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thefanficmonster · 3 years

Text

Power Couple

Corpse Husband x Reader (Female)

Warnings: Swearing

Genre: Fluff, Humor

Summary: Sean, Felix, Dave, and Joel welcome Corpse’s girlfriend to a game of Party Animals. It’s her first time playing and she has to deal with a lot more than just the controls and objectives - her boyfriend being a cute, cuddly sweetheart with ulterior motives to his clinginess.

Requested by @susceptible-but-siriusexual. Thank you so much for your request! Hope I captured what you wanted and how you wanted. Feel free to send any other requests you may have XOXO

It’s been one hell of a day. Had to correct twice as many documents as I was originally supposed to at work; found my car with a flat tire in the parking lot as I was about to go home; argued with my boss over the phone while stuck in a traffic jam. It’s been a rough twelve hours, but it has led me here and that’s what I’d rather think about.

By ‘here’ I mean I’m sitting on the couch in Corpse’s recording room, my computer in my lap, my screen displaying the screen to the game Party Animals. The suggestion was Corpse’s. He immediately picked up on my below par mood and wasted no time finding a solution to bright up the remainder of the day, shadowing the shitty portion of it. I am not what you would call a gamer. Sure I’ve played Among Us with Corpse and his friends a few times. Even that I struggle to do because I’m internally fangirling over all the people in the lobby. Yeah, dating a youtuber doesn’t mean you automatically stop gushing over the many content creators on the platform you’ve been watching for quite some time now. Corpse knows how nervous I get so he’s always near me when we play with Sean, Felix and the other. All he has to do is give me that encouraging smile and wink of his and I’m good to go. Side note: massive props to him for going easy on me in Among Us, getting teasingly called ‘simp’ by his friends in the process.

“You’ll love it.“ He promised me over and over again as the game was downloading on my computer.

“I don’t doubt that, Corpse. But I am going in completely blind and I seriously don’t wanna embarrass myself.“ I mumble a quick ‘nor you‘ under my breath, hoping he doesn’t catch it because I’m in for a pep talk if he does.

To my dismay, he does, “Listen here, you couldn’t embarrass me even if you actively tried to do something outrageous. Most likely scenario, I’d join you in the act.” He ducks in front of the couch so we’re at eye level, his hand coming up to cup my cheek in the sweetest, most comforting gesture ever. “We’ll show em who’s the boss at stealing candy.”

I can’t help but laugh, feeling unable to express just how much this man means to me. Words can’t do the feeling justice.

“Y/N!“

“Y/N!!“

“Corpse Wife has arrived!“

Hearing all the greetings lights a flame in my chest, the warmth spreading all the way to my neck and cheeks. “Hi guys! Missed playing with you!”

“We missed you too!“ Dave, the only one of the gaming gang I’ve actually met in person, replies to me, his words along with all the others’ wrapping around me like a comfort blanket. Despite them knowing I’m a fan of theirs, they’ve always made me feel welcomed, comfortable, nothing less than them.

“You know anything about this game?“ Felix asks me.

I shake my head, almost forgetting he can’t see me, “Corpse told me it’s funny and cute. It sounds like the perfect game for me.”

“Oh no, this is a game of survival. Survival of the fittest!“ Sean shouts excitedly, a bang following his shout I can only assume was him hitting his desk.

“I’d like to think I’m pretty fit.“ I shrug my shoulders, laughing along with the guys.

“This is the only way to find out if you actually are.“ Joel’s voice comes through my headphones in the form of a tease.

Sean mumbles quietly to himself as he’s deciding how to separate us in two teams. “Guys, a little help here. We all suck at this game, it doesn’t really matter who’s in which team.”

“Actually...“ Felix trails off, “Corpse and Y/N are the ultimate power couple in Among Us. Chances are they will be in this as well. So, the only logical move would be to...“

“I’m taking Y/N, you take Corpse.“ Sean declares. “Joel, Dave, who do you guys wanna be with?“

And the game starts. Sean, Joel and I are the Meowfia while Corpse, Felix and Dave are yet to choose a team name. We throw around snarky, cocky comments at each other, taunting the opposite team as we struggle to take the candy to our respective sides of the map.

“Don’t you dare pull that lever, Dave!“ I launch at Dave, knocking his cute avatar away from the lever, buying Joel and Sean some time to steal back the gummy bear Corpse and Felix took from us.

“Y/N! Joel is out! Help me!“ Sean is freaking out now. I ditch Dave’s unconscious body and run to Sean’s aid.

As I’m helping him push it towards out area a member from the opposite team latches onto my avatar, weighing me down and hindering me from doing anything.

“Hug!“ Corpse laughs as he has literally turned into a koala, holding onto my avatar.

“Corpse, you know you are actually supposed to hinder Y/N, not hug her. It’s cute though, don’t get me wrong.“ Felix laughs as him and Sean continue to struggle over the gummy bear.

“Nah, his tactic’s great. I can’t do shit.“ I desperately try and shake him off, “Babe, this is unfair. I can’t even be mad at you!“ I whine, staring to panic now that Dave is back to life and Joel is nowhere to be seen.

The round is won by Felix, Dave and Corpse who, if I might add, didn’t let go of me for the rest of the game.

We switch maps, now every man for himself. We’re on the submarine, recreating the Hunger Games with cute fuzzy animals. The thought passes through my mind, causing me to giggle.

“Y/N, you sound exactly like I’d imagine your avatar to sound. You’re so cute.“ Sean’s avatar circles mine a few times as he laughs.

He’s not wrong, my pale blue puppy is indeed cute. Apparently immortal as well.

“How is Y/N still alive?! Holy shit, her and Corpse really are a power couple.“ Dave shrieks when he sees me pick up the freeze gun. “NOOO!“ He shouts, devastated by the fact I shot him, sending him straight to his death.

“Chill, Dave. It’s all cool. Nothing personal.“ I struggle to hide my laughter, “No hard feelings, right?“

“Of course not, love.“ I can tell he grits the sentence through clenched teeth.

“Aw Dave, you are such an ice guy.“ I giggle, now shooting Joel with the gun.

“Someone take that gun from her!“ Sean cries as him and Felix race up the submarine.

Suddenly, the avatar of my boyfriend again wraps itself around mine. I hadn’t seen him in a while, considering Sean knocked him into the ocean earlier in the round.

“How are you still alive?!“ I try to spin my puppy to get him to let go but he holds on tightly. “Babe, I swear, you are cute and I love you, but this is ridiculous. How and why are you alive?”

“That’s his superpower! He never fucking dies.“ Felix laughs, letting out a yelp when he briefly slips while climbing.

“Immortals!!! Immortals!!!“ Sean breaks out into a song, a song I really like, breaking the restraints I had on my laughter.

“Drop the gun or we’re dying together.“ He says almost seriously. Even though I can only see the back of his head I know he’s grinning.

“A Titanic/Romeo and Juliet mashup? Why not? I can live with dying a double historical death.“ Even though I appear accepting of his offer, I’m still trying to set myself free.

In the end, Sean claims his first win of the game and the rest of us are dead at the bottom of the ocean. Corpse and I did indeed die a Romeo and Juliet/Titanic death, getting everyone in their feels. We make a deal to get together and play again as soon as possible and we all go our separate ways, exiting the Discord call.

*Later that night*

After a dinner consisting of takeout and two thirds of a shitty romantic comedies, Corpse shifts from next to me, starting to get up from the couch. I am surprised to feel jolted out of a half sleep as the room is now completely silent, the TV being turned off.

“Hey where’re you going?“ I ask groggily, rubbing my sleepy eyes.

“I have some editing to do. Don’t worry, I won’t stay up too late.“ He kisses my forehead before grabbing his phone from the coffee table.

Just as he’s about to walk away, I wrap my arms around his legs. He laughs, catching onto what I’m insinuating. His chuckle brings a smile to my face and butterflies in my belly. No matter how long we date for or how much time we spend together, some things never change.

“Payback, huh?“ He asks, the smile audible in the question. I keep my eyes shut but nod, my arms still around his legs. “Alright, you koala. You’re coming with me.”

In his recording room, he settles in his chair placing me in his lap in a way that my legs dangling off to the side, my side leaning against his chest, my face hidden in the crook of his neck. We’re both comfortable, content and relaxed.

I don’t know when exactly it happens, but all my mind has registered is a quiet ‘I love you’ and the soft touch of Corpse’s lips on my temple. I manage to reply with an ‘I love you too’ before my sleepiness consumes me, my body completely relaxing against his, the warmth of his body, his scent, the sound of his breathing making me feel safe and loved: the two feelings I want him to feel with the same intensity when I’m in his arms.

Something tells me he does.

@simonsbluee @save-the-sky @hacker-ghost @itsminniekat @bi-andready-tocry @imtiredaffff @jazzkaurtheglorious @hereforbeebo @fandomgirl17 @chrysanthykios @annshit @i-cant-choose-a-username-help

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lilshotgun · 3 years

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So here's why i've been inactive for the past couple months on tumblr:

As many of you know, I've been a fairly avid content creator for the warrior nun fandom creating a ton of content for free. I joined a Warrior Nun discord server named Future Warrior Nuns (which is a ridiculous name considering in the show Ava says there will be no more warrior nuns but that's besides the point) and the treatment I received there was amazing. At the beginning. I spoke up about racism and injustices within the community because you cannot escape it anywhere unfortunately and I believed I'd found a community that would protect me and be there for me if i was ever faced with racism or hate.

For clarity, anyone in blue is a moderator. As you go on to read this their usernames and profile images might change so I’ll clarify who is who. I’ll only be using the names I’ve been presented with and only the ones that are most relevant to the situation.

Fiesta (white American cis woman) aka Doesn't Kelly, Witch Rhyme

Taz (white Australian cis woman)

Milan (a very sheltered American transmasculine poc whos uncomfortable talking about racism because they've never had to deal with it) aka Who The Fuck Is Kelly

Rory (white Australian cis woman) aka Stronger Kelly

But after a while, things slowly started to change. It was subtle and if you hadn't been there from the beginning, you wouldn't have noticed. It started with the moderators spending less time in the server because they had made many of their own servers and spent far more time over there. Which is understandable when you’re a group of friends that all have a common purpose. But the lack of leadership was palpable. I had to sometimes direct fellow server members to proper channels or do a few other things that were supposed to be things that the moderators were supposed to take care of and their lack of care for the server was becoming more relevant. If you were in their little group of friends or kissed their ass then they wouldn't target you unnecessarily.

Exactly three weeks later, (and only one week after my birthday in which everyone was super sweet and nice to me) the love and friendship they claimed to have for me vanished completely. For context, people in positions of power, especially in a server, should be people you can come to if you ever have an issue with anything or anyone. They should also be people that can come to terms with admitting their behavior was incorrect when being told so. So here is what happened:

I have always been open about being a transmasculine person of color on all my platforms, and if you know me on any platform you know that. The behavior shown here between me and the moderators was absolutely appalling to me. They pushed my voice aside and only acknowledged Narcissa, a cis white woman, who was agreeing and saying the same things i had because i had asked her in private to help me out because i felt it was unfair that two server moderators were coming at me so aggressively.

As you can see from the screenshots, they claimed that I attacked Fiesta when i was simply pointing out that her behavior was hypocritical and unfair especially because she is in a position of power and that's something people of power should be aware of.

I was the only one brave enough to say what everyone was thinking. And that's something I have always taken pride in. Speaking up for others when they are too scared to do so themselves. And that was shown through multiple people coming into my dms to tell me they either felt the same way I did or they felt the way I was treated in the conversation above was unfair. This next screenshot is from a private message from a former manager.

Narcissa (white cis woman) received a few apologies from the server managers privately, yet my dms stayed vacant. At this point, they made a “public apology” towards everyone in the server which I forgot to screenshot, and not a single server manager reached out to me in private. But they did share these in the server for everyone to see:

They then opened an anonymous feedback form for us to share if we had any issues privately, which of course, I did, and so I filled it out saying “wheres my fucking apology ~king” so they would know exactly who the response was coming from. I was angry and hurt that they treated me the way they did. I regretted wording it like that almost instantly after sending it. But the deed was done and it was unchangeable. And not too long after, this was posted publicly in the server feedback channel so that everyone in the server could see:

Whether I shared that it was from me or not, she violated the server moderators unanimous statement saying that everything posted in the feedback form would stay anonymous and made my response public using the excuse that me sharing my name made it okay for her to show it to everyone. I was also being informed by other people I’m friends with that the forms that were being submitted were not staying anonymous and that they were being shared from other moderators privately in other peoples' dms.

I stuck around in the server because the people that I had formed friendships with were there and they were special to me and I wanted to be able to talk to them still in spite of everything that had happened to me up until this point. I was much more subdued at this point, I was posting less art and as you noticed I practically disappeared from twitter as well.

My love for Warrior Nun was decreasing rapidly because the environment had become so toxic and unwelcoming that I felt scared to say much in the server in fear of being banned after seeing one of my trans poc friends banned for saying hi to another member. They had been looking for a reason to ban him for being on my side instead of theirs and apparently found the “perfect” excuse. They deleted his messages and claimed in their private admin channel that he had harassed someone in the server without screenshotting the false evidence first. How do I know this? Because I had a person on the team that valued me as a person instead of as a content creator and what I could give to the server.

I proceeded to curate the server for what fit me best, considering the ridiculous number of channels they created that had nothing to do with the show at this point. And there was an option for members to do that so I used the tools they had provided with and opted out of channels I no longer wanted to see. I consolidated it down to 35 out of 66 channels because some of them had no opt out option. And still, it was way more channels than I'd prefer to be in. I narrowed it down to only ships I actually cared about instead of having a bunch of channels I was never gonna read or say things in. And that's when the manager that cared about us provided me with these telling screenshots.

Why put me in “jail” over removing some roles? It may not have been explicit, but the internalized racism of putting a person of color in “jail” for curating what they wanted from a server is frankly off putting to say the least. "Implicit racism includes unconscious biases, expectations, or tendencies that exist within an individual, regardless of ill-will or any self-aware prejudices."

And what does carl bot do exactly? It logs EVERYTHING. But only if that feature is enabled. And clearly, in Future Warrior Nuns, it is.

They didn’t care about me and didn’t care that I was a consistent content creator. For lack of better words, I was one of the biggest reasons the actual part of the server that was dedicated to the show was constantly active and once I became quiet, along with a few other content creators I talked with, the activity decreased immensely. I said things here and there but that was about it. Until I was looking through their emotes. I noticed that they had trans, gay, demi, bi, aro, and ace heart emotes but the lesbian one wasnt there. Which was honestly surprising considering how much of the fandom identifies as lesbian. So I asked for it to be added and after it was, so many people were super happy because of it.

One day later i asked for more Mary emotes because they hadn’t completely brushed me off after requesting for the lesbian pride one. I noticed that Ava, the white character, had 72 animated and still emotes at the time while Mary, the black character, only had 18. And only 4 out of those were positive emotes. Here's that conversation:

I offered up my services to create Mary emotes for them considering I was an artist and content creator and it would be no issue for me at all to contribute but they declined, saying they were working on some themselves and that they would eventually add them to the server. The ones that they had created all looked terrible. They didn't know how to color correct her skin so that it wouldn't look ashy because of the filters used in the show and instead of asking for help from me, an artist of color, they simply did their own thing. And from 18 emotes, it went up to a dazzling 24.

Needless to say, the racism they claimed not to have was pretty evident at this point. It was shockingly clear that they didn’t care as much about the characters of color than they did for the white and white passing ones. After this entire debacle I didn't even bother trying to ask for more emotes for Lilith considering how warmly I was welcomed with asking for more Mary emotes.

A little less than two months after the initial incident, I still hadn’t been contacted by anyone on the admin team about absolutely anything in private. It wasn’t until people asked Fiesta if she had reached out to me or even bothered with an apology before she sent me this:

The “apology” was worthless. Too much time had passed since I was publicly humiliated and portrayed as the evil transmasculine person of color to them, and only a select few people interacted with me. I felt completely shut out because of how the admin team handled a difference of opinion. Instead of correcting themselves and admitting they were wrong, they doubled down on the intimidation and bullying by changing their rules so that they could find excuses to ban or punish anyone they felt was not on their side.

At this point, my grades were heavily declining. I was already struggling with keeping up with everything on my own due to covid and my mental disabilities. Being a victim of this racist behavior made everything worse. I couldn’t get out of bed, I was barely eating a meal a day because I had no motivation to work so I had little to no money to buy myself food. I was starving most days. And I didn’t ask my mom for help because I felt everything was my fault and that I really was in the wrong and shouldn't have said anything even though looking back at it I wasn't wrong for what I said. I had also been informed that my dad died because of covid and because of all of this stress and depression I had officially failed my classes.

This is really difficult for me to say because I’m a very private person and I hate asking for help or sharing anything about my private life, but for you to understand everything that was happening to me at the time, this is stuff you unfortunately need to know.

There’s many more things that I could say about this server but this thread is already long enough as it is and it was hard enough to write this all down. But behind closed doors, the admin team had some of the nastiest attitudes and behaviors you could’ve seen. Had they realized we had someone on their team that actually valued us and others as people, they probably would have kept their blatant ignorance and dislike towards server members hidden better. But white people like oppressing others when they know they can get away with it and this is just another sad unfortunate example that cost me and my fellow friends of color some heavy emotional and psychological damage. They did wrong and refused to acknowledge it and instead tried to find a way to ban us for not having the hivemind that they so desperately want to control everyone with. If you want to see for yourself, feel free to find a link to a discord server named Future Warrior Nuns. If you look back through their channels, you’ll find most of these conversations either gone or have many messages missing. I hope my story will help understand why I’ve been gone from tumblr for so long and i hope something like this never happens to you.

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spacialsojourn · 3 years

Text

First Contact

------------Show Pesterlog ------------

New Message from: grimauxiliatrix

GA: Hello GA: My Apologies For Contacting You Seemingly Out Of The Proverbial Blue GA: But I Noticed That Your Username Is Quite Similar To One That A Friend Of Mine Used To Have GA: It May Just Be A Coincidence However On The Off Chance That You Might Know Her GA: Are You At All Familiar With The Name Vriska Serket GA: If Not Then I Apologize For Taking Up Your Time GA: This Is Just The First Time I Have Had Access To Any Sort Of Electronic Communication In A Couple Of Sweeps GA: Though If You Are Not Familiar With The Name Vriska Then I Suppose The Term Sweep Is Likewise Meaningless To You GA: Suffice To Say That It Has Been Quite A While Since I Was Last Able To Even Attempt A Search For The Individual I Am Seeking In An Online Platform GA: And It Is Either Very Fortuitous GA: Or Else Very Coincidental GA: I Personally Am Expecting The Latter But Hoping For The Former AG: Oh wow AG: I wasn't expecting any8ody to ever message this account ag8in. I haven't gotten a message here since AG: Wow, fuck, years ago at this point AG: Kan???????? AG: Are you here??????? AG: Are you Human???????? GA: You Will Have To Define What You Mean By Here GA: But Yes I Am Human

AG: Earth.

