucerys. “Luke,” you beamed, reaching for his hand but he just bowed his head. “Im so glad your finally back,”

He gave a tight smile and nodded his head, “Happy name day princess. We shouldn’t keep you from your guests. It was lovely to see you,”

Even your sisters face was filled with confusion, but no one had time to question it when your mother rushed you off to great the next family. you looked back over your shoulder to see Jace taking his brother somewhere and Luke didn’t even spare you a glance. Tears threatened to spill from your eyes but you managed to keep them in as you bored yourself with the next guest.

The whole evening was a mix of watery eyes, cake, and dancing. Most of the lords were old enough to be your father but their were a couple age appropriate ones. Although you’d never pursue him Jace was one of them and soon approached you for a dance.

As you took to the floor, Jace leading the way and placing a hand on your waist and one in your hand, you finally could attempt to get some answers, “So do I have to ask why your brother hates me?”

Jace sighed as he spun you to the music before bringing you back in, “He doesn’t hate you he’s just a dumb kid,”

“Don’t call him dumb,” you snapped and Jace laughed, “I might hate him but don’t insult him,”

“You don’t hate him either. You both have the same problem,”

“And what’s that?” you asked, forcing yourself to smile when you felt your mothers gaze.

“Too many feelings and not enough courage. Its partly my fault,” he confessed, “I’ve been winding him up about it since I found out about this ball,”

“Winding him up about what?”

Jace groaned “Yous are just as bad as each other. You both like each other,”

“He clearly does not like me,” you frowned but refused to deny that you liked him anymore.

He glanced into the crowd, and you noticed Lucerys staring at you both, “Really? Then watch this,” Jace said and as the dance began to draw to a close he stepped in closer, his hand falling slightly closer to your hip and his face a mere inch away from you.

Your skin prickled hot at the closeness and you knew this must look incredibly suspicious to anyone else. Before you could pull away from Jace, Lucerys was pulling him back from you. He was glaring daggers at his smirking older brother. The room was growing more silent the longer you three stood. You could see your mother approaching out the corner of your eye. Jace nudged his brother who finally faced you. His skin started to glow pink around his checks and neck, “I think it was my turn to dance next,” he stumbled over his words as his eyes fell down, “If you would like of course,”

Finally a smile found its way to your lips as you stepped back from Jace and faced Lucerys, “I would love to,” you quickly turned and nodded to the musicians who had stopped during this whole ordeal. Soon music began to flood the hall and people soon began to move on.

Jace walked off leaving a still red Lucerys behind. “May I have your hand?” he asked, his eyes still not meeting yours. You simply responded by grabbing one of his hands and resting the other on his shoulder. Soon his other found your waist and a smile on his face as you began to dance the first dance you had ever learned.

You didn’t say a word as you danced but you didn’t need to. As you moved you both laughed and smiled and almost cried as he began to twirl you and spin you and pull you in. You didn’t need to think about your next step because you were both moving as one.

Eventually the music drew to an end and the people clapped as your dancing stopped. Now you stood still again in the middle of the dance floor. “Would it be selfish of me to ask for another?” he said with a bashful smile tugging at his lips.

“It would be selfish if you didn’t,” you said as you took his hand again for another spin.

Later that night as the ball was finally beginning to die down you managed to sneak off with Luke to the a hallway in the servants area that you knew your mothers would never check. You sat on the floor next to each other, resting your head on his shoulder. “Did you have fun tonight?” he asked.

You snorted in return, “Please I don’t think I’ll be able to walk again. I don’t understand why I had to dance with everyone,”

“You’re a princess,” Luke laughed, “Who wouldn’t wanna dance with you?”

“So you only danced with me because of my title?” you faked gasped, holding a hand to your heart, “I could cry,”

“Please,” he scoffed, “Oh please milady marry me so I can be prince of nothing,” he laughed and you joined, “Besides if we married you’d be the one reaching up,”

“Me?” you laughed even harder, “I’m a freaking princess. Your heir to some planks of woof,”

“Rich planks of wood. Think about how many frilly dresses you could buy,” he said as he pulled at the lace details of your admittedly frilly dress.

“My mother made me wear it,”

“It looks good on you,” this time he wasn’t laughing. Instead for once he was looking right at you.

“Thanks,” your voice was almost a whisper as you looked back into his eyes. The eyes that had been in your dreams for months. “I’ve missed you,”

“I missed you more,”

“I doubt it,”

“I didn’t eat for weeks after we left. I could barely bring myself to go on rides or practise. Nothing was the same without you there,” he said, his eyes still never leaving yours.

“Why didn’t you write me?” you’d been wondering for weeks but you were now scared for the answer, “I sent a letters but you stopped replying,”

This time he looked away. His cheeks were red once again as he stared at his shoes, “I didn’t want you to think I was an idiot,”

“Why would I think that?”

“Because as soon as we left, I realised I was in love with you,” Lucerys looked up from his shoes but still wouldn’t meet your gaze, “and every day I debated getting on my dragon and flying back. I almost did it once but Jace found me sitting next to my dragon, I couldn’t do it. I didn’t want to see the look on your face before you rejected me and sent me on my way,”

“Who could say no to that face?” you said and finally he looked at you again. “Ask me Lucerys. I at least deserve to decide my own answer,”

“Would you do me the honour of being mine (Y/N)?”

“Of course, I will,”

A/N: This took me way too long to write. Life has been weird and my Y keytab broke. Who know how much I used the letter Y?

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bwat5-blog · 2 months ago

Text

Pivotal Moments for Jinx

**SPOILERS FOR ALL OF ARCANE**

**Disclaimer: As I stated in my other deep dive on Jinx, mental health is a huge part of her character. With that in mind please be aware I am in no way a mental health professional, and am in no way qualified to speak on proper handling of mental health issues. I am just a fan who like all of you has fallen in love with this story and its characters, and think they are worthy of further analyses**

Before we begin, let me again thank anyone kind enough to read and respond to these. I love learning new insights from all of you and doing these is helping me pretend the show isn't over haha. Because I believe it fits most with Jinx's Arc, I am going to title this one with 3 sections. These titles are all very flowery, don't make fun of me I went out on a limb haha.

Section 1: The Lost Child- The journey of Powder, showing us all the promise she had before her innocence is stolen from her

Section 2: The Fractured Self- The period of struggle between who she used to be and who she has become

Section 3: Embracing The Storm- The beginnings of her inner journey to become who she is meant to be

Section 1: The Lost Child-

The Unification Bridge:

Powder is the very first voice we hear in this story. Small, afraid, and haunting, we meet her hand-in-hand with Vi on the unification bridge, surrounded by smoke and death at the sight of their first of many great losses to come. The haunted and heartbroken expressions on their faces is crushing, but the interaction between them also gives us our first clue into who Powder is.

Vi, like the good older sister she is, is standing tall and holding Powder's hand when we first see them. We even see her making small movements blocking Powder like she is trying to protect her from the horror around them. However, what happens when Vi is finally overcome? Powder IMMEDIATELY hugs and tries to be there for her. It is a loving moment between these kids who are in the middle of something no child should endure. But more importantly for our purposes, it speaks to their bond and Powders love for her sister in whatever way she can express it.

The Heist:

The heist of Jayce's lab is our first moment with Powder after the introduction and immediately we are introduced to a clever, imaginative and sweet young girl. From her faith and trust in her older sister, to her dreams of riding on an airship, to her knowledge of Valdiani we get an excellent first glimpse into who she is after that heart breaking introduction. However, we also have two major seeds planted that will plague this character for years..

Milo- Milo is a teenage boy. He is a kid to and kids say and do stupid things, especially picking on their siblings. And at this early stage of the story its easy to just see it on that level. Powder is younger, she is weaker, Milo picks on her for not being up to speed as a real part of the gang yet. But we as the audience have the gift of hind sight. And we know sadly that Powder's self doubt born from these interactions will poison her in a way that is difficult to overstate

Hex Tech- It is of course during the heist that Powder is first exposed to hex tech even in its rough form. This bright young girl has no idea that what she holds in her hand will one day be what she uses to end the life of Caitlyn's mother, let alone her own family (although on accident). But it is part of the show's overall story of the danger and sinister impact of the arcane that it takes the object of this curious child's wonderment and one day makes it her murder weapon.

The Aftermath of the Heist:

The period of time after the heist leading to doomed rescue of Vander does not spend a lot of time with Powder. However, but there are a few moments that are absolutely worthy of mention in terms of giving us more a look into her character. So we will group them here under one section.

The Fight With Deckard- Vi, Milo and Claggor are in shockingly brutal fight with Deckard and his thugs. During the entire confrontation Powder has been on the sideline holding their loot, until one of the thugs chases her, leading her to toss the loot into the water after a failed use of one of her bombs. This whole incident is foreshadowing into who Powder will become. The crux of the transition from Powder to Jinx is ending fear and becoming strong. I suppose to simplify things, imagine someone you know in life tells you they had a nose job after years of insecurity, now you are being shown tapes of people picking on that person when they were a kid for the size of their nose.

