#Simone out here forcing me to open the gates of saltiness | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

connorinabeanie · 4 years

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A slightly salty take on North and fandom

Disclaimer: Nothing in this post is meant as an attack on anyone. Fandom is subjective and you have the right to interpret media, form your own conclusions, and create whatever you want. These are my opinions about what I’ve seen, as well as my experiences in previous fandoms and the patterns I’ve seen play out over and over again. It’s okay to disagree with me, and it’s okay to have a respectful discussion in reblogs/comments! Just keep it civil. That out of the way…

North. She’s polarizing character in DBH; she tends to be loved or hated, and I’ll admit it: I didn’t like her at first either. I wanted to, but as I played through my first time I just couldn’t get past one of her traits in particular, which was that she was so convinced she was right; she blamed Markus for every mistake, refused to adapt her tactics or consider other methods, and seemed more driven by vengeance than anything else. So as much as I wanted to enjoy her character, I found her to be a poorly written “strong female character” archetype that fell flat in execution, as most characters of that type do.

Honestly, I think this is the reason most people who dislike North dislike her, at least consciously. They genuinely think she’s a terribly written character, and they’re not necessarily wrong. One playthrough on a standard route, with no extrapolation or extra consideration, combined with a lot of people getting the awkwardly forced romance (I actually avoided this, completely unknowingly, on my first playthrough) leads to a dislike of this character. That’s understandable! I would expect this from people who played the game once. But that’s where the problem comes in, for me.

People active in a fandom usually haven’t consumed the media they’re into just once. They usually don’t engage in surface-level interpretation, and they usually don’t lack context. But I find it hard to believe that so many of the opinions and interpretations regarding North could possibly come from people who have approached her character with an open mind and additional information, because just one major path divergence shows a completely different side to North’s character.

I’m talking, of course, about North’s leader route. When we see her in Markus’ role, leading instead of advising, her true motives come out: she loves her people and is willing to fight for them. She isn’t interested in playing nice with her oppressors, and why should she? There’s a whole discussion here about how oppressed people are judged for how nicely they fight for the rights they should already have, where there’s a ‘good’ way of protesting and a ‘bad’ way of doing it (which is, ironically and showing how tone-deaf Cage can be, supported in the narrative of DBH as well), but I won’t go into that in depth; other people have posted really good takes on this already. I’ll just mention it here and there where relevant.

Once of those relevant places is that, as I said, in North’s leader route she isn’t interested in peaceful protesting. And you know what? When I played this game the first time and had Markus, I had been peaceful up until Night of Soul, which is where North would be making her first major decision as a leader if you don’t have Markus. Yet when it came down to it I made the same decision with Markus that North makes on her own, because you know, as a Jewish woman, I wasn’t super interested in peacefully protesting at the gates of camps that were currently killing people. Playing nice hadn’t worked, and it was time to fight.

So maybe I’m in a different position that some others when it comes to interpreting North’s choices, and as I saw that she made the same choice that I did when playing Markus, I’m just… Not impressed that the fandom tendency to criticize this choice as warmongering, unreasonable, and a ‘betrayal’ of Markus’ peaceful actions (always assuming that Markus had been completely peaceful before, which is the way the story pushes on you, but certainly isn’t a given.) As far as I’m concerned, North is taking the action needed to save her people who are in danger right that instant, and humans don’t deserve a nice civil protest (and if I were in her position with Markus alive, I would be furious that he wanted to just sit and talk while people were dying.) They need to be stopped, and she’s going to stop them.

But it wasn’t just her choice in the church that brought me around to North’s side during her leader route, it was her behavior during Crossroads. Specifically, it was her behavior toward Connor, and how it contrasted with some of her actions earlier. So, going back a bit to Spare Parts, where the Jericrew goes on a mission to steal parts from the Cyberlife warehouses at the docks, and you run into John. North votes against taking him with them, citing that they can’t trust him and it’s too dangerous. Moving on a little, to Stratford Tower, if (or, more likely, ‘when’ since it’s pretty difficult to avoid) Simon is injured, North suggests shooting him. These are pretty harsh marks against her, because they seem needlessly ruthless, but are they really?

With John, the answer is maybe yes. But think about it from her perspective; they’ve never seen the ability Markus used, in turning an android deviant. So as far as North is concerned, John was a threat to them about two minutes earlier, and now wants to go with them? With no traumatic catalyst or trusted android vouching for and giving him the key to Jericho? To North John is a potential threat, a potential danger, and she has no reason to trust him. But as the story goes on, North never makes another objection to an android joining them in this way, because she knows they’re truly deviant. As soon as an android is deviant, they’re one of her people.

With Simon, the answer is probably no, because North is exactly right; if Simon lives, and Connor finds him, Connor finds Jericho. It’s that simple, and it’s not a rare series of events. North might be a little fast to jump on the option, because there’s a genuine argument to be made that it isn’t worth killing someone just because there’s a chance that something (even something very serious) might go wrong, but she clearly isn’t choosing this option because she wants it; she’s choosing this option because she thinks it’s the most guaranteed way to protect her people. It’s a difficult, ruthless decision to make, but it isn’t one made out of malice.

(It’s also worth noting that Simon suggests leaving North when she’s in danger in Crossroads, when the only people that would be at risk from saving her were Markus and Connor, and this happens whether or not North suggested killing Simon one the rooftop. Yet this choice is almost never criticized, because it comes from Simon, and I’ll get into that later.)