GA: I Have Been For Approximately Two Sweeps Now

AG: I mean that already answers my question and I feel like that was pretty o8vious in the context

GA: Possibly

AG: 8ut fuck, 4 years???????? AG: Where are you? Are you s8fe? AG: I mean o8viously you're not dead otherwise we wouldn't 8e having this convers8tion. AG: I've never 8een happier to see your prissy quirk in my entire fucking life this is am8zing

GA: I Am Still Trying To Reconcile Your Presence With The Wasteland Landscape I Have Been Trekking Through For What Feels Like Ages GA: But All Things Considered I Am Doing About As Well As One Can Be On An Alien Planet In A Body Not Ones Own GA: You Are Correct However GA: I Am Not Dead GA: Anymore GA: But I Was For A Short While GA: It Sucked Just As Much As The Last Time It Happened GA: Though It Was Much Slower This Time GA: So It May Have Actually Been Worse In Retrospect GA: And My Quirk Is Not Prissy

AG: Yeah the w8stelands fucking suck AG: Do you need assistance? I don't even know where the fuck you are 8ut I can send like........ AG: A caravan or something out to come get you. 8ring you 8ack to my Mansion and get you out of the fucking dust AG: Terezi's here. Sollux, too. AG: No8ody else has come forward yet 8ut that doesn't mean they're not kicking a8out somefucking where AG: Did SkaiaNet respawn you? AG: And yeah, it is Kan. It's shockingly prim and proper for a mid-spectrum j8de8lood 8ut that's the least important thing we're talking a8out so try to st8y on topic, thanks

GA: It Is Not Prissy GA: Especially As None Of Us Can Be Considered Any Sort Of Caste On The Hemospectrum Anymore GA: Though I Must Confess To Being Surprised And Not At All Shocked That You Are Living In A Mansion GA: Again GA: Did This One Come With A Gigantic Spider Monster As Well GA: GA: But No GA: Skaianet Did Not Revive Me GA: If Anything GA: They Were The Spark That Caused My Death GA: I Am Still Not Sure How I Managed To Revive GA: All I Do Know Is That I Am Some Sort Of Human Equivalent To Rainbow Drinkers GA: But I Am Not Sure If I Qualify To Be A Vampire As I Can Still Walk About In The Sunlight GA: I Do Not Know Where I Am Either If You Were To Try And Send Someone To Guide Me To You GA: The Closest Thing I Can Figure Out Is That I Am Somewhere That Is Yet More Desert GA: It Almost Makes Me Feel Hivesick For Alternia GA: Almost

AG: All Rust8loods all the w8y down 8a8ey AG: I keep w8ing for some8ody like Eridan or may8e even the 8atterwitch herself to come through AG: and just end up shitting a fucking cluck8east at 8eing stripped of their no8ility AG: It'll 8e hilarious when it happens AG: Oh my fucking god AG: Of course you'd 8e a vampire AG: That's hilarious. I mean, not the having to die to 8ecome one part AG: 8ut that the Earth recali8r8ion just went 'you know what? this ones a vampire' AG: Regardless, there's no point in arguing 8ecause your quirk is just inherently prissy AG: and I'm not the only person who thinks that AG: AND there's more important shit to talk a8out so I don't know why that's shoving a stick so far up your ass ::::// AG: Almost everywhere is desert. You're somewhere with internet though and that narrows things down AG: If we can't use landmarks to try and figure it out, I'll message Sol and get his ass on it AG: Oh AG: Also AG: I go 8y 'Spin' now

GA: I Will Admit That You Mentioning The Idea Of The Condesce Herself Coming Here And Finding Herself Reduced To A Red Blooded Human Has Made Me Smile For The First Time In What Feels Like A Perigree GA: Your Joy At My Vampiric Status Is Not As Endearing However GA: I Will Stand By My Statement That My Quirk Is Not Prissy GA: Your Quirk Is Simply Too Loose And Lax With Rules For Clear Communication GA: As For Why It Is Jamming A Proverbial Arboreal Rod Up My Waste Chute I GA: GA: Admittedly Do Not Know Why I Am Getting So Defensive About It GA: It Just Feels Like I Have Not Had A Proper Moment To Rest Since I Revived GA: And I Am So Tired Vriska GA: I Am Tired And Angry And I Want To Just Find Someplace That Will Not See Me Run Out Of Whatever Settlement I Find As Soon As They Even Begin To Suspect That I Am Who I Am GA: So Forgive Me For Being Defensive Of Something That Makes Me Feel A Little Less Like Some Kind Of Unwanted Monster GA: I Would Think That Of Everyone In Our Old Friendship Circle You Would Be Able To Understand That Desire GA: GA: GA: Spin GA: GA: Why Did You Change Your Name To Spin GA: I Always Thought That You Had A Lovely Name With Vriska

AG: I'll l8y off of it AG: And nahhhhhhhh I've had to expl8in my quirk a8out a dozen times to people who don't know why I type like I do AG: It's pretty simple, hardly a 8arrier, 8ut then you've got Miss Crisp Annunci8ion over here AG: 8ut whatever, it's fine, it's honestly the least offensive quirk that exists on Earth right now AG: No repl8cements, no shorthands, you get what you see. Refreshing since Sol is using ii's, 2's, and 0's which looks like hell AG: Humans fucking suck AG: Especially Humans who never experienced the G8me at all AG: Fuck them, 8unch of useless NPCs out here 8eing ******** and passing judgement they don't have the right to fucking pass AG: Let me come get you. If I can find where you are, you can have the fucking presidential suite to chill out in AG: I've got a good infrastructure here, there's electricity and running water AG: We've got our own water treatment plant for the mansion itself, as well as another couple for the rest of L8dy's country AG: We've got food, and shelter, we've got fa8ric8ion 8uildings and shit AG: You'll 8e s8fe here. Away from SkaiaNet AG: Spin just....... fits 8etter, I guess. I've met a lot of my altern8s and I don't really want to associ8 with them AG: They all fucking suck lm8o

GA: I Had Nearly Forgotten How Much Of A Pan-Ache I Would Get From Reading Too Many Of Solluxes Messages In A Row GA: GA: GA: GA: GA: I Cannot Tell If This Is You Trying To Hype Up An Otherwise Mediocre Settlement That You Have A Minor Role Of Authority In GA: Or If You Actually Have A Mansion With All Those Amenities And Are Sincere In Wanting To Share Them With Me GA: If It Is The Latter Then I Cannot Guarantee How I Will React GA: But I Will Take You Up On Your Offer GA: Even If It Is Not As Advanced As You Are Claiming GA: If Only Half Of It Is True Then That Is Still Far Better Than I Have Been Able To Gain Access To Since I Arrived On This Planet GA: GA: And As Hard A Time As Myself Or Others Might Give You For Some Of Your Ethical Choices Vriska GA: You Should Not Be So Hard On Yourself GA: Not Even If It Is Not Technically You GA: All Alternates Are Shadows Of Ourselves And Who We Could Have Been Or Could Yet Be GA: We Have Been Getting The Shit Kicked Out Of Us Since We Picked Up That Accursed Game GA: Do Not Do SGRUBs Job For It Now That We Have Finally Escaped Its Grasp

AG: No AG: Kan AG: You don't understand AG: I am the QUEEN of L8dy's Country, Nevada. AG: It's a huge settlement with 8arric8ded walls, I think it was last year or the year 8efore we got the power grid 8ack up AG: It's funded 8y L8dy's Mansion, my live-in headquarters which also dou8les as a fucking kickass 8itching casino AG: We have a8out 20,000-40,000 people living here as permanent residents and more who come and go AG: There's tr8de, there's medicull staff, there's textile plants and industrial gardens AG: We have a standardized 8arter system AG: I've done SO MUCH p8perslogging and pulling myself up from my fucking 8ootstraps AG: I'm not 'hyping up a mediocre settlement' AG: You have to literally get into a vehicle to drive from L8dy's Mansion to the 8order walls 8ecause my territory is so large AG: We are one of the 8iggest non-aligned Encampments in the western hemisphere AG: I'm........ AG: I'm 8uilding an army, Kan. This pl8ce is fucking Huge.

GA: Vriska GA: Why Are You Building An Army GA: Did We Not All Go Through This Sort Of Thing Once Before GA: Do You Really Need To Seek Out Conflict Again So Soon

AG: SkaiaNet needs to 8e 8rought down AG: People are suffering 8ecause they hold ALL the wealth and ALL the resources AG: I'm not just going to stand 8y and let them 8ully every8ody into su8mission while the planet dies AG: and they MORE than have the capa8ilities to m8ke life more comforta8le AG: Yes I've 8uilt an army 8efore, that's why I'm the perfect person for this jo8 AG: I have experience with this shit AG: SkaiaNet has no IDEA what kind of enemy it's m8de in me AG: Also AG: My n8me is Spin. AG: I've triangul8ed your loc8ion. AG: Do you want me to come get you or no?

GA: GA: GA:

AG: Yes or no?

GA: I Am Thinking GA: GA: GA: Will It Be You Who Picks Me Up GA: Or Some Random Underling Of Yours

AG: If you want me to m8ke the trip personally, I can t8ke a 8r8k AG: L8dy's Country won't fall apart without me for a d8y

GA: No GA: No That Will Be Fine GA: I Am Not Entirely Sure That I Want To See You GA: Until I Have Had A Chance To Clean Up

AG: God even in the f8ce of a post-apocalyptic w8steland you're still so prim lmf8o AG: I'll send my personal guard. His n8me's Seipher, I'd trust him with my life. AG: Are you in a s8fe pl8ce to 8unker down? You're a8out 7 hours out from where we're at

GA: Vri GA: GA: Spin GA: I Have Been Walking On My Own Through Swamps GA: Forests GA: Rivers And Open Fields Full Of Mud And Sadness GA: I Have Had To Bathe In Whatever Little Flowing Water I Could Find GA: And Do Not Even Get Me Started On Things Like My Clothes GA: Or All The Extra Features That Are Included With Being A Human In The Way Of Hygiene GA: Forgive Me If I Want A Moment Or Two To Myself Before I See Someone I Care About For The First Time In Almost Two Entire Sweeps GA: So That I Can Look And Smell Presentable GA: Rather Than Looking Like I Am Some Sort Of Bog Person And Smelling Like A Waterlogged Carcass

AG: You care a8out me? AG: AG: AG: lmf8oooooooo could you imagine, I had the strongest urge to send that and then NOTHING until my driver arrives there AG: God that would’ve 8een soooooooo funny AG: Yeah roughing it in the wilderness is fucking awful, I’ll have Seipher and K8 get you set up in your suite after you arrive and then you can just lmk when you’re ready and we’ll have dinner and a drink or something AG: I’ll see you then!!!!!!!! ::::)

——arachnidsGrip [AG] ceased Trolling grimAuxilitrix [GA]——

GA: GA: GA: GA: But I Did Not Want To Be Done Talking With You GA: GA: ---grimauxiliatrix [GA] disconnected---

@betterthan777 @g4llowsc4l1br4t1ng @g0iinggh02t

#plot post #first post #chatlog

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lilydalexf · 4 years

Photo

Old School X is a project interviewing X-Files fanfic authors who were posting fic during the original run of the show. New interviews are posted every Tuesday.

Interview with Jintian

Jintian has 21 X-Files stories at AO3 all posted during the original run of the show and all fics you should read if you like beautiful words and lovely character insights (and you do!). I've recced some of my favorites here before, including Argus, Diving, God's Breath, and Seven Days. Big thanks to Jintian for doing this interview.

Does it surprise you that people are still interested in reading your X-Files fanfics and others that were posted during the original run of the show (1993-2002)?

Many authors from the original run still loom large in my mind, so I'm glad to hear it. The show had great production values and cinematography and iconic characters, and I think that level of quality was reflected in fanworks. Good writing is good writing no matter how old. For myself, I'm happy if anything I made still resonates with people. What do you think of when you think about your X-Files fandom experience? What did you take away from it?

Just doing the math, I first discovered XF over half my lifetime ago. I was a sheltered introverted young'un. Online fandom introduced me to a diversity of people and perspectives I couldn't have found in my "real" life at the time. I'm especially grateful for the wisdom of women who, over the years, advised or supported me or simply led by example – not only with writing, but with everything from relationships to job interviews to finances. And I love that in so many places I've lived or traveled, I've been able to meet someone local who already feels like a friend.

Social media didn't really exist during the show's original run. How were you most involved with the X-Files online (atxc, message board, email mailing list, etc.)? The Scullyfic mailing list, ATXC, and archives were my main venues. Scullyfic was such a well-run group, with structured discussion topics, post-episode commentary, and writing challenges.

Also, an image comes to mind: for some reason my dad put our computer in the garage, where we had a fan but no air conditioning, and we lived in the US southeast which feels like the armpit of hell in the summertime. I'd sit in that sweltering muggy heat for hours getting my fandom fix. And the only way to connect to the internet was via landline, which I couldn't tie up during the day, so that meant a lot of late nights as well. My fandom equivalent of trudging miles uphill in the snow?

What did you take away from your experience with X-Files fic or with the fandom in general? With regard to fanfic, I learned how to receive and give constructive criticism, before and after posting. Even if it was "just" fanfic, most everyone wanted to improve their writing. I think that was a good mindset for me to cultivate, personally and professionally.

With regard to fandom, I learned how to be an active and analytical consumer, and that there can be many (many!) interpretations of a text. What was it that got you hooked on the X-Files as a show? The fanfic, actually. Somehow in my internet wanderings, I stumbled across Gossamer. Dawson Rambo's casefiles were also early finds. Curiosity about the characters drove me to check out the show.

What got you involved with X-Files fanfic?

As far as writing my own, I had an image in my head which I jotted down, and over several months I kept adding to it – mostly navel-gazing, not much plot. The resulting story was a hodgepodge of different POVs and different tenses. *facepalm* But I received some lovely feedback, and I felt very welcomed. For me the XF community, with everyone's creativity and dedication, was just as inspiring and motivating for fanfic as the show.

What is your relationship like now to X-Files fandom?

I think of it like school. I learned a lot, I graduated, and now it's primarily occupied by a new generation. Were you involved with any fandoms after the X-Files? If so, what was it like compared to X-Files?

If XF was like university, then afterward was like graduate school. Sophiahelix and I started a multi-fandom mailing list called Glass Onion and met lots of folks. Livejournal/Dreamwidth became big public platforms which enabled tons of cross-fandom links, recs, and discussions – and sometimes clashes. Although it wasn't as intensely formative for me as XF, I realized that fandom in general has had an undeniable impact on my life. [Lilydale note: That’s a link to a wonderful little essay Jintian wrote about fandom.]

Who are some of your favorite fictional characters? Why? I love the sneak attackers, the ones who seem unassuming or perhaps disadvantaged, but they're actually out here killing the game. Dana Scully was a small-statured person who had to move the driver's seat to reach the pedals – like me – but she was an FBI agent, medical doctor, and forensic pathologist – unlike me, but goals. Other similar faves are Toph Beifong (Avatar: The Last Airbender), Mat Cauthon (Wheel of Time), and Jang Geurae (Misaeng). Do you ever still watch The X-Files or think about Mulder and Scully? Several years ago I had the notion to introduce my husband to the show, and it was totally enjoyable and could stand up with shows airing today. (Husband queried: "What is the deal with Mulder? He should have been fired 19 times already." We were in Season 2.)

Do you ever still read X-Files fic? Fic in another fandom?

No XF lately, but I'll check AO3 whenever I encounter a shiny new ship. Reading fic is my only fannish activity these days, so I stay happy and conflict-free.

Do you have any favorite X-Files fanfic stories or authors? It's been ages, but today I'm thinking of torch, Jane St Clair, Jordan, RivkaT, MustangSally, Khyber, nevdull, Justin Glasser, Vehemently, Nascent... On any other day it could be a whole different list. The fandom was so rich and deep in writers. What is your favorite of your own fics, X-Files and/or otherwise?

My XF stuff was kind of all over the place. I experimented a lot, with mixed results. I guess I'm glad about some of the subject matter I tackled, like Scully's trauma and post-abduction state of mind (and body) in Loss of Yesterday, and the thematically similar Longer Gone, which explored Samantha.

What's the story behind your pen name? Jintian means "today" in Mandarin Chinese. I was feeling existential. 🤷‍♀️

Do your friends and family know about your fic and, if so, what have been their reactions? I've only ever told an ex and my husband. They were allowed to read one story – which I chose. They thought it was cool, I guess. I can't remember clearly because I had my fingers stuck in my ears going "lalalala!"

However, I can always count on my husband to say something savagely funny about fandom mess, so I just try to curate his exposure. For instance, he could recap the Msscribe saga but couldn't tell you any of my usernames. He's also met a number of my fannish friends so he knows how we get, hah.

Is there a place online (tumblr, twitter, AO3, etc.) where people can find you and/or your stories now?

AO3 Is there anything else you'd like to share with fans of X-Files fic?

As I'm writing this, the world is grappling with COVID-19. I'm wishing everyone safety and health, both physical and mental. If fandom provides a positive escape, embrace and enjoy it!

(Posted by Lilydale on October 6, 2020)

#new post #old school x #xfiles fanfic #xf fanfic #xf fanfic author interviews #jintian

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calligraphist-artemisia · 3 years

Text

The Fourth Moon of Kr'vta

For Kidgemas 2020. The prompt for December 27 is “Snow Angels”.

Summary: While Lance tries to convince Allura that they should take a vacation on a snow planet, Keith and Pidge take matters in their own hands and set off without the rest of the paladins.

Also posted on AO3 under the username “kishirokitsune”.

❄ - ❄ - ❄ - ❄

There was only so long that Pidge was willing to watch Lance's painfully awkward attempts at flirting with Allura while also trying to convince her that a vacation on a planet covered in snow was exactly what they all needed. (Though why Lance “I-hate-the-cold-and-will-bundle-up-in-sweaters-if-the-temperature-drops-below-60” McClain wanted to go play in the snow would remain a mystery that she didn't care enough to solve.) She took a good look around to make sure Coran, Shiro, and Hunk were too preoccupied to pay her any attention and then she tapped Keith on the arm and gestured towards the doors.

It took Keith a few seconds to understand what she was indicating and then he nodded and they left the bridge without anyone noticing. Once the doors shut behind them, he turned to Pidge to ask what she wanted.

Pidge raised an eyebrow. “Who do you think helped Lance find a planet that's safe enough for us to visit? I figure we may as well enjoy it before Allura fully shuts down Lance's idea.”

A flicker of confusion crossed Keith's face. “You... want to go play in the snow?”

“Yeah, it sounds like fun,” Pidge said with a shrug. “Mom and dad used to take us to a snow lodge on some holidays just to get away from everything. Matt and I always had a blast. If it's not something you're into I understand, but I'm still going to go.”

Keith was quiet for a moment but he didn't hesitate to continue following her. It was as they drew close to the fabrication room and slowed down to open the door, that he softly admitted: “I've never seen snow before.”

Pidge paused long enough to glance his way and give him a smile. “Then we better get you suited up.”

The door slid open before them and Pidge led the way to the fabricator on the far side of the room. A variety of fabric samples were hung around the rest of the walls, all labeled so that someone could fully customize their clothing if they wanted. The only place along those three walls that didn't have fabric was a door leading to the changing rooms. For Pidge it was all familiar; she'd visited the room a number of times to recreate her favorite sweater, as well as to make a variety of shirts that she wore beneath it.

“What is this place?” Keith asked as he looked around.

“Wait, you've never been to the fabrication room?” Pidge asked with a frown. “How have you been wearing the exact same thing this whole time? I thought Shiro was going to show you how to use this!”

Keith shrugged. “I think he was planning to, but I never saw the point. I just use the shower in my room to wash everything at the end of the day and let it dry overnight.”

Pidge made a sound like she wanted to say something, but instead turned away to cover up her grin. It really wasn't a surprise that Keith was so self-sufficient in such an unnecessary way. She found it charming, in its own way.

“We'll talk about that later, but right now we're making you a coat. And a hat and gloves. Maybe some thicker pants,” Pidge mused. “You know, I made fun of Lance when he spent an entire day in here trying to input styles from Earth, but I may have to thank him for doing that, otherwise we'd be running around in the snow in our armor instead. Yes, that's an option. No, we're not doing that.”

“I guess that would ruin the spirit of things,” Keith remarked, sounding as though he was trying not to laugh.

“It would.”

Pidge directed Keith to step up onto a raised platform so the system could scan him for his measurements. Soon after, she made a few quick selections on the screen and the fabrication machine went to work. It wasn't long before there were two bundles of clothing deposited in a chute in-between the screen and the platform where Keith stood.

“Here's yours,” Pidge said, gesturing to the bundle of red-and-black. Her own was noticeably green, and she scooped it up into her arms and set off to the changing room without waiting for Keith.

She took her time stripping out of her sweater, tank top, and shorts, carefully folding each and setting them to the side so she could retrieve them later, until she was standing only in her underwear. There was a brief moment where she admired the way the red looked against her pale skin but that moment quickly passed and she chastised herself for moving so slowly when Keith was undoubtedly waiting for her.

Pidge redressed in her chosen clothing – a white turtleneck and weatherproof gray pants (which had a texture somewhat similar to jeans), over which she wore a simple pea-coat in emerald green. To complete her ensemble were a pair of dark gray boots, as well as white gloves and a knit hat.

When she left the changing room, Keith was waiting for her as he pulled on his own gloves, which were black to match his pants and boots. His coat, which was similar in style to Pidge's but longer, was an attractive shade of red and he wore a scarf and hat that matched. He lifted his head as she approached, his eyes flickering over her form.

“Ready to go?” Pidge asked. “I was thinking we could take the Red Lion, since she's the fastest.”

Keith didn't hesitate to agree and it wasn't long before the pair of them were flying out into space with Pidge giving out the coordinates for Keith to input. To keep the others in the dark for a little while longer (and to buy more time to fully enjoy the snow), they temporarily turned off communication to the Castle of Lions.

“So, where exactly are we going?” Keith asked.

“The fourth moon of Kr'vta,” Pidge replied. “The poles are a whole new scale of subarctic, at least compared to Earth, but around the equator it usually stays just under freezing and it's perfect for snow.”

Kr'vta itself was a massive gaseous planet and was surrounded by several sets of icy rings, not unlike Saturn. Only the two largest moons had names – Kr'x and Kr'tn – and both were slightly larger than Earth and capable of housing life. The third largest moon had a liquid surface too hot for most species to handle. The fourth moon was known for its icy cold temperatures and while there were once several outposts established there, all intel suggested they had been abandoned for more profitable locations.