Relationship with Vi- We are treated to a touching moment between the sisters in which Vi reassures Powder, showing her that none of them are perfect and insisting she knows Powder's gadgets will work one day. This foundational belief in Powder's potential becomes a huge factor in their relationship throughout the entire show.

Shooting Range- This is treated mostly as a "you were saying?" moment toward Milo. Milo is continuing to tease and bully Powder before she absolutely destroys him in their arcade shooting range. it's a silly moment mostly played for comedic relief before the Enforcers attack, but it is also again, a glimpse into the transformation we know is coming. Jinx is absolutely lethal with firearms.

The Panic Attack- Our first real glimpse into the darkness in this poor girl. Please don't misunderstand me, I am not suggesting her having a panic attack in this instance is somehow wrong of her, or makes her broken. She is so young, she saw her parents die just like Vi, now she knows Vander has been taken and her whole family is in danger. She wants to go and help. But her reaction is extremely emotional and volatile. She starts sobbing and screaming, hitting herself and almost destroys her monkey bomb when she can't get it to work. We are seeing these deep seated insecurities born of her trauma and from her brothers lack of acceptance in what makes her different. And the truly heartbreaking thing here is that she is not a defiant child. When she realizes it was the stone that caused the explosion her exact words are "I can help them". That's all she wants. And it could not go more wrong.

The End of Powder- Part 1:

This is the beginning of the incident that changed this young girl's life forever. Now, when I say "The End of Powder", I am not suggesting she has an alternate personality form or something. I have absolutely ZERO qualifications to suggest such a thing. I am speaking in terms of who she was, and who she becomes. We see this brave, clever young girl arrive where the only family she has left are fighting for their lives. She has no idea they have broken through the wall. No idea Vander is free. All she knows is that THIS is how she can help. And she does what she can. From the look on her face here and when she first comes to Vi she is so proud and happy, she genuinely believes she saved her family and it is just.. terrible.. We are watching the violent death of what little innocence this child has play out in real time.

The End of Powder- Part 2:

This is whole incident is heartbreaking. It's not Vi's fault. She is a teenage girl who is scared, in pain, and just watched her family die violently for the second time. Now she learns her little sister who she tried leave at home for once TO KEEP HER SAFE, has seemingly caused the deaths of everyone they love when they were seconds from freedom. So she lashes out. Like all people do when in grief and fear and anger. I think its probably fair also to say as Vi considers protecting Powder her responsibility, she is also angry because she is horrified Powder was anywhere near this incident that could have claimed her life (think parents- I'm so glad your okay! Now I'm gonna kill you!" Sadly Marcus takes Vi before she is able to make things right.

So what does that mean for Powder? it means that while trying to process the fact that her actions have caused the deaths of their whole family, she also has to reckon with the older sister who always protected and loved her, striking her (lets be real even at that age Vi hit like a freight train), grabbing her roughly and yelling at her, calling her a Jinx. This poor little girl who wanted so badly to save her family has just had all of her insecurities and fears made real in the worst possible way. Emotionally and mentally she is a massive open wound. Enter Silco.

The End of Powder- Part 3:

Powder never stood a chance. As I stated above, she is as vulnerable in this moment as someone can be. She has lost everything. So even though he has sinister intent in the moment, she latches on to the very next person to show her kindness, and he has a change of heart. What Powder needed after everything she has been through, is healing. Love and kindness, someone to help her through the guilt and grief, time for she and her sister to grieve together and make things right. Instead, she is taken in by a man who much later states he believed the only way to face the harmful forces of the world was "..eliminating those I deemed my jailers". Silco is a complex and broken man, and although I believe he comes to love Jinx in the only way he can, he takes all of her anger and guilt and grief and teaches her to weaponize them, not to heal. Again I am not suggesting She develops a split personality or something, But I believe that in this moment, Powder is destroyed, her name, is Jinx

Section 2: The Fractured Self-

The Fight With The Firelights:

This is our first big introduction to Jinx. She is working for the man who took her in, the man who instigated the event that claimed her whole family. And on the surface, She has overcome the weaknesses she always hated about herself under his care:

She can fight

Her assorted gadgets work to a lethal level

She isn't afraid of anyone- The firelights know who she is before they even see her, suggesting she now has a reputation for how dangerous she has come. Additionally she stands up to Sevika with absolutely zero hesitation.

However, we are quite quickly shown that everything is not so simple.. Even in the midst of proving she has become a warrior in her own right, she uncovers a female Firelight with pink hair. That past she is trying so hard to bury comes out roaring as she sees her sisters face on a total stranger, her resultant breakdown leading to her executing the firelight, and firing wildly with her gun even hitting one of the men on her side in the conflict. We learn during a conversation between Sevika and Silco, and then Jinx and Silco herself that these issues have happened before. Silco's teachings have made Powder jinx strong on the outside. But she is still very much tortured and afraid on the inside.

The Theft of the gemstone:

We are then treated to a much clearer picture of how this young woman is doing. After returning to her hideout we see Jinx is haunted by the specters of her guilt and grief. She sees shadowy images of those she has lost and hears them taunting her. In an effort to prove her strength to Silco, to negate those negative feelings she can't escape, she attacks the upper city, killing six enforcers and stealing a gemstone that would initiate a series of events that's importance cannot be overstated. She has just committed a crime that could have killed her, and did kill several others. And Silco's anger abates when she is shown the gem-stone. The Weapon. The bargaining Chip. Again I don't doubt he loves her. But we are given a very clear glimpse into how she has been taught at his feet.

Silko Drives Her Further Down the Path/ Jinx cracks Hextech:

We are given continuing glimpses into the guilt poisoning Jinx when her attempts to weaponize the hex gem cause a minor explosion and she runs away, crying and saying it was an accident. She is still suffering so badly because while Silco has made her dangerous, he hasn't made her healthy. Silco tries to help her move past them in the way he knows how. He takes her for a baptism in the darkwaters where he himself was reborn. "your strong now, just like you were always meant to be", "Jinx is perfect", "You need to let Powder Die". She is clearly still suffering due to the events of her childhood. But Silco telling her to essentially "just don't worry about it anymore cause you are doing great" is delusional and dangerous for all involved.

Additionally, lets think about this for a moment. As a young girl she was frequently berated for her weakness, for who she was as Powder. Remember I mentioned that even though Milo was just being a teenage boy, these things stick? We are now learning Silco essentially continued to reinforce the idea that all those insecurities Powder had were true and needed to be changed in Jinx. Imagine if Vi had been able to go back to her- "What makes you different makes you strong". I feel like I am getting a little lost in the weeds here on this point so more simply:

A little girl wanting badly to fit in is told she is weak, she needs to be less afraid, she needs to fight and be willing to be hurt.

Her older-sister that she loves and looks up to tries to help negate these toxic ideas, but in a moment of crushing emotional duress lashes out and reinforces all of them. And is robbed of the chance to fix it.

She is taken in and raised by a man who tells her yes. All those things you have been are bad. But if you become this person I tell you to be, now your perfect .

Reunited with Vi

This scene is really quite sad. First of all, even after all this time, whne Jinx finds out about Vi being alive she puts faith in Vi to honor her promise of the flare. She still believes in her older sisters promise to come get her. Vi has spent seven years in isolation being abused and neglected wanting only to come back to her sister. Jinx has done everything asked of her to become the person she thinks she had to become and is OBVIOUSLY ashamed facing Vi. And the really bad thing is that its going well at first. Their connection even after all of this time hasn't been totally severed. Until the arrival of Caitlyn and the paranoia fed to Jinx by Sevika (and later Silco)takes over. All culminating in Vi being torn from her and her being alone. Again.

The Battle on the Bridge and The Suicide Attempt:

Once again we are treated to another example of the mass violence Jinx is willing/able to visit upon those she deems necessary but there is a deeper meaning to this incident.

Talking about Vi and Cait first: Regarding Jinx's interaction with Vi and Cait, Jinx does not attack at first. We see her openly arguing against her darker angels, insisting her sister is not going to leave her. AND SHE IS CORRECT. It is only due to the betrayal by Marcus that Vi turns around. Unfortunately this causes Jinx to spiral in that moment, hallucinating Caitlyn's face twisting demonically and launching a violent attack on both of them. Her actions here are wrong there is no debate. But she is not evil. She is not irredeemable. There is still a part of her that tries very hard to do the right thing and see the truth. But ever since Vander died and she was left with Silco, she has been taught that strength and vengeance and pain were the way forward and she is overcome by that darkness.

Fight with Ekko and the aftermath: Ekko steps in on the bridge and the two former friends (childhood crushes according to LOL lore apparently) have a brutal fight. At it's end, we see a glimpse of who she was once, before she detonates one of her bombs. Now, I have read all kinds of interpretations of this. From the most surface level- "crazy girl does crazy thing" and onward. As sad as it is, I see it as a moment of Lucidity. She knows what just happened. She just killed however many enforcers (I know we aren't really sad about them just considering the whole picture), she tried to kill Caitlyn, but worst of all, she almost killed Vi who she just got to see again. And now she is face to face with one of the only faces left who knew who she was and I think she just wants it to be over

Shimmer:

In terms of impact this literally physically alters her abilities for the rest of show granting her signature speed that impacts every situation we see her in after this. But on a story level, we get a much more heartbreaking point. She is hallucinating all throughout the "Life Saving" procedure. And initially what does she see when she is in so much pain and so afraid? She sees herself and Vi where Vi reminds her she is stronger than she thinks, She apologizes for leaving her, but then Caitlyn's voice enters and the hallucination grow frightening. Keeping in mind that the only reason Jinx has all of this distrust and paranoia toward Caitlyn is because of Sevika and Silco's manipulations, it feels like we are watching that good part of Jinx we know is still there struggling so hard against the poisonous effects of the life she was forced into, and losing.

