#I am fairly new in the fanfic world so please bear with me I am yet to be polished about it LMAOO | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

antialiasis · 3 years

Text

Morphic: the Musical

The Thousand Roads forums have a fanfic music thread. While I don't really do those kinds of threads usually because I don't really listen to a very wide variety of music and generally have a hard time associating music that already exists with unrelated fiction, one of the questions in it is this:

Talk about what would happen if some Broadway hit-maker scooped up your fic and turned it into a script. What songs would be in it? Describe a dance number/dance battle?

And immediately, the musical analysis glint lit up in my eyes. This question was presumably intended in a lighthearted jokey sort of way - imagining some fight staged as a dance battle, a hypothetical Broadway hit-maker doing the adaptation. But that's not enough for me, say I! Musicals are a good and interesting medium for serious fiction that I care about and I am going to serious this up.

See, to me, the musical format has two major strengths as a narrative medium. The first is that it can explore the inner worlds of characters in a pretty unique way. Characters get to monologue in a sort of heightened, non-literal manner, intensified by music: we can learn what they're about, what makes them tick, what's going on in their heads in a particular moment, in a way that wouldn't really make sense presented as actual inner monologue in another medium. The music aspect itself then adds a layer to it that's impossible to replicate in any other.

The second strength of the musical format is that it's really good at highlighting recurring themes, parallels and contrasts. Reprise the same melody, the same lyric, a parallel but opposite lyric, and you've instantly connected two things together. Is there a character arc? You can highlight what has changed. Are there two characters going through something similar? You can draw that out. Is there a recurring theme throughout? Use a recurring lyric, a recurring melodic phrase! Nudge the viewer into forming connections! Delicious! And you can do subtler things on the music level itself - particular instruments with particular connotations, recurring motifs...

So naturally I decided I should think up what a musical adaptation of Morphic would be like. It'd be a fun exercise in putting all my thoughts on musical adaptations into practice, but also an interesting way to help sort out some of my thoughts about characters arcs, etc. for the actual Morphic rewrite. And in the process, I may have gone slightly overboard. I regret nothing.

(I'm about to spoil most of the fic here, if this wasn't obvious)

Morphic: the Musical - tracklist

(Note: this musical is not sung-through; there are regular non-musical sections with regular dialogue in between. Morphic would almost definitely not make for a good sung-through musical.)

Act I

[Intro song] (Brian)

A monologue by Brian at the TV studio as he tries to work through what to say, how to explain or justify any of this (which conveniently serves to exposit to the audience as well as introduce his character). He makes nervous false starts and cuts himself off, starting the verse over each time, and through these false starts we learn what's going on, that the press has been calling them Pokémorphs, that this was all Dave's idea, that alcohol was involved, that it was meant as a basis for further research, that there were never supposed to be *children*, that he doesn't know what he'd even do with a kid, that Dave roped him into going on this show because he couldn't.

[Dave song] (Dave)

This musical properly introduces us to Dave via Jane walking out on him followed by this song, wherein he contemplates chucking baby Jean out the window. It's a dark rock song with big emotional contrasts and raw lyrics that is almost definitely my favorite song in this musical in the hypothetical reality where it is an actual musical and I didn't write it, because I am me. Probably starts with a couple slower lines of desperate disbelief before launching into wild anger about fuck that fucking whore, followed by what I will be referring to as the everything-is-shit verse (please bear with me), just a general cynicism rant about why the world is a shitty place not worth living in, followed by him wildly fantasizing about killing his infant child. What a delightful human being that I adore. The song ends abruptly, he's standing there staring at her in his arms for a moment, then he silently goes to feed her. On the soundtrack you probably might think he just did it.

Fatherhood (Brian)

A montage song covering the timeskip, which probably reprises [Intro song]. Brian initially has no idea what to do with his new squirming horrorblob child and is convinced he will screw it up the way he tends to screw up everything. Makes a couple of false starts again, but then gains confidence as time passes as he genuinely bonds with Gabriel and legitimately thinks he's a pretty amazing kid. There's a repeated line along the lines of that Gabriel's a weird, weird kid, but he's his, initially in a tone of "oh god I'm responsible for him what do" but towards the end is said with pride and fondness.

[Villain song] (Isaac and Jacob)

A duet between the two brothers, exploring what makes them tick. Isaac is all about this heavy pressure and sense of responsibility, originally imposed by his father, that he continues to impose on himself. He's been appointed to take over leading the family/cult and was raised with that constantly in the back of his mind as his future, and he believes that they're God's true righteous people and he cannot go wrong. He has dreams with some regularity that he interprets as visions from God, as he has been encouraged to since childhood by his father. When he has one about murder, it frightens him but he sees it as basically a divinely-appointed mission.

Jacob privately doesn't really believe any of that. He is trapped in this cult and goes through the motions but is not actually driven by any of the things that are driving Isaac. He's fairly quiet for most of the song - as Isaac is going on about his vision, Jacob has a line here and there obliquely challenging it, but Isaac has an answer for everything, and he doesn't press it, instead moving seamlessly on to suggestions for how he should do it. Jacob gets a quiet variant of part of the everything-is-shit verse from [Dave song], expressing the same kind of cynicism in a more reproachful, apathetic way - all in his own head, of course.

Just Like My Hero (Jean and Will)

Jean sings about how she is just like her hero, Sarah Hooter! Starts off describing how they look the same, moves on from there to how she will torch anyone who's mean, etc., just like her hero. Halfway through, Will joins in, and it becomes a counterpoint duet: Jean may be immature and ridiculous, but he deeply wishes he was confident and adored and nothing would get to him, and he admires and envies that about her. His just like my hero has a bit more of an ironic vibe, he'd hardly properly call her his hero, but he looks up to her more than he'd normally admit nonetheless.

Storming the Castle (Jack and Gabriel)

Jack and Gabriel are playing a D&D game with their friends, arguing about the best course of action. Jack is eager to waltz into the bad guys' fortress, storm the castle, while Gabriel urges lying low, says they're too weak. Jack wants to take the leap and try it; Gabriel insists no, we're not taking the leap, it's stupid. "It's brave!" Jack counters. (In the end, Gabriel gives in and they go ahead with it, and it goes fine.)

Unique (Mia and Lucy)

Mia and Lucy play one of their games. The song is about how Lucy needs someone like Mia to challenge her and let her actually indulge her powers, which are otherwise unsettling to people and she's ashamed and self-conscious about them, while Mia needs someone like Lucy to get a real outlet for her hunter's instinct. The word the lyrics are built around is unique; by being the precise way they are, they are each the only person who can provide this for the other.

Mia doesn't sing. She speaks her lyrics in her usual monotone, not even rhythmically. They also don't rhyme. It's technically a duet but really it's just Lucy singing and Mia talking.

[Peter/Katherine song] (Peter and Katherine)

A counterpoint duet between the siblings, contrasting their experience as Pokémorphs. Peter can pretty easily hide that he's different and be treated mostly as a normal kid, and feels free in his privilege, not confined quite the way the others are, able to be a bit reckless and incautious. Katherine, meanwhile, has a very different experience, being extremely noticeably different, getting stared at, and struggling with basic activities, and feels a huge sense of responsibility weighing her down, worrying about Peter and grounding him and reining him in. There's a lyrical contrast involving something something bird freedom plant rooted down something.

Brian's Death (Isaac and Dave)

This is one of those mostly-instrumental pieces that they include on the soundtrack anyway, but Isaac gets a couple of sung nondiegetic lines in here, a sort of frantic excitement, realizing in a brief panic that he shot the wrong guy before rationalizing that God must have planned it this way.

Dave is probably also in there screaming and attempting to call the police, because I am always in favor of screaming and panicking on musical soundtracks.

The Funeral (Gabriel and Jack)

Begins with Gabriel at the church during the funeral, singing about his vague discomfort being there, but slowly becomes increasingly frantic and anxious, working up to a breakdown where he exits and finally manages to cry for his dad. There's a verse about little things, how they ordered pizza the night before he died, etc., culminating in the bit about him having been in the middle of this mystery novel and never getting to learn who did it; the verse trails off quietly there, backing instruments gone, as Gabriel breaks down. Jack follows to comfort him.

Act II

[Montage song] (everyone)

A montage of the days after the attack, where everyone gets a couple lines about how they're coping, scared and grieving.

Dave's lines are like, spoken slightly too desperate annoyance at having to do some work that Brian didn't get to finish, or rebuking somebody who asks how he's doing by saying he barely even knew Brian. He is not singing along with this kind of grief-porn bullshit, fuck you.

[Villain song II] (Isaac and Jacob)

The brothers come up with a new plan. Isaac is agitated, reprising some of his bits from the original villain song in a quicker, more frantic tempo, while Jacob picks up the slack, walking him through a new idea. Isaac takes to it with conviction and goes back to the original melody/tempo, talking again about his God-given purpose. Jacob does not join in with any of that, only with the bits about the actual plan.

The Kidnapping (instrumental)

I'm just going to say this is on the soundtrack too and contains panicked Gabriel noises because I want it to be.

Storming the Castle Reprise (Jack)

Jack tries to rally the others for a rescue mission, echoing the D&D game from Act I. The lines about storming the castle and taking the leap make a reappearance.

Just Like My Hero Reprise (Jean)

Jean, on the bus, miserably contemplates how she is unlike her hero. Again, it begins with a verse talking about how she looks - not a thing like Sarah Hooter anymore - but then moves on to how she's scared and pathetic and running away, unlike anything a hero would do.

Church Sequence (Will, Jack, Mia)

A single track, largely instrumental/dialogue/sound effects, with a couple of brief song snippets:

- Will reprises "Just Like My Hero" as he wills himself to go on. He is cut off mid-line as he is shot.

- Mia slits that guy's throat and she actually sings a few words, for the first and only time, before she is also cut off mid-line by a gunshot. The line is something about, like, warm blood in her face or the guy's satisfying death throes, reprising part of the melody of "Unique".

Strong (Gabriel)

Gabriel discovers his powers. Starts slowly, calling back to the bits from "Storming the Castle" about lying low, being weak. But as the song continues and he makes his discovery, the tempo builds, and he starts reprising Jack's bits instead: he is strong, taking the leap, storming the castle.

Perish Song (Lucy)

Another brief reprise of "Unique", distorted and deafening and terrifying, mourning her sister.