The Red Lion landed on the surface of the moon without any problem and Pidge and Keith were soon disembarking into the snowy landscape.

Pidge breathed in deeply, enjoying the crisp, fresh air.

It had been so long since she last got to enjoy the snow. Plaht City never saw snow even during the coldest years, so the only time she saw any was during the winters when her family would vacation at a ski resort in the mountains. She had such fond memories of racing Matt to be the first one to make snow angels.

Her eyes lit up and she grabbed Keith's hand, tugging him farther out into the snowy field.

“Pidge, what-?”

“I'm going to show you how to make snow angels!”

She took his silence as agreement.

“The hardest part is standing up without ruining the image once you're done. Matt and I found the best way is to get someone else to help you up. Our parents were always willing to lend a hand, but in this case it'll just be me and you.” Pidge released his hand and took a few steps away. “Do you want to go first?”

“Um, maybe you should? That way I can see how it's done,” Keith said.

Pidge grinned at him as she spread her arms wide and tucked her chin against her chest before letting herself fall backwards. The snow cushioned her fall, the fresh top powder resettling and melting on her face. She giddily moved her arms and legs until she was sure she had the perfect image imprinted into the snow and then she raised her arms. “Lift me up, Keith!”

She could hear snow crunching beneath his feet as she approached and then saw a pair of hands come into view as he carefully grasped hers and began to pull her up and forward. It was when she was halfway up and able to stand on her own that she realized a problem, but it was too late.

Keith overestimated the amount of strength needed to help her up and yanked her fully into his arms, which knocked him off balance and backwards into the snow with Pidge on top of him.

For a few long seconds, they could only lay there.

And then Pidge started to laugh.

Keith snorted and was soon laughing just as hard, both of them lost to mild hysteria over their own silliness.

Pidge lifted herself up, suddenly aware of Keith's arm around her waist, and her breath caught in her throat as she witnessed pure joy light up his face. She couldn't bring herself to get up and ruin the moment, too enraptured by how gorgeous he looked. (And she'd always found Keith attractive, but seeing him so happy made him even more so.)

The moment was eventually broken with the roar of a Lion from overhead and the rush of wind generated from the Blue Lion coming in for a fast landing.

Keith's laughter faded away, but his smile did not. “I think Lance ruined your snow angel.”

“I'm sure I can think of a suitable punishment. Want to help?” Pidge asked as she reluctantly stood. She held out her hand to help Keith, though he didn't need it.

“If it means I can shove snow down his coat? Absolutely.”

Pidge covered her mouth with one gloved hand to cover the giggle that bubbled up. “I think I can arrange that.”

#voltron #kidge #fanfiction #kidgemas 2020 #kidge mini event

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z-iridest · 4 years

Note

Can you do hawks and todoroki reaction to meeting their s/o for the first time after months of long distance online dating🙇🏾‍♀️🙇🏾‍♀️🌸

(A/N: This is such a cute idea! :3 Hope u don't mind headcannons again)

Online, Long Distance Dating: First Time Meeting In Real Life

Shouto Todoroki

To be fair, Shouto Todoroki hadn't even known what Instagram, or any other social media platform even was besides Facebook.

When he was first introduced to Instagram, the account made for him by his friends, he had instantly gained 1 million followers almost overnight. (He says it's only because of his father, but c'mon, ladies, he's just that hot)

The account posts page is filled with tagged, sneaky pictures from his friends, all of them adorable, pictures of soba, his mother (totally appreciation posts for Mamaroki) Fuyumi and Natsuo

But, one follower of his in particular caught his herochromatic eyes.... Y/N L/N. They had liked every one of his posts since day one, always leaving a friendly "hello" in the comments or leaving a comment about how wonderful his family seemed to be. If only Shouto knew just how whipped he was about to be....

The specific post that started it all popped up in his feed one fateful day was a picture of you that had been taken at the perfect moment. Your h/c floated in the breeze, your e/c shut as you were caught in an open mouthed laugh, Shouto finding your smile to be not only infectious, but bewitching. Yet, he yearned to hear what your laugh sounded like.

Before he knew what the hell he was even doing, he had -How would his friends put it?- slid into your dms, saying hello.

Since you lived in America (and were a light sleeper on top of being a slight insomniac), you weren't expecting a dm before the sun could wake up, so the minute your phone went off with a notification, you nearly fell out of bed due to the earbuds in your ears... That notification was LOUD!

When you looked at the message, it was from DamnIcyHot (that username was all Bakugo) and read: Hello, I'm Shouto. You looked beautiful in your recent post, and I thought you deserved to hear that. I hope you have a wonderful day

You blushed and that dm... Well, let's just say it wasn't the last.

Just two months after talking to you, Shoto asked you out.... On a video call, dressed in a tux with a red tie, and holding a half white and half red rose. (Pic above, folks)

Poor baby is so nervous, he's shifting and fixing his tie every few seconds and it's all you can do not to start squealing.

Y/N... I never thought it was possible to fall in love with someone I have yet to meet in real life, but, I have. I've fallen hard for you, Y/N. Everytime I see you post, it brings me so much joy and makes me smile everyday, and... I don't want it to ever stop. Y/N, I want to be able to video call you every night, to tell you how beautiful and perfect you are in my eyes until you fall asleep. I want to be able to see you every night and wake up to your beautiful face every morning. If I may have this chance, I promise, you will be treated like the princess you are, and I will never let you forget how precious you are to me.

The poor, half white, half red haired baby is now stumbling over his words as a blush darker than the red half of his hair appears on his face. Y/N... I was wondering... Would you... Maybe... want to be mine?

You had blushed and hidden behind your hands, a sight that Shouto still remembers as the cutest thing you've ever done, and nodded in response. If you had dared looked up, you would have seen the relieved look on his face as a laugh, a genuine laugh of relief, spills from his lips.

And that was only the beginning...

It only took a couple days before his friends noticed that their herochromatic eyed friend was acting a bit... Stranger than usual.

He was grumpier on certain days, happily smiling down at his phone, excusing himself to go to his room for hours on end.

Nobody knew what was going on, or why he was on his phone so much.

Kaminari had suggested spying on Todoroki, but Izuku had gone with a more... Direct approach.

When asked why he was on his phone so much, Todoroki had just blinked and said matter of factily, I have an S/O. The whole class, except for Yamomo, is shocked by this. This one of those, "I thought it was obvious" moments for Yamomo.

Speaking of Yamomo, she asks who the lucky person is. Instead of answering her, Shouto shows her the screenshot he unashamedly took of you.

In the screenshot, you're sporting a bright smile, e/c eyes filled with adoration and love, the look you had given him before calling him your Peppermint Baby for the first time, that baby boi was soooooo flustered by it. (What? He couldn't help it, it was too cute of a moment to let pass). The girls instantly squeal and ship you two together while some of the boys (*cough, cough* Kaminari and Mineta *cough*) are wondering how the hell you guys had even gotten together.

That same night, he called you and told you about the day's events, which honestly had you in fits of laughter.

Shortly after that, you were informed that you were being moved to Japan. Were you excited? Yes! You get to meet your boyfriend face to face for the first time, you were nervous and excited at the same time.

Did you tell him? Nope. You were waaaaay too giddy with the thought of how surprised he would be to see you.

Since you were being moved to Japan, that meant being transferred into U.A. High. Your Class being 1-A.

Shouto was talking to his friend group when you arrived, and thankfully for you, his back was to the door.

A green haired boy was the first to see you, his green eyes going a little wide while his friends were unawares, discussing who the new student could be.

Just as he opened his mouth to say something, you quickly put your finger to your lips, silencing him.

Thankfully, the Broccoli Boi gets the hint and schools his features before his friends can notice.

You quietly tip toed until you were directly behind him.

Covering a giggle, you covered his herochromatic eyes with your hands.

The second his eyes were covered, he jumped

Just as he was about to react, he read an all too familiar voice. "Hiya, Peppermint." It couldn't be....

Hands trembling slightly, he gingerly took hold of your hands and turned around, surprised to see a pair of e/c eyes looking back at him. "Y-Y/N?" You were so much more goregous in person....

"Surprise!" You giggled before you felt his arms wrapped tightly around you, a laugh leaving you as your feet left the ground as he picked you up, slightly spinning you before setting you down.

"Is this the girl you were telling us about, Todoroki?" A girl with big brown eyes and floating brown hair asked. The excitement in Shouto's eyes was evident as he finally turned to his friends, realizing you from his hug but still keeping his arm wrapped around you.

"Ururaka, Iida, Midoriya, this is my s/o, Y/N. Y/N, meet my friends Midoriya, Ururaka, and Iida." Shouto introduced you to his friends first. Iida's loud greeting captured the attention of your fellow classmates, and pretty soon, you were surrounded by a bunch of new friends.

It took a while for the excitement to die down, but when it finally did and Shouto finally got you alone, you suddenly found his lips on yours. Your first official kiss with Todoroki... Scratch that, your first one ever.

You found out that day that the Peppermint nickname you had given him... It was well deserved. That boy's lips tasted like sweet peppermint, and his kiss had been so gentle but passionate at the same time, it had taken your breath away.

Let's just say you guys shared a lot of firsts after that..... ;)

Keigo Takami (Hawks)

Hawks? On Instagram? Bitch, please...

This motherfucker is always on Instagram when off duty or taking a break from hero work. He's the number 2 hero now for crying outloud, like he's gonna just ignore the fans that hit him up?

The Instagram he uses for his hero work is officialhawks, set up by his management that he visits every once in a while. That's the one the fans usually float to, and when fans dm, that's when he goes on it.

His personal Instagram, though? That's where the fun really begins.

His personal Instagram? Spice-E-Wings

Only follows a select few on it, and honestly, it'd be a lie if he said he didn't follow Endeavour's accout...

When your profile popped up under his suggested, he got curious....

Seeing as curiosity killed a cat, but never a bird, he satisfied his curiosity by checking out your profile.

Dis Bird Boi was not prepared for what he found.... And he instantly wanted to dm you...

Since you were used to your phone not going off, you were startled when your phone went off. Your roommate, who had seen you jump, teased you about it, to which you simply waved them off as you unlocked your phone to check the messages

Spice-E-Wings? What kind of a username was that?

Nevertheless, you accepted the message and saw this:

Hey there, wyd? ;) Jk, how r u?

The conversation started from there and took the most random turns, eventually turning into you two trying to one up each other on memes

He revealed who he was about a month after talking to you.

You... freaked... out....

You'd been talking to the Hawks the whole time?! Hawks was the one pro hero you had a crush on!

Just months later, on your bday, he asked you to be officially his.

Hey, dove, I gotta be serious here, okay? I really, really like ya, and I wanna get to know ya better. So, with that in mind.... U wanna be mine?

You have never squealed so loud in your life.... Once you were composed, you accepted.

The minute he saw your dm back, his heart exploded, ngl: Only if I get to call you my baby bird ;)

Month after month, it was like the two of you had an unexplainable chemistry despite never seeing each other in real life. Every morning started for you with a G'mornin princess 😘 from Keigo, he never wasted the day when it came to showing you affection over the phone

Despite having never seen your face, Bird Boi was whipped for you.

Did he want to see what you looked like? Hell yeah! But, he knew just by talking to you all this time, that it wasn't something you were ready for.

Imagine his surprise when on his birthday, he received a picture....

When he opened it, it read Happy Birthday Baby Bird, featuring the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his life! His jaw dropped a little, ngl

Those beautiful e/c eyes, your silky h/c hair... Don't even get him started on that bod of yours... That man could praise you like a goddess for hours if you'd let him

His message back to you after that picture?

😍😍😍 Best. Birthday. Ever.

About a year after the two of you started talking, you ended up being transferred to a different city to work.... 12 hours away from your hometown.... To the very same city Keigo patrolled and was responsible for!

Instead of surprising him, knowing he was a Pro Hero, you told him about what was happening and the day you were moving.

Keigo was beyond ecstatic when you told him. He was finally gonna see you in person!

I have an idea, princess, as soon as you're settled in, meet me at the cafè Leblanc. I'll treat you to some coffee jelly on my break.... Leblanc's got the best coffee jelly in Japan. I wanna see you in person, and the sooner the better.

You felt nervous, but agreed to a time to meet up at

When you moved about two weeks later, you moved into your apartment and found that your place was only about a 10 minute walk from the cafè Keigo mentioned.

Now... If Keigo wasn't whipped for you before....

He certainly was now.....

The minute he spotted h/c hair in the crowd, he moved up into the air, his amber eyes easily finding you in the crowd.

You were soooooo much more beautiful in person, and it made him extremely happy to see you.

But, all of a sudden, Hawks felt nervous... What would you think of him when you saw him in person? That baby bird watched over you from the skies until it was time to call it quits. When he finally got everything done, he flew back to the cafè, where you were still waiting for him

No backing out now, Hawks... That's your baby down there, go see them. No big deal.

The mental peptalk did nothing for him... His body wouldn't move...

After an hour, you were getting worried, your brow furrowed as your mind raced through the horrible things that could have happened to him. You decided to text him, Hey, where r u?

And what was this bird brained bastard's reply?

Look up, princess

When you did, you saw him. Big red wings, amber eyes, messy blond hair and all. You watched him as he gracefully glided to you despite his nervousness.

The look in his amber eyes was so soft, a look of pure, unadulterated adoration and love for you clear as day. He immediately wrapped his arms around you

"I'm so sorry I kept you waiting, princess... Forgive me?"

You answered by kissing him, threading your fingers through his soft blond hair as he held you close to him, his wings wrapping around you too. When the two of you pulled away, a goofy grin was smiled before the first of many dates at that cafè took place

His Instagram post that day consisted of a very adorable kiss over coffee jelly with the caption: Finders Keepers, and I found a keeper :3

(A/N: A big thank you to @prismaroyal and @sadistiks for helping me out with Hawks' part :3 hope you guys enjoyed!)

Taglist: @fakeanimefanntnt @lxvely-mha @bnhabookclub

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arcticdementor · 3 years

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A reader writes:

I’m writing to you today because I have some information to share with you (and your readers) who may still be skeptical that this LGBTQIA+ gender-identity craze is coming for their kids. Some recent interactions online have made me more aware than ever that the movement is spreading in wild and unpredictable ways, and also made me reflect on how, in my own life, even someone like me could have fallen victim to it.

I want to start off by saying that recently, (and ironically, in an attempt to try not to be sucked into the internet as purely a source for doom and gloom: you will see how this backfires on me) I decided to rejoin a fan community surrounding one of my favorite franchises on Twitter. I won’t go into too much detail about which community and the exact specifics, but just know that it’s a popular franchise that’s appropriate for older kids, teens and adults (nothing 18+, nothing for really little ones). As a teen myself I was fairly active in a similar branch of this community on another social media platform (Facebook), and enjoyed it immensely before the platform eventually went more or less defunct as a hot-spot for fan content. Most of the content was fan-created work (like fan-art or fan-fiction) with a little interaction and lots of “DID YOU SEE THE LATEST” kinds of posts.

…

Anyway, to keep it to a minimum, that was then. If you’ve been on the internet any time in the last five years you know that spaces where people just talk about an interest and don’t mix it with politics and activism are becoming few and far between. Even though I knew this, and knew that I wasn’t going to have the same experience in a different place, something sparked an interest in me to go try to reconnect with my internet roots in a different setting. So, I followed some hashtags, quickly found some new followers and settled back to enjoy at least marginally some discussions online that didn’t have to do with Covid and All The Ways We Are All Going To Die.

Then came the teenagers.

Much like when I was a kid, this franchise attracts a lot of younger people. So it was hardly surprising to me to find that many of my new followers were in the 14-18 age range and that people like myself (mid-older 20s) were a sort of senior majority. That was fine- Twitter’s rules after all are 13+, so it’s not unreasonable to assume if you’re part of a popular group that you’ll interact on occasion with minors. That wasn’t the part I found strange. The part I found strange was that all of them, and I repeat, all of them were fans of two things- the franchise, and gender identities.

You can actually almost pinpoint the age range of the 18 and under crowd by how many of them have the following: 1. Pronouns in bio and in username. 2. Gender identity or lack thereof displayed in bio or username. 3. LGBTQ+ sexual orientation displayed in bio or username. etc. etc. etc. I’m not going to dive into it too much, because some might be saying “isn’t that just normal nowadays? Even politicians do that?” Well, you’re not wrong if that’s what you’re thinking. And that’s not the part that disturbs me.

What disturbed me was that, a few weeks after I joined the group, I started noticing an unsettling pattern among many of these teenage users (and many over-teen users, but I’m trying to make a point about the young ones specifically). For a few days, after an interesting bit of news or a trailer or some other thing that unites franchises, the posts in my feed would be primarily things like what I remembered from past experiences: posts about the franchises, theories, speculations, fanart, etc. But, every time things would settle back down into a quiet, normal week, the feeds in my post became almost entirely about one thing: Gender and LGBTQ talking points. I’m going to diverge for one second and say that many people in this group aren’t using a personal, front-facing account for their interactions in this fan-group. They’re mostly using alt-accounts with no real names and faces attached (myself included). And yet, every time the discussion in the feeds died down to where there was just no new stuff about the franchise to talk about, all the conversation slowly but surely shifted back to sexual orientation and gender. From fan-ships of perfect LGB couples to ‘hey I drew this person but as a trans-female!’ to even forgoing pretending to talk about their interests and just discussing their own gender and sex presentation with their other online friends, it became quickly very clear to me that A. I no longer really belonged here and B. Every single one of these kids was obsessed. Every. Single. One.

…

I’m going to digress and talk about myself for a minute to explain just why these examples, particularly that last one, burn a hole in my soul. From the minute I was old enough to remember, I’ve never been one of those typically presenting females. When my sisters and I played dress-up as kids, they played princesses and I played a prince or a witch or whatever was more interesting. In addition to the dolls and barbies I had being one of three girls, I also had an assortment of boy-oriented toys, including action figures, a remote control car and this really cool nerf bow-and-arrow set that I still secretly wish had survived my playing with it because man, my kids are gonna miss out someday. My hair was short because I hated wearing it up and the solution was a bob, and when we spent time with relatives I could be found as far away from my female cousins as possible, hanging out with my male cousins and talking about Legos and Lord of The Rings. I spent 90% of my time reading books and ignoring reality, and didn’t put much effort into my appearance until probably age 13 or later.

And I wished I was a boy.

It wasn’t an all-consuming thought, but I thought it. I wished, many times, when my parents would fuss at me to please stop attempting to climb trees in your Sunday clothes and when my sisters never talked about anything but dolls and tea-parties around their friends that I could be one of the boys. I had always liked the boys and their world better, and I fit into better, and yet there was that little problem (that I was still a girl) that kept me from being accepted into the boy group. The reality was, I was already probably very intelligent for my age (too-well read children can relate) and I took that big-headedness a little too far at times. I was also a very emotional person (still am) and just passionately felt that being a girl and being expected to do girl things was hideous and unfair.

The saving grace? My mom was the same. She’s never been a typical female either, and though as adults we have some clear differences (ironically, I have more stereotypical female interests/talents than her- like a hidden passion for interior decorating and a love of baking and so on) she was there for me, to be able to tell me that no- I didn’t really want to be a boy, I was just a girl who liked sword fights and grass-stains more than ballgowns and tea parties, and that was okay!!! She was proof that there were other girls like me, and that I would find more of them eventually (I did) and, even though we never said so in so many words, that stereotypes and how we fit into them has nothing to do with our innate female and male selves. And so, reassured that I could be female and still be however I wanted, I eventually grew out of those thoughts, and as I matured, found that there were ‘female things’ I connected with that my past self was too young to appreciate.

But, think about all this in a modern context. I’m a happy adult female now, and I was never truly gender-questioning. I just thought, for a while, that boys had more fun than I did, so I wanted to be one. But that, in it of itself, is a thought that’s deep enough for modern gender activists to insist I be transitioned immediately and put on life-altering hormones, never given a chance to grow up or grow out of questioning, and affirmed in my presentation instantly! If I, like that young girl online, had been handed a ‘gender-affirming’ flag and an identity that ‘made sense’ out of why I was different from my peers, I might have jumped on it, especially without the presence of a wise older person to tell me I wasn’t anything different than what she’d been as a child. This is the problem, this is why this kind of thing is so dangerous and toxic and wrong.

#the american conservative #letter from a reader #online fan communities

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julia0689 · 4 years

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I’ve only been on Twitch for a month; as someone who doesn’t know much about gaming, I usually hang out in Just Chatting and watch podcasts, or the occasional chess stream. I first stumbled onto the platform through Dr. K’s videos, and Reckful’s six-part saga was, in a sense, my introduction to Twitch. Once I familiarized myself with the platform and its faces, I picked up on three things: one, Reckful was a legendary figure as one of the founders of the genre, two, he was generally considered a nice person, and three, his depression was profound, and a secret to no one.