Taking Caitlyn:

Not a lot to say here in terms of Jinx herself but in terms of the parallel between Caitlyn and Jinx that eventually comes to fruition and in terms of the interactions with Jinx that lead Cait down her own dark path this really important. Jinx has almost killed Caitlyn multiple times by this point but she is back home. She is safe. Until the woman rapidly becoming the face of her nightmares takes her from her own bathroom.

The Dinner Party:

So obviously, this incident is absolutely a turning point in who Jinx is. She has who she was represented in the dolls of her brothers. She has who she thinks she is supposed to be represented in Silco. And then she has the conflict, Vi. She knows Vi loves her. But Vi is also having her own totally understandable struggles with how her sister has changed. And all of the conflict and paranoia and anger have built to this incredibly tense situation. She offers to be be Powder again if Vi will KILL CAITLYN. She gives away the game. Powder would never ask such a thing. When Vi and Silco start fighting for Jinx's soul she is backed into a corner mentally seeing these specters of her dead family while Silco yells his dogmatic opposition to who she was and ultimately it all ends with Jinx making the choice to save Vi's life at the cost of Silco's. And out of penance, she strikes at Silco's enemy one last time. Top side. And I would say it is worth mentioning, that even with everything between them including Caitlyn's threat of violence against Jinx and Jinx's multiple attempts of violence against Vi and Cait by this point, She lets them leave. She doesn't stay around taking advantage of Vi's post Sevika injuries or Caitlyn's emotional distress. She doesn't try to hurt anyone else.

I have presented this information to you in phases. I presented the first section as covering her life until the events of her childhood shatter Power, remaking her as Jinx. The second phase has been the clashing of who she was against who she is. That conflict, that schism in her soul ripping her apart. And although it ends on a dark note I do believe the end of this is the end of that phase and the very beginnings of her learning to be just Jinx and what that means. A murky, dark, despondent beginning, but a beginning none the less. The sun is not always shining when kings are born, no matter what the stories say.

Section 3: Learning to Embrace The Storm

Meeting Isha:

Meeting Isha is the beginning of the clouds clearing in Jinx's mind. When we return to her in early season 2 Jinx has given up. She tells the audience everything is broken, and falling apart. She seems drained. That is until this little spit fire that would change her whole life shows up and jinx starts slowly having no choice but to wake up again.

The Battle with Vi:

So remember although I do consider this the early stages of Jinx finding herself, this stage begins in darkness. Jinx feels totally alone. Then sitting in her childhood haunt, she sees her beloved older sister in the uniform that tore their parents from them (i have done many deep dives on Vi if you want my thoughts on her decision to on the team I'd love for you to read them) It is the last straw for her. I think she has ended the clonflict between herself and who she was, but what does she have left? What is her reason for continuing? Right now, she doesn't have one. And to her, by walking wearing that uniform Vi has announced that aside from jinx's outrage over her wearing it, she believes Vi has given up on her.

This of course leads to the terrible fight in that large chamber. There are all kinds of things that happen here with various characters but we are focusing on Jinx. She has her pre-battle bravado speech of whatever then the fight starts. What I want to focus on is this quote here: "I'm glad its you.. it had to be you". Jinx says that to Vi just as Vi is preparing to finish her, and its like Vi can see her little sister in Jinx for the first time since they first reunited. This show does an excellent job of reminding us of their bond no matter what the circumstances or how dark the context. She doesn't beg Vi to stop or try to lash out at Vi verbally for her part in this. She is happy that if her life is going to end.. the last person she believes loves her is going to do it. That is of course, until Isha interjects and everything goes haywire./

Life With Isha:

"Jinx is dead". That is what Jinx tells Isha when they are discussing the outside world. Zaun is under millitary occupation, the people cry out for Jinx to help. But ultimately, what we are seeing here is a period that HAD to happen to help Jinx start progressing. She has a fresh start in this child and has clearly tried to make good on it. They play games, dye Isha's hair, tell stories and try to follow Vander's teaching and protect the one who looks up to her.

Forced back into the action:

As we all imagine, Isha and Jinx hideaway is doomed to end. Between the political unrest and Jinx being the most wanted woman in the twin cites this was a matter of when not if. But what's most important here to me is that Jinx is taking ownership of who she is, and what her responsibilities are. The starts to fill in the outline of who she is, with something other than grief and pain, even if its only slowly to start.

Her specters try to come back when she learns Isha has been taken but she gets control.

She is working much better Sevika for the good of her people even though they have never gotten along

She frees the Zaunites from the rally at risk to herself. We have that really moving moment where she realizes she means something to these people, as they do to her.

Her Rescue of Isha on top of just reinforcing this adorable bond shows us Jinx changing. She is more than the manic criminal who is ready to die. She feels guilt, and responsibility toward this child she cares for so she as Piltover's most wanted has come to this terrible place and put herself at risk to do the right thing. Even with all the years of pain and loss and twisted emotions, when push comes to shove does she do what Silco would? No. She does what Vander taught Vi to do- "When people look up to you, you don't get to be selfish"

Meeting Warwick/Vander (I'm just going to call him Vander for simplicity):

Before knowing who/what this creature is, Jinx immediately engages it in combat and tells Sevika to run and to get Isha out. She immediately is willing to sacrifice herself to protect her people. Now, I have read some people interpreting this as her wanting to die. I don't see it that way. She only pulls the bomb when she is reasonably assuming she is about to be violently mauled. She heroically risks her life, and is rewarded with what we all have been waiting for... "Powder"

Reuniting with Vi:

Jinx coming to Vi has shocked a lot of people but it didn't shock me. I know there has been so much pain and darkness between them. And right now, Vi is at her absolute lowest. But even through the hallucinations, the violence, the anger and the paranoia, Jinx's love for her sister has come out time and time again. Now, we are a point where due to "breaking the cycle" created by Silco and living her own life for the first time alongside Isha, while at the same time perhaps gaining a whole new perspective on what Vi has been through by taking the child under wing, Jinx has learned something of immense importance to she and her sister and does the right thing with that information. She loves her sister, and Vander's return is the door she is hoping Vi will trust her enough to step through with her, even after all they have suffered.

Saving Her family:

So here I am referring to the scene above and their adventure in the commune until Singed and Ambessa ruin everything. We really are given more of a glimpse into the ways Jinx is maturing while they are underground looking for Vander. We see her caring more for Isha, she compliments Vi even if its a sibling bickering style compliment, and she laments that Vander and Silco could have had peace had the letter been found. Jinx early this season tells us since Silco died her head has quieted. And I think they are showing that well.

Finally we get to Vander's arrival and while being obviously visually stunning it is also very intense. Vi is fighting for her life to protect them while Jinx is trying to figure out what to do as two people (one woman one wolf technically) she loves are trying to kill each other, and ultimately she convinces Vi to take a chance on trusting her. Now, I have written about this in another post but its worth repeating the scene is so wonderfully done. We know that Jinx has to be terrified she chose wrong. By bringing Vi here, she could have got Vander killed. By convincing Vi to lower her gauntlets she could have got Vi killed. The scene with Jinx flicking her lighter to see what happened, and she is so afraid that she has once again brought death to those she loved is just.. it hurts. But her relief and her joy to see what actually resulted, and to be welcomed into the family without judgement, its beautiful. And even though its short-lived and creates new struggles for her, we get to watch this woman who is so sure she is a monster, realize that because of her, her family is together and safe for at least that moment.

Not a ton to say for the commune itself, I would just say it mostly builds on she and Vi's relationship recovering. Vi is trusting her again, and they are facing the potential of being actually happy. Of course this is Arcane.. so see below.

Loss of Isha:

Okay. So as well all know, this was terrible. Not in a "oh that was shitty writing" kind of way although I'm sure some fans feel that way. But in a "how am i supposed to process that" kind of way. I have thought long and hard on this in terms of Jinx's arc, and the lessons she has to learn, and this is what I have come to believe based on my own understanding. To say Jinx has been changing, is undeniable. I stand by my premise that she is in the early stages of finding out what it means to be a person and be Jinx. Not the feral gun-slinger wearing a half-eaten carnival tent for pants with her loud music and snappy comebacks. But someone who can be trusted. Someone who be relied upon. We have been watching her take responsibility, learning to trust others (laying down her weapon at the commune), starting to really care again. But, there are still parts of that negative aspect of her she has been holding on to.