But with those particular attitudes from North out of the way, it’s interesting to see how she reacts to Connor in her leader route. North instantly shows concern for him, never blames him for the attack on Jericho, and—like Markus—tries to prevent him from going on his suicide mission to Cyberlife Tower. She’s kind and understanding, and it’s clear that she accepts Connor immediately as one of her people.

This is a place where I have some trouble with fandom interpretations of North and Connor’s relationship, specifically in terms of North being angry, cold, or extremely suspicious of Connor (a little suspicion, especially in a more ‘good end’ route where she has less direct interaction with Connor during the revolution, is reasonable; I’m talking about outright refusal to even consider accepting him.) It bothers me for two specific, and somewhat different reasons.

One is that it directly contradicts a theme of North’s history, which is that deviant androids are not their pasts. They’re not what they were before they woke up. The idea of North holding someone’s past, before they turned deviant, against them is just… I can’t imagine it. I can imagine her suspicion, as I mentioned before, until she's very sure Connor is truly deviant, but that seems very apparent to her right away in any route (I find it hard to believe she’d think he was faking deviancy after delivering the army to Markus.) Some concern or suspicion after finding out about the attempted hijacking makes sense, but the way I see it portrayed in fic is often jarring; it seems completely out of character for her to blame Connor for something like that, as opposed to being angry on his behalf, because North wants androids to be free (and, more deeply, she’s experience being used for something she never wanted.) She wants androids to have the chance to live, to become their own people, and to leave their pasts behind them. Why would she blame Connor for what he was made to do, whether before he was deviant or when Amanda tried to take control of him? It goes against everything North stands for, and that leads me to my second reason:

I think people choose this interpretation because it makes North a villain. Maybe it’s not an active conscious decision to do this (and in fact I doubt it usually is), but it reminds me very painfully of the trend in fandom of villainizing a character—especially a female character—in order to woobify a male character (and, often, get the female character out of the way of a ship) and I can’t help but see that here. It seems like a cheap, easy way to excuse other characters turning against North for her behavior, and therefore getting her out of the way as well as causing drama and conflict for the characters the writer really wants to focus on.

And that seems like a good segue into the big topic that people are gonna get mad about being called out on: misogyny. And even more specifically, misogyny when it comes to shipping.

I’m just gonna state this super clearly at the forefront: I have no problem with shipping whoever you want, whyever you want. I’m not personally into most ships for various reasons, but I do have some favorites (most of which other people aren’t into) and shipping is fun! Not everyone agrees on shipping, and that’s okay; not everyone has to like what you like, we can all still exist in harmony.

But that isn’t to say that people don’t engage in, for lack of a better word, ‘problematic’ behavior in their ships. As opposed to just going ‘hey, I like this, I’m gonna do it’, way too many people become obsessed with justifying their ship (and I think this comes from an underlying desire to ‘prove’ it’s canon or based in canon, as a way of making it seem more legitimate, which is a whole other topic I could rant about.) In the process of these justifications, and then often as a part of the fixation or obsession that some people develop about their ships/characters in their ships, any character or ship that ‘threatens’ someone’s favorite is a target that must be destroyed. And, in what I would say is arguably the vast majority of times, that threatening character is a canon female love interest.

Open bashing has (with good reason) gone out of fashion in fandom, so the way to get characters ‘out of the way‘ is to argue an unlikeable interpretation of them. I feel like this is what happens a lot of the time with North, and with the poor writing and flat portrayal of her character in the ‘good end’ route, it’s very easy for people to take the worst of her personality, say it’s canon, and then get rid of her. This is usually a bit side-eye worthy when it happens in any fandom, but it’s extra ridiculous in DBH for one very distinct reason:

North doesn’t have to be a love interest. As I mentioned before, when I first played through I never got the ‘lovers’ scene, because North said way back when Markus first met her that she didn’t want to talk about her past and so in the scene on the roof I just didn’t ask her (and I could write another whole discussion about how no means no and pressuring someone to tell you their past is NOT how to get a romantic option with them, but that’s an issue with another time.) The rest of the game progressed completely as normal, with the only changes being a lack of kissing options in a few later scenes. There’s no reason why fic writers can’t just choose this option for their fic’s canon, and move on.

And yet I can’t tell you how many times North is an obstacle that has to be overcome in order to get Markus with Simon or Connor (because let’s be real, North, Simon, and Connor are the only major ships for Markus even though Josh is RIGHT THERE, but again that’s another topic for another time.) It’s completely unnecessary, and yet there it is: North is this unreasonable, horrible person who is terrible to [insert love interest here] and Markus has to overcome this internal struggle to break free and be with [whoever] and truly be happy.

It’s such nonsense. It’s using this ‘undesirable’ female character as a source of drama and angst for this poor sad male character to have to deal with, as opposed to taking even a moment to treat the female character as a person who might have motivations, experiences, and emotions, and I’ve seen this over and over and over in every single fandom I’ve ever been in. This isn’t a North-specific thing, it’s a female character thing, and honestly if Kara’s storyline weren’t so separate from the fandom favorite shipping characters then I think the same thing would happen to her (as opposed to her existence just being entirely ignored.) This is such a pattern in fandom that I find it very difficult to believe this is a special case where it’s somehow legitimate.