I was on Twitch when the news of his passing started to circulate. I was watching as streamers everywhere would get the notification, open the tweet, start to cry, and either log off or talk about how much he meant to them. There wasn’t a single person that day that didn’t have something to say. I watched as all of the chapels on WoW, across every server, started to fill with players kneeling in memoriam, staying still for hours as the rooms got so full all you could see was a mass of usernames and condolences. It sent ripples across the community that reached far beyond the confines of Twitch, and now, almost three days later, I’m still walking around with a hole in my chest – I haven’t been this affected by the death of a public figure since Bowie, and even then, the loss was of a cultural icon, not of someone who only made it 31 years before succumbing to the burden of existence in a life full of suffering.

One of the worst things about this loss is that no one was surprised when it happened. Devastated, yes, but not surprised. Reckful was vocal about the pain he was in. He was vocal about the attempts he had been making, throughout his life, to try and feel less alone. His grief, at times, was visceral, and from what I can tell, his friends supported him in every way they could, but no one is superhuman. The worst part is: I get it, man. I’ve grown a lot this year, and I’ve learned what it can mean to be stuck in a view of the world so hellish, things you never would have imagined thinking start to become reasonable options. But I managed to claw my way out, with the help of a few good friends and god-given SSRIs, coming out the other side with a hell of a lot more empathy than I did going in for other people in pain. I’m lucky to have had those people around me, and it’s heartbreaking that Reckful couldn’t connect to the people he had – it isn’t always that easy to connect, and I understand what he went through. And I hate that he’s gone, because he was trying, but it isn’t always easy, and it doesn’t always work.

I work for the Crisis Text Line/Kids Help Phone, and through that work, I have the privilege of talking to dozens of people a month about the problems in their lives that they feel no one else has the time, or the desire, to talk to them about. I try my best to use the empathy I’ve gained as a goddamn sword against the debilitating weapons of loneliness, and to connect to every goddamn human I can in a way that can leave them feeling stronger and less alone. If you’re in pain, I will run through goddamn walls to find a way to help you. In the words of Dr. K this Friday: don’t worry alone, and don’t die alone.

Rest in Peace, Byron.

#reckful #byron bernstein #twitch #tribute #gaming #art #artists on tumblr #portrait #colored pencil #artwork #rip

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grazer-razor · 3 years

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ok, it’s time to do this.

in case you haven’t heard already, i have been banned from the hilda subreddit(/r/hildatheseries) since march. but to make things worse, i couldn’t even resolve the whole situation because i was told that if i “harassed” the mods, i would be reported to the reddit authorities. because of this, i did nothing out of fear of what they would do. not replying, missing out on hilda news, watching posts slowly get archived over the course of months... and never posting to the subreddit again.

this all changes today. today, i will present my reasons as to why i should be unbanned from the subreddit. mods, if you see this, please feel free to DM me on reddit.

first, a quick recap of what happened. i got banned from hildacord sometime in september 2019, and tried to send the subreddit a message about the surprise ban(because a link to hildacord was on there), to which the owner, hornets_descent, would respond to angrily. i would try to keep negotiating with hornet, and eventually, i responded to one of hornet’s comments in the subreddit, so he told me to leave him alone. but after i sent an essay, he banned me from the subreddit for 30 days. and after he saw a post i made on the discord subreddit about my ban(which i made due to this unfair and surprising behavior being on a partnered server), he decided to make the ban permanent.

when i tried to ask about my ban, i kept getting muted for 3-day periods, even when i gave honest apologies.(forgot about that part, though.) so i tried contacting one of the other mods, who constantly changes their reddit username. they made a compromise- if i left hornet, and by extension, hildacord alone, i would get unbanned. i agreed to this promise, and got unbanned.

nothing would happen until march, a week after my month-long break from the computer, thanks to the PR vanquish situation. i was browsing the subreddit, and came across a picture that portrayed hilda as, er... thicc. i noted how the picture got away with little to no repercussions, while my cutout of oliver nelson pointing was removed for being “creepy”. after just a few minutes, i got banned, and was told that if i tried to harass them, the reddit admins would be notified. i don’t even know if the person who banned me was hornet or not, because they hid their name when messaging through modmail. because of this, i couldn’t even message the other mods, in case they were the ones who banned me. i think it was hornet, due to my theory that he has a bias against me, but better safe than sorry.

now that that’s out of the way, it’s time to get cracking.

first off, i have kept my promise to never contact hornet again. i have even blocked him, so i wouldn’t see his messages, in case i would be tempted to reply to them, or in case i’d reply to him by accident.

secondly, this ban may have been because of something i did on the subreddit, but my first ban had nothing to do with the subreddit in the first place! it only took place within DMs, and maybe the discord subreddit. the reason why this is off is because... well, let’s use an analogy.

WARNING: THIS IS GONNA BE STUPID

suppose you have two balls, a red one and a blue one. if you do anything wrong in the subreddit, the red ball grows an inch. if you do anything wrong OUTSIDE of the subreddit, the blue ball grows an inch. if the red ball grows two inches higher(representing two wrongs in the subreddit, one warranting a warning, and the other necessitating a ban), you will be banned from the subreddit.(extreme wrongs can make the balls grow higher than one inch, though, banning you instantly.)

but in my case, the red ball only grew one inch, and the blue ball grew one inch too. even if the blue ball growing could get you a ban, the red ball would STILL have grown one inch, which is less than two! alright, i guess the red ball WOULD have grown two inches(one for my oliver nelson picture, and one for me calling out thicc hilda. the oliver thing was mostly innocent, though. but i actually thought about this in the middle of writing this, so i may have very well figured out why i got banned. but hey, guess i’ll post this anyway.), but in my eyes, the fact that i got banned when most of the wrongs i did were outside of the subreddit is unusual, and signifies that hornet really, really wanted me out of the fandom.

moving on. when i was banned, i was told that i was told not to break or bend the rules again, and that i had used up all my chances. but prior to that ban, i had not been told that- i was told not to contact hornet again!(or maybe they DID tell me not to break or bend the rules at one point, but i forgot. maybe it was when i got banned for the first time? sheesh, this is the second time i’ve had to correct myself in this post, what’s wrong with me?)

and finally, i have this to say. how would you feel, if i told you that even before my ban, hornet was conspiring to tell the reddit admins about me? i’m not even kidding about this. look-

oh yeah, and then there’s hornet’s raid, which I GUESS violates discord’s ToS.

and remember how i said i got banned within minutes on the subreddit? just keep that in mind... all in all, i believe hornet has a huge bias against me, due to my beliefs and actions.

i also thought a while ago about how hornet may have given me that threat on reddit to silence me. but luckily, tumblr is my platform. i just can’t believe i didn’t think of posting something on here until now.

i wish i could say more, but these are as much points as the archives of my drafts for sending to the mods say.

hopefully, i get unbanned... 9 months after i initially got banned.

#hilda #hilda the series #hilda netflix #hildacord

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rad-translations · 4 years

Text

“We’re used to death threats” 6 years after GamerGate, nothing has changed

(It’s impossible for me to continue playing Valorant. To be provoked, harassed, insulted as soon as people hear my voice, all of this because I’m a woman, is unacceptable. I won’t accept undergoing this constantly, and having to signal people constantly. I’m sickened.)

If for some years now, awareness of the bullying that women suffer from in all parts of society has been increasing, everyday changes appear to be barely noticeable.

The world of video games is one glaring example. Or how, behind the grand speeches, the life of female gamers hasn’t changed — maybe even got worse since GamerGate, an event that has triggered the first large-scale wave of online harassment against women.

In partnership with the YESSS podcast, Numerama investigated the sexism in the community of male and female gamers, with a saddening but certain report: since 2014 and GamerGate, nothing has changed. What we gathered from the dozens and dozens of testimonies that we collected, is that the daily life of women gamers is punctuated by these microaggressions. Tweet after tweet, insult after insult, from sexist comments to targeted bullying, these are individual actions that, when added up, create an incredibly violent wave of online harassment. A wave that swallow them again, day after day.

“Gamergate had set the tone”

“GamerGate had set the tone in regards to sexism, and this changed things” assesses Julie, who mostly plays on League of Legends. “When they discover that you are a girl, it’s rampage” adds Leiden, a World of Warcraft player: “As soon as you’re a girl, you’re gonna eat shit. There are comments like “You don’t know how to play (...)”, it’s a very common behavior on WoW…” Kash, who also plays MMORPG, laments that “toxic comments became the norm”. One example: during a session, the presence of three female players triggered a collective cackling from the members of her guild, who said that “the disabled quota has arrived”. “I told them that we were fed up with these kind of remarks, that is was not normal. They responded by saying it was just humor. (...) That’s really a bummer, because when the game launched, this didn’t exist, we were a community. I wasn’t judged based on my sex.”. “Playing as a woman, it’s a hassle” confirms Lisa*, tiredly “There is always some pig there to tell you to “go back to the kitchen””. Laughter always follows.

She however assesses that GamerGate did not launch online bullying. Gamers are known to vehemently defend their passion: “In 2005, a wave of online harassment had been launched against the very controversial Jack Thompson, an american lawyer who declared that shootings in the USA were the result of the violence of video games” Brad Glasgow, a journalist who then published a study on GamerGate, reminds us, now asked by Numerama. Some gamers at the time sent death threats to his home, or even developed games in which the objective was to hit the lawyer… What GamerGate changed, is adding a sexist aspect to online bullying, focusing hate and attacks on multiple women.

Between journalistic integrity and harassment

On August 16th 2014, Eron Gjoni, a 24 years old programmer, published on his blog “thezoepost”, a 9000-words vitriolic announcement, describing in detail how his now ex-girlfriend, Zoe Quinn, had cheated on him. The story could have ended there. But here is the deal: Zoe Quinn is an indie video game developer, and the man she cheated on him with is a journalist specialized in gaming-related press. That was everything gamers and the Internet needed to ignite: this man is writing for a journal which recently published a highly positive review of Zoe Quinn’s new game, Depression Quest. Between blogs, subreddits and 4chan, the GamerGate movement was born.

“They wanted to be able to continue playing with half-naked female characters without anyone saying something about it”

What did gamers really want? They would say that they were fighting for “more ethics in videogame reporting, less cronyism between developers and magazines” Brad Glasgow, who conducted a study on this subject, explains. “The gamergaters who I interviewed had the impression that the industry was pushing on them more censored, family-friendly games. They wanted to be able to continue playing with half-naked female characters without anyone saying something about it, and without being considered misogynists”. The GamerGate contributors were for a long time believed to be cliché young gamers, however Brad Glasgow’s study show that the median age was 30 years old, very different from the often depicted carefree youngsters. All the people targeted by the supporters of this movement were women. The victims and numerous reporters commented afterwards that GamerGate was never about claiming anything, but simply a way to express their hate and disdain towards Zoe Quinn. Zoe Quinn, as well as the video game creator Brianna Wu and blogger Anita Sarkeesian received so many rape, torture and death threats that they were forced to move out out of their homes, fearing for their lives. In the United States, this event was huge, so much that the New York Times described it as “the beginning on alt-right hegemony on the Internet”, and even as a culture war. In France, despite being covered by the media, it didn’t have such an impact outside of the affected community. The problem however, doesn’t only exist on the other side of the Atlantic. The blogger Marlard was talking, since 2013, about a "sick community", soaked in sexism, fetishizing Lara Croft’s new design, and, in the famous 18-25 forum on jeuxvideo.com, misogyny was already the rule. She was actually one of the first to receive numerous waves of online harassment for daring to point out the sexism in the world of video games.

A masculine universe

Why talk again about Gamergate today? Because six years later, despite the problem being under the spotlight and having media coverage, female gamers still suffer. Video games seem to stay a masculine universe, a space where the famous rule 30 of the Internet “on the Internet, there are no women” could be a reality. It’s nevertheless false: according to a IFOP study published in 2018, women play as much video games as men do.The Internet and Twitch are full of casual and professional gamers, like Kayane, Trinity, Little Big Whale, Zulzorander, Marie Palot…. But, inescapably, the presence of women in online games startles, surprises, annoys.

“Being misogynistic is trendy”

To insult women and social justice warriors (nickname given to anti-discrimination activists by their opponents) is still seen today as a way to make your audience laugh, to gain a place inside the boy’s club, sometimes even to become famous. French streamer Jean Massiet admits it: “Being misogynistic is trendy”.

(I’ve been streaming for 5 years and there is an absolute constant: being misogynistic is trendy, make your chat laugh by playing the rebel. To be feminist is to oppose retaliations and gatekeeping. Conformism really isn’t where most people think.)

The “young boy” trick to conceal your voice

One of the main problems encountered by female players online, is “vocal”, the act of talking with other members of the team to coordinate certain attacks during a game. In this moment, it’s impossible to hide behind the neutral usernames of characters typically associated with male players: “As soon as people hear that I’m a girl, it’s over. Many women don’t want to communicate because of it” reveals Lisa. “You really feel a difference in behavior when comparing the before and after.”

Julie, another player, explains that the “after” is often synonymous with saucy flirting. “Immediately, dudes will come talk to you in private, ask for pictures and lewd requests…” To avoid this, almost all the female players that we interviewed explained to us that they use the “young boy” trick: passing as a young male player whose voice has not dropped yet, to justify their high-pitched tone. Lying to stay undisturbed is a common strategy. Some even prefer playing with the account of their male partners, thus avoiding unrequited comments.

The #MeToo aftermath is even worse

But it’s not always sufficient. Kate laments that “The #MeToo movement created a mistrust”, revealing a violent rejection of the liberation of feminine and feminist voices. “It has become a PMU* (“PMU” or “Pari Mutuel Urbain” is a bar/gambling place chain. Nowadays it is synonymous for many people with armchair psychology, politics and chauvinist behaviors) Everytime you want to point out to players that they are making sexist comments, it’s always the same reaction “you can’t say anything nowadays”, ‘feminazi”....” Far from letting those concerned question themselves, it seems that the #MeToo movement has reinforced their aggravation, which then leads them to be even more defensive or to conduct gratuitous attacks, especially on Discord, a chat/vocal platform often used by players to communicate with each other.

“The memes are more aggressive, everyone jeers at feminists… There is some sort of frustration towards feminist awareness, a very violent reaction. It is even sometimes almost incel behavior,” explains Kash, referencing the men's rights activists movement of "involuntary celibates". “You won’t make friends talking about feminism” Nat’ali, streamer, confirms to us.

“#MeToo has revealed the privileges that men have, and they didn’t like seeing it”

She isn’t the only one who saw the situation getting worse after Gamergate and #MeToo. “Since I started playing in 2007, I truly saw the atmosphere deteriorate” Kash told us. “I saw more bullshit these last two years than in the ten years prior, "I now see things that dudes never dared to do before. The whole community got worse”. Lisa also observed the explosion of sexism after #MeToo. “It’s really then that I started hiding the fact that I was a woman. #Metoo has revealed the privileges that men have, and they didn't like seeing it. Don’t touch cis white hetero men, or you will get branded a fucking feminist, a whore, a feminazi.” Lisa reached the point of “not wanting to play anymore, too toxic. Gets on my nerves too quickly.” There is, too, a fear of underperforming: “I’m scared to play certain FPS (First Person Shooter, like Call of Duty) because I’m no very good at them, and I don’t want to help the belief that “girls sucks at video games” to persist” laments Nat’ali.

The liability of professional streamers

In the eyes of Julie, part of the problem resides in the fact that the gamer community is growing rapidly. “There are more and more gamers, and the newcomers are usually very young and very sexist. Even if some people change and gain understanding regarding this problem, they will be drowned by comments by teens that have no reflexion on sexism”.“ In addition to the jeuxvideo.com 18-25 forum, numerous streamers and professional players are accused of perpetuating sexism. As Numerama showed in a study made in April 2019, members of the Solary team, a french esport structure, have encouraged online harassment against several women, and have contributed in spreading sexist insults (a woman receiving compliments from a stranger, not responding to them and “calling them out on social media” is in their eyes a “whore”)

“It’s an environment in which men pat each other on the back”*

(Translator’s note: a more literal translation would be “men forgive each other” but the underlying idea in this sentence was that they allow themselves to forgive each other’s faults without actually hearing the people targeted.)

Sardoche, a League of Legends streamer and Twitch partner (video creators able to monetize their videos) has also been known for years for his very violent remarks against female players, that he calls “shitty little virgins” or “huge whores”. In addition to being aware about inciting his followers to harass, he often mocks feminist activists on twitter, and his followers always join the party. “The problem is that he is followed by a lot of boys that want to imitate him” Nat’ali tell us.

“Trolling feminists, best thing to do in the morning. Thanks to @MrKryorys for archiving these kinds of clips” Yet Sardoche is not called out, and can still enjoy the free publicity made by numerous other streamers, promoting him and condoning his unacceptable speeches. At the start of June however, the streamer announced that he was now suffering from online harassment on his Twitch lives, coming mostly from 18-25 users. These behaviors have no influence on the mentioned players’ and streamers’ careers. “They still don’t understand that they are participating to the trivialization of hatred against women” Nat’ali angrily adds “Sardoche is now co-hosting PopCorn, one of the most viewed programs on Twitch. It’s an environment in which men pat each other on the back.”

“One girl per team, no more”

This impunity is reinforced by the erasure of female players, firstly because some are reluctant to present themselves as women in online games, and secondly, because the professional environment is not giving them a platform. We call that “the quota effect”. “Those who want to become professional know that there is only one “girl” slot per team”. complains Nat’ali. This infamous “quota woman” reminds us of the “Lara Croft effect” a overused argument often put forward when criticism against the lack of female characters in video games arise: You got it wrong, look over here, there is one woman.

“At the beginning of big web TV, 7 or 8 years ago, there was a of of competition between female players. No sisterhood whatsoever, girls were awful with each other because they knew there wouldn’t be a spot for everyone” Nat’ali, who had seen the problem herself, continues.

Once hired, these female streamers still have a lot to face. A friend of Nat’ali told her last year that her team forced her to wear a mini-skirt during a marketing campaign. According to Leiden “People still see their female players as sexy props, instead of focusing on their playing skills”.

The ambience is now healthier, and “there is a real solidarity on Twitch between us, we talk a lot. With #MeToo, we understand that we needed to help each other. These topics have the spotlight, we feel more comfortable talking about them. Dudes still behave the same, but the relationship between female players changed. This is the big victory of #MeToo.”

“Streamers need to question themselves”

Should we see this whole problem as unsolvable? For Aurélie, “in practice men are not yet supportives. The knowledge is here, we know that “sexism is bad” But if you point out that a comment is sexist, they will immediately jump and respond that no, it’s just humor”. There are many hard to unlearn habits,” Lisa remarks: “It’s the patriarchal structure: nice guys sometimes have awful reactions. It’s rooted inside of them, they don’t even realize what they’re doing.” For all of the interviewees, the education of men regarding these problems is the solution. Kash affirms: “This men-only community create a unease. Streamers need to be the example. They need to question themselves, and they shouldn’t hesitate to take clear stances regarding this.” Still, it would be easier if these stances were the norm, and taking them was not a risk.

“When you keep talking to them about it, our male friends realize the problem” Lisa happily notices. One of Kash’s friends, with whom she’s been playing for years, has evolved a lot despite starting as “mostly uninterested in the sexism problem in games”. After our interview, she decided to talk to him about her experience, and he listened to her testimony. “Last week, during a raid in which I didn’t introduce myself, a player made a sexist remark about the body of a woman. My friend told me he felt uncomfortable and talked to the guild leader about it. Nothing happened, the player wasn’t sanctioned, but I’ve known my gamer friend for 11 years and it was the first time he reacted like that. So I’m hopeful!”

Aurore Gayte for Numerama

*names have been changed This article was created in partnership with the YESSS podcast. .Their latest creation, "Warriors and Games" is available here. Every month, the YESSS team gathers testimonies of women who triumphed against sexism: those who responded, who corrected, who snapped and resisted. YESSS is a podcast for warriors, positive and decidedlyfeminist. It is conceived and hosted by Margaïd Quioc, Elsa Miské et Anaïs Bourdet, produced by the Popkast label in Marseille.

#gaming #gamergate #sexism #radfem #radfem safe #feminism #video games sexism #sardoche #numerama #gatekeeping #french radblr #french to english #rad-translations #radical feminism

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lawonderlandwriter · 4 years

Text

So here is all that has happened and all that I know and all of my thoughts on this intra-ship-tag war. For anyone who cares to read.

I hadn't written a new fic in a while. Not since Season 8 was airing, so I was not really aware of what was going on until one fic in particular where Jon has an abusive past, started getting negative attention. Most people will know which fic I’m talking about (for the purposes of this post, I’ll refer to it as FIC1).