When it comes to Isha, Jinx is replaying her own story. We of course don't the specifics of Isha's origins but lets lay this out:

Undercity child all alone

Gets taken in by dangerous criminal with their own idea of how to show love

Child morphs themselves to fit the image of who their surrogate parent makes them think they should be either through word or deed.

I feel like I have not explained it well, but ultimately as sad as it is and as heroic as the little blue haired hellion goes out, this is all a result of Jinx continuing the cycle without meaning to because that's how generational trauma works. We as the audience know that Jinx's big lesson is building toward "finding the will to walk away". and "Breaking the Cycle". The problem is that without even meaning to, Jinx was teaching Isha to just take her spot on the ride. And we all paid the price to drive that lesson home.

Jinx in Jail:

Here we witness Jinx's "pit-fighter era". Just like her sister, she has fought, and bled, and sacrificed and tried to do the right thing, and come up short. She is picking at herself, her hair is loose for the first time all series, the show makes the conscious choice not to mention Isha out loud lending itself to the unspeakable tragedy of the child's death, and she just seems.. empty. But it is at this lowest point with the flash and the swagger and the persona dropped that we get very valuable insight into Jinx we have not up til now:

There was absolutely a time Jinx would have blamed Vi for stopping for from getting to Isha and been cruel to her. Instead Caitlyn tells us Jinx's 1st and only priority was making sure Vi was safe after Vi used her own body to block the blast

Jinx's apology to Caitlyn is worth so much more than people give it credit for. She and Caitlyn have not bonded for obvious reasons but what many people have missed is that they are both living variations on the same trauma and in need of the same lessons. Children grieving the loss of a parent who were taken and weaponized by someone who should have them helped heal. Not to mention blue-haired marksman. The fact that Jinx owns that it would likely have not stopped her at that moment but wants Caitlyn to know she didn't know is so well done.

Her last lesson from Silco is beautiful as well. Especially considering the truth. This is a lesson Jinx has learned and is walking through in her own mind. "I'm done running in circles", "Killing isn't mercy", "Break the cycle". Now it must be said, that given her attempt to take her own life, we know this all to have a fairly dark meaning when she is going through it. But its the fact that she knows this is all true. The seeds are there. These are massive developments in her as she takes ownership of who she is that allow the change in her when Ekko comes.

Her conversation with Vi gets me every time. She knows Vi will never stop. Vi would fight every enforcer in the building to get her out if she had to. Because at the end of the day what has endured throughout the entire show? "Are we still sisters?.. nothing will ever change that". Even if their bond has strained, changed, or warped at various points. it has always come through in the end. And knowing that Vi will never have the happiness she deserves if she continues to try and save her, Jinx makes the decision to leave and implores Vi to accept the love and happiness she wants for her.

Jinx and Ekko:

So I know this GIF is from the AU, and the AU was before the jail stuff. But in terms of who our Jinx is dedicating a whole thing to the AU didn't make sense because the lessons Ekko learns there have much more to do with who our Jinx might be someday. And that's how he saves her. Jinx has two fundamental beliefs about herself that are the final roadblocks in her realizing she has worth:

"There's no good version of me"

"Everyone who gets close to me dies"

We will deal with number 2 soon. But in terms of the 1st one. This is the moment. She has surrendered, she has given up at this lowest point not caring if she dies, and here comes Ekko. "The Boy Savior" and he uses what he knows about her potential to save her life and give her the will to keep fighting, which allows those lessons that were merely seeds before to bloom in her. "Killing isn't mercy", "Break the Cycle", "I'm done running in circles".

I have seen much made about the fact that Vi wasn't the one to save her and Ekko was. I have explained in excruciating detail in other posts why the Vi haters are wrong about essentially everything they believe, so I won't go there here. All I will say is no one can save everyone. Sometimes its the right person, with the right words, in the right place and time. And Ekko was that for Jinx. Just like she was in the AU to help him save his reality.

JINX RETURNS:

Here we see Jinx fully realized. Not the terrorist. Not the grinning nightmare who stole Caitlyn naked and afraid from her bathroom and offered Vi her little sister if she would only murder the woman she loves. Jinx leads the undercity to battle in her style, honoring where she is from, her sister (Vi's Bunny on the balloon), Isha and more. She thunders in blasting music and unloading on the enemy with a colorful machine gun having finally made peace with who she is and believing that who she is deserves to have a life.

The Sacrifice:

Remember I said we would address Jinx's number 2 worst fear about herself- "Everyone who gets close to me dies". In this moment, after leading the undercity in saving the day, after rejoining her sister and LITERALLY having her back, Jinx makes DAMN SURE that the person she knows never truly gave up on her or stopped loving her makes it out. It is heartbreaking and painful, it is also heroic and beautiful to see this young woman who has experienced so much sorrow protect the person with whom she shares a bond so strong it has never truly faded. If you recall, the very first moment we share with these incredible sisters is one of tragedy and pain. And in that moment we see Vi holding fast trying to be strong for her sister, but what happens when her sorrow threatens to drown her? Her little sister takes her in her arms and tries to comfort and protect her.

I like many of you, believe that Jinx is alive. We have all seen the videos expounding on the reason why. And it makes sense. The end of her story in this show is her moment of accepting herself as she is now and ready to let the crushing guilt and grief that has tortured her for so long go. She knows the only way for she and Vi to have peace is to walk away.. at least for now.. We haven't seen her happy ending because now that she is the person she has been working to become, she is off to find it on that airship.

Conclusion: Yall. Jinx is an incredible character. She is so complex and layered. And I feel like because of the rushed pacing of season 2 we missed a lot of scene fleshing out her development. But as I continue to say we can only work with what we were given. and what we were given will stay with me forever. I honestly felt I was not quite smart enough to do her justice here but if it helps even one person appreciate this character even more I'll call it a win. As i said in the beginning, Jinx's story is so wrapped in mental health i totally understand if you feel I was way off base with something. I just appreciate you reading. Take care.

#arcane season 2 spoilers #arcane season 1 #jinx arcane #vi and jinx #arcane #powder #arcane silco

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demigod-shenanigans · 2 months ago

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Psssst. Can I maybe get something about Jaspn going to the movies for the first time? Either on a date with Leo or as a friend thing with all three of them?

Making it lost trio for now because in my head Leo and Jason always take forever to get their shit together and Jason having to wait that long for his first movie theater experience would be kind of sad. I may or may not sprinkle some valgrace in there tho 😌

I just know they spent literally forever trying to decide on a movie. Leo kept trying to push some movie from a franchise that he’s fixated on and requires a whole universe worth of knowledge to really enjoy insisting that it’s not that complicated and he can totally explain the lore of a bazillion shows and movies and/or make Jason watch all of those so he can still enjoy it (think Marvel or Star Wars or something). Piper vetoes that and suggests a horror movie (her main motivation on this is Jason and Leo are both cowards and she wants them to hold hands about it, and also she doesn’t really get how they’re scared of fictional monsters when they’ve literally faced worse, but whatever, lmao)

Jason kind of wants to see a romcom but he knows they’ll both tease the shit out of him for that so he doesn’t say it.

In the end he just picks something based on a title that sounds okay.

Piper gets chips and ice tea, Leo gets a huge bucket of popcorn that’s larger than his head and a soda. Jason gets a large water and asks cautiously if he can try popcorn without sugar or salt. Piper and Leo promptly say they’re both unfriending him. In the end he just grabs trail mix and Leo heaves this deep sigh and him and Piper spend the movie pestering Jason to try their snacks. Jason doesn’t dislike their choices necessarily but says he’ll stick to trail mix (Heroes of Juno Jason and his snack tendencies are canon to me now I’m sorry) and they’re both affronted.

The movie they see turns out to be a heist movie. They mostly have a good time but Jason does ask “isn’t that illegal” at least three times during the beginning until Piper kicks him in the leg and Leo tells him “don’t make me shut you up” (Leo blushes furiously because he meant, like, shut him up with tape or a hand over the mouth, not make out with him, but it definitely comes out like he meant making out and neither of them is able to look at the other for the rest of the movie)

Jason gets very attached to all of the characters and is extremely upset when one of them is captured. He also definitely doesn’t get that this is setting up a sequel and Piper and Leo have to comfort him about it for at least half an hour

Leo somehow finishes the whole bucket of popcorn before the movie is over and Piper and Jason just stare at him because what the fuck how

This becomes a semi-regular thing for them whenever they have the time. They take turns picking movies so everyone gets what they want eventually.

#jason grace #leo valdez #piper mclean #lost trio #hoo #heroes of olympus #valgrace #leo x jason #jason x leo #asks #anon #sorry for taking so long to answer this! hope you enjoy regardless

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luveline · 1 year ago

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Omg Jade, I’ve been LOVING the asf resurgence ☺️☺️ It hits my heart in all the right ways!!

I was wondering if would please write something showing more of the burrow from asf? Would love to see Molly (alongside Fred ofc!) doting on the reader. Maybe she feels poorly during a gathering? Just an idea - no pressure ofc to respond or to go in this direction. Thank you either way!!! 😊

tysm for ur request!! sorry this took me a whole month ♡ fem!reader, 1.5k

cw mental health issues/ poor eating habits

The popcorn is greasy between your fingers. You look down at a slightly burned kernel without much feeling, giving it a squeeze to listen to the styro-foamy groan as it breaks.