[In the Hospital] (Jack and Gabriel)

The two of them work out their feelings about what happened. Includes Jack going "It was stupid" (i.e. the rescue mission) and Gabriel responding "It was brave", echoing the bit where they said the opposite in "Storming the Castle". Jack blames himself for how it all turned out, feels stupid and weak, while Gabriel actually felt kind of awesome. (This is also calling back to their opposite bits of "Storming the Castle".) They end with a shared duet verse as they realize they've both got that same innate desire to fight and win. Possibly calls back to the weird, weird kid line from "Fatherhood".

Eulogy (Dave)

Dave's eulogy for Mia (which also touches on Will, but this is Mia's funeral). It reprises "Unique". There will never again be anyone like the two of them, two of the only truly unique people on this Earth. (And, while he doesn't say it straight out because hahahaha, he needed Mia, too).

Taking the Leap (Jack and Gabriel)

Jack's suicide attempt and his swirling inner turmoil as he tries to talk himself into taking the leap once again. Gabriel, of course, comes in with don't take that leap. Am I overusing this one line by putting it in like half the songs in this thing? Well, who's going to stop me.

[Peter/Katherine song reprise] (Peter and Katherine)

The two of them contemplate indefinite house arrest (in contrast to the freedom Peter's enjoyed most of his life) and Katherine's failure to stop all this (despite her sense of responsibility). In the end, they both find their own ways to accept the new state of things and support each other through this.

Finale (Dave and Jean)

After Dave breaks down on his couch and Jean comes in to ask what's wrong, Dave sings a reprise of the everything-is-shit verse, going over the many things he's angry about, because that is the only emotion involved here clearly. At the exact point where Dave's song originally went from there to fantasizing about throwing her off the balcony, Jean throws her arms around him and sniffles "It'll be okay, Dad," and after a stunned "What? Jean, I'm--", he continues with a slow, hesitant *inverted* reprise of the everything-is-shit verse, "Everything'll be fine", constructing a little fantasy reality for her (and himself) where everything turns out all right in the end. It's backed by, like, a simple, quiet, slower piano rendition of the original melody, and trails off at the end, never quite coming to a satisfying conclusion before he tells Jean she should go back to bed.

#morphic #musicals #I spent far too much time thinking about this #except it was also exactly the right amount of time

15 notes · View notes

forkanna · 3 years

Link

ALSO READ ON: [AO3] [WATTPAD] [QUOTEV]

WARNINGS: Petplay, exhibitionism, cunnilingus, watersports(kinda). This chapter is going to remind people that I once co-wrote My Sister's Mistress, haha… though honestly it's not that bad.

Happy December!

I'm very sorry to all three of you waiting for the epilogue of this fic. I was feeling fairly dissatisfied with my writing, so I took some time off for reading, and NaNoWriMo to focus on my original work (expect news about that soon). Though some mental fog remains, I'm feeling a little sharper and more capable now to continue delivering updates. And to that end...

Prepare yourselves for WE'LL FACE OURSELVES: GOLDEN! This will not continue the story of Yukiko and Chie, though they will be around here and there; instead, it will focus on another unlikely ship entirely. I'll begin posting that in about a month, or sooner if I find time. You may also want to keep your eyes peeled for more content pertaining to another fandom of which I am a part...

Thanks so much for sticking with this until the end. If you'd like to look me up on other platforms, please check out my Carrd!

Until we meet again, Jessex

EPILOGUE

A horrific day that everyone hoped would never come had finally ambushed the Investigation Team. Yu Narukami was leaving Inaba.

Not a dry eye was to be had at the Yasoinaba station as they watched their gray-haired friend bid fond farewells to all the other friends he had made throughout the year. Chie herself was a little shocked to see just how many there were — hell, even after almost a year she was still shocked that Rise Kujikawa, the real Risette, was one of them! An internationally known pop idol! But there she was, hanging on one of Yu's arms and sobbing into his jacket.

"Yu-kun, don't gooooo!" she blubbered, long auburn pigtails trembling with her movements. "I wanna get to spend G-Golden Week with you, Senpaiiiiii!"

Naoto and Kanji weren't much better. They made for such an odd-looking pair, the rough-and-tumble yakuza-wannabe letting fat tears roll down his cheeks as he was comforted by the small, reserved boy-who-was-not-quite-a-boy. Even after finding out Naoto was a woman, not much had changed; she still dressed like a boy and even behaved like one in most ways. All of Rise's attempts to "girlify" her had fallen flat. Chie really had wound up with a colourful assortment of friends, but she wouldn't change that for the world.

"Yeah, man, you can't take off," Yosuke chuckled. Trying to suppress his feelings with humour; they all knew he was going to miss Yu as much as anyone. "Your girlfriend's gonna miss you, and that ain't cool."

Not that he was pointing at Rise. No, his finger was levelled at Nanako — the little girl she and Yukiko had run into once upon a time who turned out to be Yu's cousin. She was currently hiding behind the leg of her father, Detective Ryotaro Dojima, coming over shy after he had reprimanded her for being too clingy with the boy she had dubbed her big brother. Not that he could control Rise doing the exact same thing, despite having nearly ten years on the second-grader.

"Oh, shut up," Yu grunted — though his motivation was pure, as always. "Don't tease her."

"Whaaat? I'm teasing you, not…" But at the glares from everybody, Yosuke sighed and deflated. "You guys are no fun."

Rise pulled back, her large doe eyes shining with tears — on purpose, Chie knew. She was a top notch actress. "Can't you give me a little kiss goodbye? Something to keep me from… from dying from missing you?"

"Oh please," Yukiko muttered under her breath with a begrudging smile.

But Yu obliged. Sort of. Instead of sweeping her into a graceful dip and really planting one on her, he kissed her forehead. It was a tender gesture, though, so Rise couldn't complain; a much more genuine little smile pulled at her pouty mouth, and she hugged him around the middle.

"Excuse me? What do you think you're doing?"

They all pulled back to see Ai Ebihara approaching, hands on her hips. This bitch again? However, something was different about her compared to their last run-in. She was still glamorous, but Chie couldn't help noticing it seemed like her outfit was a little more… conservative?

"What is who doing?" Rise protested, clinging a little tighter to Yu's arm.

"You! Little trollop!" The teen queen stomped over to the two of them, getting right up in Rise's face. She was a little taller and therefore more imposing, but Rise didn't seem scared in the slightest. "Get your greedy little paws off my boyfriend!"

The idol stamped her foot and snapped, "HEY! I don't see your name on him anywhere!"

Yu gulped and began to back away. "Uh…"

"Really?" Ebihara scoffed. "What makes you think you have any claim to him, slut puppy? He went to the festival with me — and spent Christmas Eve with me, too! And for your goddamn information, we got pretty close!"

Poor Rise. Though she was flirty and manipulative toward Yu and Yosuke, it was in a playful way; she did consider them both friends but couldn't seem to suppress her impulses. And here Ai was making all kinds of accusations and getting legitimately competitive. Her lip wobbled, though Chie was fairly certain it had as much to do with losing out to Ai as it had to do with losing Yu himself.

"Senpai, say that's not true! How could you, when I… I let you… you know!"

"Hey, it doesn't count when I'm just sitting there and you plop your butt down on my hand," he protested at her. "And Ai-chan, we hugged a little; please don't tease her by making it sound like more."

Both of his would-be girlfriends pouted and averted their eyes, cheeks turning pinker. Ai seemed a little more genuinely hurt than her rival for the boy's attentions.

"Whew," Yosuke exhaled, wiping his brow. "Don't know how you get away with it, juggling two chicks like that."

"That's not- I didn't…" Yu sighed, shaking his head as he facepalmed. "Maybe I'm glad to be leaving."

But the minute he said so, even if it was in jest, all faces wore expressions of deep sorrow. Nobody really wanted him to go. They had all known his stopover in Inaba had been temporary and yet it was still a terrible shock that Yu would no longer be hanging out with them on a daily basis, going to school, having roundtable discussions in the Junes food court.

"The end of an era, man," Kanji grunted, trying to look tough and only partially succeeding.

"Aww, cheer up, guys!" Teddie proclaimed, bouncing up and down on his heels so hard his blond locks bounced with him. "We'll see Sensei again! Bet on that!"

"There you go, Teddie," Yu laughed quietly, nodding his direction. The bear-shadow-turned-human beamed.

"And in the meantime, I can look after all the girls for you! You don't have to worry about a thing!"

Rise stuck her tongue out at the well-meaning bear. "I don't want you, I want Senpai!"

As the squabbling only grew worse, other classmates began to approach to wish Yu bon voyage. Some girl from his drama class, those guys from the basketball team… even some young boy and his clearly married mother, though she did seem a bit too young to have a child of that age. Their team leader really had left an impression in the short year he had lived there.

When the train whistle signaled that it was about to pull away, the bickering came to an end so they could truly see their friend off. A lot of tearful hugs and well wishes were offered before he was inside, looking out the window at them as it pulled away from the station. They ran after him all the way to the end of the platform until they ran out of space, then stood waving after him until the train was completely out of sight.

Chie was amused that it turned out to be Rise comforting Ebihara, and Yosuke comforting Teddie. Those were some pretty mismatched pairings. Ryotaro took a sobbing Nanako home, and that seemed to be an unofficial signal for them to disperse from the station.

While Kanji was busy throwing an arm around Yosuke's shoulders, proclaiming loudly that they were about to go drinking despite the fact that neither of them had easy access to alcohol at their age, it was Naoto of all people who started drifting closer to Chie and Yukiko. At first, Chie assumed she just wanted some company, but it turned out��

"Forgive my curiosity, but I've been wondering about something for a while now."

"Hm?" asked a bleary eyed Yukiko. She hadn't sobbed the way Rise did, but she wasn't completely unaffected by the parting. "I'm sorry, what's that?"

"Why have you been wearing a dog collar for the past several months?"

Both girls stopped dead in their tracks. If this were an anime, there would have been a record-scratch sound effect. Yukiko flashed a nervous half-smile at her girlfriend, who was busy tugging at the neckline of her shirt and gulping.

"W-well, it's… a fashion statement," the junior innkeeper finally told her.

"Uh… huh." Her sharp eyes looked between the two. "You may have forgotten in all the excitement of defeating Adachi and Izanami, but I am a detective. Do you want me to simply state what I have deduced from my observations, or would you like t-"

"Okay, okay, already!" Chie hissed, waving back and forth rapidly with her hand. "Can you maybe keep it under that crazy blue hat of yours?!"

Before Naoto could respond to the crack about her belted newsboy cap, a throat was cleared behind the three of them. Ai had broken off from the others and approached them, looking penitent and uncomfortable.