I had come across the fic randomly and skimmed it, deciding it seemed interesting and I would read it fully when I had the chance. Then I saw the hate the fic was getting and I read it fully immediately. I thought the fic was incredibly well written and wasn’t in any way a Jon-hate fic. Some parts of the fic I even was a tiny bit uncomfortable for the way it portrayed Dany, but I was too interested to let those parts get to me and I have since kept up with it and plan to read it until it’s conclusion.

When I saw the hate on FIC1, I posted about it. How I thought the fic didn’t deserve the hate it was getting and how I thought people were casting judgement without really reading it, just commenting based on what they had heard about it and the author.

This got me some hate but I stood by my fellow author.

This was when I first heard of the “Discord” group.

Everything I knew about the discord was hearsay as I am not and have never been involved in it. I heard the discord was all men who stanned Jon Snow and hate-commented on any fic they didn't like and had been policing the tag since basically the S8 finale. As I had seen hate comments on fics with my own eyes, I had no reason to question this.

Especially when fics began showing up in the tag of Dany getting raped in response to each time FIC1 would update. Comments on those fics were sarcastic and crude and supportive. I have never used A03 as a social media platform so I was not and still am not very familiar with usernames.

More accusations flew around that those responsible for these fics and fics that plagairised FIC1 stemmed from the Discord. I had no reason to believe otherwise (but I also had no reason to believe it was all Discord people either which I should not have so readily believed).

More fics were posted by authors I read and respect and more hate was flung around. Again, the Discord was blamed, perhaps* wrongly. My prejudice against this supposed discord group grew.

Then I started writing “Queens Always Have the Last Word” (QAHTLW). At first, the response was positive - everyone seemingly hates Sansa. A few complained I wasn’t changing Jon’s general S8 demeanor which annoyed me. I had made it perfectly clear in the tags that the story would focus on Dany - and I had already written a fic for Jon where he was the star and got the last word. This was her turn.

I did not and still do not consider it a Jon-hate fic or that the fic is an attack on Jon’s character in any way. I kept Jon essentially close to his S8 self but added a bit more to him - additions I thought were positive.

But my fic was somehow labeled “Jon Snow hate.”

Some people in comments on my and other fics have said something about S8 fics being “serious” fics, hence why I guess my QAHTLW was labeled “Jon hate.”

For one, this to me this seemed an incredibly arbitrary rule and it still seems incredibly arbitrary. That S8 fics HAVE to be “serious”. Why is it just S8 fics?

For those wondering, my understanding of a “serious” fic is a fic that HAS to feature Jon and Dany as being 100% equal to each other and the narrative HAS to treat them as 100% equal and be kind to both of them.

If a fic is not considered “serious”, it is okay for Jon and Dany to not be 100% equal or treated equal by the narrative - one example of “non-serious” fics in the Jonerys A03 tag were harem fics.

At least, that’s what I’ve been told by commenters - harem fics are okay to be in the Jonerys tag on A03 (even though they are incredibly unequal in regards of who gets to sleep with who) because apparently “no one takes them seriously.”

This is what I have been told: “No one takes harem fics seriously.”

So, because of this new standard set forth by people who either had been policing the tag, or people trying to explain the motives behind people policing the tag, a line became drawn.

Those of us who don’t write or read harem fics, we (I, rather, but others likely as well) began to see this line as “Jon Snow stans” and “Daenerys stans”. Because it’s highly unlikely many Dany fans would want to read fics where Jon just gets to smash everyone in ASOIAF.

So then I had a pretty damning encounter with someone in the comments of Chapter 4 of QAHTLW. The hate started off right out the gate:

This comment was a lot of things at once. 1) It cemented for me this weird divide between “Tumblr” (“Tumblrinas” as some call us) writers and “others” (I assumed all the “others” were Discord users). 2) It cemented for me that all the “others” were exclusively Jon fans, due to the accusation here that I don’t care about Jon, and 3) it was the first time I had been told to literally stop writing and leave to community.

I reacted immediately. The encounter was petty (yes, I was petty too, fully admit it) and went on for several comments. Then my hate commenter responded with this:

I had seen that “reeeeeeee” before. Just a day before actually, here on Tumblr. It wasn't a post of mine, but a response to one of my mutual’s posts. The person who reblogged with the “reeeeeeeee” comment left a nasty note about Dany going crazy - it was clearly a comment meant to be offensive to Dany stans. I reblogged said post and blocked the user who had made the “reeeeee” comment.

So because my hate commenter on A03 used the same language as the Tumblr reblogger, I called him out on it, thinking I knew who he was. We went back and forth on that for another round of comments, and then he sent me this:

1) The user claims he is not the same person from Tumblr, 2) he admits to being in the “Discord” group, 3) He admits the Tumblr user I had blocked posts things from Tumblr to share with the Discord group for the purposes of making fun of us, and 4) he admits to using a “throwaway” account on A03 in order to avoid being banned by the site, should his comments get reported.

Because of this encounter, I felt I had enough information to pass blanket judgement on the Discord group. To me, because of this person’s comments, the Discord was a place where male Jon Snow fans hung out and talked shit about Dany stans from Tumblr.

And because this person had said things from Tumblr were shared (and laughed at) on the Discord, and because the very next day I posted a link on my Tumblr to QAHTLW, I felt I had made a connection.

To me, it seemed like this hate comment stemmed from the Discord and was encouraged because of my reblogging of the Tumblr post.

These comments on my fic felt like retaliation for something that had happened on Tumblr.

It felt calculated. It felt systematic. It felt purposeful. It felt really fucking creepy.

I reported it to A03.

A little while after the encounter, I got a final comment from this person. He had deleted his “throwaway” account and whatever other account he had been using, leaving me this on anon:

While I did think him a jerk for all the things he had said, I can respect this. Thank you whoever you are for realizing you were being a bully. My comments to you were rude as well, I know.

But he admitted his fault in instigating the argument and said he would stop. So, I can only say, respect.

Still, though one person had left this “tag policing” behind, it had opened a can of worms. Again, he had admitted to the discord sharing and laughing at shit from Tumblr. And so far as I knew, he only found my fic because of the Discord (may or may not be true, but that’s how it came across to me at the time).

My view of the Discord was lowered further.

Then, another "problematic” Jonerys fic was posted. We’ll call this FIC2.

I didn’t think anything of it, honestly. I really, seriously didn’t.

It was by an author I love to death so naturally, anything she writes, I excitedly reblog. Which I did. I didn't do so with any kind of snide remark, I wasn’t thinking about the fic’s treatment of Jon (because I didn’t think the fic would treat Jon badly...and it didn’t), I didn’t think about the other characters this fic involved. Nothing.

I was seriously just fucking reblogging a fic from a friend, and then of course left a generic “loved it, this was hot!” comment on the fic on A03.

And I got hate for that. Surprise Surprise:

This is two comments from, I’m assuming, two different users. Both were on anon. Once again, we were called “Tumblrinas”.

But a new level to this creepiness was added.

Someone started using my name on A03 as their anon name.

(The above comment thread has since been deleted but I screenshot it before the delete because I wanted to report to A03 - using someone else’s name and/or misrepresenting another user is very much in violation of A03s Terms of Service).

So that was the first fic this happened on but this person from FIC2 has since been going on all kinds of Jonerys fics on A03 leaving more comments, calling himself “LAStoryWriterAlex’s Rules and Regulations Enforcer.”

This was on another “problematic” fic (I won’t call it Jon hate because FFS it’s NOT Jon hate!):

Along with leaving a sarcastic remark about how I and my “crew of miscreants” apparently have now made a rule that “you can only leave praise in comments”, this person also called the fic he was commenting on “garbage”. So, rude.

Then he left this on a RAPE fic:

He did not call the RAPE fic “garbage” and even used “please” and “thank you”.

Because this all seemed to stem from my reblog of FIC2 on Tumblr, I again assumed that this person, my “rules and regulations enforcer,” was from the Discord and had only seen my reblog of FIC2 because someone had snapshotted it and shown it to the Discord.

I admit, it was wrong of me to assume this. I have no way of knowing if this person is from the Discord or not. But because of my last encounter, and as this was another thing that seemed to start from Tumblr, this is what I assumed.

Then I posted my Dandry fic, Retrograde.

You all know what happened with that.

In all honesty, I didn't write this to “piss off the incels”. (I also apologize for calling the entire Discord incels. I now know a few of you and realize this was a mistake). I wrote this fic because the idea came to me, it excited me, and once I started writing, I couldn’t stop. I was having fun with it. I’ve never shipped Dany/Gendry before, but since 8x04, this fic was always an idea in the back of my mind and I himhawed with writing it, mostly because I was busy with other things, but I worked on it. And when I got the first chapter done I posted.

And all hell broke loose.

At first I had anon commenting enabled, but then disabled it because I just couldn’t fucking take it. It was exhausting.

I got kind comments, I got neutral comments, I got rude comments, I got people arguing with each other in the comments, and then I got just fucked up comments -

Comments about me, my family, my weight:

In short, my parents should have aborted me brutally, my mother is a dirty whore, I’m cancer (not the zodiac sign I’m guessing), and I’m allegedly fat.

I admit, the fat one got to me. I’m not fat, never have been overweight. But I do occasionally obsess about my weight, so that one got a reaction from me and I know, I know it shouldn’t have. But I made note anyway, of the fact that all my profiles are linked and there are pics of me in existence online that prove I’m not fat - I wanted to prove I’m not fat. My vanity got the better of me and so invited people to find pictures of me. Which had certain consequences I’ll discuss in a moment.

I also got fucked up comments about Gendry and Dany - Dany in that apparently she’s a whore, and Gendry because he’s an uneducated bastard. Which, way to go elitist scum. I really don’t feel bad about saying that. These comments are elitist and misogynistic. Really makes me wonder what people would think of Jon if the show hadn’t made him legitimate. Would they all still stan him then? Do they only like him because he was heir to the throne??

Anyway, that as just the first two pages! (There were more supportive comments than not - I think) but there are now 8 pages of comments. So you can only guess what the rest of those 8 pages contain.

I got all kinds of anons on Tumblr because of this. Some who supported my fic - thank you - and others who spewed the same kind of drivel from A03. I’m a whore, cunt, dumb bitch, awful writer, etc.

Then, because I had exposed myself and made note of all my profiles being linked (which I had initially done so friendly A03 people could find my Tumblr if they didn’t already connect the two), I started getting anons commenting on, of all things, my fucking forehead, which apparently is larger than normal? Whatever, fuck you, I think I’m adorable, so there.

I got an anon recently talking about the connection myself and others had made between the Discord and the revenge rape fics.

I agreed with anon in my response, that it was wrong for me to blame the Discord for fics like the beastiality fic in the tag. I pointed out however, that people were not attacking that writer the way they’ve been attacking me and others.

Again, it was wrong of me to assume all people in the Discord were leaving the hate comments. I admit that and I apologize for it.

But I have proof (above) that at least one of the people policing the tag was from the Discord. And I have since had reason to believe some in the Discord still police the tag and do so quite hatefully.

I was thinking about this most recent anon a lot since I got it and answered it. And then today when I was cursing the tag...

I came across one of the Modern Targcest fics.

And I saw red.

I clicked on the A03 “Collection” and skimmed through. Many of the fics were ones I had already seen/skimmed or read. But looking at the collection as a whole, I got an impression of the tag.

And yes, I admit, my impression did not apply to all fics. And even the fics it did apply to, I should have never called out.

I wanted to make a point, and I went about it the wrong way.

The point I had wanted to make was that all the people policing the tag were hypocrites because these DubCon fics (some are less consensual than others) had relatively low engagement compared to my fic which was 100% consensual.

This still is something that bothers me, honestly, though it is through no fault of the authors of these DubCon fics.

I just really hate that those fics are left relatively in peace and a fic like mine is not. Do I want those fics to get more hate? No. I just want the hate on mine and others like it to stop.

But I did go about it the wrong way.

Certain people felt I misrepresented certain fics when I made THIS post. I roped all the fics into one category, and made an assumption about them all and that was wrong.

Also, some people thought by making this post, I was saying that these authors “like” rape or are real life rape apologists, which was not my intention either.

I still believe some of these fics are on a rape-spectrum. I’m sorry, that’s just what DubCon is. Not all of these DubCon fics are rapey, but some of them are.

And it’s fine if that’s what you want to write and read. Really, it is. As I’ve stated, fanfic is a SAFE place for people to explore taboos, like rape and incest. Just because we read and write about it, doesn’t mean we would ever do it in real life. In fic, it’s fine though.

And I apologize if my post came off as kink-shaming. Not my intention.

Again, my intention was merely to point out the discrepancy in reaction to these fics because to me, a DubCon fic is more problematic than a cheating fic. My opinion. You may not share my opinion.

Really my intention here was for people to realize that, if you can turn a blind eye to DubCon (something I find pretty problematic), then you should also be able to spare the same courtesy to other fics, like cheating, cuck, or “Jon Snow hate fics” - (and it’s always someone’s opinion whether or not the fic is truly Jon Snow hate).

If Dany fans can make it through the tag without commenting on some of the more extreme DubCon fics, and through the Harem fics, then Jon Snow fans should be able to make it through the tag without commenting on the cheating and the cuck fics. (and if Jon Snow fans can pass the harem fics and not think anything of them and not hate comment, they should be able to pass by the cuck fics too!!) - cuz I don’t want people to assume I’m accusing all Jon fans of liking those harem fics. Probably many of you don’t. But if you’ve left hate on a cuck fic, but not a harem fic, that’s hypocritical. It really is.

If you’ve policed the tag and harassed an author for “punishing” Jon in their fic telling the author that they’re not really a Jon fan or not really a Jonerys fan, but you haven’t done the same in a harem (or similar) fic and stuck up for say, Dany, claiming the author isn’t a real Dany/Jonerys fan, you’re a hypocrite.

Because as I’ve pointed out, Jon and Dany aren’t at all treated the same or equal in those kinds of fics.

This isn't to say those fics are wrong, or shouldn’t be written, or don’t belong in the tag. It’s just to say if you give them a pass, you must also give a pass to everyone else.

You can’t just pick and choose which “unequal” Jonerys fics are allowed and which aren’t.

Which S8 fix-it-fics are allowed and which aren’t.

Which fics are “serious” and which are “non-serious”. (Many of the harem/breeding fics have Jon/Dany as the main pairing!)

Which are written by “real” Jonerys fans and which aren’t.

You don’t get to just make shit up.

Yes, some Dany stans are angry at Jon and want to punish him in their fics for S8 and make him sit by and watch while Dany hooks up with Daario or resurrected Drogo or Gendry or whoever.

Some Jon stans want Jon to breed Missandei and Sansa while still being married to Dany because they want to make Dany barren in their narrative even though in actual ASOIAF canon, she’s probably not.

It’s called, Deal with it.

Again, no one here is on the “right” side. No one should be policing the tag. Period.

Also, side note, no one should be insulting authors looks or using the public photos authors use as a way to harass them. This isn’t only happening to me. If we post photos of our lives, it’s because we want to share with people. It’s not an invitation for you to use that against us. Don’t be fucking creepy. And if you know if someone being fucking creepy, tell them to stop!

#I think my rant is done #Did I cover everything?#are people going to come after me with pitchforks for this one too?#fandom wank #over it

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randomguywithwords · 4 years

Text

As The Dust Settles: Chapter 13 (Geten X Dabi Slowburn)

Chapter 13: Violet’s Assignment

AO3 Link: Here

Previous Chapters: 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

––––––––

After the training session, Geten returned to her room, the afterglow of her victory still present on her lips. The wind that whipped through her parka as she rode her ice platform felt cooler than usual; she felt more free and giddy. A minute had passed before she realised she had been humming from satisfaction, to a song she did not remember.

Perhaps her good mood would last for at least a day or two.

But as she reached the window of her floor, she saw a soldier standing outside.

“What?” Geten fixated him with a glare.

With a shaky bow and a total refusal to make eye contact, he passed her an envelope with arms which were trembling even more, and ran off the second she took the letter.

Smirking as she saw him sprint down the hallway, she opened it to see a typewritten message by Shigaraki.

“Emergency meeting, 10am. Usual.” His signature was scrawled at the bottom.

That’s a couple of minutes from now. Damn it.

With a sigh, she created her ice platform once more and glided towards Re-destro’s mansion. But as she opened the doors of the council room, she frowned, but then...Ah, I see, so that’s what he wants.

“I assume you want to talk to me alone.” Geten scanned the council room, all chairs unoccupied except the one in the middle, where Tomura Shigaraki was leaning back on his, dressed in his black jacket and wearing his signature disembodied hand on his face.

“Take a seat,” Shigaraki said. Geten did, and then Shigaraki began.

“Have you and Dabi settled your issues?”

“Somewhat.” Geten met the boy’s eyes. They were sunken and darkened around the edges, like a skull which refused to die. Those crimson irises were the same ones which had rooted the charging Liberation Army in their place out of pure terror, despite Trumpet’s Inciting.

A question arose to her lips, albeit she did not speak it, as those eyes bore into her: Can he see? Does he have vision? A vision for the Liberation Front?

These thoughts had formed whenever she saw him address the PLF: at the festival where Re-destro had abdicated his throne, and at yesterday’s meeting.

“So you two can lead the Violet Regiment?”

“Yes.”

“Good, two more questions.” Shigaraki relaxed his arms on the table as he leaned forward. “Who are you, Apocrypha?”

“You know my name.”

“Apocrypha? Geten? Iceman?” Shigaraki snorted. “Cut the bullshit, they’re your...usernames. The first two mean the same, and it’s ironic, because their meaning tells me you don’t know the answer either.”

“Then why ask me?”

“Because I’m wondering if you want to know.”

“No. I have no need for a name. I was Re-destro’s weapon, Shigaraki. A sword has no need for a name any more than a stray dog does. So please, get to the point.” She ended her speech with a glare.

Shigaraki met it with an indifferent expression, perhaps even surprised by that sudden outburst, but then his cracked lips widened in approval.

“I would’ve killed you for uttering my name.” Shigaraki’s smile was unnerving, and Geten flinched despite herself, “but I could tell you’re different. You’re different from the rest of these cowards.”

“When you have 2 CEOs and a politician, and you had a...journalist, or whatever she was, you were never spoken to properly. Everything needed a bush to beat around. I like to disintegrate the whole forest.” Shigaraki placed four fingers on the desk. Geten knew he could activate it autonomously now, but she understood his point.

Her hands were off the desk before she realised it. Shigaraki seemed to notice it, and continued,

“I’m asking for your loyalty, because it’s bleeding dry in this army. I’m not stupid. You don’t take over an enemy city and expect the people to bow down. There’s gonna be riots. There’s gonna be a lot of plotting. If you’re smart you would have realised it by now, or even gotten involved…” He looked at her with a suggestive grin. She kept her face impassive, as a bead of perspiration rolled down her forehead.

“But I get the feeling you like to settle things face to face. You’re no assassin, are you? Your skill points seem more geared towards strength.” Shigaraki’s gaze felt like it was penetrating her mind, probing her thoughts. She felt unsafe – a person walking through an alley at twilight. That person never saw the blade of ice, just darkness, and then darkness eternal.

She felt as vulnerable as the people she had killed.

Does he know too? There’s no way he couldn’t, right? He knew about Takame, wouldn’t he question Skeptic and Trumpet why he wasn’t on the official register? But he said he spoke straightforwardly, not like them. Not like the MLA.

“Of course not.” The words flowed from her mouth before she could think about it. “And…you have my allegiance, Grand Commander.” She gave a slight bow of her head, even as her mind was suspended in a frenzied blizzard – blind, in chaos, terrified.

She kept her head down, feeling queasy looking at those red eyes of his. She finally understood why the army had stopped in their tracks then.

“Good. I look forward to seeing what you can do for me,” Shigaraki said. “Ah, right on time.”

The doors opened behind her as the rest of the PLF lieutenants arrived, one by one.

So there is a meeting? Geten quickly regained her composure. The rest of them could not see her in that state. She could tell some were staring at her, probably curious as to why she was so early. Bowing her head, she made eye contact with no one, her face heating up.

Once everyone was in, with Dabi strutting in last, the meeting commenced.

“We have a problem.” Shigaraki stood up. “We wanted to lay low till next Friday. Well, it was going fine, but lately we’ve been picking up some chatter, chatter directed at us. Skeptic, if you would.”

Chikazoku arose with a bow towards Shigaraki and continued with the briefing. “I’ve been watching the media and the attention about the ‘Deika City Incident’, and it was dying out as expected, but I noticed one source that was constantly publishing article after article about conspiracy theories about the Incident. We’re still being talked about, and that cannot happen. I’ve tried on my own ends to stem the flow, but whoever this group or individual is, they’re not stopping. We sent some soldiers from neighbouring provinces to investigate, but they’ve all went silent. So we’re sending Carmine to deal –”

“No.” Shigaraki’s voice cut in as sharp as a knife. “Send Violet.”