The crumbs fall down the front of your hoodie. The mess is enough to make you feel something other than tired, blinking to attention while you pick tiny bits from your tummy.

Fred's hand reaches over to help. "Whoops," he says, flicking them off of the sofa onto the rug.

"Don't do that," you chastise without any heat, nudging his knee with yours. "Your poor mum will have to clean it up."

"No she won't."

"Are you going to hoover before we go?" you ask.

Fred puts his hand on your thigh for an unapologetic feel. "No. She'd be offended."

It's hard to describe how something as simple and as normal as Fred's hand on your leg can make you feel. Suddenly, you aren't alone in your head, feeling all sorts of awful. There's someone with you.

Fred often laments (with sympathy) that you live in the past. He's not wrong. There are things that haunt you without pulling punches, stuff that makes you feel sick even though you can't remember how it all went anymore. It's like your body has caught hold of the way you felt at the time and is now throwing you into the deep end, no warnings.

George takes the popcorn bowl from your lap, a lazy heist from his positioning on the floor. He, Ron, and Harry play a game of exploding snap that smells like no one's winning by your shoes.

Bill and Fleur sit on bean bags by the fire, their legs interlocked, and the baby (who isn't a baby anymore, actually, a brand new toddler) waddles around the room in footie pyjamas. Every time you see Victoire, you wonder if she's an easy baby, and if you'd be a good mom. If you're even capable.

Things tend to twist from there. Capable in any capacity? You're sure there are a hundred different things that Fred wants from you that he will never be able to have. A girlfriend who doesn't shut down when she's worried. A partner who pulls their weight. You let him down pretty much every day though he doesn't say, in your uselessness. You're awful. He deserves better than someone who's clinging to the bad things that happened to her (though you don't want to cling, you can't seem to make yourself stop).

Fred's hand abandons your thigh. He sits up in his seat on the sofa to wrap his arm behind your neck instead, encouraging your head under his. With the side of his chin pressed to your temple, he doesn't say a word.

Molly appears from the garden with a handful of fresh lemon balm. "Who wants a cup of tea?" she asks.

Her eyes flicker straight for you. Fred told you once that Harry used to be her favourite child. It confused you —family is much more than blood, but still, there's so many to choose from and they're all brilliant, so why Harry?

He was the one who needed the favouritism most, Fred says. Mum has a built-in pain detector. She knows when people need love.

"We'll have a cup of tea," Fred says, rubbing your shoulder.

"Obviously," Molly says, though what's obvious about it escapes you. "Anyone else?"

There's a chorus of requests, most of which you can't keep straight. Molly's brilliant, she doesn't miss a beat. "Lovely," she says with a smile.

"I'll come help you, mum," George says, using your legs as a brace to get up.

You kick him without force in the leg. He turns to you, shooting you an adoring, saccharine smile with hands at his chest curved into a heart shape.

"He's in a mood today," Fred says.

Your sleeves bunch under his hands with every upward swipe. You sit there for a while feeling off. Something is wrong, some pit sucking you in, but nothing's happened. It's been a while since you felt this suddenly sick —you're better than you were, but you aren't better.

"It's okay," Fred says, like he can read your mind. His reassurance kisses warm over your cheek. "Do you want to go home?"

He doesn't seem upset with you. If anything, he's chipper, like he'd love to go home with you. It's a charade for your benefit to erase the guilt that comes with yanking him out of family time, and you don't fall for it.

Yet you can't make yourself smile. You aren't as good of an actor as he is. "No," you mumble, pulling away from his loving embrace to meet his eyes.

He inches closer, hand sliding down your arm.

"I love you," he says very quietly. He's at risk of being heard by three different brothers, each of which might rip him to shreds for being as whipped as he sounds.

You don't not want to say it back. Sometimes it's hard. Fred isn't telling you for a parroting, anyhow, and he doesn't care when you fail to answer.

"Let's go help make tea," he says, standing up. You don't want to move, but you'd rather not stay by yourself. You've no choice but to follow him through the living room and into the kitchen.

"Hi, dearie," Molly says. You realise she's talking to you, not Fred. "You look like you need something to eat. I'll make you something sweet, how does that sound?"

It sounds like a bad idea. "That sounds great."

She nudges George off with his tray of tea to stand in front of you. "There's a good girl," she says, squeezing your elbow. "Fred says you're not eating, but you were fine at breakfast. Feeling better?"

"Mum," Fred says, sending you an apologetic look. "Sorry, I don't mean to gossip about you–"

"No, it's okay. It's nice, it's… a privilege to be worried about," you say, though you wish he wouldn't.

Molly shakes her head, ginger kinks swishing over her shoulders. "It's not a privilege, lovely. That's just what family does, mm? You worry about Freddie, he worries about you, and I'll worry about both of you."

"You don't have to worry about us, mum."

"I know. It's a privilege, though, to be the one worrying," Molly says, offering you a gentle smile.

"Right," you say.

"So stop pretending you're okay and have a seat. Freddie, you better go and get her one of your blankets, I think."

Fred grins and exits the kitchen quickly to avoid giving you time to protest. Ever a people pleaser, you sit down at the table in one of the chairs with a tall back. Molly puts down a cup of tea in front of you, swiftly followed by a plate of biscuits, a toasted, buttered currant scone, and a blueberry muffin sliced down the middle.

That's what gets you. The muffin cut in half, paper peeled away. Molly has no reason to like you; you make Fred happy, but you know you've made him so, so sad, sometimes. You've weighed him down. You're not the best he could've had, but his family don't care. He doesn't care. He loves you enough to breeze into the kitchen with a throw blanket, wrap it around your shoulders, and nestle a kiss behind your ear.

You scramble to grab his arms rather than let him stand again. He startles at first, but he recovers, and his arms curl around your front with enthusiasm that can't be faked.

"I love you," he murmurs. Words slid together like he's tipped them out, impossible to deny. "Try not to wind yourself up, alright? It's a normal day. The only people who matter are you and me, yeah?"

"Yeah," you say through a lump.

"I'll be just in the living room if you need me," Molly says.

"Thanks, mum," Fred says, perching his chin atop your head.

He waits for her to leave and plants a kiss on the highest point of your cheek. When you smile, he tracks them all over. Kiss to your head, your ear, the soft line of your jaw.

"Do you want to talk about something? Or should we think about other things?" he asks.

It's a strange, coddling way to ask if there's something in particular that's upset you, but it's nice to be coddled. Truthfully, there's nothing concrete that hurts. A little bit of everything. The world is busy and life is hard and people aren't always kind, and you'll always be unbalanced by that. Luckily, Fred's there to hold you up, together, whatever you need.

"Do you want half of my muffin?" you ask.

"I'm eyeing up your scone, honestly."

"You can have it if you want it."

Fred hugs you tightly. "And deprive you? No way. I'll settle for the muffin if you feed it to me," he says hopefully.

You twist in your chair, holding a bit of the muffin up for him to eat.

"I love you," you say. In a horror story, a nightmare, your nearly constant thoughts, he scoffs in your face.

Fred swallows roughly. "I know. S'why you're gonna let me have half the scone, too."

It's awfully cheesy, but you'd give him much more than a scone. You'd give him anything he asked you to give.

"Greedy," you say.

"I resent that, ghost."

#fred weasley #fred weasley x reader #a special friend universe

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nonsense-with-jelly · 10 months ago

Note

Hi!... can I request hcs for lupin and the gang falling in love with a cop reader or something like that 🙏 ( if you can't do it or don't want to that's okay! sorry for bothering)

Oh shit, I didn't see this

Lupin III × Cop!Reader

Headcanons

(Adding a cut cause GOD DAMN THIS IS A LONG ONE)

♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡

General (Lupin, Jigen, Goemon, and Fujiko)

Imagine the whole god damn gang falling in love with you cause you're doing your damn job.

Pull them over for speeding and they all just look at you with the hunch that the universe sent the hottest cop in the city to catch them for speeding

Once they are caught as a group of criminals though, they SCATTER.

I can guarentee they were all talking about you when they got to the hotel.

♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡

Lupin

You were just writing up a parking ticket... for his car...

He wanted to yell, but at the same time, was he? He just watched you do it.

You were barely doin' squat aside from writing a ticket and he already had his mind in the gutter (but that's normal Lupin behavior)

He does walk up to you before you could walk away, and despite YOU JUST WROTE HIM A PARKING TICKET, he asked you out to dinner...

If you say no, he just goes back to the hotel and sulks cause he lost the person of his dreams he didn't even know about... and he has a parking ticket.

If you say yes, he takes you to the BEST restaurant in the city and tells you to order whatever you'd like. He's gonna spoil you SO MUCH.

Don't even TRY to order something relatively cheap or else he's just gonna pick for you, after all, it's hard work being a cop that is also a good person, he says you deserve a night out.

He is such a gentleman the entire time, he makes a few flirty jokes, and a couple risqué remarks here and there.