One of those reasons is that the ‘justifications’ for disliking North tend to be complete double standards between North and whatever love interest the writer is going for, whether that’s Simon or Connor. With Connor, it’s extremely obvious; almost all of North’s negative traits are traits he has to some extent as well (ruthlessness, solving problems through violence, stubbornness,) but those traits are not only not usually treated negatively in Connor (and instead are depicted as justified and necessary in context, which I’m not saying they aren’t, but that it’s unfair to say that about him and not her) but often erased entirely, leading to the obnoxiously delicate, wilting flower version of Connor that shows up in so much fic. But again, an issue for another time.

For Simon, it’s less obvious because North and Simon are quite different, but not in opposite ways; North and Josh are opposites in many respects, but Simon is, in a sense, perpendicular to the line North and Josh are at opposite ends of. Simon doesn’t have particularly strong opinions about anything, just going with the flow and being supportive; his strongest opinions are about being cautious and not taking risks. Except, of course, for that scene I mentioned before, where he outright says they should just leave North to die. For such an overall bland character, that needlessly harsh moment stands out to me and I find it kind of amazing how it’s just completely ignored, often while holding it against North that she suggested shooting Simon on the roof.

So I guess the whole point of this rant is that I wish people would think more critically about North as a character, rather than a flat archetype, especially in the context of shipping. It’s cringey and painful to see blatant flanderizing of her character for the sole purpose of being ‘able’ to ship other characters together, whether to use her as an antagonist or just to get her out of the way, when it’s completely unnecessary to begin with. It’s also very obvious where someone’s priorities and biases lie when they’re happy to write North off but then obsess over other poorly written, bland, or even outright purposefully antagonistic characters that they deem somehow to have more potential and be more worthy of attention and character development.

Overall, there’s no requirement to like a character. It’s totally fine not to like a character. But double standards and needless demonizing of a character go far beyond not liking them, and it’s important to stop and think about why it might be happening. Is it always misogyny with North? No, I don’t think so, there are definitely people who don’t like her for her traits and that’s fine. But I think it’s very telling when someone who claims to dislike North for her personality and behavior then spends time in fan works purposefully making her a villain for the benefit of drama in their pet ship. It’s even more telling when someone who claims to dislike North for her personality and behavior, yet they celebrate the potential of characters that are canonically far worse (but who just so happen to be attractive men.) And, unfortunately, both of those situations coincide quite often with vocally disliking North, and there are only so many ways to interpret such a correlation.

#detroit become human #dbh north #my posts #I wanted to include screenshots but #I'm on a really terrible laptop and it was just not in the cards #so sorry for the wall of text #also writing this has just reminded me of how many other rants I want to go on #there's so much to talk about

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buckyscrystalqueen · 7 years

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Taking The Shot: Part 2

Pairings: Negan x Reader

Warnings: Swearing, smut, angst, fluff, typical Walking Dead stuff

Word Count: 6,689

Part 1

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You were lying on your bed later that afternoon, staring up at the ceiling wondering what you were supposed to do about food when there was a knock at the door in a familiar pattern.

“It’s open.” You called out as you sat up; picking up your rifle that Negan had let you keep off of your stomach and laying it on the bed next to you. You smiled at him as he walked into your room.

“You hungry?” he asked and you nodded and stood up.

“I was actually just thinking about going to find someone to ask where to get food since picking around in your dumpsters like I’ve been doin’ is probably frowned upon.” Negan laughed as he motioned for you to follow him.

“You’ll eat with me tonight but I’ll show you where you will go when you’re not with me.” You nodded, grabbed your gun and followed after him. You had to almost jog to keep up with him as he strolled through the hallways, his ever present bat on his shoulder. He pointed to a room on your left; pausing momentarily by the door. “The wives spend their days in here; lounging around and doing God only fucking knows what but with your skill set, you’ll be going out with me.” He kept walking as he continued.

“Days when you aren’t with me, feel free to roam about if you choose not to be in there or your room. Someone gives you shit; tell me or Simon and I’ll fucking handle it. You do not go outside the fucking gates for any fucking reason unless you are with me.” You followed him down the hall and onto a balcony. The moment he stepped out, the conversations immediately stopped and every person in the room kneeled down except for a small group of nervous looking women wearing black dresses. He pointed toward them as he stepped up to the rail.

“Those are my other wives. They and you are the only exceptions to the kneeling rule. This is where you will eat. If you need something, you come here and someone will help you the fuck out. This is (Y/N).” He called out to the room as he grabbed your wrist and pulled you to the railing next to him. “My new wife and the Sanctuary’s new military trained sniper. You treat her with the same fucking respect you treat the rest of my women or…” he chuckled and shrugged. “Well, you know the rules. As you were!” He turned around and walked back into the hallway.

“Why do the other wives look so terrified of you?” You asked as you reached his side and he laughed.

“Because they ARE fucking terrified of me.” He said as he walked into a room on your right. He pulled out a chair for you at a table and you smiled at him as you pulled your gun off your shoulder and sat down.

“Thank you.” He sat down in the chair across from you, laid his bat against the table and leaned back in his chair. He looked at you with general curiosity as he rested his hands behind his head. You could see he was about to ask a question but he hesitated as he looked over your shoulder at someone.