“Tomura-kun!” Toga pouted. “I wanted to taste some blood. Send my regiment!”

“No, I want Apocrypha and Dabi to do this.”

All eyes were scattered between Shigaraki, Dabi and her. She kept her eyes on the table, flickering upwards as Re-destro began to speak.

“But...great leader,” Yotsubashi chuckled nervously. “Isn’t it better to send people like Mr Compress and Himiko Toga who can eliminate people silently?”

“Yeah! I like you, Re-destro! Lemme taste your blood!” Toga cheered, waving a knife at Re-destro like a toddler, who shrunk back into his seat looking even more anxious about the mentally insane girl.

“Exactly. I want to see how the two of them deal with an assassination.”

The matter seemed to be settled. Even Dabi hadn’t spoken a word in protest. Looking at the corner of her eye, he was shrugging. “Whatever. I get to get out of this shithole and burn some people. I’m cool.”

“Weren’t you late because you were stuffing yourself with ramen?” Spinner deadpanned, receiving a glare from the fire-user.

“We’ll get it done, Shigaraki.” Dabi ignored the statement.

“As long as you don’t draw attention,” Compress warned, causing Dabi to wave at him with a “Yeah, yeah, got it.”

Then Dabi turned to look at the CEO. “Skeptic, fill us in.”

–––––––

Violet Regiment left almost immediately after the meeting. Well, it wasn’t so much of a regiment as it was just Dabi and her. They had decided that an assignment of this caliber did not require any cannon fodder. So, after gathering the items needed and taking a shower, the two of them were on a private plane heading to the Tokugawa Prefecture.

“Damn, I could get used to this.” Dabi leaned back on his luxury seat, kicking his legs up on the table. Geten, who was seated on the adjacent, opposite seat, snorted.

“You could. But the ride is only a few hours.”

“Let me enjoy it, come on.” Dabi opened his can of coke and taking a chug.

Sighing, she looked out of the window, seeing the afternoon sky tinted with pink on the horizon. It would be evening when they landed.

“Aren’t you wondering why we were sent?” Geten looked back at the relaxing Dabi.

“It’s probably a punishment. Either one of us pissed Shigaraki off.”

“So you think this whole thing is fake?”

Dabi shrugged. “Maybe. Or Shigaraki doesn’t think it’s that big of a threat to deal with it properly. Or he doesn’t care about us.”

“Does that not bother you?” Geten crossed her arms seeing how nonchalant Dabi was.

“Nope. Deika City was getting boring anyway. If I have an excuse to leave, I’m taking it. And Shigaraki can send me wherever he likes, I know when to listen and when to do my own thing. You, on the other hand…” Dabi wagged a finger at her. “You were Re-destro’s little puppy, weren’t you?”

“Call me that again and I’ll slap you.” She sent a look of venom his way.

“But you get what I mean.” Dabi finished his coke. “From what I can tell, you’ve spent your whole life at the heels of these MLA snobs. Now, we’re here, and you have no idea what you’re doing.”

“I know what I’m doing. I’m abiding by Destro’s principles of the strengths of Meta Abilities. But…” Geten’s eyes trailed to the floor. “You got everything else right.”

That’s it. That’s what I’ve been missing. The League was so...free, and the MLA was so stringent with its rules.

“Hey.” Dabi’s voice made her look up, expecting more taunting, but his expression caught her by surprise. His eyes were unusually soft, his expression not as condescending. Basically, he looked less like himself, if that was even possible. “You don’t find anything wrong with that?”

“With what?” She tilted her head curiously.

Dabi opened his mouth, then closed it. Putting his empty can on the table, he said, “Nothing. Why you’d even ask me about this assignment in the first place? Did you do something to Shigaraki?”

Right, he was late.

“Well, besides wanting to kill him and everyone else when we met, I can’t imagine why he would want to punish me,” Geten said.

Dabi saw past her sarcasm studying her expression. “Really, what happened?”

He could be relaying everything back to Shigaraki. I can’t tell him about what I’ve done, or he’ll do something, or not trust me.

Why does that matter? Another part of her argued. You can finish this job on your own.

But that was it, wasn’t it? If she finished this assignment flawlessly, Shigaraki’s suspicions would be confirmed, assuming he didn’t know about her deeds beforehand. And what would happen then? Would he kill her? Lock her up? Demote her to a common foot soldier?

And why was she caring about his trust anyway?

She stared at Dabi, unable to totally decipher his expression, but there was some hint of genuine curiosity, since his eyes were slightly wider than usual. He didn’t seem like the type of person that would be Shigaraki’s servant to the extent of spying on her.

Can I trust you? She thought.

“He asked me if I wanted to know my name.” It was a good-enough truth.

“Really? You don’t know yours?” Dabi raised an eyebrow.

“No. And I don’t care about it either. My name – even if he actually knows it, won’t be a bargaining chip.”

“Why? Don’t you want to know who you are?”

“It’s not important.”

“Hm. Okay,” He said. He didn’t press further, but Geten knew there were a lot of things he left unsaid. The conversation died as Geten turned back to look out the window.

She had a lot of things unsaid too, but saying any of them to the wrong person could spell death for her.

Hawks’ words now felt a lot more real, like a spider’s web wrapping her up. No, she didn’t feel safe. Because, and she realised this with a start – if she didn’t need real allies then, she did now.

The word sounded so foreign. Whatever the meaning of it was, she knew at its roots, she just needed people to trust. And loyalty was bleeding dry in the PLF.

She looked to the corner of her eye to see Dabi taking a nap. A realisation dawned on her. She had no idea why – It could have been because she had, at the very least, the leverage of strength over him, or that he spoke of Shigaraki and the MLA with disrespect, or the seemingly genuine interest in her name…

But out of all the people in the PLF, if she had to pick one person to trust, it would be him.

But can I, Dabi? Can I trust you, and would you trust me?

––––––––––

Done. Yay. Entering a new “arc” so to speak. I really hope the tonal issues doesn’t throw your reading off. On one hand I’m trying to craft a proper internal struggle in both characters about their identity and on other issues plaguing their lives. But on the other I still want their witty banter (and fluff in later chapters), so if the disparity is too apparent, let me know. Thanks.

And I haven’t forgotten about Dabi’s backstory, or Twice or Hawks. All in good time. I have the next few chapters planned out already. Not sure how long they’re going to be, but for this “arc” it’s really just gonna be the two of them.

Also, anon, if you’re reading this, I hope the Geten/Shigaraki conversation was what you envisioned, or that you’re okay with how it turned out. If the dynamics wasn’t what you thought it would be, sorry ><

As for everyone else, I hoped you liked it. Any feedback is appreciated (like, really, if you didn’t like it for anyone reason, do let me know. If you want to send anon hate, I’ll genuinely entertain it as long as you really do have something constructive to discuss, and not like, idk, you just hate Dabi or villains in general. Doesn’t add anything to the discussion – well, nothing useful anyway.)

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carlotta-the-nerd-winters · 4 years

Text

Rough Diamond - Chapter One: Supergirls Let Go

Watchtower Ruins, Galar…

Ten Years Later…

Her fingers smoothed along the stone, looking for a small gap. Discovering one high on her left, she gripped it tight and proceeded to continue to scale along the wall. Her muscles burned, sending a warm heat through her body as she continued to climb.

“Corv.”

She glanced up, seeing Rookie sitting comfortably along the edge, almost smirking at her. Rolling her eyes, she scaled the rest of the tower and joined him at the top.

“Flying doesn’t count. I’d like to see you climb,” she told him, placing her bag down. Romie flew around, snapping photos of the incredible view. “Getting some good shots?”

“Yeah! Did you want me to upload them to your Snapgram?” the Rotom asked as she dug out her sketchbook.

“Later,” she answered, studying the landscape for a few minutes. The breeze blew gently through the Wild Area, moving through the dozens of meadows below. Pokémon of all types and shapes were out and about. From the lakes, land and in the air…it was the untameable Wild Area. No matter how many years pass and how many times she explores it, Gloria knows she’s only discovering a tiny glimpse of it.

Her pencil began to move, putting her image onto the paper.

She had been so absorbed into her work that she failed to notice the passing of time. It wasn’t until Rommie alerted her to an incoming call did she break out of the zone.

“Nikki is calling,” the ghost Pokémon alerted her, appearing in front of the sketchpad. Pausing, she put the pencil down as the Rotom accepted the phone call.

“If you’re done sitting up there, come down and have some lunch,” Nikki told her as Gloria glanced over the edge. At the bottom of the ruined tower, stood her sister with her Lopunny holding a picnic basket. Gloria waved as Rommie ended the call. Packing up, the teen put her gloves on as Rookie stood on the grappling hook.

Having done it hundreds of times before, Gloria easily abseiled down the tower as Rookie continued to keep the hook in place. Once she had her feet on the ground, he flew down with the hook in his claw.

“How long were you up there today?” Nikki asked as Gloria packed away the rope.

“Not sure. I got here around seven-ish this morning,” she answered, glancing at the swollen belly her sister was sporting. “Are you sure you’re not carrying twins?”

Nikki laughed as Lopunny laid out the picnic blanket. “Positive. Rai would have a stroke if it were more than one bun,” she replied, accepting her sister’s help to sit down. She released two more of her Pokémon out of their balls, a Ninetails she got when she was in Alola and Luxray. The two sat close by, enjoying the sunlight.

They chatted about everything and anything, catching up on all of the latest news within their family. Nikki was the only sibling she had that still lived in Galar. Their eldest brother, Teddy was still posted in Almia from the last time Gloria spoke to him.

“Evie, Charlie and Victor mentioned they were coming back next month,” Nikki brought up, earning a frown from the youngest child. “They’ll be staying over the Gym Challenge season.”

Gloria groaned, laying back on the picnic blanket. “I’m not participating. I’ve told mum and da that and I’m tired of repeating it.”

“Ria, you’re graduating school soon. Do you know what you want to do?”

“No but—”

“Then participate in the challenge. It’ll be a good way for you to keep yourself occupied over the summer and figure out what you want to do. It’ll keep mum and pa off your back for a while,” Nikki suggested, sending her sister a wink when she sat up. “And it’ll be nice to have the others home for a while.”

“Teddy’s not coming?” Gloria asked, hugging her knees and resting her chin on top.

Nikki shook her head. “Unfortunately, he and Kate are still cleaning up the mess from that terrorist group. But he did promise to visit when this little guy is born,” she stroked her large belly, smiling down at it.

“You’re gonna be a great mum,” she told her sister after they packed up their lunch.

“Aye, I better be. I had you to practice on,” she pinched her sister’s cheek, laughing at Gloria’s attempt to swat her hand away. “You heading home?”

“I promised mum I’d help out,” the teen nodded, walking with her sister back to Motostoke City. They parted ways at the train station, with Nikki taking one back to Hammerlocke. Gloria stood on the platform, waiting for her train with Rookie resting on her shoulder.

The station was almost empty, it being a slow hour of the day. Something she wasn’t going to complain about. It was nice to have some room as she texted her mother that she was on her way back.

Participate in the challenge. It’ll be a good way to keep yourself occupied over the summer and figure out what you want to do.

Arceus, I still don’t know what I want to do, she thought, biting her bottom lip. That was the hardest part about being the youngest of a large family. The pressure to graduate with top marks and have her future mapped out. Gloria didn’t know what she wanted to do in life and the rush to decide wasn’t helping. Maybe the challenge can help.

“Corv,” Rookie tapped his beak against her cheek, bringing her out of her thoughts as the train pulled up. She scratched his side as she climbed aboard.

oOo

Three Weeks Later…

“—Graduation will be held at the end of summer. Pick up your gowns from the office this afternoon,” the teacher informed them from behind his desk. “A reminder to those who are hoping to participate in the Gym Challenge for the season. You’ll need a letter of endorsement and no, your parents do not count, Michael.”

A few snickered as the class was dismissed. Gloria was gathering her things when Hop leaned against her desk. From his smirk and bright yellow eyes, he was up to something.

“If it’s illegal, your mum will kill us,” she reminded him, rising to her feet.

“Nah, nothing like that. You said Charlie’s coming home today,” he said, and she nodded. He threw an arm around her shoulders as they headed out of the classroom. “Then let’s get our gowns and head off. I wanna see all the eeveelutions he’s got.”

“Hop, Gloria!” Samantha called out as they paused in the hallway. “I heard you two are entering this season.”

Hop straightened up, grinning. “Aye, you’re looking at your future champion. I’ll be knocking the crown off Lee’s head,” he boasted as Gloria elbowed his side.

“Is Leon going to sponsor you both?” she asked, glancing at the brunette. “I understand him sponsoring Hop, but—”

“—He’ll sponsor Ria. He’s known her since we were toddlers,” Hop interrupted firmly, and she held her hands up in defence. “See you at graduation, Sam.”

“You too,” she replied before skipping off down the hall.

Hop squeezed her into his side, smiling down at the teen. “Don’t worry about her, mate. Lee’s gonna sponsor both of us,” he reassured her as she rolled her eyes.

“Raihan could sponsor me too. You know he’d do it in a heartbeat.”

“Oh! Imagine if he did, we’d be the second gen rivals.”

She laughed, pulling away and walking backwards. “You are dead set on us being rivals,” she commented as he shrugged, putting his hands in his pockets. “How’s Wooloo doing after his grand adventure?”

“Fine. Apparently, he ended up in Tuffield,” he answered as they headed to front office. They grabbed their gowns and left, saying their goodbyes along the way. Hop was itching to get to Wedgehurst, practically dragging the brunette along with him. As soon as they stepped off of the train, the teen had sprinted ahead.

“Hop!” Gloria called out as he ran around the corner. Shaking her head, she followed after, jogging towards the research centre. When Charlie called her last week, he told her he’d be helping out at Professor Magnolia’s lab. Apparently is was part of an exchange between Magnolia and Professor Rowan to swap assistants.

When she stepped into the lab, she found an Eevee and its seven evolutions running around with Sonia’s Yamper and Wooloo. The pokeball in her pocket vibrated as Rookie released himself.

“Wow,” Gloria commented, spotting her brother coming down the stairs. “It’s like the day-care in here.”

“Just prettier,” Charlie agreed with a laugh, hugging his sister tightly. “Good to see you’re still the midget.”

“Oi, watch it you nerd,” she warned as he winked. “Has Hop been a maniac?”

Charlie put his hands in his coat pockets. “Aye. He’s even tried to convince me to part with Glaceon over there,” he nodded his head at the younger teen who sat cross-legged on the floor. Glaceon and Espeon were climbing into his lab while Flareon climbed onto his back. “Which is not happening.”

“Aw come on, mate! You’ve got plenty of Pokémon with you.”

“Don’t be daft and catch your own,” he shot back, glancing at his sister. “But I hear Leon’s back in town tomorrow. Da says he’s grabbing some Pokémon off him to give you two.”

“He told me this morning,” Hop confirmed, gazing at the brunet. “Do you know which ones? Cause your da has a lot.”

“It’ll be a surprise, I’d imagine,” Gloria crossed her arms over her chest and looked at her brother. “You coming ‘round for tea?”

“You bet your arse. I’ve missed mum’s beef stew. Sinnoh is great and all but I do miss a good serving of chips.”

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Songs: Supergirl by Stefania. Let Go from Bratz Forever Diamonds soundtrack.

I’ve been posting this on my archiveofown under the username MysteriousMew if y’all wanna check it out there. But please enjoy and let me know what you think.

Also, I’ve created a Spotify playlist for this fic. Under the same name as the fic itself so check it out!

#Pokemon #sword #shield #hop #gloria #hop x gloria #postwickshipping

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astarlightmonbebe · 5 years

Text

☪ ⋆ Table For Two ☪ ⋆

When your friends set you up on a blind date, you’re expecting to hate it, but Han Jisung takes you by surprise.

Word Count: 3.7k

Pairing: Han Jisung x fem!reader

Other members: Hwang Hyunjin and Lee Felix

A/n: this is just a thing that came to mind; hope you all find it cute!

“On a scale of one to ten, how opposed would you be to going on a blind date?” Felix asks, sticking his freckled face right up into yours.

“Firstly, get out of my face.” You say with a look of disgust, slamming your locker shut and throwing your equipment bag over your shoulder. “Secondly, I’m so opposed to that idea that a number one through ten wouldn’t be able to rate how much I’m opposed to it.”

Felix sticks out his tongue at you. “Too bad for you. It’s at seven o’clock tonight, at Scoops For Two, with one of Hyunjin’s elementary school friends. He says he’s super nice, super single, and super cute. Sounds perfect, right?”

“No.” You deadpan, starting to walk towards the double doors. Felix trails after you, chattering away about Hyunjin’s great friend. He’s apparently a musician and he has dyed hair and he talks a lot, so he could totally carry the conversation—you held up a hand right in front of Felix’s mouth, stopping him from saying more.

“Felix, I’m not going on a date with someone Hyunjin set me up with.” You say with an annoyed sigh. Felix’s mouth opens and closes in resemblance with a fish.

“But y/n…” He whines, flinging his arms around your neck and dragging his feet. You try to shove him off to no avail; Felix has all the cling-ability of an octopus, even without little suction cups to keep him in place.

“I’ll pay you.” Felix whispers in your ear. You stop and tilt your head back to look at him. You raise one eyebrow, gesturing for him to continue. “I’m a little broke, but twenty bucks?”

“Yeah, right.” You say with a snort, turning back around.

“Thirty!” Felix bargains. “Come on, mate, I promised Hyunjin that you would definitely be coming.”

“Your mistake.” You reply lightly, pushing through the doors and out into the sunshine.

“Fifty.” Felix says with an air of resignation to him. You spin around, smiling.

“Deal.”

—

Scoops For Two is a popular ice cream shop on the edge of a giant strip mall that’s taken up half of your small town, a small cafe style restaurant best inhabited by high school kids much like yourself. At the moment it’s not occupied by that many people, the dinner rush past, especially for a Tuesday.

You enter it cautiously, tugging at the edges of the dress Hyunjin had stuffed you into. As soon as you had caved in for the blind date, Felix had called Hyunjin and the two of them had promptly taken over your bedroom and executed a mass cleaning as they looked through your closet for appropriate clothes, yelling at you when you tried to interfere, because you apparently ‘had less fashion sense than a human hippo would’—the compliment courtesy of Felix, but seconded by Hyunjin.

It’s not hard to find your blind date: there’s only one single guy sitting at a table for two among the couples scattered across the shop. He looks up at the sound of the bells jangling, eyes alighting on you and—oh, wow—he’s more than just super cute. He’s really cute. No, he’s so handsome it’s making your eyes hurt.

You look away, walking over to him and sitting down across from him. “I’m y/n.” You say, crossing your arms and trying to look as disinterested as possible. “Are you Hyunjin’s friend?”

His eyes fixate on you, a beautiful hazel shade that seem to be kaleidoscoping when you focus on them for too long. His hair is indeed dyed, a violet that is fading into his caramel roots, tousled and messy, falling in front of those eyes when he moves. He has that grunge style you’re kind of into, though you’d rather die than have people find out you have a type. Dressed in a pair of black jeans faded with time and torn with it too, red Doc Martens laced up over his feet, a matching red plaid shirt tied around his waist, his shirt an old Rolling Stones one. You’re not sure if he has the shirt just for the aesthetic or if he really likes them—you won’t judge either way.

Still, his casual style makes you feel extremely dressed up, all cutesy in your little knee length white sundress with the straps that keep sliding off your shoulders. At least you have your combat boots on, the metal buckles catching the light. He’s seen them too, and he’s smiling because of that.

“I like your shoes.” He says.

“Thanks.” You reply. “Name, please?” You’re chewing gum, mint, and you blow a bubble deliberately. He watches it pop, the gum disappearing back into your mouth.

“It’s Jisung. Han Jisung.” He tells you. You like his name, even though you won’t tell him that. It sounds nice. Jisung. Han Jisung. It goes together well too.

“Um, did you eat?” He asks. You nod.

“This is an ice cream shop, dude, not a dinner buffet.” You figure that if you’re as mean as possible, it’ll hurt his feelings and he’ll go away soon. Jisung nods.

“Of course.” He says, more to himself than to you. “So...do you want to go up and order something?” He’s clenching his fingers into fists underneath the table and you realize he’s nervous. Huh.

“Yeah, sure.” You say, rising effortlessly and tugging at the bottom of your dress. It’s a little too short for your comfort, but you managed to slip on spandex shorts underneath in case any mishaps happen.

Jisung follows you up, hanging back. You wonder if you’re intimidating him. Hyunjin had given you strict instructions to seem like the best possible version of yourself, and also to smile lots, because you apparently looked ‘scary’ when you weren’t.