He also orders desert for the both of you to share if there is a desert you are able to eat. He will feed you a bite then take a bite himself

He's REALLY laying it on thick for you... which, originally, this was all to ask if he REALLY had to pay the parking ticket, but then again, he was starting to grow feelings for you.

After dinner, he takes you to a nice hotel and tries to push the night a little further, but you tell him you've got work in the morning and he just pouts

But then, you turn around and give him your phone number... chances are, he's not gonna call again cause by tomorrow, Jigen is probably calling him a nutcase for going on a date with a cop when THEY'RE ALL CRIMINALS... then again... maybe he'll call?

♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡

Jigen

While Jigen isn't much of a fan of cops, while he was undercover as a cop, he met you.

You were one of those cops who'd go out of their way to make someone's day a bit better. Like the ones who are called for a noise complaint on children playing and drawing with chalk on the sidewalk in the middle of the day and they play with them because screw those guys.

In this case, you were called because some kids had put up a lemonade stand. You dragged Jigen along with you cause you thought he was a coworker.

The car ride is awkward for Jigen, cause if he blows his cover in a cop car, THAT would be embarrassing.

Once you guys get there, these kids are no older than 7 or 8, in other words, why the hell would a grown adult want to rain on some child's day and WHY did the station think you of all people would shut it down?

You walk up to the stand, the kids are already a bit nervous cause not all cops are good cops.

You lean down, look at the price, and say "2 cups of lemonade please" then turn to Jigen with a smirk and ask "what about you, buddy?"

Jigen passes at first, but a while later, he changes his mind... thankfully, you bought 2, you didn't even know he'd do that, but something inside of you told you that he would do something like that.

Later, the two of you are chilling in the park during your lunch break, Jigen is SEVERELY laye for a heist, but he kinda liked hanging out with you that day... even though he was on edge the entire time.

"You know I'm single, right?" You say to him misinterpreting his anxiety as a small crush.

He just gets a but red in the face and looks away, but at the same time... you don't seem all that bad. A date sounds ok... so the two of you go on a date the next day. It's a very simple date. Just a talk at the cafe, a trip to the movies, and a stroll in the park at sunset.

You invite him to stay the night, but Jigen knows he has to leave the country tomorrow with the rest of the gang, so he gives you his phone number and tells you "maybe another day, but not tonight."

♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡

Goemon

He didn't realize you were a cop at first cause he first met you on your day off.

He was at a grocery store, buying stuff for his own dinner sing Lupin, Jigen, and Fujiko were going out to eat at a place he didn't really like.

Just as he was checking out, that was a bad time to realize he had forgot his money at the hotel. He almost considered just stealing it, when your arm reaches past him as you use your debit card to pay for his groceries.

He looks at you as though you are crazy, but his expression softens and he thanks you... he sort of expected you to tell him something like "you owe me" but you didn't... And it messed with him for half the day.

He ran into you again, this time he had money on him and he offered to take you somewhere nice. After all, his groceries weren't cheap.

You were flattered that he was willing to take you somewhere, but you could practically hear his stomach growling.

"You know, you can save money and just invite me over to your place for dinner" you tell him, assuming he didn't really have much money... but then he took you to the nice hotel he's staying at

You help him cook and before you know it, the two of you are enjoying a candle lit dinner.

You would've stayed the night if you could, but between Goemon telling you that his friends would be back soon and that you telling him that you have work in the morning, you just couldn't stay

Before you left he asked where you work, totally not because he wanted to check in on you to see if you wanted to do something after work because he feels as though he hasn't properly returned the favor, when you told him you were a cop, he got a bit tense, but you assured him that your not the same kind that's going out of their way to make someone's day worse.

While that was assuring, now he wasn't sure if it was gonna work out between the two of you... but something about you... he can't stop thinking about you. He knows you may very well turn him in if you find out he's a criminal... but I guess that's half the thrill, the other half being trying to repay you for your selfless act.

♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡

Fujiko

Her ride was pulled over and charged with a dui. Without a ride and the fact that the hotel she's staying at is on the other side of the city, she was desperate and asked you to take her back to the hotel after dropping the drunk taxi driver off at the police station.

Of course you weren't going to leave a beautiful woman in high heels and an outfit like her's to walk to the other side of the city at this hour, so you agreed.

Ater dropping off the Taxi driver, the two of you made casual conversation... which evolved into Fujiko asking if you're dating anyone, which causes your face to feel like it's burning.

You knew where this was going, and you were still on the clock, so was it really right to flirt with the woman your helping? Probably not... however, she did flirt first, and her words are like that of a siren's song, plucking at your heart, finding what you desire and use it against you as a lure.

Eventually you cave and give her your number and tell her to text whenever you feel like talking again.

Af course, Fujiko had other things in mind. Because whenever she'd text you, it was always something flirty and provocative. Some instances make you regret opening your inbox in public.

Eventually, the two of you do start going out to have fancy dinners and romantic evenings, and you've grown used to it... but all good things come to an end as she informs you she's "moving" out of the country.

The relationship keeps going on as a long distant one of course, but you always look forward to when she'd visit your city again...

♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡

Author's Note

I feel as though I suck at romantic writing, that's always one thing I had trouble doing in my high school creative writing class... then again, I've aged, hopefully my writing skills also aged???

#lupin the 3rd #lupin the third #lupin iii #lupin iii x reader #jigen x reader #goemon x reader #fujiko x reader #headcanons

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tarditzgrade · 6 months ago

Text

chat i dont think i’m gonna finish all these before the week is up

Day 2 Hero/Villain

The ninja team are on a museum heist and Lloyd’s on distract duty. Problem is the security guard he’s meant to distract is kind of cute.

Around 2652 words :) i don't know how museum security works and im not doing the research to find out

“Would’ve thought there would be more people back here.” Cole muttered.

“Not too much interesting about a bunch of pots.” Jay responded over the radio.

“I’d have to disagree.” Zane argued. “The design and history present in them can be quite fascinating.”

“Tell that to this empty ass room.” Kai scoffed.

“Pottery history is great and all, but,” Lloyd cut through the conversation. “Any updates on the statue?”

“We’re still working on it, Lloyd.” Nya informed. “We’re getting real close, though. Jay’s almost cracked the last password you’ll need.”

Lloyd huffed. This was possibly one of the most boring ways a heist could go awry. Well, boring for those on the floor. It was probably hectic as hell for those behind the scenes.

The original plan was for Cole, Kai, and Lloyd to go into the museum during opening hours, steal some real expensive sculpture that was being held in a storage room, sneak it out the back, get away in the van, and get it to the buyer.

In and out like that. No more than an hour should’ve been spent in this building.

Yet here they were, on hour four in this place because someone decided to switch which room the sculpture was in.

For once, they had every detail of the plan laid out to the letter. Every guard, every password, every exit had been figured out and accounted for, but the one thing that they hadn’t thought of, the one thing that they thought couldn’t go wrong, went wrong.

So now Lloyd was stuck wandering the museum with Cole and Kai, while Zane, Jay, and Nya were in the van, scrambling to figure out the new location of the statue and how to get it out of the museum before the place closed.

No, of course, they couldn’t wait until some other time to grab the sculpture. The buyer wanted it by tonight or else they’d back out of the deal. And the sculpture might not even be in the museum by tomorrow.

Kai stuck his tongue out at one of the old vases he was staring at. “It just gets repetitive after a while, doesn’t it? Staring at dusty old pots. I’d’ve rather tripped a wire than have this relocation stuff happen. It would’ve been more exciting than just waiting around.”

“Really.” Cole agreed. “That would’ve at least led to some high speed chase or maybe some kind of stealth escape.”

“Can we not openly talk about our crimes in public?” Lloyd asked.

Cole spread his arms, gesturing to how empty the room was. “Who’s gonna hear it, Lloyd? No one’s here.”

“Yeah, everyone’s at the space exhibits or the dinosaurs.” Kai added. “Y’know, the cool stuff we could be looking at instead of ceramics.”

“Well, it’s not our fault the museum decided to relocate the statue near all the pottery.” Nya chimed in, over their earpieces.

“Where even is that storage room?” Kai wondered. “You guys said it was around here, but I haven’t seen anything.”

“The entrance out of the public area is in the next room over, but there’s a few more hallways and doors after that.”

Kai beelined to the spot she pointed out, eager for something else to do. He looked around the corner for a second, then beckoned the other two over.

“We lucked out.” He told them. “It’s just one guard standing next to the door. No one else in the room.”

“I’ll distract him.” Lloyd offered.

“I’ve got it!” Jay shouted in excitement, cutting off Lloyd’s time to detail a quick plan. He lowered his volume. “Sorry, sorry. I’ve got the last password. I’m sending them to Cole in the order that you’ll need them. I think there’s also a lock or two you’ll have to pick.”

Cole checked his phone. “Got ‘em. Is everyone ready?”

“Been ready for the past three hours.” Kai patted Lloyd on the back and shoved him towards the entrance of the next room. “Go get ‘em, Lloyd.”

“Cameras are going down now.” Zane said. “I’d say you have about twenty to thirty minutes before they figure out how to get them back online.”