"Yes?" Yukiko prompted her in mild surprise.

"I… thought I should say… I am sorry." She swallowed hard, brows furrowed. The expression still made her look angry and snobby, despite her tone of voice being gentle now; she just had resting bitch face. "Probably too late. But I was really going through some things when I sidelined you two in Aiya, and being rude is second nature to me. Can't be the most stunning girl in school without it going to your head, can you?"

"You say that like I would ever know," Chie snorted.

"Right. And… normally I would be agreeing with you and belittling you, Bowl Cu- I mean, Satonaka. I have a lot of practice." Grimacing, she growled, "Got so used to being queen bitch that it's so hard to just be nice."

After a brief silence, so awkward that it felt as if any sound would have been preferable, Yukiko laid a hand on Ai's arm, gentle and reassuring. "Please, Ai-san. We all have darkness inside of us; nobody is a perfect person. So I think it's very admirable you're seeing your flaws and that you're trying to improve. I am the same, and so are my friends."

"Oh yeah?" The girl let out a wet-sounding laugh; indeed, tears were budding at the corners of her eyes. "How the hell aren't you perfect, Miss Goody Two-Shoes? I mean… I've always been so jealous of how the boys talk about you. No 'buts'."

"No butts?!" Chie burst out. "What do you mean? She's got a GREAT butt!"

Ai chuckled a little more heartily at that. Naoto was the only one who tapped her chin while noticing Yukiko's slight blush from the compliment; the others weren't paying it any attention. "No, no, not her ass. Which fine, sure, it's fantastic. I mean like, they describe both of us as really beautiful, or hot or whatever. Same words for both of us. But with me, it always had a 'but she's such a bitch', 'but she's stuck up', 'but she's psycho' attached. Yukiko… a couple of guys said you were snooty if you turned them down for a date, but the rest of them saw through that. You're a good woman and I'm just a good-looking woman. I did so much work to be beautiful so boys would like me, but I'm just… ugly on the inside."

Though clearly, Yukiko was about to speak up, Chie beat her to the punch. "So that's it, huh? You're pathetic."

"Excuse me?"

"C'mon, Ebihara. You're made of tougher shit than that. Where's that girl who slammed her leg up on the table in Aiya and demanded we appreciate it?"

Though the teen queen had been firing up, being reminded of that moment in the diner made her squirm and fold her arms tightly over her chest. "That was stupid. Do you wanna know why I did that?" When Yukiko nodded, she pushed ahead, "Thing is, I was a... when I was little, I was nowhere near the adorable Ai you see before you now. Fat and hideous, got told I had pig hooves. So like, I'm sure it sounds really stupid to you guys, but having dainty little feet now is super amazing to me still."

"You were fat?!" Chie demanded, looking her up and down afresh. "No way! I call bullshit!"

"Yep, a total blimp. And I got hella teased because I didn't match up with their… whatever. Yu already knows all this stuff, but pretty much I decided to reinvent myself when I found out we were moving to Inaba. Obviously it went to my head, but… at least I'm better now. Getting better all the time."

None of them knew what to say. Chie, for her part, was stunned that Ebihara turned out to be more than a one-dimensional prima donna; she had never given any indication otherwise, even in Aiya when her interests in Yu were revealed to be genuine. Maybe he was the one responsible. After all, while the team had been doing their best to save the victims from dying inside the TV and stop further kidnappings in the first place, Yu Narukami had touched all their lives, brought about an awakening of sorts to their inner beauty that they likely would never have found within themselves without him shedding that light. It just seemed to be one of his latent talents. Unsurprising that he had done the same for the entitled fashionista.

"There seems to be only one solution for this predicament," Naoto was stating firmly with a small nod, finger tapping her chin. "We must return to Aiya to remember our departed friend, and strengthen our bonds with each other."

"Oooh, a party!" Rise piped up with an excited little bounce, despite the light drizzle that was beginning to fall. "Yes please!"

"I guess that's a plan," Chie agreed as Rise, Kanji and Yosuke joined them. "What do you guys think? We catching the portal to the meat dimension?"

Grimacing, Yosuke demanded, "Do you have to call it that every time, Satonaka?! Geesh! Sounds super nasty."

"Bet you can't even handle it."

"Wha- OH YEAH?! BRING IT ON!"

~ o ~

"Ohhhhh, I couldn't eat another bite," Yukiko groaned as they slid open the door to her bedroom at the Amagi Inn. They had whiled away many hours at the diner before the fellowship was broken, and they began to drift their separate ways. Rise was the most afraid to be alone out of any of them, and seemed to want to hang out with Ebihara, despite their strife over Yu's affections. Naoto went off by herself to think, Kanji and Yosuke reinitiated their quest for liquor, that girl from drama class was hanging out with Daisuke and Kou from the sports clubs… and the two illicit lovers had paired off with no one questioning why. Probably because they had already been best friends for their entire lives.

"Well I could," Chie laughed in response as she grabbed a pair of paper slippers. "But you know me, I can always eat."

Yukiko giggled as she began to strip off her remaining clothing. "You and Yosuke, I swear. Your appetites are bottomless."

"Hey, I'm a growing girl!" she said, jabbing herself in the chest with a thumb. "What's his excuse? He doesn't even do martial arts!"

Once fully divested, lithe form fully on display for the other woman in the room, the junior innkeeper approached her side and slid her hands up to gently perch on her shoulders. "Mmm, yes of course. So very strong."

It was impossible for Chie to keep the blush fully out of her cheeks. "Y-yeah. I mean, strong when you're not making my knees weak."

"But Master shouldn't say things like that in front of her pet. She might think she can control her Master, and that isn't very good, is it?"

"True, yeah." Chie shook her head with a vague smile on her lips. It was funny; she was supposed to be the one in control, but most often it was Yukiko who reminded them of their play. The roles they were to serve for each other.

"Mhmmm. Alright." Even though she was clearly a little nervous, she crossed to her dresser, slid open a drawer and began to rummage behind the various undergarments arranged there. "I think we're both ready now."

Poor Chie didn't even bother to ask "ready for what?", because by the time the words began to form on her lips, her best friend was turning around, dropping to the floor and crawling toward her… with a long leather leash dangling from between her teeth.

"A-ah."

"Wrgh dng hrrg trh," Yukiko said — before Chie took the leash from her to allow her room to speak. "I m-mean to say, this is only if you feel up to it, or are interested. But we've spoken a lot about it in the past few weeks, and… and I feel like I would be alright with it."

"Okay, whoa whoa," she laughed nervously. "Listen, I… know you think nobody will see us, but c'mon, the inn gets guests all the time! And like, what if your mom sees us?!"

Sitting up a little straighter, the puppy-girl reassured her, "No, no, I have a plan. Do you know the forest behind our property? It's a little bit of a walk, and I know it might seem silly to take a walk before my walk, but we will probably be free from prying eyes out there. So… so do you want to?"

Any fool in Chie's position could have been able to tell that this girl wanted nothing more than to take her love into the woods so they could play. Even if the type of play they wanted to do was highly unorthodox. How could she say no to those big, baleful eyes?

"Yeah, of course. So um, maybe just put this around your waist under your kimono?"

"YES!" she burst out — before calming herself and clearing her throat. "I mean, yes, that is a good plan. I'll get dressed, try to keep the leash on."

In no time at all, they were strolling through the grounds behind the Amagi Inn, seeming to the single gardener they passed as if they were merely two high school friends out for a stroll. Nothing telltale from their appearances to suggest otherwise — except the collar, and even that wasn't immediately noticeable.

"Okay," Chie whispered once they were in the treeline. "Are you really sure about this one? Cuz like, if you wanna bail on the idea, you can, right now, and I won't give you any shit. I swear."

But Yukiko was already shaking her head from side to side, even before she got halfway through speaking. "I've been looking forward to trying this for so long! Maybe it hasn't always seemed like it, but… how can we know whether or not we enjoy it if we don't try?"

That, as they say, was that.

"Okay…" Chie cleared her throat and tried not to feel too overly self-conscious. "Then take it all off so we can get started."

By far the most difficult thing to endure was watching Yukiko slowly disrobe — which she was clearly doing on purpose, adding to the anticipation. She even did that thing where she paused with the yukata halfway down her back, looking at Chie over her shoulder with a coquettish flutter of her eyelashes. 'Nosebleed City, population: me,' Chie thought to herself. Then she let it drop all the way to the forest floor, pooling amongst the grass and leaves.

Nude… except for two leather straps. One around her neck and another trailing down her back.

"Gooooood," she managed to groan. Then she shook herself and caught up the end of the lead. "Okay, so like… what now? I just take you for a walk?"

"Master, come on," she giggled. "You're not being a good Master." But when Chie frowned, Yukiko fidgeted and added, "I'm sorry. That was supposed to sound teasing, but instead… well, I really am sorry. I was trying to say that you weren't playing your role yet."

"Okay." Taking a deep breath, she cracked her neck and tried to shove away those feelings of inadequacy that had begun to brew. "So you mean I'm supposed to start being a dog owner for real? Like, until we decide we're done and wanna go back inside?"

"Yes," she sighed in obvious relief that Chie wasn't upset with her. "How about this: I'll get on hands and knees, and that's when we start? And I'll stand up if I need to stop."

"Sure yeah, that sounds pretty simple. Go for it when you're ready."

With a small nod, Yukiko stepped out of her zori and into the grass, toes flexing as it tickled them. Her lips quirked into a reassuring little smile before she dropped down to all fours, perky little ass high in the air. Chie wanted to dive right into that inviting sight now — but she could wait. They had a game to play; they could have sex pretty much anytime they were alone together, as long as they were careful about noise levels. And door locks.

"Okay girl, let's go!" she commanded her in a more cheerful tone. This wasn't their first time playing in this way, or even their tenth. They just had never taken the playing outside of a locked bedroom before.

And miraculously… they went. Yukiko started walking along on her hands and knees, making little panting noises now and then. Just to maintain the illusion. Chie was both disturbed and turned on, but that happened a lot during their more adventurous encounters. The more they learned about this strange new culture they were a part of — thanks to the internet — the more intrigued they were, but Chie wasn't as good at taking it in stride as her puppy was.

Her puppy, Yukiko. Still bizarre to her.

"What is it, girl? You like that one?"

"Wan wan!" she yipped joyfully as she continued to mime sniffing a tree.