The ice cream is arranged colorfully, labelled on the glass by someone with noticeably messy handwriting. Come to think of it, it’s been a while since you’ve actually had ice cream. Sports keep you busy, and you’re not one for social outings.

“One scoop of mint chocolate chip with hot fudge and whipped cream and a cherry.” Jisung orders beside you, smiling down at the ice cream. You look at him with a raised eyebrow. “What?” He asks, expression souring. “Don’t tell me you’re one of those people who hates mint chocolate chip ice cream.”

You laugh. “What? No. I just think it’s funny you know exactly what you’re going to order.” Turning to the other worker, you say; “I’d like a scoop of cookie dough with caramel sauce, sprinkles, whipped cream, and a cherry.”

Jisung laughs. “You say that, but you’re exactly the same way.”

“No, I’m simply fast at making decisions. Time doesn’t wait around.” You say back crossly, leaning against the glass and watching the worker drizzle caramel over your ice cream. Jisung leans across from you, smiling again. He never seems to stop smiling. Usually that bothers you, but you like his smile, so you decide to just let him.

“Uhuh.” He says, the grin broad on his face. “Whatever helps you sleep at night.” You scoff at him, then thank the workers as they hand you your ice cream. “I can pay.” Jisung says, reaching into his pocket.

“I’ll pay for myself, thanks very much.” You reply, lifting your chin. Jisung blinks, then slowly puts his wallet away and nods, motioning for you to go first.

As you’re paying, the worker asks you; “First date?” You stop, so that he has to tug the money out of your hand.

“No.” Jisung answers behind you. “Not yet.” You nod along, wondering why you were so caught off guard by the question. It wasn’t like it was anything deep.

The two of you take your ice cream back to that small round table for two, the chair hard against your back. It seems even more awkward than before, so you eat your ice cream in silence, poking your spoon in the whipped cream and watching how it gets stuck. You can feel Jisung looking at you every time you look down, but you don’t comment on it.

“So, Hyunjin says you play hockey.” Jisung finally starts, sitting back. You look back up at him.

“Yeah. Field and ice.” He nods appreciatively.

“That’s so cool. I’m not good at sports at all.” He chatters on. “I make music instead. Do you like music? Sorry, that’s a stupid question, everyone likes music. Well, not everyone. What artists do you like?”

You set your spoon down and sit back. “Hey, Han Jisung.” He blinks at you again, rapidly. “Do you talk a lot when you’re nervous.”

“Uh, no, I, maybe?” He stutters, and you find yourself smiling against your will.

“Forget it, it’s fine. I like producers like CB97 and r&b. I’ll listen to just about anything, though, because you have to have something to occupy your mind with when you work out. What about you?”

“Um, well, like you I’ll listen to anything. I like rap, but also ballads...yeah, I guess you could say my music taste is pretty varied.” He laughs a little, eyes scrunching up, and gosh, that’s kind of adorable, how they become crescents of happiness. You can feel the awkwardness melting away piece by piece, chipped away at with the start of this conversation.

“Hyunjin did mention you’re a musician. Are you like in a band?”

Jisung laughs, covering his mouth when he does. “Not exactly. Mostly I just mess around with like...Soundcloud...I swear I’m not cringey though! There’s just not really other platforms to post stuff on.”

You’re already pulling out your phone as he talks. “What’s your username?”

His eyes widen in surprise. “What? No! You’ll think it’s so bad.”

You hand the phone over to him and he tentatively accepts it. “Username, Han Jisung. Besides, Hyunjin will just tell me if you don’t.” Jisung sighs, accepting the truth of that statement, and passes the phone back to you.

“J.ONE?” You say aloud, tilting your head. He has a lot of music, you discover, as you scroll through it. Like, a lot. Too many to count. “It looks like you’ve been doing this for a while.” You observe.

Jisung gave you a dry look. “I went through a weird emo middle school phase, so please don’t listen to any of my old songs. I’ve been meaning to delete them, but a lot of people have listened to them...and also made fun of them, but that’s not important.”

You frown. “Okay, I promise I won’t listen to your emo phase music, but the rest of it is up for dibs, right?” You grin, and Jisung’s cheeks redden a fraction. He touches them with the backs of his head, looking even more embarassed.

“Whatever you want, y/n.” He finally responds with a sunny smile. “I expect adequate feedback though. I don’t usually give out my music to pretty girls on first meetings.”

“Well, I’m known to be an exception to that rule.” You proclaim airly.

“Wow, confident much?” He asks, but he’s holding back a laugh as he ducks his head.

“Actually, yes.” You answer as seriously as possible, teasing at this point just to see the expression on his face. “No one matches me when it comes to totally unneeded confidence, so don’t think you’ll be able to even come close.”

“I wasn’t even going to try.” Jisung replies, holding his hands up in an I surrender motion.

“Good.” You say, feeling yourself smiling hard, your cheek muscles aching. It’s been a while since you’ve found yourself smiling for so long. This scruffy looking cute boy has somehow managed to quite possibly win a little bit of your heart. Possibly. Only possibly, of course. It’s too scary to admit that completely to yourself.

“Are you finished?” Jisung asks suddenly, noticing your empty ice cream cup. “Because I have something I want to do. Only if you want to, though.”

You are indeed finished, but you look at him suspiciously all the same. “What sort of thing?”

He smiles cheekily at you. “Can it be a surprise? I pinky promise I’m not going to kidnap you.”

You aren’t concerned about that, which is a surprise given your usual skepticism when meeting new people, especially when you’re alone. “I’ll go along with it just this once.” You say as breezily as possible, feeling a faint pinkness rise in your cheeks. Since when did you blush over boys—albeit very cute ones with really nice smiles and Soundclouds?

He pushes open the door, opening up something on his phone, and turns back to you. “Ready?” He asks, hand outstretched towards you. You stare at it, thinking about what it would feel like to hold his hand, and by the time your mind has returned in order for you to think to grab it, its dropped by his side again.

“Wait.” You say, grabbing it. It’s warm and a rough all at once, old callouses healed over, but that doesn’t bother you. Your own hands hold the remnants of what it’s like to clutch a hockey stick year round. Jisung looks startled but in a pleasant way as he leads you down the road, eyes narrowed at his phone screen.

You walk around the corner and down the road before he stops in front of a bike, scanning a QR code to check it out. “Um…” He glances down at the bike, then back at the two of you. You smirk.

“Get on behind me, lover boy.” You state, swinging your leg over the bike. You’re glad you had the foresight to wear those spandex shorts now.

Jisung sputters at the name. “I swear I’m not a player!” He exclaims, sounding so sincere you can’t help but let out a loud laugh, doubling over the handles as your body shakes.

“Chill, dude, it’s just an expression.” You smile from underneath your veil of hair. “I know you’re not a player, Han Jisung, so don’t take offense.”

Jisung runs his fingers through his hair and has the grace to look embarrassed. “Sorry.” He mumbles, and you motion for him to get on behind you. There’s an awkward moment when he has to squeeze himself to fit, knees almost up to his chest. His arms find their way to your waist, wrapping around it tightly, as if he considers you his only lifeline.

“Where are we off to, Han Jisung?” You ask over your shoulder.

“The boardwalk.” He answers, voice muffled by your shoulder, which he’s leaned his head against without asking, hair tickling the back of your neck. It’s almost...nice, how you can feel how he’s so relaxed against you, as if he trusts you. Who trusts strangers they’ve just met? Only Jisung, apparently.

“What’re we doing there?” You ask jokingly, and you can feel him lift his head to look at the back of his head.

“It’s a secret, of course. Now get pedalling.” You roll your eyes, feeling the burn in your muscles as you set off.

“By the way, you need to swear you won’t sue me if you fall off and get a concussion.” You throw over your shoulder.

“I wouldn’t dream of it.” Jisung replies, sounding sleepy, even though your pedalling is rough and messy and there are lots of cracks in the sidewalk. “Besides, I thought you had more confidence than anyone else in this world. Aren’t you confident you can keep me safe?” His voice is soft around the edges, wrapping around you and curling through your veins, warm and tingly.

“Don’t worry, I don’t want to ruin that pretty face of yours either.” You respond gently, and he settles back against you as you spend the ride in silence.

The sun is dipping down into golden hour and you tilt your face up to it, enjoying the breeze against you, a relief from the hot summer days you’ve all been suffering from lately as school draws to a close. You like this feeling, you decide: a comforting weight at your back and the wind in your face and the sun making everything prettier, knowing you’re not really that alone.

The boardwalk is old and rickety but surrounded by sand and water, the fair still in session with its glittering lights and larger than life ferris wheel. You park right at the entrance, and Jisung untangles himself from you. It feels empty without him there, after a silent bike ride that lasted for at least a good twenty minutes.

“Golden hour looks good on you.” He acknowledges, and you toss your hair, even though you’re blushing from the compliment.

“Of course it does.” He shakes his head, but he likes your confidence and you both know it.

“What are we going to do here?” You ask, but Jisung just grabs your hand away and leads you in, showing off two tickets he must have stashed in one of those pockets that are scattered throughout his outfit.

“First, we get accessories.” He announces, leading you right to a small shop filled with souvenirs. “To get in a carnival mood.” He declares, and you laugh, looking it over. You pick out a headband with cat ears, sticking it on his head.

“If that’s the case, then I think this is the one for you.” You announce, examining him with a laugh. He does look cute in it, but he pouts at you anyways, finding one with devil horns and jamming it on your head.

“If that’s the case, then I think this one suits your personality.” He says, half laughing at you. You look in the mirror. He’s put it on lopsidedly, of course, so you adjust it with some self consciousness.

“What’s after this?” You ask, looking out across the fair. “Please tell me we’re riding the ferris wheel.” Jisung swallows and looks up at it. “Please?” You add, because if you’re here, then you’re going to have your way for at least one ride.

“I wasn’t planning on rides, but for you, I’d do anything.” He pulls a finger heart out of his jacket and you swat his hand away playfully, even though your heart feels like it’s pumping an electric beat inside of your chest, threatening to break free of your rib cage and jump right into Han Jisung’s hands.

The line for the ferris wheel is short, and soon you find yourself crammed side by side with Jisung on it, only a bar in front of you preventing you from falling. Jisung turns his head to watch the ground disappear, then settles back against the seat. His hands are in his lap, too tightly entwined for you to dare reaching over to grab one of them.

“Truthfully, I’m only on this blind date because Felix said he would pay me fifty dollars.” You tell him suddenly, and it’s so sudden that Jisung starts laughing, leaning out over the bar with his eyes bright.

“So I’m only worth fifty dollars to you?” He asks, poking you in the shoulder. You brush his hand away, nose scrunching up.

“That’s not what I said! You didn’t let me finish.” You pout, and he mouths a silent apology and waves for you to continue on. “I’ve actually had a lot of fun, though, especially considering it’s the first blind date I’ve been on. It’s been nice getting to know you, Jisung.”

Jisung smiles softly at that. “Thanks, y/n.” The ferris wheel creaks upward, then jolts to a sudden halt at the top, sending you both forward. The bar bites into your stomach, and you groan.

“Oh, come on. Isn’t it a little cliche to trap couples at the top?!” You yell down to the worker, who doesn’t seem to hear you as they fiddle with the buttons. You sigh, pinching the bridge of your nose.

“Wow...we’re really high up.” Jisung notes, his voice coming out shaky. You look over at him and see that your date for the night is looking unusually out of sorts.

“What’s wrong?” You ask in concern.

“Since we’re admitting things tonight, it might be a good time to say that I have a very big fear of heights.” Jisung says flatly, craning his neck to look at the frothing ocean only a drop away. “I don’t suppose you have any good distractions for that, do you? Because I can tell you right now just talking to me will not help in the slightest.”

An idea is formulating in your brain, and you smile. “I do, actually. Look me in the eyes.” He does, turning his head, his eyes colorful orbs with the reflection of the ferris wheel lights in them, hair blowing in the wind.

“What are you doing?” He whispers as you stare up at him, concentrating. You hold up one finger to your lips, making him go quiet. He stares down at you and you gaze up at him, everything going quiet except for your breathing.

Slowly, carefully, you reach up. His eyes track your hand as it traces over his shoulder and around to rest against his neck, pulling him down closer. You can tell he has more to ask, but you suck in a breath and pull his face down towards yours, lips connecting.

It’s brief, two pairs of lips brushing against each other, but it makes you feel things you’ve never felt. Han Jisung’s lips are soft and warm, and his mouth parts against yours in a silent exclamation as you deepen the kiss, hand furled into the collar of his shirt.

The ferris wheel jolts back to life, startling the two of you apart. Jisung is staring at you, chest rising and falling, and you smile at him, feeling shy.

“Did that distract you enough?” You ask innocently, and Jisung blinks several times in rapid succession, then nods slowly. He’s tilting his head, looking at you in a different light, and you wait patiently.

“No wonder you have so much confidence.” He finally murmurs. “You’re freaking beautiful.”

And when Han Jisung kisses you for a second time, you think he’s worth more than money could offer. Up among these clouds, surrounded by light, the water washing up against the shore steadily, you think that he’s quite possibly the best person you’ve ever met.

End.

#stray kids #straysunshinesnet #han jisung #han #my writing #hwang hyunjin #lee felix #stray kids imagines #x reader #han jisung x reader #han x reader #han jisung imagine #one shots #uhh lowkey just yeeted the title off the top of my head?#star tries to be aesthetic and fails?#this is short so hopefully people like it and all idk

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sandersstudies · 5 years

Text

Quirky - Chapter 5

A High School Superhero AU - Sanders Sides

(Will add tag list in a reblog! If I miss you, please let me know ASAP - As always, asks, comments, messages, reblogs, and keysmashes are more than welcome.)

-> Chapter Six

<- Chapter Four

<<- Chapter One

You can now also find the fic with the same username and title on AO3 :)

Virgil kicked a stone in front of him as the class walked toward the bus. Next to him, Logan was going on about the history of U.S.J., their destination for Hero Studies class. Virgil wasn’t a fan of field trips. He almost envied Terrence, who had stayed home sick from school.

“Pick up the pace, gang,” Mr. Picani said. “Last I checked, none of you had lead feet as a quirk.” There had been no updates on Mr. Sanders, but Virgil and many of the other students had been watching the news religiously. All that had been released to the public was that Mr. Sanders had encountered an unnamed retired pro hero at the site of a recent vandalism, attacked him using his quirk, and fled the scene. Police officers had pursued, but initially lost the trail until Mr. Sanders was arrested in the early hours of the morning in his apartment. The date of his trial had not yet been announced.

“Am I boring you?” Logan asked, stopping mid-sentence.

“Oh, no, no,” Virgil said, spasmodically grabbing Logan’s wrist and then dropping it immediately. “Sorry, guess I’m a little caught up in my own head. What were you saying?”

“U.S.J. is a fascinating location, that is all,” Logan said. Mr. Picani checked their names off his list as they got on board the bus. “Think: a single building containing several ecosystems and terrains to prepare heroes for work in any field at all! Especially useful for disaster intervention, search-and-rescue...but I won’t go on.” He took one of the few remaining open seats, and Virgil sat beside him, on the aisle side. “What were you thinking about?”

“Mr. Sanders again,” Virgil said, lowering his voice and leaning toward Logan. He felt exposed sitting near the aisle. “Do you really think he attacked another hero?”

“Rumor has it the other hero was the Flying Falcon,” Logan said in an even lower voice. “But I don’t like spreading inconclusive evidence.”

“The Flying-” Logan shushed him. “The Flying Falcon?” Virgil whispered. “Roman’s dad?”

“Inconclusive evidence.”

Virgil craned over the back of his seat as the bus started. Roman was several seats back reading a comic book, the seat next to him empty.

His posse not hanging out with him anymore? Roman had seemed a little quieter than usual yesterday. Then again, everyone had. Roman was dwelling an awfully long time on his page. He’s no genius, Virgil thought, But I’m pretty sure he can read. Roman’s eyes did look a little glazed over, come to think of it—

Logan pulled gently on Virgil’s sleeve, and Virgil came back to himself as he slid back into the seat.

“It’s rude to stare,” Logan said. Virgil felt his neck flush hot as he bounced his leg. Logan must think he was a real ass. He stared down at his hands, and then toward the front window of the bus, watching for U.S.J. to appear on the horizon. Another disadvantage of sitting on the aisle side of the seat was limited window access.

“There it is,” Rafaela said a few minutes later, pointing. Students craned their necks to get a first glance at the dome.

“Please stay in your seats,” Mr. Picani said from the front of the bus. Students sulked back down.

U.S.J. didn’t look like much to Virgil. He’d gone on vacation once with his mom and visited the Omaha zoo, and the huge glass building reminded him of the desert dome that housed things like Fennec foxes and meerkats. He had a vague idea that once he entered U.S.J. he would be pounced on by a bobcat.

“The hero Glass runs the U.S.J.,” Kai whispered to Kenny from behind Virgil. “They’re so cool.”

Virgil vaguely recalled seeing Glass on television before. The hero could turn things they touched into glass, and also transform into a glass figure which, when damaged, could regenerate almost instantly. That cheesy action figure, Virgil remembered. The little clear plastic arm that shot off and could “regrow with the power of their Quirk!” (that is, be replaced and reused). How many millions did heroes make off of dumb things like that?

Kai was bouncing up and down, grasping the back of Virgil’s seat and shaking it back and forth as the bus pulled up to the building. Virgil winced. He’d noticed that when Kai was overexcited, his quirk goo could leak from his nose and ears.

“Let’s go!” Kai said.

“Just a minute,” Mr. Picani said. “Your names must be checked off the list as you get off the bus, so don’t rush, now.”

“You checked us on off when we got on!” Kai whined, draping himself over his seat. Roman was instructed to check off names so Mr. Picani could lead the students into the building, and the students started to file into the aisle. Virgil wondered for a moment if Roman would be petty enough to leave Virgil’s name unchecked, but the class president’s face was serious as the other students got off the bus.

“Are you thinking again?” Logan asked, alighting just behind Virgil.

“A little,” Virgil admitted. At least Logan wasn’t embarrassed by Virgil’s awkward staring anymore.

“I do find the construction of U.S.J. compelling,” Logan said again. “The ecosystems…” He was staring at the building with barely-contained delight. “I’ve read about their systems of environment regulation for the six main zones. It’s fascinating. Do let me know if I go on about them too long.”

Virgil felt his lips contort irresistibly into a smile. Logan sure was a nerd, but it was kind of funny how excited he got. “You’re fine.”

Logan continued, rejuvenated by Virgil’s consent. “The main zones are the Ruins, the Landslide, the Mountain, the Flood, the Downpour, and the Conflagration zones. As their names suggest, each is related to a different environmental factor.”

Logan sounded almost like he was reciting from a book. His quirk isn’t a photographic memory, Virgil thought. In fact, Logan was liable to forget things that didn’t interest him. But it might as well be when it comes to this stuff.

“The Conflagration Zone is perhaps most impressive,” Logan went on. “Designed to simulate a city on fire, a blaze is kept constant within the zone, maintained by the environmental factors which prevent it from spreading into the other zones. It’s actually a very delicate balance, the design took years to perfect.” He spoke as proudly as if he’d designed it himself. The class began to move toward the entrance of the building where there was a large sign with U.S.J. emblazoned above it in gold letters.

“Glass is the official caretaker and one of the head designers, along with Multi-Man himself.” Logan’s arms moved emphatically. “Glass’ quirk is quite astonishing. I would be very interested in seeing it in person. Of course, they are also a faculty member. Perhaps they would prefer to be referred to by their civilian name.”

Other students were also commenting on the structure and its caretaker, but none in such technical terms as Logan, who had paused to take a breath after a particularly long paragraph.

“We’re going to process into the front entrance,” Mr. Picani said. “We’ll stop there and you’ll be directed into the next location.”

The students jostled a bit, and Virgil shrunk into his oversized hoodie. Logan, on the other hand, seemed to have grown two inches taller since they’d left the main campus. He was scanning each part of the building as they went through the front double doors, and Virgil imagined once again that he could hear Logan’s synapses firing.

The class oohed and ahhed as they entered the building. The raised platform they entered onto let them see across the entire space, which was more massive than a stadium. From their height, it reminded Virgil of an arena. In front of them was a blue arch leading to the stairs that descended into the rest of the building, which had a dirt floor. Smaller domes encased two of the environmental zones, but a real miniature mountain rose to the ceiling on their right, with a landslide arching down to its base where rested a mock town, small but with everything to real scale. It was so realistic Virgil expected to see people peering out of the windows to watch their arrival. At the edge of the town was a series of collapsed buildings which came almost up to the edge of the raised platform, and across from those was a lake to the students’ right; Virgil had anticipated a pool, a simulated lake, but the body of water had grass and even small trees at the edge, growing happily inside the pavilion with a healthy diet of lake water and sunshine.