Lloyd stepped out into the room, with no real plan in mind. If it was a bigger crowd, Lloyd would fake an injury to draw attention to himself, but that would probably be suspicious in a room with just two people in it.

He figured he’d act casual and peruse the ceramics in this room before trying anything.

…Kai was right. All the artifacts just kind of blended into each other with no real distinction between one and the next.

At least the ones in the last room were decorated and intact, these ones were just plain, broken fragments. If you got lucky, one would have a legible pattern scratched into the surface, but that seemed to be it.

But he wasn’t here to complain about pottery, he had to figure out how to get that guard away from the door.

Lloyd supposed he could always go up and talk to him, but that probably wouldn’t get him away from the door. He could also call him over somehow, but he would have to figure out how to and that might not even work.

“Are you interested in the bowls?”

Lloyd spun to find the security guard calling to him from across the room. He was still standing by the door, but his attention was now on Lloyd.

Now, Lloyd was not at all interested in the bowls. In fact, he didn’t even know he had been staring at bowls.

But, in his time of distracting security guards, never had the guard themselves set up the bait.

“Are these bowls?” Lloyd asked. “I figured they were something else.”

“The ones you’re looking at are bowls, but there’s other kinds of kitchen items in here.”

Lloyd could see the broken pieces in front of him coming from more bowl-shaped objects. “I guess they are bowls. Do you know a lot about these things?”

The guard shrugged. “A good amount.”

Easy catch. “You mind telling me more?”

The guard looked left, then right. A useless action, no one else was in the room, but him and Lloyd. He picked himself off the wall and walked over to the display case Lloyd was standing in front of. His back was to both the storage room door and the entrance to the room.

As he got closer, Lloyd picked out a few general details about him. Black hair and a little taller than Lloyd’s height. Lloyd still figured that he could take him in a fight if it came down to it. He had a standard security jacket thrown over his clothing and no other gear besides a walkie-talkie.

The guard leaned over the glass display case. “Well, for starters, everything in this room is pottery from a bunch of ancient eastern villages.” The guard motioned across the room. He brought his hand back to the display in front of him. “These ones specifically were used for religious purposes.”

Cole poked his head into the room, noticing the guard abandoning his post. As soon as the guard’s eyes were off Lloyd, he motioned with his head for Cole and Kai to move.

Lloyd fed him a question or two to keep him talking. “Religious purposes? How can you tell?”

The guard pointed at the little plaque beneath the case, which stated all the stuff he said very clearly

“Oh.” Lloyd knew he looked dumb, but that was the least of his worries.

Kai and Cole shuffled across the room as quietly as possible, reaching the door that was meant to be guarded. Cole began to figure out the keypad, while Kai kept watch for him.

“I mean, besides that,” the guard continued, “you can tell by the etching on the bowls.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, you see those patterns on the bowl?”

Lloyd could. They were the same ones Lloyd had dismissed earlier as barely legible scrawls.

“They’re images of old gods, or what people thought they looked like.”

Lloyd pointed to one. “That one doesn’t look like a person.”

“Because it’s not. Some people thought the gods appeared as snakes or other animals.”

Lloyd looked back up to check Cole and Kai’s progress. Cole had figured out the password and gotten the door unlocked with minimal noise. The guard didn’t notice as Cole and Kai slipped through the door.

Hard part was over. Of course, Lloyd couldn’t bail immediately. The longer the guard stood over here, the more progress Kai and Cole could make without the guard noticing something was off.

“These guys thought that this god in particular appeared as a tiger sometimes. He was a god of the hunt, though, so that makes sense.” The guard kept talking and Lloyd listened. Not much else to do.

“And so what was this bowl used for?”

“Ah, there could be a bunch of things. Maybe they used it for prayers before a hunt, maybe they used it to sacrifice their winnings from a hunt to thank the god. Some people think they used it for rituals to commemorate hunting games.”

Lloyd nodded along, feigning interest. Or…well, he thought he was feigning interest. Some of the stuff the guard was talking about was kind of interesting.

“Hey, Lloyd. You’re free to go now.” Jay radioed to him over his earpiece. “Kai and Cole are making enough progress that we’d be gone before anyone finds anything out.”

Lloyd could not respond to Jay, but honestly, he wasn’t paying much attention to anything besides the guard.

As the guard rambled about all the uses of a bowl, Lloyd did not miss the way his eyes lit up when bringing up the different possibilities. The guard’s enthusiasm for the subject was clear on his face as he kept talking.

Lloyd liked hearing people nerd out about stuff they liked and he would be lying if he didn’t find it a little adorable.

…

Holy shit, there was no way he was catching feelings for a security guard.

“Oh, I didn’t mean to talk your ear off, though.” The guard stopped his ramblings and apologized. “I’m sure you’ve got other exhibits to see.”

“No, no. It’s fine.” Why was he saying that? “I was boring myself to death staring at this stuff. But I hadn’t thought about all the things you brought up. Makes it a little more interesting.”

“Lloyd, that was the perfect opportunity to get away.” Nya remarked.

Unhelpful commentary aside, Lloyd had come to that realization himself. Why was he even still here? Kai and Cole were probably out of there by now and him staying here would only hold up the mission.

The guard looked at him with confusion. “Then why are you back here? You’re like three rooms deep into this pottery exhibit.”

A fact Lloyd was painfully aware of. He played dumb. “I don’t know. I was just wandering.”

The guard bought it, thankfully. “That’s fair. Not many people come all the way back here. It’s so deep into the museum and they don’t keep anything too exciting over here.”

“It seems exciting to you. How come you know so much about this stuff?” Why was he perpetuating the conversation?

“Lloyd, I don’t mean to question your tactics,” Zane radioed in, “but are you flirting with the security guard?”

Lloyd ignored him. He was in too deep now. The guard seemed shocked at Lloyd’s comment. “Oh, thank you. I work in the museum, so I usually get to spend a lot of time with the stuff.”

“So you don’t usually do security work?”

“Not really. I’m usually the info guy and I’m posted farther up, but apparently they moved something important behind that door.” He pointed to the door that Cole and Kai had disappeared behind however long ago. “It was a quick switch and they were short on staff so they just told me to stand by it for a few hours.

“Keep this between you and me,” the guard leaned in closer to Lloyd, “but the museum said that caught word that someone was gonna steal whatever they put back there.”

Lloyd feigned shock. “Really? Shouldn’t you still be over there if it’s so important?”

“Eh, if it was that important, they’d put more people back here. But so few people come back here, I guess they thought one guy was enough.”

“Or maybe they thought that you were enough to handle any threat.”

The guard laughed at his joke and Lloyd would definitely be willing to hear that laugh again. “You’ve got jokes. Although, you are right, I should get back over there, eventually. Is there anything else you wanted to know about anything in here?”

Yes. He almost said that, but Zane reminded him of reality. “Lloyd, I appreciate you finally trying to find a date, but you need to get out of there. We are not sabotaging the mission because you have a crush.”

A harsh reality, but Lloyd supposed he could always come back. “I’d love to, really, but I’ve got somewhere to be. How about I get your name so I know who to look for if I return?”

An idiot, he was. He may or may not have walked right into a trap he set up himself.

“You’re not the most perceptive, are you?” The guard gestured to his nametag. In Lloyd’s defense, it was slightly hidden behind his jacket. “It’s Brad. Brad Tudabone, but just Brad’ll do.”

Then, the guard asked the question Lloyd regretted setting up. “What’s yours?”

Nya, oh so helpfully, chided Lloyd. “I don’t care how cute you find the security guard, Lloyd. You are not going to give him your name.”

Now, Lloyd could’ve given him his real name and just hoped that the mission went so smoothly no one would ever consider him as a part of the heist. Lloyd could’ve given him a fake name, but it probably wasn’t the best move to start off with a lie like that. Lloyd could’ve also given him no name at all, and just bluff his way out of the situation, somehow, but that would’ve probably been the most suspicious thing to do.

His silence was going on for a beat too long.

“It’s Lloyd.”

He gave him his name. It seemed like the easiest option.

He could hear shouts of disagreement over his earpiece, but he just had to ignore them once more. Maybe Lloyd was a common enough name that he wouldn’t remember it. Or maybe he’d luck out and Brad wouldn’t tell anyone that he had seen Lloyd around here.

Brad looked Lloyd up and down. “Lloyd, huh? Alright, well, I guess I’ll see you around then.”

He waved Lloyd off and Lloyd waved back as he left the room to make his way out to the nearest exit of the museum.

“Lloyd, that is the dumbest thing you've ever done for a mission.” Nya stated once he had gotten to the van.

“He didn’t even do it for the heist,” Kai called from the back. “That conversation could’ve lasted five minutes and everything would’ve gone exactly the same.”

“Why’d you even give him your name?” Cole asked. “I feel like getting his number would’ve been so much easier and also wouldn’t have given up identifying information.”

“I didn’t think about that,” Lloyd admitted.

“No, no.” Jay responded from the shotgun seat. “I think Lloyd did the right thing by not getting his number. That would’ve been moving too fast.”

“Getting a number is too fast?”

“For this situation? Yes.”