"Then it's all yours," she laughed easily, reaching down to scratch behind her ear. Her girlfriend hummed at the pleasant sensation, and even tried to jiggle one of her legs. With some success. Then she unclipped the leash from her collar. "Wanna play fetch, Yuka?"

More gleeful barking. So she found a stick and wiped it quickly on her sleeve — which, obviously, she wouldn't do for a real dog like Muku, but she figured she owed Yukiko at least that much.

"Go get it, girl!"

As Chie watched Yukiko, a real human being, bound off into the brush after a stick, she couldn't help feeling that her life had really gotten off track at some point. Mostly, she just wanted to be a semi-normal girl who went to school, hung out with her friends, practiced martial arts. Lately she had been toying with the idea of going into law enforcement when she grew up. Maybe it was because of all their adventures inside the TV, and saving Inaba from the menace of a vengeful god who had judged humanity as both too complacent and too volatile. She had found that not only did her kung fu training really pay off, but she also had enjoyed the idea of saving people more than she expected. And it was important work.

But seeing Yukiko creeping back from the bushes with the stick between her teeth gave her pause. Surely a cop didn't do things like this. Or maybe they did and she was just naive. No matter how many times they discussed the fact that she obviously loved her little Yuka, it still felt foreign and weird to order her around, treat her like property.

Even if they both got off on the roles of master and pet.

They had probably been playing fetch for about twenty minutes when Yukiko dropped the stick at her feet, then reared up to rest her "forepaws" on her master's hips. Barking at her. It was as cute as it was bizarre. Privately, she kept wondering if it hurt her knees to romp around like that, but Yukiko never complained. So she crouched down to scrub all over her hair, disheveling it so badly that she would definitely need to brush it out when they got back to the inn, and her girlfriend responded with more happy yips and licking all over her face.

"AH!" she giggled, trying to push her away without any success. Yukiko could be pretty strong when she set her mind to it. "Cut it out, Yuka! Ewww!"

Of course, this wasn't the first time the kisses had turned to doggy kisses. Though it was still a little icky, it was also highly entertaining for both of them so they had slowly incorporated it into their play. Yukiko's wet pink tongue slathered all over her cheeks, lips, chin… anywhere she could reach. Until finally, Chie grabbed her by the collar and held her back.

"Okay, girl! I love you, too." Yuka barked again so she grinned and pushed their foreheads together. "Who's a happy girl? Huh? Who's my sweet, sweet, happy girl?"

The junior innkeeper's ass wiggled from side to side. They had discussed getting her ears and a tail to help complete the illusion, but decided it would be a lot harder to explain those versus the collar and leash, which could just as easily be for Muku as for Yuka. Besides, she was pretty good at wagging a non-existent tail.

Chie was distracted from her thoughts when she noticed her girlfriend was sniffing around the hem of her skirt. She saw a coy smile grace her lips just before her face shot beneath to nuzzle against her center.

"WHOA!" she gasped — and went down hard on her backside. "Oof!"

When Yukiko's face reappeared, she looked very concerned. Still, they had agreed she was not to break character unless Chie had made it clear that she should.

"I'm okay, girl," she reassured her pet with a shaky laugh. "Just, uh… did not expect you to go for it like that. What is it, girl? Smell something good?" Yukiko gave a very human nod before remembering herself, and letting out a bark instead. "Yeah? Um, y-you want a treat from Master for being so good?"

That prompted a very strong bark, and her girlfriend gave a pronounced wiggle from stem to stern, to make sure there could be no question she really wanted that treat. So Chie leaned back against her elbows, allowing her thighs to fall open. Within a single second, her face was right back between those thighs, snuffling around and making sure her lips and nose were pushing into everything firmly.

And God help her, it was so hot. Every time they played like this, she still expected to feel disgusted regardless of how often she enjoyed it. And then was still surprised again. Maybe she really did have a learning disability of some kind.

When the nuzzling began to feel a little more pointed and purposeful, she realized that Yuka had hit an impasse. Sliding a hand down between them, she shakily tugged the crotch of her panties aside to grant her pet access. No time was wasted. After only a couple of sniffs, a warm, wet tongue was pressing into her needy flesh.

Chie really hoped nobody else would suddenly decide to take a walk through the woods. Not with her screaming out in ecstasy like that, a buck naked girl's face between her legs.

After a few months of trial-and-error, Yukiko Amagi was nothing less than a professional when it came to cunnilingus. That tongue knew every little fold and crease of her lover's sex, and she was an expert at finding the ways to set her off. With almost brutal efficiency, even if the touches were sometimes so light and delicate. Chie gave herself over completely, reaching down to grip her raven locks and hold her in place as she began to buck her hips against that insanely gifted mouth.

So close… "I'm coming! Good girl, Yuka! More!"

Well, she most definitely got what she asked for. At this point the game had been suspended while Yukiko ate her out with all the skills she had learned over the past several months, almost as if someone had challenged her to do the deed as quickly and spectacularly as possible. Her tongue almost seemed to be in two places at once.

Birds took off flying from the treetops when Chie cried out from the climax rocking her entire body, back arching off the forest floor. It was beyond mind-blowing. And all thanks to a good little doggie.

"Tapout!" she finally gasped a few moments later. That was the codeword they had developed for when their eager clits had been overstimulated to the point they couldn't handle any more. Yukiko's tongue disappeared, and she breathed a sigh of relief as her entire body shook and shivered. "Nnhh… oh GOD, that was… super intense!"

A little giggle spilled from the shining lips of her love as she crouched over her. Looking at her with bottomless affection. Just a moment for that to be made known — before she bounced a little. "WAN!"

"Y-yeah… good girl… c'mere…" She patted her chest and Yukiko crawled up to lick all over her face. "AWWW, NOOOO! Yuka, down! C'mooooon!"

Of course, it didn't take long for her to shove her puppy off and to stand up again, though her knees were a bit wobbly. A few deep, cleansing breaths cleared her head enough to clip the leash to Yuka's collar again and set off walking around the woods with her.

"You did such a good job!" she told Yuka — and Yukiko, really. Though she knew she couldn't talk back while they were in the middle of play. "I'm really happy. And even though Narukami's gone, I mean, he'll be back… and the rest of our lives are pretty great. Kinda kicking ass and taking names lately."

"Wan, wan!" Yuka replied. Too cute.

"You like taking walks with Master?" She paused to turn and look up at her, panting with her tongue out; a doggie smile. "Awww, I'm so glad! Sweet baby!"

Yukiko put her paws up again, but this time Chie pointed at her and said, "Down. You know better than that, girl." In response, she let out a little whine and got down on all fours again, looking up at her with large, baleful eyes that would have melted glaciers. "I'm sorry, but you have to behave; I can't have you jumping up on my friends!"

Not that there was any chance of that happening. Even after Naoto had figured it out, they still agreed this was only something for the two of them — nobody else.

Mostly obedient, Yuka pouted a little longer before she resumed trotting through the grass. Once or twice she winced when she crawled over a stick or a rock, but mostly she picked her way around them; they already established their rules for this interaction were no permanent injury. Chie wouldn't begrudge her that, even for the sake of "committing to the role".

They came to a stop nearly half an hour later when Yukiko began sniffing around a white pine tree excitedly. Chie couldn't blame her; evergreens smelled amazing. But as she sniffled… a memory of a previous conversation came back to her master. Were they ready? Most importantly, was Yukiko?

"Okay," she suddenly said, though she could hear the nerves in her own voice. "Mark it so we can go home."

Yukiko's look of surprise was priceless. Even while in Yuka-mode, she couldn't seem to fully suppress that deep level of alarm. But she didn't argue or stand up.

"Go on… if you, um, you need to."

There was a brief moment where it almost looked as if her girlfriend would either cry, or stand up and tell her off. Then she raised one leg…

And let out a golden stream against the bark of the pine's trunk. Chie felt her stomach disappear: she really did it. Her girlfriend, poised, refined innkeeper that she was, a true classic Japanese beauty… was pissing like a dog on a tree. Curiosity spiking, she took a further step to her right to get a better view, and was greeted with the sight of the thin arc of urine issuing from the top of her flawless pink pussy — two fingers on either side, to help keep the liquid from catching on the flushed lips.

Flushed from arousal, from going down on her? Or did she like this? Maybe "like" was too strong a word: Yukiko found it satisfying to be degraded in very small ways, so long as they played into her role of belonging to a loving master. By now, Chie had figured out — thanks in part to her shadow — that this was due to her desire to be cared for, cherished. To belong. Perhaps having to pee like a puppy in the woods pushed the boundary of what constituted a small way, but it wasn't so overboard that she broke character. In that way, it had been a perfect thing to demand of her.

As her thoughts bumped around inside her skull, the stream petered out. Yuka shook her raised leg a little, to rid herself of lingering droplets, then lowered it back to the ground. She was trembling all over, and she winced, but still made no comment.

"Very… good, Yuka," she told her in a distant voice. "Oh wow…"

A whining noise came from her puppy-slash-girlfriend, and she made baleful eyes up at her. Not very often had she witnessed Yukiko's cheeks flushed as they were in that moment. But the moment Chie began to frown, she nuzzled her leg — reassuring her that she was not upset with her. Just that the experience had been a strange, unsettling one.

"Okay, um… well, you did your business, so I guess we, like… should head back? Y-yeah…" But she instead dropped to one knee, pulling her in for a hug. Yuka leaned into the contact gratefully but didn't embrace her back, since dogs didn't use their forelegs like that.

In a flash, she knew what she could do to make her feel better. It was so obvious! After petting over her hair and back a few times, she started sliding her hand all the way back to her rump, then angling downward.

"Wan?" Yuka barked, the noise holding a very human question even if it was animal speech.

"Shhhh, shhh," she soothed her, petting along the damp folds. "Master saw you were really wet back here, girl. I-is it okay if I clean you up?"

Her girlfriend let out some very sensual dog-whines. Which apparently were possible. Chie felt her stomach turn a tiny bit at knowing this wasn't just excitement she was playing around in, because some of it was pee, but probably not much. And either way… it was Yukiko. She didn't mind.

And clearly, neither did Yukiko. As her attentions grew more pointed and firmer, fingers parting the lips and dragging up toward her ass, then back down toward her pulsing clit, the puppy panted and moaned, hips squirming from side to side as if to shake her off. Their past experiences had at least taught them to stop taking that involuntary reaction as a sign that their partner actually wanted them to stop; there had been a few touch-and-go moments thanks to miscommunication. Practice makes perfect, after all.

Kissing the top of her head, Chie whispered, "It's okay, Yuka. Master's gonna take care of you. Just let it feel good, okay? Like you made Master feel good before!"