The building seemed all sunshine, in fact. Even the mountain was contained inside the massive glass ceiling, and on this sunny day no artificial lights were needed. A few metal beams around the edge were the only reminder that they were not really outside.

Forgetting Mr. Picani’s instructions in their excitement, a couple students began to rush for the stairs that led down into the zones, but stopped suddenly, as if prevented by an invisible barrier.

“Woah there,” said a new voice. In their astonishment at seeing the building, none of the students had noticed the figure standing before him. The person had outstretched their hands to stop Kai with one arm and Rafaela with the other. They were not invisible, but clear through their entire body, and it was only as they began to return to their ordinary form that Virgil could make them out.

They wore ordinary black clothing that looked casual and modern. In place of the mask that usually covered the whole round face was a smile under dark eyes and hair. Virgil realized that the action figure had exaggerated the hero’s age: Glass could not be much older than some of the UA upperclassmen. A few students muttered the name in awe and surprise.

“Here, I’d ask that you refer to me as Mx. Stokes,” Glass said. “Glass is for field work and going on Ellen and things like that.”

Kai was staring up at Mx. Stokes in astonishment, mouth slightly agape. Mr. Picani walked up to the other hero.

“Mx. Stokes is going to begin by giving you all a bit of a tour, and then you’ll be prepared when you start using this place for rescue training,” he said

“That’s right,” Mx. Stokes agreed. “Do any of you know how many zones are in U.S.J.?”

Logan’s hand shot up so fast he almost smacked Virgil in the face.

“Yes?” Mx. Stokes said. “And your name is?”

Logan had begun after the teacher’s first word, so the response went something like “U.S.J-contains-eight-zones-six-of-which—Logan—six-of-which-contain-specific-environmental-factors.”

“Thank you, Logan,” Mx. Stokes said. “That’s correct. All of you are actually standing in the first zone now. The entrance is itself one of the zones, and if you’ll look down those steps you can see into the central plaza, which connects the entrance to the six environmental zones.”

Virgil stared past the other students down the massive flights of steps, lined with guardrails and wide enough that the whole class could have walked down side-by-side. At the base of the steps was the plaza, in the center of which was a circular green space. Virgil hadn’t noticed it at first; it had been dwarfed in size by the other zones. It was little more than a fountain surrounded by plants, a typical park centerpiece. It looked out of place only because it was framed by fallen buildings, a mountain, and a lake.

“Let’s start walking toward the plaza,” Mx. Stokes said, turning for the stairs. The students began to follow, Kai leading the way. Virgil grumbled at the thought of having to go back up the stairs again before they left. He envied Patton, who Mr. Picani was directing to a small elevator — too small for the whole class, but Virgil could dream.

“Now, when lots of people think of hero work,” Mx. Stokes went on. “They think first of TV stuff like punching people and blowing stuff up, right?” A few students muttered agreement. “Right! But the most important part of being a hero isn’t that stuff. Even more important than knocking the shit out of villains—”

“Glass,” Mr. Picani warned from the top of the steps.

“Knocking the stuffing out of villains is caring for the people we serve, and that often means search-and-rescue operations. Plenty of heroes are known for this kind of work.”

There was a beat of glances among the students. Rescue was Multi-Man’s speciality.

If he wasn’t in jail, would he be giving us this speech? Virgil wondered.

“Now,” Mx. Stokes said, breaking the moment. “If the entrance is noon, we’re going to move around the zones clockwise. Does anybody know what the zone immediately to our left is called?” The students were halfway down the stairs, and the collapsed buildings began to loom to one side.

Logan’s hand shot up in the air again, but Mx. Stokes glanced over the students and called on Kai’s much shorter raised arm instead.

“The Ruined Zone,” Kai said.

“Ruins Zone,” Logan corrected in a whisper.

“Right, the Ruins Zone,” Mx. Stokes said. “Or the Collapse Zone. It probably looks a lot like the place where you guys had your heroes vs. villains exercise, and where you took your entrance exam.”

Virgil shuddered at the memory.

“However, the Ruins Zone is meant to simulate an urban environment in the middle of a disaster like an earthquake or tornado, and some of the buildings are not very stable.” They’d finally reached the base of the stairs and had landed almost among the buildings where Patton, just coming off the elevator, was waiting for them. Virgil was startled by the level of detail in the fallen city. Real road signs lay bent at the side of cracked roads. He could see inside individual broken windows and into the rooms inside. He could imagine himself, perched on top of a building in his mask. He could swoop inside the windows and rescue...who was inside the building? He imagined a crouched figure inside. Perhaps it was—

He cut off his daydream halfway. Unrealistic.

“Could...could one of the buildings collapse now?” Kai asked nervously.

“Nope,” Mx. Stokes said, hands on their hips. “The entire building is currently in safety mode. Nothing can hurt you right now so long as nobody goes messing around. But some of the beams and stones are very unstable and are liable to collapse if tampered with, so it’s not a good place to experiment if you don’t know it very well. Anybody know the name of this next zone?”

Since they’d reached the bottom of the stairs, Logan had edged closer to the front of the class and was directly in Mx. Stokes line of sight when he raised his hand.

“Logan.”

“The Landslide Zone,” Logan enunciated.

“That’s right,” Mx. Stokes said, turning around to lead then away from the buildings and toward the small town, surrounded by forest and half-buried under the edge of the mountain with mud and rocks. “I think the name is pretty self-explanatory.”

Virgil was astonished with how long it took to walk first to the Landslide Zone and then all the way to the Mountain Zone, around five or six o’clock on Mx. Stokes’ imaginary map. Surely the building didn’t look this big from the outside? If he kept his gaze focused on the mountain, he found he could almost forget he was inside a building.

“Quite a lot of cliffs there,” Mx. Stokes declared after ignoring Logan’s hand to allow Remy to say “Mountain Zone.”

“Here’s a question,” Mr. Picani said, coming to stand beside Mx. Stokes. “I want each of you to think about your quirk strengths and weaknesses for a moment, and when we get back to the entrance, I’d like to hear which zones you feel work to your advantage and which would be most difficult for you.”

“Does this count as homework?” Remy asked.

Mr. Picani pointed a joking finger at the students. “Be lucky this is Hero Studies and not Literature or I’d have you write an essay on it.” A few students chuckled good-naturedly.

“We’ll take a quick break here,” Mx. Stokes said. “You guys can think about that question and take a quick look around the base of the mountain. No climbing though, okay?”

Some of the students practically sprinted toward the rocks, while Virgil and several others fell gratefully into splayed sitting positions.

“I am going to investigate the rock face, would you like to come?” Logan asked, leaning over Virgil.

“No thanks,” Virgil said. “Think I’m just gonna chill out here.”

“Understood.” Logan sped-walked away, paused to examine a root, and vanished behind a small clump of trees at the base of the mountain.

It is cool, having all this stuff indoors, Virgil admitted to himself. But he was no geology student. He flopped onto his back. The ground felt like real dirt, and he stared through the ceiling’s metal beams to see the clouds drifting lazily overhead. He hadn’t slept well after the news about Mr. Sanders. It was silly but—

He was distracted from his thoughts as Mx. Stokes leaned in to say something to Mr. Picani, too quietly for Virgil to hear except as a mutter. The glass hero touched the other teacher on the arm, and the two took several steps away from the class, though Mr. Picani’s gaze still scanned the students, most of whom had run some distance away or were now chatting amongst themselves. Kai had made a bouncy ball using his goo quirk and he and Kenny were tossing it back and forth, occasionally sprinting after it when it managed to slip through their fingers.

What was Glass saying to Picani? Half-closing his eyes, Virgil rolled onto his side as casually as possible to see the pair better. With the arrest of Mr. Sanders, maybe it was better not to trust anyone, not even the other UA teachers.

From Virgil’s distance, Mx. Stokes’ furrowed brows looked almost sympathetic as he spoke. Picani shooed the younger teacher away after a moment, and Mx. Stokes took a respectful step back.

Something’s going on between those two, Virgil thought. He glanced around to see if any of the other students were watching, but the only one nearby was Patton who was—

Looking at him.

Virgil quickly rolled over and went back to half-closing his eyes. He probably didn’t see that, he tried to convince himself. It didn’t work. He really didn’t like Patton’s eyes. If Virgil had had the courage, he would have watched to see if Patton ever actually blinked, or if his eyes were always staring just a bit. He didn’t look back for several minutes, and was nearly drifting into a nap when Mx. Stokes’ voice broke out again.

“Okay, everybody come back!” Mx. Stokes called. “Roman, you’re class rep, aren’t you? Run around toward the mountain and make sure we’ve got everybody back.”

Virgil pushed himself back into a standing position and dusted himself up without checking to see whether Patton was looking at him.

“Enjoyed your rest?” Logan asked as he approached.

“Enjoyed your investigating?” Virgil responded.

“Thoroughly. They’ve used an ingenious mix of sedimentary rock and artificial materials to create an accurate imitation of a genuine landmass. The trees are growing via an irrigation system routed from the lake under the tile.”

“Who knows the name of the next zone?” Mx. Stokes asked. Logan’s delight at the discovery of sediment and irrigations had distracted him long enough that he had not raised his hand by the time the question was answered.

“The Conflagration or Fire Zone.”

“That’s right, Roman,” Mx. Stokes said. “Let’s start moving that way. And before any of you freak out—” The teacher raised their hands defensively. “The safety settings make the location totally secure.”

A few students scoffed, but Virgil stifled a grateful sigh. The Conflagration Zone, situated near seven o’clock, was the first of the zones covered completely in a dome, this one red instead of clear, with drawn-on flames rising along the sides. Ordinarily, Virgil would have thought of it as a large building, but dwarfed by the entire U.S.J. it was much less impressive. Virgil could almost feel Logan shaking with excitement next to him.

“How does the Conflagration Zone work?” Virgil said, deadpan.

“Very interesting that you would ask!” Logan almost burst out. “Actually, the fire in the space is maintained via a chemical balance, not by burning materials, which regulates it while simulating real fire. Many of the materials inside are actually functionally fireproof. A ventilation system maintains a regulated amount of smoke, and—”

“So,” Mx. Stokes began from the front of the group. Logan trailed off his lecture to listen. “We’re about to go inside the dome now. We are going to stop right inside the entrance, where there won’t be any fire, so don’t break off from the group or run around.”

The doors looked as if they might lead into an ordinary pavillion or museum, but Virgil shivered (ironically, he thought) at the prospect of going inside. He pulled his hood over his head.

“The Conflagration Zone is an environmentally controlled space—” The teacher’s voice changed as he crossed the threshold of the dome, and Virgil was pushed along as the students followed. It was a good thing Logan had already told him about the zone, because he couldn’t hear Mx. Stokes talking over the roaring in his ears.

Like the Ruins Zone, the space contained rubble and several collapsed structures, all engulfed in fire. Standing just inside the door was like facing a raging campfire, and Virgil flushed in the heat. There was no lighting inside the dome besides the flames, so the entire place was illuminated in red and orange. A few mock streets between buildings were the only places away from the entrance that seemed to be totally clear of fire. The class’ brief stay inside was mostly a blur for Virgil, and he breathed deeply when they turned and proceeded back outside. Outside, Virgil realized, was how he thought of the inside of U.S.J., despite the domed ceiling above them.

“Everybody really likes this next spot,” Mx. Stokes said. “Who knows what it’s called?”

“Flood Zone,” a few students said at once.

“Right, sometimes called the Shipwreck Zone,” Mx. Stokes went on. “Nice relief after that heat, huh?”

The students muttered agreement. Near nine o’clock arched the clear blue water of the artificial lake, a large yacht bobbing like a massive buoy two hundred yards from the shore. Behind the lake rose up a small mountain on which perched wooden scaffolding to support a amusement-park-style waterslide, funneling water into the lake. The main slide twisted around several times, reaching the height of an office building, and was wide enough that the entire yacht could have slid inside it. An offshoot from the slide did not come to rest in the water, but jutted out over the zone, spewing water to form a waterfall.

“Looks fun, right?” Mx. Stokes said. “You can’t see from here, but rock formations stab out of the belly of the slide, and the way down is pretty dangerous. The slide and boat are fully functional, though. You guys can check them out when you come back for your first session of rescue training.”

They’d reached the edge of the water, and Mx. Stokes bent down on the mossy shore to reach into the water and cup it in their hand.

“Lightly chlorinated,” they said. “To keep out bacteria and the like. You can even—” and they slurped the water from their hand like they were taking a shot. “Though I don’t necessarily recommend it. Go ahead and touch if you like.”

Several of the students plunged their hands into the water. Kai slipped off his sandles and dipped in his toes. Virgil slid down to sitting and felt the wet ground sink slightly under his weight. When he stuck his fingers into the lake, he could still see them clearly, if slightly distorted in shape and blued in color.

Logan plopped down next to Virgil and plunged his arm in all the way up to his shirt sleeve. When he pulled his hand back out, he’d grasped a fistful of soil from the edge of the water.

“Incredible,” he said, rubbing the grains of sandy dirt between his fingers. “They’ve actually incorporated the lake directly into the ground of the location. The irrigation of the water must be highly advanced.” When he sat back up, the front of his shirt was blurred with mud, but he didn’t seem to notice.

“The lake is connected directly to our next zone,” Mx. Stokes said, gesturing to the dome near ten o’clock. “The Downpour Zone’s ceiling and floor are routed with pipes to and from the lake to create the constant rain without wasting water. Now, I can see you’re all enjoying the lake, but I’m not sure you all would like to walk into the eye of a storm.”

Virgil suspected Logan would enjoy that very much, if it meant a chance to learn about irrigation or whatever it was.

“So, we’re going to walk along the dome and take a look through the doors, and we won’t be getting soaked,” Mx. Stokes said, beginning to walk around the edge of the lake toward the second dome at a brisk trot. Some of the students took an extra moment to get up from the shore, and Kai skipped several steps as he tried to put on his left sandal. Mr. Picani brought up the rear.

“You guys still with me?” Mx. Stokes called over their shoulder smilingly. “We’re almost done, I promise.”

As they approached the final dome, there was a faint sound of thunder from within, muffled by the walls, and Virgil had an image of the Downpour Zone as a snowglobe on Mx. Stokes’ mantlepiece. The dome was indigo and dappled with large painted clouds of blue and purple, intersected with large beams. When the teacher swung the double doors in to let the students peer inside, Virgil remained suspended near the back of the group. He’d seen storms before, and he only had to wait through a few minutes of oohs and ahhs before it was the time he’d been dreading: time to ascend back up all those massive stairs to the exit. Do you want to be a hero or not? he asked himself in an attempt at motivation.

Not that badly, he responded.

The entire group sans Patton and Mr. Picani, who had returned in the elevator, slugged up the stairs. The only students still apparently full of energy were Kai and Logan, who had sparked a conversation in their mutual admiration of the space and were now gibbering away to one another excitedly.

Too discouraged by the stairs to keep up, Virgil walked a few steps behind. It looked like Logan had found a new, more willing set of ears, even if those ears sometimes leaked goo. Virgil found he wasn’t relieved to be rid of Logan’s lecturing, and managed to catch a few snippets of their conversation.

“The production of the building was a direct result of…that’s why I find it so interesting....me too!”

Kai was several inches shorter than Logan, and did pant for breath about halfway up the stairs. Virgil slowed even further, but still caught up to the pair.

“Hello, Virgil,” Logan said. He was smiling. “Kai also knows a lot regarding the history of U.S.J.”

“I’m a big Glass fan,” Kai said, pausing to catch his breath. “I figured.” Virgil hadn’t meant to sound so cold, but Kai’s nose was leaking goo again. The shorter boy sniffed and then suddenly tensed. “Oh no, don’t—” Virgil didn’t get a chance to finish before Kai let out a massive sneeze, splattering Virgil with flecks of goo like smashed Jell-O.

“Oh, gross!” he said instinctively, shoving Kai away from him. Whether the other student was already thrown off balance or whether he’d pushed harder than he meant to Virgil was never quite sure, but Kai tumbled back and would have fallen onto his butt if Logan had not been directly behind him. Too surprised to catch Kai, Logan fell back against the railing of the stairs with an “oof,” Kai essentially in his lap. His glasses went flying.

Kai exclaimed and threw out one hand as if to catch the glasses, and they were enveloped suddenly by goo shot from his fingers before they flew past the safety rail and over the edge of the tall, tall staircase.

Kai almost screamed. “I’m really sorry!” he said, covering the noise of Virgil swearing.

Virgil leaned down to drag Kai to his feet — he was very light — and take Logan by the hand.

“I think my glasses…” Logan muttered.

“They went over the edge,” Virgil said. “Gosh, I’m so so sorry, will you need new ones? Can you see okay? Should I—”

“Oh, they’re not broken!” Kai insisted.

“What?” Logan got back to his feet.

“They’re not broken,” Kai said. “My goo is a shock absorber, they’ll be protected.”

“Everything okay back there?” Mx. Stokes had been leading the group, but paused when Kai shouted, and had now turned around to approach them. Mr. Picani appeared at the top of the steps after exiting the elevator with Patton and was also peering down to see why the group had paused.

“We’re so sorry, Mx. Stokes,” Virgil stuttered. “It was my fault. Logan’s glasses fell over the side of the stairs.”

“Well, that’s not good,” Mx. Stokes said after a beat. They leaned over the guardrail to peer into the Ruins Zone below. “Can’t see much from here, huh? Well, why don’t you — and what’s your name, kid?” They planted their left hand on Virgil’s shoulder.

“Virgil.”

“Okay, Virgil, I don’t think Logan here will be much help to you down there.”

Logan had, in fact, lost his depth perception and was experimentally walking up and down the nearest three steps with only minimal success.

“You...you want me to go down there?” Virgil asked. He was unsure how to put confused emphasis on every word in a sentence at once.

Mx. Stokes tapped their thumb against their lip. “Here, Virgil, why don’t you take your class rep, he’s a popular guy, right? His light quirk will be a big help down there.” Virgil had no time to protest before Mx. Stokes was waving. “Hey, Roman! Hop down here a minute!”

Roman was near the front of the group but trooped down the steps at the sound of his name. Mx. Stokes slapped their right hand onto his shoulder so they stood in a T-pose connecting the boys (albeit a crooked T, because Roman was taller than Virgil).

“You’re gonna take a jaunt with Virgil here to recover Logan’s glasses,” Mx. Stokes said. “Think of it like a real hero mission, boys.”

Roman looked unimpressed.

“Now,” Mx. Stokes went on. “Safety settings are still on in all zones, so there’s nothing dangerous down there so long as neither of you messes with anything. Just go ahead and run down there and right back up and we’ll hold the bus for you.” They lightly smacked both the boys’ shoulders and jogged away, gesturing for the rest of the class to follow.

“I really appreciate it, Virgil,” Logan said, touching Virgil’s arm lightly before walking away and leaving Virgil facing Roman on the middle of the stair.

The two stared at one another for a second before Roman huffed and started off down the steps. “Well, are we going or not?”

Virgil bit his tongue. He supposed putting up with Roman was enough of a punishment for sending Logan’s glasses spiraling into a collapsed city, and began to follow the other boy down, loath to think that he’d have to climb the stairs all over again.

When Virgil reached the base of the steps, Roman had wandered a few steps into the city and was staring around the ground, occasionally swearing under his breath.

“Thought you and Specs were buddies or something,” he said, peering under some fallen beams. “What’d you knock his glasses off for?”

“It wasn’t on purpose,” Virgil snapped.

“Geez, chill out,” Roman said, straightening up. “Just a question. Where did the damn things go, anyhow?”

“They fell over there,” Virgil said, pointing deeper into the ruins. There were a number of beams arching above the walk and though a strong sunlight was coming through the ceiling, it was difficult to see underneath them. “Why don’t you just use your quirk?”

“I don’t need to use it for everything!” Roman said a little too loudly.

“Geez, just a question,” Virgil said, imitating Roman and sticking out his tongue. “What, jealous since you’re basically quirkless anyway?”

“Hey, fuck off!” Virgil said, bristling. “I didn’t drag you down here or anything.”

“You said it was your fault the stupid things fell.” Roman took a few steps toward Virgil, his hands balled into fists.

“Yeah, but it’s not my fault that you’re acting like a massive ass,” Virgil snarled.

“Oh, fuck off, I’ll get the stupid things myself.” Roman whirled around. He stalked away, shaking slightly at the shoulders. Just as he was about to round the corner of one of the collapsed buildings, he took a furious swing at a low hanging beam, the impact of which created a hollow groaning sound. Roman kept walking.

Virgil was about to follow him when suddenly the groaning grew instead of faded, and the beam shuddered and collapsed directly over Roman’s head.

#studywritesstuff #sanders sides #fanfiction #fanfic #fic

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