“’Bout fucking time.” He said with anger in his voice. You turned to see who had walked in and you felt anger course through you when you saw a man with long dark brown hair in a pale yellow jumpsuit with the letter ‘A’ painted on the front pushing a cart with food on it and his eyes flooded with recognition when they landed on you.

“Oh, you mother fucker!” You shouted as you jumped out of your chair and before the men could react, your fist slammed into his jaw. “You fucking left me for dead!” You screamed as you cocked back to hit him again and Negan wrapped his arms around you and lifted you off the floor before you could.

“Whoa! Fucking take it easy princess!” He said as he pulled you away from Daryl Dixon and you continued to swear at him for leaving you alone on the plantation in the middle of a walker heard. “Dwight, get him the fuck out of here!” you watched the two men leave the room and shut the door behind them and you forced yourself out of Negan’s arms and spun around.

“Why did you pull me off him?” You shouted as you took a step back and jabbed your finger toward the door. “I almost fucking died because of him and his group.”

“I will not have you fucking beating on the mother fucking help, (Y/N). You’re a Goddamn wife; act like it!”

“Negan, he left me for dead; him and his fucking douche bag leader, Rick and the rest of the hillbilly brigade left me for fucking dead in the middle of a herd of walkers. I made it out by the skin of my teeth. I think I deserve a little bit of payback, don’t you?” He pointed to the chair behind you.

“Sit your fucking ass down!” He roared. You glared at him before turning around and sitting in the chair with your back to him. He sighed melodramatically and walked back to his chair; plopping down on it as he pulled the cart toward the table. “Now, shut the fuck up and listen. I know Rick. Rick the prick has very recently come under my fucking employment. Daryl there is someone I want as a soldier so you will cut the fucking bullshit and let me handle shit.” He put a plate down in front of you and continued. “I actually planned on taking you on a run to his little fucking base camp tomorrow but if you are going to act like a God damn savage I’ll leave your fucking ass here.”

“Can I kill him?” You asked as you looked down at the plate of pasta in front of you for a second before returning your gaze to him.

“No. Your job will be to stay on the fucking box truck like a good little girl and be a fucking sniper. Someone tries to pull shit; you take them out. That is what your job is.” The pair of you sat and stared at each other for a minute before you shook your head and rolled your eyes.

“Fine.” You grumbled as you picked up your fork and started eating.

“You’re a real pain in the ass, you know that?” You smirked at your plate as a smart ass comment came to you and you knew it would get you out of trouble for punching Daryl.

“Yea, but I suck dick like a porn star.” Negan began to choke on his pasta and you looked up through your eyelashes with a smile. “How’s your pasta?” You asked innocently as you took another bite, making sure to take your time pulling the fork out of your mouth. He grabbed a beer off the cart, popped it open and took a big swig before gesturing to you.

“Get up. We are gunna test your little theory.” You reached out and took his beer from him, washing the food down before saluting him as you stood.

“Yes sir.” You walked over to him and straddled his lap, sitting down slowly. His hands gripped your hips and pulled you toward him as his lips crashed into yours. You ran your hands up his chest to his shoulders under his leather jacket before dragging your nails back down to his belt buckle. As your fingers began to undo the buckle, he let go of your hips and took hold of your hands. He broke the kiss and leaned back to look at you, panting a bit to catch his breath.

“You do not have to do this if you don’t want to. I don’t force any of my girls to do anything they do not want to do.” His eyes calmly and patiently searched yours and you nodded.

“I want to. Truthfully, I’ve wanted to fuck you since the first time I saw you two weeks ago.” He smiled wickedly and let go of your hands to grab your hips once more.

“Good girl.” He growled as he kissed you again and you ripped open his belt. He groaned into your mouth as you tucked your fingers into his jeans teasingly to unbutton his pants. You moved your kiss to his jaw as you flipped open the button and kissed your way to his ear as you unzipped slowly. You ran your hand over his impressive length as you dragged your tongue over the shell of his ear.

“Lift.” You whispered as you tucked your fingers into his boxers and stood slightly and he complied immediately; lifting his hips off the chair and helping you pull his pants down. You left them at his knees and sat back down with a smile on your face. You reached behind you and pulled the chopsticks out of your hair. “Now, I know you like to be in charge but I know I have been a pain in the ass today. So can we agree that you just lean back and let me take care of you?” You asked as you slowly untwisted your bun, letting your hair cascade in waves down your back. Before he could answer you reached between your bodies and wrapped your hand around his hard cock, squeezing slightly before pumping up and down slowly. You cocked your eyebrow, waiting for an answer as you dragged a moan from him.

“I think I can agree to that, princess.” He groaned. Without another word you stood up, stepped back and dropped to your knees. You put your hands on his knees and ran the tip of your tongue across the head, collecting the sweetly salty precum that was beading from the slit before taking his length into your mouth to the back of your throat. He jerked involuntarily with a loud grunt as his hands tangled in your hair. You pulled all the way off him and looked up at him with a smile while you wrapped your tongue around the underside of his cock; slowly licking a strip from his balls to the peak of his head. You teasingly repeated the action once more before taking him into your mouth once again.

“God damn baby girl.” He moaned as you bobbed up and down; sucking and caressing him with your tongue, letting his dick hit the back of your throat with each pass and he began to thrust into your mouth to match your bobs. You ran your hands up his legs and grasped his hips firmly and slid him down your throat, staying there for a moment to swallow around him and hummed “nuh uh.” He yanked your hair up and pulled you off of him; forcing you to look at him.