By now, Yukiko was full-on baying — when she wasn't making more human sounds of pleasure. They were terribly hard to suppress in that state. Her hips were rolling into the contact, begging for more. Not for the first time, Chie wished she had a cock to slam into her — and they had considered buying one, many times. Probably would soon. Maybe even one that had two ends…

Once she started in on her clit, it only took another minute of blistering punishment before Yuka couldn't suppress her climax anymore. Her back arched and she let out a howl as the pleasure racked her body, nearly sending her face-first into the leaves and grass. And even doing something so base, she looked as elegant as always. The magic of Yukiko.

"Gooooood girl!" Chie praised her, kissing between her shoulder blades as her other hand pet up and down her neck. "So good, you were amazing! I'm so proud of my pretty Yuka!"

There was a much more subdued little "Wan" that fell from her lips before she gave a weak wag of her hips from side to side. But at least she was clearly happy.

As they continued their way back to the spot where they left the yukata, Chie was all smiles, and kept praising Yuka or commenting on what they might do later in the day. They had fallen into the habit of Yukiko using happy barks and whines to show her approval or disapproval of their various plans; that way she still got to put in her two yen without fully breaking character. Maybe it was cheating, but who cared?

"God, I could use some lemon soda," Chie sighed as the clothes came into view. "Oh — there we go. Did you have fun out here today, Yuka?"

"WAN!" she barked with a huge, panting grin, bouncing a little. Then she winced. "Nnn…"

"Yuka?" But she shook her head, so Chie sighed and pulled her closer to the clothes. "Mkay, let's get outta here; we still have time to play some Famidrive. Bet I can whoop you in Power Intuition!"

But as Yukiko drew almost right up to the clothes, which would be the official end of their play, Chie suddenly stopped and held the leash taut. There was a quiet gag before her girlfriend turned around to look up at her curiously.

"Wait… um… I was gonna do this later, but I think… I wanna do it now. While you're still on your walk, Yuka." Meaning during play. She actually had been going to wait for her birthday, but that was almost a year away — and she hated that she hadn't thought of it before the last one. Oh well, better late than never.

"Wan?" Yuka asked in concern.

"Huh? O-oh, right! I got you a little something." Kneeling down, she produced it from her jacket pocket and held it out. "Hope you like it, girl."

It was a dog tag. Not just any tag, but a bamboo tag with an elegant burned-in design of flames on one side. When Chie's nervously twitching fingers turned it around, the kanji "優花" were emblazoned on the back: Yuka. Gentle flower.

There was a very real gasp from her girlfriend before she squealed, "CHIE!" and threw her arms around her, bouncing with happiness. Her owner just began to laugh when she suddenly drew back and cleared her throat. "W-wan!"

"It's cool," she laughed as she reached for her collar. "We were almost done, anyway, right? Hmm…" Then she delicately began to attach the tag to her pet. The big grin and the way she could barely keep still was too adorable — and doglike, which continuously surprised her. Even if Yukiko was a beautiful debutante in so many ways, she was also the world's cutest puppy. "There!"

And no sooner had she finished than she was pounced upon, licked all over her face amid a flurry of giggles. After a minute or two, she managed to push the girl away and stood up.

"Okay, you can stand up too now."

"Ohhhh, Chie, it's gorgeous!" Yukiko gushed as she finally rose to her feet, catching up the yukata along the way. "Where did you get it? How long have you been hanging onto this?!"

"Few days," she told her shyly, watching her slip her zori back on. So cute the way her little toes wriggled to slip the thong between them. "J-just… you got me that necklace for White Day, and I don't know why, I didn't even think about-"

"Stop that," she cut her off. "We already discussed this, I told you I wasn't even sure if I should get you something. Since we aren't boyfriend-girlfriend, we are two girls; the rules aren't the same. So you didn't disappoint me!"

Shrugging as she helped her slide the light kimono around her body, she muttered, "Y-yeah, but you still deserved a gift. And we've been going out for like a whole year, so…"

"Almost a year," she whispered back with a twinkle in her eyes. One that made her suspicious.

"Um… you're not planning some kinda crazy thing next month, are you? Like, because it's our anniversary?"

Trying to sound innocent, she pressed a hand into her clothed chest — now that she had finished tying her yukata, naturally. "Why, Chie-chan! Would I do that?"

"Yep. Okay, okay… I guess I do wanna celebrate it, but don't go wacko! Just like, find us something fun. Maybe we can have a nice din-"

"Don't you worry about a thing," she reassured her lover as she linked their arms together. "Just don't be too busy that day and everything will come up roses. Okay?"

Letting out a loud "UGHHHHH", Chie tried to be grumpy as they headed for the edge of the woods, and toward the Amagi Inn beyond. But she still ended up leaning over to whisper, "Fine, I'm excited. Just don't tell anybody."

"Because our relationship is anyone's business as it is," she giggled. "Hmm… are you sure this is the right way?"

As Chie Satonaka stared at the pretty little innkeeper, the shafts of light filtering through the trees, her heart stopped for a moment as time froze. Because her priestess was there, and warm, and real, and so sweet and beautiful. Because they were there together.

"Everything's right, Yukiko," she whispered with a huge, goofy grin. "Everything."

~ THE END ~

#We'll Face Ourselves #chiko #yukiko x chie #persona 4 fanfic #jess the writer #nsfw-text #tbh i almost didn't post this bc i got a bunch of hate on wattpad #on an old fic #idk maybe i should just stop

2 notes · View notes

misssophiachase · 5 years

Text

Song title Klaroline mini drabble

Could you please write a mini Klaroline drabble based on the song Senorita by Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello. Thank you, love all your fanfics, you’re an amazing writer!

Okay apologies luv, I worked out how to respond. Hope you like my drabble

Loving your choice of song, I’ve interspersed some of the lyrics from Senorita (in italics) but included another song of hers I love in the title. They seem to fit well together!

Synopsis: Klaus Mikaelson has been summonsed to spend time with his estranged family in sunny Cuba. Bored and determined to avoid them he finds something to do and someone to pass the time with.

Havana

The air was hot from summer rain…

She was teasing him, running through the tiny waves licking the shoreline and showcasing a new, red bikini that left little to the imagination.

Klaus pressed his lips together remembering just how studiously he’d traced every curve and each stray freckle sprinkled across her creamy skin the previous night.

Caroline Forbes was truly an enigma.

Too perfect for this world and too perfect for him.

He was waiting for her to disappear but, at the same time, madly hoping she wouldn’t. And to think they’d met only three days earlier.

She was a beautiful distraction who Klaus needed more than he realized. All the stress of reuniting with his family in Havana had melted away as soon as he heard her melodic laugh in some hole-in-the-wall bar downtown.

She was gorgeous in red, yes, but Klaus didn’t realize just how breathtaking until she’d approached him and suggested tequila shots, a wedge of lime tracing her pink lips. Given his current mood and her exquisite mouth, it wasn’t that hard of a sell.

Well, that was until she made him dance. Or salsa as she explained. Klaus had no rhythm whatsoever but decided he could blame it on the abundance of alcohol and rubbing up against her lithe figure wasn’t such a bad experience.

Waking the next morning alone, his mouth dry from an excess of tequila, Klaus knew he wanted so much more but had no idea just who his mystery woman was.

Klaus had searched madly for her in town until he accidentally stumbled upon her in his hotel’s expansive ballroom teaching some old, uncoordinated guest how to salsa. That he wasn’t expecting but seeing her again all he wanted was for her to teach him instead.

Even if he had two left feet and generally avoided the dance floor at all costs it didn’t seem to matter at that point as she sensed his presence then proceeded to stare at him curiously, her left eyebrow cocked adorably.

“Can I help you?” She asked, her cute, American accent messing with his usually indifferent demeanor.

“I was just,” he hesitated, wishing he was much more cool and composed at that moment.

“If you’d like to sign up for dance classes there’s a board just outside,” she smiled teasingly, obviously revisiting their first ‘lesson.’

“Of course,” he smirked, then proceeded to book her up for the next two weeks. Maybe he was being slightly possessive but for Klaus Mikaelson that was the only way.

Sapphire moonlight

“Klaus,” she admonished, her tone half disciplinary and the other half playful. “I get you don’t like an audience during lessons but stop messing around and stepping on my toes while you’re at it.”

“It’s an unreliable dance floor,” he argued, gesturing to the soft sand underfoot bathed in moonlight. “How am I expected to concentrate?”

“Well, we could go back to the ballroom,” she offered, sending him a knowing glance. Klaus was fairly certain he’d never tire of her creamy skin, golden waves and her ability to make him say yes to absolutely anything she asked.

Except that.

It had been two days of dance lessons interspersed with fun, constant banter and a growing sexual tension that was threatening to erupt at any moment.

We danced for hours in the sand

“I take it all back, I’ll concentrate love,” he promised, pulling her closer and trying to ignore just how delicious she smelled. A mixture of raspberries, vanilla, and cinnamon.

“This is crazy,” Caroline murmured into the crook of his neck as they danced slowly.

“Why? You’ve never danced under the stars?”

“Yes, but nothing like this,” she smiled against his collarbone as he held her close. “I could get used to this.”

“Well, no reason to stop then, unless there’s another lesson you need to get to now.”

“It can wait,” she joked, her fingernails tracing the small of his back through his white shirt. “There’s no other place I’d rather be.”

Tequila sunrise

Klaus stirred, attempting to gain his bearings. The sun was rising in brilliant streaks of pink and orange across the sky, much like his favorite cocktail. But that wasn’t the best part of this moment.

It was the fact she was nestled in his arms naked, their clothes scattered nearby. Klaus never knew what true happiness felt like until that very moment.

Caroline mewed, scrunching her nose adorably in her sleep. It took all his willpower not to touch her or to kiss that cute nose. This was usually his cue to exit but Klaus couldn’t do it.

She felt so good.

She felt so right.

And he’d no doubt have to leave given his family name had a tendency to follow him wherever he went.

He’d met up with Esther and Mikael in Havana through family obligation more than anything. He’d long since denounced their chosen activities but did it for his younger siblings.

Their reunion had gone as suspected but Caroline had been more than a distraction the past few days, she’d been his savior.

But now it had to end.

I wish I could pretend I didn’t need you

Klaus had attempted to gather his belongings without trying to disturb her sleep, but she’d awoken. Stretching out like a beautiful kitten as she did.