The truck descended into conversation as to whether getting his number would’ve been jumping the gun, and also the fact that Lloyd would probably get implicated in this crime, but Lloyd couldn’t find it in him to join.

He was about to gain a much greater interest in pottery.

#maybe people get crushes this quickly I wouldn’t know #ninjago #lloyd garmadon #ninjago lloyd #greenflowershipping #greenflowerweek2024 #brad tudabone #tarditz writes #ninjago fic #the rest of ninja appear but since its greenflower centric I won’t tag em

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atiny-for-life · 7 months ago

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I apologize if you’ve answered this before, but is there a reason why the Kingdom performances are not included in the Ateez lore masterlist? Thank you!

No one's ever asked before, actually! I'm happy to explain:

There are multiple things making me hesitant about this right now. For one, I wouldn't expect them to assume all Atinys will watch these performances and look to them for lore clues since most only go by official MVs and the albums.

To me, these performances have always had the energy of getting people hyped and excited about their lore themes of revolution, pro expression, anti oppression and their team was likely working on putting together The World series at the time so it made sense to trial run some of their ideas here.

I actually tried to fit these performances in before but I could never find a place where it'd make 100% sense - they seem to be a blend of real lore and stuff just meant for Kingdom.

To start with: in "The Awakening of Summer" (the Rhythm Ta performance), Hongjoong breaks the Cromer out of a glass case at the end. Based on that, timeline wise, this would've had to happen in the Z-World before Ateez ever got there because the only time they lost the Cromer after was when Yeosang smashed it and the recovery of that was in the A-World and we know how that went down (Museum heist gone wrong) and it was nothing like this.

However, with it happening before Ateez's arrival, I wouldn't expect to see them distributing flyers (with the anarchy logo from Guerrilla) and for Hongjoong to hold a speech at a podium because something of that scale didn't really happen before they hijacked the Strictland transmission system in Guerrilla.

From everything we know, the Black Pirates were only doing street performances before their movement picked up speed after Ateez got there. They didn't have the manpower and means to pull off large scale heists prior to that; they were operating out of an abandoned warehouse and they didn't really start getting allies until Left Eye set up the Black Link where people could reach out after waking up.

And on top of that, it was A-World Yeosang's tech know-how that got them spy gear and everything so I kinda don't see them breaking into a Strictland government facility full of armed guards in their early days.

But, if I did have to fit it in somehow, I'd put it pre-Ateez's arrival as the event in which the Black Pirates first got hold of the Cromer:

The Awakening of Summer

They caught wind of the government having found the Cromer and heard it has unique abilities like teleportation, entering the dreamscape - powers that could help them free their world

So they get all the guns they can find, hop into their bulletproof van (like in Guerrilla) and take off

They shoot down the guards stationed at the facility but then also somehow manage to bring them back to life with the magical masks they own (?) or maybe they used rubber bullets or stun guns or something

Regardless, the masks presumably contain breaker technology (somehow) which separates the guards' microchip link connection which means they can now feel and think freely

However, Ateez aren't dumb so they keep the guards tied up for now so thy can't run off and rat them out

While some of them are looking for the Cromer, San straps a bomb to a security guard's chest and ties him to his desk chair (pretty extreme - that's some Halazia universe Matz shit)

During the heist, Yunho and Wooyoung find their Wanted Posters and a bunch of newspapers

The front page headline of the newspaper reads: "The Central Government defined The Black Pirates as a terrorist"

San then goes off on his own and climbs up a rope to an emergency button which opens the massive double doors to a high security section of the building (the one with the Cromer)

This allows the rest of Ateez to waltz right in and Hongjoong immediately goes off to the section with the confiscated art

Which should normally be stored in the Android Guardian bunker, the converted museum on Guardian Island, but I guess they must've used another type of building before - maybe they changed it after the Black Pirates broke into this place (I digress)

Either way, the former guards are now freely raiding the place, making me assume they've switched sides after discovering what art is and that the government's intentionally been withholding it from all of them

While Hongjoong's raiding the place with the guards they captured in the beginning, Wooyoung, Jongho, and Yeosang are handling the guards stationed in this section

During the following dance break, Hongjoong's walk off right before something interferes with everyone's ear pieces (I assume they were using them to communicate while they were separated)

Immediately after, Hongjoong begins his speech, indicating he hijacked all frequencies, including the one they'd been using, so he could broadcast this to the entire city:

"People, open your eyes! For our lives! Keep your mind! Now is the time for freedom, if we try! Listen, look, write! Open your eyes!"

(Note the slogan "Hearts Awakened" on the podium and the small-scale version of the blimp we saw in Guerrilla above Hongjoong - these, plus the van, are part of the reason why I think this was a test run for The World series and the Guerrilla mv in particular)

After the speech, they walk off and Jongho throws up a handful of flyers (which, again, look exactly like the ones from Guerrilla)

During Jongho's high note, Hongjoong walks off again and we next see him putting on the Black Pirates' getup (signature fedora) and break the glass case in which the Cromer is kept

(The clothes are likely just to ensure we as the audience know this isn't A-World's Ateez but the Black Pirates)

Cromer in hand, he smiles and walks off. Mission complete. The performance ends.

Ode to Joy

Now, regarding Ode to Joy, this one feels like it's more so meant to connect some dots between the former two series and the (then) upcoming one.

To start with, they filled in the small gap between the Fever and Treasure series by exploring how they, Ateez and the Black Pirates, managed to break out Yeosang after he was captured by the Android Guardians at the end of Deja Vu/the Fever Pt. 3 Diary Entries since the only canon thing we know about this event is from Say My Name and this one section from the Fever Epilogue Diary Entries:

"Somebody please get me out of here! Please!" The light that I hadn't seen for ages slid in when the door opened. Men in black fedoras were fighting with Android Guardians behind the opened door. "Hey, Yeosang." I heard a warm voice calling my name. A guy came near my glass room and pulled down his black mask. Tears of relief burst out of my eyes. It was Seonghwa.

We open on Yeosang in the glass prison during the Full Moon (meaning reality jumping is possible with the Cromer right now so Ateez can switch over from A to Z World)

One of the Android Guardians walks in and the camera moves to the moon where we get to see the Cromer in action (sand disappearing from the bottom, indicating it's flowing up like we saw in the Diary Film)

Seonghwa, holding the Cromer, then appears in Yeosang's cell (small deviation from Yeosang's diary entry but I'll take it)

Yeosang and Seonghwa then, together, turn the Cromer again, causing Yunho to appear who immediately starts fighting the Android Guardian

After distracting the Guardian for long enough, Yunho pushes him away and runs off, leaving the Guardian to turn around and realize the cell is empty - Yeosang escaped

Following this, we move right on to Answer and that one iconic meeting where Ateez and the Black Pirates got together and formally established an alliance - they're even on the same sides

We then see Hongjoong walking along during his verse while, behind him, people in different get ups are throwing each other guns, etc., indicating the spread of the movement we later read about in the Movement Diary Version: The Revolution

And then we get to the part where I first went "eh?" which made me realize I can't see this performance being fully canon:

San, during his verse, tries to run off but Wooyoung grabs him, clutching him by the jacket, to stop him from leaving

But it doesn't work - San's made up his mind

He holds eye contact, yes, indicating they would've exchanged words if this weren't a song (likely something along the lines of "Stop, don't do this, it's suicide!" and "I have to, I'm sorry.") before he removes Wooyoung's hand from his jacket and runs off-

- and literally hurls himself at an Android Guardian - presumably sacrificing himself by knocking them both off this ledge for the sake of protecting the others

Then we've got Jongho fighting an Android Guardian while Hongjoong is blindfolded and gets captured by four more

Jongho wins his fight (potentially) and makes his way to the grand staircase where he receives a crown on the way up, only to hold it out and toss it aside once he makes it to the top

However, I'm quite certain this isn't related to the lore at all but rather the concept of the show which wants all groups to compete for the crown and see each other as opponents

Ateez refused to align with this idea - they wanted to make their time on the show about friendship and collaboration, having fun, which is very obvious when you watch their performance of The Real

But to really drive this point home: the song "An die Freude" ("To: Joy" as in it's addressed to Joy), which is being sung here by a guest performer, is actually a famous Germany poem by Friedrich Schiller, and an ode all about an idealistic society in which everyone is connected through joy and friendship

While this is being sung, Ateez, the Black Pirates, and the Android Guardians are all dancing together - a truly idealistic and unrealistic outcome far removed from reality but one that wouldn't have required the loss of life we just saw with San throwing himself off a ledge and Hongjoong getting surrounded and captured

The implication is clear: in a world where everyone treats each other kindly, a world without oppression, peaceful coexistence is 100% possible

But in a world of injustice, of oppression, the loss of life, the deaths of some of the kindest people, are inevitable because the ones who are oppressed will always rise up to free themselves of their shackles, even when they know some of them will have to die to make it happen

In conclusion: I think the performances do hold lore beats but they're not fully canon and the lore gaps they fill in are small enough that I always thought it was easier to toss them entirely than to potentially confuse anyone by telling them to disregard some aspects and embrace others. I hope this helps!

#qanda #ateez #ateez lore

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