“Stand up.” He demanded as you smiled at his lust blown eyes and you complied. He let go of your hair and used his arm to throw the plates of basically untouched food to the ground. He grabbed your hips and moved you over to the table in front of him undoing your jeans hurriedly and ripping them down to your ankles. His hand flew between your legs to your wet core and he teased for only a second before sliding two fingers into your dripping wet pussy.

“Someone is ready for this fucking dick isn’t she?” He asked as a moan escaped your lips and you nodded as you pulled his lips to yours once again. He only kissed you for a moment before he pulled his fingers out and spun you around; bending you over the table. “Last chance to say no, princess.” He said as he brushed his cock through your folds. You growled as you gripped the edges of the table.

“It ain’t nice to be a cunt tease, Negan.” You countered as you looked over your shoulder at him. “Shut up and fuck me.” The words had barely left your mouth before he slammed into you completely, drawing a yelp from you as your walls wrapped and stretched around him. He was the definition of a perfect fit. He chuckled menacingly as he grabbed ahold of your hair in one hand; his other gripping your hip tightly.

“Oh, (Y/N). I’m gunna fuck the sass right out of that perfect little mouth of yours.” He didn’t give you time to reply as he pulled nearly all the way and slammed his hips against yours drawing another moan out as your only response. “Fuck baby girl this pussy is tight!” He groaned as he picked up a punishing pace against your g-spot.

“It’s all yours Negan.” You told him, placating his ego through your moans and he growled as his nails dug into your hips.

“That’s right baby girl. This fucking pussy is all mine!” You could already feel your orgasm building; your muscles tightening as the sensation coiled in your stomach. Negan felt it too and he let go of your hair and grabbed your other hip. “You fucking hold that shit until I say, you hear me!” He yelled and you moaned at his order; whether out of protest or passion you couldn’t differentiate.

“Yes sir.” You cried out and his cock twitched inside of you. You dug your nails into the wood, dragging claw marks down the side and you fought your release as strings of moans, curses and his name poured from your lips. You felt his punishing rhythm falter slightly and one of his hands reached around your hips and found your clit, the other wrapping around your middle as he leaned down on your back.

“Cum baby girl.” He growled in your ear and you felt yourself snap. His name poured loudly from your grit teeth as your body began to tingle madly. Your muscles spasmed around him and a white light flashed momentarily behind your squeezed tight eyelids. His hips slammed into you only once more before he followed you with a shout, his cum painting your walls satisfyingly as his body collapsed on top of yours. The two of you laid there for a moment, panting before you let out a huffed single syllable laugh.

“Remind me to piss you off more often.” You joked as you reached over your shoulder slightly awkwardly and ran your fingers through his hair. He chuckled as he kissed your shoulder and forced himself up off and out of you.

“As long as you remember the rules, you can piss me off anytime you want to since your theory is most definitely correct.” The two of you pulled your pants up quickly and you shrugged.

“What can I say; I’m good at what I do.” You leaned up and kissed him on the cheek. “I’ll let you get to your post-fuck cigarette now. Care if I bum one before I go?” You asked. He furrowed his brow at you and raised his eyebrows simultaneously.

“Wait… are you fucking me like a man and walking out without the whole ‘hold me and validate my fucking existence’ bullshit?” He asked as you picked up your gun and slung it over your shoulder.

“Don’t get me wrong, I love to cuddle after sex but I already know you aren’t the cuddling type unless you let someone get close. Since that ain’t happening then, yeah; I’m fucking you like a man, bumming a smoke and going to check this place out.” You looked at the cart and saw a couple chocolate granola bars on it and you snagged them and a beer. “And I’m taking these with me for dinner.” Negan chuckled as he handed you a cigarette and a lighter.

“You get more and more impressive with each passing moment.” You winked at him before turning on your heel and walking toward the door with just a little extra sway in your hips.

“And today is only day one.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Tell me again.” Negan said as he slowed to make the turn down the road that led to Alexandria and you groaned.

“Negan, for fucks sake…” He growled and you looked over at him. With a sigh, you took your feet off the dash and repeated your job for the day for the 10th time that morning. “I stay on the box truck and kill any walkers that come to the gate and once we get inside I can make my dramatic entrance as long as I promise to not kill the prick or anyone else unless they give me a reason to.” He stopped the massive truck at the end of the road for you to get out and turned to look at you.

“Will you cut the shit?” he asked and you shrugged.

“Not if it’s what gets you to fuck me like you did last night.” You responded. Before he could move to grab you, you snatched your gun, jumped out of the truck and turned back to look at him while swinging the strap around you. “I’ll be a good girl for you though, baby.” You blew him a kiss as you shut the door and you heard his deep low laugh come from the open window as you walked back to the approaching truck with a pleased smile on your face.

The second white box truck slowed to a crawl as Simon opened the passenger door for you and you put one foot on the runner and the other on his folded hands. He hoisted you onto the cab expertly; as if the moved had been done thousands of times before and not just the one test run and you climbed on to the top, lying down immediately and holding on to the rope that had been tied around the box for you as the truck took the turn toward the community.