Klaus stole a quick glance, unexpectedly making eye contact with her. Dark blue eyes on light. He’d meant to look away but it had proven too difficult. She’d averted her gaze which landed on his gathered belongings. He couldn’t miss the hurt in her eyes.

“Well, I suppose we should go then,” Caroline mumbled, sitting up while placing her arm strategically across those delicious nipples he’d feasted on hours earlier.

“Believe me I don’t want to go,” he offered feebly.

“But yet you were trying frantically to erase everything that happened here,” she scoffed. “Don’t worry you’re not the first ass to do that.”

“Some guy did this? Tell me his name and I’ll…”

“The guy who’s trying to sneak out is going to hunt down the guy who did something similar, spare me,” she growled. Klaus felt her move away, the space between them driving him crazy.

“But…”

“You are just like the rest,” Caroline hissed, throwing on her clothing hurriedly.

“I’m not, it’s just complicated,” he uttered, albeit feebly. Klaus blamed that on the fact his nether regions were more concerned with all the lovely, naked flesh she was covering.

“If you’re the unwilling child of a family drug empire I might listen but otherwise I’m leaving,” she hissed, reaching for her coat.

“Excuse me?”

“I’m going,” she huffed, attempting to make as much distance between them as she could.

“I grew up on a drug plantation,” he offered to her retreating back. “First it was marijuana then cocaine and heroin. I got away as soon as I could but the Mikaelson tentacles have this way of drawing you back in if you care about the welfare of your siblings.”

“Hold on,” she deduced. “You’re a Mikaelson?”

“Unfortunately,” he groaned, her back still to him.

“My father hates yours,” Caroline shared, turning around slowly.

“You’re a Forbes?”

“As much as you want to be a Mikaelson,” she replied, sending a dry smile in his direction. “Well, this is extremely awkward.”

“Or romantic perhaps?”

“What have you been smoking?”

“It’s probably a little early for us to be joking about drugs and being the Capulets and Montagues, right?”

“Mmmm, true. Although I did always love Romeo and Juliet, you know without the whole dying part.”

“Me too,” Klaus agreed. “Any chance you’d be willing to give us a go without the whole dying part? We may need to evade a few drug lords and some family drama in the process.”

“Well, at least you can almost salsa now.”

“And how exactly is that particular skill going to help me?”

“We can go undercover, Mikaelson, you could be my teaching assistant with further tutoring of course,” Caroline grinned knowingly. “Speaking of which, you do realize you owe me another week and a half in lessons though, right?”

“And what if I can’t pay you?”

“You can make it up to me in other ways, Mikaelson.”

#klaroline drabbles #misssophiachase #klaroline #klaroline fanfic #havana #senorita #submission

20 notes · View notes

canimal · 5 years

Note

I wanted to write a time travel fanfic and about Evan Rosier/Hermione Granger as a main pairing but... I'm stuck. I didn't choose the most redeemable character (Rosier was killed by Moody after a magical fight) and it's complicated bc how Hermione can fall in love with someone like Evan no matter how charming and smart he is ? How did you deal with that (Hermione, Death Eater and their ideology) ? All I can see is something like Jaime/Brienne (GoT) and a very slow burn. But it still feel wrong.

(Please bear with me as this is going to be a super long response. I’ll put it underneath the cut so those who want to read it can read it and those who want to scroll past it can do so quickly.)

To be perfectly honest, if a story feels “wrong”, you shouldn’t be writing it. Trying to force something that you don’t feel comfortable writing and don't fully believe in will not only make for a story that feels forced and unnatural to the reader, but it will also become a story that you will not enjoy writing. (Never forget that this is our hobby, not our job.). Eventually, you would likely hit a wall where the story was unable to progress further and you’d be stuck. Lots of writers try to write a story with certain elements or pairings that are “trendy” and end up stuck because they forced a story. Writing should flow fairly smoothly. I’m not saying that writers should never stumble or feel blocked, but I am saying that if you’re not allowing a story to remain organic and grow naturally, you will find you quality and likely your own enthusiasm and enjoyment in writing the story suffer.

Why do you want to write a story with Evan Rosier? Is it because you find his character fascinating or you want to uncover more about him? Or is it because he’s not a character that’s written about a lot and you’re hoping to stand out in a growing sea of Death Eater stories?

I promise I’m not trying to be rude or condescending, even if it seems like it. This is an honest question. If your answer is on the first couple, awesome. Go for it.

But, if you’re hoping writing about him will get you instant recognition and a large number of followers on your story immediately, I’m sorry to tell you that that probably won’t happen. Most readers don’t want to take a chance on unknown characters. They just don’t. I’ve mentioned this many times, but when I first started writing Thorfinn Rowle as more than just a one-dimensional bad guy in the background in first, The Dark Mage’s Captive and then Parolee and His Princess, I frequently got PMs and reviews asking me who the fuck Thorfinn Rowle even was and that I might actually get more people to read my stories if I didn’t write such weird pairings. 🙄 (Let’s not forget the troll who commented “This should’ve been a Dramione” on literally every single chapter at least twice. Sigh.) So it’s both amusing and incredibly frustrating to have readers in the fandom announce that Thormione is their OTP when most of them wouldn’t have given my stories the time of day when I was writing them and they were the ONLY Thorfinn stories in existence on FFN for certain and probably everywhere else. Because so few people were interested in reading a story with Thorfinn as the main love interest when I was actually writing Parolee and His Princess, if I was only writing the story in an attempt to stand out and not because that was the story I wanted to write, then I likely would’ve gotten frustrated and quit before I ever finished.

So, if you’re serious about writing an Evan Rosier story because it’s what you want to write, I wish you the best of luck. It’s always challenging to write a character with little to no background info in canon. Challenging can also be a great deal of fun. If we never challenge ourselves as writers, we won’t ever get any better. Writers must be willing to learn and try new things if they want to get better. Practice is crucial. Too many writers (professional and otherwise) get to a place where they don’t believe they need to improve and their writing gets stagnant. It’s sad.

Now to your question about how or why Hermione might fall in love with someone with such a different and dangerous ideology... there are many different ways this can be tackled. I must stress thought that you make sure the decision you make makes sense within your story. Don’t try to force something. Let it grow naturally.

First of all, I don’t believe anyone is unredeemable. (Or irredeemable. Same meaning, right?) Perhaps it’s because of my own personal faith and religious beliefs, but I don’t believe anyone is wholly evil or wholly good. Yes, even in this hyper-partisan world we now live in, I don’t believe that anyone (even those who might disagree with me) are pure evil. This has actually gotten me a lot of grief from angry trolls and super sensitive former readers alike. I’ve been accused of being an “apologist” for all manner of depravity including, but not limited to, rape, violence, murder, racism, all the bad things ever, etc. simply because I believe that no is unredeemable... irredeemable. Ugh, whatever. You know what I mean.

Everyone has good qualities in them, even those who appear to be nothing but evil. Far fewer good qualities than most certainly, but still there. I’m also a firm believer that people, even really bad people, can have an existential change of heart and want to be a better person. Many just have to be given the opportunity to change. Of course, I don’t believe that they shouldn’t be punished for their crimes or they should be excused just because there’s something good about them. I’ll never understand why I’ve been accused of being an apologist. 🙄 Some people are truly exhausting.

For every story about a Death Eater falling for Hermione, there’s a different explanation. If you’ve ready any, you’re probably already familiar. Because I try very hard to make every story I write unique from the others I’ve already written, I’ve mixed it up. Antonin only joined for knowledge and power without realizing until too late what was really happening. Rodolphus was pressured by his wife in one and his grief and depression made him fall further in than he meant to. Sometimes the Death Eater was pressured by family to follow in their footsteps; others by their peers. There are countless reasons why people join these kinds of groups. Disillusionment, looking for a place to belong... you really could make it anything. I’ve known people who were drawn in and brainwashed by cults because they were desperate for purpose, for belonging, for a feeling like their life actually mattered. It can be super easy to get sucked into a cult and takes years to get out... if you can.

JKR wrote the Death Eaters as being simply bad for bad’s sake. They’re almost all one-dimensional. No person is actually one-dimensional. They have hopes and fears and dreams just like everyone else. Maybe they thought they believed in the sort of pro-Pureblood world that Voldemort imagined, but once they got in they were in over their head. Reality rarely meets our expectations. People grow and change. Even my own beliefs have changed as I’ve grown older. What I used to think was important no longer is and there are issues I have done a complete 180 on as I’ve grown up and begun to live in what I call “grownup reality”. (Life is much different for me than it was even when I was just in my twenties and how I see the world has changed drastically in some instances.). So if experience and time has been able to shape and change my beliefs and even my values to a minute degree, why could the same not be said for a Death Eater who discovered all was not as it seemed when they were recruited?

It’s also important to remember that no one thinks, acts, or believes like everyone in their set group one hundred percent of the time. Each individual has their own thoughts and beliefs. Maybe they joined because they hated Muggles, but then they realized they were wrong to do so. Maybe their family pressured them to join but they didn’t agree. Maybe they were afraid to die so they joined. I know a lovely man whose father died in World War II fighting for the Nazis - not because he was an admirer of Hitler and believed in everything dreadful and evil the Nazi party believed in. No, his father was conscripted into the German Army and fought because he would’ve been arrested in the best case scenario and executed in the worst. His young wife and their two small children could’ve also been in danger had he refused. It’s a terribly sad story. And hardly the only one. That’s just one example. History has countless other incidents all over the world when scared people fought and fell in line with a terrible leader because they had no other choice. Or at least it seemed like they had no other choice. Not everyone is strong and brave enough to stand up to injustice and evil when their lives are on the lines. Humans by our very nature can be quite cowardly at times.

It’s possible that a person who has done evil deeds or believed just absolutely atrocious things could want to change and be a better person. Though it wouldn’t be easy, someone like Hermione could choose to forgive them for their past. Especially if they’re truly remorseful.

Of course, it’s also unfortunately true that there are sometimes relationships that are just absolutely toxic. Love can make idiots of us all. How many women (and men to an extent though not nearly as often) see the potential in a man and want to change them into something good and perfect? It happens so often it’s a cliche. Woman falls in love with bad boy. Wants to change him. Stays with him with hopes and dreams that he’ll stop being so awful. Is disappointed over and over again. Have you ever known someone who fell in love with a truly terrible person and even though their relationship wasn’t healthy whatsoever never seemed to quit them? Kept going back for more even when everyone told them it was a terrible idea? I’m pretty sure you have. You might’ve even been in one of those relationships yourself. I know I was. No, he might not have been a murderous minion of a madman, but he certainly had his terrible qualities that I thought I could help him get past. Tale as old as time.

I could go on and on and on about reasons why Hermione might fall in love with a completely unsuitable man who might even wish her dead, but there’s no reason. It could be for a thousand reasons. And don’t forget, Hermione isn’t exactly some innocent paragon of virtue herself. She’s pretty dark even in canon. Trapping a lady in a jar? Cursing a girl’s face possibly permanently? Leading another witch into a forest knowing there are centaurs in there who are dangerous? And those are just the things that unobservant Harry noticed! Who knows what she was doing off-stage? She has her own darkness and her own demons to fight. She’s not perfect nor is she some pure angelic creature who only uses light magic for good. Nah, she’s pretty twisted at times. (On a side note - Please don’t try to write her as being all-powerful, perfect, and never do anything the least bit bad. That’s not her character at all. It bothers me to see her written as some sort of pearl-clutching virgin who has never done anything bad in her entire life. That’s NOT the Hermione I read in the books.)

You just have to find the right motivation in your own story. If you’re not forcing the story and allowing it to develop naturally, you’ll figure it out. If you’re forcing it, I’m afraid you’re going to stay stuck.

I hope this can be so some help! Sorry I’m rambled on and on and on.

10 notes · View notes

theongreyjoyexchange · 6 years

Text

mod post + info about the 2018 exchange round

... hello.

so, as we all most probably noticed this year there’s been a ridiculous dropping out drama this round that has ended up with the last pinch hit having been published now and I honestly feel horrible about it because I like to run challenges making sure that a) everyone gets something, b) they get it within a relatively short time. now, I’m absolutely not wanting to go blame people left and right because it wouldn’t be fair and it also was my fault because it took me months to write the thing, but since it will bear on how the next round will be run, I’m going to make a quick run-down of what happened:

there were some people dropping out but since they did before the fanworks were due it wasn’t a problem;

someone disappeared until after the due date, I asked if they could finish, they said they would after two days so I skipped on sending that request to pinch hit (too bad it was a typology that only a few people could do), of course it didn’t get delivered and I didn’t get notified without looking for the person first and on top of that it was just before I left on vacation so I couldn’t exactly go check the internet or the situation at every other moment;

at that point a month and some had passed and the original pinch hitter couldn’t do it anymore, so I ended up asking the receiver for fanfic prompts (when they didn’t even want fic in the first place but I suck at everything else sorry /o\) and I thought the one I picked would take less time, but then I ended up running into rl obligations and other writing obligations and tldr I finished it now, which means that the poor receiver had to wait almost eight months for the replacement fic and I am absolutely not going into another situation of the kind again because a) it’s unfair to the recipient, b) I run the challenge for two months and fine enough but I can’t worry about it for the other ten months of the year;

also I really would like to run things smoothly and for everyone to get something within due time, not one year later;

tldr: this mess happened because people didn’t talk to me and disappeared on me at the last moment and/or didn’t keep me updated.

now, about next round (which is absolutely happening!), I’ve taken a few preliminary decisions which I’m going to list now so everyone knows:

next round is most likely starting july next year with your writing time being from mid-july to early september with posting throughout september (the show starts next year anyway and I most likely will be busy in june, so /o\), if anyone has preferences for another date please feel free to share:

until now I’ve been fairly lax (as in, I didn’t require for anyone to check in before the due date and I’ve given extensions without blinking because I like to think we’re all adults, and if I didn’t get e-mail replies I’d PM people on tumblr), but since it always means that I end up with someone dropping out after the due date and that since it means that I don’t have pinch hitters available at such a short notice and I always end up taking it (and I don’t mind but if next time the giftee wants stuff I can’t write?), next round we’re having: all communications are happening via email, there’s an obligatory check-in midway through the writing period plus a rule that if I contact a participant and I don’t get an email reply within two days pre due date and one day post due date, I automatically consider them dropped out and I don’t go PM-ing them directly because with all the love in the world, I can’t run after people anymore and I can’t be waiting for people to reply or contact me on the morning I leave for vacations and so on;

old participants or people I know personally do still get the extensions no problem, new participants or people I don’t know get extensions but I’ll need an email with a draft or a sketch or something that shows me they’re actually doing the thing.

again, apologies for the delay with publishing the last pinch hit because really that’s not how I usually run things/like to run things and if I can help it it’s not happening again.

thank you very much and I hope to see you next time <3

#theonexchange #theon greyjoy #tagging mostly so people can see the info about the new round #! mod post of doom !#honestly this isn't for 95% of the people who'll read this #but i have to make it clear for the get go #thanks <3

7 notes · View notes

neni-has-ascended · 7 years

Text

Out of Focus - Part 1(A Persona Series Fanfiction)

“Out of Focus” - Part 1: August 2014

Fandom: Persona

Genre: General

Characters: Mitsuru Kirijo, Wakaba Isshiki(mentioned), Fuuka Yamagishi(mentioned)

Summary: Mitsuru Kirijo was no stranger to compromises. She had lived her whole life with them, always shackled by rules. It was the reason she believed herself to be more than capable of dealing with them.

I jokingly announced this fanfic in a post before, under the mock-title “Frustration”. It is basically going to cover my theories on what the casts of previous Persona Games were doing before and during the events of P5. This is a non-betaread version of the first chapter, so excuse any typos. A better version will come eventually.

Severe Spoilers for Persona 5.

________

August 2014

Mitsuru Kirijo was no stranger to compromises. She had lived her whole life with them, always shackled by rules, boundaries not to be crossed and conditions to be upheld. It was the reason she believed herself to be more than capable of dealing with them.

It was in the summer of 2014 that she was reminded of how powerless she could be in the face of the compromises she had conceded to.

"Wakaba Isshiki is dead."

This message reached her on a hot August day, when the sweltering heat made Mitsuru's long, luxurious locks stick against her face and neck in a manner that made her feel suffocated and her clothes were already so drenched by sweat that the bit the shock of the news had added was not noticeable. The person who Mitsuru told this was a man she had never seen, wearing a black suit. An officer of National Security, or so he'd introduced himself. At the moment she couldn't care less.

Wakaba Isshiki was dead. The sentence hit hard, like a wooden bat to the chest. An anvil on the castle of glass she had been building these past three years.

"How?" Mitsuru asked. "What happened?"

"She was hit by a car in a crossroad close to her house," said the man in the suit. "We are fairly certain that it was a suicide."

"Suicide...?" Mitsuru could not believe the word that was crossing her lips.

When she closed her eyes, Mitsuru could still see Wakaba Isshiki's face. That headstrong, young woman full of energy and passion for her work, carrying a red-headed, little girl in her arms. Her smile was bright and full of an eagerness to find the things hidden from human eyes. To delve deeper and deeper into the unseen world only few were aware of and solve its mysteries. It had been Wakaba who came to Mitsuru, when she believed all her efforts to recover the lost knowledge in Ergo Research to be in vain. Wakaba who proved to be a genius in unraveling the complexities regarding Shadows and Personas. Wakaba who found a way to reproduce the technology to create a miniature Dark Hour that Mitsuru grandfather, Koetsu Kirijo, has left behind after his death.

Almost all of the greater successes the Shadow Operatives had had in retrieving the tools they require to undo the damage the Kirijo Group once did to this world could be attributed to this one, young woman. And now she was dead.

Dead by her own hand? No, Mitsuru would never believe that. She shook her head and rose her voice. "Why would Wakaba Isshiki have killed herself? It does not make any sense!"

"Kirijo-san, please, don't shoot the messenger," the man in the suit told her with a slick smile on his face. "I am only telling you what I know. As Wakaba Isshiki's official employer, we felt you were entitled to the knowledge of her passing. I would also like to express my deep condolence at this occasion. It must truly be a loss to your company, to lose such a bright young woman."

The so-called 'condolence' had no value to Mitsuru in the least. Her mind was racing, as she remembered all she could recall, her recent meetings with Wakaba, the projects they had been working on, all, just anything that might explain what could have happened. And there it was; One image of Wakaba Isshiki with downcast eyes, nervously brushing a lock of her black hair out of her face. 'Recently, I worry for my life,' Wakaba had uttered that moment. Mitsuru was sure of it. And now, she cursed herself under her breath. She should have realized, she told herself, should have seen it coming, done something to prevent it-! But what was done was done. There was nothing to take back. All that remained now, was to walk forward.

"I will have a unit look into the matter immediately," Mitsuru announced to the suit. "Wakaba Isshiki, killing herself? I don't believe that. There has to be more behind this. I swear, I will make sure, that-"

"I am afraid this matter is outside your jurisdiction, Kirijo-san," the man interrupted her, the corners of his mouth still firmly pulled upwards on his cheeks.

"What do you mean to say?" Mitsuru asked, but she was already grinding her teeth, dreading the words that would come next.

"It's as I told you, Kirijo-san. As Wakaba Isshiki's employer, you are entitled to be informed of her death. However, this is where your involvement with her ends. National Security has already evaluated the case and decided that Isshiki-san's passing was unrelated to her research under your organization. Thus, investigation into it is outside the responsibilities of the Security Department, Shadow Response Unit."

With her eyes wide open, Mitsuru took a firm step towards the suit, "We are barred from looking into her death!? You can't be serious!"

"You are not to meddle," the man repeated. "And this is final. Don't even think about sending one of your lower-ranking numbers into the area. Believe me, I know all about your history of unorthodox methods and outbursts. My superiors also informed me that you would probably react just like this, so let me tell you just one thing. Mitsuru Kirijo. Should the Shadow Operatives or any of their known associates be found to do any sort of unsanctioned investigations into the matter of Wakaba Isshiki's death, there will be harsh sanctions against you and your entire organization."

By now, all alarm clocks were ringing out loudly in Mitsuru's head. This wasn't just a normal curtsy call by any means. It was a threat. Someone upstairs did not want her people to have any access to information regarding Wakaba's death. Which could only mean...

"A Persona User killed her." Mitsuru took another step forward. "Am I right!?"

"Kirijo-san. Do I need to repeat myself?"

He didn't even flinch. Didn't even care about the fury on Mitsuru's face. He laughed.

"In all honesty, I could care less for what you choose to do with the information I've given you. Just go ahead. Try to uncover the 'truth' if you want it so badly. However... I can't tell what sort of reaction this might elicit from my... from your superiors." His smirk grew broader. "If I remember correctly... There were a couple of unsanctioned. highly dangerous anti-Shadow weapons in possession to which's existence National Security has turned a blind eye so far. A couple of humanoid-"

The color drained from Mitsuru's face. "You wouldn't dare laying a finger on them...!"