You stayed low to the hot metal, breathing away your anger toward the people who left you for dead and pulled your rifle off and too your side. As the caravan stopped, the vehicles staggered slightly and you scooted to the right side of the truck to where you could see where Negan agreed to stand but where you were still hidden behind the covered tarp of the truck you had rode in.

As the men filed out, you set up your rifle and scooted back behind it slightly, doing your checks of your surroundings. You watched Negan turn around to see if you were ready and you flashed your laser at him. You chuckled as you heard his little whistled jingle followed by the “twaps” of Lucille hitting the metal gate. You cocked your gun and settled into your sniper mindset; drowning out the conversation in front of you as you listened for the sound of the dead.

You heard the walker before you saw him; his scratchy, guttural rasp passing past the truck to your right. You could have killed him there with no problem but Negan wanted it known to Rick that he had a sniper under his employment now. You tracked the walker with your eyes as it ambled between the trucks toward Negan’s loud voice. You shifted your gun slightly on the roof, taking a minute to get completely prepared to ensure a single shot kill. You took a deep breath as the walkers head finally grazed the bottom of the scope a few feet from Negan, exhaled, pulled the trigger and watched him drop dead.

“Clean kill.” You looked up from your scope at Negan who turned around to look at you.

“Nice shot, sweetheart.” He called out and you flashed your light at him before cycling the bolt in preparation for the next shot. After only another minute, you heard the rattle of the gate sliding open. With a smile, you sat up on the truck, swung your legs over the edge and folded up the legs of your rifle before slinging it into place. As the truck you were sitting on pulled into the community, you smirked down at Rick for a second, his eyes wide with shock when he realized who you were before you laughed and looked back at Negan.

“You should have kept her around, Rick.” Negan said as the truck you were sitting on came to a stop. You slid down immediately and walked around to lean on the side of the truck, crossing your arms over your chest casually. “She is one damn good shot and she got the mouth of a fucking porn star!” He said, using your words as he pointed Lucille at you. You laughed and uncrossed your arms; using them to shrug before you grabbed the cigarette Negan gave you that morning out of the front pocket of the flannel shirt you had on.

“(Y/N)… we didn’t…” Rick said as he took a step toward you. You looked away from him as you lit your cigarette and Negan put his bat to Rick’s chest.

“Back up. You don’t look at her, you don’t talk to her. Fuck you don’t even know her as far as I’m fucking concerned. That’s my fucking wife.” You looked over at Negan with a half mouth smile and winked. You watched Rick’s face swing back and forth between you and Negan; stunned to silence as his mouth opened and closed for a minute. Negan told Rick to hold Lucille as he walked past him to you and you couldn’t help but laugh at the stupid face Rick was making as he watched the scene unfold before him.

When you had known him a year and a half ago, you were quiet and kept to yourself for the most part. They had found you hiding out in a church while they were looking for Sophia and after a little arguing, they agreed to take you in. You were only with them less than a month when the herd came through. You had gone to the porch to try to thin the herd down and before you knew it you were out of bullets and alone; abandoned on the porch by the people who had helped save you. You were able to hide out in the house for a couple days, waiting for the straggling dead to thin out before you were able to leave. The moment you got on the road you swore to yourself that you would never seek help from anyone ever again.

“Nice place.” You said as you walked around the community watching the Saviors rip beds and furniture out of houses. “Little too June Cleaver if you ask me.”

“What, you wouldn’t want to get a summer home in a place like this? Have the white picket fence dream?” Negan teased as he swung his arm over your shoulder.

“HA! I didn’t buy into that bullshit as a kid I sure as fuck ain’t buyin’ into it now.” You looked up at him and smiled. “Care if I go find some artsy fartsy bullshit to use for target practice later?” He laughed as he leaned down and kissed your forehead.

“Just remember what I said.” He reminded you softly. You stood on your tiptoes and kissed his cheek and you walked to the nearest house, kicking a hideous planter out of the way as you went. You danced around the community from house to house, staying relatively close to Negan as he talked to Rick. You had found a messenger bag in the first house and took it; putting statues and vases in it for target practice later. Once it was full, you asked one of Negan’s men to put it in the truck for you since he was carrying a chair up that way as it was. He agreed with only a slight air of annoyance and you smiled at him and continued to look through the houses for something to do while you waited.

“Oh fucking score!” You said as you pulled open a bathroom drawer, revealing an unopened pack of hair ties. “It’s like Christmas morning.” You ripped it open and grabbed two, shoving the rest of the pack in your pocket before heading out the door. You knew there was another girl on the crew, Arat, the woman who woke you up the first day, who would absolutely love to get her hands on a hair tie. As you walked through the torn up living room, tying your hair in a messy bun at the nape of your neck, you watched a very pissed off man storm out of the house to your right with a small gun in his hands.

“Dude, really?” You mumbled as you pulled your rifle over your head and jogged the distance to the door. You stood in the door way with the stock of your gun pressed into your shoulder as you flipped down your long distance scope and waited for the man’s next move. His hate filled eyes were boring into Negan’s back and you couldn’t help but roll your eyes when you realized he thought he was gunna get away with killing Negan. You raised your gun only moments before he raised his, but before he could pull the trigger, he hit the ground.

“No!” Rick shouted as you leaned casually against the door frame, your baby resting on your hip. Negan turned around to look at you.

“What did I say?” He called out to you. You shoved off the door frame and started walking over to the body that was lying on the ground.

“Didn’t think you wanted to get shot in the back today.” You pulled the gun from the man’s hand and walked it over to him. He took ahold of your hand and looked at the gun.

“You know what… this is one of my guns.” He said turning to Rick. “And now that I think about it. This whole thing reminds me that you have a lot of fucking guns. You have all the fucking guns that you stole from me when you wasted all my men at the outpost with a shit ton of your own fucking guns. And I’m bettin’ there is even fucking more. Which adds up to an absolute fuck ton of guns.

And seeing as how my wife had to just stop an emotional outburst and take time out of her enjoying her fucking day because of those guns; well, I just can’t allow that to go on.” You chuckled as Negan pushed the gun and your hand toward you as he stared Rick down with a cocky smile. You put your rifle over your shoulder once again and looked over the gun you had been given as Negan dropped a hand on your shoulder. “They are all mine now. LEAD- THE- WAY!” he shouted joyfully. It took a tearful eyed Rick a moment of looking back and forth between you and Negan and the man who lay dead on the street before he finally found his feet and started walking.

“You’re fucking stealthy.” Negan said as he dropped his arm around your shoulder and followed after him.

“Navy Seal training pays off in the apocalypse.” Negan laughed.

“You see Rick. You should have fucking looked out for her! She’s the most valuable thing I have ever seen!” You watched Rick’s hand grip a little tighter around the handle of Lucille.

“He didn’t care back then, I’m sure he doesn’t give a shit now.”

“Well, his fucking loss, my fucking gain. Baby girl do me a favor and go find Simon and tell him to send some of the boys to bring the truck over to get these guns. I know they are just itchin’ to come back home.” He pat your shoulder before dropping his arm and you jogged past Rick toward the front. You saw Arat standing up by one of the trucks and you put your new gun in the back of your jeans and grabbed two hair ties from your pocket.

“Figured you would want a couple.” You said as you handed the black bands to her. Her eyes lit up.

“Hell yes! You have no idea how much I love you right now.” She said as she put her gun in between her legs and pull her hair into a ponytail on top of her head while you walked over to Simon and passed on Negan’s message. Simon started rounding up men as one of the box trucks started up and you quickly climbed to the top to sit on top of it.

The truck started to drive down the street toward a house at the end of the block and after lying back against the metal to pass under a tree limb, you sat and wondered why you had shot the man that had tried to kill Negan. It wasn’t like you wanted to see Negan dead you were actually more curious to see what he could do with that bat. You had seen your fair share of gruesome stuff in combat training and had heard countless amounts of stories from both your dad and your grandpa of things that happened in war but you had never seen or heard about what a baseball bat could do to a human skull and your morbid curiosity wanted to know.

‘It’s one hell of an intimidation tactic.’ You thought as you got up and moved to the back of the truck once it stopped moving, dangling your legs over the edge to wait and watch the guns get loaded up. You could hear Negan taunting Rick below on the stairs that lead to a basement and you smiled with a quiet huff. ‘Only serves him right.’ You felt someone watching you off to your left and you whipped your head to the side. There was a Hispanic woman with long brown hair tied in a ponytail under a military hat sitting outside of a bedroom window on the roof right next to you watching you. She had her knees pulled up to her chest, her arms resting on top of them and she scowled at you.

“Can I fucking help you with something?” you asked threateningly as you glared at her.

“How did you marry a monster like that?” She asked her voice low and equally as threatening as she gestured down toward the basement cutout Negan was standing in. You put your left hand behind you on the truck and turned your upper body fully to look at her with a smug smile.

“It was actually really easy. I just opened my mouth and said yes.” You laughed as you saw her face drop slightly. “I’ll ask you this. How can you back someone who would abandon a girl in the middle of a herd of walkers?” Her eyebrow furrowed slightly and you laughed. “Yea, didn’t know that about your holier than thou leader, did you?”

“(Y/N)!” You heard Negan yell and you sat up and looked off the edge of the truck as he came up the stairs; looking down the road for you.

“Yes, sir?” you could see him jump slightly as he looked up toward the sound of your voice.

“Are you fuckin’ keeping eyes or runnin’ your Goddamn mouth?” You opened your mouth to respond sarcastically but thought better of it.

“Keeping eyes.” you said instead. He pointed up at you warningly, knowing exactly how you were going to originally respond and stepped onto the street as his men began loading guns into the truck below you.

“You can stay here with us, you know.” The woman said softly as she glanced down at Negan. She was close enough to you that you could hear her soft tone over the commotion below you. “We can protect you.” You rolled your eyes as you scooted yourself back on the truck and stood up.

“Yeeeaaah, no. I’ll stick with the guy who’s currently taking all your guns.” You turned on your heel, walked toward the front of the truck, and jumped down effortlessly. You could hear Arat telling Negan that some of the guns were missing from the inventory list. You shook your head at the idiocy of keeping a running list of the weapons in a situation like this as you leaned against the back corner of the truck to listen in.

“… this was your fucking job and you fucked up. Keeping track of guns- that shit is life and death.” Negan said as he glared down at a heavier set woman who was whimpering and shaking like a leaf. You raised your eyebrow slightly in amusement as the woman attempted and failed to stammer out a response. You were starting to get really annoyed with this group of complete morons and you hadn’t even been around them for 2 hours yet.