"Oh Kirijo-san. Who is talking about me?"

She knew what was happening here, fully understood it even. Whatever had happened to Wakaba was not just a simple murder. It was a conspiracy. A net of schemes and dangerous hierarchical structures that even the Shadow Operatives were already caught in. How long had this already been happening? Mitsuru didn't know. She hadn't even realized a thing until this day, when she found herself stuck in the net, like fly waiting to be sucked dry. It was humiliating, disgraceful even.

"What is going to happen to Wakaba's daughter?" Mitsuru asked. "Futaba Isshiki...! Is that girl going to be..."

"Again, this is none of your concern," the man said. "Let me assure you that Futaba Isshiki is being given appropriate care."

"At least let me speak to her! She deserves to know, what it was that her mother-"

"Kirijo-san! I must ask you to restrain yourself. It is no longer within your freedom to concern yourself with the matters of Wakaba Isshiki, and the same goes for her daughter. Do you understand this?"

Mitsuru never gave a reply to the last question that day. Every single word said in it left a bitter taste on her tongue, like an imprint that wouldn't fade for the years to come. The feeling of being spoken down to, like child, along with the paradoxical use of the word 'freedom' continued to ring in her mind, even at night. 'Freedom', he had said. What kind of freedom was it, to be restrained in doing what needs to be done to protect those dear to her? What kind of freedom was it, that shackled her with the constant threat of two innocent young women, her friends, who had already suffered enough in their lives just for being born the way the were, being brutally torn out of their lives and treated like objects? What kind of freedom was it, that told her when she was allowed to help those in need and when she wasn't?

As soon as she could, Mitsuru called on Fuuka Yamagishi, a renown IT engineer, and asked her to conduct a deep scan of the servers and data-banks used by the Shadow Operatives. Sure enough, she found a large batch of destroyed filed, scrambled with garbage data to the point of being absolutely unsalvageable, even with forensic methods. Wakaba Isshiki's research was gone. Destroyed. Stolen.

Mitsuru went to bed that night with the knowledge that to those above her, she was just an insect, a fly in one's ointment that could just be swatted or caught in a net once it grew too bothersome to bear. She had chosen to form the Shadow Operatives and operate under the blessings of the laws and rules she abode by as a citizen of this country, and now found herself caught in the web of those were same rules, with broken wings and unable to escape.

It was painful to admit to herself how powerless she felt.

#Neni Writes #Fanfiction #Persona 3 #Persona 4 #Persona 5

62 notes · View notes

devilishlyvintage · 7 years

Text

Cold Shower (BH6 Fanfic)

Cold Shower

The pungent reek of smoke remained on his skin, mixed in with the stench of salty wetness and general uncleanness. It had been days since his last shower, and Tadashi Hamada was ready to draw the line and give up, though a desire to keep pushing forward was the one and only thing that actually motivated him to continue.

A moonlit starry sky would usually bring Tadashi comfort as he would often look up towards the Heavens and dream of something better, perhaps in a sense it also made him feel at peace with himself. But not tonight, if anything it only made him feel more depressed than he was already feeling; his once tough heart was beginning to shatter like the little shards of glass that pierced it.

I didn't think this would ever happen to me. I guess life is full of misadventures, huh?

The entire neighbourhood was sprayed with the scent of a fight, the smell of unfaithfulness between two intimates and the constant barking, howling (almost crying) of dogs filled the air, making Tadashi want to heave. Instead he rubbed his coat covered arms, a chilled yet quiet 'brrr!' sounding from the eighteen year old male whilst he walked, gaining stares from the neighbourhood's residents but paying no mind to them; he didn't care what others thought of him.

He was dirty, starving and sleep deprived, so all he wanted as of right now was to just find somewhere safe to stay for the night and hopefully he would be back on his feet by morning.

Night time felt like an eternity, at least to Tadashi.

The tough surface of a wall would have been uncomfortable in normal circumstances, but not to him. No, Tadashi could only find it within himself to feel relief when he was able to sit down on the cold, hard ground. Sighing, he took off his fedora and ran his hand through his greasy hair, knowing it was in desperate need of a wash. How he'd love a good bubble bath right about now, with soapy suds cleansing his skin.

"What am I doing?" he asked himself, knowing well he would not get any kind of response from anyone. "I...I should have just gone home, at least I would be safe there. Right now, I can't help but feel like everybody in this place is watching my every move. I've gotta be careful."

Leaning his head back, he caught the moment to stare directly at the Heavens, the moonlight paling his skin and serenity overcoming him as he transported himself into his own world, hoping to find somewhere better than this dump.

The tickling wind almost seemed gentle now, not harsh or angry at the fact an intruder had wandered into the fairly unknown part of San Fransokyo. It was as if said force was greeting Tadashi, welcoming him into its territory with open arms...unless it was the tiredness that was kicking it, perhaps that could have explained the sense of tranquillity.

Aspen Murdock, a fairly small girl of eighteen, held plastic bags in each hand as she strolled on the sidewalk, the contents of each carrier causing the material to dig slightly into her unusually pale skin, though said young adult didn't mind it- she was rather used to the pressure.

"I sure hope this'll be enough for tomorrow's dinner, I really wanna make the new place feel like home." she said, something within the corner of her bluish grey (more so grey) eyes making her stop in place. "I wonder what that could be..."

Turning to walk forward, Aspen cautiously took the first few steps to her new discovery, calling out to see if she had found a person rather than a pile of trash in black liners. "Hello? Is someone there?"

Tadashi was brought out of his calm state as soon as he heard Aspen's sweet sounding Texas accent, the type of voice that would come across as being annoying to some and straight up hot to others. He however, didn't find it to be either grating or attractive; all he could hear was a gentle woman asking him if he was okay. Quickly putting his hat back on his head, he took a place of hiding behind a bag of garbage, hoping he wouldn't be seen.

"You don' have to be afraid, whoever you are," Aspen said, unbeknownst that her sweetness had softly touched Tadashi's heart, being it was the first time he had been shown any kindness in a while. "I won't hurt hurt ya. Come on out so I can get a better look at you. You poor thing, ya must be freezing like a flower in Alaska because of this darn cold weather."

Slowly, Tadashi built up his courage and got to his feet, grimacing at the pins and needles in his legs because he hadn't had much rest over the past few days. Aspen placed her groceries down, brushing her hair back so that it wasn't in the way.

"Guess you're not much of a talker, huh?" she took a few steps closer, her expression immediately changing upon seeing Tadashi's full form. "You're...homeless?"

Tadashi, for one reason to another, couldn't find it within himself to speak, the back of his throat throbbing and the uprising of remaining ash caused him to put his hand over his mouth as he coughed, shocked at the sight of burgundy pooling in a small crack in the ground as it lightly seeped within the gaps in his leather gloves.

Is that...blood?

"You're not in good shape at all, how long have you been out here?" Aspen asked, equally as surprised to see blood being brought up rather than mucus of a traditional cough and cold, but even she could see it was more than a winter illness. "Please, come with me so I can help you, I couldn't bear it if I left you out here all alone."

Tadashi didn't know whether or not taking this mystery woman's offer was a good idea, he'd asked (pleaded even) for help and nobody gave him a second thought, tossing him to the side like he was nothing but an out of date newspaper ready to throw away. He supposed that was all he was, old news that needed to be trampled on in order to get rid of it.

Who knew the world could be so cruel? How could he have not seen it before?

I can't be a naive little kid anymore...

"You don' have to let me help you if ya don' want me to, but don' ya think it'd be nice to have a nice hot shower, clean clothes and warm food?" Aspen said, hoping Tadashi would make the right choice and allow her to help him in getting better. "I can see you haven't eaten in a while, which is why I want to help. My name's Aspen, Aspen Murdock."

Aspen Murdock...Aspen...a pretty name for a pretty girl. She seems so kind and trustworthy, and she doesn't talk or act like all of those other people. Maybe this is it for me, maybe I was meant to meet her...

Making his final decision, Tadashi extended his arm forward and both he and Aspen shook hands, it was nice to get the formalities out of the way, though there was something missing.

"Can you tell me your name, mister? I might be able to contact friends or family for you, I think they'd be happy to know that you're okay. Unless you don't want me to, I understand if you don't want them to get involved."

Tadashi shook his head, with Aspen nodding in understanding.

"Right, of course. Well, you can tell me your name later if you're not comfortable talking now. We can sort things out at my place, it's just up ahead."

Aspen went to pick up her bags, but was pleasantly taken aback as Tadashi got them for her, giving her a smile behind his concealing look of dark lensed glasses and a red scarf softly ringed around his neck. She thanked him for his polite act, buttoning up her coat when she felt that the atmosphere had begun to grow colder.

"Not just a homeless guy, but a gentleman too. You don't see that every day."

Tadashi had a feeling that he was going to like Aspen, she was unlike anyone he had ever met before, in a way she reminded him of Honey Lemon, with her sense of feminine yet casual fashion and the way she had her locks styled and presented. Her skin was light, but well taken care of at the same time. It was odd, but an interesting kind of odd.

"When summer arrives, I hope I can get a tan. I'm tired of looking like a snowman." Aspen said, her choice of words confusing Tadashi.

Snowman? Surely nobody else thinks that, do they? I haven't even known this girl for five minutes and even I can tell she's beautiful, there's definitely something about her, something wonderful.

****

"Sorry if they're not your kind of thing, dude, there were the only clothes I could find that would fit you."

Zachary "Zach" Evans, originally from California (though born and raised in Florida until he was three) handed Tadashi a folded set of clothes, the Hamada giving a thankful nod before taking them into the bathroom, hanging them up as he took of his dirtied items of clothing and put them into the woven wash basket, stepping into the shower and turning the metal faucet to the coldest setting, briefly gasping as the water came into contact with his skin. All he did was stand there, pressing his arms against the glass and staring at his feet. Salty, burning tears ran down his face along with the water, sobs each different in tone hitching from his dry lips.

I'm so sorry, everyone...

Wow! It sure feels great to be writing for BH6 again, i’m so glad i’m back to writing these! I have more ideas now which means you will be seeing more of these in the future. Thanks for reading!

#bh6 #big hero 6 #marvel #disney #tadashi hamada #aspen murdock #zach evans #fanfic #fanfiction #t.e.p #the element project #canon to the fanfic

3 notes · View notes