“I’ll find them. I know they are here.” Rick said nervously as he took a step forward toward Negan.

“Yea, Rick. You find my guns and you fucking find them fast. Until then, me and… what’s your name again?” Negan asked as he swung his arm heavily over the woman’s shoulders as he looked down at her.

“O-o-Olivia.” She stammered and you bit your bottom lip to hold in your snort of laughter.

“Olivia.” Negan said, drawing out her name slightly as he looked back at Rick.

“Me and Olivia are gunna go spend some quality time together while we wait... and keep in mind, I have a very trigger happy wife who is gunna be waitin’ with us.” You smirked as Rick’s panicked eyes shot over to you and you jutted your chin toward him to silently say hello. “Now let’s go find a nice shady place to sit and chat.” You shoved off the truck and followed after Negan and the woman, removing the gun from the back of your jeans and holding it to your side just to make a point. Olivia pointed toward a shaded courtyard off to the side of one of the houses and the three of you all walked in.

“So how was your little exploration, princess?” Negan asked as you closed the gate.

“I found hair ties which is like a gift from God and I got recruited by some bitch to join team prick.” You told him as you accepted one of the cigarettes Negan had offered you.

“Recruited, huh?” He said as he lit your smoke and you nodded.

“She wanted to know how I married you.” You said as you took off your rifle and sat down against the side of the house; laying your two guns across your lap. “I told her I just opened my mouth and said yes.” He laughed as he leaned back in his chair and put his arm around the back of the chair Olivia was in, making her jump slightly. “So then she tells me that I can stay here and they could protect me.”

“What did you say?” He asked with a shit-eating grin on his face and you shrugged.

“That I‘d stick with the guy who was taking all the guns.” He pointed at you with his cigarette and smiled.

“That’s my girl.” You nodded as you took a drag off your own cigarette.

“So how long we waitin’?” Negan chuckled behind his cigarette, tapped Olivia’s arm and pointed at you.

“Told you she was fuckin’ trigger happy.” He teased before he shrugged. “I’ll give ‘em 20 minutes. I’ve about had enough of this fucking bullshit.”

“I don’t know how you deal with it. I’d just come in, demand the shit and kill anyone who stood in the way. War tactics.” He nodded slowly as he took his drag.

“See baby girl, problem with that is then who provides after that. See, in this situation if we came in, guns blazin’, shootin’ fucking everybody then we lose this mine of supplies. But if we wait to get what we ask for and instill the fear of fucking God into these sorry sons of bitches by only having to kill Olive over here for her fucking inadequate monitoring of the guns then they are all willing to work a little harder to get the job done faster.” he tapped the side of his head and smiled. “New World order tactics.” You put your arm across your stomach and bowed slightly.

“Forgive me for my insolence your holy-fuckness.” You joked with a smile causing him to burst out laughing.

“All is forgiven, my dear wife.”

---

It took Rick almost exactly 20 minutes to find the guns that had been “misplaced,” according to him. Negan told you to head up to the truck while he discussed some terms to their deal and you simply nodded, to bored with the entire situation to care much anymore. As you got into the truck you could feel someone staring at you once more. Your eyes landed on the same woman, leaning against a tree about a hundred yards away from you. There was something about this woman that you didn’t like but you couldn’t put your finger on what it was. You already knew she was going to be a loose cannon and you could already tell, at some point or another, she was going to end up dead at either your hands or Negan’s if she kept up with the path of resistance she was on.

“You ready to go home, sweetheart?” Negan asked as he opened the door; finishing the last drag of the cigarette he was smoking before getting in. You looked over at him and cocked your eyebrow.

“Aren’t you forgetting someone?” you asked as you looked for Lucille which should have been resting on his shoulder. He squinted his eyes at you and scowled.

“Fuck off.” You chuckled as he walked back to Rick to retrieve his bat and your eyes turned back toward the woman who was walking away from you. You shook your head and huffed as you turned back to your self-declared husband.

“You tell no one about that.” He growled as he climbed into the truck and laid Lucille gently on the seat next to you.

“I have no idea what you’re referring to, darlin’.” He grumbled something that sounded a lot like ‘smart ass’ as he started the truck and you giggled.

“Oh! I got you something.” You said as the truck pulled out of Alexandria’s gate to head home and you bent down and rifled through your new bag to find the little statue. “For who knows what reason, it reminded me of you so I took it.” You pulled out the little hunk of metal and showed it to him. “It’s an angry pussy.” Negan started cracking up as he took the silver cat with a very angry look on its face and looked at it.

“I don’t know whether to be offended or honored.” He said as he put it on the dash between the two of you. “You’re such a fucking idiot.” He joked as he glanced over at it before looking at you. He mockingly put a hand over his heart. “I will cherish it forever.” You punched him in the arm lightly as he continued to laugh and growled.

“You could at least say thanks for the beautiful new pussy to add to your collection.” He stopped at the end of the street where he had let you out earlier and turned toward you.

“Thanks.” He said softly. He leaned across the seat toward you and you met him in the middle, giving him a chaste kiss before he turned to the left and headed home. “I still like your fucking perfect pussy better.” You laughed as you rested your head against the window to close your eyes for a bit.

“Of course you do, baby.”

Part 3

#Negan x Reader #Taking The Shot #Taking The Shot Series

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